I still have nightmares about a movie my fundamentalist church made me watch as a kid: A Thief in the Night. It was a groovy 1970s horror film built on bad theology—and a lot of fear.
That theology was dispensationalism, a system invented in the 1800s by John Nelson Darby and later popularized in the 1900s in America by C. I. Scofield through his reference Bible. Scofield didn’t just explain the text; he smuggled Darby’s ideas into it. Literally. Some critics joke it should be called the Darby Bible because of the level of plagiarism.
In this episode, I'll describe why a theology that sees Palestinian Christians as an obstacle to God's work should be left behind.
NOTES:
- N.T. Wright's article “Farewell to the Rapture”: https://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/farewell-to-the-rapture/
- While I say Darby invented dispensationalism, it can be argued it was more due to the way his views were developed by his followers. To further explore this, here's an interesting interview by Dr. Albert Mohler with Dr. Crawford Gribben from Queen's Colelge about his book, "J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism":https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow9bN5RXVa4
- You can read more about the displacement of Palestinians here:https://bylinetimes.com/2024/01/17/the-palestinians-and-israel-a-modern-day-trail-of-tears/
- Here's the Faith on the Road episode I mentioned where we interviewed Palestinian theologian John Munyaer:https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oVKrJmDKrkiggq7TswBlb?si=umPaoeJCQYSfbhmDpsnAIA
- Opinion piece on why Christians tolerate Israel's genocide against Palestinians:https://politicstoday.org/why-do-evangelical-christians-support-israels-genocide-against-palestinians/
- Replace Theology is a Heresy by Jack Sara:https://www.comeandsee.com/view.php?sid=1453
