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A review by alanrussellfuller
Dispensationalism Before Darby: Seventeenth Century and Eighteenth Century English Apocalypticism by William C. Watson
3.0
The author identifies dispensationalism with understanding prophecy literally and with the rebirth and conversion of a national Israel. He succeeds in showing these ideas existed for at least 200 years prior, but it took Darby to pull them all together. The idea behind dispensationalism is that God made some different accommodations to human culture or capacity to understand. That’s the reason modern times seem so different from the Bible stories.
One thing that stands out in the book is the great number of false predictions and dates set by those who hold to the “literal” interpretation of prophecy. For example, some predicted that Louis XIV was the little horn or the antichrist. More than fifty instances are given of failed predictions. If prophetic time periods are taken literally, and certain biblical events are identified with history, then it is only rational that at least some biblical prophecies can be calculated to certain dates despite Jesus' warning (Mat 24:36). It would seem either Jesus or rationality is wrong. I don’t believe Jesus was wrong. You would think that after all these false prophecies historicists and futurists would reconsider their methods. Instead, they double down with more false predictions. One great success was the prediction of the re-establishment of national Israel, but even that wasn’t 100% accurate. Some believed it would happen in the 17th or 18th century, and some believed that either the rapture, millennium, or tribulation would begin with its founding. Another successful prediction was the end of the French monarchy according to Bible prophecy. The problem is that the veracity of the Bible is threatened by these false predictions. It contributed to growing skepticism and brought on the growth of Deism ln the 18th century.
So is all of this good for Dispensationalism? It’s hard to see how.
CAUTION:
Nathanael Lewis, author of "Falsifying The Fathers: How Pre-Tribulationists pervert the Apostolic End-times Teaching" makes the following statement.
"Like I said, it is possible that genuine ‘Pre-Trib’ elements might appear later on in Watson’s work, but given the way he has repeatedly and deceptively edited quotes to turn passages that are in context clearly Post-Tribulation into alleged hints of ‘Pre-Tribulationism’, I will bet that if they exist at all, they will be very few and far between, and certainly won’t justify the sweeping statements and claims of support that are repeatedly made about the writers of this period." p.282
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35229937-falsifying-the-fathers
One thing that stands out in the book is the great number of false predictions and dates set by those who hold to the “literal” interpretation of prophecy. For example, some predicted that Louis XIV was the little horn or the antichrist. More than fifty instances are given of failed predictions. If prophetic time periods are taken literally, and certain biblical events are identified with history, then it is only rational that at least some biblical prophecies can be calculated to certain dates despite Jesus' warning (Mat 24:36). It would seem either Jesus or rationality is wrong. I don’t believe Jesus was wrong. You would think that after all these false prophecies historicists and futurists would reconsider their methods. Instead, they double down with more false predictions. One great success was the prediction of the re-establishment of national Israel, but even that wasn’t 100% accurate. Some believed it would happen in the 17th or 18th century, and some believed that either the rapture, millennium, or tribulation would begin with its founding. Another successful prediction was the end of the French monarchy according to Bible prophecy. The problem is that the veracity of the Bible is threatened by these false predictions. It contributed to growing skepticism and brought on the growth of Deism ln the 18th century.
So is all of this good for Dispensationalism? It’s hard to see how.
CAUTION:
Nathanael Lewis, author of "Falsifying The Fathers: How Pre-Tribulationists pervert the Apostolic End-times Teaching" makes the following statement.
"Like I said, it is possible that genuine ‘Pre-Trib’ elements might appear later on in Watson’s work, but given the way he has repeatedly and deceptively edited quotes to turn passages that are in context clearly Post-Tribulation into alleged hints of ‘Pre-Tribulationism’, I will bet that if they exist at all, they will be very few and far between, and certainly won’t justify the sweeping statements and claims of support that are repeatedly made about the writers of this period." p.282
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35229937-falsifying-the-fathers