Introduction
Dispensationalism teaches that God has two distinct peoples—Israel and the Church—with separate plans and destinies. It claims the Church is a “parenthesis” in God’s prophetic program, which will resume with national Israel in the last days. But the New Testament paints a very different picture: one of unity in Christ, fulfillment of all promises in Him, and a clear departure from the old covenant.
This essay demonstrates with Scripture that:
- There is one body of believers, not two.
- Christ is the center of prophecy, not national Israel.
- Modern Judaism is not the faith of the Old Covenant.
- God’s people today are identified by faith in Christ, not genealogy or ethnicity.
- False teachings, like dispensationalism, were warned about in Scripture as deceptive systems introduced subtly by false teachers.
I. The Church: One United Body in Christ
Throughout the New Testament, the Apostle Paul and others make clear that Christ has broken down all barriers between Jew and Gentile. There is no longer any distinction between ethnic groups in God’s redemptive plan.
🔹 Galatians 3:28–29 (KJV)
“There is neither Jew nor Greek… for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
✅ Key Point: All believers, regardless of ethnicity, are Abraham’s seed—not by blood, but by faith in Christ.
🔹 Ephesians 2:14–16 (KJV)
“For he is our peace, who hath made both one… to make in himself of twain one new man… and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross…”
✅ Key Point: Jesus removed the division between Jew and Gentile. He didn’t create a second people—He united them.
🔹 Romans 10:12–13 (KJV)
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
✅ Key Point: The plan of salvation is the same for all—“whosoever”.
🔹 Colossians 3:11 (KJV)
“Where there is neither Greek nor Jew… but Christ is all, and in all.”
✅ Key Point: Ethnic status is irrelevant in the new creation.
🔹 John 10:16 (KJV)
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring… and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”
✅ Key Point: Jesus always intended one people, not two separate programs.
II. Dispensationalism Shifts Prophecy Away from Christ
Dispensational theology misplaces the center of prophecy by making ethnic Israel the focus rather than Christ, who is the fulfillment of all God’s promises.
🔹 Luke 24:44 (KJV)
“…All things must be fulfilled, which were written… concerning me.”
✅ Key Point: Jesus said the entire Old Testament points to Him, not to a future Jewish state.
🔹 2 Corinthians 1:20 (KJV)
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen…”
✅ Key Point: All of God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ, not postponed to a future national revival of Israel.
🔹 Hebrews 1:1–2 (KJV)
“God… spake in time past… by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son…”
✅ Key Point: God’s final revelation is in Jesus—not in a revived temple or restored Levitical system.
III. Acts 7:38: The Church Already Existed in the Wilderness
Dispensationalists say the Church didn’t begin until Pentecost and is not found in the Old Testament. But scripture disagrees.
🔹 Acts 7:38 (KJV)
“This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina…”
✅ Key Point: Israel was called the ekklesia—the “church” (assembly)—in the wilderness. God has always had one people.
IV. Modern Judaism is Not the Religion God Gave Moses
Today’s Judaism is a rabbinic system formed after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. It is not based on the sacrificial system or Levitical priesthood that Moses established.
🔹 Hebrews 8:13 (KJV)
“…a new covenant, he hath made the first old… ready to vanish away.”
✅ Key Point: The old covenant has passed away. The Levitical system cannot be practiced without the temple, priesthood, and sacrifices.
🔹 Matthew 23:13 (KJV)
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men…”
✅ Key Point: Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day for promoting a man-made religion.
V. Modern Israel is Not the Israel of the Bible
Modern Israel is a political state, not a fulfillment of biblical Israel. The true Israel of God is defined by faith, not ethnicity.
🔹 Romans 9:6–8 (KJV)
“For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel… The children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
✅ Key Point: True Israel = those who believe God’s promise through Christ.
VI. Apostolic Warnings About False Systems of Doctrine
Though dispensationalism didn’t arise until the 19th century, its spiritual DNA—subtle division, sensationalism, and deviation from Christ—was warned against by both Peter and Paul.
🔹 2 Peter 2:1 (KJV)
“There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies…”
- Dispensationalism was not boldly introduced—it came secretly, embedded in Scofield’s footnotes, and eventually overtook pulpits across denominations.
- It shifts hope away from Christ to a nationalistic program that Scripture never prescribes.
🔹 2 Peter 2:2–3 (KJV)
“And many shall follow their pernicious ways… and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you…”
- The dispensational system is often commercialized through books, movies, conferences, and “prophecy updates.”
- It feeds a market of fear and fiction, not sound doctrine.
🔹 2 Peter 2:19 (KJV)
“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption…”
- The promise of special insight into prophecy, escape from tribulation, or earthly blessings to come undercuts the spiritual liberty in Christ.
🔹 Galatians 1:6–7 (KJV)
“…Ye are so soon removed… unto another gospel… but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
- Suggesting a future path of salvation for ethnic Jews without Christ is another gospel.
- The true gospel has no parallel or alternate version.
🔹 2 Timothy 4:3–4 (KJV)
“…They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
- The secret rapture, revived temple, reinstituted sacrifices—these are fables, not drawn from a holistic reading of Scripture.
Conclusion: One Body, One People, One Savior
Dispensationalism divides God’s people where Scripture unites them. It inserts a future national plan for Israel where the New Testament offers Christ-centered fulfillment. It revives Judaism and temple sacrifices when Christ already fulfilled the law and offered the final sacrifice.
- There is one people of God.
- There is one Shepherd.
- There is one covenant—in the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 4:4–5 (KJV)
“There is one body, and one Spirit… One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
Let the Church be reminded: We are complete in Him (Col. 2:10). No additions. No divisions. No alternate destinies.
Final Remarks: Holding Fast to the Truth in Christ
The rise of dispensationalism has led many well-meaning believers to adopt a view of Scripture that divides God’s redemptive plan, distorts the gospel, and misplaces the focus of prophecy. While it may come wrapped in compelling charts, sensational predictions, and scholarly language, its core ideas contradict the unified message of the New Testament.
The apostles, led by the Holy Spirit, warned of such deceptive teachings long before they had names. They urged the Church to cling to sound doctrine, to test every teaching, and to never lose sight of the central truth: all things are fulfilled in Christ—not in a political nation, not in a rebuilt temple, not in a future sacrificial system, but in the crucified and risen Savior who is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made.
Today, the people of God are not defined by ancestry, but by faith. They are not gathered under two banners, but one—the banner of the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood.
As we discern truth from error, let us be Bereans (Acts 17:11), searching the Scriptures daily to see whether these things be so. Let us not be swayed by modern theological trends that contradict the plain teaching of God’s Word. And above all, let us point others to the unity, sufficiency, and finality of Christ, who is all, and in all (Colossians 3:11).
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord…”
— 1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV)
