DISPENSATIONALISTS are NOT REFORMED? | Theocast Clips

Historically speaking, Justin, evangelicals over the last 100 -150 years that aren't confessional are dispensational, and dispensationalists tend to not be covenantalists.

Our dispensationalist brothers are Protestants and evangelicals.

Protestant means to protest Rome against it, saying we don't agree with their testimony.

Evangelical is really a phrase that means we agree on the core essentials of the gospel. It's kind of where that came from.

So to call them calvangelical, meaning that they would be a slight little bit more clarity, meaning that they're

Calvinistic evangelicals. I think that a lot of evangelicals today, a lot of people who promote

Calvinism that are prominent, tend to be very conservative dispensationalists.

I'll give you an example of this would be someone like John MacArthur, or even John Piper, or even

Matt Chandler. They would be more leaning dispensational because they would not hold to covenant theology.

They would hold to some kind of either dispensation or some kind of new covenant view. John MacArthur for sure holds to a dispensational view.

The reason why I mention this is important because historically dispensationalism is a non -confessional.

Listen, I love my dispensational brothers. I once was one. I was trained in a dispensational school.

So I say this with as much compassion and not to be appreciation.

They have been great defenders of the orthodox faith for a long time where they're trying to protect things like the sufficiency of Scripture.

But they tend to be non -confessional and pietistic in nature because historically dispensationalists weren't

Calvinist. They were more Arminian, free will, for a free will Baptist kind of an idea.

It's been a more modern shift where our brothers are looking at the text, taking it more seriously.

I think the biggest name in my opinion would be John MacArthur. What ends up happening is that because he's conservative and Calvinistic, people will then put him into the historic

Reformed camp. I'm not here trying to be picky on who's in the boat and who's not in the boat.

That's not the point. It's just that there are category confusions and there's why

Justin and I are going to sound different than someone like a Piper or a

MacArthur or even a Matt Chandler. The positions that we're coming from are actually theologically different because we're understanding

Scripture. We agree with them on Calvinism, but when it comes to confessional theology, which is the rest of covenant theology and confessionalism, we're going to look at the text differently.

All of the rest of Scripture, we're going to actually look at it differently. When we come to the passages on Calvinism, like you were dead in your trespasses and sins, if I preach that and MacArthur preaches that, it's going to sound the same because we agree with them on those passages.

But when it comes to the rest of Scripture, we're going to look at it differently because of the historic

Reformed approach. Their approach is either going to be more dispensational or guys like Piper who probably would not call himself a dispensationalist.

No, but he's kind of a mono -covenantalist. He would be more of a biblicist. I think the guys who are

Calvinists and are dispensationalists would disagree with covenant theology self -consciously. They would say it's not helpful in terms of a way to understand the

Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation hermeneutically in terms of how we interpret. It's not good.

I think a lot of guys that are more broadly evangelical Calvinists are going to be in a camp where they're kind of new covenant guys or progressive covenantalists.

They might not even have all the categories of historical covenant theology. They might not be vehemently opposed to it.

They might kind of think they agree with it, but they're certainly not going to see it as a really important matter like you and I would in terms of how we understand

Scripture. When we talk about Jesus from all of the Bible, we're talking about covenant theology.

We're talking about understanding that this is one plan of God to redeem and save and accomplish through Christ.