Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 27:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: The Term "Dispensationalism" In Historical Perspective: How Useful Is The Term In Today’s Theological Climate?
Author: Michael D. Stallard

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The Term Dispensationalism In Historical Perspective: How Useful Is The Term In Today’s Theological Climate?

Mike Stallard1

Key Words: Dispensationalism, Hermeneutics, Premillennialism, Terminology

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Introduction

This is an article that I have wanted to write for a long time. As early as 1986, in the Dispensational Study Group of the Evangelical Theological Society, the issue of whether the term dispensationalism still had value was raised.2 At the present time many dispensationalists that are traditional, progressive, and so-called ultra-dispensationalists still affirm the use of the term to describe their approach to the Bible and theology. This article explores the issue of the ongoing relevance and usefulness of the term dispensationalism at the current time.

The Trouble With Labels

Historical labels of theological positions do not all have the same staying power. As history ebbs and flows, labels can change over time. One example of a doctrinal label that has remained strong in usage down through the centuries is the term trinity. Tertullian is usually credited as the first to use the Latin term trinitas to describe trinitarian beliefs in his work Against Praxeus (AD 213). Before that time, biblical Christians believed the

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doctrine (to the degree of their understanding) without using the word trinity. Since the time of the trinitarian and Christological theological controversies of the third through fifth centuries (mostly over the deity of Christ), the term trinity has been maintained as a major category of orthodox theology. While from time to time I hear some suggest we need to come up with a new term, it is highly unlikely that a new term will emerge in light of the longevity of the widely accepted label.3

A second example shows how doctrinal positions are maintained for the most part while the labels for those positions change over time. The early church used the term chiliast or chiliasm to express the belief that Christ was returning to earth to set up a thousand-year earthly kingdom. This English expression originates with the transliteration of the Greek term for one thousand (χίλια), which appears six times in Revelation 20:2–6. This term was widely used to describe the doctrinal position even though, over time, amillennialism replaced chiliasm as the d...