Early Mid-Acts Dispensationalism?

I purchased the book “Dispensationalism Before Darby” a while back. The purpose of this book by William Watson, a professor at Colorado Christian University, was to show how the ideas that later became known as dispensationalism, and usually attributed to John Nelson Darby were not new, but had been latent in English Christianity for several centuries prior to the 1800’s and the Plymouth Brethren.

There were many interesting things I learned as I read this work. It did, however, as expected, focus mostly on “end-times” teaching. Our theology should be known for more than that! In reading though, I found the entry below particularly interesting.

(Enjoy the spelling!)

Johann Alstead (1588-1638) a German Calvinist and apocalyptic author whose work The Beloved City or, The Saints Reign on Earth a Thousand Yeares was published in 1643 shortly after the outbreak of the English Civil War and greatly influenced Fifth Monarchists and divided history into various “churches.” Alsted’s divisions of the “State of the Church hereupon Earth … changes the Church undergoes by turns” are those of: -Before the fall of the first man, and that was wholly Legall … . -After the fall … wholly Evangelicall … Adam and Eve, after their most grievous fall, were raised up again by the most sweet promise of the gospel, they were comforted with this … first foundation of the Church – The Church was first contracted into the Posterity of Abraham … by little and little degenerating in Israel, whose ten Tribes … were led away into a most grievous, and yet continuing captivity … As for the Church remaining in the Kingdom of Juda … the Babylonian captivity … Cyrus released this captivity giving the Jews free leave to return into their Country … . – The Church of the New Testament, which we will divide into four periods. The first period is of the Church of the godly Jews in Judea, from the time of John the Baptist to the Council of Jerusalem … the fiftieth yeer of Christ … . The second period is of the Church spread over the whole world, contains the calling and conversion of most nations, from the 51.Yeer of Christ, to the beginning of the 1000 yeers. And this hath four branches: I. Under the Heathen Roman Emperors, till Constantine the Great’s time … the Church was propagated under divers persecutions … . II. Under Christian Emperors, from Constantine the Great … it was adorned with divers privileges … . III. Under the Popes of Rome, while they extended their power farre and wide, from the yeer of Christ 606, to the yeer 1517 … the Church was most miserably pressed … partly by the Saracens and Turks in the East, partly by the Popes of Rome in the West. IV. Under the Popes of Rome … from the yeer of Christ 1517, to the beginning of the thousand yeers … the Church is to be purged, purified, and cleansed, by this persecution … it suffers … . The third period of the Church of the New Testament, is from the beginning of the thousand yeers, to the end thereof. … and it shall be free of persecutions … . The fourth period of the Church of the New Testament is from the end of the Thousand years to the last Judgement. In which time the estate of the Church shall be very miserable, by reason of the War of Gog and Magag, unto which Christ shall put an end by his glorious coming … . – The State of the Church … in Heaven where is the … beginning of the triumph in the last Judgement. … consummation thereof in life Eternall.”

To be clear…

I recognize that this is NOT what “Mid-Acts” dispensationalism is. Most of this is Covenant Theology, as would be expected from a German Calvinist in the 1500’s and 1600’s.

It has things said in it like “before the fall, wholly legal” and “after the fall, wholly Evangelical”, which to me is another way of talking about CT’s “covenant of works” and “covenant of grace”. I would bet that most other see that as well. Then it has the nation of Israel being the church. Now Israel was a church and is called that in Acts 7:38. But it is not “The Church which is Christ’s Body”, as the Apostle Paul reveals it in Ephesians 1:22–23. The Body of Christ is entirely saved individuals — those in Christ, while Israel was all those that were born under the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and came out of Egypt under Moses.

After that is the part that I found interesting: that this author divided “the state of the church” at the Acts 15 Jerusalem council from what was happening from the time of John the Baptist until then, as in bolt font in the quote. Again, not what we would today call “Mid-Acts” Dispensationalism, but it is a change of things “Mid-Acts”.

This author seems to be millennial, sort of postmillennial from what I can tell. But it does recognize the thousand years, so he is not amillennial. It also seems to put the tribulation after the 1000 years, which isn’t something that I have heard before.

I like also that it makes what we might call a “dispensational change” in 1517. Just what one might expect from a Lutheran, but a Calvinist? Well, he is German.

The point: I found it interesting that there were people noticing some things that were times of change, and where this particular author put it. There was lots of this stuff through history. People were trying to make sense of the Scripture and writing their thoughts, hidden in rare historical documents that some people have made it their life’s work to find. I am thankful to these historians that remind us that there has been a lot more things thought about in history than what is in the main stream.

Well, with that said we’ll bring this to a close. May not be interesting to you all, but I thought it was.

Remember that all “theological models” should not be placed over the Word of God, and we need to let God be God, and trust His Word as truth. If plain Scripture violates our theological models, let’s revise our models to mold to Scripture. That is how we move forward in our study of God’s Holy Scripture. That includes the Mid-Acts models that we hold to. We don’t want to let ourselves be moved and swayed by every wind of doctrine, and we need to use care before tearing down what others before us built. But when the Bible speaks, we listen. It is quite liberating, actually.

Ephesians 3:20–21 — “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”