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NASB | Deuteronomy 19:21 "Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Deuteronomy 19:21 "You shall not show pity [to the guilty one]: it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. |
Subject: Harmonizing the Word Hermeneutically |
Bible Note: Dear Ed, The more I read on Dispensationalism (from its proponents) the more confusing it seems to me. So these are just a few thoughts. I am not even close to threatening the core issues of this teaching. A confessional on Dispensationalism would not insure its correctness. What it would achieve is concensus. It would fully expose the essential teachings to examination by anyone. It would serve as a tool of instruction and persuasion. It would also allow the theologians who studied it to dispense with minor differences, and work cooperatively toward deeper questions. Without such a statement, what you have is chaos -- internally and externally. As an example, Charles Ryrie asserts, "On the basis of a definition of a dispensation as a distinguishable eceonmy in the outworking of God's purpose, it is not difficult to deduce how many dispensations are revealed in Scripture." (He thought there were seven.) Thus, that would be a great start for agreement, if, indeed, the hermeneutic made it not difficult to deduce. However, taking just this question of, "how many" out to the many teachers of Dispensationalism we get the following: John Nelson Darby - Six Dispensations James M. Grey - Eight Dispensations Cyrus I. Scofield - Seven Dispensations Clarence Larkin - Eight Dispensations Robert Thieme - Four Dispensations Harold L. Wilmington - Nine Dispensations Finis Dake - Nine Dispensations A. E. Koch - Twelve Dispensations Charles H. Welch - Eighteen Dispensations Clarence Mason - Five Dispensations John Phillips - Nine Dispensations None of these men agree on the first Dispensation. Two of these men agree on the second Dispensation. None of these men agree on the third Dispensation. Two of these men agree on the fourth Dispensation. Possibly two of these men agree on the fifth Dispensation. Two of these men agree on the sixth Dispensation. Two of these men agree on the seventh Dispensation. None of these men agree on the eighth Dispensation. etc. I could not find any explicit number from John MacArthur and John Piper -- let alone Copeland and Swaggart. Even Ellen White doesn't quite take a stand. If this is an easy deduction from the Word, why don't any two of these scholars/teachers fail to arrive at the same conclusion? With this kind of division in Dispensational ranks, there are only two possibilities: Only one of them is right; or none of them are right. You said you thought highly of Ryrie. Is he your preferred Dispensational teacher? Truth always unites (Ephesians 4:1-3; 1 John 3:18; 1 Peter 1:22). In Him, Doc |