Presbyterianism and Dispensationalism

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Presbyterianism and Dispensationalism JUNE 5, 2012 By Vern Poythress At first glance, presbyterianism and dispensationalism might seem to be opposites. How is it, then, that two of the most representative and influential American dispensationalists, Cyrus I. Scofield and Lewis Sperry Chafer, both sprang from presbyterian-related denominational roots? Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952), a presbyterian, was founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, and served as its president and professor of systematic theology.1His eight-volume work SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY remains a classical presentation of dispensationalism within the structure of a complete systematic theology. The second figure, C. I. Scofield (1843-1921), had ties with congregationalism, a close relative to presbyterianism. He was ordained to the congregational ministry in 1882, and then in later years devoted much energy to two projects that helped form the very definition of American dispensationalism, namely the Scofield Correspondence Bible School and THE SCOFIELD REFERENCE BIBLE. 2 Differences in Roots The juxtaposition of dispensationalism with presbyterian or congregationalist roots might seem all the more strange if we travel back to earlier stages in presbyterian and dispensationalist history. Presbyterianism received its definitive formulation in the seventeenth century in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms. Dispensationalism arose in the nineteenth century primarily through John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) and the Plymouth Brethren. The defining stages of the two positions displayed deep differences. The Westminster Standards emphasized the unity of Old and New Testament revelation under the overall structure of the covenant of grace. Darby, by contrast, distinguished sharply between the Old Testament and the New. According to his view, the Old Testament focuses on law and the earthly destiny for Israel, while the New Testament focuses on grace and the heavenly destiny of the church. Darby’s view of the church differed from Westminster presbyterianism not only in his strict separation of the New Testament church from Old Testament Israel, but in its stance toward “Christendom.” Darby was a “restorationist,” who thought that the past history of the church represented such a mass of corruption and degeneration that the church had to be refounded by the Plymouth Brethren, who alone really met in Christ’s name.3Presbyterian thinking, by contract, recognized substantial continuity with the church throughout the ages, along with the need for reform. Darby believed in independency in church government, while the Presbyterians saw a biblical basis for wider expressions of church unity in the form of presbyterian government. In sum, Darby and his followers among the Plymouth Brethren differed sharply from Presbyterians on a number of matters, but preeminently in their interpretation of the relation of law to grace and old covenant to new. .

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