THE BULLINGERITES ARE COMING!
"Those who add the SO CALLED 'Great Commission' to God's program for THIS DISPENSATION, cannot fully appreciate the glory of our Lord's 'great commission' TO PAUL and to us (2 Cor. 5:14-21; Eph 3:8-9) . . . THOSE, WHO OBSERVE foot washing, WATER BAPTISM, or holy days, cannot fully understand the mystery of God's purpose and grace. These added things hang as a veil before their eyes and blind them to the glories of their position in the heavenlies in Christ, as members of His body." --Lowell Horn, in the Florida Fundamentalist, March 1984
You see, a few years ago, we took to task an ultradispensationalist, who taught that the Gospels and the early chapters of the Book of Acts were mere history and that the General Epistles, Hebrew, James, and the Revelation were only for the tribulation saints and that only the "Pauline" Epistles applied to this present dispensation. During our correspondence with this man, the poor fellow complained about being branded a "Bullingerite” (for he did not believe in soul sleep as Bullinger did, and he believed in water baptism) and ranted and raved about our spelling errors but was unable to defend his position nor refute ours.
We duplicated the correspondence and sent it to the brethren (including the periodical above). Some were unable to get excited about it, while others did not have any confidence in our discernment of the matter, some were persuaded that it was a case of overkill, and still others saw the danger and kept their distance from the Pauline Prodigal. We left him and his converts to themselves, and the chickens came home to roost in quotes like this in a paper that I had written articles, until I disagreed with them. Still, years later, we heard that the fellow came to his senses and tempered his position. Still, that brother never went as far as the above quote, which is Berean and Stamite to the core.
While we do not intend to force our own views of dispensationalism on others or demand that they line up exactly with us, we do not intend to stand idly by, while Bullingerites belittle the picture of the gospel (water baptism) and make the Great Commission of none effect.
Someone may have rightly stated that Baptists would be better off, if they had never heard of "dispensationalism." The variations among dispensationalists today are certainly myriad, and the formula for their rightly dividing the word seems to be more elusive than the long sought alchemists’ recipe for Gold. Our contention is that the "Seven Dispensation" theological system, which we do subscribe to, has nothing to do with the way that man is saved, and neither does it have anything to do with a so-called Jews versus the Gentiles dispensationalism supposedly found in the Book of Acts. Dispensationalism, however, does manifest several distinct and outstanding ways in which God deals with "mankind" as He progressively reveals and accomplishes His divine plan.
It must be remembered that the outstanding "characteristic" of a given dispensation does not demand that characteristic be eliminated from subsequent dispensations nor that did it not exist in previous dispensations. It also does not demand that man be saved by the outstanding characteristic of every dispensation.
No one was ever saved by their "conscience" or by "human government." The dispensation of "conscience," as all the dispensations since Adam's transgression still required a "LAMB." “Conscience" and "human government" are not eliminated from subsequent dispensations. "Grace" and "faith" were not eliminated from the legal (LAW) dispensation, and "LAW" was not eliminated from the dispensation of "Grace." It must also be remembered that of the seven dispensations, only two (at the most three) solely belong to Israel.
Many dispensationalists start rather innocently by trying to dispensationally refute "Campbellites" and other cult proof texts. The lengths that they go to in order to establish their dispensational refutations through defective pat answers leaves some of us with an uncomfortable nagging in the inner man. Indeed, most misunderstandings of the New Testament stem from misunderstandings within the Book of Acts. However, these misunderstandings must also include the possibility of forcing dispensational interpretations into passages, where they do not belong.
Proponents of such a practice, despite how loudly they cry that the Gospels and the Book of Acts are "transitional" books. They should also realize that the "Pauline Epistles" are also "transitional" books. Signs and wonders were wrought by Paul among the Gentiles (Rom. 15:18, 19). The office of an Apostle, Paul included, as well as Paul's signs were also transitional. (2 Cor. 2:12) as also were the Gentile "gifts" (1 Cor. 12; 13). The terms "transitional" and "dispensational" are not synonymous terms as our Paulist friends would have us believe.
Since our intention is to "Paul Revere" the brethren on this matter, we recommend reading the book, "Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth" by Harry Ironside. The book gives an excellent perspective of a man, who was a contemporary of Cornelius Stam and defeated ultra-dispensationalism decades ago (it is not a new doctrine). "One if by land" --- You can forget the sea as they will not come by water. The Bullingerites are coming!
-- by Herb Evans, 1984