Review of The Last Days of Dispensationalism: A Scholarly Critique of Popular Misconceptions

Donaldson, Alistair W. The Last Days of Dispensationalism: A Scholarly Critique of Popular Misconceptions. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2011, pp.168, paperback.

Students or theologians desiring an introductory treatise on dispensationalism will benefit from this work. Donaldson, throughout the book, takes select views from various dispensationalists and provides little personal commentary on the biblical basis for the said views. He does provide more than an adequate amount of scholarly sources on each topic for further study.

Alistair Donaldsonwrote The Last Days of Dispensationalism; at the time of this writing, he was a lecturer at Laidlaw College in Christchurch and is currently a funeral director at Hope Funerals Christchurch. Donaldson, in this work, critiques biblical misconceptions within classical dispensationalism: their literal hermeneutic, who is Israel, the Kingdom of God, the Rapture and the Tribulation, and the Millennium. This book aims to show how classical dispensationalism advances a distorted paradigm of the world and, with each viewpoint, offers his understanding of the issues. Donaldson concludes the book with a chapter focused on his thoughts on eschatology.

The opening chapter focuses on the literal hermeneutic of Ryrie, Scofield, Walvoord, and others; however, his primary focus will be on Ryrie’s Dispensationalism, published in 1995. The focus of this chapter is the inconsistent application of the literal hermeneutic in selected passages while ignoring the genre of the text and the New Testament use of the Old Testament. Donaldson brings out a critical point problematic within the literal hermeneutic: the interpreter’s presuppositions of the Bible (p. 13). Donaldson concludes with problematic areas within the literal hermeneutic espoused by dispensationalists: literalism is not logical; it can lead to eisegesis; there is not a consensus in dispensationalist scholarship, and consistent application of the literal hermeneutic is unsustainable (pp. 27–29).

Chapter two discusses various views of the nation of Israel from a dispensationalist and non-dispensationalist perspective. Donaldson intertwines the views of dispensationalists on this subject with the views of theologians throughout history. Classical Dispensationalism views that Israel is “the literal physical nation of the of Jewish people” (p. 37) while arguing that “Jesus is the true Israel, Israel-in-person. Further, the church, by being ‘in Christ’ who is Israel-in-person, is incorporated into and assumes the identity and mission of true Israel” (p. 68). Throughout the chapter, Donaldson shows the impact of the dispensationalist view of Israel within the political realm.

The third chapter describes the misconceptions within the classical dispensationalist view of the kingdom of God. According to Scofield, the kingdom of God is “a present reality; the kingdom of heaven is a future reality” (p. 72). Donaldson argues that the foundation of this thought is the dispensationalist view of Israel and is not supported biblically. The chapter concludes with an emphatic plea for the church to “come to terms with what it means to be God’s people living between the times of the kingdom now and the kingdom as yet to be fully realized” (p. 95). 

Next, he examines the Rapture and the Tribulation, with the foundation of his thoughts coming from the Left Behind Series of novels. Donaldson then examines a few select texts from Scripture and expounds on the text from a dispensational and covenantal view. This exposition brings out what Donaldson considers a misconception within dispensationalism, that “absolute literalism prevents dispensationalists from perceiving the literary intent of those passages” (p. 126). Donaldson concludes the chapter by stating that “a future seven-year tribulation preceded by rapture of the church at the first two-stage return of Christ is not found” (p. 127).

The next misconception, Donaldson argues, is the Millennium. In this concise chapter, Donaldson argues that Revelation is symbolic writing, and, since there is no chronological order to the book, that a literal millennial reign “understood by dispensationalists is questionable” (p. 146). He follows this chapter with his concluding chapter which he describes a comprehensive eschatological worldview that “realizes the significance of Christian living in the present age and hope for the future in a manner more consistent with an eschatological worldview narrated in the biblical story of redemption” (p. 159).

This book aims to show how classical dispensationalism advances a distorted paradigm of the world and, with each viewpoint, offers his understanding of the issues. Donaldson concludes the book with a chapter focused on his thoughts on eschatology.

Donaldson’s goal was to test five tenets of dispensationalism and determine if they were biblical and if these tenets provide an inadequate worldview that hinders proper Christian living (p. xii). While I cannot say he has met his goal, I want to begin with one argument that Donaldson makes that is well thought out and is an issue that dispensationalists need to address: the literal hermeneutic. In the first chapter, Donaldson rightly addresses this issue and does an outstanding job of carrying this forward in the following chapters to show that the literal hermeneutic employed by some is problematic in dispensationalism because of the inconsistent application of the hermeneutic. In his final chapter, Donaldson provides his eschatological view in a concise manner that causes the reader to contemplate his viewpoint whether or not he or she agrees with him.

            Although the first and final chapters are well-written and persuasive, the other chapters are tenuous. In chapter two, Donaldson claims that Zionism by world leaders reflects dispensationalism’s influence without considering numerous political and social influences. His treatment almost comes off as anti-Semitic and causes the reader to lose focus on the biblical basis of who Israel is. This conundrum is evident in the twenty-two pages of this chapter describing the misconceptions of the dispensationalist view; Donaldson dedicated only three pages to the exposition of biblical passages before transitioning to his viewpoint, which, in this section, he provides ample biblical evidence and exposition.

            In chapters four and five, Donaldson carefully selects passages he wishes to examine while at the same time leaving passages that support the dispensationalist view. In both chapters, Donaldson submits that he cannot fully address every passage that concerns the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Millennium due to the lack of space. Although the passages he selects raises concerns, and they do not encapsulate the corpus of the Bible on these subjects.

Students or theologians desiring an introductory treatise on dispensationalism will benefit from this work. Donaldson, throughout the book, takes select views from various dispensationalists and provides little personal commentary on the biblical basis for the said views. He does provide more than an adequate amount of scholarly sources on each topic for further study. It should be noted that individuals wanting a technical book on dispensationalism or a comparative work on dispensationalism versus covenant theology would be better served by reading Ryrie’s Dispensationalism or Merkle’s Discontinuity to Continuity: A Survey of Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies.