Ancient Dispensational Truth: Refuting the Myth that Dispensationalism is New

The threadbare argument that dispensational teaching is “new” has been the propaganda of anti-dispensationalists for decades, and many actually believe it. In this fascinating journey through the early Christian writings, James C. Morris demonstrates that dispensational teaching is as old as the church itself.

Many attempt to discredit dispensationalism by claiming that the church never taught it before around 1830. Such a claim is ridiculous, for proof that any particular idea was never taught in any particular time period would require an exhaustive examination of every teaching that took place during that period. Even for a relatively short period of time, such an exhaustive search is manifestly impossible, much less for nearly eighteen centuries.

But this claim involves a serious falsehood. This is that the accuracy or error of a doctrine can be determined on the basis of how long men have taught it. We have no right to base our ideas on anything other than the word of God itself. Anything less that this is a false foundation.

The purpose of the present study is to examine numerous instances of dispensational doctrine that were clearly taught in some of the very oldest Christian writings on Bible prophecy that have survived to the present day, as well as in numerous other truly ancient Christian writings.