The Dangers of Dispensationalism & the Orthodox Hermeneutic of Scripture
By: Bishop Stephen Introduction: A Foreign Lens upon Holy Writ In recent generations, a theological system known as Dispensationalism has exercised enormous influence across the Christian world, particularly in American evangelicalism. Through popular prophecy conferences, study Bibles, and fictionalized apocalyptic novels, it has shaped the eschatological imagination of millions. Its categories: “rapture,” “tribulation,” “millennial kingdom,” “parenthesis Church” have become commonplace in the vocabulary of modern Christianity. Yet this system, born in the 19th century, stands in sharp contrast to the ancient and apostolic hermeneutic preserved in the Orthodox Church. Dispensationalism is not merely a variation in interpretation; it represents a fundamentally different way of reading Scripture. Its theological architecture divides what the Fathers united, literalizes what the Apostles spiritualized, and postpones what the Gospel proclaims fulfilled. Orthodoxy must therefore re...