Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Summer Edition 1998
Why Daniel Steele So Strongly Opposed Dispensationalism
One preacher wrote to me accusing me of
"wasting my time" in what I am attempting to do in this ministry. He should have
addressed his sentiments to the great nineteenth century Methodist theologian
Dr. Daniel Steele, as well.
Evidently Steele thought it was important enough to deal with
the emerging influence of Darbyite dispensational theology on the Holiness
Movement of his day that he took the time and effort to assemble a book of 350
pages directed to the matter—and that before the days of computers and desktop
publishing!
Daniel Steele was a man passionate about about Wesleyan
Methodist theology. He clearly recognized in John Nelson Darby's novel
hyper-Calvinistic/anti-Christian perfectionist dispensational theory the
insidious head of vilifying antinomian heresy, and that it was his Christian
duty, and in the best interest of the cause that he so dearly loved, to oppose
it strenuously.
Antinomianism we define as "election without obedience
theology." It finds vivid expression in the popular state/standing teachings of
the neo-Calvinistic majority branches of the evangelical movement of our day.
Quite simply, this is the teaching that a believer may have an imputational
standing in Christ (eternal security) that may divorced from his actual moral
state, or condition (the sinning in thought, word, and deed every day
mentality).
Antinomianism not only permeates the theology of such major
American denominations as the Southern Baptist, but far too much of the Wesleyan
Holiness Movement as well, which, at the grassroots level, has accepted the
antinomian theology of dispensational premillennialism, and, in its educated
echelons, the antinomian ideology of the neo-orthodox existentialists.
Though nearly universally UNRECOGNIZED--sadly--by the established
denominational holiness
ministries of our day, antinomianism is the number one killer stalking the
contemporary Wesleyan Holiness movement going into the twenty-first century.
Well, then, that we should return to a perusal of Daniel
Steele's A Substitute for Holiness, or Antinomianism Revived: the Theology
of the Plymouth Brethren Examined and Refuted, and to John Fletcher's
famous Checks.
Related Article Links
Understanding Antinomianism
Antinomianism And The Future Of The Wesleyan Holiness Movement