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Listed here are a few quotations from some well-known cassic and modern holiness authors on various issues relating to our anti-dispensational emphasis. These are by no means all the statements that could be gathered, but they are representative of historic and contemporary scholarship in the Wesleyan-Arminian tradit
ion. Some Reformed (Presbyterian) scholars also oppose the premillennial theory of the nineteenth century Darbyites, as indicated by the citation from Everett I. Carver's book, When Jesus Comes Again, which we have included below.
John Wesley on Dispensations
"Christianity as it includes the whole moral
law of God both by way of injunction and of promise, if we will hear him is
designed of God to be the last of all his dispensations. There is no other to
come after this. This is to endure to the consummation of all things. Of
consequence, all such new revelations are of Satan, and not of God; and all
pretenses to another more perfect dispensation fall to the ground" (John Wesley, Works, vol. 5, p.314).
Adam Clarke on the millennium
"It is truly an astonishing thing that
men will prefer hope to enjoyment; and rather content themselves with blessings
in prospect than in possession! . . . Thousands, in their affections,
conversation, and conduct, are wandering after an undefined and indefinable
period, commonly called a millennial glory, while expectation is paralyzed, and
prayer and faith restrained in reference to present salvation; and yet none of
these can tell what even a day may bring forth; for we now stand on the verge of
eternity, and because it is so, 'now is the accepted time, now is the day of
salvation" (Clarke's Christian Theology, p. 420).
"The resurrection is to
be universal--It will include the whole human family that have lived and
died, from the father of the race to his youngest son. . . . The next grand
event in the Divine administration toward men, subsequent to the resurrection of
the dead is that of the general judgment--an event which shall terminate the
remedial dispensation, put an end to time, and introduce the eternal destinies
of man and angles" (Wakefield's Christian Theology, p.614 and
621).
"The effect of this teaching is, first,
to belittle the Christian agencies now in operation by asserting that they are
inadequate to the conversion of the world. Second, it gives a Jewish and
highly materialistic turn to the kingdom of Christ, and leads to a depreciation
of the spiritual manifestation of Christ by the Comforter in this life.
Thirdly, it calls off attention from the saving truths of the Gospel, and leads
believers to dwell upon airy and baseless speculations, and profitless
argumentation. Fourth, unless the laws of mind are all changed in this
generation, we predict from the history of Adventism in past ages, that the
Plymouth Brethren will soon begin to fix a definite time for the Advent, which
will be followed by disappointment and all the moral and spiritual disasters of
Millerism" (A Substitute for Holiness or Antinomianism Revived: The
Theology of the Plymouth Brethren Examined and Refuted, p.196).
"[Jesus] never spoke one
syllable about the insufficiency of the Holy Spirit and the gospel, and the
present means of grace to win the world and establish His kingdom. He never
intimated that His preachers and teachers and missionaries should go in the
power of the Holy Spirit, with the gospel and means of grace, and labor in vain,
because all these Christian instrumentalities were never intended to succeed!
God inaugurated these means and they will succeed!. . . Dr. Daniel Steele
offered a prize to anyone who would point out one text that declared that there
would be another conversion after Jesus comes the next time. Nobody has named
the text" (Fundamental Christian Theology, p.566).
". . . closer to our own
day the influence of dispensationalism, pioneered by J. N. Darby and widely
disseminated by C. I. Scofield through his Reference Bible, has
been enormous. It is odd that these men, who as Calvinists have so ardently
opposed the doctrine of entire sanctification, should have had such influence in
the holiness movement. This is not the place to discuss at length the various
facets of their teaching, but it may be said that any interpretation which
places much of the Bible outside the use of Christians ought to be suspect
from the start. The whole system of dispensationalism rests upon a reading into
the Bible (eisegesis) the ideas of men, rather than a leading of the Word
(exegesis) of the truths of revelation" (Exploring Our Christian Faith,
pp.424 and 425).
"During the nineteenth century a system of theology known as dispensationalism arose, which included a completely new eschatology with many strange features. For some reason it has become so pervasive among conservative Christians, especially among the rank and file, that it has assumed the status of orthodoxy among large groups of both laymen and ministers. There is not a Wesleyan scholar known by this writer, however, who would subscribe to it, but it still remains entrenched. For this reason it needs some special attention in a work committed to Wesleyan theology because all the basic theological presuppositions that inform dispensationalism are antithetical to Wesleyan theology as well as sound biblical exegesis" (Grace, Faith, & Holiness, p. 585).
"The dispensational system is exceeding complicated. Few can understand it apart from a systematic study of its teachings. It often fools the naive and the unwary because it is usually presented in a very persuasive manner and with what appears to be the voice of authority. . . . As long as one allows himself to be carried along by their presentation without seriously checking for fallacies, conclusions that do not follow from the material presented, forced exegesis, improper use of proof-texts, and eisegesis, the likelihood of being fooled is great; but when a thorough check is made, he weakness of the system becomes apparent" (When Jesus Comes Again, p. 58).
"I can see that dispensational teaching . . . indeed strikes at the heart of the Wesleyan-Arminian Holiness movement" (Dr. Ronald Cavanaugh, Wesleyan educator, in personal letter to the author).