I agree with the bolded part above! Unfortunately, dispensationalists have told me many times, including recently on CC, that I am not saved, and going to be left behind, because I take issue with dispensationalism. Eschatology does NOT determine salvation, I have said many times. And yet, there are many brainwashed dispensationalists who believe this.
And this is not an isolated issue. A few years back, I went into a forum run by dispies. I did not say what I believed. I tried to talk about theology we all agreed on.
But what I found, was that dispensationalism invaded every post and every thread. People who were not dispensationalists were condemned as going to hell, over and over. Now, I know how wrong this is, but to even suggest people were saved by grace through faith was to get banned. It was a cult!
I've been in other forums where there is this assumption if you don't believe in a Pre-trib rapture, and premillennialism, then you are in your way to hell.
What an insidious doctrine!!
The pre-trib, pre-mill doctrine is not insidious. What is insidious is insisting that if a person does not believe in it, he's not saved.
And I am not talking about historic pre-millennialism, if that is what you are! I know people who fall under this, and they believe in salvation through Christ, not salvation through narrow minded eschatology! I may not agree with their end times view, but I can agree we all are expecting the second coming of Jesus. And we are saved by God, not a rapture, pre, mid or post trib!
As for denigrating others- well, I have sat back for too long and let aggressive people preach a wrong doctrine on end times. So, if countering one person specifically, who rarely posts anything but his twisted end times view means I am denigrating that person, so be it! But I won't stand by any longer and let dispies try and set the agenda with their false doctrine.
But my purpose is to stand against bad doctrine, not against individuals. But if an individual constantly proclaims this false and unbiblical doctrine, well, then my hope is they will re-examine their beliefs, and maybe find that what they were pushing wasn't the truth at all!
Unfortunately, there are "bad" or misinformed individuals who subscribe to almost every doctrine, insisting that if you do not believe exactly as they do, you're headed for Hell. What saves us is faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 10:9-10; Eph 1:13; 1 Cor 15:1-4), no matter what other things we might or might not believe or understand.
For the record, I believe that pre-millennialism is sound doctrine, and biblical, and I will argue for it to the best of my ability.
Same thing with free-will. But I'm sure not going to say that people who hold to a-millennialism or Calvinism are not saved.
There are people who hold to a faith-only belief who are convinced that if a person places any importance on works at all, he is not saved. I'm on another forum where a woman was absolutely convinced that the holy spirit had given her what to believe, and she was convinced that since I disagreed with her on some things, it was proof that I did not have the holy spirit. There is another person who is absolutely convinced he has not sinned since he was saved (over 12 years ago), and that since I acknowledge that I still sin, there is no way in hell that I can possibly be saved.
The divisions and animosity between Christians is ridiculous.
Unfortunately, there are going to be theological differences until Jesus Christ comes back (which for Christians, will be at the pre-trib rapture..
).
It's too bad we can't seem to discuss things without each of us telling the other how stupid, heretical, and unbiblical they are. Yeah, I'm occasionally guilty of it as well..
