Author: Ryrie, Charles
Genre: Theology - Dispensationalism
Tags: Doctrine / Theology
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
This is the 1995 update of the original 1966 Dispensationalism Today. It has been updated to include references to more recent works and a critique of progressive dispensationalism. The ‘‘plea’’ at the end has also been expanded to include these developments. I was glad to see, and this isn’t the first place, that Ryrie has not changed his position on dispensationalism. He writes, ‘‘The basic distinctions of classic, or normative, dispensationalism as explained in this book, though sometimes challenged or changed, remain the bedrock teaching of the dispensational approach to understanding the Bible.’’
In regard to progressive dispensationalism Ryrie quotes Bruce Waltke as saying that it ‘‘is closer to covenant theology than to dispensationalism,’’ and Walter Elwell who writes that ‘‘the newer dispensationalism looks so much like nondispensationalist premillennialism that one struggles to see any real difference.’’
Lest we forget the importance of this doctrine, Ryrie retains an old quote from Lewis S. Chafer, ‘‘Any person is a dispensationalist who trusts the blood of Christ rather than bringing an animal sacrifice and any person is a dispensationalist who observes the first day of the week rather than the seventh.’’