I was inspired to write this post by a friend of mine and our discussions. He asked me what caused me to change my mind and move away from Dispensationalism, which is more commonly known as Christian Zionism.[1] So I shared with him briefly my journey out of the school of theology I was raised in:
“I was raised in mostly Pentecostal and Baptist churches (went to a Presbyterian church for a bit too, and visited the occasional other church). I walked away from the faith when I was about 12 or so, and came back to God when I was 22. I was raised in the kind of church environment where many people studied Revelation in light of events in the Middle East, and saw it all as needing to happen in relation to the modern nation of Israel.
I held some things as givens in my thinking when I came back to the Lord in 2006: the power of confession (you might call it name it and claim it). That Israel were God's chosen people, and we must bless them. That there would be a 7 year tribulation, and before that a rapture. And I even was taught to see the KJV as either the only Bible or at least the most trustworthy one. So, you can see the flavour of Christianity I was raised in was very much dispensational.
I held all these things to all just be givens. No brainers. I even remember seeing the war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006 and saying to one of my non-Christian friends that the end was obviously very near. I had been trained to think that way.
Later in 2006 I came to faith. I plugged into a conservative evangelical church, and immediately built a relationship with one of the pastors who was not that much older than me. He was a former brethren. It was a non-denominational church.
I also decided I had to read the Bible, fully. I had never done it before. I had only ever read segments of the Bible, but never the full thing. I remember going to pick up one of my favourite novels to read it and then looking at my Bible and thinking, “No, I am going to prioritize this from now on.” I still read novels, but from that moment I have read the Bible nearly every day of my life. My pastor recommended I read 4 chapters a day to do it in under a year. I did just that. For years I did that.
I read through the Bible just expecting to see all those things and saw none of them were explicitly taught, and while I still think a 7 year tribulation is possible, I don't think it is a given. It's a possibility, one that I now know could arguably be seen to be fulfilled in the AD 66 to 73 war between Judea and Rome, but I did not learn this till a little later. I realised the rest were nonsense as well. The rapture was nowhere to be seen, only the second coming was found, the power of confession was greatly exaggerated, I was shocked to discover this. I saw that there was only one people of God, only those who had faith in Jesus, called at times Israel, the church, the flock, the vine, the bride, etc, etc. I saw that all those things I had taken as givens were nonsense. I had at the time a KJV bible and a TNIV Bible. I read both of them in depth and saw that they told the same narrative, recorded the same events, and that the differences were minimal. I eventually got an ESV, which I still have, a couple of years after coming to faith (about 2008 I think). The Bible inoculated me against those ideas I had once seen as givens....
Full text: https://revmatthewlittlefield.substack.com/p/inside-the-mindset-of-a-christian
