Dispensationalism Refuted

Returning after illness and a trip to New Zealand, Pastor Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, focusing on verses 25-26: 'For he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.' After tracing Paul's argument that the bodily resurrection of Christ is the pledge and pattern of the believer's resurrection, he draws two pivotal assertions from the text: Christ is presently reigning as the King of grace (not merely a coming King), and the primary concern of His kingship is the salvation of His people. He closes with four consequences of denying Christ's present reign, and a caution against over-realized forms that would impose His kingship by carnal weapons.

Before turning to Revelation's great assertions of Christ's kingship, Pastor Martin lays out first principles for interpreting the book. Negatively, Revelation is neither a pre-written crystal ball of coded history nor a preview of a seven-year future segment. Positively, it is a lengthy letter sent by an exiled, suffering apostle to seven real first-century churches, and its contents are essentially ethical and practical, imminent and contemporary, conflict-and-conquest oriented, and Christ-centered. He shows that 'throne' occurs 45 times in Revelation compared to 15 in the rest of the New Testament, teaching believers in any age to have a 'throne fixation' on the Lamb in the midst of the throne. He closes with a brief look at Revelation 1:4-5, where the threefold description of Christ as faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth meets suffering saints on the very threshold of the book.