The occasion was an interview 
by Albert Mohler on his podcast, Thinking in Public, on August 23, 2023. He was interviewing Daniel Hummel, author of The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism.
Hummel’s book looks mainly at the cultural impact of dispensationalism in the last 150–200 years, particularly in popular culture. And while helpful in many ways, that book constructs straw men, seeing dispensationalism as a recent, harmful interpretive system that must be rejected.
Just weeks before that podcast interview, Discovering Dispensationalism was published, edited by Cory M. Marsh and James I. Fazio.
The subtitle sets forth the book’s purpose and value: “Tracing the Development of Dispensational Thought from the First to the Twenty-First Century.” Twelve authors contributed, tracing the presence of the basic grammatical, historical, and contextual hermeneutic in virtually every era of church history before J. N. Darby.
The authors do not suggest that fully formed dispensationalism was present in every era of the church but that the basic tenets of what would be codified in dispensationalism were present.
The book includes chapters by classic dispensationalists (e.g., professors Paul Hartog of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary and Mark Snoeberger of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary) and progressive dispensationalists (e.g., Darrell L. Bock, senior research professor at Dallas Theological Seminary). Each chapter attempts to portray the breadth of thought present within dispensationalism.
The views of many easily identified ministry leaders through the Church Age are also noted, along with others relatively obscure. The reading at times is work, but isn’t good reading sometimes work?
Discovering Dispensationalism is well worth every pastor’s reading. It capably and thoroughly dismisses the errant notion that dispensationalism was invented by J. N. Darby in the early 1800s, showing that the interpretive principles that became codified in the system now called dispensationalism were present from the New Testament era through today.
David Strope is interim national representative of the GARBC and executive editor of The Baptist Bulletin. This book review was published in the Winter 2024 Baptist Bulletin.
