“They Continued in the Apostles’ Teaching” – Fighting for Real Estate – Part #27

 The Absolute Authority of the Apostles and Prophets of Jesus!

 By Richard Allen – January 12, 2026

In the previous Blog: Fighting for Real Estate – Part #26, I listed the five major tenets of the Dispensational Hermeneutical System.  Without sounding judgmental, all five of these tenets are in error Biblically, and do serious damage to the teaching of Jesus Christ, His Church and the “Blessed Hope” for which all Christians prayerfully wait: Christ’s coming in Glory to receive His Church and consummate all things in a “New Heaven and New Earth” (Revelation 21:1). While there are major theological problems with all five tenets of this “man-made” system of interpretation, the first two as I’ve listed below, are the foundation of all the other errors:

1. A “hyper-literal” interpretation of Scripture. This Hermeneutical principle means that all Old Testament Scriptures are unique on their own terms and not to be ‘reinterpreted’ in light of the New Testament. I like to refer to this as the Amelia-Bedelia-Hermeneutic of Interpretation, based on a “hyper-literal” character in a popular children’s book.

2. The Prophetic Authority of Jesus’ Apostles doesn’t extend to Interpretation of the Old Testament.  New Testament Scholars agree that the Apostles and other New Testament writers were Prophets. Yet while the “hierarchy of the New Covenant” starts with Apostles, Prophets, Pastors and Teachers, Dispensational Hermeneutics teach that the Old Testament Prophets’ authority cannot be challenged – even by our Lord Jesus Himself, or one of His Apostles!

For the next two Blogs, we’ll look at both the “hyper-interpretive” model, and the challenges to “Apostolic-Prophetic” authority. The “hyper-literal” interpretation of Scripture flows out of Dispensationalism’s failure to understand and give weight to the “Authority of the Apostles and Prophets of our Lord Jesus!”  Scripture is clear that the Prophetic Authority of the Apostles is the “foundation” upon which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is laid:

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:11-14).

“If anyone thinks and claims that he is a prophet, filled with and governed by the Holy Spirit of God and inspired to interpret the divine will and purpose in preaching or teaching – or has any other spiritual endowment, let him understand, recognize and acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord. But if anyone disregards or does not recognize that it is a command of the Lord, he himself is disregarded and not recognized” (1 Corinthians 14:37-38).

The problem for John Nelson Darby, C.I. Schofield, W.E. Blackstone and others is not that the New Covenant Revelation “spiritualized the Old Testament shadows and types.”  No, the real problem is – that false doctrines created by human cunning and craftiness of the men mentioned above – violently twisted the Gospel of Jesus in order to revert to the errors of First Century Judaism!  The Pharisees, Sadducees and Rabbis of Jesus’ day had “The Exact Literal Hermeneutical Understanding of Old Testament Scripture,” and they paid for it in their own destruction in 70 A.D. To anyone who reads the New Testament, the Jewish Leaders in Jesus’ day clearly used the “Amelia-Bedelia-Hermeneutic of Interpretation,” a “hyper literal” system.  Using this system, they virtually misunderstood every prophetic interpretation concerning Jesus, the humble carpenter born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. They not only had a “carnal and human” understanding of Scripture, but that understanding was also very selective.  Much of that Scripture foretold about the coming Messiah – and later fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth – could have been discovered. Their problem was the same problem that physical Israel had for her entire history:  “It Was All About Them!” Stephen, one of the original deacons, had a wonderful opportunity to rebuke the 70 Elders of the Sanhedrin in Acts Chapter Seven – just before they martyred him. As he explains, it all came down to their being “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in their affections and hearing!”

“You stubborn and stiff-necked people, still uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. As your forefathers were, so you are and so you do!  Which of the prophets did your forefathers not persecute? And they slew those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, Whom you now have betrayed and murdered – You who received the Law as it was ordained and set in order and delivered by angels, and [yet] you did not obey it” (Acts 7:51-53).

For those who have paid attention to the previous 26 Blogs in this series, you’ll no doubt see that I have been arguing for the “literal-spiritual-interpretation” of Scripture. All of us in the flesh struggle with our carnal minds, as did those men in the flesh, without the Spirit – during Old Testament times. Even Jesus’ own followers struggled to understand the two pictures of the ‘Anointed One’ given in Scripture: The Suffering Servant and the Conquering Messiah! On the road to Emmaus, as the two disciples of Jesus spoke with Him, they failed to fully see Jesus in His resurrected form – at last were chastened by Jesus when He asked them: “You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26).  In order to understand the blindness of the Jews in Jesus’ day, and the current struggle of carnal men who desperately want to revert to Judaism, there are a several great questions we need to ask and answer. 1.) What did God actually want from a Redeemed People from the Fall of Adam and Eve, until now? And 2.) What did the Old Testament Israelites, as well as all Gentiles in the flesh – even those alive today – really want? Let me give you the Spiritual, New Covenant answer to number one, “What did God actually want from a redeemed people.”  He wanted men to “Worship Him in Spirit and Truth!” (John 4:23). That’s what He always wanted, from the time Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and “spiritually died,” God always wanted a people to worship, honor and love Him from the heart. While He gave those few He called, religious duties and symbols in their infancy, God longed for a day when men and women would worship Him from the heart!  But that day would only come after Christ atoned for sin, and outpoured His Spirit upon men!

If you ask Dispensationalists the same question, they may give lip service to New Covenant answers, but in the end, they will always revert to the carnal fleshly desires with which First Century Judaism fully agreed:  God wants Israel to be a great physical nation, have all the land in peace, and be able to sacrifice thousands of animals in a beautifully rebuilt temple in Jerusalem! And to make it extra special, Jesus will sit on a human throne a half mile away from the Temple, still showing the nail prints in His hands and feet, until all the armies of the earth attack Him one more time.  These Dispensationalists, wrongly interpreting Scripture, believe that the writer of the Book of Hebrews was wrong, in their system “Jesus will have to deal with sin again” when He returns!

“Even so it is that Christ, having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, He will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who patiently wait for Him” (Hebrews 9:28).

Sad to say, according to the Dispensational System – Even after Jesus’ 1,000-year reign, the whole world will get to reject Him “ONE MORE TIME!” This is not the right answer to my first question. Clearly, God the Son will Not Come Again to “play the game of trying to rule over sinful men in the Flesh, those not born of the Spirit!”  When I say these things, it may sound like I’m creating a strawman of their theology, trust me, I’m not. This is what Darby, Schofield, Blackstone, Lindsey, Chafer and many, many other men believe!  During their lifetimes approximately 150 years ago, they all boasted that “they had received new light on the Bible,” understanding things hidden from the Church from Pentecost until the 1830’s!  None of the Reformers saw this new light, nor did they seek to “revert to Judaism.” 

The answer to question number two is even more interesting: “What did the Old Testament Israelites, as well as all Gentiles in the flesh – even those alive today – really want?” This answer should be obvious: In the flesh, we want carnal blessings, lands, houses, peace, bountiful provisions, pleasure, prestige and most of all – we want to physically live forever to enjoy them! Even the woman at the well to whom Jesus spoke about “life-giving water” – only wanted the convenience of physical water so she didn’t have to carry her jug great distances. Jesus was actually telling her of the “New Age of the Spirit,” when men would worship in Spirit and Truth!  The key words in question number two are: “in the flesh.” In the interpretive model that Dispensationalism teaches, everything is carnal, physical and temporary. Jesus will come again to finally give the Jews what they always wanted: A physical-carnal-kingdom-in-the-flesh!  But this can’t be right, Jesus could have defeated the Romans with a wave of His hand, and never suffered Himself to be crucified. I love the way the ‘Message Translation’ presents Jesus’ words from Matthew’s Gospel:

Jesus said, “Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don’t you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready?” (Matthew 26:52).

When Dispensationalists answer question number two, they acknowledge all of the carnal-earthly-physical desires of fallen men, but they see them as a good thing.  Of course, God wants to prove that He can give Israel all the promised land. Of course, God wants to set up a wonderful earthly Messianic Kingdom with Jesus ruling over mostly unbelieving Gentiles from a physical throne in Jerusalem. Of course, God wants to rebuild the Temple and offer sacrifices, that’s what these Old Testament prophecies all promised. But this last point creates problems for some current Dispensational teachers. We live in a day in which it's not as popular to “be completely literal” with those Prophecies of future Temple Sacrifices. Many present-day Godly Bible teachers, who understand the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, point out the absurdity of Temple Sacrifices throughout a 1,000-year Millennium, with Jesus physically reigning in His earthly Kingdom!  So, some of the current trendy Dispensational teachers are embarrassed enough that they stick with the “pop end times” pop theology, and avoid teaching anything that would cause sincere Christians to question. 

In the next Blog in this series, we’ll dig deeper into the Prophetic Authority of Jesus’ Apostles and Prophets – to discern the true meaning of the Old Testament promises!

Soli Deo Gloria