Dispensationalists do not like to have scriptures about spiritual life quoted to them. Often they will argue against such texts in side steps away from any particular scripture that deals with spiritual life.
Some of these scriptures about spiritual life are John 10: 10, Luke 9: 52-56, Galatians 4: 19, Philippians 2: 5, Colossians 1: 26-27, Matthew 5: 14-16, Ephesians 5: 8 and I Thessalonians 5: 5.
"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I Corinthians 2: 14
The natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14 cannot understand the scriptures that deal with spiritual life, some of which are listed above. So he does not like to have these scriptures quoted to him. He wants salvation while remaining in the spiritual condition of the natural man.
"For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." I Corinthians 11: 19
Scripture is almost never written in a highly explicit way, but even texts which are not metaphoric are often subtle. It is not given to all to understand these texts which are subtle and/or metaphoric (Matthew 13: 11). And so the more subtle and metaphoric nature of many verses in scripture can be used by those who teach false doctrines to get people to believe these false doctrines.
Paul's statements in Romans 2: 28-29 and in Romans 9: 6-8 are clear enough, but the implications of these statements are not spelled out in an explicit way by Paul. What Paul says about the seed from Abraham in Galatians 3: 16, 26-29 is clear, but the implications are not spelled out in such an explicit way that those in the spiritual condition of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14 can immediately understand.
So, how did dispensationalism take over the majority of protestant denominations?
John Darby came to the U.S. and Canada between 1862 and 1877 to promote dispensationalism.
Then, during the last decades of the 19th century, dispensationalism began to develop, organize and be promoted through a number of prophetic and Bible conferences.
The Niagara Bible Conferences were held from 1876 to 1897. During this period of about 20 years the dispensationalists were taking took over the conferences from the protestant leaders who were not dispensationalists.
Dispensationalism was moving toward dominance at the Niagra Conferences, but, for a time, non-dispensationalist protestant leaders worked together to oppose dispensationalism.
In order to get non-dispensationalist protestants to accept their doctrines, dispensationalists had to change the predominant "hermeneutic" used by protestants to interpret scripture.
The older Reformation way of interpreting scripture tended to use relevant scripture to interpret other scripture, following Isaiah 28: 10, "...precept upon precept, line upon line...here a little, and there a little."
Dispensationalism tended more to interpret scripture by its own doctrines - and by its peculiar type of literalism. Prophecies must mean exactly what the literal or verse wordings say and must not be "spiritualized." Israel must always mean Old Covenant Israel and can mean no other. Again, the emphasis in dispensationalism is upon the exact verse wordings, which produces a kind of "letter" type of interpretation. For example, Paul uses "letter" several times in Romans and in II Corinthians. In Romans 2: 29 he says "But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter..."
In Romans 7: 6 he says "But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held: that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter."
In II Corinthians 3: 6 Paul explains more of what he means in saying "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit given life."
Here is Paul again talking about spiritual life and contrasting it to the letter which kills spiritual life.
But back to dispensationalism and the Niagra Bible Conferences. One of the Niagara leaders, Nathaniel West, began in 1893 to attack the theory of the pre-tribulation rapture. Siding with West was Robert Cameron and soon others such as W. J. Erdman, James M. Stifler, William G. Moorehead, and H. W. Frost became convinced that the dispensationalists had been teaching error. Dispensationalists tend to increase their opposition to those who criticize their doctrines. After 1900 the Niagara conferences were no longer held.
But C.I. Scofield's Reference Bible was first published in 1909, and dispensationalism was promoted via this book.
The relationship between dispensationalism and Calvinist Princeton Theology began in about 1878 and continued throughout the period when dispensationalism was taking over many protestant denominations in the U.S. This mix of dispensationalism and Calvinist Princeton Theology was called fundamentalism.
The Southern Baptist Convention had been partly taken over by dispensationalism from the twenties on into the fifties. But in the fifties some Southern Baptist preachers were not dispensationalists. In the sixties First Baptist Church of Dallas preacher, W. A. Criswell, and others led a dispensationmalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Crisswell and the other Baptist dispensationalists did not call their theology dispensationalism; they often called it fundamentalism.
After the Crisswell led takeover, the Convention replaced its seminary professors who were not dispensationalists with dispensationalists and got rid of the old Southern Baptist doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. The doctrine of the priesthood of the believer might imply that the believer could determine, at least to some extent, his own specific beliefs. That idea is not consistent with Dispensationalism.
