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In 2018, the renowned Pentecostal scholar Dr. Donald Dayton responded to a young preacher, Brody Pope, regarding his question on Dake’s dispensationalism. The answer was straightforward and self-explanatory. Dr. Dayton plainly asserted,
They are two unrelated uses of the word dispensational. One can be a Dispensationalist (in the Darby/Dake sense and a cessationist or not. Similarly one can be a cessationist (for example Warfield) and not a dispensationalist in the Scofield Bible sense. This confused use of the word dispensationalist causes problems for many people.
Dr. Dayton further explained that,
…they are apparently dispensationalists in both meanings of the word. Some pentecostals are dispensationalists in the Scofield bible sense, others are not. In my book THEOLOGICAL ROOTS OF PENTECOSTALISM I have some discussion of these questions. Part of the issue is the assumptions that one brings to the bible. For example, are the historical events in the NT models of the spiritual experience of every Christian or are they events that establish the church but need not be repeated. That is, since Pentecost the Christian receives the HS at conversion. There can be a biblical argument about this, but that argument cannot be definitive because part of the issue is the assumptions that one brings to the bible. Of the early founders of Methodism, for example, John Wesley believed that since Pentecost believers received the HS at conversion. His buddy John Fletcher believed that the two experiences of the NT (the call to discipleship and the reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecosr) are a pattern for all Christians. I think Wesley is more correct than Fletcher.
Troy Day
John Mushenhouse I have since urged Oscar Valdez Kyle Williams Jesse Morrell Dale M. Coulter Jose Salinas and many more of our @followers to read this @highlight by Dr Dayton shortly before his passing
As PENTECOSTALS we canNOT be dispensation in the baptist sense
ALL early Pentecostal in America were pre-Trib – There is NO exception to that
AT THE SAME TIME they believed
1. the gifts were NOT limited to 1 dispensation
2. the 5-fold ministry was NOT limited 1 era epoch dispensation
3. AND last but not least the WORK of the Holy Spirit resp.
– entire sanctification
– baptism with initial evidence of speaking in tongues
were evident in the whole history of the Christian church
specifically
the the SPIRIT worked from GEN to REV not just during some church age
Dr. Dayton IMO made a FINE case for Dake’s dispensationalism which MANY do not believe as they WRONGLY equate it with some early 20c. baptistic that claim HSB, gifts and 5-fold was NOT for the church dispensation of GRACE and stopped operating with the death of the FIRST 12(13) apostles. We as Pentecostal do NOT Limit the SPIRIT and though we are pre-mil pre-Trib do NOT see dispensations the same way
I would wait for your responses to see if a separate topic on this is needed BUT as many times Ive repeated this in the group Kyle Williams still tried to attack me with dispensations which he did not know I do not subscribe to 🙂