Annual Fellowship final–The Dispensational Position of the FBFI
The closing message of our conference was delivered by our President, John Vaughn, “The Dispensational Position of the FBFI.” He highlighted the sections of our doctrinal statement that affirm a dispensational point of view, particularly the section on “Last Things”
Section 12. Last Things: We believe in the imminent rapture of the church to Heaven followed by a sevenyear period of tribulation upon all the Earth. At the end of the period of tribulation, Jesus Christ shall come back to Earth in power and glory with His Church to establish the promised Davidic Kingdom. He shall reign for one thousand years during which time peace and righteousness will cover the earth, Satan shall be bound, and Israel shall be established in her own land. At the end of this glorious reign, Satan shall lead a rebellion against Christ, shall be defeated, and shall be forever banished to the Lake of Fire. The wicked 5 dead shall be judged at the Great White Throne, and shall be condemned to everlasting conscious punishment in the Lake of Fire. The righteous shall be in eternal conscious blessedness in the presence of the Lord (John 14:3; Matt. 24:21; Rev. 19:11-16; 21:1-15; Ezek. 39:25-29; 1 Thess. 4:17).
There are other views of last things, of course, but they all tend to use allegorical interpretations of the Scriptures at some point or other. Dr. Vaughn said, “If you take an allegorical position on any passage of Scripture, you have to answer the question, ‘Who decides?’.” Proper interpretation follows this pattern: “What does this say? What does this mean? And, what does it mean that I am supposed to do?”
Doctrine should not be viewed in isolation. Doctrine should inform our practice. Dr. Vaughn reminded us, “If we say that applicational preaching is a form of legalism, we are failing in our pastoral duties.”
The whole message and indeed the whole conference was very encouraging. We will have most of the audio available soon, watch these pages (subscribe to our RSS feed!) for the updates.
I always enjoy our meetings, but this one in particular had to be one of the best. I can’t say enough about the folks of Good News Baptist Church and their wonderful hospitality. Thank you to them and to pastor Ascher. By the way, you can find an excellent article written by pastor Ascher on our site right here: “Fatal Attraction: What Entertainment Is Doing to Our Youth”. It is well worth your perusal if you haven’t read it already.
We look forward to our meetings next year at Colonial Baptist Church in Indianapolis. Until then, keep coming back to Proclaim & Defend for thought provoking and edifying articles from our writers.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.