Mike,

Thank you for your answer.

I also like Shawn Brasseaux's article.

Regarding the "Now The End Begins" view of dispensations, some years back, I went to a church where views on dispensations was rather interesting.

About a third of the church, as well as the first and second pastors, went to the same Bible college in Florida, which the NTEB site seems to closely align with.

However, much to the chagrin of that Bible college, and many of its other graduates around the country, our church was known for being "too dispensational".

So much so, that a grace movement church, nearby, would frequently come to our evening services, as they only had a morning service.

Also, the father-in-law of our pastor, was a pastor of a distinctively grace-movement-like Baptist church outside of Detroit, who often spoke at our church.

But one Friday night, when we went to preach at State & Rush in Chicago, some students and recent graduates of the Florida Bible school showed up also.

Additionally some students from a Baptist Bible college in NW Indiana also showed up.

So, instead of preaching the gospel to the crowds of people all around, the students from the two schools began to argue with each other.

They were arguing over how people would get saved during the tribulation.

The Indiana school students said that in the tribulation, people still got saved believing the gospel, like it has been in the church age.

The Florida school students said that in the tribulation, people get saved by grace + works, then went on to say that in the kingdom that salvation is by works only.

As we tried to continue witnessing to the people around us, we couldn't ignore the ones arguing, and it seemed that there was no reconciling their differences.

Finally, at least, the Indiana school students realized that they were there to preach the gospel, and not to argue, and went back to witnessing.

There were always a lot of people who would be at State and Rush for entertainment, like outdoor cafes in the summer, and walking about.

There were some who said that they were Christians, but from different kinds of churches, and most of those were not dispensational.

To them, there was essentially no difference between the three groups that had come there to preach: the Indiana school, the Florida school, and our church.

They said that all three groups were dispensational, and thus viewed us all as heretics.

Odd thing is, that all three groups believe in a pre-tribulational blessed hope (rapture), and that all the saved in the three groups would not be here for the tribulation.

So, arguing about how to get saved in the tribulation, did not seem as practically fruitful, as witnessing would be.

When we witness, we (all three groups) show people how to get saved, now, while witnessing to them, rather than to tell them how to get saved, later, in the tribulation.

So, spending precious time arguing about it, especially before those who are not saved yet, also does not seem fruitful.

As a side note, when my job took me from up north, to the Caribbean, I went to church, down there, which was a little different.

I ended up going from a 4 point Arminian, very dispensational, Baptist church, to a 3 point Calvinist, slightly dispensational, Baptist church.

However, it was absolutely the best church on the island, very good "line upon line" expository preaching, evangelistic, and far more "local church" teaching than the others.

The island was about the size of the city of Chicago, but Chicago had 65 times more people, yet there were 13 Baptist churches on the island.

But may of those other Baptist churches were more like Charismatic churches up North.

After 9 years there, my job took me to the eastern edge of the US desert, and to another church, which would be considered, maybe half way between the other two.

.