Hi Bill,
I think I'm developing a new career in upsetting whole blocs of 5Doves. As always, such was not my intent.
I was referring specifically to your comments about the 24 elders. You do, in fact, independently reach a very similar conclusion to Bullinger's. Thanks for the critiques. I had previously mailed these and more to 5Doves at some point in the distant past. I've read most of them. Ironsides' rebuttal basically says that Bullinger violates Christian belief held since, to borrow a phrase, time immemorial. Ironsides does concede that Christian scholarship does owe much to Bullinger, however. The other criticisms typically stem from appendices and footnotes in Bullinger's Companion Bible (which I have not read). And, Bullinger is held liable for subsequent movements arising after his death which seize upon out of context details of his prolific writings.
Bullinger heads one of three branches of dispensationalism, all of which stem from Darby. (If you believe in a pretrib rapture, you are a probably a dispensationalist.) His branch is termed ultra-dispensationalism. The other two are Darby and Scofield. It is distinguished by the belief that Pentecost was not the inauguration of the church, that the inauguration was in fact distinguished by the Pauline jail time epistles. I have yet to see Bullinger allude to this. I'm concerned with his Commentary on Revelation alone.
Using this system as a basis, dispensationalists understand the Bible to be organized into seven dispensations: Innocence (Genesis 1:13:7), conscience (Genesis 3:88:22), human government (Genesis 9:111:32), promise (Genesis 12:1Exodus 19:25), law (Exodus 20:1Acts 2:4), grace (Acts 2:4Revelation 20:3), and the millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:4-6). Again, these dispensations are not paths to salvation, but manners in which God relates to man. Dispensationalism, as a system, results in a premillennial interpretation of Christs second coming and usually a pretribulational interpretation of the rapture. To summarize, dispensationalism is a theological system that emphasizes the literal interpretation of Bible prophecy, recognizes a clear distinction between Israel and the church, and organizes the Bible into the different dispensations it presents.
Maranatha,Bob
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/aug2013/billg84.htm