Premillennial Dispensationalism: Its Origins

This article provides a very brief overview of the predominant Christian eschatological beliefs held through the centuries and then locates the popular system of belief, Premillennial Dispensationalism, within that larger context. After defining key terms and concepts such as rapture, premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, pretribulation, posttribulation, dispensation, apocalyptic, and eschatological, the various systems evident in the history of Christian interpretation are classified according to their stance concerning the relationship between the realization of God's kingdom and the course of history.