Christian apologist Frank Turek is pushing back against rising accusations that dispensationalism and Christian Zionism are heresies, urging believers to slow down before condemning fellow Christians over End Times disagreements.
Speaking during a Nov. 21 event in Eagle, Idaho, Turek addressed a Gen Z audience member who said he increasingly hears friends and family branding dispensationalists as heretical.
In response, Turek challenged the rhetoric, “A good question to ask them is, ‘What is a heresy?’” He argued that most theologians agree on only one actual heresy regarding eschatology. “Because theologians almost universally agree, when it comes to eschatology, the only true heresy is preterism,” he said, as reported by The Christian Post.
Preterism, he explained, holds that “everything that happened in the Bible, including the book of Revelation, has already happened; that Jesus has already come and set up His Kingdom.” Turek dismissed that view bluntly: “It’s quite obvious He hasn’t [returned], OK?”
Turek insisted that dispensationalism, along with other End Times perspectives, is not heretical. “When Jesus comes back, I’ll welcome Him, but it’s not a heresy to be a dispensationalist. It never has been,” he said.
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He warned that believers misuse theological labels, “throw terms around, not understanding what the meaning really is.” Instead, Christians should debate prophecy “without losing the Gospel” and ask clarifying questions such as, “What do you mean by heresy? How did you come to that conclusion? What evidence do you have for that?”
Turek further suggested that the Bible intentionally leaves much of the second coming shrouded in mystery. “Just like He kept His first coming veiled, He’s keeping His second coming veiled,” he said. That uncertainty underscores his core point: End Times speculation is secondary to faithfulness.
So what exactly is dispensationalism? At its simplest, it is the belief that God works through distinct stages, or “dispensations,” throughout history. It interprets prophetic Scripture literally rather than allegorically. In practical terms, this means dispensationalists take prophecies about Israel’s national restoration, global conflict, and end-times turmoil as concrete future realities, not metaphors.
That raises an uncomfortable question for critics: if dispensationalism is supposedly “wrong,” why do global headlines appear to track so closely with what dispensationalists have been teaching for centuries?
The rebirth of Israel in 1948, rising hostility toward Jerusalem, geopolitical instability in the Middle East, and the resurgence of antisemitism all look eerily similar to what the Bible describes. Perhaps, just maybe, some attacking dispensationalists are opposing something they have not taken time to understand.
Whether one agrees with every detail or not, Turek’s reminder stands: eschatology should be debated with humility. And if Scripture’s predictions about Israel continue to align with world events, dismissing dispensationalism outright may say more about spiritual blindness than theological insight.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a background in journalism from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine.
