I was listening to your “7 things” mp3 and a couple of questions came to mind.
When you say that dispensationalists believe in a 7000 year age of man, how do you arrive at this conclusion? I do not see anything mentioning a 7000 year age of man in the bible.
If you are correct (about the 7000 years), that undermines the “no one knows the day of Jesus’ return” doctrine, doesn’t it? Since then you can say that Jesus must return by a certain time.
Also, if there is a 7000 year age of man and the millennium is included in it, shouldn’t the end times have commenced already? (rapture, tribulation etc) Since approx 6000 years have passed and the millennium should begin on the 6000th year, I don’t see how the 7000 year age of man is concluded.
Without going into a lot of detail, the 7000 year age of man is a conclusion that’s been drawn from history and typology and is more of a general idea than an exact method of dating. But even if it was exact, no one knows when time began, so no one knows the day of the Lord’s return.
On the Jewish calendar we’re in the year 5768 since Adam, but many scholars believe about 200 years were lost in various judgments. What’s important is that most dispensationalists believe we’re very near to the time when the Lord will return. 1 Thes. 5:4 says that day should not take believers by surprise, and in Matt. 24:15-16 the Lord commanded believers to understand the events surrounding His coming. Since the Bible commands us to know these things, that means they can be determined through study. Dispensationalism is a good method of study.