There are several theological problems with Watts’ views. Three of the more serious ones are his dispensationalism, his view of Scripture, and his views on the Trinity. As Bushell states it,

“It goes almost without saying that Watts’ attitude towards the Old Testament permeates his hymns and Psalm imitations. This consideration, coupled with the fact that Watts’ views on the Trinity were highly suspect, and the fact that some modern day dispensationalists trace their views back to him, ought to cause even judicious hymn singers to question the propriety of approaching the throne of God with the words of Isaac Watts on their lips.”[^1]

We will deal with the issue of Watts’ Unitarianism in the section on Watts’ Unitarianism. His dispensationalism is repeatedly and emphatically manifested in his own statements. As Pollard documents it,

“Like some of his predecessors, Watts published his own version of The Psalms of David (1719), but in his case with an important difference indicated by the following words of the title ‘Imitated in the Language of the New Testament’. In the preface he wrote:

For why should I now address God my Saviour in a song, with Burnt Sacrifices of Fatlings, and with the Incense of Rams? Why should I pray to be sprinkled with Hysop, or recur to the Blood of Bullocks and Goats?…Where the Psalmist has described Religion by fear of God, I have joined Faith and love to it.”