The Coming Prophetic Realignmentby
Bill Barnwell With every decade that passes, the prophecy charts of the "Left Behind" crowd have to be revised. While "Left Behind" has only been around since the 1990’s, the prophetic system behind it spans back to the 1830’s. Since then, rapture fever has raged throughout various circles of the church. In many denominations, it was and remains unfathomable to believe in anything other than pretribulationalism and dispensationalism. Fortunately, more and more people are waking up to two facts. First, each decade spawns more inaccurate predictions from so-called "prophecy experts." Second, there are indeed other interpretive options in the prophetic debate that better stand up to Biblical scrutiny. As a result, dispensationalism and pretribulationalism are losing credibility. It is only a matter of time before the entire system becomes discredited.
Prior to the 19th century, nobody had heard of the "pretribulational rapture." All doctrinally sound Christians both historically and today believe in the eventual Second Coming of Christ, but it is only recently in church history that this event has been separated from the "pretribulational rapture." Pretribbers dispute this point and say that the dispensational movement was simply a return to Biblical truth that had been lost throughout church history. But behind this idea is the presupposition that the Bible itself teaches dispensationalism and pretribulationalism. In fact, the verses used to support and defend these doctrines actually do not teach them at all. The other line of defense is to quote a passage from an obscure bishop from the 300’s who allegedly taught pretribulationalism. However, both the authenticity and the meaning of the passage are in dispute. Finally, why is it some kind of trump card for pretribulationalism if only one guy in 1,830 years of church history allegedly taught this concept? An even better question is: when will people stop listening to these so-called prophecy experts who have been wrong time and time again? Is there a point where they are stripped of their "expert" credentials and consumers stop buying their books in bulk? A case in point, one still very prominent Christian writer heavily suggested that the "rapture" would occur by 1988. The reasoning for this was a misunderstanding of Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21 where Jesus gives his "Olivet Discourse." Jesus compares the budding of a fig tree to the completion of events of judgment given earlier in these chapters. He then says "I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." Dispensationalists associate the "fig tree" with modern Israel, even though the text does not suggest this. Knowing that a generation was usually associated with 40 years, many dispensationalists then argued that the "rapture" must have had to occur 40 years after the establishment of the modern nation of Israel. Hence 1948 + 40 = 1988. When that didn’t happen, the prophecy charts were revised and it was explained that generation really meant 70 years. Or maybe even a hundred. And maybe 1948 wasn’t really the starting point. Maybe it was 1967 when Israel recaptured Jerusalem. So, according to the most liberal use of dispensational prophecy charts, the rapture must happen by 2067. Obviously, however, all the "experts" today will be dead and gone by then. They won’t have to answer for their failed predictions if they do turn out to be false. In context, the fig tree is just used as a point of analogy that when people start seeing the events happening Christ earlier described, to be on the lookout. The other problem for dispensationalists is that every time in the gospels where Jesus says "this generation" He is always talking about His contemporaries. Much of Matthew 24 can be correlated with first-century events leading up to the destruction and desolation of the Temple in 70AD. If Jesus spoke these words in 30–33AD, then his words were in fact fulfilled within a generation, just as Matthew 24:34 explicitly claims. Thus, the context here of "this generation" again seems to make better sense in regards to Jesus’ contemporaries. When one views the passage this way it begins to make much more sense. None of this suggests there is no meaning for today, for there is much modern application to be found in these passages. But that is a far cry from dispensationalists claiming the need for specific events in the future that have already found historical fulfillment. The other line of defense from dispensationalists is to say that even if these passages found fulfillment in the first century, there still remains a "double fulfillment" for the future. The problem here is, how on earth can anyone be sure of this? It’s simply speculation. And speculation is certainly not a good starting point for formulating doctrines which supposedly can’t be compromised. Nor is a good starting point for creating one’s worldview and foreign policy. While people can obviously disagree about the interpretation of difficult passages, it is a matter of record that prophecy teachers have long made inaccurate predictions based on what was then in the news. For decades and even centuries, candidates for the Antichrist have changed as current events have changed. The supposed identity of the sinister "Gog-Magog" alliance described in Ezekiel 38–39 has changed with each new evil empire that has arisen. This has been going on for hundreds of years, even before the rise of modern dispensationalism. In each case, Christians have been confident that this must be the last evil empire to arise, or that this must be the era of the impending "rapture." Not "could be." But "must be." There’s a big difference. There was no doubt or uncertainty in their minds. "How could you not understand all the signs out there?!" has always been the question asked. Unfortunately for the "prophecy experts," they’ve had a 100% failure rate predicting the rapture and other catastrophic global events. Even so, the prophetic system continues to captivate longtime adherents, new Christians, and even curious secular seekers. Why is this so? Because it treats the Bible like a Christian fortune cookie and believers are enchanted with this form of Christian divination. Second, people want to believe that all of human history has been leading up to their lives. Third, the system preys off of fear and ignorance of Biblical texts. After having the disputed texts explained by the "prophecy experts" the adherent accepts the interpretation as infallible truth and cannot conceive of any other way to view the passages. Therefore, any other view must be a "false teaching," "delusion," "lie," or of course, "liberalism." While dispensationalist writers continue to sell books by the millions and continue to pack out conference centers and churches for their "prophecy conferences," their monopoly is coming to an end. They still hold the upper hand for now, but individual Christians and entire denominations are beginning to ask whether their long-cherished traditions line up with Scripture. Non-dispensational writers are beginning to get a broader hearing. People are beginning to pay attention. Yes, a prophetic realignment is on the horizon and has even now has begun. Many of the central tenets of dispensationalism (two peoples of God, a rebuilt Temple, a pretribulational rapture that is separate from the Second Coming, etc.) are finally being challenged on the popular level. Dispensationalism has never been a highly scholastic and academic movement. It has dominated on the popular level though there appear to be cracks in the ship.
May 1, 2007 Bill Barnwell [send him mail] is a pastor and writer from Michigan. He holds both a Master of Ministry degree and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies degree from Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. Visit his blog. Bill is also a Mortgage Consultant and Loan Originator who can serve clients throughout the country. Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell.com |
With
each new failed prediction and each new sensationalistic claim,
dispensationalism discredits itself. The prophecy charts and popular
books can only be revised so many times before there is a mass exodus
from the movement. Always remember the one trait that all sensationalist
prophecy writers have always held in common: they’ve all always
been wrong. That alone should cause us to rethink this issue.