It was, no doubt, providential that my first "content" post on this site should be about the Rapture. But I happened to spot this brief promo video today of Gary DeMar announcing American Vision's National Prophecy Conference, slated for June 2011 to follow Harold Camping's heralded prediction of the Rapture of the Church on May 21st.
Not to be cynical or disrespectful about it, but dispensational premillennialism has been promising a rapture for going on 200 years now. Each new generation sees another crop of teachers and "prophets" prognosticating about an event that Jesus told us we have insufficient data about which to prognosticate. But each new generation sees another crop of adherents who embrace this system of prophetic interpretation that provides fertile ground for date-setters.
Not to be cynical or disrespectful about it, but dispensational premillennialism has been promising a rapture for going on 200 years now. Each new generation sees another crop of teachers and "prophets" prognosticating about an event that Jesus told us we have insufficient data about which to prognosticate. But each new generation sees another crop of adherents who embrace this system of prophetic interpretation that provides fertile ground for date-setters.
I've never been a big fan of "prophecy," though briefly, during the mid to late 1980s (1986-1989 to be exact), when still a fairly new and theologically impressionable Christian, I fell victim to the extra-biblical paramours of certain Bible teachers and preachers and embraced the school of thought known as dispensational premillennialism. But after the deflating disappointment of Edgar Whisenant's failed prediction of the Rapture in 1988, I then emigrated to historic premillennialism and then later, during the mid-1990s, after ruling out what was, to me, the uninspiring position of amillennialism, I began to embrace wholeheartedly the optimistic eschatology of postmillennialism -- largely through the influence of John Calvin, the 17th century Puritans and modern-day Calvinists like R.J. Rushdoony, Gary North, David Chilton, Kenneth Gentry, Gary DeMar and others.
In any case, the specter of dispensational premillennialism is still haunting the Church well into the 21st century. And this latest announcement by Harold Camping is the latest manifestation of that specter.
Pray for the success of American Vision's upcoming conference, that it will give many Christians a glimpse into real, honest-to-goodness, biblical prophecy. And pray of course, for Gary DeMar. (God bless you, Gary!)
Pray for the success of American Vision's upcoming conference, that it will give many Christians a glimpse into real, honest-to-goodness, biblical prophecy. And pray of course, for Gary DeMar. (God bless you, Gary!)
3 comments:
First, it is dishonest to put Edgar Whisenant and Harold Camping in the camp of the Premillennial dispensationalists. Check out the Dispy websites and blogs and they will consistently speak against date-setting and the lunacy of the theology of these two and others like them. You have painted a straw man dispensationalist rather than honestly evaluating the system. The same could be done of reformed theology, and often is.
Second, postmillenialism, reconstructionism, dominion theology--whatever you prefer to call it--is definitely an optimistic eschatology, but far from the optimism of premil dispensationalism. Postmil thinking is made-up. It has to ignore every prophetic scripture by having them all fulfilled in the past.
The problem is with the covenant theological system to begin with. It is a man-made system. The same can be said of premil dispensationalism. We should each carefully go to "solo scriptura" as our only source of authority for insight into the future.
Randy,
The reason I include premil dispensationalism in my post on Harold Camping and the Rapture is that that is the school of thought that most readily avails itself to the date-setting tendencies of some of her more aberrant adherents.
Let's be honest, the majority of "mainstream" Bible-believing Christians who secretly hope that Camping (and before him, Whisenant) are right about the soon return of Christ and a date certain for the Rapture, do so because their eschatology lends itself to the misguided attempts by these men to date this and other "end-times" prophetic events.
Premillennialism expects the Rapture to happen "at any moment" (imminent return), and Dispensationalism superimposes a prophetic template and grid over current events and tries to interpret biblical prophecy by them using that grid.
Even if Camping (and Whisenant) do not explicitly call themselves "premillennial" or "dispensational" -- and even though "mainstream" premillennialists and dispensationalists denounce them and try to distance themselves from them -- the fact is, their eschatology is inextricably connected to the theology that drives their date-setting.
I know because, in the late 80s, I was a dyed-in-the-wool dispensationalist/premillennialist. I earned a Biblical Studies certificate from Jimmy Swaggart Bible College! (But later, God dyed my wool a different color....)
Thank you for your comment.
In the love of Christ.
[I saw this on the web. Just call it dessert!]
Type in "Joe Ortiz's End Times Passover (April 9)" on Google etc. Media personality Ortiz has managed to find a way to expose historian Dave MacPherson! After what you may have heard about him, you may discover that MacPherson is a horse of a different color. It's true, as Rapture Ready revealed in an article entitled "Who's Who of Prophecy", that MacPherson bought the first ticket ever sold at Disneyland on July 18, 1955. Whether this means that MacPherson has "Goofy" theology or lives in historical "Fantasyland" is for you to decide. Be careful when you are checking out the "End Times Passover" blog because there is important material to evaluate (handle with care!) such as a facsimile of part of Margaret MacDonald's handwritten "pretrib rapture" revelation of 1830 that MacPherson says he found in the British Library in England - Google "Joe Ortiz's End Times Passover (March 9, 2010)." This information is for mature Christians only.
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