I’ve got too much time on my hands. That isn’t a very good thing sometimes.
Only $0.01 at Amazon!
I noticed a title on the bookshelf here at the in-laws (they sort of just collect interesting looking books, they probably haven’t read this). It was The Millennium Meltdown: Year 2000 Computer Crisis by Grant Jeffrey. Selling Y2K fear was big business in the late ’90’s. I know I told my congregation to be prepared, just in case. Just trying to be wise. So no big deal that NOTHING happened.
But when you write a book about it, tying it into a secret agenda for world government (yes, that’s a chapter title) you are seriously committed to the idea. And when it doesn’t happen, you lose some serious credibility- or at least you should.
Grant Jeffrey is one of the many dispensational doom & gloom salesmen who see each world crisis as proof that the Great Tribulation is about to begin ( he has about 10 titles in this genre). Despite the fact that he is batting .000 (and so are the rest of these guys) …
- How do they have the chutzpah to continue to write books as if they have any intellectual, biblical legs to stand upon?
- Why do people continue to buy those same books as if they had any intellectual, biblical legs to stand upon?
I have a number of conflicting emotions as I see both how self-deceived you must be to continue to write this books without ever asking, “Am I misunderstanding the Bible?” and questioning the system of thought that keeps bringing you to these conclusions that don’t match the facts of history. I also have a number of conflicting emotions when I see how gullible and naive people can be to keep buying this stuff even though these men (and women) have been 100% consistently wrong (just for fun read the customer reviews on Amazon).
I fear for the American Church, it as if large chunks of the church want to be deceived. Or perhaps I’m deceived and the Y2K mess really happened, there is a cashless society operated by the one world government and the war on terror, or oil, or sand, is triggering the advent of Antichrist and the rapture which they have predicted about 50 times by now. Or that God actually does want me to be wealthier than I can imagine, perfectly healthy and trouncing the devil with every step and I’m not living my best life so far because I don’t have enough faith or think positively enough and I just really need to will my migraines and back pain away.
I need to head to the tiny beach nearby with my MP3 player of sermons so I’ll stop thinking of these things.
Cavman Considers 
The Dispensational Prophecy Pundits like Jeffrey, Lindsey, Walvoord, Van Impe amazingly continue to get free passes though they are proven wrong repeatedly.
On one occasion dispensational family members actually asked me if I would like an appointment w/ their preacher.
“our preacher does alot of reading, he knows his bible and prophecy etc. etc.
When I attempted dialog asking if they could provide just one passage that supplied a secret rapture they thought I was nuts. They provided some as if “this is easy”, and when I responded, “Now, where is this going to be a secret rapture?” they just treated me like I was hopeless.
It got even worse when I suggested they provide any text where this secret rapture is followed immediately by a 7 year tribulation and then a 1000 year millenium.
The reply, “You really need to talk to our preacher”
The whole movement of thought is so hard to define for me.
So wrong, such silliness looking for temples, arks, antiChrists, red heifers etc.
Any suggestions? I’m stumped…
Fortunately many dispensationalists are not obsessed with date setting. But if your system is fundamentally focused on events in the Middle East, it sure must take great restraint not to get sucked into that scene.
I’ve got no magic bullet in working with folks in this area. It is a lengthy, consistent process of helping them to see the continuity of Scripture, how the NT actually uses the OT, that there is only one people of God etc.
I changed my views as I continued to read Scripture and saw that it didn’t make sense of what I was reading.
Amillenialism and covenant theology are much simplier and not prone to the obsession with current events.
Well put, Cav, well put.
While the Brethren even say they Believe the Bible is the Word of God, they too clearly do have this unholy, desperate and complicated need to reinterpret almost every passages of the Bible suitable to their own liking.
http://postedat.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/dispensationalists-it-seems-to-compensate-for-their-often-rejections/
Readers may enjoy Googling “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “Wily Jeffrey,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” “Hal Lindsey’s Many Divorces,” “LaHaye’s Temperament,” “Pretrib Rapture Diehards,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “Pretrib Rapture Desperados,” “Letter from Mrs. Billy Graham,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thieves’ Marketing,” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” and “Deceiving and Being Deceived” by MacPherson. Lots of great reading. And the best and most documented book on the pretrib rapture’s 178-year-old history is THE RAPTURE PLOT (available online at stores like Armageddon Books). Kevin