This is a little long-winded and esoteric, but I hope people will wade through it. Some historical and theological background was needed before I could make my point.
There is a particular dogma that has gained prominence in the evangelical churches in the United States over the last 20 years, and the nature of this dogma as well as its close integration with a particular political movement, is a subject about which we should all be concerned. The dogma is dispensational premillennialism. Here is a brief description of premillenialism:
The predominant eschatological view among Bible-believing Christians in the twentieth century is premillennialism. Premillennialism is the view that after His second coming, Jesus Christ will rule the earth for 1000 years. Thus Christ’s second coming is before the millennium (premillennial). Premillennialists teach that at the second coming of Christ, the living saints are raptured and the dead saints are raised from the dead. All these saints are given glorified, immortal bodies. They meet Christ in the air and return to rule with Him on earth for 1000 years. This 1000-year period is one of worldwide peace and righteousness. At the end of the 1000-year period Satan is loosed from his prison to deceive the nations. Vast armies rebel and attack Christ and the saints in Jerusalem; these armies are then destroyed by fire from heaven. After the defeat of these rebel armies the final resurrection and judgment take place; then comes the eternal state. This, in brief, is the essence of premillennialism; there are many variations. Among premillennialists there are pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation and post-tribulation rapturists. Dispensational premillennialists place the rapture not at the second coming but at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation.From "The Premillennial Deception" see link below
The key feature of dispensational premillennialism is the belief that the rapture will occur before the tribulation. The ascendancy of this view has enormous political ramifications. Obviously, people are a lot less worried about provoking, or accepting, a world wide catastrophe if they believe that they, as the chosen, will be gone - raptured up to heaven - before it occurs.
There can be no doubt that Christians today are obsessed with eschatology - the study of the end of human history - and that debates about the meaning of the book of Revelation are splitting Christians into different camps as never before.
The book of Revelation has been hotly debated throughout the history of the church. It is the most obscurely written and diificult to interpret of any of the books of the Bible. In style, grammar, vocabulary and tenets it stands distinct from the rest of the Bible, and there has been controversy all along about its meaning and authorship. Many things in it seem to conmtradict the rest of the Bible.
Many scholars and theologians are wary of this intense obsession on eschatology, as it is distracting Christians from the teachings in the rest of the Bible, and in fact seems to be leading them to think and act in ways that are seriously at odds with the teachings of Christ.
From "The Premillennial Deception" see link below
Premillennialism is based on a literal interpretation of Revelation 20. Most premillennialists are unaware of a postmillennial interpretation. Many premillennialists are told that fundamentalists are premillennial while theological liberals are postmillennial. Most premillennialists do not know that the dominant view among protestants from the Reformation to the late 1800s was, in fact, postmillennialism. Premillennialism became the dominant view after the 1909 publication of the Scofield Reference Bible. Premillennialists are often unaware of the many serious theological and exegetical problems that accompany their interpretation.http://www.reformed.com/pub/milenium.htm For a comparison of the different schools of thought about the book of Revelation, see
http://www.doctrine.net/eschatology.html#Historic%20PremillennialismIncidentally, the idea of the rapture is quite modern, and the word rapture is not mentioned in the Bible.
As Alan Campbell has written: "Such a teaching was unknown to early church fathers as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Tertuilian, who were convinced the Christian church would pass through the great tribulation at the hands of an anti-messiah system before the return of the Saviour. Furthermore the rapture theory was not taught by the great stalwarts of the Reformed Faith - Huss, Wycliffe, Luther (Lutherans), Calvin (Reformed church), Knox (Presbyterians), Crammer or even the Wesleys (Anglican, Episcopal, Methodists) in the 18th century." The first mention of rapture was not until at least 1812, and most sources seem to point to 1830 or so.
The early church fathers never preached rapture, which is different from the Second Coming of the Lord. The word rapture is not found in the Scriptures.http://www.harvestnet.org/revref/historyofhistoricfuturistic.htm Dispensational premillenialists argue that their view is a literal reading of the book of Revelation, but it is easy to demonstrate that this is not so.
Premillennialists argue that they hold to a literal interpretation of Scripture, while charging that their theological opponents (e.g., postmillennialists) have a tendency to spiritualize prophetic passages. The truth is that premillennialists, amillennialists and postmillennialists all believe that Scripture should be interpreted literally at times and symbolically at other times, depending on the context of the passage and intent of the author. Premillennialist authors tell their readers that they interpret the Bible literally. But if you read their books, scenes with bows, arrows and horses become future battles with tanks, helicopters and airplanes. The mark of the beast becomes a computer chip or bar code. The locusts from the bottomless pit (Rev. 9) supposedly become attack helicopters, and so on. Are there any premillennial authors or commentators who believe that the beast from the sea with seven heads and ten horns (Rev. 13) is a literal creature? The point is, premillennialists, amillennialists and postmillennialists all interpret some passages symbolically and some passages literally.Then we have the notion that some will be raptured, while others will be left behind. The problem with this interpretation is that it is plainly contradicted by the words of Jesus himself several times in scripture.
Jesus taught plainly that there will be a general resurrection in which all men will be raised on the same day. He did not say that some will be raised, and then the rest will be raised after 1000 years (or for the dispensationalist, 1007 years): “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (Jn. 5:28-29). The idea that the resurrection of the righteous is to occur 1000 years (or 1007 years) before the end of the world is contradicted by Jesus four more times in John chapter 6: “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:39-40; cf. 44, 54). The last day is the day of judgment. “Clearly there can be no other days after the last day.” Many are asking today how the teachings of Jesus - of forgiveness, of compassion and tolerance, of love - could be stood on their head and be translated into apologetics for war, murder, torture and bigotry.
"In place of Jesus's blessing of peacemakers, the Rapture voyeuristically glorifies violence and war." http://facultyofchristianity.com/0813391563.htmlHow could Christians be led to social irresponsibility? How could Christ's teachings allow mistreatment and neglect of our fellow citizens? Only through the dogma of dispensational premillennialism.
An examination of the biblical teaching concerning the second coming of Christ; the millennium; the kingdom of God; the nature, goal and destiny of the church; the kingdom prophecies; etc. has shown that premillennialism is unbiblical; it is exegetically and theologically inconsistent with the clear teaching of God’s Word. Those who defend premillennialism can do so only by disregarding the many passages which teach that the resurrection, final judgment, and delivering up of the kingdom to the Father occur at the end of time. The rise of premillennialism in evangelical churches coincided historically with the rise of unbiblical pietism, Arminianism, dispensationalism and retreatism. Ideas have consequences; if Christians do not believe that God’s moral law is binding on the nations; if they believe that the world still belongs to Satan, that Christians cannot win in history, that believers are not responsible to apply the Word of God to all areas of life—then they will be attracted to a system of eschatology that teaches defeat and falsely leads people to believe that they are free from their social responsibilities. Why should we care about any of this? Historians and theologians are intensely interested in the debate, of course, but what revelance does it have for the rest of us?
As citizens, Christians and non-Christians I think that we need to confront the dogma that has control over so many people's minds today because of the potential political consequences. This dogma must be confronted.
Keep in mind that we are seeing the ascendancy of one particular narrow interpretation of a handful of passages from one book of the Bible, and that this interpretation is one that is being used to justify unimagined horrors. The fact that the leader of the most powerful military force on Earth - our President - embraces this dogma makes the issue one of urgent concern for all of us.
For non-Christians-
Many Christians, when you try to talk about this now, will immediately try to assess whether you are a "believer" or not, and if you are not a believer, use that to justify not responding to you. Don't let them off the hook. As Christians they have an obligation to witness to non-believers and should not use the excuse that they are resisting temptations of one of Satan's agents when they refuse to discuss this.
For Christians-
If you are uncomfortable with the politicization of one narrow modern dogma, integrated with worldly power, and at odds with the rest of the Bible, it is vital that you speak out about this now.
A certain gang of people professing Christianity has inserted their dogma - claiming it as the only possible interpretation of Christian doctrine - into the political realm. It is intellectually dishonest for them to retreat from a discussion of the political ramifications of this dogma. Therefore, non-Christians need to be aggressive and not back down from discussing this.
It can be argued that religious dogma has no place in the political discussion, and that as the church attempts to influence politics, so will politics influence the church. Don't let people insert religion into political discussions and then refuse to alow you to insert politics into religious discussions. Religion is in our political discussion now, in a virulent and dangerous form, and we have every right to protect ourselves from it.
Premillennialism is the eschatology of defeat and escape. It teaches that the Great Commission will fail, and that God’s plan for a worldwide, godly civilization will not occur in history. The emphasis among premillennialists is on personal witnessing, entertainment, and empire-building for pastors (e.g., Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Bakker, etc.). The attitude toward society is “don’t polish brass on a sinking ship.” There is a purposeful neglect of cultural, social, artistic, economic and political issues.
“Amillennialism and premillennialism are in retreat from the world and blasphemously surrender to the devil. By its very premises, either that the world will only get worse (amillennialism), or that the Christian hope is the rapture (premillennialism), it cuts the nerve of Christian action. Who, reading Hal Lindsey’s new book, The Terminal Generation, will embark on such godly ventures as a Christian school, work to establish Christian political goals, biblical law, and the like? If we hold that the world can only get worse, or that we will soon be raptured out of it, what impetus is left for applying the word of God to the problems of the world? The result is an inevitable one: premillennial and amillennial believers who profess faith in the whole word of God number conservatively twenty-five percent of the American population. They are also the most important segment of American society, with the least impact on American life.”
Premillennialism must be rejected because it views Christ’s victory as a massive failure in history, it encourages retreat from our kingdom responsibilities, and it is unscriptural. “Any theory which thus disparages the gospel of the grace of God must be false.”
“The Scriptures not only fail to teach the premillennial system, but they definitely exclude it as a possible interpretation.”http://www.reformed.com/pub/milenium.htmalso see: Fiery Hell on Earth, GOD TOLD ME TO STRIKE
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=2457The final piece of the puzzle is the doctrine of Dominionism - a theological justification for the seizure of secular offices and control of governments. The best research on that subject I have seen is by Katherine Yurica
see: The Despoiling of America; How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm
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