Rapture Fever

D@ensationahsm Removes Earthly Hope 83
matters, since they believe that the Christians will never be in a
position to implement them, even if they exist. The fact is,
because they self-consciously reject the idea that Old Testament
laws are in any way morally or legally binding on Christians
and non-Christians alike, dispensationahk-ts have no place to go in
order to discover Bible-mandated social policies. Tommy Ice admitted
in a debate with me and Gary DeMar: “Premillennialist have
always been involved in the present world. And basically, they
have picked up on the ethical positions of their contemporaries.”ll
They have had nothing to add because (1) they have no
hope in the future, and (2) they reject biblical law.
Dispensationalists have no eatihZy hope in the Church’s future.
This means that dispensational theology lures God’s people out
of society. The dispensationalist has no concept of positive social
change and positive social transformation because he has no
concept of ethical cause and effect in history. He explicitly
denies the continuing authority of Deuteronomy 28:1-14. He
even denies the continuing authority of the Ten Commandments,
as former Dallas Seminary professor S. Lewis Johnson
did in 1963:
At the heart of the problem of legalism is pride, a pride that
refuses to admit spiritual bankruptcy. That is why the doctrines
of grace stir up so much animosity. Donald Grey Barnhouse, a
giant of a man in free grace, wrote: “It was a tragic hour when
the Reformation churches wrote the Ten Commandments into
their creeds and catechisms and sought to bring Gentile believers
into bondage to Jewish law, which was never intended either for
the Gentile nations or for the church.”]z He was right, too.13
11. April 12, 1988; cited by Gary DeMar, The Debate tim Chtitian Reconstruction,
p. 185. Audio tapes of the debate are available for $10 from the InJtitute for Christian
Economics. The debate was Dave Hunt and Tommy Ice vs. Gary North and
Gary DeMar.
12. Citing Barnhouse, Godk Freedom, p. 134.
13. S. Lewis Johnson, “The Paralysis of Legalism; Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. 120
(ApriUJune 1963), p. 109.