Rapture Fever

98 FWPTURE FEVER
Theological Seminary, insists: “Well, I personally object to the
idea that premillennialism is pessimistic. We are simply realistic
in believing that man cannot change the world. Only God
can.“7 “Realism” sounds a lot better than “pessimism,” but the
psychological results are the same: retreat fkom cultural involvement.
As Christians, we must be content with whatever the
humanists who control the “lower realm” are willing to dish out
to us, just so long as they leave us alone on Sunday.
The first president of Grace Theological Seminary, Alva J.
McClain, wrote a five-and-a-half-page essay on “A Premillennial
Philosophy of History” for Dallas Seminary’s Biblwtheca Sacra in
1956. This essay should be read by every dispensationalist, not
to learn what this view of history is, which the essay never says,
but to learn that a major theologian of the movement did not
bother to describe it. McClain rejected postmillennialism, although
he did admit that “Classical postmillennialism had
plenty of defects, but it did make a serious attempt to deal with
human history.”8 He then dismissed - in one paragraph per
error - modern liberalism, neo-orthodoxy, amillennialism (Louis
Berkhof), and all those who think “there will never be such
a ‘Golden Age’ upon earth in history. . . .“9 (The “golden age”
was a pagan Greek concept.) This left exactly half a page for a
thorough discussion of the premillennial view of history. He
never said what this is. He simply concluded, “The premillennial
philosophy of history makes sense. It lays a Biblical and
rational basis for a truly optimistic view of human history.”lo
McClain refused even to mention the key historical issue for
those living prior to the Rapture: What is the basis of our optimism
regarding the long-term future of our earthly efforts?
Clearly, dispensationalists have none. The results of our efforts,
7. Christzizni~ Today (Feb. 6, 1987), p. 1 l-I.
8. McClain, Bibliotheca Sacra, op. cit., p. 112.
9. Ibid., p. 115.
10. Ibid., p. 116.