Rapture Fever

100 l&4PTURE FEVER
Here we have it without any sugar-coating: there is no connection
between the upper storey of God’s spiritual kingdom
and the lower storey of human history, not even during the
millennium. The two storey-world of fundamentalism is so
radically divided that even God Himself cannot bind the two
together. That is an impossibility says Hunt. In the best-selling
writings of Dave Hunt, the legacy of Scofield has come to fruition:
a cultural rose which is all thorns and no blooms. The
seminary professors can protest that this is not the “real” dispensationalism,
but this complaint assumes that the movement’s
scholars have produced a coherent alternative to pop-dispensationalism.
They haven’t.
Dispensationalists say that Christians in fn-inci~le are impotent
to change things in the “lower storey,” and to attempt to do so
would be a waste of our scarce capital, especially time. While
the few academic leaders of dispensationalism have been too
embarrassed to admit what is obviously a consistent cultural
‘ conclusion of their view of history, the popularizers have not
hesitated, especially in response to criticisms of the Reconstructionists.
Consider the words of dispertsationalist tabloid newspaper
publisher Peter Lalonde. A friend of his wanted Christians
t~ begin to work to change the “secular world.” Lalonde cited
in response J. Vernon McGee’s classic phrase on polishing brass
on a sinking ship:
It’s a question, “Do you polish brass on a sinking ship?” And if
they’re working on setting up new institutions, instead of going
out and winning the lost for Christ, then they’re wasting the
most valuable time on the planet earth right now, and that is the
serious problem in his thinking.12
statement in his book, Beyond Seduction: ‘The millennial reign of Christ upon earth,
rather than being the kingdom of God, will in fict be the final proof of the incorrigible
nature of the human heart.” Beyond Sedudion: A Return to Biblical Christkmi~
(Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1987), p. 250.
12. “Dominion A Dangerous New Theology” Tape 1 of Dominion: The Wbrd and