Rapture Fever

132 RAPTURE FEVER
books. In fact, until House’s book appeared, Dallas Seminary’s
recent faculty members were known mainly for their unwillingness
to write books on dispensational themes. They have avoided
the whole topic like a plague – or like a topic that could get
them fired if they slipped up. They know that if they initiate an
attack, they will then be called upon to defend themselves, and
they all know that they cannot successfully defend thmelves by using
tti broken shield of Sco@eld’s rickety, patched-up system. This is
House’s dilemma; he must now defend himself. It was a riskfkee
deal for Tommy Ice; not for Wayne House.
A quiet revolution has been going on at Dallas Seminary.
Dallas has quietly abandoned “the true and ancient faith, as
delivered by Lewis Sperry Chafer.” The outline of the “new,
improved” dispensational faith, as tentatively offered by Professor
Craig Blaising in 1988, is as yet unclear in its details. [He
co-edited the 1993 book, Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church.
This book is narrow in its focus. What is lacking is a comprehensive
presentation of the new dispensationalism.]
Obviously, the holders of this reworked version of the faith are
skating on thin career ice. If they go too far, they will lose their
jobs, and where do you go to teach seminary as a “not quite
dispensationalist”? Yet they know that they can no longer defend
the dispensational faith, even in its revised, 1967, IVew
Scofiekl Reference Bible version. Dallas Seminary’s theological
position has become increasingly murky as its student body has
grown to 1,700.
Don Quixote Rides Again!
Into this scene rode Tommy Ice and his faithful, cautious,
and somewhat hesitant partne~ Wayne House, like Don Quixote
and Sancho Panza, with Ice seated shakily on the aging
Rosinante of the ScojieZd Reference Bible notes. These two chivalrous
warriors have engaged in a series of fierce battles against
a squad of stick men, mostly of their own creation, labeled
“Rushdoony,” “North,” “Bahnsen,” “Chilton,” and “Jordan.”
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