Rapture Fever

Revising Dis@nsationalism to Death 159
Reconstruction in print before the end of the year. When House
and Ice’s Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse? was published in
the fall of 1988, I had Bahnsen and Gentry’s House Divided in
print within eight months. Anything less constitutes surrender.
When Hal Lindsey had his scurrilous book, The 120ad to
Holocaust, published by Bantam Books (hardly a Christian publisher!)
in June of 1988, I had DeMar and Leithart’s reply in
print within 30 days: The Legacy of Hatred Continues: A Response
to Hal Lind.se~’s The Road to Holocaust. This appeared in time
for the Christian Booksellers’ Association annual meeting in
July. I had my representative hand out free copies of this book
to dozens of booths, nipping Lindsey’s attack in the bud. I
caught Lindsey flat-footed; he had egg all over his mustache.
He had refused to allow DeMar and me to see his manuscript
in advance, and had repeatedly refused to meet with DeMar
and me in advance, although we put our requests in writing.
He paid no more attention to Matthew 18:15-17 than he has
paid to Matthew 5:32. He has never responded or apologized.
In 1990, he allowed an uncorrected paperback reprint, with
every factual error left intact, including the incorrect names of
the men and institutions he was attacking. I regard Lindsey as
an intellectual fraud who is more interested in collecting new
wives than in correcting past injustices. I am aware of no scholar
who takes him seriously. Dallas Seminary has never invited
him to lecture on prophecy or eschatology. Nevertheless, we
replied to his false accusations to prove they were fidse.
The point is, when you are being paid to defend a position,
you must be ready to reply point by point, to major published
critics. Otherwise, your followers will conclude that you are
incapable of replying, either because you are not intellectually
competent or else your position cannot be defended. When
Westminster Seminary published Theonomy: A Reformed Critique
in October of 1990, I had my response in print by the following
April: Westminster’s Concession. I followed this with Bahnsen’s
reply, No Other Standard, that summer. Then came the book I