Rapture Fever
by Gary North
by Gary North
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204 RAPTURE FEVER<br />
A Covenant of Historical Despair<br />
There are five reasons why modern Christians take this grim<br />
view of their condition: history’s losers. These reasons imitate<br />
perversely the Bible’s five-point covenant model:<br />
First, the strength of God obviously cannot be trusted in<br />
history, for God brings defeat for His Church in history. The<br />
Arminians have explained the guaranteed defeat of the gospel<br />
in history as the outcome of man’s free will. The evil in most<br />
men’s hearts will not be overcome, we are told. Covenantbreakers<br />
will generally remain covenant-breakers until the final<br />
judgment. The Calvinists offer another explanation: God predestined<br />
the gospel to cultural failure before the world began.<br />
So, Christians have seen God as either unwilling to do what it<br />
takes to win in history or else determined to lose in history.<br />
Dealing with such a God is a fearful thing. It means that the<br />
Church of Jesus Christ is filled with people who are religiously<br />
committed to their own cultural impotence in history. Who<br />
would trust such people with authority or power? No rational<br />
person would. So, Christians do not trust the judgments of local<br />
church officers. When rulings go against them, they transfer<br />
membership to another local church. Because they cannot<br />
escape judgment this easily in civil affairs, Christians demand<br />
the separation of Christianity from the State. They much prefer<br />
to live under the civil jurisdiction of God’s enemies rather than<br />
under other Christians. They agree with Norman Geisler.<br />
Third, they do not trust the Bible-revealed law of a God who<br />
has chosen them to be crushed in history. Who can trust the<br />
law-order of a God who will not bring victory to His Church in<br />
terms of that law-order? Christians have been told by their<br />
leaders for almost two millennia that the Old Testament is a<br />
discarded first draft, a judicial mistake. God used to judge<br />
history in terms of His law (Lev. 26; Deut. 28), but no longer.<br />
4. Ray R. Sutton, Thut lbu May Prosper: Domtnion By Covenunt (2nd cd.; Tyler,<br />
Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1992).
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