Rapture Fever
by Gary North by Gary North
A THREE-YEAR STRATEGY FOR PASTORS If the message of this book has persuaded you, you now have a major problem: How to convey its message to your congregation, but without losing most of them and without getting fired. This can be done, but not overnight. Warning: You are not yet ready to lead your congregation out of bondage in antinomian Egypt and through the wilderness, any more than Moses was when he fled into the wilderness. You must begin to develop a strategy of secession fi-om cultural bondage: the humanist-pietist alliance. Your goal: to make activists out of half your congregation within 36 months. First, you must devote the next three years to serious theological study, probably the most serious study in your life. You must read at least thirty of the books listed in the bibliography, but above all, Oswald T Allis’ Pmflhecy and the Church. Nothing less than thirty books will do. While you do this, you must reread the entire Bible, once per year, minimum. Second, you can’t beat something with nothing. It is not sufficient to know what is wrong with dispensationalism. You must also know which theological system is correct. Find out. Think through your entire theology and restructure it, point by point, as you read through the Bible. But don’t preach your theological discoveries as you make them. Be patient. Wait. Third, do not announce to your congregation next Sunday, “I’ve switched my theology!” Instead, do what Grace Theological Seminary has done: substitute practical theology for dispensational theology. Start preaching a two-year series of 6part sermons on any of these topics: evangelism, family discipline, getting a better job, managing your finances, Christian education, or a dozen others. Make Christian activists out of your congregation: salt and light for Christ. Projects! Finally, pray about your strategy for 15 minutes each day. When you receive answers, enlist church activists to help you. For other suggestions, contact me: Box 8000, Tyler, TX75’711.
A THREE-YEAR STIL4TEGY FOR LAYMEN I assume that you have finished reading Rapture Feuer. You may be persuaded that I am correct. You may be persuaded only that I may be correct. Now you must find out. You must locate a copy of O. T Allis’ F%@zecy and the Church. When you do, get out your Bible and start reading Allis. You must veri~ every doubtful thing he says by looking up the Bible passages he cites as proof. This will persuade you. Then what? If you area member of a dispensational church, do not go running to your Christian friends shouting, “Look what I’ve found!” The y will not believe you. Your message undermines everything they have been taught about God’s law, the Church’s future, and their personal responsibility. The price of accepting your newly discovered and not yet fidly understood beliefs is too high. They will not yet pay it. Wait. Second, sit down and map out a personal program of Christian service that will reflect what you now say you believe about God’s law, the Church’s future, and your responsibility Talk is cheap; personal self-discipline is expensive. Count the cost. You need to return to God a token payment for the grace He has bestowed on you. Search for an area of service in which your talents uniquely qualifj you, and begin to serve: five hours a week, ten hours a week, or whatever. Become a productive citizen in God’s city on a hill. Actions speak louder than words. If you can no longer bear responsibility-rejecting preaching in your local church, quietly transfer to another congregation without leaving resentment behind. If you stay, work slowly to persuade others, one by one, by your service. (The odds are against you.) Do not become a complainer or a conspirator. Two or three years fi-om now, when your light shines brightly before men, and some of them come to you for advice as to how they can better serve God, help them to find their niche of service. If (and only if) they ask you how your Christian life was changed, tell them about Rapture Fever. If they become Christian activists, they will become operational postmillennialist.
- Page 234 and 235: The Strange Disappearance of Dispen
- Page 236 and 237: The Strange Disappearance of D&pens
- Page 238 and 239: The Strange Disappearance of Dtipen
- Page 240 and 241: Conclusion 203 supposedly based on
- Page 242 and 243: Conclusion 205 Fourth, because God
- Page 244 and 245: Conclusion 207 The dispensationalis
- Page 246 and 247: Conclusion 209 nobody believes in i
- Page 248 and 249: Conclusion 211 repeatedly that “p
- Page 250 and 251: Conclusion 213 original creed again
- Page 252 and 253: Conclusion 215 struction. Sort of.
- Page 254 and 255: Conclusion 217 nationalism, openly
- Page 256 and 257: Conclusion 219 to what you are doin
- Page 258 and 259: Conclusion 221 surely the situation
- Page 260 and 261: Bibliography 223 Works Defending Po
- Page 262 and 263: Bibliography 225 Eschatology. Tyler
- Page 264 and 265: Bibliograph~ 227 Vos, Geerhardus. R
- Page 266 and 267: Bibliography 229 thorough critical
- Page 268 and 269: Bibliography 231 Mauro, Philip. The
- Page 270 and 271: history and the U.S. Constitution.
- Page 272 and 273: 236 RAPTURE FEVER llO:lf 78-79 Prov
- Page 274 and 275: abortion, xxxii, XXXV, 13, 141, 160
- Page 276 and 277: 240 RAPTURE FEVER dispensationalism
- Page 278 and 279: 242 RAPTURE FEVER dispensationalism
- Page 280 and 281: 244 RAPTURE FEVER intellectual, xxx
- Page 282 and 283: 246 RAPTURE FEVER Solzhenitsyn, A.,
- Page 286 and 287: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gary North receive
- Page 288: .- -. . . . . 1980 . . -’r -: .,,
A THREE-YEAR STRATEGY FOR PASTORS<br />
If the message of this book has persuaded you, you now<br />
have a major problem: How to convey its message to your<br />
congregation, but without losing most of them and without<br />
getting fired. This can be done, but not overnight.<br />
Warning: You are not yet ready to lead your congregation<br />
out of bondage in antinomian Egypt and through the wilderness,<br />
any more than Moses was when he fled into the wilderness.<br />
You must begin to develop a strategy of secession fi-om<br />
cultural bondage: the humanist-pietist alliance. Your goal: to<br />
make activists out of half your congregation within 36 months.<br />
First, you must devote the next three years to serious theological<br />
study, probably the most serious study in your life. You<br />
must read at least thirty of the books listed in the bibliography,<br />
but above all, Oswald T Allis’ Pmflhecy and the Church. Nothing<br />
less than thirty books will do. While you do this, you must reread<br />
the entire Bible, once per year, minimum.<br />
Second, you can’t beat something with nothing. It is not<br />
sufficient to know what is wrong with dispensationalism. You<br />
must also know which theological system is correct. Find out.<br />
Think through your entire theology and restructure it, point by<br />
point, as you read through the Bible. But don’t preach your<br />
theological discoveries as you make them. Be patient. Wait.<br />
Third, do not announce to your congregation next Sunday,<br />
“I’ve switched my theology!” Instead, do what Grace Theological<br />
Seminary has done: substitute practical theology for dispensational<br />
theology. Start preaching a two-year series of 6part<br />
sermons on any of these topics: evangelism, family discipline,<br />
getting a better job, managing your finances, Christian<br />
education, or a dozen others. Make Christian activists out of<br />
your congregation: salt and light for Christ. Projects!<br />
Finally, pray about your strategy for 15 minutes each day.<br />
When you receive answers, enlist church activists to help you.<br />
For other suggestions, contact me: Box 8000, Tyler, TX75’711.
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