Rapture Fever

2 RAPTURE FEVER
Lindsey and Carlson wrote two more prophecy books: Satun
Is Alive and Well on Plunet Earth (1972) and Th Tminal &neration
(1976). Two other books by Lindsey had only his name on
the title page: There’s a New WorZd Coming (1973) and Th
1980’s: Countdown to Arnzugeddon (1980). He set the pattern:
huge royalty income through prophecy book sales. Throughout
the 1970’s and right up to the present, there have been many
imitators. They continue to write sensational paperback prophecy
books. Problem: the prophecies never come true.
The public silence of those who trained Lindsey at Dallas
Seminary has testified for over two decades that they have
voluntarily surrendered leadership to him, and are content to
have it that way. In the case of Dallas Seminary’s former president
John Walvoord, who wrote Armageddon, Oil and the Mzi.idle
East Crisis (1974; revised edition, 1990), he not only deferred to
him, he imitated him. Lesson: “If one set of false prophecies
doesn’t come true, just re-package it and try again!”
This is the curse of Rapture fever. It is highly contagious.
Rapture Fever: The Inside Dope
Rapture fever is a deliberately induced psychological condition.
The number of its victims has escalated rapidly since 1970.
Millions of readers repeatedly inject themselves with what can
best be described as a psychologically addicting drug: the expectation
of the imminent return of Jesus Christ, which will
remove them from their troubles by removing them from history.
The results of this addiction are predictable: an initial
“high,” followed by a debilitating letdown, followed by painful
withdrawal symptoms (mentally recentering the hum-drum
world), followed by another injection. Again and again, millions
of emotionally vulnerable Christians return to their “pushers”
for another “fix.”
Yet there is hope. Some of them do “get clean.” They say to
themselves, “Never again!” They refhse to allow themselves to
be subjected to another round of the fever. Of course, as with