Rapture Fever

16 RAPTURE FEVER
● They speak positively of “Christian America,” or at least of
“returning America to her Christian roots.”
c They speak of the coming judgments of God against America
unless there is national repentance, and then cite Old Testament
passages governing Israel to prove their case.
● They speak of the possible blessings for national repentance
and national obedience, and then cite Old Testament passages
governing Israel to prove their case.
● They no longer proclaim the inherent fruitlessness of Christian
social action.
● They rarely quote fkom the traditional textbooks and theological
manuals of dispensationalism.
● They are rarely graduates of dispensational seminaries.
● When they are graduates of dispensational seminaries, they
complain about the unwillingness of their former professors to
get involved in their particular reform projects.
● They speak of the inherent weaknesses of secular humanism.
● They encourage some of their disciples to attend graduate
school, to prepare them for social combat.
● They keep using the word “accountability.”
● Some of them even use the word “covenant.”
● They keep introducing their recommended social action programs
with the phrase, “I am not a Christian Reconstructionist,
but. . . .“
We see the leaders of Christian activist organizations adopting
the time frame of postmillennialism and the social ethics of
theonomy but never in the name of either. We see official
dispensationalists adopting strategies appropriate to Christian
Reconstructionism. Yet almost no one wants to admit publicly
what is going on. Those inside the organizations do not want to
scare off existing members. Dispensationalist leaders outside -
other than Dave Hunt - no longer want to appear to be what
dispensationalists have always been in principle: pietistic defeatists.
So, the paradigm shift is rarely self-conscious. But a paradigm
shift is in progress. The new leaders refuse to proclaim
their dependence on either traditional dispensationalism or