Rapture Fever
by Gary North by Gary North
Endless Unfulfilled Prophecies Produce Paralysis 23 ology of dispensationalism, which stresses the Church as a “Great Parenthesis” which was neither known nor prophesied about in the Old Testament. The New Testament Church (pre- Rapture) supposedly has no connection whatsoever with the dispensation of the Mosaic law. Therefore, if the prophecies of the Old Testament apply to the Church in any sense rather than exclusively to national Israel, the entire dispensational system collapses. C. I. Scofield understood this clearly. Dispensationally speaking, there can be no biblically prophesied event in between the founding of the Church and the Rapture. Citing Matthew 4: 17b, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Scofield wrote: ‘“At hand’ is never a positive affirmation that the person or thing said to be ‘at hand’ will immediately appear, but only that no known or predicted event must intervene.”g Therefore, the Rapture can take place at any moment. But if this is true, then its corollary is also necessarily true: the Rapture cannot be said to be imminent for OUT-ge n eration. It may be, but it may not be. An orthodox dispensationalist cannot legitimately say when it will be, one way or the other. The Rapture cannot legitimately be said to be almost inevitable tomorrow, next month, or next year. Edgar Whisenant’s 88 reasons for the Rapture in September, 1988, were wrong – all 88 of them.10 So were his (revised) 89 reasons for 1989. 11 (As Stayskill put in a cartoon, how many will reasons will he offer in the year 2000?) Yet the mass appeal of the system is its near-term date-setting. 9. Scoj$e/d Refers-rue Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909), p. 998, note 3. 10. Edgar C. Whisenant, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. It was also published as The Rosh Hash Arru 1988 and 88 Reasons Why (1988). The name is pronounced “WHIZnant.” 11. A 1989 Associated Press story reported on Whisenant’s revised predictions. The Rapture was due in Septembe~ 1989. He published The Final Shout: Rapture Report -1989. “The time is short; he said. “Everything points to it. AU the evidence has piled up.” 7jler Morning 7Uegraph (Aug. 25, 1989). Something had indeed piled up, but it was not evidence.
24 IL4PTURE FEVER Walvoord’s Warning in 1979 It was this traditional dispensational doctrine of no inknwning @o#hesied events that Walvoord emphatically taught his students in the 1970’s. 12 In Walvoord’s book, The Rapture Question (1979), he openly rejected the “ticking today” interpretation of Bible prophecy and for a very good theological reason: it denies the traditional dispensational doctrine of the any-moment Rapture. If any prophecies are being fulfilled today, he wrote, this would mean that there are events in the Church Age that must come true prior to the Rapture. Therefore, the Rapture could not come at any moment prior to the fulfillment of these prophecies. Such a view of “signs being fulfilled in our day” denies the doctrine of the any-moment Rapture. Walvoord saw clearly in 1979 that the doctrine of intermediate prophetic events leads to mid-tribulationism or post-tribulationism, or even worse, to postmillennialism. In a subsection, “No Intervening Events,“ in a chapter called “The Imminency of the Rapture,” Walvoord wrote: “The hope of the return of Christ to take the saints to heaven is presented in John 14 as an imminent hope. There is no teaching of any intervening event. The prospect of being taken to heaven at the coming of Christ is not qualified by description of any signs or prerequisite events.”18 This is the heart of the formal theology of pre-tribulational, premillennial dispensationalism: no ticking clock. Nevertheless, there is a major problem with the doctrine of the any-moment Rapture: it reduces sales of books that promote the idea that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled today. These “hot news, ticking clock” paperback prophecy books sell well, sometimes very well. No dispensational author who writes one of these popular books – and these days, those who write them become the movement’s spokesmen - is ever willing to devote the Introduction or the first chapter of his book to a 12. I was told this by a DTS graduate, Dr. Ray R. Sutton. 13. Walvoord, Rapture Question., p. 73.
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Endless Unfulfilled Prophecies Produce Paralysis 23<br />
ology of dispensationalism, which stresses the Church as a<br />
“Great Parenthesis” which was neither known nor prophesied<br />
about in the Old Testament. The New Testament Church (pre-<br />
<strong>Rapture</strong>) supposedly has no connection whatsoever with the<br />
dispensation of the Mosaic law. Therefore, if the prophecies of<br />
the Old Testament apply to the Church in any sense rather<br />
than exclusively to national Israel, the entire dispensational<br />
system collapses.<br />
C. I. Scofield understood this clearly. Dispensationally speaking,<br />
there can be no biblically prophesied event in between the<br />
founding of the Church and the <strong>Rapture</strong>. Citing Matthew<br />
4: 17b, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Scofield<br />
wrote: ‘“At hand’ is never a positive affirmation that the person<br />
or thing said to be ‘at hand’ will immediately appear, but only<br />
that no known or predicted event must intervene.”g Therefore,<br />
the <strong>Rapture</strong> can take place at any moment. But if this is true,<br />
then its corollary is also necessarily true: the <strong>Rapture</strong> cannot be<br />
said to be imminent for OUT-ge n<br />
eration. It may be, but it may not<br />
be. An orthodox dispensationalist cannot legitimately say when<br />
it will be, one way or the other. The <strong>Rapture</strong> cannot legitimately<br />
be said to be almost inevitable tomorrow, next month, or next<br />
year. Edgar Whisenant’s 88 reasons for the <strong>Rapture</strong> in September,<br />
1988, were wrong – all 88 of them.10 So were his (revised)<br />
89 reasons for 1989. 11<br />
(As Stayskill put in a cartoon, how<br />
many will reasons will he offer in the year 2000?) Yet the mass<br />
appeal of the system is its near-term date-setting.<br />
9. Scoj$e/d Refers-rue Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909), p. 998, note<br />
3.<br />
10. Edgar C. Whisenant, 88 Reasons Why the <strong>Rapture</strong> Will Be in 1988. It was also<br />
published as The Rosh Hash Arru 1988 and 88 Reasons Why (1988). The name is<br />
pronounced “WHIZnant.”<br />
11. A 1989 Associated Press story reported on Whisenant’s revised predictions.<br />
The <strong>Rapture</strong> was due in Septembe~ 1989. He published The Final Shout: <strong>Rapture</strong><br />
Report -1989. “The time is short; he said. “Everything points to it. AU the evidence<br />
has piled up.” 7jler Morning 7Uegraph (Aug. 25, 1989). Something had indeed piled<br />
up, but it was not evidence.
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