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Rapture Fever

by Gary North

by Gary North

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Endless Unfulfilled Prophecies Prodwe Paralysis 35<br />

made no visible impression on the vast majority of the victims.<br />

Few of the victims learn from experience. They keep getting<br />

misled, both by charlatans and by well-meaning promoters who<br />

honestly believe that they have uncovered some neglected key<br />

to Bible prophecy. In the case of John Walvoord, he merely<br />

picked up a rusting prophetic key that he had discarded years<br />

earlier, shined it up, and sent it to his publisher. It sold like<br />

hotcakes. Briefly.<br />

But the Church is still here, isn’t it? So is the State of Israel.<br />

But Soviet Communism isn’t. Who, then, is “Magog”?<br />

Should We Evangelize Jews in Israel?<br />

If the Jews of Israel were ever converted to saving faith in<br />

Jesus Christ, there could be no <strong>Rapture</strong>. There could be no<br />

<strong>Rapture</strong> because there would be no Jews in Israel to surround.<br />

There could be no Great Tribulation following the <strong>Rapture</strong>,<br />

since all the former Jews would go to heaven at the <strong>Rapture</strong>.<br />

But dispensationalists want the <strong>Rapture</strong> to deliver them from<br />

all of their earthly responsibilities. Thus, they have taken this<br />

view of evangelism: “Let’s not bring the gospel to the Israelis,<br />

thus insuring that two-thirds of them will be killed during the<br />

Great Tribulation and roast in hell eternally.” This view of<br />

evangelism is hidden behind a lot of rhetoric about concern for<br />

the State of Israel. There is indeed concern: to have nzillions of<br />

Israelis die horrible deaths and spend eternity in the lake of jire for the<br />

sake of the pre-tribulation <strong>Rapture</strong>. This is why dispensationalists<br />

refuse to send missionaries to Israel to evangelize Jews.<br />

The preservation of the State of Israel is basic to the eschatology<br />

of the pre-tribulational dispensationalist. Why? So that<br />

the Antichrist will be able to wipe out two-thirds of Israel’s<br />

population after the <strong>Rapture</strong> of the Church and during the<br />

Great Tribulation.23 The Jews of the State of Israel are to sme as<br />

23. This scenario of slaughter is found in former Dallas Seminary presidentJohn<br />

Walvoords book, Israel in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Academie,

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