Rapture Fever

50 RAPTURE FEVER
ties. They did not admit to themselves the truth of what the
New Testament message announced, namely, that God has no
permanent pleasure in burnt animal ofjim”ngs. This had been the
message of the Old Covenant, too, and their religious predecessors
had paid no attention: “For I desired mercy and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”
(Hos. 6:6). The New Testament authors declared that God
would soon bring an end to these futile and misleading animal
sacrifices, never to be restored.20 They understood that they were
living in the last days of the Old Covenant era, and they
warned their readers of this fact. This, in fact, is the primary
message of the Book of Revelation.21
So, the New Testament authors did write about prophecy
but most (though not all) of their prophetic messages dealt with
the immediate fate and fhture of national Israel. Thus, when
they wrote prophetically they wrote primarily about lsraeZ’s
near-term eschutology (last days), not the Church’s long-term
20. Traditional dispensationalism teaches that the temple will be rebuilt and
animal sacrifices will be restored for a thousand years, even though only as a “memorial:
as C. I. Scofield says in his reference note on Ezekiel 43:19. Tb Scoji.sid Refwence
Bible (New York Oxford University Press, 1909), p. 890. The embarrassment of
the New Scojiefd Bible’s revision committee is apparent in the note that this prophecy
of restored sacrifices can be explained either in terms of the “memorial” thesis (which
they strategically refuse to identi$ as Scofield’s original view) or as figurative - a
smrtling suggestion ffom theologians who proclaim that dispensationalism’sprinciple
of interpretation is “literal whenever possible” (i.e., “literal whenever convenient”).
The New .ScojleZd Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 888. If the
temple is to be rebuilt for use during the New Testament’s millennium-a dispensational
doctrine which the revision committee did not dare to chatlenge - then for
what other purpose would the temple be used except for offering animal sacrifices?
AS a tourist attraction? Thus, if the rebuilt temple of Ezekiel 43 is a prophecy referring
to a New Testament era millennium tather than to the rebuilt temple of Nehemiah’s
day itself a prophetic symbol of worship in the worldwide Church - which is
my view - then the re-establishment of animal sacrifices cannot sensibly be regarded
as figurative. But the theological implications of this re-established animal sacrifice
system were too embarrassing for the Scofield revision committee to handle forthrightly.
They fudged.
21. David Chilton, The Days of Wngeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revekztiun (Ft.
Worth: Dominion Press, 1987).