Rapture Fever

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Fear of Men Produces Para@s 59 both technically and culturally possible and imminent? The fact that such things are not technically possible in the time period claimed for them never seems to occur to the buyers of paperback prophecy books. A steady stream of this sort of material tends to reduce the ability of Christians to reason coherently or make effective longterm decisions. Sensationalism becomes addictive. Sensationalism combined with culture-retreating pietism paralyzed the fundamentalist movement until, in the late 1970’s, fundamentalism at last began to change. That transformation is nowhere near complete, but it surely has begun. (See Chapter 11.) Fundamentalists are at last beginning to re-think their eschatology. They are less subject to uncontrolled spasms produced by Rapture fever. The back cover promotional copy on Whatever Hap- $ened to Heaven? reveals that Dave Hunt is aware of the fact that his version of pop-dispensationalism, like Hal Lindsey’s, is fading rapidly. (Mr. Lindsey largely disappeared from public view about the time he married wife number three. Gone are the days of his guest appearances - and everyone else’s - on “The Jim and Tammy Show.” He does have a radio show and a local television show in southern California.) Hunt’s promotional copy announces: “Today, a growing number of Christians are exchanging the hope for the rapture for a new hope . . . that Christians can clean up society. . . .“ The promise - unfulfilled, I might add - of the back cover is that this book will show old fashioned dispensationalists “how we lost that hope [the Rapture] and how it can be regained.” The success of his books proves that there are still buyers of the old literature who love to be thrilled by new tales of the Beast. This means, of course, that they do not want to hear about the biblical account of the Beast of Revelation. They much prefer fantasy. Conclusion Fear paralyzes people if they see no escape, or if their hoped-for escape is seen by them as a miraculous deliverance
60 RAPTURE FEVER by forces utterly beyond their control. Also, a short-run perspective inevitably impoverishes people. The fundamentalist world until the late 1970’s had been “immobilized for Jesus” by its all-pervasive dismissal of the “inevitably grim” pre-Rapture future. Despairing Christians have believed with all their hearts that anything they could do to improve this world would inevitably be swallowed up by the work of the Beast and the Antichrist. They asked themselves: Why work, save, and postpone the present enjoyments of this world in order to build up a capital base that will be inherited by your enemies? It is time for a resurrection: the resurrection of Christian hope. It is time for a parallel resurrection: the resurrection of comprehensive Christian service in every area of life. This means that it is time for Christian dominion. It is time to stop asking ourselves, “What ever happened to heaven?” and start asking: “What ever happened to the Great Commission and the kingdom of God?”** Heaven is for dead men in Christ; earth is for living men in Christ. Our responsibility for this world ends only at the point of our physical death or our complete physical and mental incapacitation. Let those fundamentalists whose primary goal in life is to escape earthly responsibility in the present and surely in the fiture - and also to “get out of life alive” at the Rapture - bury their talents in ceaseless speculations regarding heaven. The rest of us should concentrate on the goal of building the kingdom of God through covenantal faithfulness to God’s law.29 We should begin to take seriously God’s promise to the righteous man: “His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth” (Psa. 25:13). 28. Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Tk Greatness of the Great Commksion: The Christiun Etierprire in a Fallen World (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990). 29. Greg L. Bahnsen, By This Standard: The Authorstj of God’s Luw Today (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1985).
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,. Key Dates in Dispensationalism
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RAPTURE FEVER Why Dispensationalism
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This book is dedicated to Kenneth L
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AT GOD’S RIGHT HAND, UNTIL. . . .
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x RAPTURE FEVER mistake. It is anal
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xii RAPTURE FEVER Gift #1: Our Part
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xiv RAPTURE FEVER heaven, he says t
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xvi RAPTURE FEVER we do not keep Hi
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. . . XVIII RAPTURE FEVER There bat
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xx RAPTURE FEVER He must remain sea
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Foreword xxi And that servant, whic
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Foreword . . . XXIII ried about the
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Preface xxv It is that the children
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Preface xxvii the bureaucratically
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Preface xxix J. Rushdoony intervene
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Preface xxxi biblical languages or
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Preface . . . Xxxlll Biblical Theol
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Preface Xxxv begin to search for a
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INTRODUCTION lb are the salt of the
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Introduction 3 alcoholics and other
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Introduction 5 placed by the newsle
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Introduction ‘7 circumscribed sys
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Page 50 and 51: Introduction 13 ● Are there bibli
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Page 56 and 57: 1 ENDLESS UNFULFILLED PROPHECIES PR
Page 58 and 59: Endless UnfuljWed Prophecies Produc
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Page 98 and 99: 3 PESSIMISM PRODUCES PARALYSIS And
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Page 108 and 109: Pessimism Produces Paral@s 71 (with
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Page 114 and 115: Dis@nsationalism Removes Earthly Ho
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Page 120 and 121: D@ensationahsm Removes Earthly Hope
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Page 128 and 129: 5 A COMMITMENT TO CULTURAL IRRELEVA
Page 130 and 131: A Commitment to Cultural Irrelevanc
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A Commitment to Cultural Irrelevanc
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A Ghetto Eschatology 111 clom is ac
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A Ghetto Eschatologj 113 testified
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A Ghetto Eschatology 115 cause of m
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A Ghetto Eschatology 11’7 actions
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A Ghetto Eschatology 119 When Chris
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A Ghetto Eschatology 121 preach God
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A Ghetto Eschatology 123 antiquaria
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A Ghetto Eschatolog~ 125 an acciden
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A Ghtto Eschutology 127 all, the si
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7 HOUSE OF SEVEN GARBLES [In respon
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House of Seven Garbles 131 A Fig Tr
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House of Seven Garbles 133 And let
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House of Seven Garbles 135 in point
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House of Seven Garbles 137 As I sai
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House of Seven Garbles 139 This she
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House of Seven Garbles 141 legislat
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House of Seven Garbles 143 the rain
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8 REVISING DISPENSATIONALISM TO DEA
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Revising Dhpensationalism to Death
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Reuising Disfiensationalism to Deat
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Revising Dtipensationaltim to Death
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Revising Dispensationali.sm to Dea!
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Revising Dispen.nationalism to Deat
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Revising Dispensationaltim to Death
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Revising Dis@nsationalism to Death
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Revising D@ensationalkm to Death 16
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9 DISPENSATIONALISM VS. SIX-DAY CRE
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Di.spensationalism vs. Six-Day Crea
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Dispensationalism us. Six-Day Creat
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Dispensationaltim vs. Six-Day Creat
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Dispensationalism vs. Six-Day Creat
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D@ensationalism vs. Sanctification
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Dispensationalism vs. Sanctificatio
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Dis$ensationalism vs. Sanctificatio
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Dispensationali.sm vs. Sancttjicati
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Theological Schizophrenia 181 again
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Theological Schiwphrenia 183 1980.
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Theological Schizophrenia 185 What
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Theological Schizophrenia 187 nal,
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When “Babylon” Fell, So Did Dis
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13 THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF DIS
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The Strange Disappearance of Dispen
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The Strange Disappearance of D&pens
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The Strange Disappearance of Dtipen
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Conclusion 203 supposedly based on
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Conclusion 205 Fourth, because God
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Conclusion 207 The dispensationalis
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Conclusion 209 nobody believes in i
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Conclusion 211 repeatedly that “p
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Conclusion 213 original creed again
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Conclusion 215 struction. Sort of.
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Conclusion 217 nationalism, openly
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Conclusion 219 to what you are doin
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Conclusion 221 surely the situation
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Bibliography 223 Works Defending Po
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Bibliography 225 Eschatology. Tyler
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Bibliograph~ 227 Vos, Geerhardus. R
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Bibliography 229 thorough critical
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Bibliography 231 Mauro, Philip. The
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history and the U.S. Constitution.
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236 RAPTURE FEVER llO:lf 78-79 Prov
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abortion, xxxii, XXXV, 13, 141, 160
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240 RAPTURE FEVER dispensationalism
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242 RAPTURE FEVER dispensationalism
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244 RAPTURE FEVER intellectual, xxx
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246 RAPTURE FEVER Solzhenitsyn, A.,
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A THREE-YEAR STRATEGY FOR PASTORS I
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gary North receive
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.- -. . . . . 1980 . . -’r -: .,,
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