The Rapture!

So I was on a radio show last night, and the host asked me if I believed in The Rapture. I told her no, I did not. She then accused me of not obviously being a Christian. I tried to explain that The Rapture was a relatively modern concept that was derived by the Dispensationalist movement. I also tried to explain that differences in opinion concerning eschatology (dealing with the End Times) were acceptable with Christianity. But she would hear none of it. I was obviously a tool of Satan.

This only reason that this story is relevant is that the Dispensationalist movement has pretty much dominated Christian politics over the past 50 years. The influence of the Christian Right has helped shaped our country’s foreign policy. The entire neo-conservative movement was birthed from the unholy alliance of the Zionist Christians with the secular Jewish Zionists. Such an alliance would not have been possible but for Dispensationalism.

The proponents of The Rapture (such as Hal Lindsey) have made a lot of money with their sensationalist claims. They seem to read the newspaper with one hand and The Bible with the other hand. These so called prophets have made many false predictions concerning the date of the Rapture over the past century. And, yet, these people never seem to lose their credibility.

In the Old Testament, false prophets were executed. In modern times, these people just write a new book and make more money.