He Shall Have Dominion

78 He Shall Have Dominion
matter: Doomsday Delusions: What’s Wrong with Prediction About the End of
the World (1995).
Thomas Ice laments: “Just this week (the week before Christmas) I
received in the mail from an anonymous sender, a book entitled Blessed
Hope, 1996 . . . by someone from the Houston area named Salty Doc. You
guessed it, the Rapture is slated for 1996. . . . Unfortunately, both
advocates and antagonists of dispensationalism are woefully ignorant
that the very Biblical assumptions underlying dispensationalism are
themselves hostile to the date-setting of the Rapture. Much harm has
been done by the supposed friends, not to mention the critics of
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dispensationalism by these distortions.” Yet Ice himself cannot resist
the attraction, though he qualifies himself: “On the other hand, there is
a general sense among many evangelicals that we are near the time of the
end. It is possible to have a general belief that the Lord’s return is near,
but not to engage in the specific act of date-setting.” 67
For instance, dispensational theologian and past president of Dallas
Theological Seminary, John F. Walvoord is dogmatic that the rapture of
the church must always be imminent. Consider his strong affirmation,
when he declares: “There is no teaching of any intervening event. The
prospect of being taken to heaven at the coming of Christ is not qualified
66. Ice, “Dispensationalism, Date-Setting and Distortion” (BP):1.
67. Ice and Demy, The Truth About 2000 A.D. & Predicting Christ’s Return, 16.
MacArthur falls to this temptation as well by sub-titling his book: The Second
Coming: Signs of Christ’s Return and the End of the Age (1999).