Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times - Conscious Evolution TV

obin-bobin The End Times According to Christians 109God has been at work in different eras in directing humanhistory to its divine goal. Although dispensationalists were notthe first to propose such an approach, the nineteenth-centuryarchitects of this theological system emphasized the differencesamong the successive divisions of history in a manner unparalleledby their predecessors. C. I. Scofield, the compiler of thefamous Scofield Reference Bible, found seven such epochs in thebiblical narrative: innocence, conscience, human government,promise, law, grace, and kingdom. 12 In each successive epoch,dispensationalists theorize, God reveals a specific aspect of hiswill for human beings. But because humans fail to live in obedienceto the divine will, each epoch climaxes in judgment.To understand the way that dispensationalists read the Bible,we must first understand that, for them, there are two peoplesof God: God’s Old Testament, earthly people (the nation ofIsrael) and his New Testament, spiritual or heavenly people (thechurch). This distinction between Israel and the church correspondsto a distinction between two phases of God’s programfor salvation history. The first focuses on the land of Palestineand involves God’s promise to bestow material blessings on thephysical descendants of Abraham. The second centers onheaven and the spiritual blessings God has for those from everynation who acknowledge Jesus as savior and thereby becomeAbraham’s spiritual children. 13 According to the dispensationalistreading of the Bible, neither phase of God’s program is yetcomplete. The Israel phase, which began with Abraham, wasdelayed when the Jews rejected Jesus as their messiah. Thisopened the way for the church phase, begun at Pentecost, whichacts like a parenthesis in God’s “Israel program.” The beginningof the church was not the end of God’s plans for Israel. Once thetask of the church has been completed, God will return to theunfinished, divine program for Israel. This is one of the reasonsdispensationalists give for the rapture followed by the tribulation.The rapture is the culmination of God’s plan for the church;during the tribulation God focuses once again on Israel. Godwill use the tribulation to prepare the Jews to receive their messiah,Jesus, at his return. The millennium, in turn, will providerobin-bobin