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

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obin-bobin Left Behind’s Vision of the End Times 61the voice of evangelical values in public policy and religiousliberals interested in expanding social reform and humanitarianprograms were suspicious of dispensationalism. One major criticismwas that its pessimistic outlook encouraged withdrawalfrom the problems society faced. Premillennialists, they argued,tended to see political, social, or scientific efforts to improveconditions as futile; only Christ’s return, which would happenvery soon, would save the world. Many premillennialists furtherconsidered scientific efforts to learn more about the universeand human evolution as blasphemous, and some deemedmissionary work, or the spreading of Christianity, unnecessary.Such beliefs marginalized the movement in a country whereprogress and modernism were widely embraced.New “Signs of the Times” and America’s ChangingRole in the Divine PlanWhile, as we have seen above, millenarianism always has beenshaped by changing social and political events, the politicalcharacter of premillennial dispensationalist thought is perhapseasier to grasp in the twentieth century. Premillennial beliefshave been fueled by a host of events that believers have pointedto as signs of the imminent return of Christ. The collapse of theOttoman empire and the Allied occupation of Jerusalem in1914 left many premillennialists convinced that Israel wouldsoon be restored and the end times would soon begin. WorldWar I itself, with its catastrophic devastation, seemed tothreaten the entire globe, and dispensationalists believed thatonly God’s intervention would bring it to an end. Because ofthis, some fundamentalists and premillennialists tended to viewU.S. intervention into World War I negatively, arguing that nonation had the power to end a conflict that was part of God’sdivine plan.The Russian Revolution in 1917 gave dispensationalists newidentities for the antichrist: Bolshevism and Russia. As we haveseen, dispensationalists earlier had identified the papacy and theTurks (Muslims), among others, as the antichrist, but throughrobin-bobin
62robin-bobin Rapture, Revelation, and the End Timesmost of the twentieth century, American premillennial dispensationalistsidentified Russia and, later, the Soviet Union with thatfigure. With the Soviet Union’s embracing of communism andrepeated evidence of its military strength, many dispensationalistsin the post–World War II period argued that the SovietUnion was the expansionist aggressor, the “evil from the north”(Jer. 4:6), that would bring destruction.To be sure, dispensationalists suggested other identities forthe antichrist during World War I—the most prominent beingBenito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler—but their defeat at thehands of the Allies proved they did not wield the cosmic powerof the antichrist. For dispensationalists, no nation could vanquishthe antichrist; only God could accomplish this in accordancewith biblical prophecy. Throughout the cold war period,the Soviet Union and, particularly, communism proved muchmore likely, seemingly invincible, candidates, as the UnitedStates failed to halt their advance in North Korea, Cuba,Vietnam, and later Latin America. Communism, many thought,was truly the enemy of God. 30In addition to the presence of this powerful antichrist, twentiethcenturypremillennialists found other signs of the imminentreturn of Christ. Among the most important of these was theformation of Israel in 1948, a political event that end-timesbelievers had awaited for centuries. Only after the reunion ofIsrael, many believed, would Christ return, a topic discussedfurther in chapter 5 of this book. A further suggestion of theimminent advance of the end times was the development of theatomic bomb. Pointing to this weapon of mass destruction,which could readily rain fire down on humanity, premillennialistsjoined scriptural proof text with technological innovation,arguing that such an ultimate weapon of destruction fulfilledbiblical prophecy. Nuclear power became the ultimate sign ofthe approaching end times and has been used to highly dramaticeffect in such premillennial films as Testament and A Thief inthe Night, as well as in the Left Behind series.In addition to these signs of the end times, contemporary dispensationalists,like their predecessors, also have been interestedrobin-bobin
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198robin-bobinDiscussion Questions2
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202robin-bobinGlossarythe end times
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Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times - Conscious Evolution TV

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