Ideas have consequences. That is somewhat what this post discusses.
I gave my life to Christ in about 1974. I was attending the Baptist church. Not just any Baptist church but one on the conservative side of a conservative denomination. First Baptist Church in Woodland California was part of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC).
Baptists define themselves in terms of “Don’ts.” They don’t smoke, drink, cuss, or chew, and expect us not to go with girls that do. Mixed bathing; not blacks and whites, but males and females was forbidden. They also don’t like infant Baptist, wine for Communion, and Christian rock music.
The church was all-in on Hal Lindsey and Jesus is coming any second to Rapture the Church. Initially, I was enthused that we were living in the last days. The signs were everywhere that Jesus’ immanent return would soon occur. I dutifully watched the news and expected to see the final prophecies fulfilled on the evening news any day.
One night after youth group, I remember my sister coming home in tears. When asked why she was crying, she responded that it was unfair that Jesus was coming back any second and how unfair he was because she would never have the opportunity to become a mother. Wow, didn’t see that one coming. The incident with my sister was one of the most memorable things about that church.
Meanwhile, some siblings of my mother got involved in charismatic churches. Yep, if you don’t have the experience of speaking in tongues then you don’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. The guy that wrote the Gospel, oh, I mean the Four Spiritual Laws also wrote a tract about The Spirit Filled Life.
Tongues or no tongues became an issue for me to explore further. My Baptist church said tongues was bogus, but the charismatic folks were much happier and bubblier compared to the Baptist church members. There was something different about them. Eventually, I moved more toward the charismatic side of evangelical Christianity. I was mostly in and around the Assemblies of God denomination.
In high school I had an interest in a girl that went to a different church. (The Church of God of Prophecy.)
At the time, I didn’t know how different. At their evening service, I was asked to read a verse out of Acts. I read the correct verse but literally had the Bible taken away from me mid-sentence because it wasn’t the Authorized King James Version. Literally the only difference between my version (probably NIV) versus the KJV was one word had a “th” on the end of it. I was then directed to read from the correct version of the Bible. Later, I was informed that they were the only true church and all others were false. Needless to say, I stopped dating that gal quicker than Colin Kaepernick could take a knee.
Following my enlistment in the military, I ended up in the Sacramento California area. I began attending Capital Christian Center. This was one of the largest churches in the area. I tried to make Capital my church home, and it was for a while. The service that ended my membership there was preached by then pastor, Glen Cole.
Cole did a fire and brimstone sermon on all of the social evils that we, as American Christians, were confronted with at the start of the 1990’s. He hit many social issues very hard. I was elated that finally someone was kicking the church in the butt, and we were finally going to battle. But toward the end of the sermon, he got to the part about what to do about it and the whole thing imploded. Cole’s solution was that we need to spend more time in church, presumably waiting for the Rapture. Yep. We need to double down on withdrawing from “the world” and spending more time in church. His church literally has some type of service or activity every day of the week. His solution to all the evils of the world was more time in church activities.
Folks, I was devastated. What a cop-out and huge letdown.
You see, what became apparent to me over time was that Premillennial Dispensationalism expects for things to get worse and worse. In fact, it is a theological requirement that things must get worse. Only when the sh*t really hits the fan will it be bad enough for Jesus to return.
They believe this so strongly that they discourage efforts to address social issues and righting wrongs. Essentially, to oppose evil is to keep Christ from returning. This is why large blocks of evangelicals don’t vote or excuse themselves with talk of not voting for the lesser of two evils. They say with their lips that they oppose evil but with their deeds they do nothing to stop it’s progression.
I’m sure someone like Thomas Sowell would state it more eloquently than I just did, but that’s the bottom line. Evangelicals expect things to get worse. Ever hear the phrase about polishing brass on a sinking ship, same idea. This is why Gary North called eschatological pessimism, “pessimillennialism.”
Folks, that was the last straw for me. The idea that we are wasting our time doing good, when such efforts could somehow delay the return of Christ, and somehow we needed to step aside and let everything around us literally go to hell, just did not sit right with me.
Thankfully, I found an alternative to Premillennial Dispensationalism. Christianity prior to 1830, had never heard of Premillennial Dispensationalism. It turns out that for most of the history of Christianity, such a scheme never existed. I found solace in the faith of the Reformers. The Reformers were bold and understood that Christianity has the power to transform not only men but cultures and nations.
The fruit borne of Premillennial Dispensationalism is rotten. Their scholarship is sloppy and they cherry-pick verses based on preexisting presuppositions that are not found in the text. Only by imposing their ideas onto the text can such ideas be seen. Yikes! You’d think after decades of using the New York Times, CNN, and other media outlets to prove their ideas, they might at least try to support their theology from the Bible. Don’t hold your breath. What’s that saying about not ruining a good story with facts?
Premillennial Dispensationalism is like learning how a magic trick is done. Once you understand their sleight-of-hand, the trick loses its hold on you. From that point forward you can no longer be duped by its practitioners. The difference between them and the magician is that the magician knows better while premils really believe they are manipulating unseen forces to reveal truth.