Premillenial Dispensationalism: why should I care?

You know those bumper stickers that say things like IN CASE OF RAPTURE, THIS CAR WILL BE UNMANNED or IN CASE OF RAPTURE, CAN I HAVE YOUR CAR? They are referring to this belief-- a "theory," if you like, apparently based mainly on highly subjective interpretations of the prophecies in the New Testament book of Revelations (and I guess some other places in the NT -- I'm no theologian), that the judgment day we've heard so much about will be upon us sooner rather than later. All is not lost, though, to the adherents of this theory: their god is merciful -- at least to those who play by certain rules. You see, before wreaking almighty havoc with his creation here on earth, this god will somehow gather up the righteous -- or merely the saved, depending on whom you ask (these are definitely folks who fall in the "good works are not enough" crowd) -- and transport them bodily into heaven where they will get front row seats to watch the remaining heathens who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their savior go through seven years of tribulation. You know, the plagues of locusts, rivers of blood, solar and lunar eclipses, little tiny metallic horsemen buzzing around stinging people. That kind of thing.

Some of those who remain will be allowed to accept salvation at the end of the seven years, but it doesn't let them off the hook as far as all the plagues and calamities go -- and if they die in the meantime they don't get taken up until the end. They still have to do time in the grave and they have to wait with the riff raff until god has finished smiting all the unbelievers and then, after the Glorious Appearing of the messiah, they get to join their previously raptured friends and relatives, who will say "I told you so" for the ensuing thousand-year reign of Jesus in some kind of holy christian paradise.

A major proponent of this theology is Tim LaHaye, who wrote the improbably popular "Left Behind" series. You can read more about it at his website. He has some kind of Rapture think tank sort of thing going, called the Pre-Trib Research Center and appears to be moving an awful lot of product in the meantime.

There are a fair number of believers who are studying both scripture and the news, and keeping tabs on which prophecies have been fulfilled. Check out the "prophetic speedometer of end-time activity" at raptureready.com if you want to see how close we are to the big event.

As I personally am not a christian nor a serious student of theology, I can't really speak to the theological problems of premillenial dispensationalism. There are, however, a few serious christians who take on the version of it as presented in the "Left Behind" series that has been wildly popular in certain circles.

Perhaps most ambitiously, Fred Clark in his highly excellent weblog Slacktivist has undertaken a page-by-page exegesis of the series, which is archived here. He's only up to page 71, but it's fascinating. I'd been reading the series for a while when I came across his comments, and was relieved to learn that this was not in fact an essential tenet of mainstream christian doctrine.

Carl E. Olson in his altogether too-kind (IMHO) review of the 12th installment of the Left Behind Series in the National Review Online, explains:

"As a Catholic, I have every desire for people to become Christian and embrace the Gospel. But I see several serious problems with the "Left Behind books," of which I will just mention a couple.

"First, the "left-behind" theology is not the "Christian" or the "biblical" view of the end times, despite what LaHaye says, or what the media sometimes echoes. Premillennial dispensationalism and the belief in a Rapture event separate from the Second Coming is rejected, either explicitly or implicitly, by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and nearly every major Protestant denomination. Dispensationalism, with its particular views about the nature of the Church and the role of Jews in end-times events, was created in the 1830s by former Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) and later systematized in the United States by C. I. Scofield (1843-1921) and Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952). Hal Lindsey's 1970 best-selling "The Late Great Planet Earth" took popular dispensationalism into secular culture, a feat repeated by the "Left Behind" series.

"As Evangelical scholar and Wheaton College graduate Ronald M. Henzel has decisively shown in his book, "Darby, Dualism, and the Decline of Dispensationalism, Darby built his entire theology on a radical dualism between heaven and earth that was unprecedented in the history of orthodox Christian thought. As Henzel notes, no dispensationalist has ever "been able to offer a single point of continuity between Dispensationalism and any other school of theology." This would all be as meaningful and esoteric as learning to lip-sync songs by Grand Funk Railroad except that the influence of dispensationalist thought in North America has been tremendous. Throughout the 20th-century it had a powerful pull on cultural and political matters, especially shaping perceptions of the Middle East and attitudes towards the nation of Israel."

And it is this influence on secular politics and culture that is of interest to me, and sometimes keeps me up late at night.Here are a couple of examples:

• The Godly Must Be Crazy: Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment in the online environmental news magazine Grist
• Apocalypse Please an article by George Monbiot

Anyway, more on this later -- especially as regards the whole global climate change thing.