G. K. Chesterton wrote, in his 1908 classic Orthodoxy, that anyone could fall into fads from Gnosticism to Christian Science ... "But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling, and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect." (Elwell, 209).

"Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar," wrote Paul in Romans 3.4. He further states in Romans 16.17-18:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause division and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good works and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

The Apostle Peter tells us in his second letter (1.16,19-2.3):

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty .... We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place .... Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you ....

In my forty years I have waited at times in reverent awe, in dread, or in joyful anticipation for the heralded return of Christ Jesus. I have watched as the projected dates passed without fanfare and into the dust heap of erroneous prognostications and false prophecies. As a boy I beheld many a skillful evangelist and preacher wield the certainty of Hell's fires and the imminence of the rapture as blunt instruments to hammer and drive lost souls to the altar of repentance. My religious upbringing in the South was in a Pentecostal, strongly dispensational denomination that endorsed with vigor the 'Authorised' Scofield Reference Bible. I was a self-motivated Scripture reader as a child and was confused by the commotion over dates and extra-biblical timetables, and by the obvious contradictions of our doctrine to the clear teachings of Scripture. Even then I knew something was amiss because Jesus clearly stated to His disciples:

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto you all, Watch. (Mark 13.32-37; cf. Matt. 24.42-47; Luke 21.32-36)

I once owned a copy of Hal Lindsey's Late, Great Planet Earth (and took note of revised editions). I awaited Independence Day, 1976, and Van Impe's predicted Soviet invasion of the U.S. In 1982 I watched the planets line up behind the moon from a rooftop in east Tennessee and wondered how the tectonic plates of earth's crust could withstand the gravitational torsion. There were 88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Come Again in 1988, by the former NASA engineer, Ed Whisenant, that needed a complete overhaul. There was a 'Beastly' computer hidden somewhere in Brussels, Belgium with the Orwellian capacities of Big Brother. I had been certain that Henry Kissinger was an antichrist - if not the Antichrist. But then there was Ronald Wilson Reagan. And the Pope who was wounded but lived. Talk of a cashless society and subcutaneous microchips abounded. I was riled by the rise of the New Age philosophies in the 1980's and disturbed to notice the infiltration and proliferation of rainbows, gurus, wizards, and witchcraft into decent society I had never before perceived. I know about the Illuminati, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", the Luciferian Conspiracy, and the military-industrial government that controls the capital and resources of the entire world behind the scenes of recorded history.

In 1991 I attempted to rejoin my old Marine Corps unit for Desert Shield/Desert Storm because I had a feeling that Armageddon loomed large and I wanted to witness Jesus Christ "landing in force", as C.S. Lewis wrote it, "with the armies of heaven" (if I survived the invasion of Kuwait). Mercifully, graciously, thankfully, I was turned down.

I have read that Martin Luther said once that he believed Christ would return within one hundred years of the moment in which he stood; and of the Millerites' Great Disappointment of 1844, the further frustrations of the Adventists, and the false prophecies of the Watchtower prophets (C. Taze Russell, et al). Billy Graham stated, early in his ministry, that he would be surprised if the Lord tarried another ten years. In September, 1996, my wife and I sat in Charlotte, North Carolina's Ericsson Stadium and laughed heartily with the crusade crowd when Graham indicated he wanted to finish his sermon and go home before the full moon eclipsed and turned to blood (due to an atmospheric event that cast an eerie redness over the moon that night).

As the year 2000 rolled in, I confess that my wife and I prepared for local utility disruption, gasoline, food, and water shortages. As nurses, we were advised of Carolinas Medical Center's debugging of computer-reliant equipment and preparations for emergency staffing in case of a millennium meltdown and thermonuclear war. I know of neighbours who prepared bunkers and ammo for a prolonged siege. The banking centers of Charlotte stood ready after a thorough bug-proofing for the Millennium. The LaHaye/Jenkins series, Left Behind, had sold over 10 million copies. Lindsey holds the record with his 1970 blockbuster translated into film, into more than fifty languages, and over thirty-five million in sales, according to Robert Clouse, in a Christian History magazine article (Clouse, 2).

Numerous other authors and evangelical leaders were on the bandwagon. Teachers like Grant Jeffrey, John Ankerberg, John Woolvoord, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, Pat Robertson, and even Lindsey himself. The Brothers Elijah and David joined Bobby Bible in Jerusalem for the Day of the Lord along with many other expectant U.S. citizens. Israeli authorities rounded up a group of Americans who were planning terrorist acts in Jerusalem to incite riot and plunge the Middle East into the crucible of war to "hasten the Lord's return."

My wife and I watched the New Year come in on broadcast television via satellite from the other side of the globe. Midnight came and we waited for the lights to go out, for the sirens to blast, and perhaps an angelic trumpet to sound. Didn't happen. Not at all.

Old Testament law provided harsh punishment for the false prophet. Deuteronomy 13.1-5 commands the death sentence:

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, of that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put evil away from the midst of thee.

Consider also Deuteronomy 18.18-22:

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

I am no advocate of death by stoning -- not really; but I am no antinomian, either. However, I feel that such glaring falsehoods spoken in the name of Christ should be addressed by men of conviction in good standing with God, even if offense and embarassment comes upon the false prophet. This is much better than gathering stones together. There is a time to gather stones together, folks. And it certainly beats being politically correct in the times and names of the false gods of tolerance and relativism.

In Acts 1.7 Jesus tells His disciples, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put under his own power." This is an echo from Jesus' words in the Olivet discourse and even further back to Daniel 2.20-22:

Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.

The apostle Paul rehearses the words of Jesus to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5.1-6:

But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

The prophet Amos had similar things to say about the Day of the Lord:

Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him; or went into a the house, and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark and no brightness in it? (Amos 5.18-20)

It does seem that many dispensational premillennialists, and those of similar persuasion, spend more time figuring out when they are going to fly away - to "disappear in the twinkling of an eye" - than they do in rightly dividing the Word of Truth, diligently engaging in the Lord's work of spreading the Gospel, and living to imitate Jesus Christ in word and deed.

I was delighted to learn, when seeking a church, that the Church of the Nazarene believes that the Lord Christ Jesus will return. Period. No statement further is required in our Articles of Faith. In H. Ray Dunning's text, Grace, Faith and Holiness, the good professor acknowledges openly the origins of dispensational theology, its new eschatology, and its "many strange features". He writes:

For some reason, it has become so pervasive among conservative Christians, especially among the rank and file, that it has assumed the status of orthodoxy among large groups of both laymen and ministers. There is not a Wesleyan scholar known by this writer, however, who would subscribe to it. Furthermore some literature written by Wesleyan scholars speaks explicitly against it. But it still remains entrenched. For this reason it needs some special attention in a work committed to Wesleyan theology because all the basic theological presuppositions that inform dispensationalism are antithetical to Wesleyan theology as well as sound biblical exegesis. (p.585)

His terms are strong, clear, and undeniable.

I share the same concerns because, as a young man, even I could plainly see that the idea of a 'secret rapture' meant two Second Comings, that the promise the Church of Jesus Christ would see no great tribulation was false, and that the notion of an earthly temple reconstructed with reinstitution of the priestly sacrificial system was flat-out far-fetched. It is readily apparent that the New Testament teaches that true Israel and the Church are identical. And why on earth would a body of believers, composed largely of white people in comfortable shoes standing above the poverty line, assume special exemption from suffering? Such a notion must sound obscenely absurd to Christians in Sudan, Indonesia, and China!

I was just a boy when I figured out that in the days of Noah, it was the wicked who were taken: God said to Noah, "Come thou and all thine house into the ark....And the Lord shut them in" (Genesis 7.1,16); that the parable of the tares and wheat (Matthew 13) stated that they were harvested together and then the tares were bundled together and tossed into the fire. In John 17.15, Jesus prayed the Father, "not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." I could grasp the content of these passages in my early teens. Even nowadays I can be a right smart man when I ain't picking straw out of my teeth. How about you, gentle men and women?

The burden and focus of this article begs the question: If we know these things to be true, why do we as ministers of the Gospel, and the leadership of the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition, remain silent in the face of such rampant error, unscriptural teaching, and false prophecy? And another question: Why do many of our ministers and laymen appear to be adherents of such a system - or else seem powerless, or unwilling, to take a stand against this millennial view. A view which Kenneth Grider rightly describes as one "to which Scripture stands most clearly opposed"? (Grider,p.533).

Dunning, Grider, and a host of other sources all identify the origins of 'dispensational premillennialism' as quite recent. Unanimously, the reports point to the 'post-biblical revelations', the ecstatic visions, of a teenaged Scottish girl in 1830, who attended the Catholic Apostolic Church under the leadership of Edward Irving. Irving is remembered for several failed predictions of the Second Coming and as a forerunner of modern Pentecostalism. Anglican clergyman and lawyer, John Nelson Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren, is recognised for his formulation of dispensational doctrine in the 1830s, which he assimilated and expanded upon after visiting Irving's congregation.

In a sermon entitled "The Millennium", presented in the chapel at Northwest Nazarene University on 12 January 2000, professor George Lyons noted this history and its popularization in certain Calvinist circles through the Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909. The seeds of this 'new doctrine' were then widely scattered by evangelist D.L. Moody (Lyons, pp.4-5).

Lyons identifies the early Wesleyans of the nineteenth century Holiness Movement as largely postmillennialists. Grider notes that Wesley was either post- or amillennialist (p.539). But the composition of Wesleyan-Holiness adherents changed after World War I, Lyon reports.

In the Olivet Discourse, recorded in the synoptic gospels, Jesus clearly states:

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of man be....Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other....But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24.1-25,49; cf. Mark 13.1-37; Luke 21.5-38)

Luke 21.34-36 reads:

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares, For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

It is clear that Jesus Himself said that it was after that great tribulation that the Son of man would appear in the clouds of heaven. No mention of eating a marriage supper for seven years, nor of chariots and caravans being unmanned and crashing; nor clothing being left, collapsed in an empty heap, where the raptured person had stood. No indication that suffering was to be bypassed for bliss.

A cursory examination of Scriptural evidence for the Second Coming of Christ Jesus by the unindoctrinated mind will easily grasp the inconsistencies of dispensational premillennialism. I hold that education is being taught how to think for one's self; and that indoctrination is being taught what to think. I propose that we engage our minds, then change them if compelled by the evidence - not that we engage in emotional and fiery contests as combative belligerents. My upbringing in dispensational premillennialism prejudiced my thinking. But happily, reason has won the day - and my heart - by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of Scripture.

The saints of Berea, in Acts 17.11, "received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Isaiah 34.16 tells us: "Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them." Jeremish 6:16 reads: "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the way, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."

Listen to Paul had to say in 1 Thessalonians1.5 and 2.2-7:

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; .... we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.

Brethren, Jude exhorts us to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3-4). I can hardly tolerate a few words from the television preachers who use the Word of God as a marketing tool and make merchandise of the souls of the deceived. They peddle the indulgences of a promise of eternal life, financial prosperity, or a miracle of healing for a contribution solicited without shame. Do any of you concur with me? Have you seen it, too?

I hold with Dr. H. Orton Wiley, whom Lyons recognizes as the leading theologian of our denomination for its first fifty years, that "our brief statement [is] the result of studied silence, not [a] license to speculate freely." He further writes, "The fact of the second coming and the order of events connected with it are separable questions" and that we should speak on the details of this subject with "considerable hesitancy ... cautiously ... [and] with becoming modesty" (Lyons,p.3). Still further:

There are at least two other reasons why I risk saying more: (1) Inadequate attention has been given to the practical implications of our hope in the Second Coming. And (2) many sincere Christians have been needlessly confused by overly confident - and therefore, mistaken - interpretations of the Second Coming. (p.4)

Another few questions: What risk? Do we take being gentle peacemakers to the extreme, to the point of passivity and silence? Or do we take a stand for the whole counsel of Scripture against the interpolations of mere men and zealously guard the truth committed to our keeping?

Lyons continues:

I have no interest whatsoever in creating controversy by making an issue of a subject that is speculative by its very nature. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that a Wesleyan interpretation of the millennium is more adequate than that of popular, evangelical Christianity, simply because it is more faithful to Scripture and not dependent on preconceived ideas with little or no biblical foundation. I also believe that Wesleyan views are more adequate, because they are more dependent on ancient Christian tradition, not innovations introduced first only during the 19th century. (p.4)

Paul addressed us in his first epistle to Timothy concerning such matters:

As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went to Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside to vain jangling: Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm ... And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron....If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness .... Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine .... O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so-called: Which some professing have erred concerning the faith ... (I Timothy 1.3-7; 3.16-4.2,6-7,13; 6.20-21)

Likewise, also in his secind epistle to Timothy:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,....Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But now is made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles....Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Jesus Christ .... And the things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also .... Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness .... Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them .... Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time shall come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but rather after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry (II Timothy 1.7-13; 2.2,15-16; 3:12-14; 4.2-5).

In his 1965 publication, Dispensationalism Today, Charles C. Ryrie articulated three assumptions that constitute the indispensable essentials of his teachings:

(1) A dispensationalist keeps Israel and the Church distinct; (2) This distinction...is born out of a system of hermeneutics called literal interpretation; (3) A third aspect concerns the underlying purpose of God in the world. It is broader than salvation, namely the glory of God (Dunning,p.586).

Dunning quickly dismisses "this brief and incomplete survey" in which are detected "a number of basic theological flaws that lead to the fantastic type of eschatological schema":

(1) it is based upon a Calvinistic view of covenant with Israel that is unconditional and cannot be broken....All of this completely overlooks both the teachings of the prophets from the eighth century on and the clear-cut statements of the New Testament that such distinctions are done away in Christ....; (2) it adopts and perpetuates the popular concept of the Kingdom that preoccupied the minds of the [Old Testament] rank and file...that the prophets of the eighth century and their successors worked manfully to demolish.... (3) it adopts a hermeneutic that the Christian Church has rejected from the beginning, insisting that it invalidates the Old Testament as a Christian book....; (4) it assumes that the Church is condemned to failure from the beginning, and instead of the Church age climaxing with a shout of glory, it will go out with a whimper; and that this failure implies that its evangelistic work is misguided, since it, by God's design, cannot succeed (Dunning,pp.586-588).

James Barr states:

But whatever may be said about its creativity, when it is considered as a statement of Christian truth...it can scarcely be doubted that dispensational doctrine is heretical and should be counted as such, if the term 'heresy' is to have any meaning. If dispensationalism is not heresy, then nothing is heresy (Ibid., p.588).

Of the Scofield Reference Bible, John Wick Bowman says, "This book represents the most dangerous heresy currently to be found within Christian circles" (Ibid., p.588).

John H. Gerstner, in his 1991 book, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Critique of Dispensationalism, states emphatically and without mincing words:

What is indisputably, absolutely, and uncompromisingly essential to the Christian religion is its doctrine of salvation....If Dispensationalism has actually departed from the only way of salvation which the Christian religion teaches, then we must say that it has departed from Christianity. No matter how many other important truths it proclaims, it cannot be called Christian if it empties Christianity of its essential message. We define a cult as a religion which claims to be Christian while emptying Christianity of that which is essential to it. If Dispensationalism does this, then Dispensationalism is a cult and not a branch of the Christian church. It is as serious as that. It is impossible to exaggerate the gravity of the situation (p.150).

Ernest Reisinger states in his article, "A History of Dispensationalism in America":

All honest Dispensationalists would agree that the Dispensational system of theology has a different view of the grace of God, the law of God, the church of God, the interpretation of the Word of God and the salvation of God. That is, its teachings are different from tested, respected historic creeds and confessions .... Dispensationalism has a different view of living the Christian life of sanctification and, more specifically, how justification and sanctification are inseparably joined together in the application of God's salvation (p.3).

There are many reasons I risk saying more because I am new to the pastorate and I have not been brought up in the Church of the Nazarene. My early training was in this heretical doctrine of pretribulation, secret rapture, and dispensational chart-drawing. I have a dog-eared Scofield that I wore out with the using thereof. I do love the music, poetry, syntax, and literary style of the Authorised Version with its Shakespearean English of Oliver Cromwell, the English Commonwealth, the Puritans, and the New World pilgrims. My memory serves me well from its pages. And I have a working familiarity with the Word of God for that very reason.

I am given to a hermeneutic that insists upon Scripture interpreting Scripture and to exegetical preaching which uses copious references from the Word to inform my sermons, my theology, and my way of life from both Old and New Testaments. I have listened to too many sermons that lack life, vigor, and fire; that sound too much like pop-psychology meets Chuck Swindoll. I am aware of pastors' 'theological' training that involves more marketing skills and church growth seminars than the strong meat of the Word. It is a sad fact that evangelical 'revivalism' is at present geared more for good 'prospects' and 'seekers' than for the repentance of sinners who need change in their lives, and who are going to die the second death without Christ.

By using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - utilizing thoroughly the accepted tradition of the apostolic church, sound reasoning, and by the measure of personal experience, all informed by the whole counsel of Scripture - we can see that dispensational premillennialism is not Scripturally sound, is not supported by the history of the early church (who were largely post-tribulation premillennialists), that it does not stand to reason, and in wide experience, time and again, has turned out to be false, poorly speculative, and divisive. The work of Jesus Christ in and through His Church is denied by dispensationalism and is regarded only parenthetically in history as an interlude, an incomplete success that God Almighty did not bother to reveal to the prophets of old.

One bizarre and baffling side-effect of this pseudo-Christian doctrine is the fiercely loyal American evangelical support for the state of Israel. Though Israel today is largely atheistic and unrepentant, claiming that "Gott vas aschleep ven der Holocaust vas happennink!! [my paraphrase]", and the demonization of Palestinians persists as if they were the very enemies of God, these facts are largely ignored and the full support of many Christians wavers not.

In a lengthy and in-depth article in Christianity Today, Timothy Weber explains "How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend". He explores the history of dispensationalism in Britain and the United States and its contributions to world history and foreign policies. Weber frankly admits that "most evangelicals [show] little or no concern for Palestinian rights - which [is] ironic because there have always been more Arab Christians in the Middle East than Jewish ones" (Weber, pp.11-12). He further cites the human rights violations of the Israeli state with their 1982 invasion of Southern Lebanon. He continues:

While Jews have a right to be secure within their own borders, do they have the right to seize other peoples' land, occupy their territory, ignore their rights of self-determination, and bulldoze or blowup the homes and businesses of Palestinian families? ... Evangelicals need to consider whether believing in Bible prophecy absolves them of grappling with the issues of right and wrong. Does having a handle on the prophetic details allow them to turn a blind eye to injustice? Does the end justify the means, just because the ends have been prophesied? (p.19)

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6.8)

"Wash you, and make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1.16-17).

Good questions, Weber! I say the answer is, "Absolutely not." While I am impressed with the military and intelligence tactics and capacities of the Israeli state, I have no confidence in their Biblical significance in the present nor in the future. I believe they are milking evangelicals and American taxpayers of billions of dollars to perpetuate their agenda, which does not recognize Messiah, nor the human rights of Palestinians (who are also Semites, children of Abraham....and where are those who cry "Holocaust! Holocaust!" when a people are threatened so?), nor are they interested in repentance for anything (espionage, etc). I do believe that our government, and our people, must be held accountable for this questionable support for a questionable cause.

"Are evangelicals too pro-Israel?", asks Tony Campolo in his book, 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch. He answers affirmatively and with typical clarity. He says he personally has some difficulties with a Scriptural interpretation that requires the Jews to be sole possessors of Palestine as a precondition for Christ's return, because it would "render foolish all those Christians who looked for the second coming of Christ prior to 1948." He goes on:

Jesus told his disciples that their generation would not pass away before everything that needed to be fulfilled for His return would take place. I do not believe the Lord was wrong. I am convinced that by A.D. 70 everything was in place for the return of Christ, and that it has been right for Christians to expect His return ever since that time .... I must point out that for centuries Christians did not see any need for the restoration of the state of Israel or the rebuilding of the temple ... for the return of Christ (p.233).

Campolo closes the chapter by quoting Jeremiah 22.13-16, which curses those who do not pursue justice. He also touches upon the Preterist idea of prophecy fulfillment in Titus' destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. We recognize that prophecy has a primary and a secondary schema: one for the imminent future and another for the distant years. R.C. Sproul explores preterism in his book, The Last Days According to Jesus. Catchy title; but for our purposes may it suffice to say that Sproul acknowledges we should "stand guard against frivolous and superficial attempts to downplay or explain away the force of these references," which are, namely, the words of Jesus Christ (p.203). He reinforces the history of dispensationalism versus historical premillennialism, and - in a conclusion drawn from George E. Ladd's book, The Blessed Hope - concurs with the following:

[T]he blessed hope is not the hope of a rapture before the Tribulation. Pretribulationism was an unknown teaching until the rise of the Plymouth Brethren....Finally, we concluded that the undue concern with the question of pretribulationism tends to cause neglect of more important and vital issues having to do with the Blessed Hope.;....that it sacrifices one of the greatest incentives for world evangelization; that a Biblical attitude of expectancy is not identical with a belief in an any-moment coming of Christ; that it misrepresents the Blessed Hope by defining it in terms of escape from suffering rather than union with Christ and thus may be guilty of the positive danger of leaving the Church unprepared for tribulation....(pp.198-199)

In a manner similar to Calvin's dismissal of premillenialism with a stroke of the pen, the eminent New Testament scholar, F. F. Bruce, seems to regard dispensationalism only marginally. He states in closing Jesus Past, Present and Future, that:

This is the promise of the gospel: that love and peace will triumph....The hope is certain; the timetable is less important than has often been supposed. In a sermon preached last century on the subject, "Waiting for Christ", John Henry Newman made the point that, whereas the course of time before the first coming of Christ ran straight towards that event, the course of time since then has not run straight towards his second coming, but alongside it. Had it run straight towards his second coming, it would have run into it in the first Christian generation. But as it is, the course of time will ultimately merge with the prescence of Christ, yet in such a way that while it runs alongside, the prescence of Christ is equally near in all succeeding generations; his coming is always 'at hand'. Meanwhile Christ continues the work he began on earth; the time is coming when he will consummate the work. 'I am sure,' said Paul to his friends at Philippi,'that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.' (Philippians 1.6) This assurance is ours today, and in this assurance the hope of the world is secure. (p.140)

Have you read Ezekiel 13 from the Authorised Version? Have a look at some excerpts:

And the word of the Lord came unto, me saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord;....Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!...They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, the Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.... Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord (vv.1-8) ... Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?...Wherefore saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith ye hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly. Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall no more be in your hand to be hunted; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hand of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life: Therefore ye shall no more see xiv vanity, nor divine divinations: for I will deliver my people out of your hand: and ye shall know that I am the Lord (vv.17-23).

The New International Version Bible Commentary identifies these 'pillows' and 'kerchiefs' as magic charms associated with witchcraft that were sewn to the sleeves and worn about the head ; whose appropriate use was thought to be for "the preservation of, or taking of, life" (p.821). How very interesting. Think about it. The first group of false prophets in that passage, according to the New Bible Commentary, were sincere in their belief they could divine the future and really "expected their pronouncements to be fulfilled. Their messages were the sort people like to hear." In spite of their sincerity and comfort, they were "sincerely wrong" (p.724).

There is a television preacher out of Arkansas, Arnold Murray, who refers to those who are looking to fly away before tribulation as "flutterbugs." Think about it.

Chesterton's acid test for all religions lay in the question, "What does it deny?" (Elwell, p.210).

There is a time for offense to come. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven ...." There is a time to gather stones; a time for war; a time to refrain from embracing; a time to cast away; a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to break down; a time to rend. Brethren, there is a time to keep silence; and there is a time to speak. I think the time to speak to this matter, this veritable heresy, is come. Where are the men who will make up the hedge and stand in the gap before the Lord? Will the men of the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition lead the way?

Dunning sums up nicely:

One is doubtless free to engage in speculation consistent with his theological commitments and the best grammatico-historical biblical exegesis; but it should never become a preoccupation that will divert from the preaching of the gospel that God has already decisively won a victory over sin and Satan in this present age so that He can deliver from all sin here and now, or cater to a morbid curiosity that does not make eschatological realities a stimulus to holiness, or be so dogmatic on such speculative matters as to threaten the unity of the Church (p.589).

The day we received our slickly-packaged copy of Left Behind from a popular Christian book club, I read for only a few minutes before I was completely convinced of that fiction's anemic composition and poor craftsmanship. We recycled the paper. It is remarkable that thousands of thousands of people are reading this series, panting for the next installment as if awaiting the next Harry Potter children's novel or the sequel to some insipid piece of screenwriting.

O, that the people panted after Thee, O God!

Wesley called Christian mysticism "inimitable bombast." How would he characterise this stuff? This pseudo-Christian cult that denies the victorious Captain of our Salvation and His Bride?

Authorised King James Version; The New Analytical Bible and Dictionary of the Bible; John A. Dickson Publishing Co.; Chicago; 1973.

Bruce, F.F.; Jesus Past, Present, and Future; InterVarsity Press, Downer's Grove,IL; 1979.

Bruce, F.F, gen.ed.; New International Bible Commentary; Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI; 1979.

Clouse, Robert, "Late, Great Predictions"; in Christian History, Winter, 1999 <ONLINE>.

Compolo, Tony; 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch; Word Publishing, Dallas; 1988.

Dunning, H. Ray; Grace, Faith and Holiness; Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, 1988.

Elwell, Walter A., ed.; Evangelical Dictionary of Theology; Baker Books, Grand Rapids MI;1984.

Grider, J. Kenneth; A Wesleyan-Holiness Perspective; Beacon Hill Press, Kansas City, 1994.

Gerstner, John H; Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Critique of Dispensationalism; Brentwood, TN; Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1991.

Lyons, George; "The Millennium: Revelation 20.1-10"; from a sermon in the 12 January 2000, Chapel service at Northwest Nazarene University <ONLINE>.

Reisinger, Ernest; "A History of Dispensationalism in America"; The Founders Journal, Issue 9 <ONLINE>.

Sproul, R.C.; The Last Days According to Jesus; Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI; 1998

Weber, Timothy P.; "How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend"; 5 October 1998 <ONLINE>.

Wenham, G.J., et al, eds; New Bible Commentary; 21st Century ed.; InterVarsity Press, Downer's Grove, IL; 1994.