Last issue I began a look at myths of the origins of the pre-trib rapture. This issue I conclude that study...
Perhaps more than any area of theology, one's eschatology is molded by the spirit of the times in which they live. This goes a long way in explaining the unparalleled success of a book like The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey. It first appeared in 1970. This was a time when the secular world was preaching a doomsday message of their own. Especially younger people often felt a sense of desperation, which, to some extent, predisposed them toward the scenario given by Lindsey and many other similar messages. This "escapist" mentality has been expressed by the slogan: "I don't have a problem the Rapture wouldn't solve." This is not a comment on the truthfulness of Lindsey's message, just an example of how people are normally influenced by the framework of the thinking of the times in which they live.
On February 26, 2002 I debated Gary DeMar on preterism verses futurism at BIOLA University in California. Post debate banter continues to reverberate. Demonstrating that he has learned nothing from the exchange, DeMar wrote an article entitled "On Thin Ice," which appears on his website...
During the Los Angles riots of the early '90s, Rodney King made an impassioned media appeal in an attempt to quell the violence when he said, "Why can't we all just get along?" A similar sentiment has become an evangelical mantra in the late 1990s. We are frequently told today that unity will bring a much needed revival to the American church, but only if we' ll all "just get along." What does the Bible have to say about unity and ecumenicalism?
Many advocates of preterism, replacement theology and covenant theology often cite Acts 2:16 as support for their interpretation of Scripture. However, I do not believe that Peter's statements furnish a basis for their conclusions. "Preterists . . . generally see these signs as predictive descriptions of the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans." Gary DeMar believes that this passage was fulfilled in the first century. Instead, Peter merely references the Joel passage as support that the Holy Spirit is the cause of the events in Acts 2 just as the Holy Spirit will be the cause of events in Joel 2. Let's look more closely at the details in the passage...