#194 – The three existential threats of Dispensationalism
Recovering Evangelicals
Intro
This chapter examines the implications of dispensationalism on attitudes towards Israel and its potential to influence global conflicts. It focuses on how evangelical Christians' theological beliefs may shape policies surrounding the Middle East, without delving into the moral aspects of current events.
Last week we said this “mind-virus” could end up destroying the planet; this week we explain the three biggest reasons why/how.
Last week’s episode title claimed “Dispensationalism” could end up destroying our planet, but we never really fully explained how: here, we fill in that fundamentally important gap.
Our guest is the perfect expert for this. Dr. Daniel Hummel has a Master’s and PhD degrees in Christian History, which included two years spent in Jerusalem at the Rothberg International School combing their government archives for anything pertaining to the relationship between American Evangelicals and Zionists, after which he lectured in History and Public Policy at Harvard University. Then he took up a university faculty position as well as the Directorship of The Lumen Center, a privately-funded community of scholars reconnecting Christian thought and the academic disciplines through writing, teaching, and public engagement. And he has published two books on the subject of Dispensationalism in America and the relationship between Evangelicalism and Christian Zionism.
Could we have gotten a better expert?
We first unpacked those two books he’s written: Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations … and, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation. It will take up too much text space to summarize everything we discussed here. Suffice to say, we covered Evangelicalism, Zionism, Dispensationalism, the Prosperity Gospel, American politics and military involvement in the Middle East, Dominionism, End Times theology (of the Left Behind variety), Apocalypticism, climate change and ecological/environmental collapse.
And again, the main goal was to highlight why Dispensationalism is so dangerous. Luke likened that worldview to a virus — “a mind-virus” — that has been getting increasingly virulent. It first infected John Nelson Darby, who spread it within his small Plymouth Brethren community. The virus mutated into a more virulent form within Cyrus I. Scofield, who then spread it throughout the Evangelical community via his immensely popular Scofield Reference Bible (even though he had no credentialed training in Biblical hermeneutics). Many Christians worldwide are now driven by this virus, including political and military leaders, even though they may not recognize the word “Dispensationalsm.” In fact, aspects of it can even be recognized by/within non-believing, secular people, and it may have infected Western society in general!
So, how can we make these claims? Why is this word … this mind-virus … so dangerous? We highlighted three major sets of symptoms of its infection.
First, an inordinate amount of attention on the geopolitics of Israel and an urge to “bless Israel” by any means. This is based on an overly literal wording of the book of Revelation and a few other passages, and a prophetic vision of armies from all nations of the world engaged in conflict over that small piece of real estate. There are some who would even hope to put a lit match to this powder-keg in order to accelerate the prophesied second coming of Christ. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Second, a callous attitude towards environmental and ecological collapse because, following that second coming of Christ and subsequent Armageddon — which Dispensationalists are convinced “is gonna’ happen any day now!” — Earth will be tossed into the Lake of Fire. So why get animated about global warming, climate change, species extinction, or even pollution in general? Drill, baby, drill! It’s all gonna’ burn anyway, right? (I myself actually thought that forty years ago!) Once again, some would even welcome these global calamities because those herald the second coming of Christ. As Sean Hannity said: “If [the world] really [is] gonna’ end in 12 years, to hell with it all! Let’s have one big party for the last 10 years, and then we’ll all go home and see Jesus.”
And third, this virus may have acquired the ability to “species-jump” in that it may now be infecting non-believers in Western Society in general! Evangelical End Times thinking may be stoking the fires of apocalyptic Doomsday thinking in the Western zeitgeist, as evidenced by all the books and movies and podcasts about the End of the World, the stock market collapse, the coming Zombie Apocalypse, the inevitable Great Pandemic(s), World War III, and alien invasion(s).
Other dangers that we didn’t dwell upon include the trail of religious trauma and opportunity costs which have followed the Left Behind series of books/movies and the belief that “Jesus is coming back any day now.” We previously focused on the religious trauma in episodes 106-109. As for the opportunity costs, Luke gave his own personal example of almost making the decision forty years ago to not go to university or get married because “why bother, we’re only gonna’ be here for a couple more years anyway.”
Dangerous indeed!
As always, tell us your thoughts on this topic …
If you enjoyed this episode, you might want to check out our mini-series focusing on “the End Times,” starting at episode #106.
If you want to find out more about our guest, check out his personal web-page, which also has links to his webpages at the university and at the Lumen Center, and his two books on this topic.
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