Peak Oil Optimist: May 2005 -
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Published on: 5/1/2005
Last Visited: 10/22/2005
Wilburn T. Stancil, associate professor of theology and religious studies at Rockhurst University, says that rapture theology often stems from the writings of one Cyrus I. Scofield, who published a biblical reference in 1909.Espousing a tenet known as "premillenial dispensationalism", he claimed that at the moment of judgement, true believers would be taken to Jesus before the troubles happen, while nonbelievers would be left behind to, well, deal. Although Stancil says a belief in a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ on Earth can be found in the writings of some early church fathers, Scofield's ideas are rooted in the thinking of John Nelson Darby, a 19th-century Church of England cleric who founded the Plymouth Brethren.
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Stancil says premillennial dispensationalism has shown great "resiliency and adaptability" in the face of changing world events that premillennialists such as Lindsey interpret in light of their theology.Lindsey's 1970 book, The Late Great Planet Earth, did much to popularize this theology.
Premillennial dispensationalism may seem "rigid and inflexible," Stancil says, but, in fact, it is "capable of almost endless mutations."Dispensationalists, he says, insist the Bible must be read literally, "though ironically, it's the symbolic ... interpretation of the Bible that fosters the adaptability" found in Lindsey's view of the end times.
Rapture-based theology is misguided, Rossing says, because "God saves us not by snatching us out of the world, but by coming into the world to be with us."She calls the rapture "an invented idea."
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