Gary discusses Dwight Wilson’s 1977 book, Armageddon Now. As a premillennialist himself, Wilson was able to see clearly the many mistaken prophecies of his own tradition.
The doctrine of the clock of prophecy is central to dispensational theology. But what no paperback dispensationalist prophecy book of the This Time, Armageddon Really Is Near! variety ever discusses is that orthodox dispensationalism officially affrrms a non-ticking clock in this, the so-called Church Age. If the clock of Old Testament prophecy begins ticking again in the Church Age (pre-Rapture), then there is judicial continuity between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church.
Specific judgments of God in history, announced by the prophets of Israel, would be fulfilled in the era of the Church. Such a view of fulfilled prophecy undermines the theology of dispensationalism, which stresses the Church as a “Great Parenthesis” which was neither known nor prophesied about in the Old Testament. The New Testament Church (pre-Rapture) supposedly has no connection whatsoever with the dispensation of the Mosaic law. Therefore, if the prophecies of the Old Testament apply to the Church in any sense rather than exclusively to national Israel, the entire dispensational system collapses.
C. I. Scofield understood this clearly. Dispensationally speaking, there can be no biblically prophesied event in between the founding of the Church and the Rapture. Citing Matthew 4:17b, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Scofield wrote: “‘At hand’ is never a positive affirmation that the person or thing said to be ‘at hand’ will immediately appear, but only that no known or predicted event must intervene.” Therefore, the Rapture can take place at any moment. But if this is true, then its corollary is also necessarily true: the Rapture cannot be said to be imminent for our generation. It may be, but it may not be. An orthodox dispensationalist cannot legitimately say when it will be, one way or the other. The Rapture cannot legitimately be said to be almost inevitable tomorrow, next month, or next year. Edgar Whisenant’s 88 reasons for the Rapture in September, 1988, were wrong—all 88 of them. So were his (revised) 89 reasons for 1989.
Ten Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered
As a result of many failed predictions, many Christians are beginning to take a second look at a prophetic system that they were told is the only one that takes the literal interpretation of the Bible seriously. Gary DeMar has taken on the task of exposing some of the popular myths foisted upon the public by prophetic speculators.
Buy NowGary discusses Dwight Wilson’s 1977 book, Armageddon Now. As a premillennialist himself, Wilson was able to see clearly the many mistaken prophecies of his own tradition, especially with the World Wars. Wilson maintains that it was the view of a predicted Jewish persecution prior to the Second Coming that led to a “hands off” policy when it came to speaking out against anti-Semitism.