Tim LaHaye to publish new series

The problem with making the characters of a religiously themed novel obvious caracitures of living people

I would hope that the book would contain an old-fashioned disclaimer that runs along the lines of "any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental" and MEAN IT.

Tom, I offer a specific example in the same vein as michele's above ("how can you laugh at God's word?"), of a general tendency: that in our own unique ways, we determine who's in and who's out.

Myself, I'm faithless according to a great many systems.

Peace.

[saw the following on the web recently - Jackie)

ROOTS OF (WARLIKE) CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
(or, It's the Rapture, Stupid !)

by Dave MacPherson

First, let's get something straight. Many conservative
evangelicals in America are not longing for the "world's end" or
"judgment day" or a "millennium" or an "antichrist" or even the
"second coming."
Although these phrases are in their theology books, the same
books emphasize what they are waiting (and would almost die) for:
the "any-moment pretribulation rapture" which is expected several
years ahead of the second coming and most assuredly BEFORE a future
"great tribulation"!
Hal Lindsey, the big rapture guru of the late 20th century,
ended his bestselling book "The Late Great Planet Earth" with the
word "MARANATHA" which pretribulation rapturists know is a code
word for their rapture. And the same literal removal from earth at
any moment lurks in Lindsey's other writings.
Tim LaHaye, the current rapture tycoon whose "Left Behind"
bonanza has left even Lindsey behind, knows how to milk the
rapturized masses. After his 1992 pro-rapture book "No Fear of the
Storm" was published, it was revealed that he had sloppily omitted
48 words when airing a brief 19th century document - hardly good
publicity! After sales slowed down, it was re-issued as "Rapture
Under Attack" (with the same 48 missing words) and appeared to the
public to be a new book. But not even the title change seemed to
help things, and merchandiser LaHaye knew it was time to come up
with some other titles that could further his rapture obsession.
And Jerry Falwell never seems to miss an opportunity, when
preaching, to remind his audience that he most certainly believes
in the "pretribulational rapture" view.
I can almost believe that the middle name of many Christian
Right leaders is "Rapture"!
When checking pre-19th century prophetic development, one
finds that "dispensational" thinking as well as Christian Zionistic
roots had been in existence long before the emergence of
pretribulation rapturism. Even the prophetic word "rapture" had
been in print well before the 19th century - but always in
reference to only an after-the-tribulation coming and never to a
pretribulation coming.
Many are still unaware that the pretrib rapture idea was first
publicly aired in the fall of 1830 in "The Morning Watch"
(hereafter: TMW), a little-known quarterly journal published by the
Irvingites (followers of famed London preacher Edward Irving) from
1829 to 1833 in Britain. Not only was this innovative publication
years ahead of John Darby and his Plymouth Brethren colleagues,
rapturally speaking, but in it we find shocking militancy that can
be observed today in Christian Zionist preachers like John Hagee
and Jerry Falwell.
As early as the September 1830 issue of TMW (pp. 510-514) a
writer declared that only worthy Christians (which he labeled
"Philadelphia") would be raptured before "the great tribulation"
and less worthy ones (labeled "Laodicea") would be left on earth.
The September 1832 issue of the same journal (pp. 6-7) saw
"Jews" as well as the less worthy Christians left behind.
But the March 1833 issue (p. 147) said that only "the Jews"
would be excluded from the rapture.
So within a short period of time the Irvingites, while
following the same Scriptures, revealed their innate
anti-Jewishness by switching from a "church/church" dichotomy to a
"church/Israel" dichotomy after convincing themselves that only
"the Jews" would deserve a future tribulation!
After their adoption of an escapist view that no organized
church had ever taught before 1830, the same early pretrib
rapturists, feeling superior, began exhibiting some vices that
often come to powerless persons who suddenly obtain power - vices
like pride, hatred and persecution of others, playing God, and so
on.
Sounding like Hagee and other warlike warmongers, TMW
expressed even more delusional, rapture-inspired fantasies:
The September 1830 issue (p. 514), looking ahead to the hoped
for "great escape," declared that the raptured believers would then
collectively become "the victorious ministerer of the great
tribulation" upon those left behind!
In March of 1832 the same Irvingite journal (p. 3) taught that
the "vials" of wrath in the book of Revelation "shall be poured out
by the risen [raptured] saints"!
And TMW in September 1832 (p. 27) went even further and
announced that the collective group of raptured ones will "wield
the thunders of its power against the dragon [Satan] and his
angels, and cast them down from heaven"!
Note that these fanatics were more than willing to be the
"chosen ones" to pour out tribulation and wrath on those not worthy
to be "chosen": the Jews.
(I'm glad to report that Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary in North Carolina is now the only North American
institution that contains a complete set of every issue of "The
Morning Watch." I recently gave SEBTS my 35-year collection of rare
material including those issues and Robert Norton's valuable 1861
book.)
We've just had a glimpse of vengeful and power-crazy
fanaticism within the very earliest pretrib rapture group. But
where in the Bible did those deluded Britishers find support for
such "rapture rage"? And where are the followers of Christ
commanded to pick up a sword and conquer or convert non-believers
with it - or even support such sword-bearers? Why have so many
Christian Zionists, who seemingly give more attention to
governments than to their Gospel, turned the Great Commission into
the Great Commotion?
Many of the above historical details are in my 300-page book
"The Rapture Plot," the most complete and documented history of the
176-year-old pretribulation rapture merchandised today by Hagee,
LaHaye, Falwell, Lindsey, Swaggart, Van Impe etc. for their pet
agendas - an escapist view never taught by any church for 1800
years! If you don't have time for my book, I invite you to read my
internet items including "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," "Deceiving and
Being Deceived," "Famous Rapture Watchers," "Thomas Ice
(Bloopers)," "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal," "The Rapture Index
(Mad Theology)," "Pretrib Hypocrisy," and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty."
BTW, my book "The Rapture Plot" is available at online bookstores.
Do Hagee and his fellow preachers really love Jewish persons
as much as they say they do? Then why do they pervert Scripture to
try to get themselves raptured off earth before their future and
final "tribulation" instead of wanting to remain on earth during
that period to minister love to ALL of earth's citizens?
Hagee stated on July 19, 2006 that "The United States must
join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to
fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West...." Which Bible
verse inspired him to utter this - the one that says "Love ye your
enemies" or the one saying "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith
the Lord"?
It would appear that Hagee, Falwell and other pretrib rapture
merchandisers and Christian Zionists are trying to identify with
the predicted group whose love will "wax cold" (a la Matthew 24:12)
during what Hagee etc. see in the future as earth's darkest days!

(The now famous "rapture" view promoted by politics-loving American
evangelicals is related to various topics. If you would like to
publish the above non-copyrighted paper, feel free to even change
the title to "Armageddonism and Politics" or "The History of Dispensationalism"
or anything else.)

[The MacPherson writing above is informative and I found the following web quotes that are just as interesting:]

FAMOUS RAPTURE WATCHERS - Addendum

by Dave MacPherson

(The statements in my "Famous Rapture Watchers" web article appeared in my 1983 book "The Great Rapture Hoax" and quoted only past leaders. The following names include other leaders who were quoted in that original printing.)

Oswald J. Smith: "...I am absolutely convinced that there will be no rapture before the Tribulation, but that the Church will undoubtedly be called upon to face the Antichrist..." (Tribulation or Rapture - Which?, p. 2).

Paul B. Smith: "You are perfectly free to quote me as believing rather emphatically in the post-tribulation teaching of the Bible" (letter dated June 9, 1976).

S. I. McMillen: "...Christians will suffer in the Great Tribulation" (Discern These Times, p. 55).

Norman F. Douty: "...all of the evidence of history runs one way - in favor of Post-tribulationism" (Has Christ's Return Two Stages?, p. 113).

Leonard Ravenhill: "There is a cowardly Christianity which...still comforts its fainting heart with the hope that there will be a rapture - perhaps today - to catch us away from coming tribulation" (Sodom Had No Bible, p. 94).

William Hendriksen: "...the one and only second coming of Christ to judgment" (Israel in Prophecy, p. 29).

Loraine Boettner: "Hence we conclude that nowhere in Scripture does it teach a secret or pre-tribulation Rapture" (The Millennium, p. 168).

J. Sidlow Baxter: "...believers of the last days (there is only one small part of the total Church on earth at any given moment) will be on earth during the so-called 'Great Tribulation' " (Explore the Book, Vol. 6, p. 345).

Merrill C. Tenney: "There is no convincing reason why the seer's being 'in the Spirit' and being called into heaven [Revelation 4:1-2] typifies the rapture of the church..." (Interpreting Revelation, p. 141).

James R. Graham: "...there is not a line of the N.T. that declares a pre-tribulation rapture, so its advocates are compelled to read it into certain indeterminate texts..." (Watchman, What of the Night?, p. 79).

Ralph Earle: "The teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture seems first to have been emphasized widely about 100 years ago by John Darby of the Plymouth Brethren" (Behold, I Come, p. 74).

Clarence B. Bass: "...I most strongly believe dispensationalism to be a departure from the historic faith..." (Backgrounds to Dispensationalism, p. 155).

William C. Thomas: "The return of Jesus Christ, described by parousia, revelation, and epiphany, is one single, glorious, triumphant event for which we all wait with great eagerness!" (The Blessed Hope in the Thessalonian Epistles of Paul, p. 42).

Harold J. Ockenga: "No exegetical justification exists for the arbitrary separation of the 'coming of Christ' and the 'day of the Lord.' It is one 'day of the Lord Jesus Christ' " (Christian Life, February, 1955).

Duane Edward Spencer: "Paul makes it very clear that the Church will pass through the Great Tribulation" ("Rapture-Tribulation" cassette).

J. C. Maris: "Nowhere the Bible teaches that the Church of Jesus Christ is heading for world dominion. On the contrary - there will be no place for her, save in 'the wilderness,' where God will take care of her (Rev. 12:13-17)" (I.C.C.C. leaflet "The Danger of the Ecumenical Movement," p. 2).

F. F. Bruce: "To meet the Lord [I Thessalonians 4:17]...on the final stage of...[Christ's] journey...to the earth..." (New Bible Commentary: Revised, p. 1159).

G. Christian Weiss: "Some people say that this ['gospel of the kingdom' in Matthew 24:14] is not the gospel of grace but is a special aspect of the gospel to be preached some time in the future. But there is nothing in the context to indicate this" ("Back to the Bible" broadcast, February 9, 1976).

Pat Brooks: "Soon we, in the Body of Christ, will be confronted by millions of people disillusioned by such false teaching [Pre-Tribism]" (Hear, O Israel, p. 186).

Herman Hoeksema: "...the time of Antichrist, when days so terrible are still to arrive for the church..." (Behold, He Cometh!, p. 131).

Ray Summers: "Because they [Philadelphia] have been faithful, he promises his sustaining grace in the tribulation..." (Worthy Is the Lamb, p. 123).

George E. Ladd: "[Pretribulationism] may be guilty of the positive danger of leaving the Church unprepared for tribulation when Antichrist appears..." (The Blessed Hope, p. 164).

Peter Beyerhaus: "The Christian Church on earth [will face] the final, almost superhuman test of being confronted with the apocalyptical temptation by Antichrist" (Christianity Today, April 13, 1973).

Leon Morris: "The early Christians...looked for the Christ to come as Judge" (Apocalyptic, p. 84).

Dale Moody: "There is not a passage in the New Testament to support Scofield. The call to John to 'come up hither' has reference to mystical ecstasy, not to a pretribulation rapture" (Spirit of the Living God, p. 203).

John R. W. Stott: "He would not spare them from the suffering [Revelation 3:10]; but He would uphold them in it" (What Christ Thinks of the Church, p. 104).

G. R. Beasley-Murray: "...the woman, i.e., the Church...flees for refuge into the wilderness [Revelation 12:14]..." (The New Bible Commentary, p. 1184).

Bernard L. Ramm: "...as the Church moves to meet her Lord at the parousia world history is also moving to meet its Judge at the same parousia" (Leo Eddleman's Last Things, p. 41).

J. Barton Payne: "...the twentieth century has indeed witnessed a progressively rising revolt against pre-tribulationism" (The Imminent Appearing of Christ, p. 38).

Robert H. Gundry: "Divine wrath does not blanket the entire seventieth week...but concentrates at the close" (The Church and the Tribulation, p. 63).

C. S. Lovett: "Frankly I favor a post-trib rapture...I no longer teach Christians that they will NOT have to go through the tribulation" (PC, January, 1974).

Walter R. Martin: "Walter Martin finally said...'Yes, I'm a post-trib' " (Lovett's PC, December, 1976).

Jay Adams: "Today's trend is...from pre- to posttribulationism" (The Time Is at Hand, p. 2).

Jim McKeever: "Nowhere do the Scriptures say that the Rapture will precede the Tribulation" (Christians Will Go Through the Tribulation, p. 55).

Arthur Katz: "I think it fair to tell you that I do not subscribe to the happy and convenient theology which says that God's people are going to be raptured and lifted up when a time of tribulation and trial comes" (Reality, p. 8).

Billy Graham: "Perhaps the Holy Spirit is getting His Church ready for a trial and tribulation such as the world has never known" (Sam Shoemaker's Under New Management, p. 72).

W. J. Grier: "The Scofield Bible makes a rather desperate effort...it tries to get in the 'rapture' of the saints before the appearing of Antichrist" (The Momentous Event, p. 58).

Pat Robertson: "Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth again to deliver Israel and at the same time to rapture His Church; it's going to be one moment, but it's going to be a glorious time" ("700 Club" telecast, May 14, 1975).

Ben Kinchlow: "Any wrath [during the Tribulation] that comes upon us - any difficulty - will not be induced by God, but it'll be like the people are saying, 'The cause of our problems are those Christians in our midst; we need to get rid of them' " ("700 Club" telecast, August 28, 1979).

Daniel P. Fuller: "It is thus concluded that Dispensationalism fails to pass the test of an adequate system of Biblical Interpretation" (The Hermeneutics of Dispensationalism, p. 369).

Corrie ten Boom: "The Bible prophesies that the time will come when we cannot buy or sell, unless we bear the sign of the Antichrist..." (Tramp for the Lord, p. 187).

Francis Nigel Lee (eleven earned doctorates!): "Dave MacPherson, in his various books, has made a major contribution toward vindicating Historic Christian Eschatology. The 1830 innovations of the disturbed Margaret Macdonald documented by MacPherson - in part or in whole - immediately spread to Edward Irving and his followers, then to J. N. Darby and Plymouth Brethrenism, and were later popularized by the dispensationalistic Scofield Reference Bible, by Classic Pentecostalism, and by latter-day pretribulationists like J. F. Walvoord and Hal Lindsey."

[In light of II Tim. 3:14 which says that we can't know too much about Bible teachers (Dave MacVersion), I invite you to read my article "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" which can be found on the "Powered by Christ Ministries" site.