{"id":1693,"date":"2026-05-03T19:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T18:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/?page_id=1693"},"modified":"2026-05-04T21:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:56:38","slug":"appendix-b","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/dominion-theology-recovering-our-social-and-political-responsibility\/appendix-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Appendix B\u2014The Late Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Appendix B\u2014The Late Jesus<\/h2>\n

This was an article I had written for a Christian publication summarizing many of the themes of this book but proceeded to fold before it was published!<\/em><\/p>\n

Firstly, it must be admitted that there are and have been some fine scholars (Walvoord, Chafer, Pentecost) who have defended dispensationalism\u00a0as an innovation of premillennialism. It cannot be denied the system has provided some genuine prophetic insights and scarcely a radical preacher will not accuse the current church of \u201cLaodicean lukewarmness,\u201d a concept birthed in dispensationalism\u00a0viewing the containing passage of Rev 3 as a particular \u201csub-dispensation\u201d within the church age. However, on the contrary, there are also fine scholars (Gentry, Mathison) who have objected on an exegetical basis, historians (Macpherson) who have thoroughly repudiated it as an orthodox development of premillennialism, reclassifying it as a mystical, unorthodox innovation, and missionologists (like Cope) who have repudiated it on a theological level. The latter is what I am interested in here first and then to consider the theological credibility of the favorite \u201cblessed hope\u201d of the dispensationalists, the \u201crapture\u201d doctrine. I include some references at the end for the other categories if you are interested.<\/p>\n

With regards to the eschatological tenor of dispensationalism, Landa Cope, one of the founders of YWAM\u00a0in the 1970s with Loren Cunnigham, asserted that \u201ctheologies of imminent return\u201d have repeatedly emerged as the church began to take on its social and political kingdom-building role and have led to its premature termination and surrender of culture to the secular humanists, with disastrous consequences for culture as a whole.[1]<\/a> She views Hal Lindsey\u2019s The Late Great Planet Earth <\/em>as \u201cthe one for our generation,\u201d<\/a> as the evangelical church began to emerge in the 1970s from over fifty years of self-imposed cultural ghettoism to asserting itself again in the cultural sphere. She argues Peter and Paul\u00a0expected return in their lifetimes and every Christian generation since has had those who adopted a similar position.<\/p>\n

Yet, we must hold this important scriptural imminence in tension with our social responsibility as believers in line with the scriptural admonition to \u201coccupy until he comes.\u201d In her words, we must \u201cbuild the kingdom\u201d and not worry about the return, for Jesus told us not to; we are to be about the King\u2019s business and be ready to give an account of our works (Luke 19:13\u201327).[2]<\/a> In my words, it should not distract us from exercising dominion and subduing the earth to God\u2019s law. To bastardize Vernon McGee\u2019s dispensationalist quip, \u201cYou don\u2019t polish brass on a sinking ship,\u201d[3]<\/a> I say, \u201cLet us get an army of marine maintenance men and women if it helps the ship stay seaworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the second issue I would like to consider is the illogical nature of the favorite doctrine of classical dispensationalism, \u201cthe rapture.\u201d The valley of decision for the rapture was 1988 and its final burial, if there had been any lingering doubts, should have been 2007\u2014the two dates featured prominently in the dispensationalist\u2019s calendar for \u201csound prophetic reasoning.\u201d The year 1948 was the foundation of the state of Israel, \u201cthe budding of the fig tree\u201d (Matt 24:32\u201334) and forty years is a generation of Israel. Edgar C. Whisenant\u00a0allegedly sold 6 million copies of \u201c88 Reasons Why the Rapture\u00a0is in 1988,\u201d[4]<\/a> basing his logic on detailed mathematical calculations and prophetic principles (this is still available on Amazon), and his failure did not discourage him from predicting 1989, 1990, and 1991. I have in my collection recordings from the late 1980s of otherwise rational and sane preachers I would happily recommend, thoroughly convinced the rapture was days<\/em> away, and their audiences shrieking in ecstasy. One friend of mine believed a minor earthquake that occurred in North Wales in 1990 (where we were both living at the time) was the \u201ctrumpet call\u201d in Revelation\u2014he<\/a> sold his profitable and successful business and waited to be caught up! His sad spiritual story since, despite his enormous intelligence, is a lesson for any believer. Yet he simply, with a greater degree of conviction, believed and acted on a lot of the traditional teaching in British Pentecostalism\u00a0that I, too, had received and been sincerely taught.<\/p>\n

For some, the rapture\u00a0could legitimately be delayed until 2007, for 1967 was the first time that Jerusalem had been in the hands of the Jews for two thousand years, this clearly being a prophetic marker of some kind for anyone with true prophetic discernment (obviously). However, these passed as did the apocalypses predicted by the pagan astrologers with the unusual and rare alignment of all nine planets at around the same time. Even now in 2025, with a healthy dose of Jewish mysticism, some believe that the rapture will be on September 21, 2025. (Prudentially, I am editing this on that very date, and subsequently, November 13, 2025, so we can safely assume the rapture did not occur unless Starmer is in fact the antichrist\u2019s UK government representative, and I really was \u201cleft behind.\u201d) The Jewish prophet Jonathan Cahn\u00a0explains forcefully why this is really a very weak mode of reasoning, making the point that other very similar prognostications just bring shame and disrepute on the church, and it should be stated that he believes in a rapture![5]<\/a><\/p>\n

However, dispensationalism\u00a0and its predilection for predictions and \u201csigns of the times\u201d has somehow survived. In the last few years, planetary convergences, comets, and consecutive \u201cblood moons\u201d on Passover\/Jubilees that have not occurred for millennia have all been posited as signs of the end and our imminent removal by otherwise sane and competent ministries. Unless I missed something, nothing of note has happened, except the sales of lots of DVDs and MP3s of their \u201cprophetic packages for [mis]understanding the end times\u201d\u2014but I hasten to add, I could have missed whatever was supposed to have happened. There has always been a tendency amongst dispensationalists of \u201cspecial revelation\u201d and prophetic insight concealed from the rest of us \u201cMoabite evangelicals.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Remarkably, there are still able scholars committed to the view who can maintain a critical view of the failures of their forerunners as \u201crapturists\u201d or suffering from \u201crapture\u00a0mania.\u201d One such able scholar was Chuck Missler who I thoroughly recommend on most subjects.[7]<\/a> However, it was <\/a>notable in his late work there was no mention of the \u201cbudding fig tree\u201d as the reformation of Israel that has featured predominantly in previous prophetic iterations. According to his final position, the marker for the forty years and the last generation is the rapture\u00a0itself<\/em>. In other words, he has foreclosed the issue of trying to predict the date in any specific way, though he was still comfortable predicting it was \u201cpossible within the next twelve months,\u201d though that was during the long-past and otherwise excellent 2011 Strategic Perspectives conference. He separates previously dispensationalist harmonized \u201cend time\u201d passages between Luke and Matthew into pre- and post-tribulation events, posits specific psalms as additional sequences of prophetic events that have previously been \u201cmissed\u201d (Ps 89\u2014see his \u201cPerilous Times\u201d and \u201cPlanet in Jeopardy\u201d series) and separates pre- and post-restoration events. This increasing granularity in dealing with the text to extend the prophetic time frame is befitting to the resilience of the position against all the odds after 1988.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding this attempted academic reorientation of dispensationalism, there is still a huge appetite for rapturist psychological escapism bred by it, if the Left Behind<\/em> series is anything to go by, which made millions for its creators in the 2000s and was still having \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d YouTube videos made about it in 2018. I contend there is clearly something seriously amiss with such an attitude of a Christian with regards to their educational, social, and political responsibility. It is about as far from the Reformation\u00a0call of Luther\u00a0and Calvin\u00a0to redeem society and establish godly secular states as one could get, and these teachings should now be in disrepute.<\/p>\n

I believe it is a sign of maturity in the believer to take their place as heavenly ambassador in an earthly kingdom\u00a0by fully engaging with their social responsibility and not retreating into mysticism, even when dressed up as the fashionable prophetic lingo \u201cGod\u2019s government in the heavenlies\u201d or \u201cwe are God\u2019s government in session this evening.\u201d Maybe there is a place for climbing to the tops of mountains and proclaiming to the powers and principalities the judgments of God, but I struggle with this; it would be far better if prophetic direction, admonition, and maybe even rebuke could be given to our own apostate rulers. Let us think clearly and build the kingdom\u00a0on Earth and within our vocations, without distraction or condemnation that we are being \u201cworldly.\u201d
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/h3>\n

Cope, Landa. An Introduction to the Old Testament Template: Rediscovering God\u2019s Principles for Discipling Nations<\/em>. 2nd ed. Seattle: YWAM, 2011(2006).<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. God and Political Justice: A Study of Civil Governance. <\/em>Seattle: YWAM, 2015.<\/p>\n

Lindsey, Hal. The<\/em> Late Great Planet Earth.<\/em> Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970.<\/p>\n

Macneil, Michael. Dominion Theology.<\/em> Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2026.<\/p>\n

MacPherson, David. The Rapture Plot.<\/em> 2nd ed. Simpsonville, SC: Millenium III, 2000.<\/p>\n

Missler, Chuck. Christianity\u2019s Most Preposterous Belief\u2014the Rapture. <\/em>Coeur d\u2019Alene:<\/p>\n

Koinonia House, 2014.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Cope, Old Testament Template<\/em> and God and Political Justice.<\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> The KJV uses this phrase; most modern translations would say \u201cdo business\u201d; the verb literally refers to the business of trading and making money. The KJV translators were perhaps trying to capture the wider context of the passage where it is talking about a King and his subjects\u2014 \u201coccupy till I come\u201d is a military idiom referring to a king leaving his occupying force to rule in his absence. In this instance, I think the KJV translators made a good call.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Rushdoony, God\u2019s Plan for Victory<\/em>, loc. 177.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> This is available from Whisenant, \u201c88 Reasons Why.\u201d<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Cahn, \u201cWhether the Rapture Will Happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> MacPherson, Rapture Plot<\/em>, 55\u201385.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Chuck has passed since I wrote this article; he went onto glory on May 1, 2018. His personal website is still available (https:\/\/chuckmissler.com\/) and the ministry he founded is still active: https:\/\/www.khouse.org\/.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Appendix A\u2014Post Evangelicalism<\/a><\/div>\n
Appendix C\u2014The English Civil War and the Founding of the United States<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appendix B\u2014The Late Jesus This was an article I had written for a Christian publication summarizing many of the themes of this book but proceeded to fold before it was published! Firstly, it must be admitted that there are and have been some fine scholars (Walvoord, Chafer, Pentecost) who have defended dispensationalism\u00a0as an innovation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1624,"parent":1636,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1693","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1693\/revisions\/1757"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetmacneil.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}