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WHITE RABBIT DISPENSATIONALISM

Not long after falling down a dank and darkened rabbit hole, Alice found herself chasing after the most peculiar and eccentric little white hare she could ever imagine. In some ways, this particular cotton tale could have been like any other Lagomorph, what with the fur, whiskers, hoppity gate, and other such rabbity features. But, with a clever little vest, antique pocket watch, and a frantic demeanor accentuated by being "terribly late," this tiny white buck was unlike any creature or wascally wabbit that Alice had ever encountered.

Now, suppose you have had the good pleasure of seeing the original 1951 technicolor Disney rendition of Lewis Carol's famous fable. In that case, you will remember the scene at the white rabbit's home where the flummoxed bunny was running about erratically, spouting various issuances of nonsensical commands, including the memorable line to Alice: "Don't just do something… Stand there!" Apparently, he was so captivated and crippled by not being "on time" that he was rendered no good in time. To say that another way, He was so upset over missing an engagement in the future that he was no good getting there in the present. This, our furry white friend, shares in common with many in the modern church regarding issues of eschatology.

As a pastor once quipped, "They are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good," many who hold to eschatological immediacy are so frantically attempting to discern the signs of the times that they have forgotten to get on with the things Jesus commanded us to do. From believing that the Fauci ouchie was the mark of the beast, to someone in the World Economic Forum rising up to become the Carpathian Antichrist, more than a bit of time has been spent staring up at the clouds and forgetting that we have work to do here on the ground. This eschatological defeatism, expecting that each day will further devolve into more extraordinary instances of tyranny and chaos, will not abate (according to its adherents) until Jesus swoops in and vaporizes us out of here with a secret rapture. That view has not only led to a lazy and unengaged Church but has also produced an apathetic Church.

For instance, why would you spend your life working to make disciples of all the nations when the rapture is just around the corner? If you believe that Jesus was going to return at any minute because our time is uniquely evil and is worse than any other age of history (a dubious claim by people who have not studied history), then you would probably spend your days hiding in a hole somewhere or frantically evangelizing and attempting to convert as many souls as you can before Jesus returns. The result would be a legion of converts who have never been discipled, who were never taught how to be godly men and holy women, who have never been given a vision of being faithful believers over lifetimes and generations, which is precisely the sort of languid and superficial situation that Christianity in the West finds herself in today. Because we have become captivated by an immediate rapture, we have become no good at being faithful in the present.

If the Church of our Lord has any hope of recovering from her slothfulness and shallow, easy believism, then we must immediately discard the hemlock of dispensationalism and adopt a more Biblical view.

A BRIEF LOOK BACKWARD

If you have been following along with the blog for some time, you will know that we have already recorded 23 episodes on eschatology alone, which may sound a bit obnoxious and somewhat overkill given that the sky is falling and we are all going to be teleported out of here any day now. But, if you have been tracking along with the episodes and articles, you will know that many of the "end-times" passages we have covered are not awaiting future fulfillment but have already been fulfilled in the past. In this way, we are partial-preterists, meaning we believe a portion (a large one) of the New Testament eschatology passages have already occurred. If you are new here and you are wondering what I am talking about, I would suggest that you reference the first 23 episodes that are marked (End-Times Series) not only because they will help you make sense of where we are going but they are lovely blogs and podcasts with a fair amount of content you may have never heard before. In that sense, I believe they will be intellectually stimulating and will demonstrate that these views do not come from mere opinion but from a robust exegesis of the text.

Now, with that much settled, I want to take up the cause of eschatology once more on this blog, and I want to continue along from where we left off last time. If you will remember, we built a case from the Gospels that the immediate return of Jesus Christ was about the downfall of Jerusalem. The axe was already at the root of the tree when Jesus appeared upon the scene (Matthew 3:10); the fruitless city was about to be thrown into the flames like the withered fig tree (Matthew 21), the Kingdom was going to be taken away from the Jews and given to a people who produce the fruit of it (Matthew 21:33-46), which meant a unique event of fiery judgment was going to come from God upon Jerusalem (Matthew 22:1-10 esp. V. 7), which meant all of God's wrath that had been stored up since the murder of righteous Abel would be poured out on the Jews (Matthew 23:34-39), all culminating within a single generation (Matthew 24:34), which is all described in riveting detail for us in the Olivet Discourse and has been covered in previous episodes. Now, it's time to skip ahead.

THE FORESHADOWING OF THEOPHILUSIAN ESCHATOLOGY

After the Olivet Discourse, Jesus was arrested, brutally murdered, and placed in a borrowed grave, where He would triumphantly rise again. As you can imagine, all of Jerusalem was stirred up by this most unusual occurrence. Apparently, there were more than five hundred eyewitnesses who saw the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:6). Once Jesus rose from the dead, His prophecy of a forty-year countdown until the destruction of Jerusalem (given in Matthew 24) swiftly began. Then, over 40 days (one day for every year Jerusalem and the Old Covenant had left in its existence), Jesus spent His remaining hours teaching and commissioning His church on what He wanted them to be focused on. This teaching included the Great Commission, which is recorded for us at the end of Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20), as well as an urgent missionary mandate given to His newly created Church in the first chapter of the book of Acts.

WHY MORE ESCHATOLOGY?

My hope is that as we work our way through all of the relevant statements of eschatology that are found in this remarkable book dedicated to Theophilus, that we will see that the immediacy of Jesus' judgment and return does not apply to us. That judgment was a shadow hanging over apostate Judah. That return would be to put away the Old Covenant trappings and to establish an unrivaled church that will bring our Lord's Kingdom into all the nations.

Furthermore, it is my hope that what we will see in the ensuing weeks, which is especially true of the passage we will look at next week, is that our focus must not be cloud-watching, navel-gazing, chart-drawing, or tin-foil-hat-wearing eccentrism. Instead, our posture toward eschatology must be one of trust that Christ will return when He determines to return, and until then, we have a responsibility to work hard for the glory of God. When our master returns, we, His slaves must be found faithfully doing everything that He has commanded.

So, with that, I would invite you to join us next week as we continue our series on eschatology, moving from the Gospels to what we can learn about these things in the book of Acts. Until then, God bless you; do not be frantic; and do not stand still!