In the last issue of In the Nick of Time I suggested that one of the reasons for the decline of dispensational theology is the irresponsible conduct of some dispensationalists. I pointed particularly to those dispensationalists who scan the newspaper headlines for signs that the Rapture is about to occur. Dispensationalism has always had these sign-seekers, but their approach is neither careful nor thoughtful. In fact, I believe that sign-seeking dispensationalism poses several problems that ought to leave it discredited among historic, biblical dispensationalists.
The first problem is really the worst: the New Testament offers no signs that will precede the Rapture. Biblical teaching about the Rapture emerges rather late in the progress of revelation. The first mention is in John 14; the earliest clear teaching is in the Thessalonian epistles. The Synoptics include no clear references to the Rapture. In particular, the Olivet Discourse is not about the Rapture, but about Jesus’ second coming to earth to rule and reign from Jerusalem. The signs that are mentioned in the Olivet Discourse are all signs of Jesus’ second coming to earth, not signs of His coming in the air for His saints. Matthew 24 offers no signs of the Rapture. Luke 21 offers no signs of the Rapture. In the New Testament, the Rapture is imminent. It could happen at any moment. There are no signs to be fulfilled. We are not supposed to be looking for signs, but for the Lord from heaven.
Second, by shifting attention to so-called signs, these teachers really draw attention away from the Blessed Hope of the Rapture. We should be expecting the Lord at any moment and not at one moment more than another. Every time they point to a supposed sign, the sign-seekers are effectively saying, “Look, that was something else that had to happen before Jesus could rapture us.” If an event did not have to happen, then it could not be a sign. Either we are looking for signs or we are looking for Jesus—and that is a strong disjunction. Anyone who is looking for signs cannot be looking for Jesus until the last sign is fulfilled, and if the sign does not have to be fulfilled, then it is not a sign.
Third, by forcing signs into the headlines, sign-seekers give people a false sense of knowledge about current events. Things that are wrong with the world can easily be written off as the depredations of the increasingly-wicked last moments before Jesus’ return. But what if some of the things that have gone wrong are at least partly our (Christians’) fault? What if we have helped to create the problems by doing wrong things ourselves, and by doing them for a very long time? And what if the solution isn’t for the Lord to rapture us out of the mess we’ve helped to create, but rather for us to repent and, while the Lord gives us time, actually work to repair some of the damage we’ve done? The sign-seekers do not even entertain this possibility.
Fourth, Jesus has allowed His saints to wait for two millennia; He may well wish them to wait for some years (decades? centuries?) longer. The point of an imminent Rapture is that, while it could occur at any moment, it does not have to occur any time soon. The sign-seeking approach does nothing to prepare believers for ongoing life in a decaying and godless civilization. It does everything to lead them to think they’ll be granted a last-minute reprieve. While we can all agree that a reprieve would be nice, we have no way of knowing whether it will happen. If, twenty years from now, we are enduring a new Dark Age, the sign-seekers will have done nothing to prepare us for that day.
Fifth, the sign-seekers seem unable to distinguish exegesis from speculation. They see the same prophecy being fulfilled this way today and that way tomorrow. Theirs is not the work of serious people, let alone serious students of the Scriptures. Remember, sign-seeking dispensationalists have been pointing to their supposed signs for well over a hundred years—four or five generations. Don’t you suppose that if the Lord really intended to give signs that the Rapture was about to occur, He could have got us to within a century of the event? What kind of sign misses by that much?
Sixth, the constant barrage of unfulfilled signs becomes a serious discouragement to the saints. There was a time when JFK was going to be the antichrist. Then it was Henry Kissinger, who was subsequently edged out by Richard Nixon. A bit later, Mikhail Gorbachev was the leading candidate. Back in the ‘50s, NATO was going to be the revived Roman Empire. Then it was the Common Market. Then it was the European Union. With the supposed fulfillment of each sign, some dispensationalists got all excited. Then they discovered, “Oops, that wasn’t a sign after all!” (Not that the sign-seekers ever—EVER—admit to being mistaken. You will never hear one of them say, “Well, I thought that might be a sign, but I guess it really wasn’t.”) After a while, God’s children just get worn down by all the fruitless speculation; and when they do, they lose their eagerness for the Rapture altogether.
Finally, looking for signs of the Rapture completely ignores the authority of Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air. He has the power to work in the world, misleading people and influencing events. He surely has stratagems to wear down the expectancy of believers, and sign-seeking may well be one of them. Furthermore, if Satan believes in an imminent Rapture (i.e., a Rapture that could occur at any moment but the actual time of which he does not know), then he has to be constantly moving things toward readiness for his great hour—the Tribulation. He constantly has to have a potential antichrist waiting in the wings. He constantly has to be manipulating events to prepare for a one-world church, a one-world government, a Northern invasion, a false prophet, and so forth. Each of those preparations will look like something that points to the Tribulation, but it is not a sign. Such events are always with us. If we knew what to look for, we could find them at every moment from the First Century until the present moment. In other words, what somebody thinks is a sign might be nothing more than Satan trying to stay ready for an event that he doesn’t know any more about than we do.
Belief in an imminent Rapture is the believer’s hope. It is one of the most precious possessions of the Christian church. It ought to fill us with expectation every moment, and it ought to stir us toward perseverance and make us zealous for good works. Far from encouraging God’s people in this hope, sign-seeking dispensationalism undermines it. The constant harping on signs is an error that ought to be rejected by all biblical Christians.
This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.
Bless’d Be the Everlasting God
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
Bless’d be the everlasting God
The Father of our Lord!
Be his abounding mercy praised,
His majesty adored!
When from the dead he raised his Son,
And called him to the sky,
He gave our souls a lively hope
That they should never die.
What though our inbred sins require
Our flesh to see the dust;
Yes as the Lord our Savior rose,
So all His followers must.
To an inheritance divine
He taught our hearts to rise;
‘Tis uncorrupted, undefiled,
Unfading in the skies.
Saints by the power of God are kept,
Till the salvation come:
We walk by faith as strangers here,
Till Christ shall call us home.
About Kevin Bauder
Kevin T. Bauder is Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that this post expresses.
