Obama's Cairo Speech and the Resurgence of Popular Dispensationalism

It will be very interesting to see what the prophecy pundits do with Obama's recent comments about Israel and Islam in his Cairo speech.  Click here: Obama does not recognize Israel land claims, security needs

Hal Lindsey, for one, is watching Obama's every word very closely . . . Click here: The Hal Lindsey Report.  No doubt, others will be doing the same.

Just when I start to think the end-times punditry is about finished, something happens on the world stage which reinvigorates the pundits all over again.  This will surely do the trick.  

Comments

[robert kellly]

http://www.shoebat.com/

Walid Shoebat is former muslim palestinian terrorist who now supports israel..thanks for recommending Hal Lindsey Report...i have been watching it since 2007 its must see tv.

[robert kellly]

Obama today used alot of phraseology to plant psychological seeds into the audience..this is his favorite trick...one tasteless one is when he talked about 9/11 he used the word concrete to describe efforts to rebuild relationships...he was in my opinion really saying that im on your side al quada by choosing such a word ....its subtle but thats what works with mass manipulation..softly killing us..softening us up for the final hook still to come.

[robert kellly]

As a dispensationalist yet reformed, i find it much more clearly defined than alternatives presented. God can do anything right ? He is sovereign. He can rapture the church then. For example ... a rapture of sorts...he has sent an angel to save me once already and lifted me up in the air from two attack dogs. I was ironically in a church grounds in busing racially charged days of Boston 1974 near the "bad areas" ...this church was a playground for kids we played ball there always looking out for priesty to come then the dogs..well one day i decided to try to catch a bird i set my box string and bread looked up and the dobermans were in full silent stride 30 ft away i ran to fence hopped up and fell back... just then something lifted me over the fence PTL...
Why do you mock those who say these are end times and God is coming back? Are you not fulfilling prophecy by doing so ? Jesus chastised those who could not tell what the times were.
With Advent of Nukes, even Gen McCarthur said next world war is last. We ahve gay marriage spreading all over country. Right is wrong and wrong is right. Napolean said valley of meggido is worlds largest battlefield. Revelation said 200 million man army is coming from the east. It can happen now. We are blessed when we read revelation as it declares. There still remains a week for Gods dealing with Israel, the messiah had been cutoff at 69th week and now is church age of gentiles...etc.. God evacuated believers before when he laid out his judgement (Lot,. Noah) on earth and will do so again. These are compelling reasons to believe. He said he will protect us, the righteous from wrath. Many have escaped wrath already when they lived and died...etc..So the church is not mandated to go through tribulation. God chose Israel deut 7 because they are smallest nation to humble man...in other words he has a plan for Israel. Napolean again said the Jew is proof of God. God has preserved them for his name's sake. They will finally accept him as the nations surround Israel. You can count on it!

[robert kellly]

I also think by calling it popular you are setting up a strawman...if its so popular how come i never heard of it until i was 29 years old, 14 years ago ? Its popular to bash it.. The only christians who are bashed continuously from other christians are those who believe in rapture and literal fulfilllment of Gods' Kingdom on earth.

[Alan Kurschner]

It's amazing that there are still individuals who grant Lindsey credibility after he falsely predicted the second coming of Jesus that was suppose to occur in 1988.

[robert kellly]

Dear Alan,
I dont think he said that i read his book he says its possible and that he could be wrong etc...he didnt speak in name of the lord or for God either...he is not a false prophet...this is classic red herring...slight of hand stuff...You cannot save Israel as she is surrounded...there is a new J coming down...and i plan to be there thanks be to God. Why does man want to limit and create God as to how he thinks he is...thats the main problem here..no eye has seen no ear heard..etc.

[Mark Priestap]

Robert - I recommend you read Dr. Riddlebarger's book "A Case for Amillennialism" which treats Premillennial Dispensationalism fairly while giving a very clear and easy to understand case for his position, which is the position of many if not the majority of Reformed and Lutheran churches since the Reformation. The Dispensationalist position is about as old as 1830 and has changed dramatically over the years as its proponents try to conform it to scripture... we consider Dispensationalists to be brothers here, but we do not consider it to be a Biblical system.

http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/a-case-for-amillennialism/

Warmly,
Mark

[Costigan]

For an interesting view of this debate, see this Google Timeline which borrows from various sources http://bit.ly/Iwtgy It may confuse you more than clarifying but it shows a historical timeline matched or mis-matched up with a prophetic timeline.

[Rev. Z. Bartels]

Do you <i>really</i> think it's a coincidence that, in the Book of Revelation (I mean the Book or Revelations), people are riding horses all over??? It's because there's no oil left! It all got burned up in Saddam's oil fires!!

heh... I kill me.

www.pastorzach.com

[timinator]

Robert Kelly,

Yes Hal Lindsey is a false prophet.
He not only predicted when the Lord was going to return 1988, look at his book the 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon. Or during Desert Storm he predicted several things he saw coming from the war, none of which came to pass.

If you want some good reading try the following two books:

Keith A. Mathison, Rightly Dividing the people of God? P&R 1995
Kim Riddlebarger, A Case For Amillennialism Baker 2003

[Don Smith]

I am with Robert Kelly- well sort of. I do think that often the tone of Covenant Theo's (I mean particularly Amil folk) is a bit nobish toward we brethren of Reformed, but dispensational viewpoint. No one could believe any more in the Sovereignty of God or doctrines of Grace than many of us. Our folk find a literal hermenuetic leads us to identify dispensations and to expect a literal fulfillment of prophecy. Share the road with us brothers. We are not all ga-ga over the "Left Behind" fiction any more than all of our Amil friends are "hyper-Calvanists."

[Alan Kurschner]

Robert,

You are demonstrably wrong. Lindsey wrote in his _The Late Great Planet Earth:

"When the Jewish people, after nearly 2,000 years of exile, under relentless persecution, became a nation again on 14 May 1948 the "fig tree" put forth its first leaves.

Jesus said that this would indicate that He was "at the door," ready to return. Then He said, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place" (Matthew 24:34 NASB).

What generation? Obviously, in context, the generation that would see the sign--chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place. Many scholars who have studied Bible prophecy all their lives believe that this is so. pp. 53-54"

Alan

[DSY]

For Don and Kelly, we do have to restrain ourselves from mocking your view because there are so many easy targets, like Jack and Rexella, the Left Behind books (don't even try the movies, ugh!), Hal Lindsey's constant revisions and repackaging of his predictions, etc. These are, I'm sure you agree, hilarious. The more serious side is the confusion and fear your view visits on millions of Christians, the teaching that someone may be saved after the return of Christ (or the rapture, to use your language), and the misguided approach to modern Israel. I have been on a 15 year journey out of Premil Disp, no one should expect you to drop it overnight. But you are being encouraged here to consider other ideas. Another excellent starting point for considering the book of Revelation is Paul Spilsbury's "The Throne, The Lamb, and the Dragon, IVP, 2002. This is a book about the TEXT of Revelation, not so much the various systems of end times schemes.
Your Brother, DSY

[DSY]

By the way... is anyone else creeped out by Hal Lindsey's mustache?

[robert kellly]

Thanks for responses...Im satisfied with my position and i am not convinced i should revisit it. If maybe someone could give me one reason why i should and its compelling to me, then i will - other than Hal Lindsey is false prophet - ...Dwight Pentecost (is he still alive) wrote long before him as did many others. BTW I think Chuck Smith is false prophet due to 1981 church he had and stuff he told them as well as defining what a false prophet should be..."anyone who suggests a date falls into that category" then he does exactly that. .

[Mark Priestap]

Robert - That book mentioned up above "Rightly Dividing the people of God?" is a great place to start if ever do look back into it. I strongly encourage you to do it -- you will find a treasure in the OT that you never knew was there. For example, read Ezekiel 36, 37 in light of the gospel and tell me it is not encouraging to your faith. it does NOT speak of national israel ultimately, but its full fulfillment must be in Christ and His Church.

In my opinion we're not hurling insults at Premillennialism per se, but the Dispensational form of Premillennialism which reinterprets huge chunks of the OT to speak of national Israel rather than Christ. The promises to Abraham were much greater than a tiny chunk of land in the Middle East. They speak of Christ, a heavenly Jerusalem, a new heaven and a new earth. Abraham looked forward to Christ. The Land promises are fulfilled ultimately as God lavished his love on us through His Son giving us all things abundantly. Narrow plots of land in the middle east are only a foreshadowing of the reality we will know in Christ.

Spurgeon was Premillennial, but thought that Dispensationalism was false. It is possible to hold the former without the later.

In Christ,
Mark

ps. Do you believe that God will reinstitute animal sacrifices in the Millennium as Dwight Pentecost and others taught? Would this not be blasphemous in light of Christ's sacrifice?

[wayne pelling]

I have just finished reading your book Dr R, THE MAN OF SIN, and whilst vacillating between historical premillenialism and amilenialism,I think that dispensationalism is wrong,and arguments around it,through it and about it, have led to needless breakups of churches,friendships and ministries.
I once was at Keswick Convention,here in Australia when ,the Baptist preacher J SIDLOW BAXTER made a funny comment about the position of that most gracious fellow countryman of mine and perhaps one of Australia's greatest theologian- Leon Morris. It had to do with Revelations chapter 20 and after talking about the Beast to come ,Baxter said,'but do not tell Leon Morris that" to which the audience laughed-except my mother ,who like Morris was an Anglican.This was in 1966 ,when amillenialism was seen to be associated with modernism-well here in Australia anyway

[Tom Albrecht]

There are many excellent books on the serious errors of dispensationalism.

One I recommend is House Divided: The Break-Up of Dispensational Theology which can be found online at http://www.entrewave.com/freebooks/docs/21fe_47e.htm

Hal Lindsey many not be a false prophet, but he certainly is a false teacher, not to mention a serial polygamist. How anyone can take him seriously is beyond me.

[Rana]

Walid Shoebat is questionable, don't believe everything you here from someone who calls himself a former Palestinian terrorist and charges at least $3,000 per speaking engagement! His whole story is questionable and there is money to be made on the dispensationalist, Middle East hating, pro-Israeli agression speaker circuit.

I am a Palestinian Christian and I have shared my testimony and my family's story at some churches, I am glad to do so and I don't charge $3,000, tickle your dispensationalist, fear-mongering ears and flee from any questions. In fact, I don't charge anything at all.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents, but if I wanted to be an opportunist I could be a very wealthy woman on the John Hagee speaker circuit.

[Rana]

oops! meant "hear" not "here"

and not that many people care, but having lived one third of my life in the Middle East I will tell you this, dispensationalism is a hindrance to the gospel in the Arab and Muslim world. Dispensationalism's culture is full of language that speaks pejoratively toward Middle Easterners, rather than in love, kindness, patience. Muslims do believe Jesus was a prophet, few Christians know that and even fewer Christians see that as a point of departure to speak the truth of the gospel to Muslims.

As Christians we are letting the political fanaticism and sensationalism of our time lead us in our beliefs.

One thing I do agree with you on is that Chuck Smith is a false prophet, if it is ever found out that men like him are on the Israel lobby's payroll I would not be surprised, Smith is more aggressive militarily than even hawks in Israel. I hope people see the danger of highly influential "evangelicals" using their position in the church to beat the drums of war/ politics in this situation.

God have mercy on the millions of Christians in the Middle East.