I am writing to you because of an acute and rampant problem in the Christian community.
As a freshman in college the Holy Spirit kept urging me to read Darwin’s Origin of the Species, but it was in the office of the head of the biology department and Dr. Boling advised me not to read it until I was further along in school. But after a year and a half I dropped out and didn’t return for several years. Soon after dropping out I read many books written by evolutionists-Darwin, Haeckel, Hooton, and many others whose names I have forgotten.
Incredibly, I finally concluded that the theory of evolution was the greatest hoax ever foisted on humankind and I was going to shovel the sand from under its foundation. Little did I know that it would be much tougher than anticipated.
In retrospect I know that the Holy Spirit taught me. The creationist movement of today was unknown at that time. I had no creationist books other than Harry Rimmer and M. R. DeHaan, and they were considered “kooks” by the evolutionists, and even some Christians criticized them harshly.
When I returned to college, creationist John Klotz caught my attention, and when I entered seminary Henry Morris and John Whitcomb appeared on the scene, and the field began to grow. I was delighted. At last there were others to confirm my feeble, unprofessional, creationist beliefs. Now, of course, there is a plethora of wonderful materials.
Why am I telling you this? It is because there is another field of learning that is not only as fundamentally important as creationism, it is even more so; and it is presently more dangerous than evolutionism because it has taken evangelicals and fundamentalists by storm.
Evolutionism is based on certain assumptions which, if incorrect, destroy the hypothesis. So it is with modern, refined chiliasm. If it is based on destructive presuppositions, it can and does lead to Christian behavior patterns which actually support anti-Christian biblical, political, social, economic and moral chaos. This is a pretty big statement. If true, it deserves every ounce of our energy to expose its errors and to form constructive answers and actions.
Modern chiliasm, popularly known as dispensationalism, is, like evolutionism, built upon a foundation of sand. Here are its main assumptions:
1. The “seventieth week” of Daniel 9:24-27 must be surgically removed and grafted into the future.
2. A seven-year “great tribulation” will become that “seventieth week”.
3. The modern political-religious state of Israel is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning the regathering of the Jews to their land.
4. Armageddon will be a gigantic military operation in the Plain of Esdraelon and Israel will be attacked.
5. Christ will return secretly for His Church and later to literally split the Mount of Olives and save His chosen people, the nation of Israel.
6. Christ will reign on earth for a literal thousand years.
7. The “great city” of Revelation 17:18 is Rome.
If these assumptions are incorrect, contemporary Christians who follow them are actually supporting the anti-Christ system for a New World Order, and they are, whether they recognize it or not, trading the finished work of Christ on the cross for a mess of pottage in the form of a false “chosen people” hypothesis. This is even more tragic than buying evolutionism, although the two are supported by the same secret entity.
I was once an avowed modern chiliast. I taught that convoluted view to others. But the Lord turned me around just as He taught me the errors of evolutionism. Do I hate others who espouse dispensationalism? Of course not! I love all my Christian brothers and sisters. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have written this letter. Am I an anti-Semite? Only the misguided will label me, which opinion is prima facie evidence of their error, especially because they define their own labels.
May the Holy Spirit teach those in His Church who are arrogantly certain of their chiliastic theories, the near blasphemy of believing in a two-covenant relationship, one with the “chosen” and the other with Christians, and may our risen Christ be glorified.
Gordon Ginn, Ph.D.
