Economic Impact of Dispensationalism

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Anton Bruckner

Puritan Board Professor
I see that Hal Lindsey book sold upwards of 25 million copies, the Left Behind series followed in the same vein, many videos, dvds and other books are sold.

Books stores profit, whether they are Christian or non Christian, Ad Agencies profit and great economic activity is generated.

Today many websites are created for the explicit and implicit purpose of preaching Dispensationalist Eschatology.

Tuesday night after Bible study, I was dropping home this church member and she commented that Benny Hinn was on television asking for money to donate to Israeli Orphans in Israel.

Israel generates plenty of dollars in tourist money from Dispensationalists. Many televangelists always have a "trip to the Holy Land", and many love to do broadcasts directly from these places.

In addition many Hotels receive many dollars from renting their convention centers and auditoriums for prophecy seminars etc.

So my point is, man has this false doctrine generated massive amounts of wealth for people. And this I believe is exactly why it will be constantly prompted with utmost zealousness.

Can you imagine what would happen to all those money making processes if Dispensationalism tanks???????
 
Intresting....

I know dispensational books make a fortune, every time a new one comes out it sells. My local book stores always keep in this stock becuase of how in demand they are. I know, I used to own over 100 of them!:um:
 
yep if I had all the money I spent listening to tapes and reading that stuff and trying to figure out or donate to a ministry that would figure out when Jesus would return...I could have raised several orphans and cared for many widows myself!
 
This is one of the main things that made me question my old belief in dispensationalism.Marketing Jesus is wrong.
 
Interesting perspective. I never really reflected about how much Israel benefits financially from the whole tourist thing. I know their former Prime Ministers are smart enough to talk on "Christian" talk radio.

I remember a friend telling me one time that he met a Palestinian Christian in Israel who asked him why American Christians love the people of Israel more than the Christians there. My former Church in VA helped establish a Reformed seminary in Tel Aviv and the country is anything but friendly to the Christians there.

Was it Phillipi where the idol makers started to incite the town folk because Paul was cutting into their idol making? Makes you wonder what would happen to anybody who got enough traction to make a mainstream assault on the Rapture. Hardly possible, however, because the whole "drama" satisfies "itching ears".

I have a brother-in-law who reads the Left Behind books cover to cover in a few days but I don't believe he's ever read the Scriptures cover to cover.
 
I have a brother-in-law who reads the Left Behind books cover to cover in a few days but I don't believe he's ever read the Scriptures cover to cover.

I was guilty of that in my past, more than just with the Left Behind novels as well!
 
Unfortunately Dispensationalism has also impacted the average American Christian's view of being a steward of God's Earth and of social issues in General. I mean if you are a Dispensational expecting to be raptured "any second now", do you really care about teaching the poor hispanic migrant's kids how to read/speak English -OR- cleaning up a roadside littered with beer cans, etc.?

I'm currently studying Dr. Kenneth Gentry's series on Revelation "The Divorce of Israel". This includes reading healthy poritions of Josephus' Jewish Wars and Schaff on the the Destruction of Rome (AD 64) and Jerusalem (AD 70). Even though this all still very new to me, after correlating this documented history with the Prophets and Revelation's purpose and imagery, I'm simply dumfounded that I ever believed in the pre-Trib, pre-Mill position.

... I've never read a single Left Behind book though.
 
Originally posted by BrianBowman
Unfortunately Dispensationalism has also impacted the average American Christian's view of being a steward of God's Earth and of social issues in General. I mean if you are a Dispensational expecting to be raptured "any second now", do you really care about teaching the poor hispanic migrant's kids how to read/speak English -OR- cleaning up a roadside littered with beer cans, etc.?

MacArthur's the excpetion to that rule, you know. In fact, MacArthur, Ryrie and most of the more solid folks.... and the folks at PBC, DTS, CTS and several other good Dispensational schools.
 
Originally posted by Average Joey
This is one of the main things that made me question my old belief in dispensationalism.Marketing Jesus is wrong.

Yeah...but marketing R.C. Sproul and Jonathan Edwards is no better. Having recently abandoned dispensationalism, perhaps I am a little touchy. But the temptation to turn our faith into a profit stream is not limited to dispensationalism. Far from it.
 
Originally posted by houseparent
At least at this time we don't have Spurgeon wallets, Key chains, and bible highlighters.

Shhhh...I do have MacArthur bed linen and a Mohler lunchbox.
 
Originally posted by OS_X
Originally posted by BrianBowman
Unfortunately Dispensationalism has also impacted the average American Christian's view of being a steward of God's Earth and of social issues in General. I mean if you are a Dispensational expecting to be raptured "any second now", do you really care about teaching the poor hispanic migrant's kids how to read/speak English -OR- cleaning up a roadside littered with beer cans, etc.?

MacArthur's the excpetion to that rule, you know. In fact, MacArthur, Ryrie and most of the more solid folks.... and the folks at PBC, DTS, CTS and several other good Dispensational schools.

Very true Kerry! I did not mean to implicate _all_ Dispensational's here. I will say this though and I know you can read me on this. I spent over 6 years in the Dispensational sect Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO) in your hometown of Baltimore. During this time, GGWO boasted of having over 130 unique outreaches to the City of Baltimore. While it's true that much good is done through these outreaches, while I was there, few of them operated with a long-term vision to see the poverty, crime, and depravity of East Baltimore radically transformed. Again MUCH good was (and still may be) done by very many committed people. The problem was the Dispensational doctrinal angle combined with GGWO's Pastor Stevens heavy-handed Arminian-style "soul-winning" diatribes (think Jack Hyles ... but turn up the vitriolic heat), pretty much kept things in the column of "short term gain" - i.e. "counting weekly professions, Bible-club attendance, etc.".

To build the kind of trust and character necessary to "go the distance", takes an understand of God's covenantal faithfulness and willingness to forsake the "numbers gain" (i.e. boasting about the "number" of outreaches you have).
 
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