The Dangers of Dispensationalism
Michael Brown
3 Comments
Here is a small news piece about an Idaho man who cut off his hand and microwaved it because he believed he had the mark of the beast. While we do not want to make too light of this person's tragedy (he may, although it is unknown at this point according to the short article, suffer from some sort of mental illness), it is a fact that the popularized dispensational interpretation of the Book of Revelation has done a lot of harm to people in more ways than one. Aside from those of us who are still in therapy from seeing Thief in the Night too many times as a kid, many suffer from a lack of assurance that they will not make the "rapture" cut, while others have a false assurance that if they don't make the cut they will still have a second chance as long as they don't receive the mark of the beast.
Still others suffer from intoxicating sensationalism and newspaper theology, remaining greatly confused about the point and purpose of the Bible and redemptive-history. In this fellow's case, the erroneous dispensational interpretation of Revelation played a part in the physical loss of his hand. Thankfully, he didn't think the mark was on his forehead!
Reader Comments (3)
I am not a Dispensationalist, but saying this one man's insanity indicts an entire system, or proves the inherent dangers of it, no matter how erroneous, seems a little wreckless. The Dispensationalists I know would view this as absurd.
Steve,
All I said is that the dispensational hermeneutic "played a part" in this tragedy. If I brought any indictment of dispensationalism, it has to do with its erroneous hermeneutic, that is, its method of interpreting Scripture. What's more absurd, one man's insanity or a whole theological school of interpretation that has left tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands, maybe millions) of people confused about the Bible, mixing it with popular novels and CNN?
Point taken. The erroneous hermeneutic of Dispensationalism left me theologically dismembered for years. Thanks to Hoekema's Bible and the Future and Riddlebarger's book, I feel whole again. I guess when I read the post it struck me that millions of Dispensationalists would consider what this man did as ridiculously insane and a horrible misapplication of their own beliefs. I agree with you that his belief system played a part, no doubt. I am wondering if it had anything at all to do with driving him mad in the first place. Seems like any eschatology in this guys hands would have been dangerously applied. Thanks for interacting. I like your blog and agree with your response.