http://www.poweredbychrist.com/Pretrib_Rapture_Dishonesty.html
Fearlesss Dave MacPhearson write that "When I began my research in 1970 into the exact beginnings of the pretribulation rapture belief still held by many evangelicals, I assumed that the rapture debate involved only "godly scholars with honest differences." The paper you are now reading reveals why I gave up that assumption many years ago. With this introduction-of-sorts in mind, let's take a long look at the pervasive dishonesty throughout the history of the 179-year-old pretrib rapture theory."
MacPhearson wrote a book called "The three R's: Rapture, Revisionism, Robbery : Pretribulation Rapturism From 1830 to Hal Lindsey."
He says "...the Los Angeles Times revealed that “The Magog Factor” (1992) by Hal Lindsey and Chuck Missler was a monstrous plagiarism of Prof. Edwin Yamauchi’s scholarly 1982 work “Foes from the Northern Frontier.” Four months after this exposure, Lindsey and Missler stated they had stopped publishing and promoting their book. But in 1996 Dr. Yamauchi learned that the dishonest duo had issued a 1995 book called “The Magog Invasion” which still had a substantial amount of the same plagiarism! "
"Dallas Seminary professor Merrill Unger’s book “Beyond the Crystal Ball” (Moody Press, 1973) constituted a colossal plagiarism of Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth” (1970). After Lindsey’s book came out, Unger had complained that Lindsey’s book had plagiarized his classroom lecture notes."
However, if Merrill Unger was a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary when Hal Lindsey was a student there and did write notes for his classroom teaching quite similar to what Hal Lindsey wrote in The Late Great Planet Earth, then it is likely that Lindsey plagiarized Unger's notes for Late Great Planet. When Unger's book, Beyond the Crystal Ball came out three years after Late Great Planet and the similarity cold be seen, then since Late Great Planet came out first, it might seem Unger plagiarized Lindsey. But the truth may very well be the opposite.
Many Christians who are not followers of dispensationalism have observed the dishonesty of dispensationalists. Maybe it is a habit they have learned from the dispensationalist celebrities, as well as being a part of their natural man nature.
Christians are not supposed to cultivate their images, their appearances. In fact, the KJV translates the Greek words prosopon and opsis as appearance.
"For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart." II Corinthians 5: 12
"Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's." II Corinthians 10: 7
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." John 7: 24
Celebrities enjoy their fame in order to satisfy their self-esteem. Self-esteem is pride, no matter that Carl Rogers and Abraham H. Maslow taught about self-esteem.
Cultivating image in order to be more accepted by those who claim to be Christians and to sell more books arises out of pride.
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." I John 2: 15-16
Dispensationalist celebrities love the world and the pride of life, indicating they remain in the state of the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14.
In our post-Christian culture. image is everything. Some years ago,a TV commercial on NBC for Canon cameras told us that "Image is everything." In the image culture success has become more and more a matter of giving an appearance of being successful and attractive. And the main game in the worldly culture is to win image and success for oneself. An artist is successful when he attains to much image.
Network television is responsible for making the the image culture, created earlier by Hollywood movies, much more a dominating part of popular culture.
And - a Christian celebrity with a big image and fame can be much more effective at deceiving those who claim to be Christians into accepting whatever theology the celebrity is pushing, and for most celebrities it is the prfe-trib rapture and Jewish supremacy.
In the age of deception at its height, the urge to deceive people becomes widespread and dominates the institutions of society, not just the media. The 501C(3) IRS incorporated churches are institutions of society, of the world.
There are a large number of Christian celebrities of our time, many of whom are
still living. Some include Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell,
Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, Tim LaHaye, Grant Jeffrey, John
Hagee, Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart,
and Hal Lindsey. Almost all of these Christian celebrities teach the
pre-tribulation rapture theory, that God has two distinct peoples, the Jews and the Church, that
Christians cannot be Israel and that the Jews, saved or unsaved,
remain the chosen of God. Although
Rick Warren is or was a member of the Southern Baptist denomination, he does not emphasize dispensationalist doctrine as much as Crisswell did. But Rick Warren has said that W. A. Crisswell
was his hero and mentor. Crisswell was into the mega church movement before Warren.
The Christian celebrity system is to a great extent responsible for
the present day widespread
popularity in the Churches of the doctrines of the pre-tribulation
rapture, the radical separation of Church and Jews, and that the Jews remain God's chosen people.
