Think of the Tuskegee Experiment. Some of those test subjects lived to ripe old ages — with a variety of ailments, true, but they survived untreated syphilis for the cause of Science. A robust constitution kept them going.
In the aftermath of the most devastating war ever fought on this continent — one where Americans fought Americans — a profound malaise lay upon the land. One side had lost its national identity. The other side lost its spiritual identity. The winner was a de-facto Unitarianism for public life, and little personal Christian side chapels for private life. The mind plague of dispensational premillennialism (d.p.) found a home among people whose confidence in themselves, and in their God, had been profoundly shaken.
Now, most d.p.’s were able to compartmentalize their lives fairly easily — one faith for private life, one for public life, and may they never meet. (The one notable exception was an insane crusade to compel neighbors to be holier than Jesus. It succeeded — and discredited Christian social action for a century.)
However, certain vulnerable personalities were made worse by a malady that robust peers shrugged off. This issue came to a head when millions of young Catholic and Jewish folks spearheaded our last major revival. We somehow lacked the knack for compartmentalizing. We acted upon the faith that was handed to us by Hal Lindsey et al. We acted as though these concepts were truly true, rather than “religiously” true. Many of us dropped out of school, quit our jobs, postponed marriage (and adulthood) and bummed around the country “witnessing.”
“When Prophecy Fails” (see Leon Festinger’s examination of a doomsday cult), some find their way back into reality. Others double down on the frame of reference that gave their life meaning. (”Yes, Jesus DID start to return in 1842 — but then He got bogged down in the paperwork halfway here.” Extra points if you can name the Christian denomination that teaches that!)
In my case, when Jesus did not come down to earth on schedule, in 1975, I had to. With a five-year blank space at the beginning of my resume. And a crippled work ethic.
So you see, as one of the vulnerable “little ones” who got burned by the d.p. paradigm, I have a dog in this fight, and a reason for my passion.
God’s curse rests upon all those “prophecy teachers” who profit from false prophecies, over and over and over again.
Thank you for that explanation.
I always thought that dispensationalist was strongest BEFORE the civil war - after all it was created in the 1830s by Darby and then Miller invented his theories in the 1840s.
But what you write makes sense - a trauma led people to double down.
I think it commendable that the “missed appointment” didn’t shatter your faith completely