Saturday, May 30, 2015

Dallas Seminary Secrets By Dave MacPherson




     Dallas, Texas is called the Big D. And Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), deep in the heart of Big D, is the No. 1 school promoting another Big D.
     I refer to "Dispensationalism" which, like a pearl shell, has long built up layers of supposed "proof" in order to protect its inner secret: the little money-making pearl known as the pretribulation rapture, a 19th century, fringe-British-invented theological novelty that was based originally on only OT and NT types and symbols and NOT on a single Bible verse!
     For many years Dr. John Walvoord was DTS's president and was viewed as the world's No. 1 pretrib rapture authority. Astonishingly, the first (1957) printing of Walvoord's "The Rapture Question" admitted on p. 148: "The fact is that neither posttribulationism nor pretribulationism is an explicit teaching of Scripture."

     (Walvoord, of course, could easily apply "explicit" in this manner to the historic posttrib view. The real shock was seeing him applying it to his own pretrib view!)
     Dr. George Ladd of Fuller Seminary was the first one to alert me about this. In the same 1971 letter to me, Ladd added that in later printings of Walvoord's book the above devastating admission no longer appears for obvious reasons!
     In two of his books ("The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation," 1976) and "The Rapture Question, Revised," 1979), Walvoord discussed my extensive research on pretrib rapture history. Many are still unaware that Walvoord, when opposing my findings, leaned not for support on any of his own DTS profs including church history experts but instead leaned almost exclusively on a militant member of the Plymouth Brethren named R. A. Huebner who at that time was a retired electrical engineer who had admitted that he had never attended college, seminary, or even a Bible school! (My research, BTW, has uncovered serious copying errors in Huebner's works - 95 of them in his 1973 booklet and 257 in his 1991 book including words changed, added, or subtracted when quoting others!)

< Ed Hinson, Dean, Liberty University

 Walvoord's "The Rapture Question" also declares on p. 127: "Posttribulationism has long been a common doctrine held by the majority of the church." (Interestingly, even though pretrib teachers are aware of this true statement, they either pretend it doesn't exist or give the impression that anyone holding to a non-pretrib view is someone akin to a heretic!)

     Bible teachers who've either taught, spoken, or studied at Dallas Seminary include the following: Tony Evans, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ed Hindson, Mark Hitchcock, Thomas Ice, H. A. Ironside, Robert Jeffress, David Jeremiah, Hal Lindsey, Erwin Lutzer, J. Vernon McGee, Dwight Pentecost, Randall Price, Ron Rhodes, Charles Ryrie, Charles Stanley, Joseph Stowell, Chuck Swindoll, Merrill Unger, and Andy Woods.
     My greatest shocks have been when discovering massive plagiarism among some of the scholars tied to Dallas Seminary. My book "The Rapture Plot" has an appendix covering such thievery even in the writings of men like Charles Ryrie and Paul Lee Tan.
      And my later book "The Three R's" shows, with side-by-side lines, that famed DTS prof Dr. Merrill Unger, holder of more than one doctorate, quietly plagiarized some of Hal Lindsey's books! He pilfered lines on 67 pages in Hal's "The Late Great Planet Earth" and also lifted lines on 36 pages in Hal's "There's A New World Coming."
     Much more evidence of such dispensational dishonesty is found in my "Plot" book. Readers can also Google "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" and "Walvoord's Posttrib Varieties - Plus."
     Remember: DTS stands for Dallas Theological Seminary." It can also stand for "Distorting the Scripture"!
     Lastly, I would be an ingrate if I would ever fail to thank my good friend Joe Ortiz for his kindness in airing articles of mine on his superb web sites.


 

Dave MacPherson. What People are saying
What They Are Saying About ... THE RAPTURE PLOT!                                                                           
Gary DeMar (President American Vision): "A majority of prophecy writers and speakers teach that the church will be raptured before a future tribulational period. But did you know that prior to about 1830 no such doctrine existed. No one in all of church history ever taught pretribulational rapture. Dave MacPherson does the work of a journalistic private investigator to uncover the truth....The Rapture Plot is the never-before-told true story of the plot - how plagiarism and subtle document changes created the 'mother of all revisionisms.' A fascinating piece of detective work." Robert H. Gundry (Professor Westmont College): "As usual MacPherson out hustles his opponents in research on primary sources. C. S. Lovett (President Personal Christianity): You don't read very much of Dave MacPherson's work before you realize he is a dedicated researcher. Because his work has been so honest and open his latest work The Rapture Plot has produced many red faces among some of the most recognized rapture writers of our time. When their work is compared to his it is embarrassing for them to see how shallow their research is." R. J. Rushdoony (President Chalcedon): "Dave MacPherson has been responsible for major change in the eschatology of evangelical churches by his devastating studies of some of the central aspects thereof. In The Rapture Plot MacPherson tells us of the strange tale of 'rapture' writings, revisions, cover-ups, alterations and confusions. No one has equaled MacPherson in his research on the 'pretrib rapture.' Attempts to discredit his work have failed...." 


About the Author: Born 1932 of Scotch/English descent Dave MacPherson is a natural for British historical research. His calling was journalism. Receiving a BA in English in 1955 he spent 26 years as a newsman reporting and filming many notable events persons presidents and dignitaries.

Monday, May 04, 2015

Professor William L. Craig Leaves Tim LaHaye Behind! by Dave MacPherson



     Question:  What happens when an elephant meets a mouse?
     Answer:  The same thing when an eminent Christian scholar meets "Left Behind" confidence man Tim LaHaye.
     The elephant, Dr. William Lane Craig (leading Christian apologist and Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology), caused a tribulational tsunami last fall when he declared that LaHaye's "Left Behind" theology (which rests on a pretrib rapture) is "not biblical"!
     Craig (pictured above) stated this in an August 5th Charisma News" article titled "Despite Popular Theology, Apologist Says Rapture Movies Are Not Biblical."
     He wrote: "The rapture was made up by someone in the 1800s, and the story caught on among some groups who still believe it today. The simple truth is that it is not biblical, nor was it ever the historic position of the Christian church."
     Craig added that "Many people have never known any other view than the rapture...[and have] never thought to examine or question its biblical credentials."
     Building his case against pretrib theology, Craig said that pretrib has succeeded not because of evidence in the Bible but because it's been promoted by the Scofield Reference Bible and schools like Dallas Seminary - and of course by "Left Behind" books and films and even by a recently launched HBO program.

     Well, after the Talbot research professor shot his cannonball across LaHaye's bow, you can imagine how quickly LaHaye stirred up from his rapture repose at his swanky Rancho Mirage home in the Southern California desert.
     Six days later "Charisma News" ran LaHaye's response in a piece titled " 'Left Behind' Author Tim LaHaye Fires Back at Anti-Rapture Apologist."
     LaHaye (pictured above) ignored Craig's thrust and regurgitated the usual pretrib arguments. He then maliciously and dangerously (see Matt. 5:22) tried to repeat the pretrib non-argument which asserts that those rejecting pretrib may not even be saved!!
     LaHaye stated: "The good news for even a-Millennialists like Craig is if they believe in and have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior from sin, they will go up in the rapture with the rest of us."
     At the end of his below-the-belt riposte, LaHaye twisted the knife even more when he audaciously added: "I certainly hope those who chose to disbelieve in the rapture will meet Jesus' qualifications for salvation, that way during the rapture we can discuss it in more detail."
     When LaHaye's 1992 book "No Fear of the Storm" (which has a chapter entitled "MacPherson's Vendetta") reproduced Margaret Macdonald's 1830 pretrib revelation account, he carelessly left behind a total of 49 words, the same 49 words that would-be scholar Thomas Ice had left out in the same places in her account when he had reproduced it three years earlier!
     (It was apparent that LaHaye had merely copied Ice's errors-filled reproduction instead of researching original sources. If Dr. Craig, an apologist who has debated famous antagonists including the late Christopher Hitchens, had left behind even one word when reproducing Macdonald's short handwritten account of her "discovery," I'm sure he would have been greatly embarrassed!)
     What's really fascinating is that Prof. Craig is associated with a school that is part of Biola and that back in 1953 I was kicked out of Biola (when it was in downtown Los Angeles) for giving copies of my father's 1944 posttrib book "Triumph Through Tribulation" to some students and profs on that campus.
     How times have changed!
     Meanwhile LaHaye is still making LaHay while LaSun shines in Rancho Mirage - a name that fits in with a rapture that's truly a mirage in the real world the rest of us live in!


 
Dave MacPherson. What People are saying
What They Are Saying About ... THE RAPTURE PLOT!                                                                           
Gary DeMar (President American Vision): "A majority of prophecy writers and speakers teach that the church will be raptured before a future tribulational period. But did you know that prior to about 1830 no such doctrine existed. No one in all of church history ever taught pretribulational rapture. Dave MacPherson does the work of a journalistic private investigator to uncover the truth....The Rapture Plot is the never-before-told true story of the plot - how plagiarism and subtle document changes created the 'mother of all revisionisms.' A fascinating piece of detective work." Robert H. Gundry (Professor Westmont College): "As usual MacPherson out hustles his opponents in research on primary sources. C. S. Lovett (President Personal Christianity): You don't read very much of Dave MacPherson's work before you realize he is a dedicated researcher. Because his work has been so honest and open his latest work The Rapture Plot has produced many red faces among some of the most recognized rapture writers of our time. When their work is compared to his it is embarrassing for them to see how shallow their research is." R. J. Rushdoony (President Chalcedon): "Dave MacPherson has been responsible for major change in the eschatology of evangelical churches by his devastating studies of some of the central aspects thereof. In The Rapture Plot MacPherson tells us of the strange tale of 'rapture' writings, revisions, cover-ups, alterations and confusions. No one has equaled MacPherson in his research on the 'pretrib rapture.' Attempts to discredit his work have failed...." 



About the Author: Born 1932 of Scotch/English descent Dave MacPherson is a natural for British historical research. His calling was journalism. Receiving a BA in English in 1955 he spent 26 years as a newsman reporting and filming many notable events persons presidents and dignitaries.