Not a Snowball
by Jamey Bennett
Ted Duncan, pastor of the non-denominational dispensational baptist Calvary Bible Church in Bakersfield, CA, has gone public with a response to the enormously popular Left Behind series. Unlike other critiques of Left Behind, Duncan has chosen to respond in the form of a novel, A Snowball's Chance (ASC). And believe it or not, ASC is strikingly absent of dispensational special effects and Star Trek gadgets -- at least until the end. The good majority of the book takes place entirely prior to the rapture (which, by the way, sneaks up on the reader!). Having only tried his hand at poetry in the past, this is Duncan's first attempt at a novel -- one that is full of action, suspense, and even a bit of romance.
The novel opens early in the 21st century in the Los Angeles area, lending itself a degree of familiarity to SoCal residents, and consequently making scenes easy to visualize. Several college students, a cop, and a few others, all with very different lives and backgrounds, cross paths in an unlikely, though fairly believable, series of events. (A series of events that even gave me nightmares one night! Car chases, gun fights, and lots of close calls -- all in my dream and based on the book -- made for one stressful night!) The characters in the book are quite the lovable group; even the hoodlums managed to find their way to my good side. The LA county-wide bunch come together through gambling bets-gone-bad turned robbery that leads -- surprise, surprise -- to an end-times Bible study. It is in this Bible study led by Compton thug turned pastor that most of the substance of Duncan's particular end-times schema is laid out.
Duncan claims to have come across "a whole new approach" to eschatology that is "totally different" than "the generally accepted views" (3). This is simply not the case. Of course, minds immersed in C.I. Scofield, like Chicken McNuggets in BBQ sauce, may see Duncan's work as quite an anomaly. But I assure you, it's about as different as ordering a pizza with extra cheese: the same ole stuff, just more of it. Really the differences amount to minor adjustments on the current dispensational prophecy charts:
• According to ASC, the invasion of Gog & Magog is said to take place at the beginning of the Millennium, rather than the Left Behind scenario that places this battle just prior to the rapture.
• The notorious dispy "gap" between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel's prophecy is moved to halfway through the 70th week in ASC.
• As an extension of the last point, there are no 3 1/2 years of peace at the beginning of the tribulation (contra Left Behind), just 3 1/2 years of hell on earth.
• ASC repeatedly stresses the belief that there are no second-chances after the rapture for people who have heard "a clear presentation of the gospel" and yet rejected it.
These four differences are not significant enough to have any lasting impact on the overall teaching of dispensationalism. The similarities are much more overwhelming, and by far outweigh any possible differences, making claims of "a whole new approach" spurious at best. Dan Thompson lists a number of similarities between Left Behind and dispensational guru Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth that apply just as well to ASC. All three admit the following elements to their end-times scenarios:
• A multi-nation confederacy
• An Economic Europe
• An Antichrist/Ruler arising
• The Personality of Antichrist
• A Pretribulational rapture
• A "Russian Waterloo"
In addition, I would point out that all three place a time gap in Daniel's 70 “week” prophecy, which is a feature unique to dispensationalism. All three also look forward to yet another rebuilt temple, a future one-world religion, and, most obviously, a premillennial return of Christ.
I respect Pastor Duncan very much. He has a great desire to be faithful to the Scriptures, and I have heard him deliver many great sermons from the Calvary Bible pulpit; but the perspective he has put forth in this area fails to deal with key texts and sticking points of eschatology. Dispensationalists often get caught up in a sort of "millennial madness," inserting gaps into texts, allegorizing timing indicators and futurizing fulfilled prophecy. Exegetical acrobatics are often necessary to maintain a futurist system of prophetic interpretation. This is simply defending the indefensible. As they do this, skeptics have a field day at the expense of the credibility of Christ and His church.
Dispensationalism is the new kid on the block when it comes to prophetic interpretation. In the next few days I will attempt to address the major features of Duncan's scheme from a perspective more firmly rooted in history and, as I'll argue, the Bible. While I would love to deal exclusively with Duncan's four Appendices where he lays out "the doctrinal and historical support" (3) for his views, much of it is nearly impossible to be replied to from the perspective that I am advocating. Why? Because Duncan is directing his novel toward people who share dispensational presuppositions and many of his main arguments are irrelevant to my critique. I found much more material to deal with in the novel itself. Duncan assures us that "the doctrinal implications [in the novel] are purely intentional and absolutely serious" (3). And with that, we shall turn to the examination of the theology behind A Snowball's Chance.
Following this introduction, we will examine the time-texts of scripture, the tribulation foretold by Christ, the “gap-theory” in Daniel, and finally the battle of Gog and Magog. We will attempt to use Duncan’s novel theories (pun intended) to examine the misguided assumptions of dispensational premillennialism.
Note: This was originally written for the old RazorMouth.com site in 2001. It has been slightly re-tooled.
Notes
1. Dispensationalism is an approach to the Scriptures that finds its origins in the 19th century. With the popularity of the Scofield Study Bible and various novels and books in the 20th century, it has become the majority report among American evangelicals and fundamentalists. This critique of Duncan’s novel is an attempt to critique dispensationalism from a fresh angle, and most critical notes will apply to dispensationalism in general.
2. Duncan, Ted. A Snowball's Chance (Bakersfield: Paraklete Publishing, 2001). All parenthetic citations of page numbers will be from Duncan's novel. Appendices will be cited in footnotes.
3. Duncan. For a sample of references to Left Behind in ASC, see 31, 83, 191, 242.
4. For many of us outside of dispensational circles, we see the ever-growing dissention in the dispensational establishment as signs of its "soon" demise. Its end could be near, even at the doors! Even so, come!
5. Thompson, Dan. "What Really Gets Left Behind." Taken from the now defunct website, Antithesis, reviewed in 2000.
6. "The dominant force in prophetic teaching today is actually a variation of premillennialism known as dispensational premillennialism. Whereas the other strains of millennial thought all have deep roots in the history of the church, the dispensational variety is of recent origin." Clouse, Robert G., Robert N. Hosack, and Richard V. Pierard. The New Millennium Manual: A Once and Future Guide (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999).
Part 2 - Soon, Near, & Hey, I'm Here
Part 3 - The Great Tribulation of the 1st Century
Part 4 - Gaps & Monkeyshine Exegesis Posted by Jamey W. Bennett - 8/4/2007 | Print this post
Did Ted ever respond to this in public or private?
Robert Mahoney - 8/8/2007
Nope. I have had several conversations with him face to face since, and I also emailed a PDF version of it (when I first wrote it) to him and several members of the pastoral staff of CBC. No response. To his kind credit, he's still nice to me when he sees me!
Jamey Bennett - 8/9/2007
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