Dispensationalism, Abortion, and the Terminal Generation

Copyright © Robert E. Cruickshank, Jr (May 7, 2023)

Karen Rogers (Editor)

All Rights Reserved

In 1973, Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth was all the rage in the Christian world.[1] Nestled securely on the shelf of every Christian bookstore across America and on the coffee table of nearly every Christian home, its record-breaking success was unprecedented.  That same year, the Supreme Court would pass Roe v. Wade, and an unprecedented number of babies would go from womb to tomb in record time. Lindsey famously called that present generation “the terminal generation.” It was, but not for the readers of his books. All those babies, however, were part of their own “terminal generation.”

The phrase “the terminal generation” was based on Lindsey’s complete misunderstanding of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:34, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”  In reality, it’s probably too charitable to say that Lindsey “misunderstood” the phrase. Understanding the words of Jesus in this passage isn’t rocket science. He said “this” generation, meaning the generation to whom He was speaking at the time. If Jesus had meant some other generation, two thousand years in the future, He would have said “that” generation. “This generation” is used repeatedly throughout Matthew’s Gospel, and it always means the same thing; it always means the generation of the first century. This was the Biblical “terminal generation.”

Additionally, Jesus’ repeated use of the second-person plural (you) throughout Matthew 24 is self-explanatory. He was telling them, His first-century disciples, that they would witness and see “all these things” that He was describing. Anyone who is even faintly familiar with the Roman-Jewish War of the first century knows that they did, indeed, see “all these things.” Jesus made good on His word. Lindsey’s book was based on the error of interpreting fulfilled prophecy as unfulfilled.

Perhaps Lindsey’s most famous line was: “We should be living like persons who don’t expect to be around much longer.”[2] That’s exactly what Christians did in 1973 as Roe v. Wade passed largely unnoticed and unopposed by the Christian world. Why fight it? Bad news is good news! Aren’t things supposed to get worse and worse in the last days? Turn a blind eye to the culture. Turn a deaf ear to society. Turn your head up and wait for the rapture. “What a way to live,” said Lindsey. “With optimism, with anticipation, with excitement.”

By now, the anticipation for Lindsey’s soon-to-come rapture should have worn off for those who are old enough to remember. At the same time, we must never forget our negligence in 1973 when the landmark Roe v. Wade decision was made. Lest we do forget, the 600,000 to 900,000 unborn babies killed every year should remind us. While Lindsey’s book has become a dusty, twenty-five cent item at the local garage sale, a plethora of new sensationalistic, apocalyptic books have replaced it. Before these books find their way to garage sales half a century from now, let’s hope God’s People finally start to live as if they expect to be “around much longer.” If fifty years ago Christians believed they had a future, maybe the 63 million babies killed since then would still be around.

The Late Great Planet Earth was merely symptomatic of the real disease, Dispensationalism –the theology that undergirded the book.[3] That same theology undergirds every book of the same genre penned ever since. The cycle keeps repeating itself, and it needs to stop. Eschatology matters, and ideas have consequences. In the case of Dispensationalism, the consequences have been serious. As Gary DeMar says, “What you believe about the future could hurt you.” Fifty years ago, Christians believed there would be no future. Many have paid a high price as a result of this belief system, of Dispensationalism’s inept approach to Bible prophecy.

The truth is there will be a future for us, and it’s high time God’s People began living and planning for it. In his seminal message “Why Christianity Lost America,” Vishal Mangalwadi explains: “As a result of this Dispensational teaching coming from American seminaries, the pulpit was simply not interested in law. Therefore, the pew was not interested in law, and the young people were not interested in pursuing law and then becoming judges. This is a very serious problem.”[4]

This is “a very serious problem,” indeed. Maybe if the Church had not completely withdrawn from the field of jurisprudence, there would have been born-again, spirit-filled believers sitting on those Supreme Court benches in 1973, and 68 million more people would be with us today. Maybe if Dispensationalism hadn’t dominated the landscape and mindset of believers for over a hundred years prior to 1973, such a decision would never have come before the high court’s bench in the first place. Why? Because the culture and mindset of the people would have been different. Tracing the rise of Dispensationalism in the 1800s, Gary North writes: “The churches went into hiding, culturally speaking. They left the battlefield, and the humanists won by default.”[5]

It’s time for God’s People to come out of hiding and retake the battlefield. Let’s return to a Gospel message that’s comprehensive and embraces every area of life, including the judiciary. Let’s start planning for the future because there is going to be one.  Let’s ditch the date setting addiction that’s based upon a complete and total misunderstanding of New Testament prophecy. As David Chilton said, the true “terminal generation” was the generation which Jesus called “wicked and perverse”^[6] (Matthew 12:39,45; 16:4; 17:17); it was the first-century generation. It wasn’t the generation of 1973, and it’s not the generation of 2023. But maybe we can make this the “terminal generation” for Dispensationalism, so things will be better for generations going forward.

[1] https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/feature/the-late-great-planet-earth-made-the-apocalypse-popular-concern

[2] https://equip.sbts.edu/article/your-eschatology-has-consequences/

[3] Actually, it’s a version of Dispensationalism which negates the entire system completely. In its true and original form, Dispensation taught that the “Church Age” was an interruption to God’s prophetic plan in which no prophecies were currently being fulfilled. Prophetic time could not resume until the Church was removed; hence, the rapture was a “signless event.” By identifying current events as prophetic signs, Lindsey undermined the entire system that he was attempting to promote. In effect, he cannibalized his own system. Nonetheless, this has caught on and this self-contradictory version of Dispensationalism now dominates. James Jordan calls the people who promote the aberrant view “pop-dispies” (see: APPENDIX B – Christian Zionism and Messianic Judaism, by James B. Jordan in David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation [Tyler, TX: Dominion Press, 1987], pp. 612ff.

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_tFLv4Mnmw

[5] Backward, Christian Soldiers?, pp. ix-xi

[6] David Chilton, The Great Tribulation, p. 4.