Armageddon Now! The Premillenarian Response to Russia and Israel Since 1917 DWIGHT WILSON Institute for Christian Economics Tyler, Texas Copyright It' 1991 Dwight Wilson Printed in the United States of America Published by Institute for Christian Economics P.O. Box 8000 Tyler, Texas 75711 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilson, Dwight. Armageddon now! : the premillenarian response to Russia and Israel since 1917 / Dwight Wilson. p. em. Originally published: Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Book House, 1977. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-930464-58-3 (hard: alk. paper): $25.00.-ISBN 0-930464-57-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) : $9.95 1. Millennialism-Controversial literature. 2. Bible-Prophecies Soviet Union-History. 3. Bible-Prophecies-Israel-History. I. Title. [BT891.W54 1991] 236'.9-dc20 91-39999 CIP Acknowledgments No matter how independently conceived or carried out, every historical study is the product of a community of scholars. That fact is particularly true of this study. Special thanks are due to Page Smith for graciously guiding this disciple at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where the studies resulting in this book were pursued, and also to John Dizikes of UCSC for fortifying my ambition to chase my own peculiar interests. I would be remiss if I were not to formally acknowledge my obvious in tellectual debt to Ernest R. Sandeen and Samuel S. Hill, Jr. Librarians are either the most helpful people in the world, or perhaps simply the people whom I most ask for help. Whatever the case, the UCSC Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Joan Hodgson, has given efficient, courteous service to a multitude of requests. The staff of the Biola Library, including Arnold D. Ehlert, Jan Mayer, Gerald Gooden, and Robert Bamattre, rendered not only competent service but red-carpet treatment. Each of the following librarians provided service far beyond expectations: Walter Osborn, Moody Bible Institute; Jewell Carter, Golden Gate Baptist The ological Seminary; and Stuart Compton, Simpson College. My thanks also to the library staffs of the Pacific School of Religion, the Graduate Theological Union, San Francisco Theological Semi nary, Central Bible College, Bethany Bible College, the University of Utah, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Without the encouragement of my wife, Kathryn, these studies would never have begun. She has graciously shouldered some of my responsibilities without complaint, proofread the early drafts, and providedbeautifulcompanionship. The Shepherd Boy and the WoK A mischievouslad, who was set to mindsome sheep, used, in jest, to cry HWolfl Wolf!" When the people at work in the neighboring fields came running to the spot he would laugh at them for their pains. One day the wolf came in reality, and the boy this time called "Wolfl Wolfl" in earnest; but the men, having been so often deceived, disregarded his cries, and the sheep were left at the mercy of the wolf. -Aesop Contents Publisher's Preface by Gary North. ...................... ix Foreword (1991 Printing)................................ xxv 1. Introduction ........................................ 11 2. Before Balfour and Bolsheviks....................... 14 3. Armageddon- Almost 36 4. The Twenties Roar Faintly- Bear, Beast, and Young Lions ................................ S9 S. Balfour Betrayed.................................... 86 6. Mobilizing for Armageddon.......................... 107 7. The Century's Greatest Event ........................ 123 8. From Sinful Alliance to Christian Realism............ 144 9. The Certainty of Survival 161 10. Jerusalem! What Now?............................. 188 11. Epilogue........................................... 21S Footnotes .............................................. 219 Selected Bibliography 247 Scripture Index......................................... 259 General Index .......................................... 263 Publisher's Preface by Gary North This work on the whole will be more a tool in the hands of antipremillenarians then a help to premillenarians, but premillenarians willing to be self-critical will find his presentation is at least partially justified. Students ofproph ecy will do well to study this volume carefully for its com prehensive view of premillennial interpretation over the last sixty years and to learn from it many important lessons ap plicable to interpretation today. -John F. Walvoord. 19801 Dr. Walvoord's prediction that Dwight Wilson's Armageddon Now! would become a tool for anti-premillenarians is perhaps the most accurate prediction he made during his long career. It was an easy prediction to make. That a postmillennial publisher has now republished Dr. Wilson's book is no more remarkable than the fact that a mainly amillennial publishing firm, Baker Book House, published it in the first place. The manuscript was seen as a hot potato by dispensational publishing houses back in the mid-1970's. The book still is. Unfortunately for his disciples but fortunately for his bank account, Dr. Walvoord did not take seriously the "many im- 1. J. F. Walvoord, "Review of Armageddon Now!." Bibliotheca Sacra (April! June 1980). pp. 177-78. ix Armageddon Now! portant lessons applicable to interpretation today" that Dr. Wilson had offered in 1977. In late 1990, Walvoord revised his 1974 book, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis, and it sold over a million and a half copies- a million by February, 1991.2 It did so by rejecting Dr. Wilson's warning: do not use sensational interpretations of Bible prophecy in order to sell books. If you do, you will look like a charlatan in retrospect, and you will also injure the reputation of Christ and His Church. But the lure of sensationalism was apparently too great. The latest dispensational feeding frenzy for prophecy books was in full force as the United States moved toward war in the Middle East in January, 1991. It was at that point that Walvoord publicly rejected. his earlier belief in the "any-moment Rapture" doctrine. This was proof that he had abandoned tra ditional scholarly dispensationalism and had adopted the pop dispensationalism of Hal Lindsey, Dave Hunt, and Constance Cumbey- what I like to call dispensensationalism. (His col leagues at Dallas Theological Seminary remained, as always, dis creetly silent. They know exactly how their bread is buttered: by donations from laymen who thoroughly enjoy an occasional feeding frenzy.) The leaders of American dispensationalism have not resisted the lure of huge book royalties and a few moments in the public spotlight which the doctrine of "today's ticking clock of proph ecy" offers to them. In an interview in the national newspaper, USA Today (Jan. 19, 1991), three days after the U.S. attacked Iraq, a theologically well-informed reporter asked Dr. Walvoord: "So the prophetic clock is ticking?" Walvoord answered emphati cally, "Yes." He had begun the interview with this assertion: "Bible prophecy is being fulfilled every day." This was an about-face of astounding proportions on his part. He threw out a lifetime of scholarship for a moment of fame. He sold his theological birthright for a pot of message-a sensational message that sells newspapers and paperback books. He sold out ortho dox dispensationalism in general and what little remains of or thodox dispensationalism at Dallas Theological Seminary.8 2. Time (Feb. 11, 1991). 3. The revised curriculum at Dallas, introduced in the fall of 1991, indicates how little of that tradition remains.