When I was in my mid-teens my parents sent me to a Summit Ministries summer camp in Colorado. Aside from learning I get altitude sick and seeing the Focus on the Family building pre-Whit’s End (seriously back in the 90s it wasn’t that impressive), I remember one of the final lectures we had the most. For those unaware Summit Ministries was/is a “ministry” founded by David Noebel that focuses almost exclusively on “worldview education”. Summit targets homeschool and Christian private schools to sell David’s curricula especially his “Understanding the Times” books. They also do concentrated camps for “Worldview” intensives for Christian teenagers. The intention is supposedly to prepare them for interacting with the “world” once they get to college.
What I most remember about Summit Camp was the lecture where the presenter absolutely went off the rails. We were hit with over an hour of straight up conspiracy theory. This was back in the “black helicopter/men in black” “One World Government” heyday. The lecturer told us how the UN was infiltrating cities and police departments with secret SWAT special forces. That ultimately it wasn’t the UN but Soviet forces (yes this was after the end of the Soviet bloc) that were secretly aiming to bring back Communism and create an Atheistic one-world government.
Since I had been reading Tom Clancy since I was ten, I just rolled my eyes at the entire idea. Anyone who knows anything about military capabilities knows Russia would be absolutely no match for American military power. However, I didn’t know then what was fueling that conspiracy and paranoia. The whole “one-world government” narrative was a pretext in many premillennial contexts for the emergence of the anti-Christ. The expectation was that the “one-world government” which was godless, and Communist, would come against the (of course) freedom loving embattled America and Israel and there would be a massive battle (probably at Megiddo) and at the last second Jesus would return/all the Christians would be raptured (this last part depended on what bad Christian movie you were watching).
This brings up a pertinent question, why was there a premillennial conspiracy lecture at a Christian camp for “worldview formation”? I now believe they are far more intertwined than one would first be led to believe. What reminded me of this was a post by Kelsey Kramer McGinnis (speaking about her upcoming book about Christian Parenting), “Until researching for this book, I don't think I fully grasped how fundamental premillennial dispensationalism is to Christian family life teaching. I knew it was important, but I'm seeing its echoes everywhere.”
I think that premillennial dispensationalism is so ubiquitous in Christian teaching because in many cases it fueled the ideological fundamentalism we see today.
The Interplay of Premillennialism and Worldview
Going back to the foundation of what we now consider to be “worldview” ideology it’s important to note eschatological considerations didn’t seem to be in mind for the one’s who first conceived and developed the idea. This is because “worldview” philosophically was developed in Reformed theological/philosophical circles in the late 19th Century. Abraham Kuyper whose initial series of lectures at Princeton have been the “Genesis” of “worldview” thinking definitely wouldn’t be considered either a premillennial or dispensationalist.
This changes in the 1970s with the man who most popularized “worldview” thinking Francis Schaeffer. While not a dispensational “premillennial”, Schaeffer was a believer in many aspects of premillennial eschatology. Most important for our consideration was his belief in an ever more corrupted society, “The world is not going to get better and better. The Christian’s hope is not the gradual betterment of the world but that Christ is coming back again.” Schaeffer’s views and teachings on worldview would quickly be picked up by other more traditionally dispensationalist premillennials like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and of course Tim LaHaye. LaHaye would even dedicate his own book on “worldview” “Battle for the Mind” to Schaeffer. LaHaye along with James Dobson and David Noebel worked tirelessly to integrate a “worldview” philosophy into practically every area of Christian life but especially into parenting and training children.
A False Presupposition?
Kuyper in his original philosophy embraced what he called “common grace”. Jeremy Hexham notes, “The idea of antithesis as developed by Kuyper seems to lead to the conclusion that Christians and non-Christians have nothing in common. But, Kuyper strongly rejected this idea. He says that even though there are two kinds of science, one produced by believers, the other by non-believers, in practice "there is a very broad realm of investigation in which the difference ... exerts no influence" (Kuyper 1968:157). As a result, the ideas of Christians and non-Christians are "interlaced" (Kuyper 1968:162). Therefore, Christians and non-Christians can work alongside each other in harmony.” Thus, Hexham notes the ability to hold both Christians in reasonable humility and non-believers in reasonable regard, “Everyone knows professing Christians who act in very un-Christian ways we also know non-Christians who are exceptionally good and caring. Kuyper explains this phenomenon by arguing that everyone is equally capable of terrible deeds and great goodness. This is not because of anything in the person, but rather because the Holy Spirit works in us all of us restraining evil and promoting good. This restraining action Kuyper calls "common grace." It is common to all and is grace in the sense that it originates with God (Kuyper 1998:165-201).”[1]
Yet this very reasonable ability to see the good in society and the bad in the church gets thrown out in a premillennial imagination of the world. Society, by necessity, must be moving towards an ever-worsening end. This of course is antithetical to progressive modernism which foresees an ever more enlightened and progressively better culture. So, both philosophically and eschatologically what may be considered in culture as “progressive” must not be. In fact, it must necessarily be the opposite. Before one even gets to consider the merits or detractions of whatever broader society formulates it almost immediately must be viewed as suspicious. Not only that, but “Christian” practices must, therefore, be right, righteous etc. This is especially true if what appears to be historically “Christian” culture is being challenged by the broader culture around it.
I think it’s important to see how this thinking might operate: something within the broader culture must be bad, even demonic, because we believe society must deteriorate prior to the rapture/return of Jesus. Therefore, whatever is occurring in society cannot be good. It must be a sign of society’s decline. Moreover, whatever is being observed (gentle parenting, diversity in education, etc.) must be the result of “forces” at work to propel society to its inevitable demise.
This thinking results in both an unhealthy tendency to totalize and a lack of self-reflection and awareness. This leads to divisive and destructive rhetoric. All of a sudden “all” public schools and teachers are indoctrinating children. “All” psychology is a Godless attempt to replace the Bible with medicine. “All” climate change is a myth. One can go on. This also turns a blind eye to whatever is on the “right” side- whoever becomes aligned “with us” becomes unassailable. Even worse when “the world” does reveal sin and corruption on “this” side it becomes a matter of conspiracy of “evil forces” taking down the “church”.
Pivoting to Post Millennialism?
By and large dispensational premillennialism is dying out in American Evangelicalism. Daniel G. Hummel in his book Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism notes that almost no major theological Seminary is teaching Dispensationalism today. Premillennialism also as a major influence in majority Evangelicalism appears to be waning as well. The intensity of Hal Lindsay, Tim LaHaye, Pat Robinson and the like of yesteryear does not seem to be matched presently for a premillennial eschatology. Rather it appears a pivot is happening to postmillennial/7 Mountains Dominionism. What is somewhat intriguing about this shift is it no longer seems that the eschatological framework is driving the “worldview”, rather the worldview is informing the eschatology. Now it is because of the assumption that there is “warfare” and even demonic opposition (one of the features of 7 Mountains Dominionism) therefore Christians need to “oppose” the “world” to the point of being called to “take dominion” over it. This establishment of Christ’s “kingdom” will then lead to his return.
What is fascinating about this pivot is it suggests the antagonism and cultural animosity that has always been a part of dispensational premillennialism is now the main point for a growing number of Christians. That being antithetic and hostile to the “culture” is what primarily makes one “Christian”. This suggests that Evangelicals have moved even farther from the person of Jesus Christ. That many now are not even anticipating his return but thinking they can cause it. It also shows a shift in antagonism and even apathy towards the “culture”. No longer is there a pressure to “win souls” because of Christ’s imminent return, but to “dominate” others regardless of their choice for “his kingdom” whether he returns or not.
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[1] Hexham, J., 2023. The mis- appropriation of Abraham Kuyper’s ideas about “worldview” by
American Evangelical Christians. KOERS — Bulletin for Christian Scholarship, 88(1). Available at: https://doi. org/10.19108/KOERS.88.1.2523
You’ve unearthed something profound here. It’s worth further consideration, especially how giving up on the world’s improvement has not removed a fear of interacting with it.