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123-512: The Late Great Planet Earth is a treatment of dispensational premillennialism . As such, it compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to predict future scenarios resulting in the rapture of believers before the Great Tribulation and Second Coming of Jesus to establish his thousand-year (i.e. millennial) kingdom on Earth. Emphasizing various passages in

246-477: A Common European Home . The 1960s saw the first attempts at enlargement . In 1961, Denmark , Ireland , the United Kingdom and Norway (in 1962), applied to join the three Communities. However, President Charles de Gaulle saw British membership as a Trojan Horse for U.S. influence and vetoed membership, and the applications of all four countries were suspended. Greece became the first country to join

369-508: A Parliamentary Assembly and Courts . Collectively they were known as the European Communities . The Communities still had independent personalities although were increasingly integrated. Future treaties granted the community new powers beyond simple economic matters which had achieved a high level of integration. As it got closer to the goal of political integration and a peaceful and united Europe, what Mikhail Gorbachev described as

492-648: A common market and customs union , among its six founding members : Belgium , France , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands and West Germany . It gained a common set of institutions along with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) as one of the European Communities under the 1965 Merger Treaty (Treaty of Brussels). In 1993

615-693: A referendum on 25 September 1972 . The Treaties of Rome had stated that the European Parliament must be directly elected, however this required the Council to agree on a common voting system first. The Council procrastinated on the issue and the Parliament remained appointed, French President Charles de Gaulle was particularly active in blocking the development of the Parliament, with it only being granted Budgetary powers following his resignation. Parliament pressured for agreement and on 20 September 1976

738-501: A "Revived Roman Empire " ruled by the Antichrist. Lindsey wrote that he had concluded, since there was no apparent mention of America in the books of Daniel or Revelation, that America would not be a major geopolitical power by the time the tribulations of the end times arrived. He found little in the Bible that could represent the U.S., but he suggested that Ezekiel 38:13 could be speaking of

861-608: A 10-nation confederacy (prophet Daniel's dreadful 10-horned beast) or, as Lindsey sees it, the European Common Market . Eventually Russia (biblical Magog) will attack Israel and precipitate a global nuclear war. Only Jesus' followers will be spared. Hence, Lindsey advises, "the only thing you need to understand is that God offers you in Jesus Christ a full pardon." Marc Jacobson wrote in The Village Voice , "Therein lies

984-699: A belief in two resurrections, the rise of the Antichrist, and the nation of Israel being regathered, restored and converted. Poiret divided history into seven dispensations: early childhood (ended in the Flood), childhood (ended in Moses's ministry), boyhood (ended in Malachi), youth (ended in Christ), manhood (most of the Church era), old age ("human decay", meaning the last hour of the Church), and

1107-663: A complete single market was achieved, known as the internal market , which allowed for the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people within the EEC. In 1994 the internal market was formalised by the EEA agreement. This agreement also extended the internal market to include most of the member states of the European Free Trade Association , forming the European Economic Area , which encompasses 15 countries. Upon

1230-406: A domestic tally of $ 55.7 million. So, the producers of The Late Great Planet Earth figured there was still money to be made. There was, although not nearly as much: in 1978, The Late Great Planet Earth grossed $ 19.5 million domestically against an estimated budget of $ 11 million." Another account said it made $ 5.25 million. The New York Times noted, "The efficacy of the film's scare tactics

1353-466: A historic and demographic distinction between Israel and the Christian Church . For them, Israel is an ethnic nation consisting of Hebrews ( Israelites ), beginning with Abraham . The Church, on the other hand, consists of all saved individuals from the "birth of the Church" in the book of Acts until the time of the rapture . Classic dispensationalists refer to this period as a "parenthesis",

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1476-616: A host of Bible conferences and other missionary and evangelistic efforts. They also gave the dispensationalist philosophy institutional permanence by assuming leadership of new independent Bible institutes, such as the Moody Bible Institute in 1886, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University ) in 1908, and Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University , formerly Philadelphia Biblical University ) in 1913. The network of related institutes that soon developed became

1599-658: A literal 1,000 year reign of his kingdom on earth. Israel and the Church being distinct in this view, the rapture must remove the Church before remnant Israel can be gathered. Advocates of dispensationalism have sought to find similar views of dispensations in Church history , referencing theologians or groups such as Francisco Ribera , the Taborites , Joachim of Fiore , Denis the Carthusian and others. Joachim's theory of three stages of human history has been argued to have anticipated

1722-501: A premillennial position, and it took over the evangelical movement in the course of several decades. The American church denominations rejected Darby's ecclesiology but accepted his eschatology. Many of these churches were Baptist and Old School Presbyterian; they retained Darby's Calvinistic soteriology . After Inglis's death, James H. Brookes (1830–1898), pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri, organized

1845-431: A pretribulational rapture. Christian mystic and philosopher Pierre Poiret (1646–1719) is said by some to have been the first theologian to develop a dispensationalist system, writing a book titled The Divine Economy. Poiret taught that history should be organized into multiple dispensations in which God works with humans in different ways, including the millennium as a future dispensation. Poiret's eschatology includes

1968-478: A restful, narcotic effect on me. Some day I hope to watch a four-hour VTR tape of A-bomb explosions on a seven-foot TV screen as I drink beer. In fact, I think it's fair to say I have a love-hate relationship with nuclear holocaust." Franklin Harris of Splice Today wrote, "Coming nine years after Lindsey's book, the movie version of The Late Great Planet Earth was late to its own party". The Omen had already turned

2091-574: A shift from the separatism practiced earlier in the century to more political engagement. This era saw emergence of the Christian Right , rooted in the dispensational theology that places Israel at the center of God's purpose in the world. European Economic Community The European Economic Community ( EEC ) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, aiming to foster economic integration among its member states. It

2214-447: A temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history when God has paused his dealing with Israel and is dealing with his Church. There are differing views within dispensationalism as to when the church age began. Classic dispensationalism considers Pentecost in Acts 2 to be the beginning of the Church as distinct from Israel. Charles Finney wrote in 1839 that Pentecost

2337-416: Is explicitly premillennial , in that it affirms the return of Christ prior to a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. This millennial kingdom will be theocratic in nature, and not mainly soteriological in the way George Eldon Ladd and others with a non-dispensational form of premillennialism have viewed it. It will be distinctly Jewish, with

2460-458: Is minimized by its applying biblical predictions too generally, and almost cavalierly at times – the most memorable sequence shows a computer conducting a numerological analysis of various politicians' names, to figure out if Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan or Ted Kennedy is the Antichrist. And Hal Lindsey, who co-wrote the book upon which the film is based and who appears with Mr. Welles as a co-narrator, speaks coolly, almost enthusiastically, about

2583-499: Is often distinguished from covenant theology . These are two competing frameworks of Biblical theology that attempt to explain overall continuity in the Bible. Coining of the term "dispensationalism" has been attributed to Philip Mauro , a critic of the system's teachings, in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom . Dispensationalists use a literal interpretation of the Bible and believe that divine revelation unfolds throughout

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2706-585: Is the doctrine that each successive book of the Bible provides further revelation of God and his program. Theologian Charles Hodge wrote that the progressive character of divine revelation is gradually unfolded until the fullness of truth is revealed. Charles Ryrie wrote that the Bible is not viewed as a textbook on theology, but rather as a continually unfolding revelation of God through successive ages where there are distinguishable stages in which God introduces mankind to new responsibilities. Covenant theology and dispensationalist theology disagree regarding

2829-454: Is uncertain whether Dolcino actually taught it. William C. Watson has argued that multiple 17th century Puritan theologians anticipated dispensational views. In his book Dispensationalism Before Darby (2015), he argues that Ephraim Huit (1595–1644) and John Birchensa (in his book The History of Scripture published in 1660) taught that God has differing plans for Jews and Gentiles. Watson also argues that Nathaniel Holmes (1599–1678) taught

2952-630: The Community budget had been correctly spent by the Community's institutions. The ECA provided an audit report for each financial year to the Council and Parliament and gave opinions and proposals on financial legislation and anti-fraud actions. It is the only institution not mentioned in the original treaties, having been set up in 1975. At the time of its abolition, the European Community pillar covered

3075-698: The European Community , continuing to follow the supranational structure of the EEC. The EEC institutions became those of the EU, however the Court, Parliament and Commission had only limited input in the new pillars, as they worked on a more intergovernmental system than the European Communities. This was reflected in the names of the institutions, the council was formally the "Council of the European Union " while

3198-523: The European Free Trade Association ). The six were France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The first enlargement was in 1973, with the accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Greece, Spain and Portugal joined in the 1980s. The former East Germany became part of the EEC upon German reunification in 1990. Following the creation of

3321-768: The Institutions of the ECSC in that the Common Assembly and Court of Justice of the ECSC had their authority extended to the EEC and Euratom in the same role. However the EEC, and Euratom, had different executive bodies to the ECSC. In place of the ECSC's Council of Ministers was the Council of the European Economic Community , and in place of the High Authority was the Commission of the European Communities . There

3444-736: The Niagara Bible Conference (1876–1897) to continue dissemination of dispensationalist ideas. Brookes was well known within millenarian circles, both as a prominent speaker at the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study conferences and for having written articles published in Inglis's Waymarks in the Wilderness . Brethren theologian C. H. Mackintosh (1820–1896) had a profound influence on American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899), who reached very large audiences with his powerful preaching in

3567-722: The Ohlin Report the Spaak Report would provide the basis for the Treaty of Rome . In 1956, Paul-Henri Spaak led the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Val Duchesse conference centre, which prepared for the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, of the Treaty of Rome establishing a European Economic Community. The resulting communities were

3690-695: The Plymouth Brethren in the mid-19th century. It began its spread in the United States during the late 19th century through the efforts of evangelists such as James Inglis , James Hall Brookes and Dwight L. Moody , the programs of the Niagara Bible Conference, and the establishment of Bible institutes. With the dawn of the 20th century, Cyrus Scofield introduced the Scofield Reference Bible , which crystalized dispensationalism in

3813-570: The treaties . It was designed to be independent, representing the interest of the Community as a whole. Every member state submitted one commissioner (two from each of the larger states, one from the smaller states). One of its members was the President , appointed by the council, who chaired the body and represented it. Under the Community, the European Parliament (formerly the European Parliamentary Assembly) had an advisory role to

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3936-497: The "era of the Antichrist as foretold by Moses and Jesus," and termed the book "a penetrating look at incredible ancient prophecies involving this generation." Descriptions of alleged "fulfilled" prophecy were offered as proof of the infallibility of God's word, and evidence that "unfulfilled" prophecies would soon find their denouement in God's plan for the planet. He cited an increase in

4059-579: The 1930s and 1940s, leading to permanent divisions that shaped the fundamentalist movement. By the mid 20th century, evangelicals such as Charles Feinberg , J. Dwight Pentecost , Herman Hoyt , Charles Ryrie , and John Walvoord were promoting dispensationalism. All five of these men either studied or taught at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Pentecost taught there for more than 60 years, and published an influential work on dispensational eschatology, Things to Come (1956). A decade later, Ryrie published Dispensationalism Today (1965), which has become

4182-415: The 1960s the council also began to meet informally at the level of heads of government and heads of state; these European summits followed the same presidency system and secretariat as the council but was not a formal formation of it. The Commission of the European Communities was the executive arm of the community, drafting Community law , dealing with the day to running of the Community and upholding

4305-520: The 2009 Treaty of Lisbon , which incorporated the EC's institutions into the EU's wider framework and provided that the EU would "replace and succeed the European Community". In April 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). This was an international community based on supranationalism and international law, designed to help the economy of Europe and prevent future war by integrating its members . With

4428-526: The Apocalypse into big-budget summer spectacle in 1976, and the steam was running out of the pseudo-historical documentary genre pioneered by Sunn Classic Pictures , which released In Search of Noah's Ark , The Bermuda Triangle , and The Lincoln Conspiracy . But The Omen was the No. 4 movie at the domestic box office in 1976, raking in $ 60.1 million. The No. 5 movie was, improbably, In Search of Noah's Ark , with

4551-505: The Bible. The Scofield Bible has been called "the most dangerous heresy currently to be found within Christian circles". Dispensationalism is a theological framework that views history as divided into distinct periods in which God interacts with mankind in specific ways. Scofield, in his Scofield Reference Bible , defined a dispensation as "a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of

4674-483: The Bible. They believe that there is a distinction between Israel and the Church , and that Christians are not bound by Mosaic law . They maintain beliefs in premillennialism , Christian Zionism , and a rapture of the Church that will happen before the Second Coming of Christ, generally seen as happening before a period of tribulation . Dispensationalism was systematized and promoted by John Nelson Darby and

4797-523: The Community and began the longest application process for any country. With the prospect of further enlargement, and a desire to increase areas of co-operation, the Single European Act was signed by the foreign ministers on 17 and 28 February 1986 in Luxembourg and The Hague respectively. In a single document it dealt with reform of institutions, extension of powers, foreign policy cooperation and

4920-637: The Community. Prior to 2004, the larger members (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) have had two Commissioners. In the European Parliament , members are allocated a set number seats related to their population, however these ( since 1979 ) have been directly elected and they sit according to political allegiance, not national origin. Most other institutions, including the European Court of Justice , have some form of national division of its members. There were three political institutions which held

5043-454: The Council agreed part of the necessary instruments for election, deferring details on electoral systems which remain varied to this day. During the tenure of President Jenkins , in June 1979, the elections were held in all the then-members (see 1979 European Parliament election ). The new Parliament, galvanised by direct election and new powers, started working full-time and became more active than

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5166-409: The Council and Commission. There were a number of Community legislative procedures , at first there was only the consultation procedure , which meant Parliament had to be consulted, although it was often ignored. The Single European Act gave Parliament more power, with the assent procedure giving it a right to veto proposals and the cooperation procedure giving it equal power with the Council if

5289-467: The Council on Community matters. This replaced the informal parliamentary blocking powers established by the 1979 Isoglucose decision. It also abolished any existing state like Simple Majority voting in the EEC, replacing it with Qualified Majority Voting , a procedure more commonly used in international organisations. The Treaty of Amsterdam transferred responsibility for free movement of persons (e.g., visas , illegal immigration , asylum ) from

5412-662: The EC in 1961 as an associate member, however its membership was suspended in 1967 after a coup d'état established a military dictatorship called the Regime of the Colonels . A year later, in February 1962, Spain attempted to join the European Community. However, because Francoist Spain was not a democracy, all members rejected the request in 1964. The four countries resubmitted their applications on 11 May 1967 and with Georges Pompidou succeeding Charles de Gaulle as French president in 1969,

5535-435: The ECSC and Euratom were merged with that of the EEC, creating a single institutional structure governing the three separate Communities. From here on, the term European Communities were used for the institutions (for example, from Commission of the European Economic Community to the Commission of the European Communities ). The Council of the European Communities was a body holding legislative and executive powers and

5658-482: The EU in 1993, it has enlarged to include an additional sixteen countries by 2013. Member states are represented in some form in each institution. The Council is also composed of one national minister who represents their national government. Each state also has a right to one European Commissioner each, although in the European Commission they are not supposed to represent their national interest but that of

5781-478: The European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM or sometimes EAEC). These were markedly less supranational than the previous communities, due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed (however there would still be concerns with the behaviour of the Hallstein Commission ). Germany became a founding member of the EEC, and Konrad Adenauer

5904-563: The European institutions until the French veto was reinstated. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the Luxembourg compromise on 29 January 1966 whereby a gentlemen's agreement permitted members to use a veto on areas of national interest. On 1 July 1967, when the Merger Treaty came into operation, combining the institutions of the ECSC and Euratom into that of the EEC, they already shared

6027-621: The High Authority in protest and began work on alternative communities, based on economic integration rather than political integration. Following the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul-Henri Spaak was given the task to prepare a report on the idea of a customs union . The so-called Spaak Report of the Spaak Committee formed the cornerstone of the intergovernmental negotiations at Val Duchesse conference centre in 1956. Together with

6150-643: The Jewish faith, and Christians of Jewish ethnicity who held varying opinions on compliance with Mosaic law, like Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle . Progressive dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church without replacing the promises to its original audience, Israel. Dispensationalists believe that Christ abolished

6273-544: The Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) pillar to the European Community (JHA was renamed Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC) as a result). Both Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice also extended codecision procedure to nearly all policy areas, giving Parliament equal power to the Council in the Community. In 2002, the Treaty of Paris which established the ECSC expired, having reached its 50-year limit (as

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6396-602: The Maastricht Treaty in 1993, these institutions became those of the European Union, though limited in some areas due to the pillar structure. Despite this, Parliament in particular has gained more power over legislation and security of the commission. The Court of Justice was the highest authority in the law, settling legal disputes in the Community, while the Auditors had no power but to investigate. The EEC inherited some of

6519-466: The Mosaic law, and thus it does not apply to the Christian. Instead, the Christian is under the Law of Christ , which embodies moral principles from God that are in both codes. In this view, although many commandments of the Old Testament are re-established in the New Testament, only the commandments explicitly affirmed there are to be kept; this excludes the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic law. Dispensationalism teaches an eschatology that

6642-496: The New Testament church as a separate program not related to that kingdom. Thus arose a prophetic earthly kingdom program for Israel and a separate "mystery" heavenly program for the church. In order to not conflate the two programs, the prophetic program had to be put on hold to allow for the church to come into existence. Then the church would need to be raptured away before prophecy could resume its earthly program for Israel. In Darby's conception, dispensations relate exclusively to

6765-409: The Niagara conferences and became an advocate of premillennialism, specifically pre-tribulationism. After several years of work, Scofield introduced dispensationalism to a wider audience in America through his Scofield Reference Bible . Published in 1909 by the Oxford University Press , the Scofield Reference Bible was the first Bible to display overtly dispensationalist notes on the same pages as

6888-415: The Old Testament, and called 'the church' under the New." Philip Mauro , a critic of the system's teachings in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom , is considered to be the first to coin the term "dispensationalism" to describe the theological framework that had made inroads into fundamentalism , calling it "a subtle form of modernism". The number of dispensations may vary from three to eight, but

7011-414: The Sanctuary (1973) and Raptured (1975). In 1972, Iowa filmmakers Russell Doughten and Donald W. Thompson released A Thief in the Night , a fictional film about the aftermath of the rapture that has been seen by an estimated 300 million people. Televangelist Jack Van Impe covered current events in light of Bible prophecy with a dispensational premillennialist spin. The late 20th century marked

7134-463: The Scots Presbyterians. Dispensationalism developed as a system from the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), considered by many to be the father of dispensationalism. Darby strongly influenced the Plymouth Brethren of the 1830s in Ireland and England. The original concept came when Darby considered the implications of Isaiah 32 for Israel. He concluded that prophecy required a future fulfillment and realization of Israel's kingdom. He saw

7257-428: The Tribulation or the Rapture would occur no later than 1988. In his 1980 work The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon , Lindsey predicted that "the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it". The Late Great Planet Earth was the first Christian prophecy book to be published by a secular publisher (Bantam, 1973) and sell many copies. 28 million copies had sold by 1990. The film version

7380-405: The U.S. in part. Although Lindsey did not claim to know the dates of future events with any certainty, he suggested that Matthew 24:32-34 indicated that Jesus' return might be within "one generation" of the rebirth of the state of Israel, and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, and Lindsey asserted that "in the Bible" one generation is forty years. Some readers accepted this as an indication that

7503-438: The United States. Dispensationalism has become popular within American evangelicalism. It is commonly found in nondenominational Bible churches , as well as Baptist , Pentecostal , and Charismatic groups. Protestant denominations that embrace covenant theology tend to reject dispensationalism. According to the system's critics, most theologians acknowledge that there is no specific sequence of end-times events defined in

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7626-501: The Western and Eastern blocs, other than reconcile Member States such as France and Germany after WW2. The tasks entrusted to the Community were divided among an assembly, the European Parliament, Council, Commission, and Court of Justice. Moreover, restrictions to market were lifted to further liberate trade among Member States. Citizens of Member States (other than goods, services, and capital) were entitled to freedom of movement. The CAP, Common Agricultural Policy, regulated and subsided

7749-426: The [Christian] church ", with a "careful separation ... between what is addressed to Israel and what is addressed to the church. What is addressed to Israel is 'earthly' in character and is to be interpreted 'literally'." This view is distinct from covenant theology , which holds that rather than having separate plans, "God has one people, one people of God throughout redemptive history, called 'Israel' under

7872-416: The agricultural sphere. A European Social Fund was implemented in favour of employees who lost their jobs. A European Investment Bank was established to "facilitate the economic expansion of the Community by opening up fresh resources" (Art. 3 Treaty of Rome 3/25/1957). All these implementations included overseas territories. Competition was to be kept alive to make products cheaper for European consumers. For

7995-412: The aim of creating a federal Europe two further communities were proposed: a European Defence Community and a European Political Community . While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly , the ECSC parliamentary chamber, the proposed defence community was rejected by the French Parliament . ECSC President Jean Monnet , a leading figure behind the communities, resigned from

8118-408: The arrival of the Antichrist : Additional interviewees detail then-current and anticipated future crises facing humanity: People magazine said, "Lindsey splices Bible prophecies of doom with contemporary signs. For instance, he says the Bible pinpoints Israel's rebirth as a nation as the catalyst to Judgment Day, which will probably occur by 1988. The intervening years will see the emergence of

8241-461: The biblical text. Use of the Scofield Bible became popular among independent Evangelicals in the United States. Its premillennialism led to a pessimistic social view within evangelicalism, to "not polish the brass rails on the sinking social ship", so that evangelism came to be focused on saving the lost rather than expanding Christendom. The Scofield Reference Bible came out at the peak of Bullinger's influence. Scofield's Bible confronted some of

8364-400: The books of Daniel , Ezekiel and Revelation , Lindsey originally suggested the possibility that these climactic events might occur during the 1980s, which he interpreted as one generation from the foundation of modern Israel during 1948, a major event according to some conservative evangelical schools of eschatological thought. Cover art of the Bantam edition suggested that the 1970s were

8487-501: The church as occurring between the salvation of Saul in Acts 9 and the Holy Spirit's commissioning of Paul in Acts 13 . E. W. Bullinger and the ultradispensationalists taught that the church began in Acts 28 . According to progressive dispensationalism , the distinction between Israel and the Church is not mutually exclusive, as there is a recognized overlap between the two. The overlap includes Jewish Christians like James, brother of Jesus , who integrated Jesus's teachings into

8610-474: The commission was formally the "Commission of the European Communities ". There are more competencies listed in Article 3 of the European Communities pillar than there are in Article 3 of the Treaty of Rome. This is due to the fact that some competencies were already inherent in the Treaty of Tome, some were referred to in the Treaty of Rome, and some were extended under Article 235 of the Treaty of Rome. Competencies were added to cover trans-European networks, and

8733-453: The council was not unanimous. In 1970 and 1975, the Budgetary treaties gave Parliament power over the Community budget . The Parliament's members, up-until 1980 were national MPs serving part-time in the Parliament. The Treaties of Rome had required elections to be held once the council had decided on a voting system, but this did not happen and elections were delayed until 1979 (see 1979 European Parliament election ). After that, Parliament

8856-494: The council, Parliament or another party place a request for legislation to the commission. The Commission then drafts this and presents it to the council for approval and the Parliament for an opinion (in some cases it had a veto, depending upon the legislative procedure in use). The commission's duty is to ensure it is implemented by dealing with the day-to-day running of the Union and taking others to Court if they fail to comply. After

8979-418: The customs union, the treaty provided for a 10% reduction in custom duties and up to 20% of global import quotas. Progress on the customs union proceeded much faster than the twelve years planned. However, France faced some setbacks due to their war with Algeria . The six states that founded the EEC and the other two Communities were known as the " inner six " (the "outer seven" were those countries who formed

9102-490: The defining characteristics of a dispensation are the distinct governing relationship in which God interacts with mankind during that period, and the resulting responsibility placed upon mankind in that period. Evangelical Christians generally agree that there are distinct periods in God's plan for humanity. Dispensationalist theologians tend to hold "a particular view of the parallel-but-separate roles and destinies of Israel and

9225-553: The divine government of the earth. The Mosaic dispensation continues as a divine administration over Earth up until the return of Christ, and the church, being a heavenly designated assembly, is not associated with any dispensations. Darby's Brethren ecclesiology failed to catch on in America, but his eschatological doctrine became widely popular, especially among Baptists and Old School Presbyterians . James Inglis (1813–1872) introduced dispensationalism to North America through

9348-412: The end of 1959 when the foreign ministers of the six members announced that would be meeting quarterly to discuss political issues and international problems. One of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment (1962) of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs (tariffs on trade between member nations) were removed on certain products. Another crisis

9471-469: The entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the EEC was renamed the European Community to reflect that it covered a wider range than economic policy. This was also when the three European Communities, including the EC, were collectively made to constitute the first of the three pillars of the European Union , which the treaty also founded. The EC existed in this form until it was abolished by

9594-478: The evangelical movement. The Scopes trial in 1925 served to unify fundamentalists, but the movement began to decline soon after the trial. Scopes trial prosecutor and public face of the fundamentalist movement William Jennings Bryan died a week after the verdict, and journalist H. L. Mencken portrayed supporters of that anti-evolution verdict as uneducated and ignorant. The fundamentalist movement began to decentralize after it lost Bryan. Dispensationalism's fate

9717-457: The executive and legislative power of the EEC, plus one judicial institution and a fifth body created in 1975. These institutions (except for the auditors) were created in 1957 by the EEC but from 1967 onwards they applied to all three Communities. The Council represents the member state governments, the Parliament represents citizens and the Commission represents the European interest. Essentially,

9840-435: The first treaty, it was the only one with a limit). No attempt was made to renew its mandate; instead, the Treaty of Nice transferred certain of its elements to the Treaty of Rome and hence its work continued as part of the EC area of the European Community's remit. After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 the pillar structure ceased to exist. The European Community, together with its legal personality ,

9963-574: The following areas; Since the end of World War II , sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty ) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe ( French : la construction européenne ). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from

10086-478: The frequency of famines , wars and earthquakes , as major events just prior to the end of the world. He also foretold a Soviet invasion of Israel ( War of Gog and Magog ). Lindsey also predicted that the European Economic Community , which preceded the European Union , was destined (according to Biblical prophecy) to become a " United States of Europe ", which in turn he says is destined to become

10209-453: The integration process. It was mentioned in the treaties for the first time in the Single European Act (see below). Greece re-applied to join the community on 12 June 1975, following the restoration of democracy, and joined on 1 January 1981. Following on from Greece, and after their own democratic restoration, Spain and Portugal applied to the communities in 1977 and joined on 1 January 1986. In 1987, Turkey formally applied to join

10332-657: The later dispensationalist view of organizing history into different dispensations. Joachim's stages were divided into the "Age of the Father" which was under the Law, the "Age of the Son" which was a period of tribulation, and the "Age of the Spirit" which was a period of bliss on earth. Fra Dolcino (c. 1250 – 1307) taught Fiore's theory of the stages of history, and dispensationalists Mark Hitchcock and Thomas Ice have suggested that Dolcino's teaching

10455-744: The latter half of the 19th century. Moody worked with Brookes and other dispensationalists, and encouraged the spread of dispensationalism. It was during this time that dispensational doctrine became widely accepted among American evangelicals. It also marked a shift in dispensational theology under evangelists like Moody, from Darby's Calvinism and doctrinal rigor to a non-Calvinist view of human freedom in personal salvation. Other prominent dispensationalists in this period include Reuben Archer Torrey (1856–1928), James M. Gray (1851–1925), William J. Erdman (1833–1923), A. C. Dixon (1854–1925), A. J. Gordon (1836–1895), and William Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935). These men were active evangelists who promoted

10578-909: The main dispensationalist institution in America. The Baptist Bible Seminary now located in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania became another dispensationalist school. In the 1910s, another publication took hold within American evangelicalism. Known as The Fundamentals , its twelve volumes were published in quarterly installments between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company. Funded by Union Oil co-founder Lyman Stewart (1840–1923) and managed by an executive committee of dispensationalists that included Clarence Dixon and Reuben Torrey, The Fundamentals helped solidify dispensationalist views within American Christian fundamentalism and

10701-487: The major fault of The Late Great Planet Earth . To me, the Apocalypse is an intensely personal thing. I really don't need some self-help creep handing out a cover version. Every thinking human can and should conjure up his own version of doom, just like the graybeards in the Bible did. Screw ecologists. I stand with Carl Sandburg -a factory is as beautiful as a tree. Nuclear power doesn't scare me either. Not at all. I like watching slow-motion films of mushroom clouds; they have

10824-597: The meaning of revelation. Covenant theology views the New Testament as the key to interpreting the Old Testament . For dispensationalists, the Old Testament is interpreted on its own and the New Testament contains new information which can build on the Old Testament but cannot change its meaning. Each stands alone, rather than the Old Testament being reread through the lens of the New Testament. Dispensationalists see

10947-445: The millennium, is exactly that of Watts, and not Darby. Edward Irving (1792–1834) in some ways anticipated dispensationalism. He used a literal approach to prophetic interpretation, he believed in a restoration of Israel as a nation, and he believed there would be a great apostasy and Christ would return to establish a literal earthly kingdom. But he also preached that Christ had a fallen nature, which led to him being defrocked by

11070-406: The monthly magazine Waymarks in the Wilderness , published intermittently between 1854 and 1872. In 1866, Inglis organized the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, which introduced dispensationalist ideas to a small but influential circle of American evangelicals . They were disturbed by the growth of religious liberalism and saw premillennialism as an answer. Dispensationalism was introduced as

11193-624: The nucleus for the spread of American dispensationalism. When the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute) formally opened in 1889, Torrey served as its first superintendent. Revivalist evangelicals such as Moody and Torrey did not believe the gift of tongues continued past the Apostolic age , but their emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit merged well with holiness ideas. This encouraged

11316-428: The previous assemblies. Shortly after its election, the Parliament proposed that the Community adopt the flag of Europe design used by the Council of Europe . The European Council in 1984 appointed an ad hoc committee for this purpose. The European Council in 1985 largely followed the committee's recommendations, but as the adoption of a flag was strongly reminiscent of a national flag representing statehood ,

11439-821: The primary introduction to dispensational theology. Furthering the rift with covenant theology, Ryrie wrote in Bibliotheca Sacra in 1957 that dispensationalism is "the only valid system of Biblical interpretation". In 1959, Walvoord stated that no non-dispensationalists (including Catholics and mainline Protestants) offered any defense against modernism , and that they were all under the influence of hermeneutical and theological errors. Dallas Theological Seminary's influence grew as other schools and seminaries hired its graduates as faculty. In 1970, DTS graduate Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth , which launched dispensationalist eschatology into pop culture. His book sold 10 million copies and made " rapture " and "

11562-602: The prospect of worldwide destruction." The book was an influence on the depiction of the Rapture in 1970s evangelical horror film A Thief in the Night and its sequels , which became influential in their own right. Dispensational premillennialism Dispensationalism is a theological framework for interpreting the Bible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in which God interacts with his chosen people in different ways. It

11685-533: The restoration of all things (the Millennium, including a literal earthly reign of Christ with Israel restored). Isaac Watts (1674–1748) presented a dispensational view in a forty-page essay titled "The Harmony of All the Religions Which God Ever Prescribed to Men and All His Dispensations Towards Them". Charles Ryrie states that Scofield's outline of dispensationalism, with the exception of

11808-517: The single market. It came into force on 1 July 1987. The act was followed by work on what would be the Maastricht Treaty , which was agreed on 10 December 1991, signed the following year and coming into force on 1 November 1993 establishing the European Union, and paving the way for the European Monetary Union . The EU absorbed the European Communities as one of its three pillars . The EEC's areas of activities were enlarged and were renamed

11931-630: The spread of dispensationalism within the Pentecostal movement. During this time, Anglican clergyman E. W. Bullinger (1837–1913) began teaching what became known as "ultradispensationalism" or "Bullingerism". Bullinger taught that the Church did not begin until Acts 28, that the Lord's Supper and water baptism were for Jewish believers, and that Paul's epistles were written to the Jews. A disciple of James Brookes, Cyrus Scofield (1843–1921) began attending

12054-481: The text. In this method, scripture is to be interpreted according to the normal rules of human language in its entirety. This leads dispensationalists to take eschatological passages in the Bible literally. Charles Ryrie suggests that a non-literal hermeneutic is the reason amillennialists apply Old Testament promises made to Israel "spiritually" to the church, and covenant premillennialists see some prophecies as fulfilled and others as not. Progressive revelation

12177-500: The throne of David restored. The majority of dispensationalists profess a pretribulation rapture . Mid-tribulation and post-tribulation rapture are minority views. Pre-tribulational rapture doctrine is what separates dispensationalism from other forms of premillennialism and other millennial views. Dispensational eschatology was popularized in Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970). In Lindsey's version,

12300-419: The topic. For example, if agriculture was being discussed, the council would be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represented their governments and were accountable to their national political systems. Votes were taken either by majority (with votes allocated according to population) or unanimity. In these various forms they share some legislative and budgetary power of the Parliament. Since

12423-483: The tribulation " household words. The commercial success of The Late Great Planet Earth triggered a flood of books that featured dispensationalism's rapture theology. Lindsey published Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (1972), There's a New World Coming (1973), and The Liberation of Planet Earth (1974) . Other books included The Beginning of the End (1972) by Tim LaHaye, and DTS graduate Thomas McCall's Satan in

12546-409: The typical seven-dispensation scheme is as follows: According to John Walvoord , God's purpose in the world is to manifest his glory. Charles Ryrie writes that dispensational soteriology focuses on man's salvation as the means God uses to glorify himself. A key element of dispensationalism is its use of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic to obtain a consistent, literal interpretation of

12669-584: The ultradispensationalists' (Bullingerites') positions, including their divisions of dispensational time. As the Scofield Bible became popular among dispensationalists, it marginalized the hyperdispensationalist position in the United States. Influenced by Scofield, evangelist and Bible teacher Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952) and his brother Rollin Chafer founded Evangelical Theological College in 1924. The school would eventually become Dallas Theological Seminary ,

12792-526: The unfolding of events includes the establishment of modern Israel in 1948, Jews regaining control of Jerusalem's sacred sites in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War , a rebuilding of the Temple which has yet to occur, an Antichrist who will come to power, Christians to be removed from the earth in a rapture of the Church, and seven years of tribulation ( Daniel's seventieth week) culminating in a great battle of Armageddon in which Christ will triumph over evil and establish

12915-464: The venerable theological journal Bibliotheca Sacra (first published in 1844). Lewis Chafer's first public declaration that he was a dispensationalist appeared in that journal's pages. In 1936, he published a 60-page response to criticism from Mauro and other fundamentalists, entitled "Dispensationalism". That same year, Chafer renamed his school Dallas Theological Seminary. The conflict between dispensationalists and covenantalists continued through

13038-612: The veto was lifted. Negotiations began in 1970 under the pro-European UK government of Edward Heath , who had to deal with disagreements relating to the Common Agricultural Policy and the UK's relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations . Nevertheless, two years later the accession treaties were signed so that Denmark, Ireland and the UK joined the Community effective 1 January 1973. The Norwegian people had rejected membership in

13161-418: The will of God". Charles Ryrie took issue with Scofield's definition as too simple, stating that such a definition opened the system to attack from nondispensationalists. Ryrie separates the term age from dispensation, stating that the two terms are not synonymous in meaning while defining a dispensation as "a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God's purpose". He further suggests that

13284-586: The work of the Culture Committee and Education Committee that were previously sharing existing competencies. The only entry in Article 3 that represented something new is the competence covering the entry and movement of persons in the internal market. However, after the Treaty of Maastricht, Parliament gained a more formal role. Maastricht brought in the codecision procedure , which gave it equal legislative power with

13407-449: Was "the commencement of a new dispensation", emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit as a distinction. Cyrus Scofield did not make Pentecost itself the turning point, but did emphasize its role in dividing the dispensations of "Law" and "Grace". In contrast, hyperdispensationalists suggest that the church started later in Acts ("Mid-Acts") with the ministry of Paul, identifying the start of

13530-514: Was absorbed into the newly consolidated European Union which merged in the other two pillars (however Euratom remained distinct). This was originally proposed under the European Constitution but that treaty failed ratification in 2005. The main aim of the EEC, as stated in its preamble, was to "preserve peace and liberty and to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe". Calling for balanced economic growth, this

13653-502: Was also known as the European Common Market (ECM) in the English-speaking countries, and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was officially renamed as such in 1993. In 2009, the EC formally ceased to exist and its institutions were directly absorbed by the EU. This made the Union the formal successor institution of the Community. The Community's initial aim was to bring about economic integration, including

13776-457: Was composed of one judge per state with a president elected from among them. Its role was to ensure that Community law was applied in the same way across all states and to settle legal disputes between institutions or states. It became a powerful institution as Community law overrides national law. The fifth institution is the European Court of Auditors . Its ensured that taxpayer funds from

13899-404: Was controversial, the "flag of Europe" design was adopted only with the status of a "logo" or "emblem". The European Council, or European summit, had developed since the 1960s as an informal meeting of the Council at the level of heads of state. It had originated from then- French President Charles de Gaulle 's resentment at the domination of supranational institutions (e.g. the commission) over

14022-517: Was elected every five years. In the following 20 years, it gradually won co-decision powers with the Council over the adoption of legislation, the right to approve or reject the appointment of the Commission President and the commission as a whole, and the right to approve or reject international agreements entered into by the Community. The Court of Justice of the European Communities was the highest court of on matters of Community law and

14145-399: Was greater difference between these than name: the French government of the day had grown suspicious of the supranational power of the High Authority and sought to curb its powers in favour of the intergovernmental style Council. Hence the council had a greater executive role in the running of the EEC than was the situation in the ECSC. By virtue of the Merger Treaty in 1967, the executives of

14268-491: Was made leader in a very short time. The first formal meeting of the Hallstein Commission was held on 16 January 1958 at the Chateau de Val-Duchesse . The EEC (direct ancestor of the modern Community) was to create a customs union while Euratom would promote co-operation in the nuclear power sphere. The EEC rapidly became the most important of these and expanded its activities. The first move towards political developments came at

14391-596: Was narrated by Orson Welles and released in theaters in January 1978. Welles opens by providing background information on the importance of prophets such as Jeremiah , Isaiah , Ezekiel and Amos in foretelling the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah . He also describes the visions of John of Patmos . Hal Lindsey makes multiple appearances providing Biblical context to historical and then-current events, linking them to Biblical prophecy. He focuses on three key events prior to

14514-410: Was of a pretribulational rapture. The relevant teaching was that when Antichrist appears, Dolcino and his followers would be taken away and preserved from Antichrist, and that following the death of Antichrist, Dolcino and his followers would return to Earth to convert those then living to the true faith. However, the source is an anonymous 1316 Latin text titled The History of Brother Dolcino , so it

14637-415: Was subsequently renamed the European Community ( EC ) upon becoming integrated into the first pillar of the newly formed European Union (EU) in 1993. In the popular language, the singular European Community was sometimes inaccurately used in the wider sense of the plural European Communities , in spite of the latter designation covering all the three constituent entities of the first pillar. The EEC

14760-468: Was thus the main decision-making body of the Community. Its Presidency rotated between the member states every six months and it is related to the European Council , which was an informal gathering of national leaders (started in 1961) on the same basis as the council. The council was composed of one national minister from each member state. However the Council met in various forms depending upon

14883-442: Was tied to that breakdown. In 1928, Philip Mauro , seeking to re-invigorate the fundamentalist movement, pointed a finger at dispensationalism and in the process coined the term. Singling it out as the source of division within the larger fundamentalist movement, he wrote that the dispensationalist view was more recent than Darwinism and it eroded fundamental truths of scripture. In 1934, Evangelical Theological College acquired

15006-711: Was to be accomplished through: Citing Article 2 from the original text of the Treaty of Rome of the 25th of March 1957, the EEC aimed at "a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the States belonging to it". Given the fear of the Cold War, many Western Europeans were afraid that poverty would make "the population vulnerable to communist propaganda" (Meurs 2018, p. 68), meaning that increasing prosperity would be beneficial to harmonise power between

15129-515: Was triggered in regard to proposals for the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy , which came into force in 1962. The transitional period whereby decisions were made by unanimity had come to an end, and majority-voting in the council had taken effect. Then- French President Charles de Gaulle 's opposition to supranationalism and fear of the other members challenging the CAP led to an "empty chair policy" whereby French representatives were withdrawn from

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