A friend of mine, a German COG preacher actually, put me on a Facebook list for parallel millennialism. I am not quite sure what that is exactly, but some of the posters seem to think that dispensational eschatology leads Christians to think that things are getting worse and worse, leaving them with little motive to improve society, be salt and light, etc. If we see society declining, some Christians look at this as a sign of the times and are kind of happy because they believe the rapture is happening soon or Jesus is coming back really soon. There is also a mindset that things are supposed to get worse, so where is the motivation to improve things?I’m still more or less dispensational in my outlook, but I do see a problem with that mindset. I read the opinion that England was so decadent before the revival of which Wesley was a part that it was like France, and some thought it might have gone the way of the French Revolution if it were not for the revival. There were a lot of drunken rogues on the frontier before the Great Awakening in the US. What if believers back then had thought things were supposed to go downhill spiritually and did nothing? Our society is going down in terms of its morals. There are people blaspheming God. Fornication is widespread, even in families of professing Christians, adultery, lots of divorce and remarriage, society embracing same-sex relationships, baby murder in the womb accepted by society. If we look at this as signs of the time, the bad way things are supposed to be, isn’t that demotivating when it comes to pushing and praying for a revival that will transform the nation? We do not know when Jesus is coming back. If there is 100 years or 200 years more of a chance for revivals, entire societies being transformed like during the Welsh Revival or the Great Awakening, shouldn’t we seek and pursue that?
The classical Pentecostal form of dispensationalism, with its strong faith in a last days/latter rain outpouring, is more spiritually optimistic than typical cessationist dispensationalism. However, it is of course true that premillenialism of every stripe is quite pessimistic with regard to society in general, especially as compared to the very optimistic postmillenialist views of many theologians from the 1700s and 1800s. I do know that for me at least, believing Jesus could interrupt everything in the twinkling of an eye, likely some time in the very near future, has always made me both excited at the prospect and a bit too passive with regard to any long-range personal plans for my future. I mean what use is planning for a career, a house, retirement, etc., if the end truly is very near? Best then to just try to win as many to the Lord as possible, like saving people from a ship that’s taking on water and sure to soon sink.