Dispensationalism

=== Emergence of the Christian Right ===
The late 20th century marked a change from the separatism of earlier in the century to one of more political engagement through the emergence of the [[Christian right|Christian Right]], rooted in the dispensational theology that Israel is at the center of God's purpose in the world.<ref name=":14" />{{Rp|page=270}}

In 1978, dispensationalist television evangelist [[Jerry Falwell]] began making trips to Israel that were sponsored by the Israeli government. He became the first major American political figure to insist that the U.S. must support Israel for the fate of the nation.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Halsell |first=Grace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_nYAAAAMAAJ |title=Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War |date=1986 |publisher=Lawrence Hill & Company |isbn=978-0-88208-210-3 |pages=74–75 |language=en |author-link=Grace Halsell}}</ref> Falwell listed Feinberg, Pentecost, Hoyt, and Walvoord as his primary influences.<ref name=":14" />{{Rp|page=269}} In 1979, Falwell, along with [[Tim LaHaye]], founded the Moral Majority with the objective to get people saved, baptized, and registered to vote.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=Matthew Avery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ri1gDwAAQBAJ |title=American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism |date=2014-12-15 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-74479-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=354}} The Moral Majority also provided a platform of political activism.

Due in large part to the influence of dispensational premillennialism, the Moral Majority advocated for pro-Israel [[foreign policy of the United States|U.S. foreign policy]] positions, including protection of the Jewish people in Israel and continued [[Israel–United States relations|aid for the state of Israel]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Greene |first=Richard Allen |date=2006-07-19 |title=Evangelical Christians plead for Israel |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5193092.stm |access-date=2007-03-20}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{cite news |last=Kirkpatrick |first=David |date=2006-11-14 |title=For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel Is 'God's Foreign Policy' |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York, New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/washington/14israel.html |access-date=2018-05-06}}</ref> Opposed to Jimmy Carter's affirmation of a Palestinian homeland, the Moral Majority endorsed Ronald Reagan for President in 1980.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XO9nBwAAQBAJ |title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices |date=2015-03-17 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47351-0 |editor-last=Chapman |editor-first=Robert |pages=433 |language=en}}</ref> In Reagan, they found a candidate that shared their apocalypticism. Reagan had read Hal Lindsey's ''The Late Great Planet Earth'' and it is suggested that his Middle East policies were driven by this eschatological view.<ref name=":9" />{{Rp|page=43}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=McAlister |first=Melani |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0PqObUNlIEC |title=Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East Since 1945 |date=2005-07-05 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24499-3 |language=en-us}}</ref>{{Rp|page=177}} In an interview with televangelist Jim Bakker, Reagan stated that "[w]e may be the generation that sees Armageddon".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutton |first=Matthew Avery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ri1gDwAAQBAJ |title=American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-674-74479-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=355}} Dispensational theology affected more than just Middle East foreign policy in the Reagan administration. James G. Watt, a member of the Assemblies of God and Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, stated to Congress that preservation of the environment was made irrelevant due to the imminent return of Christ.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Balmer |first=Randall Herbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSO5YDifWz8C |title=Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America, an Evangelical's Lament |date=2006-07-03 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-00519-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=148}}

In 1980, Hal Lindsey wrote a follow-up to his ''Late Great Planet Earth'' titled ''The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon.'' Previously, Lindsey had not drawn a connection from a Christian's personal obligations to their responsibility for social change. But this changed with ''The 1980s.'' He began encouraging his readers to elect moral leaders who would reflect that morality within government, an agenda closely aligned with the administration of Ronald Reagan.<ref name=":20" />

Tim LaHaye, who was a lifelong fundamentalist and dispensationalist, became a primary figure in the Christian Right.<ref name=":20" /> He served as head of the Moral Majority for a time and in the mid-eighties created the [[American Coalition for Traditional Values]]. In 1987, he served as co-chairman of Republican Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, until it was reported that he had called Catholicism "a false religion".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gorenberg |first=Gershom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LCZDYk0W_VcC |title=The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-515205-0 |pages=31 |language=en}}</ref>