Dispensationalism

=== Peak and decline ===
By the 1990s, a younger generation of academics emerged as "progressive dispensationalists", presenting a rift in the united front that Ryrie had advocated for in ''Dispensationalism Today'' (1965). This school of thought was led by [[Craig A. Blaising]], [[Darrell L. Bock|Darrell Bock]], Kenneth Barker, and [[Robert L. Saucy]].<ref name=":20" />

After the influence of dispensationalism within the New Christian Right grew into the 1990s and building on the success of Hal Lindsey's ''The Late Great Planet Earth,'' the 1995 novel ''[[Left Behind (novel)|Left Behind]]'' pushed pop prophecy to further commercial success.<ref name=":20" /><ref name=":21" />{{Rp|pages=3}} Conceived by [[Tim LaHaye]] and written by [[Jerry B. Jenkins]], the book spawned a [[Left Behind|multimedia franchise]] of 16 books as well as multiple movies, video games, and other spinoff works. The series brought dispensational premillennialism into the mainstream.<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Frykholm |first=Amy Johnson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pizKsnFzLqQC |title=Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America |date=2004-03-04 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-803622-7 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=3}}

As with Reagan in the 1980s, the New Christian Right helped elect another '[[born again]]' president, George W. Bush, who, like Reagan, spoke in terms of prophecies being fulfilled in a way that had meaning to dispensationalists.<ref name=":20" /> Bush referenced [[Gog and Magog]] in the [[War on terror|War on Terror]] and stated that the confrontation was "willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase His people's enemies".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spector |first=Stephen |date=September 2014 |title=Gog and Magog in the White House: Did Biblical Prophecy Inspire the Invasion of Iraq? |journal=Journal of Church and State |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=545|doi=10.1093/jcs/cst003 }}</ref>

Dispensational ideas were experiencing commercial success, but the primary standard-bearers of dispensationalism had become Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye who were different from their academic predecessors John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, and Charles Ryrie.<ref name=":20" /> By the 2010s, the movement had peaked and was largely in decline within academic settings.<ref name=":20" /> A 2009 survey of Southern Baptist seminaries showed that the majority view was covenantal, and that flagship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary had no dispensationalists within its faculty.<ref name=":20" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=David |first=Roach |date=2012-01-05 |title=Baptist Press – End Times: Scholars differ on what Bible says about subject – News with a Christian Perspective |url=http://www.bpnews.net:80/BPnews.asp?ID=31963 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105064313/http://www.bpnews.net:80/BPnews.asp?ID=31963 |archive-date=2012-01-05 |access-date=2023-07-30}}</ref>

While dispensationalism collapsed in academic areas, its cultural influence remained.  Dispensational ideas continue within the culture.  A 2004 Newsweek poll indicated that 55 percent of Americans believe that Christians will be taken up in the Rapture.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gates |first=David |date=2004-05-23 |title=Religion: The Pop Prophets |url=https://www.newsweek.com/religion-pop-prophets-127971 |access-date=2024-01-06 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref> By the turn of the 21st century, the term "dispensationalism" had become synonymous with "sectarian fundamentalism" and came to be more of a political perspective than a set of theological doctrines.<ref name=":20" />