Pre-millenial Dispensationalism and Laestadianism

Every once in awhile someone will copy and paste a long-winded post to the XLLL Discussion group regarding the "end times", "rapture," or some other rambling of the Left Behind sort that is commonly associated with pre-millenial dispensationalism.

This makes me wonder: what was Laestadius' view? On the one hand, Lutheranisms of most sorts are typically a-millenial in their eschatological outlook. On the other hand, pietism and dispensationalism often go together.

Growing up in a part of the Apostolic Lutheran Church of America (ALC) that was more heavily influenced by evangelicalism, I knew many folks who believed that the rapture was imminent. I grew up reading books like Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth and Paul Meier's The Third Millennium. It was interesting to live through the Y2K scare, when religious and secular fears about the future seemed to merge into one.

For me, leaving Laestadianism meant leaving rapture/end times theology behind. I could easily see how it could be the opposite for others, however.

What's your story? Has leaving Laestadianism affected how you believe about "the end of all things?"

If all these "isms" are making your head spin, I recommend this short article by Michael White: Christian Millenial Expectation Through the Centuries. He does a good job of showing just how much Christian thought on this topic has evolved over the ages, as well as describe some of the main schools of thought in relatively few words.


-ttg