Confronting the Failed Failure: Y2K and Evangelical Eschatology in Light of the Passed Millennium

If the Y2K "bug" entered the collective consciousness of evangelical Christians, two principal patterns of response emerged: either evangelicals acknowledged Y2K as a problem that required the readiness and reply of Christians, but rejected it as a component of prophetic fulfillment; or they interpreted it in some measure as a fulfillment of prophecy and a part of God'splan to facilitate the endtime. For those who believed Y2K to be a part of the eschatological schema, its status as a non-event required a variety of dissonance management techniques. This article explores the methods deployed by dispensationalist Christians to manage the cognitive dissonance generated by Y2K's "failed failure." Following a brief summary of evangelical predictions regarding Y2K, I offer a typology of responses ranging from denial that Y2K had ever been a problem to declaration that the Y2K problem occurred exactly as predicted. In each response, the central organizing principles of evangelical dispensationalism hold firm, and the cognitive dissonance created by the "failed failure" is successfully managed.