here's a good companion to that article
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j012403.html
Reading the Bible literally, and seeing in it all sorts of predictions, the dispensationalists see evidence that the "end times" are upon us based on their interpretation of certain key passages in the Bible. As the dispensationalists see it, the future will be a time of turmoil, but true Bible-believing Christians will be "raptured" away (literally, carried up into heaven) before it begins. This is known as the period of tribulation, which will culminate in a valley northwest of Jerusalem known as Armageddon. When the Christians are "raptured" away, then Israel will take the place of the Church on earth, and, according to the dispensationalists, this will mark the beginning of another theological period or "dispensation" supposedly foreseen in the Bible.
This variant of Protestant fundamentalist doctrine is the root of what is known as "Christian Zionism," a movement that preceded the formal establishment of the Jewish variety by some years. As related by Professor Donald Wagner in article in The Christian Century, "Evangelicals and Israel: Theological Roots of a Political Alliance":
