Publishing Armageddon

American Vision ^ | 7/24/2006 | Gary DeMar

[topcat54]

Events in Israel are viewed by millions of evangelicals as a sure sign that the rapture is near. Again! Jerry Falwell, who stated on a December 27, 1992, television broadcast, that he did “not believe there will be another millennium . . . or another century,” has written on July 23, 2006:

It is apparent, in light of the rebirth of the state of Israel, that the present-day events in the Holy Land may very well serve as a prelude or forerunner to the future Battle of Armageddon and the glorious return of Jesus Christ.1

Something similar happened in 1990. John F. Walvoord recycled and revised his Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis to fit with what was then considered to be the latest in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in our day. The 1974 edition opened with this declaration: “Each day’s headlines raise new questions concerning what the future holds.”2 As we now know, Walvoord’s book was guided by current events and not sound methods of biblical interpretation. Described as “the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy,” in 1991 he expected “‘the Rapture to occur in his own lifetime.’”3 While Walvoord didn’t invent the prophetic speculation game, as Frank Gumerlock points out it his The Day and the Hour, he did make a ton of money playing it.

Walvoord’s book was reprinted in 1976 and then sank without a trace until a revised edition appeared in late 1990. By August 1991, it had sold 1,676,886 copies.4 It was decisively predictive based on the events transpiring in the Gulf War:

The world today is like a stage being set for a great drama. The major actors are already in the wings waiting for their moment in history. The main stage props are already in place. The prophetic play is about to begin. . . . Our present world is well prepared for the beginning of the prophetic drama that will lead to Armageddon. Since the stage is set for this dramatic climax of the age, it must mean that Christ’s coming for his own is very near.5

Not many people realized that the basic content of the revised edition was nearly sixteen years old when it was reissued in 1990. When the Gulf War ended abruptly, the book was being remaindered for twenty-five cents a copy, if you bought it by the case!

Walvoord’s failed predictions have not deterred other prophecy writers from taking up the mantle of prophetic dogmatism by proclaiming that prophecy is being fulfilled today. And what about their past failed predictions that seemed so sure at the time? They simply moved on “without ever acknowledging their mistake.”6 This is because current events, not Scripture, serve as their interpretive grid.

In 1974, Thomas S. McCall and the late Zola Levitt wrote The Coming Russian Invasion in which they stated that “the Armageddon conflict grows out of the Russian invasion of Israel.” Now that the former Soviet Union no longer has super power status, a new prophetic theory had to be invented to fit current events. Since necessity is the mother of invention in the end-time speculation business, prophecy speculator Mark Hitchcock wrote The Coming Islamic Invasion of Israel. But that was in 2002 and it’s old news. Now that Iran is threatening Israel again, prophetic publishers are looking for the next prophetic blockbuster to take advantage of the always gullible Christian market. Similar in title to Walvoord’s book that was first published in 1974, Hitchcock has written Iran—The Coming Crisis: Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat. How many unsuspecting readers will know that Hitchcock has traveled this prophetic road before in The Silver Kingdom: Iran in History and Prophecy published in 1994?

The only winners in the Armageddon game are the authors who tell us it’s near and the publishers who print their books by the truck load. The losers are the integrity of God’s Word and the poor souls who pin their hopes on prophetic speculations passed off as certainties that are always said to be near.

Gary DeMar is president of American Vision and the author of more than 20 books. His latest is Myths, Lies, and Half Truths.

Reprinted with permission: American Vision P.O. Box 220, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-628-9460.

Notes:

1. Jerry Falwell, “On the threshold of Armageddon?” (July 23, 2006): www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51180

2. John F. Walvoord and John E. Walvoord, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974), 7.

3. Quoted in Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Final Days are Here Again,” Newsweek (March 18, 1991), 55.

4. Press Release, “Kudos,” Zondervan Publishing House (August 1991).

5. John W. Walvoord, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), 228.

6. Stephen D. O’Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 191.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Amen.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I think that's from the "Battle Hymm of the Republic." But that's a good one, too. 8~).

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

"Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
one in hope and doctrine, one in charity..."

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I will give one chance to correct that pessimistic outlook, otherwise I'll have to send you an invitation to the rapture express.

Some, I said some:

"...being it can't get much worse than some of it already is these days."

Nothing and nobody's perfect, except Christ.

[Alex Murphy]

We are not called to impact or redeem the culture.

And that, my friend, is where our two sides irreconcilably diverge, and the precise point from which our respective criticisms of each other flow. Those of us approaching this from the POV of Postmillennialism and the Reformation would say yes, the blood of Christ is capable of redeeming everything affected by the Fall, flowing outward from the repentant/obedient soul, compounded by the number of repentant/obedient souls, effecting a progressive change in culture and politics and art and everything produced by man. At the end of JONAH, A VEGGIETALES MOVIE, do you think that everyone in Ninevah retained their fish-slapping ways after the entire population repented?

Many (but not all) approaching this from other POVs, especially Scofield-flavored Dispensational Premillennialism would say no, the Rapture-era culture will not (cannot?) be redeemed by anything - including a wholesale repentance and conversion of the population - other than the physical return of Christ. Beyond that, I'm just extrapolating backwards to show that if you're right, then living one's life for Christ in any era doesn't add up to jack squat statistically or sociologically, whereas living one's life for Satan has a statistically measurable, progressively successful effect on society in every era.

How effective do you think the latter's sales pitch will be on winning men and women for Christ (especially if monergism is wrong)?

I'm A Victor In Christ!

[Gamecock]

Great movie.

[xzins]

That's referred to as a premature elderly moment.

????

Hmmmmm.....time for a checkup.

[blue-duncan]

If I remember correctly, within one generation Ninevah (Assyria) reverted to the worship of Ishtar and to its former barbaric ways, including the merciless attacks on Israel and Judah. The culture was influenced as long as the ruling majority had influence. Otherwise it reverts to its Godless spirit, like weeds.

I think the picture of the martyr is more appropriate as an example of the pre-mil selling point.

[Alex Murphy]

The culture was influenced as long as the ruling majority had influence. Otherwise it reverts to its Godless spirit.

Keep talking like that, and I'll make a postmil out of you :D

The problem faced in the Premil position, IMO, is explaining how the Raptured generation (and the ones immediately preceding it) were successful in changing lives, while simultaneously (and spectacularly) failing to achieve "majority status" in influencing the culture. To do so, either the church must suffer a substantial net loss in overall numbers over several generations (reducing their numbers to an ever-shrinking minority of the overall population), or else the individual Christians suffer a substantial net loss in victory over sin over several generations (indicating their failure to avoid being assimilated into, i.e. not repenting of the increasingly sinful culture about them). Victory today, but defeat tomorrow? For premillennialism to be true, at some point either the church performs a massive flip-flop historically and the gates of Hell dramatically begin prevailing against it (maybe because of the Rapture), or else the church has been fighting a slow battle of defeat-and-retreat culturally since the first century. If there's a third option here, I'm just not seeing it.

I'll throw you a bone here - if Christians are not called to/incapable of redeeming the culture about them, then IMO you are correct in holding a Premil vision of the future, holding out the hope of being raptured/rescued as the means of escaping your current predicament, and in ridiculing us Postmils for believing in (and devoting resources to) doing otherwise. But likewise, if we Reformed Postmils are correct in believing we're called to (and promised to be successful in, long-term) redeem the culture, then IMO we're correct in chastising your side for being retreatist (allowing the culture to slide further away from God), and for promoting failure as a Biblical promise for church growth.

[Buggman]

You're right. In fact, look at the whole history of Israel: Bondage leads to Spiritual revival, which leads to freedom, which leads to wickedness, which leads back to bondage. The best generations were often succeeded by the worst, and vice-versa.

Our own Western history has shown the same.

I believe that Christian political rulership does not so much "redeem" as it does create more tares among the wheat. When the Church is in political power, those who are attracted to political power rather than the Messiah are attracted to the Church. When the Church is under persecution, the tares get out of Dodge.

There's an old story, probably apocryphal, which illustrates this point: Back in the Soviet days, a small home church in Russia was suddenly invaded by gun-wielding men. "We are the KGB," they said. "Anyone who doesn't want to die for their faith, get out now!" Maybe 2/3rds of those there sheepishly duck out. After they're gone, the KGB men sit and say, "Now that we know who the real Christians are, we want to learn about God."

I believe that the End Times scenario of persecution is not truly a victory for the Adversary, however much carnal eyes might see it to be so; rather, it is the last purification of the whole Body of the Messiah, the separation and bundling up of the tares from the wheat, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Yeshua HaMashiach" (1 Pt. 1:7).

[Corin Stormhands]

I think Helen Reddy is a sign that the Tribulation is already here, but that's just me.

You know, she was in that movie about the Beast...

[Alex Murphy]

You know, she was in that movie about the Beast...

Your picture didn't come through. I'm sure you meant this one.

[Corin Stormhands]

Actually it was this one...

[Seven_0]

The problem faced in the Premil position, IMO, is explaining how the Raptured generation (and the ones immediately preceding it) were successful in changing lives, while simultaneously (and spectacularly) failing to achieve "majority status" in influencing the culture.

II Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

It sounds as if you think the Premils are going to cause the falling away.

[blue-duncan]

"It sounds as if you think the Premils are going to cause the falling away."

The church's leaving at the rapture and the economy of the Holy Spirit being extant, as in the church age, ending will cause a falling away as the witness will no longer be there and the man of sin will have free reign subject to the purposes of God during this time of tribulation.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I believe that Christian political rulership does not so much "redeem" as it does create more tares among the wheat.

A truly astounding statement.

Try telling your dismal assessment of Christian leadership to John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, George Bush.

"The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and the attributes of God." -- [June 28, 1813; Letter to Thomas Jefferson]

"We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!" -- [April 18, 1775, on the eve of the Revolutionary War after a British major ordered John Adams, John Hancock, and those with them to disperse in "the name of George the Sovereign King of England."

[Seven_0]

The church's leaving at the rapture and the economy of the Holy Spirit being extant, as in the church age, ending will cause a falling away as the witness will no longer be there and the man of sin will have free reign subject to the purposes of God during this time of tribulation.

So, are you saying that the falling away has nothing to do with the church?

[Buggman]

Have you ever noticed that of the seven letters in the Revelation, the only two which received no "but this I hold against you" statements were Smyrna, which was then in a time of persecution, and Philadelphia, which had apparently just come out of a time of testing?

But again, I think you miss my point, which is that there is a regular cycle of history, and there is never a permanently redeemed culture. Whenever Christianity (and Israel before it) has had one of those truly great and Godly generations, it has been because they came out of a period of darkness and testing which purified them, as fire purifies gold.

Because that generation walks with the Lord, the Lord blesses them, resulting in great material wealth. However, as the first generation that went through the time of testing passes, they are succeeded by a generation to whom church is just something you do . . . just because. They become Laodicean.

Then follows the cynical and rebelleous generation, to whom, "Don't ask questions, just have faith," the mantra of the "just because" generation, is sheer foolishness. The culture changes from Christian to post-Christian, and then to anti-Christian. In doing so, it looses its blessings. It also becomes decadent and dependant--which leads it back into darkness and bondage.

John Adams understood this cycle. He said, "Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other." We're finding that to be true in our own generation.

These periods of darkness and bondage are actually important to the overall spiritual health of the Church. Only when it is unpopular to be a Christian, when we are persecuted and downtrodden, when there is real cost to living a holy life set apart for Yeshua do the tares flee the sanctuary and the wheat grow to fruition. And only when the Church is full of wheat bearing the fruits of repentence do we have the impact on our culture for the bondage to be broken and the cycle to begin anew.

This is a cycle which no democracy has ever managed to escape. What, then, about a monarchy or dictatorship? The problem they run into is the need to enforce "Christian" standards by increasingly draconian laws. Conscienceless men can be ruled by fear, and in some cultures by honor and shame, but they cannot be ruled with a light hand. Bondage is still bondage, even if the mortal king proclaims himself a Christian.

The flaw with postmill is that it refuses to acknowledge this cycle, a cycle which has been and will be in motion for as long as flawed human governments rule the world system. Premill supposes that somehow, we can create a visible Kingdom of Heaven on the earth--and if that's not working, if we find ourselves on the downslide part of the cycle, well that must be because of those darn Dispensationalists with their defeatist attitudes!

Premill recognizes the cycle of history, and it recognizes that only when the Messiah King Yeshua sits on David's throne in Jerusalem and rules bodily over the whole earth "with a rod of iron" will that cycle be broken--and even then, there will be one last grating turn of the rusty wheel at the end of the Millennium before all is made new.

Premill is not defeatist because it recognizes the truth of history, or because it recognizes the truth of Scripture, that the whole world will go into a brief period of bondage brought on by spiritual darkness before the Lord Comes. It is simply realistic and Biblical.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

BUGGMAN (post #289): "I believe that Christian political rulership does not so much "redeem" as it does create more tares among the wheat."

So Christian political rulership creates tares, eh?

Rather than retract that bizarre, unChristian statement, you continue on as if it made sense.

Orthodox Christianity remains the single redeeming hope for mankind, as God intends, regardless of how you malign it.

[P-Marlowe]

So Christian political rulership creates tares, eh? Rather than retract that bizarre, unChristian statement, you continue on as if it made sense.

His post made perfect sense. If you have to suffer persecution to be a Christian, you are much less likely to pretend to be one. If you have to pretend to be a christian to get a good job, then you are much more likely to pretend to be one.

When the political leadership of a country is Christian, and you are seeking power, you will pretend to be a Christian.

If that does not make sense to you, then I can't help you, Sundance.

Orthodox Christianity remains the single redeeming hope for mankind, as God intends, regardless of how you malign it.

I dare you to post that statement over on the Luther/Erasmus thread.

[Quix]

"24" has become almost more than I feel up to enduring. The excitement is . . . too much for fiction. That is, I'd rather reserve that level of excitement for reality. Reality already is more than sufficiently exciting and scheduled to get a lot more so.

Part of the problem is my empathy and imagination capacities to typically put myself in such persons' skin--even fictional persons. Too much.