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.

[xzins]

The current existence of Israel in their own land calls for naysayers to keep repeating: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...don't notice the elephant in the room....don't worry 'bout that nation in that land; coulda happened by sheer accident..."

There is no doubt in my mind that the futurist position will be the one left standing when everything is said and done. I harbor no ill will toward advocates of other positions, and I even see value in studying them. I'm human....my interpretation could be wrong. But I don't think it is.

[P-Marlowe]

The current existence of Israel in their own land calls for naysayers to keep repeating: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...don't notice the elephant in the room....don't worry 'bout that nation in that land; coulda happened by sheer accident..."

Most of the preterists on this forum seem to be Calvinists. They believe that nothing happens that isn't part of God's plan. But when they look at Israel their belief in God's sovereignty takes a back seat to their eschatology. They seem to think that God's prior promises to the Jews were transferred to the Gentiles in 70AD (with no scriptural basis for that fact) and that nothing that God does with the Nation of Israel today means anything.

I also find it interesting that they claim that Jesus came to rule and reign invisibly in 70AD. But what the heck was he doing before 70 AD? Sleeping? Jesus has been ruling and reigning invisibly and from behind the scenes from before time began. That never stopped, so there is nothing new or unique about 70AD. Jesus promised a visible return to literally and physically rule and reign upon the earth for 1000 years, to sit upon the Throne of David in Jerusalem. That hasn't happened.... yet. It certainly didn't happen in 70 AD.

[Buggman]

Oh, I completely agree. There's a lot of work to be done, but I think this is going to be the best thing that ever happened to us.

I was on the final draft of chapter 9 (each chapter corresponding to a chapter of the Revelation).

[xzins]

That never stopped, so there is nothing new or unique about 70AD. Jesus promised a visible return to literally and physically rule and reign upon the earth for 1000 years, to sit upon the Throne of David in Jerusalem. That hasn't happened.... yet. It certainly didn't happen in 70 AD.

The invisible return of Christ links the preterists to the Jehovah's Witnesses and some of the more out-there adventists. It is a fallacy. It is a fallacy that the bible SPECIFICALLY warns us against.

The 70 AD Return of Christ is, therefore, all rot. The necessity to make 70 AD be the close-out point of all scripture is likewise the reason for the radical reinterpretations of the dating of John's writings despite huge evidence now and in the past that John was exiled to Patmos in his elderly years.

Remember the song "Razzle-Dazzle?" all about razzle-dazzling folks with diversionary tactics?

Futurist Christians get hit with volumes of supposed scholarly articles, suggestions, diatribes, diet-plans, calendars, sophistry, shucksterism, and plain old misdirection when someone argues the 70 AD position. In short, it doesn't hold water.

But...seeing they may not see; and hearing they may not hear.

I wonder why, sometimes, but I'm enough of a predestinarian anymore just to accept it as part of the plan.

[Buggman]

I think I can say with absolute assurance that it is no coincidence that there is a Nation called Israel located in the land once occupied by those to whom God promised an eternal posession. It is no coincidence that it is the descendants of that promise who now occupy that land and it is no coincidence that all the nations of the earth are joined against it. The existence of Israel appears to be the work of God's hand. What that means at this time is unclear and subject to speculation. But God is not doen with the Nation of Israel. That is clear. To me it means that the times of the Gentiles is coming to an end. I'm not going to pick a date nor am I even going to speculate that it will occur in my lifetime or anyone else's lifetime. Undoubtedly we will all see Jesus within a twinkling of an eye when we pass from death to life. That has been going on for 20 centuries. But someday Jesus will literally come with clouds to rule and reign on earth for a thousand years. We have his word on that. We have his word that when it happens, there will be no debating about whether or not it occurred. Everyone will know for certain. Every eye shall see.

Amen, my friend.

And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Which shall stand for an ensign of the people;
To Him shall the Gentiles seek:
And His rest shall be glorious.

And it shall come to pass in that day,
That YHVH shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people,
Which shall be left,
From Assyria, and from Egypt,
And from Pathros, and from Cush,
And from Elam, and from Shinar,
And from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,
And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.

Isaiah 10:10-12

The Gentiles have flocked to the Root of Jesse, the Messiah, for two millennia. And now the Lord has regathered His people into the Land for the second time (the first being after the Babylonian captivity). This was to happen before Israel as a whole came into the New Covenant, as Ezekiel prophesied:

Therefore say unto the house of Israel,
Thus saith the Lord YHVH;
I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel,
But for Mine holy name's sake,
Which ye have profaned among the heathen,
Whither ye went.

And I will sanctify My great name,
Which was profaned among the heathen,
Which ye have profaned in the midst of them;
And the heathen shall know that I am YHVH,
Saith the Lord YHVH,
When I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the heathen,
And gather you out of all countries,
And will bring you into your own land.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
And ye shall be clean from all your filthiness,
And from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you,
And a new spirit will I put within you:
And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
And I will give you an heart of flesh.

And I will put My Spirit within you,
And cause you to walk in My statutes,
And ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.

And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers;
And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.

--Ezekiel 36:22-28

It's the ultimate in predestination: The Lord YHVH, God of Hosts, chose Israel from eternity not based on their faithfulness to Him, but based on His faithfulness to the promises He made to their fathers. He is demonstrating His faithfulness by bringing them back to the Land even before they put their trust in His Son--because our Father always takes the initiative. And we are seeing His faithfulness unfold before our eyes as a sign that His Coming, in the person of the Messiah Yeshua, is soon to come.

One would be foolish to try to set a date for that Coming when the Son said that no one knows the day or hour--but it would be equally foolish not to see and understand the signs, praise God, and understand that we have a great deal to do in a very little time.

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed. Thank you for your insights!

[Gamecock]

I live in Christ's perfection, not my own.

[topcat54]

Are you arguing that the Roman soldiers did not drive the nails and thrust the spear?

What I'm arguing is that Zechariah 12:10, and by implication the verses in the NT that quote Zechariah 12:10, are a specific reference to Israel.

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."

In the context "they" can only be referring to "house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem", i.e., Israel.

I'm off for a few days. Have fun till I get back.

[xzins]

That has not yet happened.

Israel has not yet been confronted with the one they have pierced. They have not yet mourned for Him.

They shall not see Him again "until (they) say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

[Blogger]

Very well. But the facts are, that the state of the world is not one in which things are getting better and better. It is getting worse and worse - just as Scripture said it would.

[TomSmedley]

Very well. But the facts are, that the state of the world is not one in which things are getting better and better. It is getting worse and worse - just as Scripture said it would.

The stupidest question in the Bible can be found in Acts 1:6. The disciples asked Jesus if, as a condign reward for renouncing God's Kingdom, pledging allegiance to Caesar, and demanding the crucifiction of His Son, God would give Israel political supremacy. This echoes the question that prompted the Olivet Discourse. For these Jewish disciples, the end of their world could be nothing less than the end of the world.

Don't look now, but your parochialism is showing.

Or, perhaps, a foolish willingness to view the world through the eyes of the secularized God-hating mainstream media.

God is at work "under the radar" in this country and around the world. I grieve for those you love and influence, since they can find themselves infected with your commitment to defeat, with your terror of the "giants in the land." Since they may learn from you to cower in hopeless despair before the evils of this world.

Then, I take courage from R. J. Rushdoony's observation that history is never shaped by fearful majorities, but only by uncompromising men of conviction, hope, and action. IOW, men of faith. Caleb and Joshua had the minority report -- "these people are bread for us!" Caleb and Joshua also lived to partake of their share of God's good providence.

But, why should God entrust anything to those who have already given up? Thrown in the towel? Conceded the war?

We will see again men like William Wilburforce. John Wesley. J. S. Bach. Michaelangelo. Oliver Cromwell. King Alfred the Great. Patrick. Columban. Boniface. They will not come from your camp. Dispensationalism is nursemaid to mediocrity, sniveling, cringing, retreatism. Not greatness.

[P-Marlowe]

But, why should God entrust anything to those who have already given up? Thrown in the towel? Conceded the war?

We are doing nothing of the kind. Indeed we smell the victory! What follows the age of Grace are the days of wrath. Satan is not yet bound. But his time is nearly up. Look around. Do you deny the truth of these verses:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7 KJV)

The Day of the Lord is fast approaching. The victory is at hand.

BTW and FWIW, there are NO dispensationalist Churches which have fallen prey to the homosexual agenda. There are no dispensationaist churches which encourage or support abortion. The destruction of the church from within is being wrought in those churches which preach reconstructionist and replacement theology.

It is no coincidence that Israel has been reborn in Jerusalem. It is nothing short of a miracle. There is a purpose in everything. Do you believe it is a mere coincidence that all the eyes of the world are focused on a piece of real estate which is smaller than most of the counties in the US? Do you believe that it is a coincidence that in the time when the Church is falling prey to damnable heresies that the focus of the world's hatred is on a tiny country called Israel?

I don't. I see God's hand at work.

[TomSmedley]

BTW and FWIW, there are NO dispensationalist Churches which have fallen prey to the homosexual agenda. There are no dispensationaist churches which encourage or support abortion. The destruction of the church from within is being wrought in those churches which preach reconstructionist and replacement theology.

According to an analysis of Planned Parenthood records which providentially fell into Christian hands, the majority of their customers attend evangelical churches, and can name their pastors. But, that's neither here nor there. Any of us can interpret God's grace as our license to sin "given my unique situation."

One mild correction is in order. Reconstructionism grew as a response to two enemies of God's purposes: the "modernists" who attacked the church from without, by denying the authority of Scripture, and the "pietiests" who undermined the church from within. It can be argued that reconstructionists have a stronger commitment to God's Word than dispensationalists do, since we calibrate our lives on the basis of the "whole counsel of God," rather than upon a few selected verses judged "appropriate to this dispensation."

A a malady that shows up during periods of the church's decline is apocalyptic hysteria. People of faith justify their failures of vision, courage, and nobility by projecting their experience against the screen of an imagined future that is totally disconnected from their own lives. Rather than saying, "We screwed up. Our God deserves better of us," the apocalyptic hysteriac says "God has ordained the total global triumph of evil, which will only be rectified by the parousia. And who are we to think we can or should resist God's program?"

Those immersed in this perspective become de-facto cheerleaders for Satan's team, drooling and fawning over each new potential antichrist who will, they hope, usher in the "end times" and the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some day, someone may write a doctoral dissertation on the sequences behind widespread outbreaks of this malady. The pattern seems to be

• Major Christian advance (Reformation, English Commonwealth, Puritan Commonwealth, Presbyterian Church)
• Major satanic counterstrike (Anabaptist anarchy, Restoration, Unitarianism, modernism)
• Horrific warfare (30 years war, persecution of the Covenanters, War Between the States, WWI, II, etc.)
• Rump-covering defeatist eschatologies flourish, striving to replace effective Christian living with ever-more intricate imaginary maps of the future.

While this malady runs its course, Christians hold their assigned responsibilities to the world around them in contempt, and dismiss faithful obedience to God's commision as "re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

PS -- you say "I see God's hand at work" when a cult which preaches that our Lord and Savior is boiling forever in excrement manages to impose an anti-Christian socialist regime. Your God beams approval upon those who say that about His Son?

[P-Marlowe]

PS -- you say "I see God's hand at work" when a cult which preaches that our Lord and Savior is boiling forever in excrement manages to impose an anti-Christian socialist regime. Your God beams approval upon those who say that about His Son?

I perceive an anti-semetic tone to your post. Is their sin any worse than yours before you came to Christ?

Politics and religion have nothing to do with the restoration of Israel. It is God's work. It appears to be his preparation for the end of the age of the Gentiles. He will pour out his wrath upon the earth and he will pour out his spirit upon his rebellious children. We have his promise on that.

[Seven_0]

Very well. But the facts are, that the state of the world is not one in which things are getting better and better. It is getting worse and worse - just as Scripture said it would.

The wheat and the tares are growing together and both will come to maturity at the same time. As we come near to the harvest, the wheat will bow down and the tares will stand tall. In this way, you will be able to distinguish between them. If you look at the tares, you will see things getting worse. If you see the wheat, you will see things getting better.

[Gamecock]

***It is getting worse and worse***

Lets see:

In 1200 the life expectancy was what? 30?

In 1900 the life expectancy was what 40?

A baby born today has a life expectancy of 75? 80? Free of iron lungs and communicable diseases that routinely killed babies before their 1st year.

The poor today are rich by the standards of the 1700s.

Sure there are tensions and wars in the Middle East. But tell me one time in history when there wasn't.

Have 16 million people been killed recently there like in WWII Germany? What about the 50 million dead under Stalin?

The numbers of our war dead in Iraq are not even comparable to most wars in our nations history.

No my friend, things sound bad because the MSM needs it to sound that way to sell sell advertising.

Christ is reigning over Israel (the elect) and is already victorious. ___________________________________ I suspect our Dispy friends are really of the mind set that the glass is half empty.

[Blogger]

Most of what you just said has nothing to do about morality. But, I'm not going to argue with you because I know I would be wasting my time. Believe things are getting better. I will believe what Scripture actually says.

[TomSmedley]

I perceive an anti-semetic tone to your post.

"If thine eye be darkness, however, how great is that darkness!" Talmudic Judaism is an anti-Christian cult, just like Mormonism, the moonies, or the JWs. A phenomonally motivating cult, since it takes a lot of energy to live in denial of the embarrassing fact that your team made the biggest mistake in human history. A resentful cult, since it has to live with the daily reminder that outsiders claim to understand their foundational documents better than they do. An erudite cult, since it places priority on an encylopedia of human reflections rather than upon the core scriptures reflected upon. You can be an atheist and a Jew. But you cannot accept that Jesus, the Messiah, has come in the flesh, and be a Jew in good standing. Faith in God is of less consequence than the willingness to deny Jesus.

Does listing the publically available and widely acknowledged facts make me an "anti-semite?" Well, I'm not an anti-Mormon, since I cherish my Mormon friends, and pray regularly for their enlightenment. I'm not an anti-semite since I belong to the church universal, originally founded by a Jew (Jesus), and worship at a local church organized by a believing Jew (Ron Lewis, founding pastor of King's Park International Church). I pray for the peace of Jerusalem by praying for the conversion of the Jewish and muslim cultists who are so busy barking up the wrong tree (See Romans 10). I can testify that my muslim friends have a hunger for God, but have been conditioned, like the Jews, to overlook the only Way to God, the only Truth of God, and the only way to truly live in God (John 14:6).

(Parenthetically, Muslims honor the virgin-born Jesus. The talmud seethes the harlot-born Jesus in excrement. How can we as Christians best build bridges to both of these groups? By creating in our imaginations another vast "holocaust," and praying to see it happen soon? Or by proclaiming and sharing the riches of the Overlooked One, the fulfillment of every nation?)

[TomSmedley]

I suspect our Dispy friends are really of the mind set that the glass is half empty.

The tragedy is, their faithlessness has corroded the evangelical culture, and condemned it to generations of pointless desert wandering. There are consequences to shrinking back from the opportunities and responsibilities of life. 80% of the kids raised in generic evangelical homes leave the faith within five years of leaving home.

[Ancesthntr]

That YHVH shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people,

Your interpretation of that passage in Isaiah 10 is not universal - particularly by people like me who share Isaiah's religion and who he was addressing. The L-rd set His hand the first time to recover the remnant of His people in Egypt - and the second time will be to recover our remnant (i.e. gather in the exiles from the four corners of the Earth) when Moschiach comes - Moschiach who is a human being, descended on his male line directly from King David through King Solomon.

I know that I will not shake your faith, nor you mine, and that is not my intention. I just wanted to let you know that not everyone shares your belief, to open your eyes to other possibilities.