Posted on 07/24/2006 8:28:49 AM PDT by 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.1Something 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.
13:27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this [is] the fruit of it.
13:28 Nevertheless the people [be] strong that dwell in the land, and the cities [are] walled, [and] very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
13:29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
13:30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
13:31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they [are] stronger than we.
13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, [is] a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it [are] men of a great stature.
13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, [which come] of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
By way of contrast, 90+% of the kids raised in hard-core Calvinist homes, and in home-schooling families (there is significant overlap between these two groups) embrace, cherish, and live the faith they were raised in.
Seven-O: 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.
Good observation., Seven-O!
Postmillennialists (Dr E is one, as am I) believe that the ratio of wheat to tares will progressively alter in the wheat's favor, as the Great Commission is fulfilled in history (promised by Matthew 16:18, where Christ tells us the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church, and confirmed by Psalm 110, which says all of Christ's enemies will be vanquished before His return). Providing that God's people are faithful and obedient to Him, the world will indeed grow better and better as it is brought into submission to Him, and His blessings flow in return (fulfilling the parable of the yeast, Matthew 13:33/Luke 13:21). For good reason, postmillenialists have been described as being gleeful, while endlessly going on the offensive on this very thread. I consider that a compliment. Postmillers are, as you say, "looking at the wheat."
Premillenialists (P-Marlowe is one) believe that the ratio of wheat to tares will progressively alter in the tare's favor. The Great Commission is fulfilled in history only in the sense of being preached to all nations (positive returns on preaching, i.e. conversions, will steadily and progressively decline, as will the prospects for raising up Godly progeny). The gates of Hell will eventually prevail against His church, leading to a Great Tribulation and Armageddon where the AntiChrist holds sway and influence over every soul on the planet, and Christ's enemies progressively wield influence, achieving a decisive victory by the apex of history. They are unable to be defeated until Christ returns physically to kick their collective keisters. Pretrib/Premillers tell us that "Jesus already has the victory", but only a victory that fails to manifest itself within history, contrary to Psalm 110, Matthew 13, Matthew 18, Matthew 28, etc etc etc). While Christ personally may "have the victory", Christ's church will eventually lose all impact and influence as history progresses. It should then come as no surprise that the church ultimately disappears entirely (the rapture), having used up whatever opportunities it was given and having "left behind" nothing of lasting value in return. I have to wonder whether the premillers are expecting greater things of the wheat, or the tares?
You never answered that question.
How can we as Christians best build bridges to both of these groups?
We don't "build bridges" we preach the gospel. The bridge has been built. There are signs pointing to the bridge. Our job is not to build bridges but to proclaim the gospel.
The covenant of the land was not made to the Jews as a religious group but to the descendants of Abraham as a people. It is not because of the religious standing of the Jews who now occupy that land that God is rewarding by returning them back to Israel. Hardly. If anything, objectively it is a curse as the entire world has gathered against them. Yet they are drawn to this land and they continue to come against all odds. Why is that? IMO it is because God is working behind the scenes.
The same God who hardens their hearts against him also draws them to him and draws them to the Land of Promise. The same God who draws them there will someday pour out his spirit upon them and will likewise pour out his wrath upon those who curse them.
I do not claim that Jews have any special standing before God because of their religious views. Indeed by their religious standing they stand in peril. Their standing in regard to the Land of Israel is by right of birth. God made an eternal covenant to them. He will not break it.
That may be, but those pastors aren't encouraging their parishes to get abortions, nor is there political liberalism masquerading as the true Faith as there is in so many "reconstructionist" churches.
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."
Oh really? Tell me, on which day do you keep the Sabbath and on what Biblical basis? Unless you a) keep the Sabbath on the seventh day as is repeatedly commanded in Scripture or b) can show a passage in the NT which directly and overtly changes the day of the Sabbath, then you too are guilty of "cherry-picking" your Scripture.
Indeed, R.C. Sproul points out in his book Dispensationalism that if you observe Sunday rather than Saturday, that you agree with the premise of Dispensationalism and are merely dickering about the details. (Please forgive the lack of a full quote or page number--I'm at work, and cited that from memory.)
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?"
Your gift for characature remains unparalleled. While futurist premillennialists do believe that there will be a global, political "victory" of evil in the End Times, we also believe that there will be a victory of the Gospel, which will be delivered to every last tribe, tongue, and nation in preparation for the Parousia. The Adversary's political "victory" is therefore no victory at all, but merely his last desperate gasp and lunge, which God allows for His own purposes (among them, to separate the wheat from the chaff and to refine the elect as gold is refined--by fire).
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 think P-Marlowe is right--your post betrays a stench of anti-Semetism. You may want to try rephrasing it.
But insofar as the Jews have blasphemed the Messiah, how much greater the Church as a whole's condemnation for blaspheming Him to His own people by centuries of persecution in His Name? Indeed, the day the Church decided to ignore the teachings and examples of Yeshua HaMashiach and His Apostles by actively forbidding Jewish disciples of a Jewish, Torah-observant Messiah to remain Jewish and Torah-observant, we lost all right to condemn them for rejecting Him:
What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, "Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them"; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for YHVH your God proveth you, to know whether ye love YHVH your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after YHVH your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from YHVH your God, Which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which YHVH thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.When the Church presents a wonder-working, prophetic Jesus who came to do away with the Torah, abolish the Sabbath, destroy the Feastdays, and command the Jews to stop walking in the way that YHVH commanded them to walk at Mt. Sinai, then the Jew is right to reject such a "messiah"--and indeed, to suppose him the object of God's punishment. How much more so should they think this Jesus a false prophet and an anti-messiah when the Church in his name has done the deeds of Antiochus Epiphanes!Deuteronomy 12:32-13:5
Mind you, the first-century Jews had no such excuse--none of them could find Yeshua guilty of violating the Torah, and the Nazarines, the Jewish believers including the Apostles, were known for their zealousness for the Torah. But once the Church got in bed with the Roman culture and government for the sake of not suffering the persecution being inflicted on the Jews after Judea's two failed rebellions, and once we stepped over the line of forcing Jewish believers to give up everything Jewish, we were the ones guilty of putting back up the middle wall of partition that the Lord tore down in His own flesh.
Moreover, you blaspheme the Lord even now to any Jew who reads this thread with your spiteful, arrogant diatribe. I think, for the sake of not putting a stumbling block in the path of the blind, you should stand down and apologize.
Morality?
What was going on in Corinth? Ever heard of Caligula?
Morals, good or bad, don't matter a bit. Christ saves, not the political/moral political activism that we see much of the Evangelical engaged in.
The only problem with supposing that the first regathering was from Egypt is that it was not a "remnant" that was rescued from Egypt--it was the whole nation.
And I agree that Mashiach is a human being descended from David; however, He is also far more than that:
"Behold, the days come," saith YHVH, "that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, YHVH-Tzidkeynu (the LORD our Righteousness)."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.--Jeremiah 23:5-6
I think we actually share more than you might think, as we worship the same God as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who gave His Torah to Moshe to give to Israel, whom He has elected and will not forget. We simply disagree on whether Mashiach has come (though we agree that He will come), and on some details of His mission and nature.
You have an interesting take here. I believe that all metaphors in scripture bring meaning to the respective passages, but I urge caution here. The wheat does not become tares nor do the tares become wheat. The ratio is established at the time of the sowing, not at the harvest.
Typology is a reliable tool to teach doctrine and I will use it to defend pre-trib, pre-mil, unless you can convince me that I am wrong.
Seven
Wrong. Many Jews (perhaps as many as 80%) did not leave Egypt. There is much debate about the particulars of this in Jewish sources, but at the very least those that left could be called a remnant in the same sense as those who left the extermination factories of Europe - they were the survivors.
We simply disagree on whether Mashiach has come (though we agree that He will come), and on some details of His mission and nature.
The main source of our disagreement is evidenced by the fact that you capitalize ("He" and "His"), whereas I wouldn't - because in Jewish belief, the Messiah/Moschiach (that's a title, like "President," so it gets capitalized) is a normal human being. Not one of the Patriarchs, Kings or Prophets - not even Moses himself - was divine, they were all human beings, just as Moschiach will be fully human. There is only one Divine Being.
Other than that, we obviously have a lot in common. All things considered, its better for people to concentrate on those things, rather than that which divides us (one need only turn on the TV to see the result of that).
What I'm thinking of here the ratio of obedient Christians, versus the disobedient heathen, at any given point in history. If the world is really going to "get worse", then you have to believe that the influx of new Christians (converts/obedient children born to obedient parents) progressively drops as history goes on, i.e. the overall population of Christians declines (failure to successfully evangelize), or the the influence of Christians overall (ability to change social/moral/political/environmental ills for the better) progressively declines as history goes on (an increasing failure to successfully be "salt and light").
Now you have to remember that I'm a postmiller. I expect that Christ's church will have an increasingly influential role in the future overall, and only as a long term, compound result of the church preaching the Gospel, bringing in new converts, and being (steadily) obedient to His commands. I believe that things can go backwards, short-term. Things could get worse, if the church fails to obey His commands. But I believe that it will progress forwards, long-term, as little successes eventually compound into bigger ones. Christ's word will not return to Him void. I've said elsewhere that Premillennialists allow their eschatology to negatively influence their evangelistic/discipleship expectations. Those that don't IMO live with a cognitive disconnect between their present and future expectations for the success of the Gospel, and the efficacy of Christ's shed blood.
AMEN!
There are consequences!
That truth is what sent me into the Postmil camp. I asked my husband once why he wasn't a premil or amil since it looked like everything was going downhill fast.
After giving me many clear verses which illustrated the Bible's success, he reminded me that the best way to fail is to believe failure is the intended outcome.
That's the defeatist rationale behind doling out condoms to 13-year-olds -- since they're going to have sex anyway they might as well fail more "carefully."
It's Satan who rules by the negative. His "conspiracy" asserts that Christ will not succeed in making footstools of His enemies. What better way to discourage evangelizing the world than to say our preaching will ultimately fail?
Don't believe it.
All eschatology is "political," even Postmil. The world wants us ineffectual, so they invent Premil. The world wants us aloof, so they invent Amil. The world wants us divided and worried, so they invent Dispensationalism.
But Christ invented the political POV of Postmillenialism (John 16) and it grew, being carried into the world by His apostles. Like a pebble in a pond, the word of God goes forth and expands exponentially.
Just as it is supposed to do.
Resist the fears and malaise and apathy and divisiveness. The world is hearing the Gospel; men are being converted to the truth, by God's will.
Maybe the premil POV is more prevalent among Arminians because they believe salvation is a cooperative effort between men and God. And men can fail.
We Reformed know that salvation is by God's grace alone, and so our faith is in His ability, and not our own.
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" -- Matthew 28:18-20.
"We believe that the Great Commission includes not merely the formal and external announcement of the gospel preached as a "witness" to the nations, as the premillennialists and amillennialists hold, but the true and effectual evangelization of all the nations so that the heart and lives of the people are transformed by it. That seems quite clear from the fact that all authority in heaven and on earth and an endless sweep or conquest has been given to Christ, and through him to his disciples specifically for that purpose. They were commanded not merely to preach but to make disciples of all the nations. It was no doubtful experiment to which they were called, but to a sure triumph. The preaching of the gospel under the direction of the Holy Spirit during this dispensation is, therefore, the all sufficient means for accomplishing that purpose." -- Lorraine Boettner, "Postmillennialism," in The Meaning of the Millennium, ed. Robert G. Clouse, pp. 117-118.
Some Postmils -- Oswald T. Allis, Athanasius, Augustine, Lorainne Boettner, Joachim of Fiore, John Calvin, David Chilton, Robert Lewis Dabney, John Jefferson Davis, Jonathan Edwards, Eusebius, Kenneth Gentry, A.A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, J. Marcellus Kik, J. Gresham Machen, Iain Murray, John Owen, W.G.T. Shedd, R. C. Sproul, Augustus H. Strong, J.H. Thornwell, B.B. Warfield, Greg Bahnsen.
"Evangelical Postmillennialists teach the glorious, personal return of Jesus Christ at the end of history to judge the world." - Greg Bahnsen.
"...at the end of history."
B.B. Warfield?!?
Maybe I need to reexamine my position....
I know it was probably an oversight, but John Wesley was also postmil.
The one thing he was off his flippin' rocker about.
Christ's return to a totally depraved world, given totally depraved inhabitants, is not a sign of failure at all. It sounds more like a sign of reality.
That would be like calling the crucifixion a failure.
Amen!
The PCUSA stumbles, loses members, and the OPC and PCA grow.
Each one of us is a living example that God's word burnishes, clarifies, fortifies and expands into the world.
And if it is true for us, by God's will, it can and will be true for many others.
Resist the negative.
I think you're like I was -- a Postmil in disguise. 8~)
Do you do anything less?
So there is no hope at all for anyone, this side of the parousia? If so, then WHY BOTHER "praying for our troops to win?" Where sin abounds, in your view, this is no room for grace, but only an inescapable black hole sucking all down to destruction. Except for maybe a few etherial saved "souls" floating like soap bubbles in detached abstraction over the drain.
So why did the Word need to become flesh if only "spiritual" things are relevant? If your statement is indeed a true reflection of your theology, then you are preaching gnosticism, not Biblical Christianity. For there is no real-world redemption in your theological construct. You have nothing to offer a desperate world beyond personal "gnosis" -- and the hindus can offer that.
Amen.
Their standing in regard to the Land of Israel is by right of birth. God made an eternal covenant to them. He will not break it.
I think their standing in regard to the land (not-capitalized) of Israel is fair in light of WWII and a history of the land.
But it is not by birthright. "All Israel is not Israel." That's the message of the New Testament. It's just dirt, now made fruitful by Jewish toil and manipulated by political agendas.
The Jews have always been manipulated by political agendas. That is their sad lot. Stubborness plays a large part, no? Sadly, men will always want to turn toward Egypt.
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord" -- Acts 7:52-57"Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Sometimes you sound so Arminian. What about God's plan? Are they not under the sovereign control of God?
The Jews' hearts have been hardened by the very God who led them out of Egypt. In reality the God who has hardened their hearts is leading them (even in their stubborness and stiffneckedness) back to the promised land. Why? It would appear to me that the time of the Gentiles is nearing the end. At that time God will remove the veil from their eyes and unleash a torrent of grace upon them that no man can resist and at the same time unleash a torrent of wrath upon the world that no man can escape.
Sometimes I sound so Calvinistic.
Do your Jewish friends know that you are praying for them to be rounded up and isolated on one piece of real estate, so that 2/3 of them can be conveniently slaughtered?
Of course not. I would that every Jew knew Yeshua as their Messiah-King and Savior--while resisting the urge of many in the Church to Gentilize and violate the commands of God.
Neither do I refer to them as "a cult which preaches that our Lord and Savior is boiling forever in excrement manages to impose an anti-Christian socialist regime." The venom and arrogance does nothing to bring the Messiah's people to Him, and indeed only serves to perform the ultimate act of hatred: Building a wall between someone and the Cross.
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