a-mil "What me worry?"
post-mil "Things are getting better"
pre-mil "Let's work for the night is coming"
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.
a-mil "What me worry?"
post-mil "Things are getting better"
pre-mil "Let's work for the night is coming"
Thank you Sardon for the excellent Biblical Illustrations.
I like it.
Amill should be Bill and Ted with the caption, "Whatever, dude."
hehehe
Actually, I think pre-mil should be "Jesus is coming, everyone look busy!"
"Actually, I think pre-mil should be "Jesus is coming, everyone look busy!"
There are times I think you are right about that.
Read your Bible--the fact is that the NT always draws a distinction between the Church and Israel. I suggest you start by re-reading Romans 9-11.
Why bother? You're going to lose up until the Second Coming anyway :)
Oh, wait . . .
You know, Tom, having been caught out once already on this thread shooting off your mouth without really knowing what you're talking about (i.e., on the Talmud's composition and authority), you'd think that you'd be a little slower to make straw-man assumptions. Blue-duncan is right: Those of us who truly believe that night is upon us because the Adversary is making his final power-grab before the Day of the Lord dawns are rolling up our sleeves and going to work.
I would propose this quick summary of the difference between postmill and premill in the words of Willy Wonka:
Postmill: We've got so much time and so little to do.
Premill: Scratch that. Reverse it.
LOL! I like that.
"Why bother?"
Pre-mils take this stuff seriously that's why we are constantly looking out the window of prophecy to see when He is coming back. Thunder storms are exciting that way. The unexpected clap of thunder and flash of lightening keeps you on your toes. I kind'a feel sorry for all of the post and a mils since there is no existential excitement. Things just go on as they did yesterday and tomorrow will be the same. Trying to predict when Jesus is coming is like trying to guess what's in the Christmas presents under the tree. You may be wrong but the anticipation is exquisite.
2 Cor. 5:14, "For the love of Christ constraineth us;"
Acts 1:7-8, "And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
So we are busy, even though "it may be tomorrow".
Because every tribe, tongue, and nation reached, every soul won is a victory that brings rejoicing in Heaven and makes the Enemy a little more desperate, knowing that his time is short.
If you believe in the end times, current events are ALWAYS 'leading' to Armageddon.
VERY WELL DONE.
THANKS.
LOL.
re-reading Romans 9-11.
AMEN!
Though you might offer a drill, bit, & funnel for some.
Well put. Thx.
. I expect that Israel will have an increasingly influential role in the future overall. Perhaps you can understand how the two could get confused, seeing that Israel is a type of the Church.
I am amazed how many passages of scripture must be interpreted differently in order to support the various viewpoints. It must be in the hundreds. I believe that Israel will be a tiebreaker. The reason I say "will be," is because God is still dealing with Israel.
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.
Either side can accuse the other of negative influence. (Rom 2:1) We need to realize that it is the opposition that is our greatest teacher. We tend not to learn from people who confirm our beliefs, but when we are challenged, we realize how much we need to search the scriptures. We see what we expect to see. Others point out our blind spots.
Seven
I did not ask about the church and Israel. I asked if the church of Jesus Christ was the true Israel.
And it is. Read all of Romans and then Hebrews.
You fail to mention the bitterness that follows when you hit the wall, having tried to run a marathon as though it were a sprint. I am a child of the apocalypse-dazed Jesus Freak generation who learned the hard way that artificial thrills and chills are no substitute for the quiet and productive "Joy of the Lord."
Adrhenalin junkies also crash.
Excitement? Let's see -- the daily joy of raising children in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord" is exciting. The rapture of seeing them step into adult life in productive vocations, filled with joy, connected to God and His people, with a vision big enough for their grandchildren. That's exciting. Learning to use the Biblical prophecies Biblically -- as encouraging demonstrations that God has already kept His Word -- now that's exciting. Expecting great things of God, attempting great things for God, since His victory is assured -- now that's exciting. Eagerly seeking to be in on what God is up to, anticipating that He will act again, and again, in fresh, creative, and unpredictable ways -- now that will keep a man youthful and on his toes!
I still think Helen Reddy was singing about pre-millenialism in her song "Delta Dawn:"
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky-eye?
She's forty-one and her daddy still calls 'er "baby"
All the folks 'round Brownsville say she's crazy
'cause she walks downtown with her suitcase in her hand
Lookin' for a mysterious dark-haired man
In her younger days they called her Delta Dawn
Prettiest woman you ever laid eyes on
Then a man of low degree stood by her side
Promised her he'd take her for his bride
CHORUS
CHORUS
CHORUS
CHORUS
(paranthetically, professional gypsy fortune tellers refuse to have their own fortunes told. They know that this kind of obsessive preoccupation with the future renders the pathetic dupes who yield to it progressively and increasingly impotent.)
Is it even possible for you to discuss these threads without making it personal and snotty?
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