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.
Yeah, we're about down to, "Is too!" "Is not!" Since you routinely outright ignore 95% of what's posted to you (we're still waiting to hear if you think Martin Luther is a Christian, for example), it's not worth my time to write pages of material on "all of Romans and then Hebrews." I'm moving on.
"Reached" isn't the same as "discipled". Remember this?
Even if you do manage to actually achieve a net growth in the number of believers, Premillennial eschatology tells us that those believers won't accomplish jack in the way of impacting, let alone redeeming, the culture around them. Their lives won't be transformed or have any affect in any statistically meaningful way, long-term.
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men."
- Matthew 5:13
I think Helen Reddy is a sign that the Tribulation is already here, but that's just me.
I disagree. All indicators on my end show that we still have five more posts to go.
Oops- make that four.
When you are prepared to respond to the substance of posts 206 and 211, let me know. Until then, I will continue to point out that you haven't. When Tom is prepared to retract his anti-Jewish diatribe and apologize to any of the Lord's people who saw it, I will be happy to accept and let it go. Until then I will continue to point out that he tacitly admitted to speaking in utter ignorance.
When you make anti-Semetic slurs, do not whine when someone calls you on the carpet for it. I don't put up with that from non-believers, and I hold those who call themselves by the name of Christ to a far higher standard.
You are correct. I should have said "discipled."
Even if you do manage to actually achieve a net growth in the number of believers, Premillennial eschatology tells us that those believers won't accomplish jack in the way of impacting, let alone redeeming, the culture around them.
No, it just says that the Adversary will have his last hurrah in the End Times before the Lord Comes. So what? The fact that we know a time of severe testing is ahead only motivates us to live holier lives, not less.
It seems to me that you're taking a very utilitarian approach: You don't care what the Bible says so much as what you think will motivate Christians to acheive political victory over the world. Where in the Bible does it say that God expects us to win political victories?
You CONSTANTLY accuse people of being anti-semites.
THAT is why I try very hard to refrain from posting to you EVER.
Get it?
Your foolish and mean-spirited rants obliterate discussions (tell us again about that confusing Trinity.) I see your name pinged and I leave the thread.
Sadly, not soon enough in this case.
Does she still roar?
The Jews have always been manipulated by political agendas. That is their sad lot. Stubborness plays a large part, no? (post #177)
You are fortunate that no one saw fit to hit the abuse button. FR has a policy against posting "racial or religious bigotry."
I cannot say whether you are an anti-Semite yourself, because I do not know you personally--but I can darn well call a spade a spade when it comes to the content of your specific posts. I invite you again to retract the post and apologize to the Jews who are reading this thread (and again, there's at least one who posted to me).
If you are not prepared to do so, if you are going to continue to try to hide behind some conjured victim status instead of actually owning up to what you've posted, then I would rather you not post to me again, ever.
Amen. It amazes me more people don't realize Postmillenialism is what helped to create this nation, and THAT is precisely why we are seeing less of it.
"Manifest Destiny" were not dirty words to those who built this country and worked to bring Christianity and prosperity to the world.
Except now "Manifest Destiny" is seen as chauvinistic and jingoistic to all the politically-correct, UN-loving, Angelina Jolie-worshipping, one-worlders who despise the idea that Christianity converts pain and fear and poverty of the soul into triumph and productivity.
As God wills and Scripture instructs.
Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee."-- Hebrews 6:13-14"For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
Stop calling every other person on this forum an anti-semite.
For many reasons, not the least of which is that my Jewish friends would call YOU the true anti-semite.
You pretend what you are not. You confuse what is. All the while spewing hate.
Knock it off.
Again, you demonstrate an inability to separate criticism of specific posts from "calling every other person on this forum an anti-semite."
What better way to keep Christians immobile and ineffective that to say we are not supposed to impact the culture?
Because this is what liberals tell people about abortion and civil rights and taxes. Shut up and take it.
What was the Great Commission if it wasn't "great" and it wasn't a commission to preach the glory of God on earth and in heaven to all people everywhere.
When a person believes that God has determined all of life, and that redeemd life is good and productive, that person wants to spread the good news of Christ risen.
"What was the Great Commission if it wasn't "great" and it wasn't a commission to preach the glory of God on earth and in heaven to all people everywhere."
Our changed lives will have an effect and might even impact the culture but if that is our aim all we are doing is arguing ideas, not reaching the lost. Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
Not a word about changing the culture, but a whole lot about changing lives.
I believe he means in terms of mission. Our mission is to make disciples, preach the gospel, and speak the truth.
Those things WILL impact the culture; but redeeming the culture is not our marching orders.
I know the sad truth of this being in a church that has sold out to "cultural change, charity, commentary" but has done very little in terms of bringing folks to Jesus Christ. They end up doing neither.
Those who make disciples of Jesus Christ, however, get cultural impact as a side effect.
"Certainly it's worth considering, being it can't get much worse than some of it already is these days."
Hold it right there! You are beginning to sound like one of them pre-mils. I will give one chance to correct that pessimistic outlook, otherwise I'll have to send you an invitation to the rapture express.
Our changed lives will have an effect and might even impact the culture but if that is our aim all we are doing is arguing ideas, not reaching the lost. Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
Not a word about changing the culture, but a whole lot about changing lives.
Believe it or not, there can be such a thing as a Christian family. A Christian church. A Christian nation. We apply God's grace within us to the world around by diligently purusing our vocations in the work place, in the home, in the church, in the jury box.
As the experience of the Jews, the Armenians, the Assyrian Christians, and the overseas Chinese convincingly demonstrates, families with TRADITION !!!! can maintain a distinctive culture for more than a thousand years without a state of their own. Even in the face of unremitting hostility from the surrounding culture. If we want to transform the culture around us, we need to function in all of our corporate dimensions. Home schooling is a great place to start. Build a robust, vigorous, and optimistic family. "Adopt" unbelievers, have them into your home for meals and conversation. See what God will do!
This is an aside, but the most stirring singing of that song I've ever heard was at one of the memorial services(?) for 9/11 with Pres. Bush in attendance.
It hit home!
"Trampling out the vintage where the Grapes of Wrath are stored.."
Wow! Chills just thinking about it.
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