Posted on 08/04/2006 1:27:02 PM PDT by topcat54
“President Carter studied it before meeting Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat at Camp David. President Reagan spoke of it in public. President Bush has discussed it with a leading clergyman. ABC’s ‘Nightline’ has shot a story about it and is awaiting a broadcast date. The New York Times reports brisk sales of books on the topic. The subject is Armageddon and whether current events in the Middle East are the beginning of the end of the world as forecast in biblical prophecies.”
Sound familiar? This is the opening paragraph to “Time for Armageddon?” written by Cal Thomas in 1991 at the outset of the Gulf War. Did you notice Cal’s use of the word “current”? What was current 15 years ago is history. Cal tried to make his case by using Dr. John F. Walvoord’s Armageddon, Oil and he Middle East Crisis, in which Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait fits into a scenario leading to the world’s final war—Armageddon! Cal describes the Armageddon title as Walvoord’s “newest book on this subject.” Newly revised would be a better description, since it was first published in 1974 and begins with how “the world has never before witnessed so many ominous developments.”
This is factually untrue. Battles with Muslim extremists have been going on for centuries, and even then prophecy writers tried to make an eschatological case that “current events” were part of a prophetic end. In 1528, Martin Luther wrote On the War with the Turks. In 1532, he wrote: “I am entirely of the opinion that the papacy is the Antichrist. But if anyone wants to add the turk, then the pope is the spirit of Antichrist, and the turk is the flesh of Antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily and by the sword, the former spiritually and by doctrine.”(1)
This is how Samuel Eliot Morison, in his biography of Christopher Columbus Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), described events in 1492: “Islam was now expanding at the expense of Christendom. . . . The Ottoman Turks, after snuffing out all that remained of the Byzantine Empire, had overrun most of Greece, Albania and Serbia; presently they would be hammering at the gates of Vienna.”(2)
Cal seems to have forgotten how he ended his 1991 article—“Enter Saddam Hussein. Enter a major war. Enter . . . Armageddon?”—since he has written “Armageddon Again.” What he disdains in his latest article,(3) he perpetuated in his 1991 article. Even so, he still makes the classic mistake of using prophecies that have been fulfilled to make the case that we should still be expecting a worldwide (possible) nuclear conflagration: “ [Jesus’] forecasts of ‘wars and rumors of wars,’ nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines and earthquakes (Matthew 24:4–8) sound like the newspaper front page.” They sounded like the newspaper front page in the first century just prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, because that’s when that particular prophecy was fulfilled.
1. For a study of how current events shape biblical prophecy, see Gary DeMar, Islam and Russia in Prophecy: The Problem of Interpreting the Bible Through the Lens of History (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 2005).
2. Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942), 3. The date is 1492.
3. Cal Thomas, “Armageddon Again” (August 1, 2006)
Gary DeMar is president of American Vision and the author of more than 20 books. His latest is Myths, Lies, and Half Truths.
Permission to reprint granted by American Vision P.O. Box 220, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-628-9460.
Hallelujah!!!!!! Somebody gets it right for a change. End Times Smend Times. There is nothing left to happen but the Second Coming of Christ. WE HAVE BEEN IN THE LAST DAYS SINCE THE FIRST ADVENT OF CHRIST. We only have to wait for the LAST DAY.
All Hell and it's fury came against the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross and He prevailed. Armageddon, Smarmageddon. It's over folks. HE WON!!!!
Listen folks, I read the last chapter in the BOOK and we win!!! Because of Christ the victory has been won!!!!! It's all over but the shouting and each time the Gospel brings another lost sheep home, all heaven rejoices. Let us be about our Master's business. Quick looking toward the middle east. LOOK DOWN folks because Christ has raised us to sit in Heavenly places!!!!
Does a Partial Preterist (I don't know how far down the Pretrist path I really go) Amill get a spot on your list?
Just curious.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Absolutely. Just make sure you stay "partial". :-)
Like I said, I don't know how much of Biblical end time Prophecy is fulfilled, but I am certain some of it is filled. It is just that most Partial Preterists I know tend to view everything fulfilled BUT the Perousia (sp). I'm not quite sure I'm ready to go that far.
But, I am definitely Reformed in my Eschatology, like all proper Presbyterian boys should be. ;^)
Soli Deo Gloria,
Shall I add you to the Reformed Eschatology Ping List (REPL)?
Great point, Harley! Back when I was Premil, this was my great fear - that the "signs of the times" were being mis-read and in the throes of rapture fever, Christians would be woefully unprepared to be "stranded" in a post-chastisement future (having placed all their hopes in a Rapture that didn't occur).
this was my great fear - that the "signs of the times" were being mis-read and in the throes of rapture fever,
It never dawned on me how God could exact retribution on a nation until I understood the Reformed doctrine; even though I read it a hundred times in the Old Testament. I abandoned the Pre-Mil theories with the failures of Hal's LGPE. Topcat is making a Amil out of me although I'm still being perfected. :O)
Hey, now I'm jealous! If you'll hang around me, I'll make a postmil out of you!
Hey, now I'm jealous! If you'll hang around me, I'll make a postmil out of you!
Foul!! I'm postmil. What do I need to say to make it right? :-)
I think Mr. DeMar uses it as well, to write articles and books.
Sure thing, thanks.
At least you guys are hanging around the only two choices that make sense!
You know, Belloc predicted all of this back in the 1930's. He said that Islam would rise again, and that the only bulwark against Islam was Catholic Europe. You can include Protestant Europe in that, too.
(Telling an English audience in the 1930's that Islam would rise again was about like telling an American audience today that they should beware of the resurgence of the Sioux and the Apaches.)
Well, Protestant Europe is on life-support, and Catholic Europe is very sick as well. And guess which "old friends" have moved in to fill the (spiritual and demographic) vacuum?
It's a chastisement, true, but (as usual) God doesn't have to stray far from nature and logic to accomplish his purposes. Our own foolishness and wickedness sets up our chastisement.
No, the secular press will never figure this out. They have the insight and discernment of a doorknob.
Hey Topcat,
Add me to your Reformed Eschatology too, why don'cha?
Thanks ~~!
By the way, have you read David Chilton's "Days of Vengence"? It's a pretty great commentary on the Book of Revelation! (it can be downloaded in Adobe Reader format FREE at www.PreteristArchive.com.) It's scholarly; but readable, and well worth the effort.
Chilton's "Paradise Restored" (also available for FREE download at www.freebooks.com ) contains a fairly easy to understand explaination of what Post-Millenialism is; but also includes one of the best refutations of pessimist Pre-Trib,Pre-Mill Dispensationalism that I've ever read, aside from Gary DeMar's book, "Last Days Madness".
Book books are excellent.
It is good to see you are still watching Israel, TC. What happens there will tilt the argument one way or the other. Right now, I don’t think that the return of Christ is imminent because the big money is on Israel to win. When people start betting on Israel to place...?
Sorry I don’t have any more scripture right now, but I think that the odds will change, against Israel. I do not think she will turn to Christ until her back is against the wall.
Seven
"Hi. I'm Topcat, and I'm an Amillennial."
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