Posted on 10/07/2008 8:41:53 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
The pages of failed end-of-the-world prophecies could make up a whole new testament. Now there's the Rev. David Jeremiah, an East County mega-pastor and TV evangelist who says the end is coming, in the words of a familiar church song, “soon and very soon.”
In a new book that hit bookstores this week, Jeremiah offers 10 “prophetic clues” he says point to an imminent conclusion many Christians have clung to for 2,000 years – the Rapture (when the faithful will be summoned instantly into Heaven), followed by the Tribulation (a seven-year period of turmoil), Armageddon (the final battle of good versus evil) and the Second Coming of Jesus (to reign on Earth).
Jeremiah doesn't set a date in “What in the World Is Going On?” (Thomas Nelson; $22.99). But his urgency is clear: “His return is close at hand,” he writes, adding that Christians should be motivated “as never before to live in readiness.”
“I have no intention of setting any dates or saying this is when this is going to happen,” Jeremiah says, settling back on a couch in his office at Turning Point, his international television and radio ministry headquartered in Lakeside.
“All I'm saying is some of the things that the word of God prophesied would take place as we near this time are happening in ways you cannot contradict.”
The 67-year-old senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, where he preaches to 7,000 people at weekend services, says he was motivated to write this book after so many people kept questioning him about world events.
He reached out to other biblical prophecy scholars for their thoughts. Among them was Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling “Left Behind” series of Christian apocalyptic novels. In 1981, Jeremiah followed LaHaye as senior pastor of Scott Memorial Baptist Church, which later became Shadow Mountain.
The 10 signs Jeremiah settled on range from the emergence of Israel as the dominant country-of-residence for Jews and the rise in power of Russia and Iran to the world's reliance on Middle Eastern oil and the coming together of countries under the European Union.
“I'm not a sensationalist,” says Jeremiah, a grandfather and two-time cancer survivor who is a well-known speaker at evangelical venues like the Billy Graham Training Center.
“I would be the last person in the world to try to draw sensationalist truths from the Scripture,” he adds. “You can get a crowd if you know how to frame your stuff, but I'm past all that. I don't need to do that. But what I do know is this: This is a different day unlike anything that I've ever known, unlike anything the world has ever known. So what does that mean?”
What it means for him is that conversion efforts need to be jump-started like a battery in a long-idled sedan.
“We've forgotten that there's an urgency about what we've been called to do,” he says. He leans forward on the couch, as if to emphasize his impatience. “I think it puts an urgency and a seriousness into our walk.” Jeremiah is particularly tough on Islam in his book. Islamic terrorism is among the signs he says are pointing toward the end times.
“One of the most baffling and unsettling puzzles about Islam is the constant contention on the part of some Muslim leaders that they are a peace-loving people,” he writes. “Yet even as they make the claim, Islamic terrorists continue to brutally murder any person or group with whom they find fault.”
Jeremiah does not believe Allah and God are the same. He also believes that Islam hates Jews and Christians.
“Experts say that 15 to 20 percent of Muslims are radical enough to strap a bomb on their bodies in order to kills Christians and Jews,” he writes. “If this number is accurate, it means about 300 million Muslims are willing to die in order to take you and me down.”
His solution: convert Muslims to Christianity.
Jeremiah says he is not trying to be incendiary; he's just being true to his convictions. “I'm not intolerant,” he insists. “I just believe totally what I believe, and if I have to go along in order to get along, water down what I believe, I'll never do that.”
But Khaleel Mohammed, associate professor of religious studies at San Diego State University and a voice for moderate Islam, says Jeremiah isn't helping matters.
“It's not constructive in any way for the Christian or the Muslim,” Mohammed says. “Everything he is saying is so divisive.”
Mohammed also thinks Jeremiah's portrait is one-sided; after all, thousands of Muslim civilians have died in the American-led invasion of Iraq.
“I'm not denying there are Christians and Muslims agitating against each other, but I don't think it's religious,” Mohammed says. Still, he adds, the future lies in interfaith cooperation, a move the “old guard” on both sides is resisting. “They are just fighting against the tide. ... Among Muslims, you'll find preachers who are as nonsensical as Jeremiah.”
Scholars who study end-times prophecies say Jeremiah's book, and others like it, should be handled with care.
“I would say the odds are enormous, if not overwhelming, that he, like every other Christian prophet over the last 2,000 years, will be wrong,” says Richard Landes, associate professor of history at Boston University and director of the Center for Millennial Studies.
Jews and Muslims also have their doomsday beliefs, Landes says, but apocalypticism has been particularly rampant in Christianity. It was, after all, Jesus himself who forewarned his followers in the New Testament to “keep watch” and “be ready” for his return.
Ever since, Christians have watched for signs of the Second Coming, scanning the Bible for clues and codes, says Jon Stone, a religious studies professor at Cal State Long Beach.
Stone acknowledges there is a built-in audience for books like Jeremiah's. “I think people like to be in on a secret, to know something other people don't know,” he explains. “This is, by far, the biggest secret in terms of religious things.”
Jeremiah is planning a series of sermons at Shadow Mountain this fall on living with confidence in a chaotic world. He plans to tell the congregation, among other things, that this is the time for the faithful to hang together, to focus on the church and the Bible.
Jeremiah says biblical prophecy isn't a popular pulpit topic. “A lot of buddies of mine say they don't ever preach on prophecy because they think it's irrelevant. ... Well, if they read the Bible, they will find out that if you study prophecy, it gives you incredible insight as to how you should live your life today.”
He resists efforts to be coaxed into being more specific about when all this is going to happen. It's not about that, he repeats. “It is about the awareness of what the events that are happening in the world today mean and how we can look at it through the third lens of the Bible and make more sense of it than we would otherwise.”
I believe it WILL be the shofar, a truly anointed ‘instrument’.
Amen, Cloverfarm.
And the mark is already in process of being created and used on people and animals. It’s interesting, even if a bit scary, to read about it and know it’s happening even now.
Yes, I read that too. Good to know.
My humble apologies for not giving you the proper credit. You knew where the word rapture came from: a Latin word (rapere) translated from the Greed language that the letter was written.
I don’t deserve any credit, it is all over the place, just wanted to save you the search. :->
Thanks nonetheless. God bless you!
Well, dear mnehrling, it’s about to happen again, LOL.
The disciples were of Judah and then Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin. Romans 11:1 Paul tells specifically that he is an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin. One would then need to go to Genesis to learn about Benjamin and what his generations were promised. Genesis 49: lists these 12 and each one is given their inheritance from Jacob/Israel. Interesting reading about what would be for each of these tribes.
Christ knew very well what he was saying when he told these disciples to go but to the 'lost' sheep of the House of Israel, and if one follows the footsteps of Christianity one can also see where those ten tribes ended up. We are told that the 'truth' will set you free and so it is that Christianity represents freedom and who are the free nations of this globe.
It is a sign of the times wherein even those free peoples start dabbling in systems of bondage wherein the state becomes the all knowing all powerful god.
OK, so assume we are looking for biblical answers. What do you have to offer?
The promises given to Abraham and where they have become fulfilled. There were requirements given to receive the blessings and there are the curses given IF the peoples turned their backs. Can be at the individual level or a national level. Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said unto Moses.... (remember how important Moses was even to Christ as he with Elijah was shown upon that mount of transfiguration?) "Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whiter they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them.
17 Then My anger shall be kindled against them in *that day*, and I will forsake them, and I will hid My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; (ever read about Jacob's trouble? Jeremiah 30 whole chapter as both houses are addressed and specifically in verse 7 Alas! for *that day* is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; *BUT HE SHALL BE SAVED OUT OF IT. Note that word saved... salvation... meaning Christians.) back to Deuteronomy 31:17 'Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?' I have heard preachers of various denominations utter these very words.
18 And I will surely hide My face in *that day* for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.
19 Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel.
20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and thy shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke Me, and break My covenant.
21 And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware."
Point of quoting this is what Paul says in I Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples (examples): and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world (age) are come.
The script has been written as is what Christ meant when He said I have foretold you all things. Solomon put it like this in Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
We have the script of what will be, recorded as what already has been and the rapture doctrine is not in the script as to what followers of Christ are to expect to occur.
FOr later read.
Taking away by whom or unto whom? Christ did not promise anybody He was going to take anybody away.
What is the tribulation? IF as Christ said I have foretold you all things would that not include how to NOT be taken in by or taken over by a tribulation. And IF as Christians we are followers of Christ and He set the standard and was completely and totally innocent yet gave His life for to all who would life eternal, would His followers be hunting for the 'safe' escapes. Didn't Christ say I give you power over your enemies?
Christ also said that *time* meaning the length of time allotted for the tribulation would be cut short. So as this time is reference to a woman in labor once that final stages begins only an intervention with medication slows it or stops it. Things will move very quickly once that time begins.
The mark already exists, it is what is in the mind that leads the peoples to received that mark. Christ called it deception.
Are you talking about The Twelve? Where does the Bible teach this? I can’t seem to find anywhere where any of the apostles’ tribal affiliation is mentioned (except Paul). Since at least some of the apostles were from the region around Galilee ("of the Gentiles", cf. Mark 1:16), it unlikely there were all from Judah.
It’s pretty clear just from reading the NT (and the OT as well) that the word "Israel" often means more than just the northern tribes. You apparently don’t have a position on that truth. The entire nation was often referred to as "the house of Israel" (Ex. 16:31). This was the common usage at the time of Christ. When speaking to the woman of Canaan, Jesus told her, But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matt. 15:24). Jesus was ministering first to His Jewish brethren ("the house of Israel"), from which He called the Twelve and others, and not primarily to the surrounding gentile communities.
As much as I would like to engage you on this matter, serious discussion is difficult with this sort of defective starting point on your part.
I should have written House of Judah meaning NOT of the House of Israel.
It’s pretty clear just from reading the NT (and the OT as well) that the word "Israel" often means more than just the northern tribes. You apparently don’t have a position on that truth. The entire nation was often referred to as "the house of Israel" (Ex. 16:31). This was the common usage at the time of Christ. When speaking to the woman of Canaan, Jesus told her, But He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matt. 15:24). Jesus was ministering first to His Jewish brethren ("the house of Israel"), from which He called the Twelve and others, and not primarily to the surrounding gentile communities.
The word Israel was first used when Jacob was renamed. Christ's usage of the 'lost sheep' of the House of Israel refers to a specific time after the civil war the two houses split and were identified as two different kingdoms. House of Israel and the House of Judah. One of the punishments for the whoring after other gods by the House of Israel would be they would forget who they were. And they are also called Ephraim as he was the largest of the ten tribes sent north to the Assyrian king. They have NOT returned and will not return until Christ Himself rejoins those two sticks. And the majority of them still do not know who they are, they are stilllllll lost. Christ identified who he was talking about when he used the term 'lost sheep'.
This is not about my point or having a point, it is to understand why the first instruction Christ would give to His disciples would be to go but to those lost sheep of the House of Israel.
When Christ gave this instruction these people He chose to be His disciples did not say Master where do we find these lost sheep of the House of Israel? So how did they know what and who Christ was talking about??? And why would Christ waste the time and words over a very short 3 1/2 year time frame of teaching, to make it the first instruction????
I can't take seriously people who downplay even the very WORDS that came from the mouth of Christ.
As much as I would like to engage you on this matter, serious discussion is difficult with this sort of defective starting point on your part.
OK.
They’re planting, for now, microchips into animals and some people are having them done for information about their health conditions. What’s to stop them from planting them in people without their permission some day? We have to be aware...
Perhaps egotism isn't the right word. I guess temporocentrism is more accurate. It just seems anyone interested in this topic always sees the end approaching rapidly.
It's like reincarnation buffs. They always seem to say they'd been born previously as Joan of Arc or Napolean. Never a postal clerk. I think seeing the end as near is simply more interesting.
Yes I do know microchips are being implanted in animals and humans. But the device does not make the mind think one way or another. Lets look at what is a great deception getting planted around this globe say the 'green' movement. Now this movement has become a religious wave and the object of worship is NOT the Creator but His creation and the ideology is claimed by these prophets of green they can control climate changes.
Their religion is promoted through the assistance of the four established institutions of society. Political, education, economic and last and certainly not least religious. How long do you think it will take to have the majority of this earth willing to join the 'green' club? Whatever reason, be it a political, educational, economic or religious motive allll entities lead to the same end a Godless society by the establishment of that system whispered into the woman's ear in the beginning, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
The movement has permeated our whole society and to speak against it gets one 'marked' as to be against a good and noble cause of perfecting our climate while protecting our environment over greed and exploitation of the earth and its creatures. The movement is against US our standard of living and what we stand for and not about a prevention of climate change or environmental protection.
No I am not claiming the green movement is the mark, what I am doing is using it, the movement as an analogy as to what kind of club/system is being described wherein to participate, either out of fear or lack of God's knowledge people willingly participate.
Somewhere in this thread someone spoke of taking the mark to feed a family, which reminded me of what God had Amos His prophet to pen. Amos 8 the whole chapter but specifically verse 11.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
There is no 'last' trumpet in 1 Cor. 15...It is the 'last trump' of a trumpet...The noise a trumpet makes is obviously a 'trump'...
It's no wonder you got things all messed up...You claim trump means trumpet...Obviously not...Doesn't make much sense in English, or Greek...'The last trumpet of the trumpet'???
Hey, if you try to discern what it actually says instead of what you'd like it to say, you'd get a far better understanding...When you claim it says the 'last trumpet of the trumpet', you're not giving the Holy Spirit much to work with...
All orthodox Christians agree that at Christ’s return, all the saints are resurrected and receive their glorified bodies.
I suspect such are in short supply here.
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