[RJR_fan]

I have found myself truly astonished at the speed of which Bible prophecy appears to be unfolding on the world scene.

Bad theology is a harsh taskmaster. Parents with a faulty doctrine of faith healing have watched their children die in diabetic comas. Injecting insulin would have sabotaged the faith they were trying to exert to heal their beloved son or daughter, you see.

Fortune-telling is bad theology, as is evident from its fruits. The cults, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, use fortune telling to make new recruits, and keep current members paralyzed with paranoia and dread of the future.[1] Gypsy fortune tellers know better than to have their own fortunes told. These professionals know, from contact with their customers, that the lust to peek into the future cripples the personality and life of the curious. The fortune-teller's customers are fatalistic, fearful, and impotent -- rather like the fundamentalist Christians who abandoned their God-given assignments (to serve as salt, light, and yeast) in order to push their heads up their fundaments, and play head-games of "pin the name on the Antichrist."

Do you have any idea what harm it does to the credibility of the gospel when we start pontificating about the future, making one bizarre, wild, prediction after another, that never comes to pass? One of the most prominent practitioners of Christian divination has a simple solution -- he recycles his books as each is overcome by time. Same story, but new faces, new places. He also recycles his marriages, perhaps for the same reason. God knows, I don't. But at last count, this "Christian teacher" and "prophecy expert" was on wife #4.

OK, so you think "prophecy teaching" is the exciting new kid on the block, the "relevant" application of God's Word that fits the times. Son, you ain't seen nuthin'. The "Jesus Movement" of 1970 was a genuine act of divine grace that was destroyed by its lust for "prophecy teaching." So, too, were the vocations of thousands of young people who took the apocalyptic hysteria seriously enough to act upon it. Until you drop out of college, drop out of the job market, bum around the country "living by faith" as a "full-time Christian minister" because "time is short" -- do not tell me the wonderful benefits of "prophecy" teaching. In some ways, 35 years later, I am still trying to catch up with a missed five-year window of opportunity. As I approach my 59th birthday, I still wrestle every day with a crippled work ethic and a penchant for short cuts, character defects that were deeply imprinted back then.

However, grace abounds in the neediest places. In 1980, a guy I'd led to Christ in 1970 returned the favor by giving me back my life in Christ, the sense of God's hand and favor and purpose upon me. Jimmie gave me a stack of books by the ArmEnian Calvinist, Rousas John Rushdoony. I discovered, to my surprise, that an uncompromising commitment to God's Word could coexist with optimism. After all, if God be for us, who can be against us? My life, family, vocation, and education have all been transformed by this new perspective on time. When I was 21, I was unable to think more than a week or two ahead. Next week, I am scheduled to defend a proposal for a dissertation that will, I hope, bring Turks to Jesus. The week after that, I just might celebrate my 59th birthday with a 59 mile bike ride. I've set my hand to a project that will, I believe, keep me fruitfully occupied for the next 30 years. Starting a new career, when my younger siblings are talking retirement ...

Your life is shaped by your expectations. If you expect God to hand over the whole world to the forces of evil, if you think global failure is God's will -- then it's hard to trust Him for personal victory. Trust me -- walking in victory is a LOT more fun!

AND you get to insult the fortune-tellers! Heaven knows, they need it! Especially when you think of what they have done to God's dear children.

---

[1] Leon Festinger coined the term cognitive dissonance to explain the willingness of cultists to be deceived. The cult he examined predicted the end of the world on a specific date. When that date came and went, the faith of most members was actually strengthened. Like the Millerites -- who put on their ascension robes and waited on hilltops for Jesus to come back in 1843. Today, the Seventh Day Adventists are some of the sweetest Christians you'll ever meet -- but they'll tell you Jesus stopped half-way in 1843 to catch up on His paperwork.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Can you please do me a personal favor and try to refrain from calling God's prophetic Scripture "fortune telling"?

You can throw as many parts of God's word in the trash as you like- you'll be the one who answers for it, not anybody else- but it really is personally offensive to me to see puny little human beings putting themselves on God's level and deciding for themselves and trying to decide for others what parts of Scripture are true and which are fairy tales.

Can you just do me that one favor please? Save your contempt for Scripture for other threads.

Thank you.

[NavyCanDo]

Not sure why you are linking cults and twisted theology to the study of Bible prophecy. If you are a Christian and I assume you are then you truly are in the minority if you ignore the 1845 biblical references to the Second Coming, including 318 in the New Testament.
Jesus himself referred to His return twenty-one times and was asked many times what would be the sign of his return.

Did he say its none of your business? NO. He said “LOOK for these things to happen,.........

[vanilla swirl]

I don’t think anybody is calling for a date. THAT would be fortune telling. If we read the WHOLE bible we are instructed to watch and be ready. Why would the prophecies be in the Bible anyway?

The part about faith healers is out of place too, I don’t recall anybody saying anything about that. Don’t lump all evangelical Bible believing Christians together and make assumptions.

[The Comedian]

In some ways, 35 years later, I am still trying to catch up with a missed five-year window of opportunity. As I approach my 59th birthday, I still wrestle every day with a crippled work ethic and a penchant for short cuts, character defects that were deeply imprinted back then.

I see, so Jesus is to blame for you character flaws, and by extension, so it anyone who puts forth the proposition that prophecy maybe being fulfilled.

Gotchya.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[caww]

I can understand your hesitation and frustration of end times events. Like you I have seen many come and go over the years....and we are still here. But I have not, and many don't, structure their life around these at all.... Rather, we find it interesting as the nations move into positions which are clearly what things will look like, as they move to align, when that time does comes.

In the 60’s no one would have thought possible the nation of Israel would become just that “in one day”..but that is exactly what happened...and prophecy was 100% accurate on that note...it always is and will be.... Thus that event set the stage for watching as events over the years unfold.

We see Israel once again becoming a “stumbling block” for the nations...and all eyes face there once again....this has happened before of course...but it is still very interesting to see how things just may evolve as the prophecies unfold once more across the world stage.

Additionally, most understand that any of these events can and do slow down and speed up thru the years....this is a speed up time and with it comes a natural anticipation and excitement for Christians who know that their going home may just be on the horizon...maybe not as well....but we are always to look for Christ's return regardless of how things play out on the world stage...and thus we “listen” for the sound of His voice...and the trumpet to sound...that it is time. It IS exciting of course....but most realize this also means a short time left to make know the Gospel of Christ to others...and there are few today willing to listen as time and tide have revealed....that fact alone indicates the time draws near....

So for myself these times we are in today are most interesting and a reminder to make each day count...I think most see it that way as well.

[NoGrayZone]

The bible CLEARLY states NO ONE knows when.....not even His own Son.

They just told us what to watch for before the second coming of Christ.