Posted on 12/10/2020 3:35:32 PM PST by grumpa
A tenet of Dispensationalist/Christian Zionist teaching is that 1948 marked the beginning of the end of the world. Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, Edgar Whisenant, Chuck Smith, and the rest of the rapture gang thought all prophecy would be fulfilled within a 40-year generation after 1948 (Matthew 24:34)―end of the world, rapture, the Parousia, etc. This is because a biblical generation is 40 years (Numbers 32:13; Job 42:16; Psalm 95:10; Matthew 1:17; 23:36; Hebrews 3:8-10). But 1988 came and went, proving them to be false prophets. This should be adequate proof that 1948 has nothing to do with Bible prophecy.
Edgar Whisenant wrote popular a book, “88 REASONS Why the Rapture will be in 1988.”
Here’s what Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel denomination, said in his book, originally published in 1978, said:
“If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the ‘budding of the fig tree,’ the birth of the nation Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord’s return. I believe that the generation of 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the Tribulation period lasts seven years, I believe the Lord could come back for His Church any time before the Tribulation starts, which would mean anytime before 1981. (1948 + 40 – 7 = 1981).”
Hal Lindsey sold an estimated 35 million copies of “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which was translated into 50 languages. Here’s what he said in the 1970 edition of his book, page 54: “Jesus said that this would indicate that He was ‘at the door,’ ready to return. Then He said, 'Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place’ (Matthew 224:35 NASB). What generation? Obviously, in context, the generation that would see the signs―chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction, then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place. Many scholars who have studied Bible prophecy all their lives believe that this is so.”
How could they have collectively made such a huge error? Is there confusion over just what a biblical generation is? Some Christians try to distract us by citing Psalm 90:10 which says, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” But that is about lifespan, not generation. A generation is more about the average age of having children. Besides, 70 years from 1948 was 2018. That year came and went and nothing happened. We’re back to 40 years as a biblical generation. In the genealogical table of Matthew 1:17, we have data to estimate the length of a generation. There are three fourteen-generation periods listed there. Scholars disagree on just how literal these are as Matthew may have included only the most important people to make it a symmetrical rendering. But the clearest is the fourteen generations from the captivity in Babylon until Christ. The date of the captivity, in the reign of Zedekiah, was 586 BC. From 586 BC until the birth of Christ would be about 583 years which, divided by fourteen, makes the average length of a generation about 41 years. There are other important reasons for these embarrasing errors by these men. An important one is that the Bible nowhere speaks of the end of the world, only the end of the AGE. So, they were trying to put a square peg into a round hole. Did you know that there are 16 mentions in the New Testament of the biblical last days or end times—and that the setting and fulfillment of none of them can be placed outside of the first century? Here are five of them:
“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, ON WHOM THE END OF THE AGES HAS COME.” (Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 10:11)
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but IN THESE LAST DAYS He has spoken to us by his Son. . . .” (writer of Hebrews, Hebrews 1:1-2)
“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but WAS MADE MANIFEST IN THE LAST TIMES for your sake.” (Apostle Peter, 1 Peter 1:20)
“The END OF ALL THINGS is AT HAND.” (Apostle Peter, 1 Peter 4:7)
“Children, IT IS THE LAST HOUR.” (Apostle John, 1 John 2:18)
Here are the other eleven: Matthew 13:38-42; 24:2-3, 13-16; Acts 2:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Hebrews 9:26; James 5:1-6; 1 Peter 1:5-7; Jude 17-23). It is clear and unambiguous. All the writers of the New Testament spoke with one voice on this. The “last days/end times” were not thousands of years later. They, themselves, were living in the last days. You cannot push the last days beyond the generation of men who were writing the New Testament without doing violence to the text. Some Christians attempt to get around the obvious by saying that the “last days” merely BEGAN in the first century, but continue to the present time. But that is obtuse, and is reading something into the text that is not there. That idea would make the “end times/last days” longer than the period to which they were an end! That is, it’s been 2,000 years from Jesus till now (and counting), while the Mosaic Age, to which the last days were an end, was appx. 1500 years from Moses to Jesus. There is only one logical conclusion. The last days are not about the end of the world. They are not about a supposed end of the Christian age, which endures forever (Isaiah 9:7; Luke 1:31-33; etc.). They are not about a future millennium. Rather, they marked the last days of the OLD COVENANT DISPENSATION, which came to a violent end in AD 70 at the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. At that time, God brought final judgment on apostate Israel.
But there is more that can be said about these false teachers. Many of these guys are still around teaching error:
See my article “A History of False Prophets among our Christian Brothers” here:
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21ADRTdBqCquniMOU&cid=D3BD424B0B25B83F&id=D3BD424B0B25B83F%2116819&parId=D3BD424B0B25B83F%21113&o=OneUp
See my article “Where Hal Lindsey Went Wrong” here:
https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21ACICzAPw9Qi8498&cid=D3BD424B0B25B83F&id=D3BD424B0B25B83F%2120397&parId=D3BD424B0B25B83F%21113&o=OneUp
Yes, but surely they all have it correct now!
According to The Word of God the Redeemed are in Heaven when the lamb takes the seven sealed scroll to open it and begine the final seven years of humanity (see Rev 5). when GOD is taking the redeemed fro here to The Father’s House? Don’t know precisely, but it will happen before the antichrist is revealed ... and we will have already had our Bema Seat reviews based upon having those crowns to cast at His feet ‘up there’.
But it is it not true that before and since 1948, many millions of people live a hundred years or better? Would that not account for a said generation running about or at a century? Especially in this latest age of scientific breakthroughs on all manner of treatments for diseases, and billions holding to a healthier diet either traditionally according to their tribe /ethnicity or world location, or by just living a healthier lifestyle and eating / exercising correctly?
Maybe Jesus came back in 1988 and we missed the boat. OR He came back in an alternate universe. OR something happened in Heaven in 1988 and we don’t know what it was (Like the doomsday clock).
Or, it could mean that “generation” simply means those who were living at the time Israel became a nation again in 1948. There are lots of people still around now who were alive then. Just my own speculation.
Just wrong because of modern medicine? Let’s stick with the Bible. And besides a generation, as I explain in the article, is not the same as life span.
Back then, Lindsey and others thought the establishment of Israel fulfilled Biblical prophecy.
Dr. McGee said it didn’t.
This generation shall not pass, before...... To me pass means the very last people of the Baby Boomers will still be alive to see it. It doesn’t mean when 40 years have passed. If the Fig tree (Jews) being planted in Israel is the sign, by approximately 2050 would be the end of that generation.
Why are only Jews mentioned is my question. Their nation was called Judah, the Northern Tribes were Israel and their tribal names are never mentioned. The “People of the Book” are many different people, it is offensive to exclude them from history, and why not call the nation Judah if it is only the Jews?
Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
2050? Life span is not the same thing as generation. Generation has more to do with the average age of having children.
Preterists and Harpazo deniers...
You guys really think this is the Blessed 1,000 year Millennium don’t you?
SMH...
As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is only trouble and tragedy;
For it quickly passes, and we disappear.
Interesting; a false teacher accuses false prophets!... Preterists are like that.
IMHO yes 1948 started that countdown.
Isaiah 66:8
Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children.
Pinging SkyPilot and referencing his post from earlier today:
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when its branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near: So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:32-34).
The debate and conflict in interpretation always arise as to what comprises a generation.
“The days of our lives are 70 years; And if by reason of strength they are 80 years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and WE FLY AWAY. (Psalms 90:10)
I believe Psalm 90 defines a generation (post-flood) in terms of years. The average life expectancy today, worldwide is 71 (70 for males and 72 for females). In western nations it is higher, but that is the global average.
.......................................
With technology at the rate it is going, we will actually exceed the technology written about in the Book of Revelation in less than a decade. That’s how close all of this is coming to fruition. YMMV..
“Maybe Jesus came back in 1988 and we missed the boat. OR He came back in an alternate universe. OR something happened in Heaven in 1988 and we don’t know what it was”
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That’s pretty much what Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventist claim happened.
JWs say he came back invisibly - the “Parasoia” - in 1914.
After their second or third failed proclaimed return of Christ October 22, 1844, the Adventists claimed Jesus sorta came back then - but He only made so far as the heavenly temple where He decided to stop in tidy it up and doing what they call the “Investigative judgment”. So He’s kinda too busy to pop down here right now.
Amen!
So I bombed on the alternate universe idea? Maybe I can start my own religion based on quantum physics . . . nah I’m not feeling it.
“So I bombed on the alternate universe idea?”
—
I think in “Chariot Of The Gods?”, ca 1970, Erick Von Danniekn first floated the idea that Christ was an ancient astronaut. So possibility there, if not from this Uni.
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