What about the alleged prophecy regarding the restoration of national Israel. All the pop prophecy gurus back in the 70s and 80s where absolutely certain about the very specific sign of the “fig tree” found in the Matthew 24, including the Calvary Chapel patriarchy. That why 1988 became the focus of so many sermons and books. Folke give Edgar Whisenant a hard time for writing “88 Reasons”, but the fact is he was only following down the path started by Chuck Smith and Co. He was not the problem. Hal, and Chuck, and Salem Kirban -- they were the problem.
This entire conference would not have existed except for the fact that there is an entity in the middle east called “Israel” that futurists eye longingly as evidence of Jesus’ return “real soon now”.
Every time a futurist denies signs, and then mentions Israel in the next breathe, it pretty obvious what they really believe.
indicates that they will “follow” the “type of person” that the Antichrist is.
I would bet dollars to donuts that Hinson was not using any biblical model to describe the antichrist. Reason is there is very little in the Bible about the subject, certainly not enough to fill the books and lectures of the futurists. Every one of these folks thinks they know what antichrist will be like, by comparing to this person or that person, but the fact is they are clueless. Their descriptions are more psychological than theological.
You were saying — “What about the alleged prophecy regarding the restoration of national Israel. All the pop prophecy gurus back in the 70s and 80s where absolutely certain about the very specific sign of the “fig tree” found in the Matthew 24, including the Calvary Chapel patriarchy. That why 1988 became the focus of so many sermons and books. Folke give Edgar Whisenant a hard time for writing “88 Reasons”, but the fact is he was only following down the path started by Chuck Smith and Co. He was not the problem. Hal, and Chuck, and Salem Kirban — they were the problem.”
There’s no question about it — the “nation of Israel” has been an expected event — even before Israel became a nation again. There were even Bible preachers back in the 19th century (1800s) who advised Hertzl not to take land in Africa for a “nation” for the Jews, but to only do so in the land of Israel, and showed him the Bible prophecies that indicated this was to be so. I mention this to say that even back in the 1800s, Bible preachers and teachers were expecting the establishment of the nation of Israel again.
One reason would be that one could not have a Temple in Jerusalem unless the Jews were there and unless they controlled the land. That’s one of the types of “reasoning” that they used (before the “nation of Israel” was established again, once more).
And *now* we see that the religious people over in Israel (they are non-religious people... there... :-) .... ) are preparing for the building of the Temple. They have prepared the garments, the instruments to use in worship in the Temple, the furnishings and other implements to be used, the solid gold menora and procedures that they’ll have to go through in order to implement the sacrifices once again. That’s all *in the works* right now.
And, we see from what Bible prophecy teachers say in this subject, that there *will be sacrifices* instituted once more, and that this requires that a Temple be put into place there.
What do you think is one of the *main hold-ups* for the “final status peace agreement” with the Muslims (and Jews)? It’s the *rebuilding of the Temple*. The Jews will never have *any* final status agreement with the Muslims over in Israel — until — they’ve got it settled on “rebuilding the Temple” and restarting the “sacrificial system” as they had in the past.
So, you see, these things are “taking place” right now — and in our “real world politics” — the Temple in Jerusalem — is one of the *main holdups” to the final status talks on peace. The other item that is a “hold-up” on the final status talks on peace — is “control of Jerusalem” Those are the *two items* that the Oslo Peace Accords put on the list for the *very last* to be settled — as they were the most contentious of all...