Posted on 11/17/2009 6:46:44 AM PST by topcat54
The doomsday film 2012 had a mega-weekend at the box office. It took in $225 million over a period of five days, a combination of $65 million domestically and $160 million internationally Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 11–16, 2009). In anticipation of the hype and hysteria of the Mayan Calendar end-of-the-world scenario, Christians had their books ready for an answer. Mark Hitchcock, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, is the author of 2012: The Bible and the End of the World. To his credit, Hitchcock offers a critical evaluation of the supposed Mayan prophecy. He even takes issue with the often used argument that the fig tree in Matthew 24:32 describes the reinstitution of the nation of Israel,[1] a point he made in his The Complete Book of Bible Prophecy.[2] In an interview for Christianity Today , Hitchcock said, “It’s the eschatology of the New Age. It’s basically a mystical, New Age belief system that I believe is spiritual deception. I want to take 2012 and bend the curve to God’s purposes, and use this as a springboard to tell people what the Bible says.”
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the multivolume, multimillion, multi-bestseller Left Behind series, offers a similar evaluation. He “believes the 2012 mania is distracting people from what the Bible predicts regarding the Rapture, Tribulation and Second Coming. ‘The date has been picked up by so many groups and cults that you have to conclude that someone or something inspired all these writers to come to essentially the same period—and that would be divination or spiritism,’ LaHaye says. ‘It’s probably satanic because there is nothing in the Bible about it. In fact, the Bible forbids us to even think about a day and an hour.’” But as we’ll see, it’s OK to think about what generation will see prophecy unfold.
I find all of this kind of funny. Now the dispensational prophetic sensationalists have to compete with the crazy New Agers and secular fright mongers. How many decades have we had to endure predictions of an imminent end from Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, and many others? Falwell (1933–2007) stated on a December 27, 1992, television broadcast, “I do not believe there will be another millennium . . . or another century.” He was wrong. John F. Walvoord, described as “the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy . . . [expected] the Rapture to occur in his own lifetime.’”[3] It didn’t. Walvoord died in 2002 at the age of 92.These men claim to reject specific date setting, but they have no trouble and see nothing wrong with identifying the last generation. But even in this, their track record has been dismal, and yet they want respect from the non-believing world when they speak on Bible prophecy. For example, in his first edition of The Beginning of the End, which was published in 1972, Tim LaHaye wrote,
“Carefully putting all this together, we now recognize this strategic generation. It is the generation that ‘sees’ the four-part sign of verse 7 [in Matt. 24], or the people who saw the First World War. We must be careful here not to become dogmatic, but it would seem that these people are witnesses to the events, not necessarily participants in them. That would suggest they were at least old enough to understand the events of 1914–1918, not necessarily old enough to go to war.”[4]
A number of things changed in the 1991 revised edition. The “strategic generation” has been modified significantly. It’s no longer “the people who saw the First World War,” it’s now “the generation that ‘sees’ the events of 1948.”
“Carefully putting all this together, we now recognize this strategic generation. It is the generation that ‘sees’ the events of 1948. We must be careful here not to become dogmatic, but it would seem that these people are witnesses to the events, not necessarily participants in them. That would suggest they were at least old enough to understand the events of 1948.”[5]
The change from the years of the First World War to the specific date of 1948 as the starting point for the beginning of the generation that LaHaye claims will be alive when the “rapture” supposedly takes place was not made because of anything the Bible says on the subject. The generation that Jesus had in view in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) was the generation of His day. The phrase “this generation” always refers to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking. (For a study of this claim, see Last Days Madness and Is Jesus Coming Soon?) Time was running out for the First World War generation in 1991 when the revised edition of The Beginning of the End was published so LaHaye changed the date to 1948 even though the 40-year generation year of 1988 had passed.[6] LaHaye did not offer justification for the change, and he did not tell those who picked up the new edition that he had made the change.
You will notice in the Christianity Today article that those quoted decry date setting, but some don’t seem to have a problem identifying what generation will be the “last generation.” Here’s how LaHaye explains it: “I refuse to set any date limits, for the Lord didn’t, but he did specify a generation’s experiences and said that he would return during that period. We are in the twilight of that generation—that I firmly believe.”[7] He wrote this nearly 20 years ago! Moreover, Hal Lindsey and Chuck Smith, who made some very definite predictions about “last generation” (that it would end with a “rapture” no later than 1988), seem to get a pass by their fellow dispensationalists who claim to condemn date setting (also see here). Consider this interview that LaHaye had with Larry King on June 19, 2000:
LaHaye: But I think another reason people are interested in [Left Behind ] . . . is because it talks about the future. We’re living at a time when people look at the future and think of it as rather precarious. In fact, there’s a popular book out a couple of years ago on the death of history,[8] and it’s not from a Christian perspective. And so people recognize that something is about to happen. And the Bible has a fantastically optimistic view of the future.King: But weren’t people saying this in 1890 and 1790? “It’s coming. Boy, the apocalypse is coming. The end is near.” They’ve always been saying it.
LaHaye: Well, we have more reason to believe that. Until Israel went back into the promised land, we couldn’t really claim that the end times were coming. But ever since 1948, in subsequent years, we’ve realized that things are getting set up. It’s stage setting for these momentous events.
King: Do you believe that some sort of end is coming?
LaHaye: Yes.
King: You believe that that will happen?
LaHaye: In fact, I believe there are a number of signs in Scripture that indicate it’s going to come pretty soon. We say maybe within our lifetime.
King is right. Making predictions has been the stock and trade of prophecy writers like LaHaye. Of course, they don’t pick a specific date, but they use words like “pretty soon” and “within our lifetime.” If they didn’t make these concessions, their books would not sell. LaHaye’s co-author Jerry Jenkins even wrote a book with the title Soon: The Beginning of the End (2003). Not to be outdone, LaHaye has teamed with Craig Parshall to publish Edge of Apocalypse, an apocalyptic novel “with political intrigue ripped from today’s headlines, the first book in a new series called The End.” Don’t these guys know when to stop? Like those who are attracted to the prophecies of Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar, there is a steady stream of gullible Christians who know nothing about the failed predictions of some of their favorite Christian prophecy writers but are willing to shell out money for prophecy books that in the ned fail to deliver.
New Testament scholar Ben Witherington writes, “The Mayans no more knew when the end would come than anyone else does. It’s time for theological weather forecasting to be given up entirely. Even TV weathermen predicting ordinary events are more accurate.” And this includes the “we know the generation” prophecy writers like LaHaye, Jenkins, Hitchcock, and Parshall.
Endnotes:
[1] Tim LaHaye and many popular prophecy writers see Matthew 24:32 as the key NT prophetic passage: “when a fig tree is used symbolically in Scripture, it usually refers to the nation Israel. If that is a valid assumption (and we believe it is), then when Israel officially became a nation in 1948, that was the ‘sign’ of Matthew 24:1-8, the beginning ‘birth pangs’—it meant that the ‘end of the age’ is ‘near.’” (Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Are We Living in the End Times? Current Events Foretold in Scripture . . . And What They Mean [Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999], 57). The editors of LaHaye’s own Prophecy Study Bible (2000) disagree: “the fig tree is not symbolic of the nation of Israel” (1040).
[2] Mark Hitchcock, The Complete Book of Bible Prophecy (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), 158. Hitchcock follows the lead of John F. Walvoord: The fig tree representing Israel "is not so used in the Bible. . . . Accordingly, while this interpretation is held by many, there is no clear scriptural warrant. A better interpretation is that Christ was using a natural illustration.” (John F. Walvoord, Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come [Chicago, IL: Moody, (1974) 1980], 191–192).
[3] Quoted in Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Final Days are Here Again,” Newsweek (March 18, 1991), 55.
[4] Tim LaHaye, The Beginning of the End (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1972), 165, 168. Emphasis added.
[5] Tim LaHaye, The Beginning of the End, rev. ed. (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1991), 193. Emphasis added.
[6] Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1970), 53–54.
[7] LaHaye, The Beginning of the End, rev. ed., 194.
[8] Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 1992).
Too much Scofield.
And not enough Bible.
Really. The footnotes and margin references are not infallible.
the Mark of the Beastdrying up the Euphrates River in 70AD? When was the Gospel preached to all the nations? When did 100-pound hailstones fall from the sky? Where can I read about t in 70AD
John's Apocalypse is a book that tells us, explicitly, right at the front, that it relates what it tells us in symbols.
he 200 million man army from the East that marched into the Valley of Meggido
Gee. In my Bible Har magedon is seven chapters away.
So what happens after the fullness of the gentiles is brought in?
I’ll get mine in:
First...there is no rapture, no driverless cars. We meet in the “air” in the “clouds” and the dead go first. The bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. “Air”, the way it’s used in the bible, often refers to the our spiritual self. “Clouds” mean multitude. So when the bible says we meet in the air in the clouds and the dead go first, it’s saying we meet in the spirit among the multitudes and those that have already passed on are waiting for us. This will be everyone (still alive) at once...good and bad.
Second...the Fig Tree is Israel. God is married to the land of Israel, bible prophecy usually is centered around what is going on there. So when the fig tree was replanted, that was it...1948 and counting. That generation will not pass away without seeing the end of this age. The youngest of that generation is now 61. At the moment no one sees 120 so the end will occur before 2068. I would guess around 2020. The UN (or whatever the beast system is) has to have time to fail and then the antiChrist will rebuild it and then the end of this age will come shortly after that. Of course no man knows the hour or the day so I could be early by 48 years. We do know the season though and we are in the season. An interesting thing is the bible’s last adjustment to the lifetime of a man was downward to 72. 1948 plus 72 equals 2020. May not mean anything, I don’t know.
2012...well we are passing through the galactic equatorial plane then and there are some plasma physics involved regarding that plane with currents running through space at that point. Is that enough to disturb the earth to invoke disaster?...I don’t know. Maybe it’ll just be a bump against the sun’s and/or the earth’s magnetosphere(s).
Um, Jesus returns and the saints (all the elect, both Jews and gentiles) get to spend eternity with Him in the new heavens and new earth.
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? " (2 Peter 3:10-12)
"A-ba-dee aba-dee a-ba-dee, that's all folks!"
So your thinking is that Christians have been grafted into the tree and God is done with the Jews. IOW, Christians have replaced the Jews forever. Am I expressing your thinking correctly?
I think it’s amazing that it appears that only few people know that such earth-shattering, momentous events happened 2000 years ago!
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Excellent post well put.
Of course only the folks with their heads in the sand; or buried in piles of confetti from their shredded Bibles, shredded histories, shredded dictionaries . . . believe such hell fostered idiocies.
INDEED!
AMEN, SISTER, PREACH IT!
What a glib sounding non-sequitur.
Actually, it’s just simple straightforward UNSHREDDED BIBLE.
Great effort of a good post.
However, the clueless rabid cliques are not at all interested in Facts, Biblical or otherwise.
Does y’all’s rabidclique have a
Scripture Shredding and mangling FACTORY
or is it a cottage industry?
I prefer ‘articulate,’ but ‘glib’ will do.
ping
“So your thinking is that Christians have been grafted into the tree and God is done with the Jews. IOW, Christians have replaced the Jews forever. Am I expressing your thinking correctly?”
The body of Christ comprises believing Jews and Gentiles - otherwise known as Christians. Nobody is replacing anybody else.
THANKS.
imho,
IT IS INESCAPABLE from a fair-minded, objective reading of Scripture to notice two tracks, essentially, THE JEWS AS GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE . . . for HIS GLORY
AND GRAFTED IN
INTO THE JEWISH VINE, INTO CHRIST THE JEWISH MESSIAH . . . are Christians . . .
THERE ARE 12 THRONES FOR THE 12 PATRIARCH IN HEAVEN
THERE ARE 12 THRONES FOR THE 12 DISCIPLES IN HEAVEN.
BOTH ARE EMPHASIZED.
There is an abundance of JEWISH, ISRAEL STUFF IN END TIMES BIBLICAL PROPHECY. IT’S MOSTLY ABOUT ISRAEL AS A FOCUL POINT.
Certainly even in the MILLENIAL REIGN OF CHRIST, MYSTERIOUSLY, THERE’S THE JEWISH TEMPLE AND EVEN SACRIFICES.
The REPLACEMENTARIAN, A-mil, Preterist, Post-mil idiocies essentially erase Israel after 70 AD.
GOD DOES NOT.
I believe God.
I don’t believe thehorrifically destructive and devilish REPLACEMENTARIAN HERESIES FROM HELL.
It seems to me that dispensationalism hinges on one question. Is God done with the Jews?
If God is done with the Jews then Christians have replaced them in God's plan of salvation. If God is not done with the Jews then God has a plan for them at a future time.
I don't believe there are two parallel tracks running for salvation one for Christians and one for Jews. However, if you read Romans 11 it's clear there is a plan for the Jews after God is done with the Gentiles.
Rom. 11:25-26 ...blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved,...
The remnant of Israel may be the 144,000 that are sealed, so the number may not be very large. I am convinced that it is the recognition that Jesus is the Messiah that causes them to be sealed so we are not talking about different reasons for their salvation. However, they are being saved after the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in.
“...with great patience...”. Hmmmmm.
“Correctness” or “incorrectness” of ideas aside, I can name at least ONE person here who is not following THAT directive.
Maybe YOU can give me your opinion on this, since Quix would not. Are my Tyndale and Geneva editions of the Bible true enough to the original scripures to be acceptable for purposes of study and interpretation?
They precede the King James version and were reported to have been directly translated from the orginal languages used by the writers (or at any rate, from such original documents as were available).
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