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).
All valid points that are well documented, yet ignored, as just another day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Removing baryonic material would mean all matter and dark matter are removed. Fundamentally a bad thing to lose all your protons, among assorted other atomic elements ;-)
In the movie, unprecedented solar activity accompanied by huge solar flares bombard the earth with multiple orders of magnitude more neutrinos than ever before. In the movie they are referred to as “mutated neutrinos” (snicker) because they are behaving like no neutrino has ever before. [ this is the Deus est Machina/ ‘magic occurs here’ of the movie ]. These “mutated neutrinos” act like microwaves to heat and liquify the earth’s core to the point where tectonic plates shift and portions of the earth crust liquefy — with predictable disaster porn results.
As you wrote, “normal” neutrinos are deomnstrably harmless, but these Mayan calendar neutrinos have mutated ... zombie neutrinos ;-)
Aside from that, the movie is ‘true’ enough to be enjoyable as science fiction drama.
I have a feeling many will be on the run from an oppressive, anti Christian government. Nearly everything our government does defies the basic principles of Christianity, notwithstanding liberty. Obviously we are going to be at odds to the point of criminal persecution because of our defiance to this criminal government trying to impose shackles on freedom of speech etc..
“6. Evidently, the original post also thinks that an engineered global flu pandemic designed to reduce the population markedly and also quite in keeping with Biblical prophecy predictions about end times plagues . . . evidently the original post’s perspective is also that such devastating and cruelly engineered plagues would be no big deal . . . a few hundred million deaths here, a few hundred million deaths there . . . no big deal.”
OK, I agree with many of your points however, if the H1N1 flu pandemic was manufactured by some unnamed cabal then they did a poor job of it. It’s been fairly ineffective so far at killing people.
That said, I agree that many of us feel “in our spirit” that there will be some baaad stuff happening in the next few months/years. Whether 2012 has anything to do with it doesn’t really matter. Be prepared to go in the next second or at the end of our normal lifespan. We need to be prepared because we could walk out in front of a Mack Truck anytime!
announced that the ship had been cleansed of baryonic matter. 10 brownie points to the first person to point out why that would be bad.
Duh. That would be, uhh, us. And everything else we can see, hear and touch.
THANKS BIG FOR BEING AWAKE AND INFORMED, WITH YOUR HEAD IN THE LIGHT VS SOME DARK PLACES OR SAND.
THANKS for your kind reply.
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.
GREAT PERSPECTIVE
AND WELL PUT.
THX.
It’s not clear if the H1N1? is it . . . is the real McCoy of the deadly engineered pandemic or merely a sort of testing the waters dry run.
And, some wonder if a different or evolving variety of the H1N1 will be dramatically more deadly.
The Thing in . . . Eastern Europe . . . Ukraine is it? . . . that sounds a lot more dreadful . . . and mysterious.
No, I don't think they have happened yet. According to John, who wrote Revelations 8, things are going to get really nasty. A third of the oceans turning to blood, a star will fall and poison the waters, the sun, moon and stars being extinguished - I'd just as soon not be around. It's not going to be a big parade with Jesus on a float.
Come on we have had floods fires earth quakes volcanoes erupt and meteors hit the earth with people dying—and what difference does it make if you die in a house fire or one like you describe
We all have goals. Mine is to die on the beach in the Carribean during an afternoon nap. Some people want to be around for the second coming; I’ll pass. Wake me up on Judgement Day.
If you want to be dodging meteriors, evading floods and generally avoiding fires - be my guest. I’ll be rootin’ for you.
Hows the old saying go? .... “I want to die like Grandpa, quietly pass away in my sleep. Not screaming and panicing, to finally perish in a fiery crash like his passengers.”
Ping for a later read.
Has anyone seen this flick yet? Is it any good?
There wouldn't have been a ship left, or a crew, since all the protons and neutrons (atomic nuclei) would have been “cleansed.” Electrons would be left. Also, since the antimatter they use for fuel is antibaryonic matter, it would still be there. If any of the antimatter collided with electrons - boom!
“Cleansing” the ship of non-baryonic matter would have been just as bad. If all electrons disappeared, all the molecules in the ship and crew would break apart. (With no electrons, what would remain are positively charged atomic nuclei, which would repel each other.) At least there’d be no boom, since the antimatter would also have been “cleansed.”
Maybe reverse polarity neutrinos?
Thanks for the ping!
THANKS.
Feeble non-sequitur responses full of denial of reality are quite welcome. It helps display the cluelessness of the original perspective quite well.
Largish??
If it had hit, the ~6-meter wide space rock would have disintegrated in the atmosphere as a spectacular fireball, causing no significant damage to the ground. ( ASTEROID NEAR MISS:)
9. Evidently the advancing increase in frequency and degree of drama of the UFO demonstrations and .
Have you recovered yet from your last abduction?
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