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HISTORY OF FALSE PROPHETS AMONG OUR CHRISTIAN BROTHERS

In every generation after the apostles, there have been Christians who mistakenly believed that they were in the last days. They have thought that their generation was the one Jesus spoke of when He prophesied that “all these things” would happen in “this generation.” Failed prognosticators have been a persistent embarrassment to Christianity. Perhaps there is something fundamentally wrong with these predictions.

Francis Gumerlock, in his book THE DAY AND THE HOUR: CHRISTIANITY’S PERENNIAL FASCINATION WITH PREDICTING THE END OF THE WORLD, lists end times prophecy predictions made by Christians beginning in the early centuries. He catalogs more than a thousand failed predictions since the early days of Christianity, beginning with the apostolic fathers.

For example, Ignatius writes around the year AD 100 that “the last times are come upon us.” Cyprian (200-258) writes that “the day of affliction has begun to hang over our heads, and the end of the world and the time of the Antichrist. . . draw near, so that we must all stand prepared for the battle.”

Martin Luther (1483-1546) made this statement: “I am satisfied that the last day must be before the door; for the signs predicted by Christ and the Apostles Peter and Paul have now all been fulfilled, the trees put forth, the Scriptures are green and flourishing. . . . We certainly have nothing now to wait for but the end of all things.”

Famous among predictors of the end of the world was Christopher Columbus (1452-1506). Columbus wrote a book entitled BOOK OF PROPHECIES in which he called on many of the same passages of Scripture that false prophets cite today to predict the imminent end of the world. He apparently thought that his discoveries marked the beginning of the end.

The famous American Puritan preacher Cotton Mather (1663-1728) believed Christ’s return to be imminent and saw apocalyptic meaning in the conflicts and challenges of the American frontier. Mather was also a date setter. He predicted the Second Coming for 1697, then 1716, and finally 1736. The New Jerusalem, he believed, would be located in New England.

Here are more examples of end-times dating from Christians as well as pseudo-Christian cultists:

―William Miller (founder of Adventism): 1843/1844
—Ellen G. White (co-founder—Seventh Day Adventist Church): 1843, 1844, 1850, 1856.
—Joseph Smith (founder—Mormon Church): 1891.
—Jehovah’s Witnesses: 1874, 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984.
—Hal Lindsey: 1982, 1988, 2007, with contingency dates going as far as 2048.
—Jack Van Impe: 1975, 1992, 2000, 2012. Also, in May of 1991 he said the Anti-Christ would be revealed and the Great Tribulation would begin within 20 months.
—Chuck Smith (founder of Calvary Chapel): 1981, 1988
―Herbert W. Armstrong: 1965
—Pat Robertson: 1982.
—Edgar C. Whisenant: 1988, 1989.
—Bill Maupin: 1981.
—J.R. Church: 1988.
—Charles R. Taylor: 1992.
—Benny Hinn: 1993.
—F. M. Riley: 1994.
—John Hinkle: 1994.
—Grant R. Jeffrey: 2000.
—Lester Sumrall: 1985, 1986, 2000.
—Kenneth Hagin: 1997 to 2000.
—Jerry Falwell: 2010.
—Louis Farrakhan: 1991.
―John Walvoord: before he died (He died in 2002.)
—John Hagee (at age 71): before he dies.
—Harold Camping: 1994, 2011.
—Ronald Weinland: 2011, 2012.
—Perry Stone: 2009-2015
—Billy Graham: Even this venerable preacher began telling us in the 1940’s to expect the soon return of Christ.

A lot of dispensationalists right in there with cultists. Pastors all across America’s fruited plains have books of some of these authors proudly displayed in their office libraries. The same books, and videos too, fly off Christian bookstore shelves, and the money continues to flow to these authors and many others of the same ilk. While some of these authors may be good teachers on other subjects, their false predictions force us to doubt their views on eschatology. Many of the above people will be forgotten, but whenever you happen to be reading this book, you will probably be hearing from a new generation of false teachers.

All of these prognosticators had something in common: They all thought they knew better than Jesus, who over and over told his followers that his prophecies would come to pass while some of them were still alive (Matthew 10:23; 16:27-28; 26:64; Luke 21:22, 32; Hebrews 10:37; Revelation 1:1-3; 22:5-20; etc.) There are over 100 such time statements in the New Testament that limit fulfillment of prophecy to the first century.

Maybe Christians should stop “newspaper eschatology” and read their Bible―and believe it.

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See these additional lists of false prophets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_and_claims_for_the_Second_Coming_of_Christ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

https://www.truthmagazine.com/date-setters

(This is an excerpt from my book CHRISTIAN HOPE THROUGH FULFILLED PROPHECY. For more information about fulfilled prophecy, see my website:

http://prophecyquestions.com)

Where do you find a red heffer sacrifice in the New Testament?

Thanks for the effort!

This is the fourth installment of questions that dispensationalists have a difficult time answering. I was interested to see if the dispensationalists on this board could rationally and calmly defend their position. The responses from dispensationalists are telling. The few dispensationalists who responded at all did not even attempt to answer 95% of the questions. They just hissed and spit like a cornered cat, with an outsized measure of anger, trying to blame the messenger for the message. Obfuscation is not refutation.

Daniel Hummel, in his new book "The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism," makes the case that, pop-dispensationalism is still alive and well outside the seminary environment. But, in academic circles there is a noticeable trend of abandonment of dispensationalism―even at Dallas Theological Seminary, the center of the dispensational universe. There are serious problems with the dispensational model, as are being pointed out even by historic premillennialists like Hummel, not to mention every other eschatological camp. More such books are bound to follow.

If God had meant “race” in Mt 24:34 it makes sense that He would have used the Greek word gnos rather than genea:

https://biblehub.com/greek/1085.htm

More on genea (generation)

The KJV translates Strong’s G1074 in the following manner: generation (37x), time (2x), age (2x), nation (1x).

When you see the phase “this generation,” ask yourself, the question, “which generation?” We can look the word “generation” in Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the NT, and we can see that the Greek word is “genea.” It says, “The whole multitude of men living at the same time.” Also we find in William F. Arndt and Wilber Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the NT and Other Early Christian Literature: “basically, the sum total of those born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time. Contemporaries.”

Re “this generation.”

OBJECTION: In Matthew 24:34, Jesus meant “that” generation rather than “this” generation as the text reads―i.e. some future generation that will witness all the things listed in the chapter. ANSWER: A straight-forward reading of the text indicates that these prophecies would be fulfilled while some hearing Jesus’ words in the first century were still alive. No other conclusion is possible without doing violence to the text. But to confirm that it refers to the first century contemporaries of Jesus we need only to look at the other times the phrase “this generation” is used in the New Testament. It ALWAYS refers to those living in the first century. There is no serious disagreement on these other passages. Here are all the times the phrase is used outside of the Olivet Discourse. Look up these passages for yourself:

Matthew: 11:16-24; 12:38-45; 16:4; 17:17; 23:35-36; Mark: 8:12; 8:38-9:1; 9:19, and Luke: 7:31; 9:41; 11:29-32, 49-51; 17:25; Acts: 2:40.

OBJECTION: If Jesus has already come, people would have seen Him. ANSWER: How do you think of the Second Coming of Jesus? As a five-foot-five Jewish man―with long hair and ancient Jewish clothing (like the paintings), literally riding on a cloud down to earth―perhaps on a white horse?

Many Christians have misunderstood what Jesus meant by his Parousia (his “Second Coming”) because they do not know their Old Testament. He was not to come physically, but rather to “come” in the sense of judging the apostate old covenant Jewish nation—just as God came multiple times in the Old Testament to judge the Jews or their enemies. Compare the language in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:29-31) or John’s Apocalypse (Revelation 6:12-17) to the apocalyptic language set in cosmic expressions in the Old Testament of past judgments by God. Here are just a few of them:

Isaiah 13:10-13 (against Babylon),

Isaiah 34:4 (against Edom),

Ezekiel 32:7-8; Isaiah 19:1 (against Egypt),

In these instances, nobody saw YHWH, but certainly saw the effects of his coming. Jesus came similarly―in the manner and at the time predicted in the New Testament. See the article “What Does the Bible Say about the Nature of the Second Coming”: https://prophecyquestions.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-the-nature-of-jesus-second-coming

Genea is generation. Genoa is race—different word. Genea is in the text.

Now that’s a new take on “this generation.”

Thanks for the comment. Appreciated.

Eagle, please excuse me, but it’s amazing the vitriol that comes from professing Christians. Seems to me that a Christian ought to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. It’s easy to make glaring statements or attacks, but a lot harder to defend your views from God’s Word. Obfuscation is not refutation. It seems that you are about defending presuppositions, rather than relying on the Bible. But if you use the Bible as your source, I’m all ears. I provided numerous Bible passages as evidence; so far you have not.

Eagle on High, you mis-interpreted and mis-represent my comment. I hold to the full preterist view, which I stated that Jesus came in finality in AD 70. The Acts 1:9-11 citation was for you or others who want a small leg to stand on, since that passage is the only clear instance in the New Testament that does not specifically or by implication limit the Parousia to the lives of those living in the first century. There are two groups who see dual Parousias: (1) partial preterists, and (2) dispensationalists who find Jesus coming at both the beginning and end of a 7-year tribulation.

For more information about dispensationalism, here are two helpful books:

1. "Dispensationalism: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow" by Curtis I. Crenshaw and Grover E. Dunn, III

2. "The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation" by Daniel G. Hummel and Mark A. Noll

I do not teach a second second coming.

Eagle obfuscating doesn’t answer any of my questions. Tacit admittance that you can’t. Gotcha.

I should have titled this “Questions Dispensationalists Cannot Answer”