DARBY, SCOFIELD, and PROPHETIC DECEPTION
Dispensational Theology Incorrectly Applied.
“Alas, the great deception often called modern evangelical mainstream end-times prophecy. This particular line of modern unreasoning has been reiterated so many times in mainstream churches (particularly Baptist churches) that it is vehemently believed to be the very Word of God. What is this deceptive prophetic reasoning? Although it is a recent creation, there is a certain amount of growth from a beginning seed concept. That initial seed could be called ‘dispensational theology’.
The prominent groundbreaker & broadcaster of dispensational theology is the Scofield Reference Bible which first appeared in 1909 and was revised by the author in 1917. It is said this Bible with it’s unique (at the time) reference system was financed and encouraged by Jewish bankers living in England, to enhance and further their goal of convincing the Christian church of their self-conceived “chosen people” status. Scofield’s notes on the Book of Revelation are a major source for various timetables, judgments, and plagues elaborated on by popular religious writers as Hal Lindsey, Edgar C. Whisenant, and Tim LaHaye (all graduates of Dallas Theological Seminary). Prior to its popularization by the Scofield Bible, the roots of Dispensational Theology are traceable to John Nelson Darby & the Plymouth Brethren group within England. Darby’s teaching has become enshrined in the Scofield Reference Bible, the most popular of all reference bibles.
Dispensational teachings espouse a unique brand of premillennialism wedded to the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture of the church and to a sharp distinction between Israel and the church with separate programs for each of these elections. The teaching is known for its opinions respecting the nation of Israel during the millennial kingdom reign, in which the modern state of Israel as a nation plays a major role and regains a king, a land, and an everlasting kingdom. In other words, Christ’s Millennial reign according to dispensationalists, will be ruled by the Jews (or Israelites as they claim) while the Church age comes to an end and they are “raptured” into heaven (which is not scriptural).” Freedom from Delusion
Exposing The Rapture Myth You’ve Been Taught All Your Life
I suppose that this assertion might shock you, but the doctrine of the “rapture” was never taught prior to 1830. Even if it’s a little uncomfortable to consider, I would ask you to stay with me on this.
This relatively modern theological notion of the “evacuation of the saints” is completely absent from the Nicene Creed (325), the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed (381), the Chalcedonian Creed (451), the Athanasian Creed (500), the Augsburg Confession (1530), The Canons of Dordt (1618-1619), the Baptist Confession of Faith (1644), the Westminster Confession (1646), and the Methodist Articles of Religion (1784).
While the “rapture” was actually first publicly espoused by the followers of Edward Irving (17921834) and John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), some are convinced that its roots go back to a sickly teenager named Margaret MacDonald (1815-1840) from Port Glasgow in Western Scotland.
MacDonald and her family later became loosely connected to Irving’s Catholic Apostolic movement, which was beginning to emphasize charismatic and eschatological expressions.
Sometime in the spring of 1830, Margaret MacDonald, who was confined to a bed, claimed to experience the “gift of prophecy.” There was fervor and excitement in some of the church meetings and MacDonald was caught up in it.
She claimed to experience a vision of the Church being caught away to heaven before the “tribulation.” One evening Margaret is reported to have exclaimed the following:
“this is the light to be kept burning – the light of God – that we may discern that which cometh not with observation to the natural eye. Only those who have the light of God within them will see the sign of his appearance. No need to follow them who say, see here, or see there, for his day shall be as the lightning to those in whom the living Christ is. ‘Tis Christ in us that will lift us up – he is the light – ’tis only those that are alive in him that will be caught up to meet him in the air.”[1]
Robert Norton, M.D., an observer of these “stirrings,” recounted what happened to Margaret and how it impacted so many influential leaders.
“The power of the Holy Ghost rested upon her [MacDonald] for several successive hours, in mingled prophecy and vision… here we see the distinction between that final stage of the Lord’s coming, when every eye shall see Him, and His prior appearing in glory to them that look for Him.”[2]
Along with the controversial Edward Irving, John Nelson Darby, the originator of Dispensational Premillenialism was also deeply influenced by the supposed “prophetic” utterance of this young woman. Historian Timothy Weber notes the following,
“The Plymouth Brethren commissioned Darby to go to Scotland and investigate. He arrived in the middle of 1830 and according to his own testimony twenty-three years later, actually met MacDonald and heard her prophesy…Darby returned home… convinced that Margaret McDonald’s view of the rapture was true. He subsequently fit it into his [Dispensational] system, but never acknowledged his debt to her.”[3]
This wasn’t just an association that Timothy Weber observed in his research. Scholars Carl
Armerding and W. Ward Gasque became convinced of this same reality. They write,
“It is likely . . . [MacDonald’s prophecy] was grist for Darby’s mill. As he left Scotland, he carried with him impressions which, after some years of reflection, would play their part in the formation of the teaching of the secret pretribulation rapture.”[4]
However its origin is ultimately framed up, virtually everyone agrees that John Nelson Darby was the first major proponent of this teaching. He readily affirmed the rapture in his public addresses and made it a central component of his Dispensational Premillennialism in the early 1830s.
In the following decades Darby visited America a number of times to share his novel apocalyptic teachings, but it is suggested that
“his reception was cautious at best…Most people dismissed Premillennialism as silly and discredited. Others considered it a novelty and therefore unworthy of their consideration. The educational and ecclesiastical elite tended to reject Dispensationalism.”[5]
Weber notes “It was not easy to stand against Christian consensus and still claim to be orthodox, but that is precisely what Dispensationalists were forced to do.”[6] Darby follower, C.H. Mackintosh, once exclaimed, “It looks presumptuous to contradict, on so many subjects, all the great standards and creeds of Christendom. But what is one to do?”[7]
By the 1880s, D.L. Moody[8] and a few prominent Fundamentalists began to accept aspects of Darby’s Dispensational theological system. The rapture and its related apocalyptic story-line began to gain traction in some of the camp meetings and Bible Institutes.
Nevertheless, what finally made the doctrine of the rapture an enduring presence in America was the wide dissemination of the Scofield Reference Bible.
Cyrus I. Scofield (1843 – 1921) had become acquainted with Dispensational Premillennialism and came up with the idea of printing an annotated Bible to help individuals master the complexities of this Darbyite system.[9] It seems that the Scofield Reference Bible “brought the apocalyptic into the heart of evangelicalism.”[10]
Shortly after it was published in 1909, this Bible became the textbook of choice for Evangelical and Pentecostal Bible institutes. The detailed notes were studied with great diligence and widely accepted — even though they articulated “a decidedly different interpretation to actually what is being read in the Bible text.”[11]
Reflecting on all of this, Charles Lippy writes,
“One did not need to be a convinced premillennial dispensationalist to be influenced by the Scofield Reference Bible since for generations of American Protestants it was the only edition of scripture to use for reading and study of the sacred text of Christianity, etching deeply into the popular religious consciousness.”[12]
While the rapture was never taught prior to 1830, Michael Williams acknowledges that, “Virtually every revivalist preacher and populist religious leader of any fame since D.L. Moody has been a Dispensationalist.”[13]
Over one hundred seventy years later, the rapture and its cataclysmic worldview continues to define theology for many Americans. Multitudes hold to it passionately, never considering that it only emerged as a doctrine in the 19th Century. I know first-hand that many are eager to break fellowship and renounce anyone who questions their apocalyptic timeline. They are ready to die for an idea that is completely absent from all historic creeds of the Church.
It’s time for us to have a better conversation about what our forefathers actually believed. What was the worldview that defined the faith of Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley? In their generation they saw thousands of conversions and knew the glory of God. Would they have been comfortable defining Christianity as an evacuation effort?
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- Dave MacPherson, The Incredible Cover-up. (Omega Publishers, 1975): 151. MacPherson cites Robert Norton, Memoirs of James and George MacDonald of Port-Glasgow (1840): 171-176.
- Robert M. Norton. The Restoration of Apostles and Prophets: In the Catholic Apostolic Church. (London: 1861) 15.
- Timothy P. Weber. On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2004) 24.
- Carl E.Armerding and W. Ward Gasque. A Guide to Biblical Prophecy: A Balanced and Biblical Assessment of the Nature of Prophecy in the Bible. (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1989) 52.
- Timothy P. Weber. On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2004) 26.
- Timothy P. Weber. On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2004) 28, 31.
- H. Mackintosh. Papers On The Lord’s Coming. (London: 1907) 56.
- Peter Prosser writes, “While Moody never really endorsed the Dispensational view of Premillennialism, he did not try to prevent its teachings from spreading either. He was attracted to it because of its pessimistic view of culture gave a strong impetus to evangelism.” Peter Prosser.
Dispensationalist Eschatology and Its Influence on American and British Religious Movements. (Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1999) 143-144.
- Michael Williams writes that “Scofield’s failure to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Plymouth Brethren does not disguise the fact that Darbyite Dispensationalism provided the structure and content of the Scofield Bible.” Michael Williams. This World is Not My Home:The Origin And Development Of Dispensationalism. Mentor, 2011, 31.
- Michael Williams. This World is Not My Home:The Origin And Development Of Dispensationalism.
(Fern, Scotland: Mentor, 2011) 21.
- Peter Prosser. Dispensational Eschatology and Its Influence on American and British Religious Movements. (Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press,1999) 74.
- Charles H. Lippy. Being Religious, American Style: A History of Popular Religiosity in the United States. (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1994) 134.
- Michael Williams. This World is Not My Home:The Origin And Development Of Dispensationalism.
(Fern, Scotland: Mentor, 2011) 19. Timothy Weber also affirms that, “Every major American revivalist since D. L. Moody has been a Premillennialist of some kind.” Timothy P. Weber. “How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend.” Christianity Today. (October 5, 1998).
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Did Darby Read Highlights of Ephraim the Syrian?
In ANTICHRIST AND THE END OF THE WORLD, Ephraim in 376 A.D. said, “We ought to understand thoroughly, therefore my brothers, what is imminent or overhanging. Already there have been hungers and plagues, violent movements of nations and sins, which have been predicted by the Lord. Prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ so that He may draw us from the confusion which overwhelms the world. Believe you me, dearest brothers, because
the coming of the Lord is nigh. Believe you me because the end of the world is at hand. Believe me because it is the very last time. Because all Saints and the elect of the Lord are gathered together before the Tribulation which is about to come and are taken to the Lord in order that they may not see at anytime the confusion that overwhelms the world because of our sins. And so brothers most dear to me, it is the eleventh hour, and the end of this world comes to the harvest and angels armed and prepared hold sickles in their hands awaiting the empire or kingdom of the Lord… When the end of the world comes, that abominable, lying, and murderous one who is born from the tribe of Dan….He is conceived from the seed of a man and from a most vile virgin mixed with an evil or worthless spirit. Therefore, when he receives the kingdom, he orders the Temple of God to be rebuilt for himself which is in Jerusalem who, after coming into it, he shall sit as God in order that he may be adored by all nations. Then all people from everywhere shall flock together to him and the holy city shall be trampled on by the nations for 42 months. Just as the holy apostle says in the Apocalypse which becomes 3 and 1/2 years – 1260 days. Then when the 3 and 1/2 years have been completed, the time of antichrist through which he will have seduced the world, after the resurrection of the two prophets, in the hour which the world does not know and on the day which the enemy or son of perdition does not know, will come the sign of the son of man. And coming forward, the Lord shall appear with great power and much majesty with the sign of the word of salvation going before Him.”
Ephraim the Syrian also wrote another book, CAVE OF TREASURES, in which he elaborated upon the antichrist: “The Jews have no longer among them a king or priest or prophet or Passover. Even as Daniel prophesied concerning them saying, ‘after two and sixty weeks Christ shall be slain and the city of holiness shall be laid waste until the completion of things decreed.’ At the end of the world and at the final consummation, suddenly the gates of the north shall be open. They will destroy the earth and there be none able to stand before them. After one week they will all be destroyed in the plane of Joppa. Then will the Son of Perdition appear of the seed and tribe of Dan. He’ll go into Jerusalem, will sit on the throne, etc.”
RAPTURE-TRIBULATION SPECULATION
The Rapture of the Church
Local television stations from around the world reported bizarre occurrences.… CNN showed via satellite the video of a groom disappearing while slipping the ring onto his bride’s finger. A funeral home in Australia reported that nearly every mourner disappeared from one memorial service, including the corpse.
“We have Gary DeMar and Dave Hunt on the phone. They have agreed to debate the topic of Bible prophecy. Dave and Gary have debated a number of times over the years, so they are familiar with the issues. Dave, why don’t you go first? From your perspective, what is the single doctrine that sets you and Gary apart?”
“I would have to say that it’s the pretrib Rapture.”
“Could you briefly explain it?”
“The Rapture and the Second Coming are two distinct events. One occurs at the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation period when Jesus comes for His church, and the other at the end when Jesus returns with His church to rescue Israel.”
“Gary, is the pretrib Rapture a sticking point for you?”
“Yes, and a whole lot more. But I have one question for Dave. Can he show me one verse that teaches a pretribulational Rapture?”
“Dave?”
“Certainly. First Thessalonians 4:16–17 [KJV] is a good starting point: ‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.’ ”
“Gary, your response?”
“It’s no surprise that Dave turns to this passage, since 1 Thessalonians 4 is considered the key Rapture passage. If the Rapture’s not taught here, it’s not taught anywhere. The issue in this debate is not whether those in Christ are being caught up; it’s when they are being caught up and what follows this event. There is no mention of a Tribulation period following being caught up. A careful reader will note that there is no mention of the reign of
Anti-christ, a rebuilt temple, or Armageddon, all the elements that assume a pretrib
Rapture. There is no single verse in the entire Bible that supports a pretrib Rapture.”
The story line of Left Behind is based upon a doctrine called the Rapture. To be more precise, it is based upon a particular view of the Rapture, a pretribulational as opposed to a posttribulational, midtribulational, partial, or prewrath Rapture. The Rapture, a word that is not found in English translations of the Bible, supposedly is an event where all Christians, both living and dead, will be “caught up” to meet Jesus in the sky and then be taken to heaven. Jesus’ return to “rapture” His church is invisible and secret. No one will know the event has taken place until after the fact. Advocates of a Rapture do not agree when the event occurs. All agree that the timing of the Rapture is tied to the seven-year Tribulation period. The pretribulationist believes that the Rapture takes place before (pre) the Tribulation; the posttribulationist believes the Rapture takes place after (post) the Tribulation; the midtribulationist believes the Rapture takes place in the middle of the Tribulation, and advocates of the newest rapture position, the pre-
wrath Rapture, teach that Christians are raptured just before God pours out His wrath on an unbelieving world near the end of the Tribulation period. The partial rapture view, a minority position, claims that only those Christians who are watching and waiting for Christ’s return will be raptured.
There is no single verse or group of verses that specifically describes any of these five Rapture positions. In terms of pretribulationalism, since that’s the Rapture position advocated by LaHaye, we should expect to find at least one verse that describes Jesus coming for His church to take Christians to heaven prior to a seven-year period of Tribulation, and then Jesus returning with His church seven years after the Rapture to defeat Antichrist and set up a kingdom in Jerusalem that will last for a thousand years. Of course, there is no such verse or group of connected verses that mentions these very necessary doctrinal elements. There is no such phrase as “the rapture of the church” or “the catching away of the church” found anywhere in the Bible. Even LaHaye admits that no one passage teaches a pretrib Rapture:
One objection to the pre-Tribulation Rapture is that not one passage of Scripture teaches the two aspects of His Second Coming separated by the Tribulation. This is true. But then, no one passage teaches a post-trib or mid-trib Rapture, either.
No single verse specifically states, “Christ will come before the Tribulation.” On the other hand, no single passage teaches He will not come before the Tribulation, or that He will come in the middle or at the end of the Tribulation. Any such explicit declaration would end the debate immediately.
Arguing that the other Rapture positions don’t have a verse to support them does not make LaHaye’s position right. It’s possible that the entire end-time scenario in which all the Rapture positions have a stake is without biblical foundation. We will consider this possibility in later chapters. At this point, readers of Left Behind should be aware that the pretrib Rapture is the keystone to the entire multi-volume series. If there is no pretrib Rapture, then no one is left behind. One would think that this necessary doctrine would have at least one or two very closely associated verses that, when harmonized, would describe the elements necessary for the pretrib
Rapture hypothesis to make sense to the “casual reader.”
At the same time LaHaye gives the impression that the pretrib Rapture doctrine is selfevident to anyone who reads the New Testament, he has to admit that the doctrine was not discovered until the nineteenth century. All attempts to find a pretrib Rapture any earlier than around 1830 do not stand up to historical scrutiny. It was only in the nineteenth century, LaHaye tells us, when “the Bible was available and being read by millions in the English-speaking world” and “prophecy was in the air,” that the discovery took place. If it took nearly nineteen hundred years to discover the pretrib Rapture, why didn’t it take that long to discover the many other doctrines that Christians believed and confessed without the aid of an English translation of the Bible? There was no English translation of the Bible until the late fourteenth century. How did the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, to name only a few doctrinal standards, ever get written without the aid of an English translation of the Bible? There have been countless commentaries published on the Bible throughout the centuries by men who were intimately familiar with all the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and they were never able to find the doctrine.6 Even pretrib advocate H. A. Ironside, for whom LaHaye has the highest regard, admitted the novelty of the position:
[U]ntil brought to the fore through the writings and the preaching and teaching of a distinguished ex-clergyman, Mr. J. N. Darby, in the early part of the last century [i.e., the nineteenth century], it is scarcely to be found in a single book or sermon through the period of sixteen hundred years! If any doubt this statement, let them search, as the writer has in measure done, the remarks of the so-called Fathers, both pre- and post-Nicene; the theological treatises of the scholastic divines; Roman Catholic writers of all shades of thought; the literature of the Reformation; the sermons and expositions of the Puritans; and the general theological works of the day. He will find the “mystery” conspicuous by its absence.
Thomas Ice, cofounder with LaHaye of the Pre-Trib Research Center and an editor of LaHaye’s Prophecy Study Bible, claims that a “certain theological climate needed to be created before premillennialism would restore the Biblical doctrine of the pretrib Rapture. Sufficient development did not take place until after the French Revolution.” But like LaHaye and John Walvoord, Ice has to admit that “neither pre nor posttribs have a proof text for the time of the Rapture.” The doctrine, therefore, “is the product of a deduction from one’s overall system of theology, both for pre and posttribbers.”[1]0
This is a remarkable admission for a doctrine that is so crucial to a theological position said to be fundamental for a proper understanding of the Bible. How is it possible that:
- so many well-meaning Christians believe in a pretrib Rapture when even pretrib advocates tell us that not one passage of Scripture teaches the two aspects of Jesus’ second coming separated by the Tribulation;
- the Old Testament doesn’t teach a pretrib Rapture;
- no one up until around 1830 taught a pretrib Rapture; and
- the doctrine, supposedly “so clearly revealed in the Scriptures,” became “utterly lost” immediately after the close of the New Testament canon?
Marvin Rosenthal, a prominent and respected evangelist to the Jewish people, states that he could no longer hold to a belief in a pretrib Rapture because he determined, after his personal study, that the Bible did not teach it. Rosenthal turned to John Walvoord, whom LaHaye describes as the “dean of all living prophecy experts,” hoping to find clear biblical support for the position. Walvoord’s The Rapture Question includes a list of fifty arguments in support of a pretrib Rapture. Rosenthal was shocked to discover that no biblical text explicitly supported the doctrine:
Not once, among fifty arguments, does this godly Christian leader cite one biblical text that explicitly teaches pretribulation rapturism—not once. This was not an oversight. The reason for the omission of any pretribulation Rapture texts is clear. There are none. Walvoord’s own comment helps substantiate that fact. He wrote, “It is therefore not too much to say that the Rapture question is determined more by ecclesiology [the doctrine of the church] than eschatology [the doctrine of the last things]” … There simply is no explicit exegetical evidence for pretribulation rapturism.
By all accounts, there is not one explicit verse to support a position that millions of Biblebelieving Christians hold with unbending devotion. In the first edition of The Rapture Question, Walvoord, like LaHaye, had to confess that evidence for either a pretribulational or a posttribulational Rapture was not explicitly taught in the Bible. “[Walvoord] deleted this statement in later editions of the book.”1
Emphasis on details of prophecy…had led some people to pursue…an unhealthy fascination with the details of
apocalyptic Scriptures and speculation on current events.
Such unbridled curiosity has been deemed escapist, potentially fatalistic, and even pathological.
Richard Reiter, 1984
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #60 @Circa 1910 AD
The arrival of Halley’s Comet in 1910 caused apocalyptic panic in some New York City residents. One cartoon of the time illustrated the panic by portraying people digging their own private caves in Central Park.
“And indeed this was the same Dreaded Wanderer that had harbingered Noah’s Flood in 2349 B.C. And the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah in 1900 B.C. And the defeat of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. And the conquest of Asia by Genghis Khan in 1222. And the fall of Belgrade to the Turks in 1456.
In the year 1910 A.D., few but the astronomers knew that the terrible silver scimitar gleaming like sorcery across the timeless night was just frozen hydrogen and helium and ammonia gases. In the year 1910, it was not entirely immoderate to harbor small suspicions that perhaps the ancient prophets had been on to something. In the year 1910, the great fearsome stripe of unspeakable skyfire could still cow down the creature man and sculpt his notions of Heaven and Earth and move him to cut desperate deals with his gods. Behold the creature man,
contriving meaning and reason from shining paths of nothing.
The last time Halley’s Comet had come to visit, true enough, about half of New York had burned down. That was in 1835. The old folks were still talking about that. Worse yet, in the spring of 1910, some of the astronomers were saying now that the comet’s tail was full of deadly cyanogen gas and that Planet Earth was going to hurtle straight into this brew like a cannonball. This probably meant that the skies would curdle and the seas would boil and every living soul would smother. It was calculated that the world would end sometime between 10:20
p.m. and midnight on Wednesday the 18th of May. And, true to old Ptolemy’s observation that comets bring with them “disturbed conditions,” dark events were recorded as April folded into May and Halley’s Comet burned malevolently overhead: Strange black rains fell on Bermuda. Huge meteors crashed into Mexico and California and set forests aflame. A monster earthquake wrecked Costa Rica. Hailstorms and heat waves simultaneously beset much of Europe. Chicken farmers all over the world began to report the hatchings of twoheaded chicks. In Maine, 12 of the polar explorer Robert Peary’s 14 sled dogs dropped dead. And on May 6, King Edward VII of England suddenly took ill and died. Two days later, in Bermuda, Fort Hamilton’s soldiers fired a 101-gun salute to the dead monarch; at 3:52 a.m., at the very instant the 101st shot was fired, Halley’s Comet flared up and the entire sky turned blood red. This was a clear enough warning, said the seers, that there would surely come a devastating world war during the reign of newly crowned King George.
In New York City, street vendors hawked anti-comet pills. Concerned public officials urged citizens to wear helmets as protection against showers of debris. Householders boarded up their windows and stuffed blankets into their doorjambs to block the toxic fumes.
Wednesday night the 18th of May was clear and bright, to the degree that, actually, the comet was never visible at all. This was a disappointment to the revelers gathered on the roofs of the city’s smart hotels and to the crowds of skywatchers assembled in Central Park and along Riverside Drive. To the hundreds of thousands of superstitious immigrants crammed into the lower East Side, it was just further evidence that they were all going to die like bugs at the beckoning of the unseen. Ten thousand men had refused to go to work that day, choosing instead to spend their last moments praying with their families. Churches overflowed with the terrified. Wailing mobs marched through Mulberry Park by torchlight. On Elizabeth St., two mandolinists played hymns as the crowds around them fell weeping to their knees. Fully 20,000 persons gathered on the Williamsburg Bridge to huddle together and await the end. From a Grand St. rooftop, a couple of pranksters tied a lamp to a balloon and sent it aloft, and screaming panic broke out on the bridge as the evil apparition sailed toward Brooklyn.
Amid the din, one small boy was seen to be dubious. “Ain’t it low?” he inquired.
Midnight came and went, and it seemed that the world had not ended after all, and most everyone started to call it a night. Cops finally cleared out Central Park and Columbus Circle at 3 a.m. and told the recalcitrant to go home. In Brooklyn, a 16-year-old schoolgirl attending a rooftop comet party had fallen four floors to her death. In Carleton Hills, N.J., a 40-year-old maiden lady had suffered a nervous collapse and been led away to an asylum, babbling that she would follow the comet wherever it went.
Halley’s Comet reappeared on schedule in 1986: The space shuttle Challenger blew up, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti were driven from their countries, the first U.S. governmentapproved genetically altered virus was released into the environment and the New York Mets won the World
Series. The comet is due back in 2061.” – New York Daily News
“Halley’s comet inspired both fascination and horror in its early observers. The celestial visitor was often considered a bad omen, and it was linked to everything from the death of kings to natural disasters. The historian Flavius Josephus described the comet of 66 A.D. as a “star resembling a sword” and considered it a portent of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Several centuries later, the comet of 451 was thought to signal Attila the Hun’s defeat at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. In 837, meanwhile, the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious feared the comet was a signal of his downfall and tried to ward off its influence with fasting, prayer and alms for the poor.
A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, with Halley’s Comet at the center.
By far the most famous appearance of Halley’s comet occurred in 1066, when it coincided with the Norman Conquest. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the months before William the Conqueror set sail for England, “a portent such as men had never seen before was seen in the heavens.” Contemporary observers considered the “long-haired star” a bad omen for the English King Harold II, and the prophecy was later fulfilled when William defeated and killed him at the Battle of Hastings. Halley’s comet was later included in a section of the famed Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts King Harold and a crowd of fearful
Englishmen watching it streak through the sky.”
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #61 @Circa 1912 AD
In 1912, Albert Sims of Toronto, Canada wrote that the trade union movement was a direct step closer to the time when the Antichrist would gain control of the world’s economy. He said that ‘union made’ labels on products everywhere showed ‘the world-wide influence of the Antichrist’s mark.’ – Gumerlock, The Day and Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #62 @Circa 1912 AD
Scientists Show Evidence That Perhaps God DID Sink the Titanic
Well – not God perhaps but nature at least in response to a crass gesture made by a single individual – an employee of White Star Line.
Most of us have seen the movie “Titanic”. We watched as a wealthy individual stood on the dock awaiting to board the ship, looked up at her and said “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
Well, it was the right line uttered by the wrong person. According to the official US archives website it was an employee of the ship’s owner who uttered those fateful words.
“Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
— Employee of the White Star Line, at the launch of the Titanic, May 31, 1911
For 100 years it has shouldered the blame for the sinking of the Titanic but now the much-maligned iceberg could be partially forgiven after scientists identified a new culprit – the moon.
Nick Collins, Science Correspondent for the Telegraph reports that although a collision with a vast tower of ice ultimately brought the passenger liner to its sticky end, it was a freak lunar event three months earlier that put the obstacle in its path, a new study claims.
An incredibly rare combination of astronomical factors including the closest approach of the moon to Earth in 1,400 years caused an unusually high tide in January 1912, researchers found.
This once-in-a-lifetime swell would have swept a vast field of icebergs from their normal resting place off the coast of Canada and caused them to drift further south.
It would have taken them almost exactly three months to reach the shipping lanes where the Titanic sank on April 14 at a cost of 1,500 lives, the scientists reported in Sky & Telescope magazine.
Prof Donald Olson of Texas State University, who led the study, said: “They went full speed into a region with icebergs, that’s really what sank the ship, but the lunar connection may explain how an unusually large number of icebergs got into the path of the Titanic.”
Unusually high tides known as spring tides are caused when the moon and sun line up in a way that means their gravitational pulls are enhanced.
On January 4, 1912 the Moon came closer to Earth than at any point in the previous 1,400 years, and reached its nearest point within just six minutes of a full moon.
This rare coincidence happened just a day after the Earth made its closest annual approach to the sun, and the freak combination of factors against overwhelming odds caused a record spring tide.
This would have been enough to dislodge huge numbers of icebergs from the shallow waters around Labrador and Newfoundland and sweep them into southward currents, leaving them just enough time to reach the Titanic’s path by April, the researchers said.
Prof Olson added: “We don’t claim to know exactly where the Titanic iceberg was in January 1912
– nobody can know that – but this is a plausible scenario intended to be scientifically reasonable.”
So let’s examine the timeline here. May 31 1911, a man utters those now famous words implying, nay, boldly declaring that “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
On January 4, 1912 the Moon came closer to Earth than at any point in the previous 1,400 years, and reached its nearest point within just six minutes of a full moon.
Titanic weighed anchor for the last time April 11 1912 at 1.30 pm.
Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Nonetheless the ship continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time. It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels and Captain Smith himself had declared that he could not “imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”
On Sunday 14 April at 11.40 pm (ship’s time), lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge.[126] First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be put in reverse, but it was too late. The rest is history. The Titanic sank into the icy depths caused by strange natural events; a ship not even God could sink?
We’re not suggesting here that God killed 1500 people just because some guy utters a sentence in a moment of stupid pride. However we know and have observed great natural calamities unfold whenever the truth [God’s Natural Law] is violated on a global level. Did the universe conspire to sink the Titanic? Science has now shown us that this is entirely possible. – Messiah Ministries
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #63 @Circa 1913 AD
Some believed that the women’s suffragist movement in
America was a sign of the End Times. The journal, Our Hope, in 1913 referred to the suffragettes as “silly women of the Last Days.’ – Gumerlock, The Day and Hour “4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #64 @Circa 1917 AD
Many Roman Catholics believe that three Portuguese girls saw the Virgin Mary in 1917 in Fatima, near Lisbon, Portugal, and that it was a fulfillment of Revelation 12 and sign of the End of the world. – The Day and the Hour “4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #65 @Circa 1918 AD
When World War One ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 (November 11, 1918) some believed that the world had entered its ‘eleventh hour’ and that the ‘midnight hour’ when Christ returns was not far off.’ – Gumerlock, The Day and Hour “4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #66 @Circa 1918 AD
1918 Spanish Influenza @ Pandemic Death Rate Curve – “The curve of influenza deaths by age has, historically, for at least 150 years, been U-shaped, with death peaks in the very young and the very old, with a comparatively low number of deaths at all ages in between.
In contrast, age-specific death rates in the Spanish flu pandemic showed a distinct pattern that has not been documented before or since: a “W-shaped” curve, similar to the familiar U-shaped curve, but with the addition of a third (middle) distinct peak of deaths in young adults who were between 20 and 40 years of age. Influenza and pneumonia death rates for those 15 to 34 years of age in 1918–1919, for example, were 20 times higher than in previous years. Overall, nearly half of influenza-related deaths in the 1918 pandemic were in young adults who were 20 to 40 years of age, a phenomenon unique to that year of pandemic. The Spanish flu pandemic is also unique among influenza pandemics in that absolute risk of influenza death was higher in those who were younger than 65 years of age than in those who were greater than 65 years of age. People younger than 65 accounted for
99% of excess influenza-related deaths in 1918–1919.”
– Influenza Webpage
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #67 @Circa 1939 AD
Some believed that the non-aggression pact signed between Hitler and Stalin in 1939 was a sign of the End, because Germany, they believed, was combining with Russia, the End-time Gog and Magog. The Day and Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #68 @Circa 1943 AD
Whereas, Herbert W. Armstrong, earlier in his ministry seemed to share the conventional wisdom that Benito Mussolini was the Beast of Revelation, by 1943 definitely he thought Adolf Hitler the Antichrist. From Church Tract,
‘Hitler himself is spelled out in the puzzle given in Revelation 13: 18. This puzzle when worked out, will indicate a certain man. We have only three numerals, 666, but through them we find the man’s name. We must numeralize the alphabet …Hitler is 666!’
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #69 @Circa 1943 AD
Gerald Winrod’s WW2 booklet blending prophecy & patriotism:
“There are several plain references to America in prophetic scripture. The passage now awaiting consideration only (is of) seven verses – Isaiah, chapter eighteen. It deals with the origin, history, and destiny of the United States. …America’s greatest hour of service is still yet future. Be worthy, O land of overshadowing, out-stretched wings, of thy destiny!’ (1943)
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #70 @Circa 1947 AD
George T. B. Davis believed that when the United Nations decided to partition Palestine in November 1947, that biblical End-time prophecies concerning Israel were being fulfilled. – F. Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour
SIXTEENTH
|
Feudal Peasant’s Revolt |
SIXTEENTH
|
Islam @Gates of Vienna |
SIXTEENTH
|
Spain Versus England |
SEVENTEENTH
|
The English Civil War |
EIGHTEENTH
|
The French Revolution |
NINETEENTH
|
U.S.A/C.S.A. Civil War |
TWENTIETH
|
World War One & Two |
TWENTIETH
|
Desert Storm/Gulf War |
Gog & Magog – “History shows that when the headlines reflect a change in the political climate, many of the interpretations of the prophetic parts of the Bible change with them. Repeated failure of the interpretive history of Ezekiel 38 and 39 over the centuries is prime evidence that modern-day prophecy writers are not “profiling the future through the lens of Scripture” but through the ever-changing headlines of today’s news. This is why revised prophecy books continue to be published.”
Searching for Jets Fighters in an Ancient World
“A lot has to be read into the Bible in order to make Ezekiel 38 and Ezekiel 39 fit modern-day military realities including technologically advanced jet fighters, “missiles,” & “atomic and explosive” weaponry. Those who claim to interpret the Bible literally have a problem on their hands. For example, if Tim LaHaye is true to his adoption of a “plain and common sense” literalism, then the Russian attack he and Jerry Jenkins describe in the first volume of their Left Behind series should be a literal representation of the actual battle events as they are depicted in Ezekiel with one-to-one correspondence between Ezekiel’s description of the battle & modern-day weaponry. God didn’t choose (such 1-to-1 correspondence) because He didn’t have a distant future battle in view. God described a battle fought with ancient weapons because He had an ancient battle in view, one that would take place in a future not too far removed from the time He revealed the prophetic future to Ezekiel. Using futuristic terms and descriptions of mechanized weapons unfamiliar to the readers of Ezekiel’s day would’ve left no doubt the prophecy wasn’t for them.” – The Literal Interpretation of the Bible
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #71 @Circa 1952 AD
Father Theophilus Reisinger wrote in 1940 that both a vision of Christ to a mystic & evil spirits during exorcisms, testified that the Antichrist would appear in 1952. ‘At the age of 33 years, he will begin his persecution against the Church and this will fall into the year 1952 and his end will come in the year 1955.’ – The Day and the Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #72 @Circa 1954 AD
Pat Robertson suggested that the Antichrist was born about 1954. In 1980, he wrote in an issue of his Perspective newsletter, ‘And if the Antichrist is yet to come, then we must conclude that there is a man alive today, approximately 27 years old, who is being groomed to be the Satanic Messiah.’ – The Day and the Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #73 @Circa 1958 AD
In 1958, faith healer Oral Roberts likened himself to John the Baptist, and said that he was called to prepare the way for the Second Coming of Christ. Roberts wrote:
‘This is the first preliminary, the returning of the Jews. An unseen force is pulling them back to their ancestral home. In all the nations of the earth thousands of Jews feel the strange urge to go back… The third preliminary is a world-wide revival. John the Baptist is preaching again! Have you heard John preach lately? I have. You are hearing one now.’
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #74 @Circa 1960 AD
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Korean founder of the Unification Church (Moonies) in 1954, believes that he is the ‘Lord of the Second Advent’ and the angel in Revelation 7: 2 -4 ‘ascending from the rising of the sun (Korea, in Moon’s interpretation).’ When Moon married Han Hak in 1960, his followers considered it the Marriage of the Lamb.
“A peasant’s son, Sun Myung Moon was born in in 1920 in what is now North Korea. When he was sixteen he claims to have met Jesus on a hillside and was chosen as his successor. “The self-proclaimed messiah claimed Jesus had chosen him to complete his mission by arranging for complete strangers from different countries to marry and create “pure” families. But the world was to learn that this message of peace was all a front for a sinister cult, accused of exploiting vulnerable youngsters, brainwashing followers and fleecing them. And while megalomaniac Moon was befriending North Korean leaders and US presidents, he was also building a billion-dollar business empire that included newspapers, TV stations and an arms factory.” – Dark Side of the Moon
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #75 @Circa 1962 AD
A summary of the Cuban Missile Crisis would be that there was a 13-day worrisome military and political standoff in October of 1962 due to the nuclear-armed missiles in Cuba, which ended when the United States allowed the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, to remove the missiles as long as the U.S. did not invade Cuba.
Nuclear War was feared & the Churches were full!
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #76 @Circa 1963 AD
Some people believed that American President John F.
Kennedy was the Antichrist. When he was assassinated in 1963, some were fully convinced from Revelation 13: 3 that Kennedy would recover from his fatal wound and arise from his casket. – Jesus, Prophecy, and the Middle East “4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #77 @Circa 1967 AD
Jim Jones, of Jonestown infamy predicted the End of the World for July 15, 1967. Convinced of this, he led about one hundred followers to a nuclear safety zone in Ukiah, California. Preoccupied with the threat of a nuclear holocaust, Jones’ followers continued into the 1970’s to study maps and locate spots on the globe which would be safe when the nuclear holocaust came. They were told by Jones that a cave, stockpiled with food & money, had been prepared for their group. In the holocaust, the rest of the world would perish, and their group would be the survivors, Jones also taught that he was the Second Coming of Christ. – Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #78 @Circa 1968 AD
In 1968, the close approach of the asteroid Icarus with the Planet Earth sparked apocalyptic panic in Americans.
Believing that when the asteroid would hit
the earth – California would sink into the Pacific Ocean,
some Californians moved to the mountains of Colorado to be on higher ground.
Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #79 @Circa 1974 AD
The End-time Beast, a self-programmed three -story computer which would number every human on earth, was allegedly revealed in
- One tract warned, ‘A crisis meeting in
early 1974 brought together Common Market Leaders, advisors and scientists at which time Doctor Eldeman
unveiled The Beast. It is a gigantic three-story computer with the potential of NUMBERING EVERY HUMAN ON EARTH. Each world citizen would have his number invisibly tattooed by laser beam on the forehead or the back of the hand.’ The tract went on to warn that the Mark of the Beast, a computerized tattoo, would be issued to every world citizen within 5 to 10 years. This three-story computer Beast was supposedly located in Brussels, but investigators, seeking to verify the claim over the past twenty-five years, still have not found it.
LATEST ITERATION: MARK WILL BE AN EMBEDDED CHIP –
The “bio-chip” measures 7mm of length and .075mm wide, as large as a grain of rice. It
contains a transponder and a
rechargeable Lithium battery.
The battery is recharged by a thermocouple circuit that produces an electrical
current with the fluctuation of body temperature.
80 @Circa 1975 AD Jehovah’s Witnesses proclaimed 1975 as the date of the End. In August 1968 their issue of Watchtower magazine said, ‘The Battle of Armageddon will be finished by the autumn of 1975.’ – Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour
I remember researching a required college paper on this subject during 1974. I remember because Watchtower Headquarters sent a representative to our family home to answer my inquiries. After he had answered my list of questions, my father enjoyed an unexpected opportunity to ‘debate’ my factually and biblically challenged guest. I especially remember being spot on with this paper that nothing remote of fulfilled prophecy would happen 1975.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #81 @Circa 1978 AD
To escape the tribulation coming upon the United States, Jim Jones, leader of the People’s Temple of the Disciples of Christ headquartered in San Francisco, California built a Guyana, South America community called Jonestown. The members were cut off from contact with their North American friends and relatives. Jones had his followers convinced that the U.S. was in political and social chaos, and there was drought in California so severe that Los
Angeles had been deserted. Reader, you know the rest.
82 @Circa 1979 AD
In 1979…they proposed to film the Second Coming!
Examining scripture, [Pat] Robertson had decided that recent actions by Israel had indicated that this event was imminent, and his staff was so convinced of that idea that they decided to record it on videotape. It was decided to call this top-secret idea ‘God’s Special Project’ (GSP), and the staff began planning for the ultimate TV show. In Salvation for Sale, Gerry Straub admits that even he took the plan seriously for a while: “The greatest show on earth was in our hands. I wondered where we would put the cameras. Jerusalem was the obvious place. We even discussed how Jesus’ audience might be too bright for the cameras and how we would have to make adjustments for that problem. Can you imagine telling Jesus, ‘Hey, Lord, please tone down your luminosity: we’re having a problem with the contrast. You’re causing the picture to glare…’ The concept of pulling together a project in which every person could witness the Second Coming of Jesus on his or her television – and in his or her own language – boggled my mind…” – The Great James Randi Book Faith Healers
* I remember a similar claim at that time that was circulating with pictures of a “supposed” rebuilding of the 3rd Temple. During that period of my work life I was a lab technician stationed at the Product Control Laboratory of the Port Arthur, Texas Texaco Refinery. Seeking an answer to this assertion, a curious co-worker & Brother-in-Christ called the Israeli Embassy who stated laughingly that the construction pictured being completed was merely an office building.
83 @Circa 1979 AD
C.S. Lovett, in 1979, wrote that the Universal Product Code may be a forerunner of the End Event saying,
‘You can find this universal product code on most products sold in stores… Applied to products, this harmless looking code may be a forerunner of the End time. The Bible predicts a will be time coming soon when a great world leader called Antichrist will require every person in the world to have a number in order to buy or sell (Revelation 13: 16 – 18). Even now, plans are being made in Europe to assign such numbers to us all.’
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #84 @Circa 1980 AD
Faith Healer Oral Roberts claimed that Jesus returned May 25, 1980 for a private meeting with him. However, Jesus had grown considerably since His heavenly ascension; Roberts said that Jesus Christ is now nine hundred feet tall.
NOTE: REVISIT ROTTEN EGG NUMBER THREE
Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #85 @Circa 1981 AD
“Politics and the Gog and Magog Alliance were topics of discussion in the 1970s when the Cold War was hot. The Russian Bear was showing its teeth, and there was an attempt to explain its aggression in prophetic terms. At a 1971 banquet for California state senator James Mills, then-Governor Ronald Reagan (1911– 2004) followed a similar prophetic script. Guided by popular prophecy books of the day, most likely Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth (1970) that included a chapter with the title ‘Russia is a Gog,’ Reagan said: ‘In the 38th chapter of Ezekiel, it says that the land of Israel will come under attack by the armies of the ungodly nations, and it says that Libya will be among them. Do you understand the significance of that? Libya has now gone Communist, and that’s a sign that the day of Armageddon isn’t far off. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is north of Israel? None. But it didn’t seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly…. For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of
Armageddon & the 2nd Coming of Christ. It can’t be too long. Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God’s people. That must mean that they will be destroyed by nuclear weapons.’” – The Literal Interpretation of the Bible {81’ Yr. Sadat & Reagan Shot}
When American President Ronald Reagan was shot, many End-time speculators suspected that he was the Antichrist because Revelation 13: 3 speaks of a Beast recovering from a fatal wound. Also, the names, Ronald Wilson Reagan, each have six letters in them, which are corresponding to the number of the Beast, 666. (source)
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #86 @Circa 1982 AD
Many people believed that the World’s End would coincide with the alignment of the planets, called the Jupiter Effect, set to occur in 1982.
Emphasis on details of prophecy…had led some people to pursue…an unhealthy fascination with the details of
apocalyptic Scriptures and speculation on current events.
Such unbridled curiosity has been deemed escapist, potentially fatalistic, and even pathological.
Richard Reiter, 1984
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #87 @Circa 1984 AD
In 1984, Noah Hutchings suggested that Pope John Paul II might be the Antichrist. Revelation 13 mentions a Beast recovering from a seemingly fatal wound, and Pope Paul II had recovered from an assassination attempt. (source)
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #88 @Circa 1986 AD
Some thought that the move to a nine-digit zip code system in the United States in the year 1986 was in preparation for the global system of the Antichrist.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #89 @Circa 1986 ADSome believed that the Chernobyl nuclear accident inRussia in that year was the fulfillment of the soundingof one of the trumpets in the Book of Revelation…
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #90 @Circa 1986 AD
Some set the Pre-Millennial Rapture for 1986 and some again thought that the return appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1986 was a sign of the End time.
Whereas the Scripture clearly says that no man can know the day or hour of the Lord’s coming, thus indicating that date setting serves no good purpose, And whereas date setting has historically always proven to be false prophecy which is damaging to the cause of Christ… Therefore we, the undersigned hereby demand that all date setting and date suggesting cease immediately. Let abstinence from this type of speculation prevail until the Lord comes. We absolutely must stop this type of activity or there will be few who will take the message of prophecy seriously…
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #91 @Circa 1989 AD
When Saddam Hussein recreated the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in 1989, some thought he was fulfilling biblical Endtime prophecy. In 1991, Charles Dyer’s book, The Rise of Babylon, expressed similar sentiments. From book cover ad:
‘BABYLON: Prelude to Armageddon? The Bible says that ancient Babylon-the mightiest and wickedest city of the ancient world – will be rebuilt before the world’s final battle in Armageddon. Conclusive evidence and startling photographs show that Saddam Hussein is rebuilding Babylon to the exact specifications and splendor it had in the days of Nebuchadnezzar!’ – Gumerlock, Day & Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #92 @Circa 1990 AD
In 1990, J. R. Church identified Mikhail Gorbachev as candidate for the biblical End-time Gog. He wrote. ‘It is not possible to say if Mr. Gorbachev is Gog, but according to the Russian language that predates the Bolshevik Revolution, Mr. Gorbachev’s family name is spelled ‘Gogr’ instead of ‘Gor.’ – The Day and the Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #93 @Circa 1991 AD
In 1991, Robert Faid named Gorbachev as an Antichrist suspect in his book, Gorbachev, Has the Real Antichrist Come? ‘We’ve seen that Mr. Gorbachev’s name is a function of the number 666 when we use values for the letters in both the Cyrillic and Hebrew alphabets after the name is transliterated into these languages.’ Faid believes that when Mr. Gorbachev visited the Vatican in 1989, that it may have been a scripture fulfillment of 2nd Thessalonians 2:4, “…so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God…’ Faid also believes that the Mark of the Beast may be the Red Star, the universal symbol of communism; and that in 1990 when Turkey diverted the water of the Euphrates River, that Revelation 16: 12 may have been fulfilled. – Day and Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #94 @Circa 1991 AD
In 1991, some people believe that the AIDS epidemic was a sign of the End of the world. David Jeremiah proclaimed, ‘I believe AIDS could be the pestilence described in the Olivet Discourse.’
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #95 @Circa 1991 AD
In 1991, some believed that the Desert Shield/Desert
Storm crisis in the Persian Gulf was the beginning of the
End. R. L. Meyers, for example, said that the Gulf crisis
‘may very well be what unites the West under one man that the Bible calls the Antichrist.’ – The Day and the Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #96 @Circa 1992 AD
USA Today ran a full-page advertisement on October 20,
1991, which said, ‘Rapture. October 28, 1992, Jesus is
Coming in the Air.’ – Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #97 @Circa 1993 AD
David Koresh believed that he was one of the angels in the Book of Revelation and that it was given to him to open the seven seals of the Book. Koresh saw in a vision that the Battle of Armageddon would be fought on the plains of Texas. It would begin when he and his followers were attacked by the United States government. The Branch Davidians interpreted their sect’s confrontation with authorities February 28, 1993 as a fulfillment of the opening of the fourth seal in the Book of Revelation. When six members of the sect were killed by gunfire, the Davidians believed that they were the souls ‘slain for the word of God’ fulfilling Revelation 6: 9. The Davidians believed that, in accordance with the Bible, they would meet their end by fire. – F. X. Gumerlock, The Day and the Hour
The Rise of Vernon Howell (a.k.a. David Koresh)
Vernon Howell (hereafter referred to as David Koresh) arrived at the Branch Davidian compound in 1981 after being disfellowshipped from a Tyler, Texas Seventh-day Adventist church. Although well received by nearly everyone at the Davidian commune, Koresh did not get along with George Roden, some saying that conflict between the two started as early as 1983 (the year Koresh first claimed to be inspired of God). The Davidian commune soon began to experience internal strife due to the rivalry between Koresh and Roden. Then Koresh suddenly left the commune and settled in Palestine, Texas, where he was joined in 1985 by Branch Davidians who had been run off of the Branch Davidian compound at gunpoint by Roden. Koresh and his followers remained in Palestine for nearly 2 years, living in scarcely more than cardboard and plywood shacks until late 1987 when the conflict between Koresh and Roden culminated in a gunfight.
The heavily publicized shoot-out occurred when Koresh and several armed men made a night raid on the compound where Roden was still living. Koresh and seven of his followers were subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder because Roden claimed that Koresh and the others were trying to kill him. Koresh maintained that he and the other men were there only to take a photograph of a body that Roden illegally exhumed. Roden had apparently challenged Koresh to resurrect the body, stating that whoever could resurrect it would be the prophet of the group. The bizarre trial that resulted from this incident ended with Koresh and his cohorts walking from the courtroom as free men. Roden, on the other hand, was given a sixmonth jail term for filing a legal brief in which he threatened to call AIDS upon the justices of the Texas State Supreme Court. When Roden began serving his sentence in January of 1988,
Koresh and his disciples were handed a long-awaited opportunity to take over the Branch Davidian compound, the site of their bloody 1993 clash with the law.
The Branch Davidians- Doctrinal Beliefs
The teachings of David Koresh caused the beliefs of the Branch Davidian cult to withdraw even further from the realm of orthodoxy. The following doctrines came from Koresh: 1 — The King James Version (KJV) is the only true and uncorrupted translation of the Bible. 2 — Koresh is the only one who can interpret Scripture. 3 — Koresh is the antitypical David. 4 — Koresh is the antitypical Cyrus (Koresh is Hebrew for Cyrus) of Isaiah 45, and so everything Koresh does is led by God (based on the KJV rendering of Is. 45:13). 5 — David Koresh is the Lamb of Revelation 6. 6 — All females in the commune belong to Koresh, including all married women (this was a
1989 revelation). Some of his “wives” have been as young as 12 years old. 7 — Koresh is Jesus Christ. 8 – Even the very nature of the godhead has been perverted by Koresh in a most unusual way. According to Koresh, God is not a triune being (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), but is a foursome (Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter). The Mother of the godhead is the Holy Spirit. The Daughter of the godhead is the Holy Ghost (KJV) who will be incarnated as Koresh’s eternal perfect mate when he is glorified (she will come out of his side like Eve came out of Adam).
Given the above facts, Koresh’s Branch Davidian group easily fits the theological definition of a cult. It also fits the sociological definition, given the stories told by ex-members who claim to have seen the classic marks of a cult from a sociological perspective. – Christian Research Inst.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #98 @Circa 1993 AD
Some including Hal Lindsey, believed that the 1993 Middle East Peace Accord had prophetic End-time significance. Televangelist Benny Hinn believed that it was a sign of the nearness of the End, and assured people that Christ would return before they would be able to purchase cemetery plots.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #99 @Circa 1994 AD
Harold Camping, in his book entitled 1994?, calculated that 1994 was the most likely date for the End, saying ‘We see 1994 looks more and more like a candidate for the year of Christ’s return,’ and ‘When is Judgment Day? We have already seen that 1994 is the probable year.’
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #100 @Circa 1995 AD
John Hagee believed that the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzahak Rabin in 1995 was significant in God’s plan for the Last Days.
In 1995, Bob Fraley wrote a book entitled The Beast of
Revelation 13. In it, he concluded that the United States Government has become the beast-superpower of Revelation Chapter 13.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #101 @Circa 1996 AD
In 1996, Communist presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov in Russia named Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev as the two Beasts from Revelation 13. Zyuganov said in a Moscow stadium, ‘Let us recall what was predicted in the Apocalypse. The devil sent two Beasts from hell, one with a Mark on his head, and the other, the Antichrist, puts a Mark on people’s hands.’
Gorbachev has a purple birth-mark on his forehead and Yeltsin is missing two fingers from a childhood accident.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #102 @Circa 1997 AD
In 1997, some believed the European Economic Community was fulfilling an End-time prophecy for revised Roman Empire made up of Ten Horns, or ten European nations.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #103 @Circa 1997 AD
On March 26, 1997, the bodies of thirty-nine members of the
UFO sect called Heaven’s Gate, were found in a Southern California mansion. They believed that by committing suicide they would shed themselves of their physical bodies and avoid the imminent End of the world by boarding a long-awaited in the tail of the Hale–Bopp comet. The leaders of the sect,
Marshall and Bonnie Lou Applegate, also known as Bo and
Peep, believed they were the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11.
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #104 @Circa 1998 AD
Edgar Cayce and his student, Kirk Nelson, predicted the Second Coming for 1998. Nelson wrote, ‘At the end of the Tribulation the sun will be darkened as an omen of the beginning of the New Age. This will occur in 1998. Then Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives, and the
Millennium will begin.’ – Gumerlock, The Day and Hour
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #105 @Circa 1999 AD
Many people believe that Nostradamus, a sixteenthcentury Frenchman, predicted the beginning of the End for July 1999, from the saying, ‘In the year 1999 & seven months, from heaven will come the great King of terror.’
“4-Horseless Horizons” Rotten Egg #106 @Circa 1999 AD
In January 1999, fourteen members of a Denver-based apocalyptic group, Concerned Christians, were arrested in Jerusalem and deported. Their leader allegedly had planned to ‘carry out violent and extreme acts in the streets of Jerusalem at the end of 1999.’ (source)
*********************************************
In What Will Become of Us? (The Int’l Crisis Mgmt.
Center, 1998, pp. 111-116), Julian Gregori declares:
I predict…every developed nation will fall into a seven-to-eight-year economic collapse. Serious Y2K computer ambushes will begin surprising Americans in mid-1999…a drastic correction in the stock market (by the end of September, 1999), and the closing of some banks. The closing of some nuclear power plants in October the end of American lifestyles as we know them. I predict failures of electrical power. Most Y2K victims will be refugees attempting to flee anarchical conditions in cities. By April 2000, at least seven out of every ten Americans will lose their jobs or their present level of income. …martial law may be imposed in late 1999….
3rd MILLENNIUM THEOLOGASTERS PROGNOSTICATIONS “God Still Longsuffering” Rotten Egg #107 @Circa 2000
The Y2K Panic. “At least during this apocalyptic scare, there was someone to blame: Over the decades, computer programmers had used two, rather than four digits, to represent years. As such, computers would allegedly go haywire on January 1, 2000, since the dumb machines would not be able to make sense of the year “00”— and thus the dreaded “Y2K Bug” was born. Some pundits defended the programmers, noting that their actions had been a logical way to conserve precious computer memory and save money. Others were less flattering. “What led to the Y2K Bug was not arrogant indifference to the future,” wrote Brian Haynes in The Sciences Magazine. “On the contrary, it was an excess of modesty. (‘No way my code will still be running 30 years out.’) The programmers could not envision that their hurried hacks and kludges would become the next generation’s ‘legacy systems.’” A September 1999 poll conducted by the Wall St. Journal found that nine percent of Americans believed Microsoft was hiding the solution to the problem. The Independent newspaper warned of possible “nuclear war,” caused by glitches in early-warning systems; the Int’l Monetary Fund predicted economic chaos in developing nations; Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan worried that panic over the Bug would prompt U.S. businesses to stockpile goods, leading to widespread shortages, and CNN reported that the U.S. milk supply would dry up because dairy farm equipment might malfunction. Still, panic over the Y2K Bug never quite reached the fever pitch that many anticipated. A Gallup Poll reported that by mid-December 1999, only 3 percent of Americans anticipated “major problems,” compared with 34 percent the year before. Billions of dollars were spent worldwide to fix the Y2K Bug, and debate still rages over how much of that spending was necessary.” – 10 Notable Apocalypses that (Obviously) Didn’t Happen
“God Still Longsuffering” Rotten Egg #108 @ 09/11/01
“God Still Longsuffering” Rotten Egg #109 @Circa 2008
A Man-Made Black Hole? Ever since the early 1990s, the media has reported that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could potentially create a black hole that would swallow the Earth. The LHC—which was switched on in September 2008—is 17 miles in circumference and buried 570 feet beneath the Alps on the Swiss-French border. The collider has the capacity to smash together proton beams at velocities up to 99.99 percent of the speed of light. In doing so, it can simulate the conditions and energies that existed shortly after the start of the Big Bang— thereby providing insights into critical questions as to how our universe was formed. Still, some skeptics worry that the high-energy collision of protons could create micro black holes. One reason this doomsday rumor persists is that quantum physicists have a tendency never to say never. As long as certain physical laws are obeyed, potential events are placed in the rather broad category of “non-zero” probability. Or, as Amherst physicist Kannan Jagannathan explains: “If something is not forbidden, it is compulsory… In an infinite universe, even things of low probability must occur (actually infinitely often).” However, by that same standard, Jagannathan adds, quantum physics dictates that it is theoretically possible to turn on your kitchen faucet and have a dragon pop out. And that explains why physicists (with the possible exception of those who are dragon-phobic) are not terribly worried. “The world is constantly bombarded by energetic cosmic rays from the depths of space, some of them inducing particle collisions thousands of times more powerful than those that will be produced by the LHC,” says Stéphane Coutu, a professor of physics at {Penn State. “If these collisions could create black holes, it would have happened by now.” Meanwhile, technical difficulties prompted the LHC to be shut down after just nine days. – Ten Notable Apocalypses that Didn’t Happen * There were & are unsubstantiated charges of Satanist interest in this project.
“God Still Longsuffering” Rotten Egg #110 @Circa 2011
“Harold Camping’s false prophecy from earlier this year caused hundreds of Hmong people to be slaughtered. Below is a new report from Jacob Prasch in the actual region describing how it happened: FALSE PROPHECY Causes HUNDREDS KILLED – by Jacob Prasch. ‘As most of you are aware I am at this moment in North Vietnam helping the much persecuted Hmong people of the tribal mountain areas. After listening to a translation of Camping’s prediction 7,000 of these people (known in The West as Montagnards) gathered on a mountain praising God – their suffering at the hands of the Communist regime was supposedly about to end because Jesus was returning that day in May to establish a new kingdom. The police & military police slaughtered many of them at gunpoint – beheading two pastors. Others were arrested. I am told by Hmong pastors that so many were shot dead that they were buried in mass graves bulldozed over in an episode that I read about in Britain but did not understand the magnitude of until I got here. I am now trying to clean up the mess at the request of local Hmong leaders. I spoke to a secret convocation of Hmong pastors only yesterday who came to Hanoi, explaining to them about false prophets and false teachers. Due to a combination of poverty, ignorance, and persecution these poor Christians don’t understand much so they believed Camping’s shortwave broadcast which is how most get their teaching in a certain village area with heavy persecution. Their families don’t know if their missing loved ones are among the many shot dead, among those arrested and imprisoned, or among those from the 7,000 hiding in the jungle. I am not the nicest guy in the world let alone the best Christian and I can’t pretend to be. But anyone who had to deal with the confusion and devastation I am dealing with now due to Harold Camping would also blow their top. These people already suffering for their faith in Jesus had it bad enough. They are not like the undiscerning whackos in The West who should have known Camping was a crackpot and a proven false prophet & false teacher. This is a persecuted church who just had no means to know any different. This is why I get angry at those who deceive the Body of Christ and why I warn so much about false teachers and false prophets. It may be an extreme case but these people, some of them children, were shot dead. Of course, we can blame Satan and the communists but their blood is on the hands of Harold Camping and his Family radio. Women without husbands, children without parents, husbands without wives – thank you Family Radio; thank you Harold Camping. Frankly, this has been a rough week for me. One of the worst I ever had. I am up to my eyeballs in muck trying to explain to tribal pastors how to explain to their people why their families were massacred needlessly and trying to advise them how to protect their flocks from such wolves in the future. The anguish of the Hmong folk took my concentration off of my own problems… because their problems are much greater after what they refer to as the mountain massacre due to Harold Camping. Please pray for these people and the work of Moriel Asia branch here among the Hmong. We are trying to get 5,000 outlawed Hmong Bibles printed or smuggled in via Laos. Where does it end? These people are suffering terribly while Camping is still in business in Oakland, California – as usual telling more lies… Come Lord Jesus;’ Jacob’s website: moriel.org ‘Rapture’ real aftermath: Beheadings, shootings, mass graves ‘Families don’t know if missing loved ones are dead, arrested or hiding in jungle’ By Bob Unruh, WND, July 13, 2011 When Camping’s expected rapture did not occur, International Business Times reported Lyn Benedetto of Antelope Valley, Calif., slit the wrist and throat of her two daughters and then slit her own, claiming to prevent them from going through the ‘Tribulation’ on May 21, 2011. A neighbor summoned an ambulance in time for them to be hospitalized. Upon hearing the story, Camping said, ‘Murdering is terrible. It is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. That would have been a horrible thing if she has done that. That will make me weep. That will fill me with sorrow that she would do that. The
Bible teaches that we are to save life, not kill. If it is going to be death, leave it to God. God knows who He wants to kill and make alive. That is His business, not our business.’ Asked if he would take responsibility for such incidents, Camping said no. ‘I don’t have any responsibility. I can’t be responsible for anybody’s lives,’ he explained. ‘I am only teaching the Bible. I am not teaching what I believe, as if I am the authority. I am just simply teaching what the Bible says. And I do not have spiritual rule over anybody.’ Harold Camping is not able to respond to this shocking news since he is now recovering from a stroke he suffered on June 9, 2011. Craig Hulsebos and the rest of the staff at Family Radio have refused to rebuke Harold Camping for his false predictions and have gone along with him in order to keep their jobs, completely disregarding the damage his false predictions have caused around the world. Jesus did return on May 21, 2011 for the thousands of Hmong Christians who died at the hands of ruthless communists but the blood of these martyrs is not only on the communist soldiers & their superiors but also Harold Camping and staff at Family Radio. Harold Camping is no different than Jim Jones & the mass murder at Jonestown in 1978.” – Int’l Business Times
The pride of a false prophet
“By now anyone that watches any amount of TV has heard of Camping’s failed end of the world prediction. After the obvious did not happen, it did not stop Camping from continuing on his spiral downward. This man is so deluded he makes the Jehovah Witnesses look nearly sane, even though they have 10 times more false dates. Camping says his date ‘worked out as accurately as I could have.’ That’s the problem; it wasn’t of God but his own fallen reasoning; an estimation by mathematics from a man that is 89 years old who can’t understand the Scripture any longer (if he ever did) and his speaking on this certainly lacks wisdom. Prov. 15:2 ‘The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.’ According to the Bible, Camping is in this category of men. Deut. 29:29: ‘The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.’ This is a principle that has been in use since the Old Testament. Not everything is revealed. Jesus explained the parables to his disciples because he intended for them to know, but there are those things that the Lord does not intend for us to know. God is constantly testing his church by men that contradict His Word to see if we will hold to what is already been revealed or seek a man’s new revelation. Often false prophets prophesy far into the future so they cannot be held accountable when it does not take place, Camping made the big mistake of prophesying by his mathematical calculation of the near future, as he had done in 1994. That’s two strikes out and the third is already planned – at his age I don’t think he will get more.
Two days after his failure, on May 23, 2011 Camping revised his ignorant claim saying he was off by five months – now the new and improved version is Oct. 21. Nice to know he’s consistent. Camping said, it dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a ‘spiritual’ Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ’s judgment, he said. The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God’s judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there’s no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on October 21, 2011. “We’ve always said May 21 was the day, but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” he said.
‘The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven … if God has saved them they’re going to be caught up.’ Yet he said that he wouldn’t give away all his possessions ahead of October 21st. ‘I still have to live in a house, I still have to drive a car,’ he said. ‘What would be the value of that? If it is Judgment Day why would I give it away?’ How anyone that believes the Bible can believe this kook is beyond me; it’s obvious he had reservations on his own calculations but cannot look himself in the mirror. Camping has solidified himself into the false prophet category, he refuses to repent and readjusts the date, is it any wonder the church is humiliated by the media, you can thank Camping! He’s a serial liar. a
This is far worse than other men who have said nonsense, such as Kenneth
Copeland in 2001 at grand opening of Art Sepulveda’s ‘Word of Life’ church in Honolulu saying a billion Muslims will be converted in a few months ‘But There are going to be multiplied millions upon millions there’s going to be close to a billion people that have been trapped in that religion, that over the next few months are going to to come into the kingdom of God.’ I had sat in the night session, so one year after Copeland said this I went to visit the church he had proclaimed it in to see what they had to say. I was unable to meet with the pastor but sat down with one of their ministers. I asked him what he thought about this since it did not happen. True to word faith teaching he said it still could happen. I pointed out it’s been a year and he said it was to take place in a few months so it cannot NEVER happen. At this point we entered a semantic jungle of what ‘could be’ and ‘if’ to which no logic could be applied. It is the same with the followers of Camping and people like him, they make an excuse because they follow man, not Jesus Christ; they follow opinions and not the truth.
‘We support free speech, but this is shouting Rapture! in a crowded theater,’ said John Keiser of Seattle Atheists. They certainly have a point. All the money Camping and his network have collected from his Judgment Day campaign should be returned with damages. Camping: ‘I don’t have any responsibility. I can’t be responsible for anybody’s lives. I am only teaching the Bible. I am not teaching what I believe, as if I am the authority. I am just simply teaching what the Bible says. And I don’t have spiritual rule over anybody.’ Camping would fit well as an elder in the Watchtower organization because that’s exactly what they did with prophesying Christ coming back and Armageddon so many times. His end time view has affected his whole view of the church. Camping has stated that the witness of the church is over, that God has destroyed it, and that believers should leave the church, not attend it.
‘If the Holy Spirit is no longer working in the church it means no one can become saved as the result of the preaching in that church. This is so, because God is no longer present to apply the Word to the hearts of the unsaved. Effectively the candlestick has been removed.’ So how can one be so off? Camping uses an allegorical method of interpretation and spiritualizing words. It is excused by his followers – but not by those who look more carefully as how he arrives at his conclusions. Most who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture do not try to predict dates, nor write books on the date. Harold Camping is more than a silly old man burning up with end time fever, his conscience is seared. The end is near for this unrepentant false prophet who destroys the testimony of the Saints. Sorry for the invectives, but what this man has done angers me more than most false teachers; it’s affected the worlds view on the church. Because the church has been overrun by false prophets, Camping is just another large bump on a road that will bring everyone face to face with the greatest false prophet of all.” – “Let Us Reason”
********************************************** “God Still Longsuffering” Rotten Egg #111 @Circa 2012
Complete Idiot’s Guide to 2012 by Synthia & Colin Andrews @ pages 121 – 132
SOLAR FLARE
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Nasa Reported 2012 To Be the Most Intense Solar Maximum Since 1958. |
POLE SWITCH
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This is a “Geomagnetic Reversal” or a Radical Change in the Orientation of the Earth’s Magnetic Field. |
FIELD CRACK
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Changes in the Earth’s Core Cause Crack in the Magnetosphere that
Forms the Solar Radiation Shield. |
YELLOWSTONE
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The Largest Super Volcano Hot Spot Ever Discovered is Yellowstone; It’s 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. |
PHOTON BELT
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Photon Belt is Posited to Represent a Dangerous Energy Frequency. We are Scheduled to Enter 12/22/2012. |
Gamma Wave
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Dr. Paul LaViolette Study Claims “Super Gamma Rays” are Emitting from the Milky Way Galaxy Center. |
ASTEROID HIT
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Our Solar System is Moving Through A Much More Densely Celestially Populated Area of the Galaxy. |
LUMINOSITY
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Sun’s Heliosphere Plasma Field in New Location Lights Up The Grid. |
“God Still Longsuffering” Rotten Egg #112 @Circa 2014
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Every generation with an eschatological consciousness has tended to see its age as the most sinful & corrupt in history.
There have been numerous ways to interpret Jesus’ words in Matthew 24. Some critics say Jesus was simply wrong and thus deem Him a false prophet. Others have tried to interpret the term generation to mean something other than a time frame of about forty years. Still others have made the case that Jesus was only speaking about the immediate future and not His second coming and the end of history as we know it. Others have pointed to a twofold approach to fulfillment, a primary fulfillment in the first century and an ultimate fulfillment at the end of history. This is often the case with prophecies from the Old Testament.
Verse 3 reads, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (v. 3b). We should exercise caution when considering the disciples’ question. What did they mean by “age”? Customarily, many say that “the end of the age” refers to Jesus’ return to consummate His kingdom here on earth. But could there be any other possible interpretations? Typically, when we say “end of an age,” we are referring to a particular era defined by certain characteristics, such as the Iron Age, the Bronze Age, or the Ice Age. Many believe this passage is making a distinction between the age of the Jews and the age of the Gentiles.
To explore the meaning of “the end of the age,” let’s consider Luke’s account of the Olivet Discourse, which gives us further information:
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. (Luke 21:20–24)
Jesus is giving a warning to His followers, telling them what to do when they see the armies surrounding Jerusalem. The advice He gives is completely counterintuitive to any usual response to an invading army or military siege. In the ancient world, in the case of an invasion, people would leave their homes and possessions and flee for refuge in a walled city. This is the very reason there were walls around cities in the ancient world. They were built as a defense against invaders.
When Jesus spoke these words, the walls of Jerusalem were one hundred and fifty feet high. When the Romans attacked Jerusalem in AD 70, they had to besiege the city, and even with their military might, they found it a Herculean task to get through those walls. The siege lasted many months, so long that by the end of the struggle, the Mount of Olives was completely bare of olive trees; Roman soldiers encamped on the mount had cut all the trees down and burned them for warmth. But Jesus said, “When you see the armies coming, don’t go to the city. Go to the mountains. Go to the desert. Go anywhere but Jerusalem, because in Jerusalem you will not find safety, but only destruction.”
When Jerusalem fell and the city was destroyed, more than a million Jews were killed. But the
Christians followed Jesus’ advice and fled beyond the city. Luke’s account says, “these are days of vengeance,” meaning God’s wrath was poured out upon His people. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, He was weeping for His people, who rejected Him and would suffer the punishment for this rejection.
We must not miss this portion of Luke 21: “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (v. 24). All of this happened. Jesus makes a distinction between the times of the Gentiles and the times of the Jews.
In the Olivet Discourse, when Jesus spoke about “the end of the age,” I am convinced that He wasn’t talking about the end of the world, but about the end of the Jewish age. When Jerusalem fell, the age of the Jews, which spanned from Abraham to AD 70, ended. It marked the beginning of the times of the Gentiles.
However, Jesus gives a few caveats as He answers His disciples’ question of when these things will take place. He didn’t want them to be deceived that the end had already come when it hadn’t, so He gave them a list of what we call “signs of the times.” These were signs that had to happen before the end would come. Most people believe Jesus was describing the signs that will come right before the final consummation of His kingdom. We then have a tendency to pay careful attention to current events, wondering if they show any evidence that we are in the end times. But if we look carefully at this passage, we learn that Jesus is not talking about the signs that trigger the end of time, but the signs that had to take place before the destruction of Jerusalem. Consider the passage more carefully:
For many will come in my name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. (Matt. 24:5–8)
Reflect upon these signs: people claiming to be the Christ, false prophets, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. How can these things be signs? When are there not wars and rumors of wars? When are there not earthquakes? When are there not famines? There have also always been false prophets and false Christs. If these things have always been with us, in what sense could they be signs?
In order for these things to be signs, they would have to happen in a significant way and in a significant time frame. This is the very meaning of the word significant: literally, “having signvalue.” The problem is further complicated if we assume that Jesus is not talking about signs that the disciples themselves would observe, but signs that were going to happen two thousand years in the future.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote much concerning these signs that Jesus mentioned. He wrote about the numerous false prophets among the Jews, many claiming to be the Messiah. He also reported four severe famines between AD 41 and 50 in which many people starved to death. He reports two very serious earthquakes, one during the reign of Caligula and the second during the reign of Claudius. Next came Nero, who ushered in a great persecution against Christians. Jesus alludes to this: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another” (Matt. 24:9–10).
Jesus speaks of His followers being persecuted, being killed, and betraying one another. This took place under Caligula and Nero as well. The great fire that destroyed Rome was allegedly set by Nero himself. But in order to deflect guilt, he accused the Christians of setting the fire, which ignited a time of great persecution. He even used Christians as human torches to illumine gardens, and in his madness unleashed horrible persecution against the Jews, particularly those who were in Rome. He killed many of the Christians’ leaders, including the Apostles Paul and Peter. Surely this fulfilled what Jesus told His disciples.
Jesus was proven right. Everything that He said would happen actually took place. And it happened in a significant way to the people to whom Jesus gave these warnings. He wasn’t giving His first-century disciples a warning about what was going to happen in the twenty-first century. He was saying, “Watch out for what’s happening between now and the time Jerusalem is destroyed.” But, He had a lot more to say, including the warning of the appearance of “the abomination of desolation.”
THE GREAT TRIBULATION
In the year 168 BC, the pagan ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes had the audacity to build a pagan altar in the Jewish temple. Instead of sacrificing bulls, goats, or lambs, he desecrated the temple by sacrificing a pig. This was the height of blasphemy, because the Jews viewed pigs as unclean. This foul desecration provoked one of the most important Jewish revolutions against foreign invaders.
We have to understand how important the holiness of God was and is for the Jewish people. The Jews believed that the temple was sacred and holy because the Holy One of Israel made His dwelling there. To them, this was the most sacred place in the world. To defile it with pagan sacrifices was the greatest insult that you could inflict upon Israel.
Faithful Jews saw in this atrocity the fulfillment of a prophecy found in the book of Daniel that refers to the “abomination of desolation” or the “abomination that makes desolate” (Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Jesus seizes upon this term as He continues in His Olivet Discourse:
So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, “Look, here is the Christ!” or “There he is!” do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, “Look, he is in the wilderness,” do not go out. If they say, “Look, he is in the inner rooms,” do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. (Matt. 24:15–28)
The reference to “the abomination of desolation” is mysterious, but it is critical; it is the supreme sign to indicate the nearness of the fulfillment of these prophecies. Antiochus’ idolatry was certainly abominable, but this event took place in the past, and Jesus is referring to something that will take place in the future. But what did Jesus have in view?
In AD 40, Emperor Caligula of Rome commanded that a statue of himself be built and placed inside the temple. You can imagine how this provoked the people of Israel. By the goodness of
God’s providence, Caligula died before that profanation took place.
In AD 69, one year before the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, something unprecedented took place. A sect of radical Jews called Zealots forcefully took over the temple and made it into a type of military base. The Zealots were a group of Jews who were passionate about the violent overthrow of their Roman occupiers. Once they took over the temple, they committed all kinds of atrocities within it, paying no respect to the holiness of God. The historian Josephus expressed his passionate denunciation of the horrible desecration that the Zealots committed against the temple. Was this what Jesus had in mind?
One other possible interpretation could be the presence of the Roman standards themselves. When the Roman armies marched, they carried their banners with the Roman standards emblazoned upon them. The Jews considered these images to be idolatrous. The presence of these standards in the temple would also have been considered an abomination.
While it’s difficult to be certain which particular incident Jesus had in view, what we do know is that during the siege of Jerusalem His people followed His instructions. Remember that Jesus said in verse 15, “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” This charge from Jesus would have been completely counterintuitive for His audience. When an invading army came, the normal procedure in the ancient world have been to flee to the nearest impregnable walled city they could find. Of course, in Judea, that would have been Jerusalem. But Jesus told His disciples, “When all these events happen, don’t go to Jerusalem. Go to the mountains. Run for the hills.” This is exactly what happened in AD 70. We know that around one million Jews were killed, but the Christians had fled.
Jesus continues His instructions: “Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath” (vv. 17–20). This is obviously a message of urgency. We know that the Jewish people had flat roofs on their houses with outside stairs that went up to them. They would use the roof as a type of patio, a place to relax in the evening as the weather cooled.
Jesus is saying to them, “Don’t waste any time. As soon as you’re aware of the presence of the abomination of desolation, leave quickly. Don’t pack any bags. If you are in the field, don’t return home to get any extra clothes. Whatever you’re wearing or whatever you have in your pack, take that and forget everything else.” The note of urgency sounds again in the following verses. Time was of the essence, and quite simply, it is hard to be quick and mobile when you are pregnant or nursing. Winter seasons are the most difficult for outdoor survival, and having these signs come to pass on the Sabbath would have been challenging for the Jew because of the prohibitions against traveling long distances. Jesus is telling His followers to pray that these things don’t happen at the wrong time so that nothing will impede their escape.
He continues in verses 21 and 22, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those
days will be cut short.”
Josephus records the fact that political upheaval in Rome indeed shortened the destructive siege, allowing for more survivors than normally would have been expected. Based on what we know of that time period, it seems clear that Jesus was talking about a near-future event for His original audience, not something centuries and centuries down the road.
Jesus then says in verses 23 and 24, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” There is a widely held view in the church that Satan is as powerful as God and is engaged in a duel of miracles with Him, performing miracles to support his lies. It is believed that these miracles could even deceive God’s people. I don’t believe for one second that Satan ever did or ever will have the ability to perform a bona fide miracle. The signs and wonders of the false Christs and prophets are not authentic signs and wonders in the service of a lie. Rather, they’re false signs and wonders. They’re tricks designed to deceive. Jesus continues in verses 26–28, “So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” When Jesus appears, this moment of catastrophic judgment will be like lightning. Lightning flashes and instantly goes across the sky.
You don’t even have time to measure its duration. How should we understand His last statement concerning corpses and vultures? One of the reasons predictive prophecy is so difficult to interpret is that symbolic imagery is challenging to understand. The safest way to interpret images in apocalyptic literature is to understand how those images are used throughout the whole Bible. This principle can help us, but doesn’t always solve every difficulty. While we can’t say with certainty what Jesus means by this last statement, some of the finest New Testament scholars have suggested one creative interpretation. Most people have seen how scavenger birds circle over an animal that has recently died. Interestingly, the chief symbol of the Roman army was an eagle. Perhaps Jesus is saying that Rome is like a bird of prey. God will be the agent of punishment upon His people, and right before His wrath is poured out, “the eagles” will be circling.
THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
It’s been said that the whole history of philosophy is nothing more than a footnote to the theories of Plato and Aristotle. When Plato established his academy in the outskirts of Athens, he was driven by a single passion in his quest for truth. According to Plato, that passion was to “save the phenomena.” What did he mean by that? He was looking for the objective truth that makes the study of science possible. We can only understand observable data (or phenomena) if we have a sure foundation to stand upon. Plato was looking for an ultimate theory that would give clarity to all the mysteries and puzzles of this world. He wanted to discover the ideas that would explain the data that come to us through our five senses.
The renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has announced that we don’t need God to explain the creation. His way of saving the phenomena is to affirm what he calls “spontaneous generation.” For him, this means that the universe created itself. But it is sheer nonsense to assert that something can create itself or can come into being by its own power.
What does all this have to do with the Olivet Discourse? Quite simply, in regard to the Olivet Discourse, I have been trying to save the phenomena. I am trying to construct a framework that will allow us to make sense of Jesus’ words.
To that end, let’s consider what Jesus says after explaining the signs that would come just before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple—“immediately after the tribulation of those days” (v. 29). Our section for this chapter could be most difficult section of the Olivet Discourse. Jesus says:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (Matt. 24:29–35)
Imagine being with Jesus right after hearing all that He said. It seems obvious that you’d want to ask, “When will these things take place?” He makes it clear that these things won’t happen until other specific events take place. He then uses the word “immediately” to recount what will happen next. Not two thousand years later, but immediately.
Our interpretive task becomes even more difficult in the following verses. We know from the facts of history that all the things that Jesus predicted about the destruction of Jerusalem came to pass. But what about verse 29, which says, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven”? You can imagine how the skeptics of the Bible would love to use this text. They could easily say, “O yes! The temple is gone. Jerusalem was destroyed. The Jews were dispersed throughout the world. But the sun is still shining, and the moon is still there at night, and this calamitous portrait of all of these astronomical perturbations that were going to accompany the coming of the Son of Man did not take place. Therefore, Christ’s prediction failed to come to pass.” It gets worse as we read what Jesus says in verses 33 and 34: “So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
There are many scholars for whom I have the utmost respect who come to very strange conclusions when dealing with this text. They try every way imaginable to remove this portion of Jesus’ prediction from the context in which we find it. But it seems clear that Jesus meant to discuss these things all as one unit. So, how should we understand this text?
There are various options. One is to invoke the principle of primary and secondary fulfillments of prophecy. When prophecies are made, they can have an initial fulfillment within a time frame of one generation and then have an ultimate fulfillment many years later. This is a true possibility. But even if that’s the case, we’re still left with the problem of explaining the description of the sun being blotted out and all the rest of these astronomical perturbations. There is no record of these things taking place.
Another approach is to consider the time frame. Phrases such as “this generation will not pass away” or words like “immediately” may be taken not literally, but figuratively. Many commentators prefer this approach. They believe the reference to “this generation” is a figurative reference to a certain type of person. It doesn’t actually refer to a rough time frame of forty years.
In addition, many would understand Jesus’ references to His return to be figurative as well.
It seems that a key question that should be asked is, How are time frame references usually described in the Bible? Are they usually described figuratively or literally? More practical still for this discussion, how are predictions of God’s cosmic judgment usually described? Literally or figuratively?
There is a helpful pattern in Old Testament prophecy demonstrated in chapters 13 and 34 of Isaiah. There, we read vivid descriptions of divine judgment upon Babylon and Eden that actually came to pass in history. When the prophets described God’s judgment, they said things like, “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light” (Isa. 13:10) and “All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree” (Isa. 34:4). Sounds very much like the language of Jesus, doesn’t it?
The language of divine judgment is frequently communicated by way of metaphor and figures. Amos 5:20 reads, “Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?” Throughout the Old Testament, there are various prophetic warnings to Israel concerning God’s judgment. The book of Ezekiel stands out as a primary example. Ezekiel contains some of the most bizarre portions of Scripture, such as the description in chapter 1 of the whirling merkabah, the wheel within the wheel. Many believe that this is a reference to the chariot throne of God that carries Him to various portions of the world to bring judgment. This kind of language was used between Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings 2:12: “And Elisha saw it and he cried, ‘My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ And he saw him no more.” When God removed His glory from Jerusalem in Ezekiel 10, the shekinah cloud was accompanied by the chariot of God’s judgment. In Matthew 24, the same kind of language is used by Jesus as He warns His people of what is to come.
Jesus says in verse 30, “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man.” I don’t know of any commentator on the gospel of Matthew who speaks with dogmatic certainty about the true nature of this sign. But there are some strange observations in the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus, regarding certain signs that were observed between AD 60 and 70, one of which was a blazing comet that crossed the sky. Consider one extraordinary passage from his writings. It seems so strange that Josephus gives the impression that he was reluctant to record this event.
Besides these [signs in the heavens], a few days after the feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon occurred or appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities.
Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, the priest said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence.”
So, the priests and multitudes of other people testified to the same chariots that surrounded the city also appearing in the clouds with multitudes of heavenly soldiers. We’d probably be justified in calling them angels. Then an audible voice was heard from heaven saying, “Let us remove hence.” It’s almost exactly the same phenomenon that took place when God left Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s time (Ezek. 10).
It seems to me that the most natural reading of Matthew 24:29–35 would be that everything Jesus said would happen has already taken place in history. He was not referring to a yet-future fulfillment from our standpoint. He was referring to a judgment upon the nation of Israel that took place in AD 70.
THE DAY AND THE HOUR
Imagine getting a call at four o’clock in the afternoon from a robber. He says to you, “In order to make things fair, I wanted to let you know that at eight o’clock tonight I’m going to break in to your house and rob you blind.” If you took him seriously, what would you do? You’d have the whole police department waiting for the robber, and you’d probably arm yourself to protect your family and possessions. Jesus makes a similar point as He continues in the Olivet Discourse.
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matt. 24:36–44)
The plot thickens as we arrive at this portion of the Olivet Discourse, and the difficulties in interpretation are not slowing down in the least. Jesus seems to be shifting His emphasis at this point in the text. Some commentators believe that until verse 35, Jesus had been simply speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem. But at this point in the text, He shifts His attention to matters concerning His ultimate coming at the time of the consummation of His kingdom. Others argue that even the previous passages that refer to His coming in glory did not refer to His coming in AD 70, but rather to His final, climactic coming at the end of history. Still others maintain that Jesus is following a prophetic pattern from the Old Testament.
Oftentimes with Old Testament prophecy there would be a near fulfillment, but also an ultimate fulfillment in the future. This particular passage has also been seen as a rebuttal to my position that these matters have already taken place in the past. It is important to remember that this whole discourse was provoked by Jesus’ announcement that the temple would be destroyed in Jerusalem. In light of this announcement, the disciples asked Him two questions. First, “When will these things take place?” and second, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
It would be much easier if Jesus had answered the first question with the signs that He gives— famines, earthquakes, and wars—and then finished by saying, “This generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (v. 34), and only then went on to speak about His coming. Unfortunately for the task of interpretation, He says, “all these things.” Most would believe that
“all these things” would refer to all three events—the destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, and Christ’s coming. This is the issue that has provoked so much skepticism and criticism of both Jesus and the trustworthiness of the Bible.
I’m amazed by this skepticism. My understanding of Jesus’ words is that He is essentially saying, “I can tell you these things are all going to take place within the next forty years but I don’t know what year, month, day, or hour.” In addition, many readers are bothered when Jesus says He doesn’t know the day or the hour. If that is the case, how could He know that it would be within forty years? It would require supernatural knowledge to be able to predict the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem with such astonishing accuracy. Why would His supernatural abilities be limited to generalities? Why can’t Jesus give us more specific details?
He goes on to describe the circumstances of His coming. He says in verse 37, “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” What do Noah and Jesus have in common here? God told Noah of the coming rain and commanded Noah to get to work building an ark. Can you imagine how his friends must have ridiculed him? But Noah just kept hammering away while the people kept laughing, giving no heed to the judgment that was coming. In the days of Noah, people would have been eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and it started to rain. All the scoffers found out soon enough that Noah knew exactly what he was doing.
Today, the whole world is filled with people who scoff like Noah’s critics. Our Lord warns that each of us will be called to account, but no one knows when this will take place. But we’re at ease, eating and drinking, and we make fun of those who warn of the judgment of God. Isn’t God a God of love, after all? As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of
Man. God’s judgment will fall when no one is looking for it or expecting it.
Jesus says in verses 43 and 44, “But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Many have tried to predict the hour for Jesus’ return, but every last one has been wrong. Jesus does not give us a calendar, but says, “Be ready. Watch.” In another place, He ends by asking, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). Jesus is referring to His final return. If He comes before I die, I want to make sure He finds faith in me. Whether He comes now or whether you go to Him at your death, there will be a reckoning and judgment that no human can escape. We need to be ready. We need to be prepared. We need to be vigilant.
THE FAITHFUL AND WICKED SERVANTS
The concept of doing one’s duty is an important theme as we continue to examine the Olivet Discourse. As He concludes the discourse, Jesus speaks of the faithful servant, who executes his duties well and in a timely fashion, and the wicked servant, who does not. Jesus has been warning His disciples to diligently to watch for His return. Let’s consider the rest of the chapter.
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, “My master is delayed,” and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:45–51)
The word that Jesus uses that is translated as “servant” is sometimes translated as “slave.” People have a negative reaction to that word, but the great irony of the New Testament teaching is that no one ever becomes truly free until they become a slave of Jesus Christ. All of us are slaves of one sort or another. We’re either slaves of Christ or slaves of sin. There’s no other option for humanity.
One of Paul’s favorite metaphors for the Christian’s status in Christ is, “You are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19). What does he mean by that? Paul’s point is that Christians can never consider themselves autonomous. He goes on to explain that we are not our own because we’ve been bought with a price (v. 20). Jesus paid the asking price of our salvation. Paul’s metaphor is vital to the Christian life. Jesus asks, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?” This is a question of fidelity. Who is a faithful servant? It’s a strange term to use regarding a servant who is under the complete ownership of another. But the simplest meaning of a faithful servant is one who is full of faith, who can be trusted, and who is consistent in allegiance to his owner.
Jesus goes on to say in verse 45, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?” The master went on a journey and called one of his servants to be the steward of the house while he is away. This master put his servant in charge of all of the affairs of the house. We notice that Jesus emphasizes that timeliness is important. Jesus spoke of the faithful servant who was responsible not only to provide the food, but also to provide it on time. He said that this servant would be blessed if the master found him doing his job when he returned. The good servant, the faithful and wise servant, is the one who does what his master calls him to do. Jesus says in verse 47, “Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.” The master will give the servant even more responsibility and esteem because he has been faithful in the things given to him. This echoes Jesus’ words in Luke 16:10 that he who wants to be given more responsibility in the kingdom must first be faithful in little things.
Jesus then describes the wicked servant in verses 48–51: “But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here the wicked servant is having an internal dialogue. He thinks, “My master’s gone. Who knows when he’s coming back? Who knows if he’s ever coming back? It’s time to party! My master is delayed and I can do what I want.”
You may not relate to the wicked servant entirely, but most of us have jobs and employers. How do you work when no one is looking? Are you on task? Are you committed to the responsibility that has been given to you? Or, when there is no supervisor to watch you, do you take advantage of the gap in oversight and do whatever you want?
Why is it that our behavior changes when no one is watching? Why do businesses have clocks where workers have to punch in every day? Why can’t we just expect people to come to work and leave when they’re supposed to? It’s because of sin. It’s because we have a tendency to behave in one way when we are being watched and act differently when we’re free of supervision. Consider the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32. Isn’t it interesting that the son took his father’s inheritance to a far-off country to squander it? He did this because nobody knew him in the foreign land. Nobody was watching. He could be free from all restraint.
The wicked servant is neither faithful nor wise. He is like the fool in Psalm 53:1 who says in his heart, “There is no God.” The most serious and fatal self-delusion of the wicked is their belief that God will not judge them. The Bible tells us that God is long-suffering and patient. The reason for this kindness and mercy is to give us time to repent and turn to Christ. But we should never assume that God’s gracious patience means that He won’t call us to account. Many are tempted to think this way. In this passage, Jesus is addressing those who assume that the Master will never return. They think this gives them license to do whatever they want. No supervision. No faithfulness. No trust. No wisdom.
The master of the servant will come on a day when the servant isn’t looking for him, and at an hour of which he is unaware. And the master will say to the faithful servant, “I left you with responsibility. I blessed you. I gave you an elevated status in my kingdom and increased responsibility.” But to the wicked slave there will be nothing but judgment and separation from the house of the master. The response of the wicked slave will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.[2]
Millennialism Impacts Secular Society. The societal impact of pre-millennialism has been the most pervasive and accepted uncritically – by being mainstreamed without much notice. For example, in his The New Republic article Seeds of Doubt, author John D. Judis recounts “In November 1953, after he had left the presidency, Harry Truman travelled to New York to be feted at the Jewish Theological Seminary. When his old friend Eddie Jacobson introduced him as ‘the man who helped create the state of Israel.’ Truman responded, ‘What do you mean helped to create?’ ‘I am Cyrus!’.” Such statements by presidents raised on the Scofield Study Bible and John Darby’s prophetic vision can cause one to question whether decisions of major foreign policy are being made solely on a calculus of this nation’s vested interests. Moreover, since the emergence of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and more recently Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition – most of our U.S. Presidents nurtured on millennial doctrine have committed to nuclear defense of the modern state of Israel – not entirely motivated according to our own national interest – instead determining by personal presupposition of prophecy whose future fulfillment is yet to come. For example, both Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan who followed him, committed to that same position during the 1980 presidential race.
Millennialism Impacts Religious Society.
Dispensational Preoccupation @Biased Perceptions: Preoccupation with the end of the world can lead to a biased perception of the real world. People so oriented see in history and in contemporary life only what fits their idea of what the end times will be. They see evidence of things increasingly worse, ignoring evidence of advancements in various areas of life. Those who see only one side of what’s going on in the world become a source of humor to those that see the big picture.
Dispensational Preoccupation @Fatalistic Attitude: Those who believe the Second Coming is immediate often adopt a fatalistic attitude and fall prey to a siege mentality. They say – ‘There’s nothing that can be done about the world’s problems… Don’t prepare for any future; just hunker down and wait.’ Instead of working to solve problems, they say ‘This is prophecy being fulfilled. The end is here; there’s no need to do anything.’ By sitting on their hands when they should be actively involved, they fulfill their own prophesies and assure a worse world for their children. (Internet Posting Source Unknown)
Millennialism Impacts Christian Watchfulness. The Olivet Discourse is easiest understood by observing that the Apostles were asking the typical ethno-centric question of the end of the world as they knew it (TEOTWAWKI) but truth be told – they were asking two questions – one of the destruction of the temple along with the city of Jerusalem – and the other as regards the end of the world. The fact that Christ gave His answer in two-part – the pivotal passage at Matthew 24: 34 – is of greatest illumination to our subject today. If we consider that Matthew 24: 3 – 34 parallels the events described in Revelation 20: 1, 2 to the End of that Age & following Matthew 24: 34 – Matthew 25: 13 parallel events afterwards and until the End of Satan’s Story or End of the World – we can then observe the following contrasts: Events Local Versus Events Global; “This Generation” Versus “The Days of Your Fathers”; “That Day” Versus “Those Days”; and Signs Versus Suddenness.
Signs Versus Suddenness: Brother Larry Ray Hafley writes – “Jesus told of the signs preceding the destruction of Jerusalem; namely, ‘false Christs and false prophets,’ and wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes – ‘all these are the beginnings of sorrows’ (Matthew 24: 6 – 8). Further He told them of ‘the abomination of desolation’ (Roman Eagle Standard), the Roman army (Matthew 24: 15; Luke 21: 20). ‘Then know that the desolation thereof is nigh’ (Luke 21: 20).
They could ‘know’ the destruction of Jerusalem was ‘nigh,’ but the Coming of the
Son of Man and the consequent Judgment were to be without warning (Matthew
24: 42, 43, 50; 25: 13). Compare ‘then know’ with ‘know not’ (Luke 21: 20; Matthew 24: 39). ‘So shall also the Coming of the Son of Man be.’
The desolation and annihilation of ‘the buildings of the temple’ were to be seen by signs. ‘When ye shall see these things, know it is near, even at the doors… But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father Only’ (Matthew 24: 33, 36).
At least three times, Jesus specifically indicated that He was giving tangible evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24: 8, 25, 33) but the second coming and the judgment were to be sudden, unknown, as when a thief strikes (Matthew 24: 42, 44, 50; 25: 13; 1st Thessalonians 5: 2 – 4; 2nd Peter 3; 10).
Jesus spoke of ‘great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be’ (Matthew 24: 21). This implies that time will continue after ‘this time,’ but there is no sense in saying, ‘nor shall ever be’ if the end of the world and the (final) judgment were being studied. The same argument can be made from the next verse (Matthew 24: 22). Those days evidently will ‘be shortened;’ they will end, and the elect shall be saved because of it. But if the end of the world were in view, the elect would be saved whether the days were shortened or not.
Finally, Matthew 25 supplements Matthew 24: 36 – 51. The judgment of Matthew
25 involves and includes ‘all nations’ (Matthew 25: 32). It is the final judgment (Matthew 25: 34, 41, 46). The ten virgins parable says, ‘be prepared,’ ‘watch.’ The parable of the talents stresses the necessity of diligence and faithfulness (Matthew 25: 21, 23, 26 linking @Matthew 24: 42 – 51).
The Timing Key: A Mistake in the Premise Is Reflected in the Conclusion
“God is causally prior, but not chronologically prior, to the universe. His changeless, timeless, eternal state is the boundary of time, at which He exists without the universe, and at the moment of creation God enters into time in virtue of His real relation to the created order and His knowledge of tensed facts, so that God is timeless without creation and temporal subsequent to creation.
Now this remarkable conclusion, I think, deserves serious reflection. It means that God, in creation as in the incarnation, has undertaken an act of condescension for our sake. Existing alone in the fullness of the intra-Trinitarian love relationships, God has no need of temporal persons to relate to. In His perfect timeless existence there is no deficit in His mode of existence—no deficiency to be filled. But out of His love and grace He chose to create a temporal world of finite creatures so that they might be invited to share the inner Trinitarian life of the Godhead and the love of the three persons of the Trinity. So God, in creation, stoops to enter into, and to undertake, our temporal mode of existence in order to relate to us and bring us into relationship with himself. And, of course, in the incarnation He stoops even lower still to take on, not merely our mode of existence, but our very human nature itself.
This, I think, makes good sense of the relationship of God and time. God is timeless without creation and temporal subsequent to creation. Having entered into time, He is not dependent upon finite velocity light signals or clock synchronization procedures for knowing what time it is. Rather, existing in absolute time, God is, as Newton proclaimed, the Lord God of dominion of His universe. In the words of St. Jude: ‘To the only God our savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever’.” – William Lane Craig, Reasons to Believe Conference
Some folks, both of the ancient world and in the modern era, have viewed “time” in a sense that is different from what is portrayed in the Bible. In the Scriptures, time is represented as a linear experience, whereas many have contended that time is cyclic, that is, it involves a series of revolutions that occur again and again.
“Basically, there are three beliefs about what happens after death: annihilation, which holds that nothing happens because there is no reality outside the world of matter; resurrection, the Christian belief that a person’s mortal body is transformed into an immortal one; and reincarnation, which theorizes that death is a passage to cyclical but unending rebirth” (Chandler, p. 262).
Biblical revelation affirms that human existence is proceeding down a “road” which has an ultimate goal. Another way to analogize the contrast is to suggest that Christianity sees life as a three-act play, consisting of birth, death, and immortality.
How, then, might one define “time” from the biblical perspective? Time may be represented as a historical era, commencing with the creation (Gen. 1:1), and concluding (so far as its present constitution is concerned) with the second coming of Christ, at which point the present world order will have been terminated (cf. 2 Pet. 3:8-13). Perhaps another way to explain it is to suggest that “time” is a historical parenthesis within eternity.
The “Phases” of Time
There are different ways of looking at time that are consistent with biblical revelation. It is, for instance, advantageous to divide pre-Christian history into periods that are marked by significant events. Paul spoke of the “times” that preceded the redemptive mission of Jesus (Eph. 1:10). The apostle employs the term kairos (frequently rendered “seasons” – KJV), which generally denotes an era characterized by certain features (cf. Vine, p. 708). There was a span that might be characterized as “the Hebrew family,” in which the lives of certain prominent patriarchs were chronicled. The Hebrews passed through a stage known as “Egyptian bondage,” followed by “the wilderness wandering,” and then the “conquest of Canaan,” etc. There was the era of the united kingdom, and subsequently that of Israel and Judah. And so, Old Testament history was delineated by distinct “times.” – Wayne Jackson, Christian Courier
“Bible students have always wanted to know what the Bible says about the end of the world (as well they should). Some freely confess ignorance on the subject; others are confident in their thorough knowledge (though their complex theories are riddled with errors which flatly contradict plain statements of Scripture). More than any other aspect of the scheme of redemption, eschatology (the study of “last things”) is presently the primary focus of denominational preaching and writing. Nearly everyone I approach about having a Bible study asks “Don’t you think we are living in the last days?”‘ or “What about the book of Revelation?” A suggestion that we study “What must I do to be saved?” or “How can I live godly in this present world?” evokes little enthusiasm. Studies on the nature of authority, the nature and work of the church, etc., are “boring” compared to man’s fanciful imaginations regarding the future. As prominent as the Second Coming is in the New Testament, it is doubtful if any Bible teaching is as little understood or more perverted and abused. This is largely the result of man’s prophetic speculations concerning “what will happen and when it will happen” which flood the “Christian” media. We need to avoid two dangerous extremes: (1) “Eschatomania” (a preoccupation which makes this subject the only one of importance) and, (2) “Eschatophobia” (a fear resulting in complete avoidance of the subject). Balance requires that we neither avoid this subject nor make it our only concern. A search for the truth on these subjects is valuable for its own sake. More importantly, such knowledge is vital to understanding our true relationship with this world so that we might know how to make adequate preparation for that day.’
Much of modern religion seeks to make a materialistic world-view compatible with Christianity. Cults anchor their hope, not on heaven, but on an eternal habitation on this earth. The social gospel seeks to save mankind by means of social and political reform. When the Christian’s mission becomes focused on the here-and-now happiness of people as opposed to the eternal salvation of their souls (with an improved world perhaps coming as a by-product) it is based on a materialistic view of our King’s purpose. Such a mindset may make us vulnerable to millennarian movements such as dispensational premillennialism.
Two classes of people disturbed the early church regarding the Lord’s return: The skeptic (2 Pet. 3:1-18) and the speculator (2 Thess. 2:1-5). Some see a threefold outline to the Bible: Jesus is coming (Old Testament), Jesus is here (Gospels) and Jesus is coming again (Epistles).
Much of Jesus’ teaching in parables addressed this subject. For example: the tares (Matt. 13:2430, 36-43), the dragnet (Matt. 13:47-50), the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), the household watching (Mark 13:33-37), the servants watching (Luke 12:35-48), and the nobleman and the pounds (Luke 19:11-27). Angels witnessed his coming to earth and also his return back to heaven (Luke 2; 24:50, 51; Acts 1:9-11). They sang songs of praise when he came and when he returned (Luke 2; Psa. 24;
Rev. 5:9-13). They announced that he would come back in like manner as he left (Acts 1:11).
Jesus’ promise to return was also a basic theme of apostolic preaching (e.g. Acts 17:31; 1 Cor. 1:7; 15:23; Phil. 3:20, 21; Col. 3:4; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Tit. 2:13; Heb. 9:2728; 1 John. 3:2, 3; James 5:7, 8; Jude 14, 18-21; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13; 2 Pet. 1:16; 3:4, 12; 3:10-12). If they can be trusted as inspired spokesmen, we have their assurance of this event. The Lord’s supper speaks not only to the death, but also the second coming of Christ. We are to remember his death until he comes again (1 Cor. 11:23-28). Paul promised those whose loved ones had died in faith that Jesus would return to raise them from the dead. (1 Thess. 4:16-18).
Scoffers may deny that Jesus is coming again and that this earth will be burned up, but such persons “willfully forget” about the flood, and that God always keeps his word (2 Pet. 3:3-12). For over four thousand years men anticipated the promised first advent of the Messiah to deal with sin; now we have waited nearly two thousand years for his second coming when he will return to take his saints home. Does 2000 years seem like a long time to wait? It may seem so to us, but not to God. Thus far, it has not been half as long between promise and fulfillment as was the case between the promise of the first advent of the Savior and his birth. What will the second coming be like? It will be personal (John 14:3; Acts 1:11; 3:19-21; 1 Thess. 4:16,17; Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:4), visible (Col. 3:4; Acts 1:11; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Pet. 3:10), sudden and unexpected but with warning, audible (John 5:28; 1 Thess. 5:2, 3), glorious (Matt. 16:27; 2 Thess. 1:10), and heavenly.’
The apocalyptic language used by the prophets to predict the downfall and destruction of various nations is of the same type used by Jesus in Matthew 24. Though unfamiliar to us, it was easily understood by the Jew of Jesus day. We have been told so often that “God says what he means and means what he says” that we are tempted to insist that he confine himself to literal language and avoid the use of figures and symbolism. We are unprepared for metaphors which appeal not only to the mind but also to the emotions and imagination. Other apocalyptic symbols are common in the judgment language of Hebrew prophets. How about the sun, moon, and stars? Does the fact that they are still up there prove that this was not a prophecy of the destruction of
Jerusalem? If so, it also nullifies the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Babylon, Edom, and Egypt. If the Bible is allowed to be its own interpreter, and prophecies using the same metaphors are seen as talking about similar things, we should have no trouble seeing this prophesy fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, 70 A.D.
To understand this passage, we must keep its purpose and context in mind. The real purpose was to inform Christ’s disciples of what they would need to know if they were to escape Jerusalem’s terrible tribulation and devastating destruction. When they saw these things, they would know the time is near and that they should flee to the mountains for safety. Why would it matter if the second coming were in the winter, or on the Sabbath, or while one was nursing a baby, or up on a rooftop? These would be obstacles to a hasty flight from a city facing an advancing army. That generation would not pass away until all these things be accomplished.” History demonstrates that it accomplished that very purpose. Josephus, a Jewish historian who was no friend to Christianity, reported in his account of the fall of Jerusalem that not one Christian lost his life.
To challenge man’s theories provokes anger and invites scorn. Thinking the purpose of Matthew 24 is to provide “signs” whereby we may know when the second coming is near is vital to millennial schemes. Throughout church history, self-appointed prophets and sects have arisen pro-claiming the return of Christ imminent and themselves God’s special agents to warn the world. Time has proven each a false prophet. But it doesn’t seem to discredit them or discourage their successors. Date setters make merchandise of gullible people (2 Pet. 2:3). Most cults were built on time setting. In the past many “believers” have quit their jobs, given away all their possessions, and waited in vain for a date they have erroneously set by mistakenly thinking they have mastered some key to biblical interpretation heretofore not understood.
Paul’s second letter reveals that the Thessalonians missed the point of the first one. Some apparently concluded that Christ’s return must surely be any day, and consequently went so far as to quit working to devote them-selves to waiting (see 2 Thess. 2:1, 2, 8 and 3:10-13). In the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians, Paul openly declared that at that moment the second coming was not imminent. First there must be a falling away and “the revelation of the lawless one, the son of perdition, the man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4).
Some think that after the return of Christ, the world will last another thousand years as a renovated permanent dwelling for the righteous. Not so. The world is going out of business. This old heaven and earth will be dissolved, rolled together like a scroll and changed (Heb. 1:10-12; Isa. 34:4) There will be new heavens and a new earth.” Premillennialism expects Jesus to reign in Jerusalem for 1000 years in fulfillment of Revelation 20.16 Revelation is a highly figurative book employing the same type of language used in Matthew 24. We must not make its symbolism mean something contradictory to plain statements of fact as revealed in the passages we have already listed.” Premillennialism teaches that God still has a special purpose for the nation of Israel. The scheme calls for it to play two roles: (1) being regathered into Canaan in preparation for a material physical reign of Christ on earth, and (2) they will be given a second chance to accept Jesus as their Messiah, resulting in their national salvation. Premillennialism sees the 1948 establishment of the nation of Israel as the fulfillment of prophecy and as a necessary prerequisite to the second coming of Christ. However, the Bible teaches that God has fulfilled all of his promises to the Jews. Premillennialism usually puts a thousand-year reign between the resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked. The Bible puts them both at the same time. But, what about “the Rapture”? The way some preachers talk, one might expect to find it in almost every verse. Actually, their main proof text is 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. But, here the wicked dead are not under discussion. Paul is dealing with those who died in hope. The contrast is between the righteous living and the righteous dead. The issue is, what about the Christians who die before Jesus returns? The righteous living will have no advantage over the righteous dead. The dead in Christ will be raised first, then both they and the living saints will be changed (1 Cor. 15:51, 52) and caught up in the air to meet the Lord and be there with him forever (i.e., never to set foot on earth again). These words were designed to comfort those who were grieving (1 Thess. 4:18). What about the fact that Revelation 20:5 speaks of the “first resurrection”? This resurrection is obviously a figurative one (cf. Isa. 26:12-19; Ezek. 37:1-14; Rom. 11:15). This was not a resurrection of bodies, but of “the souls of them that had been beheaded” (v. 4, cf. 6:9-11). “The rest of the dead” cannot be limited to the wicked dead. We have already seen that the Bible does not teach two bodily resurrections.
The second coming will be the end of preparation for eternity. God’s patience will have run out (2 Pet. 3:9). The door will be shut. The prepared will go in; the unprepared will be shut out (Matt. 25:1-13). All will give an answer for their own life (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10-12; Matt. 25:31). You will be there and Jesus Christ will be your judge (Rev. 20:10-15; 22:12). There will be no escape, no excuses, no blaming someone else. An eternal reward of heaven will be given the righteous and a formal sentence of eternal punishment will be given to the wicked (Mat. 25:31-46).
Premillennialism teaches that, at the second coming, the Jews will be given a second opportunity to accept Jesus as Messiah and that the nation, as a whole, will be saved. But, the Bible offers no hope of further opportunity for anyone to obey Jesus after he comes. The hope of Israel is spiritual deliverance from sin in Christ. “And so (i.e., “in this way”) shall all Israel be saved” (Rom. 11:26, 27). Salvation is personal, not political. There is only one hope (Eph. 4:4-6). The true hope of the Jew is not a homeland in the Middle East, but a home in heaven.
Premillennialism expects Jesus to be crowned as King when he returns. But, that is not what the Bible says. At the second coming, the reign of Christ will not begin, but end. He is reigning now and will continue to do so until the end of world. Then, when death has been destroyed and all the dead are raised, he will return the kingdom to the Father. He was resurrected from the dead to sit on David’s throne in the heavenly Jerusalem where he is now King of kings and Lord of lords! (Acts 2:29-36; 2 Sam. 7:12; Gal. 4:26; 1 Tim. 6:15). In Luke 19:12-27, my Lord told the parable of a noble-man (Jesus) who went away into a far country (heaven) to receive his kingdom. Daniel, in a vision, saw this event from heaven’s perspective as the Son of Man came to heaven to receive an indestructible kingdom (Dan. 7:13, 14). His return to earth is not to set up a kingdom. The kingdom promised in the Old Testament was repeatedly said to be “at hand” in the lifetime of Jesus. Was it a false alarm? Jesus said that many who heard him speak would still be alive when the kingdom came (Mark 9:1). Surely all of those people are now dead! The kingdom was to come with power and power with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit came with power on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:1-4; Mark 16:20). After this point, the kingdom is spoken of as a present reality. Jesus was prophesied to be our Priest and King at the same time (Zech. 6:12, 14; Psa. 110:1-4). He is now our High Priest. He must therefore also now be King. Christ cannot be priest on the earth (Heb. 8:4; 7:14). Therefore, he cannot be King on earth. Being the seed of Jeconiah, he cannot prosper reigning here on a literal throne on earth. Why would we want to remove him from his throne (heaven) and seat him on his foot-stool (earth)? (Acts 7:49; Isa. 66:1).
The true sequence of events surrounding the second coming of Jesus. Jesus, with his angels and the spirits of the saints who have previously died, shall come in glory with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. All the dead, both righteous and wicked, will be raised together. Those still living will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The righteous will be caught up to meet the Lord. The heavens will pass away and the elements will dissolve with fervent heat. Jesus will sit on his throne of judgment. All nations will be gathered before him to be judged by his word. Jesus will pronounce the eternal destinies of all men (to heaven or hell) persuading each of the justice of his judgment. He will then deliver the kingdom back to his Father. The new heavens and new earth (fellowship with God in heaven) will begin.”– David West, Truth Magazine
“Several passages come to mind for study: Romans 8:13; Romans 13:8–14 (Augustine’s text); 2nd Cor. 6:14–7:1; Ephesians 4:17–5:21; Colossians 3:1–17; 1 Peter 4:1–11; 1 John 2:28–3:11. Significantly, only two of these passages contain the verb “mortify” (“put to death”). Equally significant, the context of each of these passages is broader than the single exhortation to put sin to death. As we shall see, this observation turns out to be of considerable importance. Of these passages, Colossians 3:1–17 is probably the best place for us to begin. Here were relatively young Christians. They have had a wonderful experience of conversion to Christ from paganism. They had entered a gloriously new and liberating world of grace. Perhaps — if we may read between the lines — they had felt for a while as if they had been delivered, not only from sin’s penalty but from its influence — so marvelous was their new freedom. But then, of course, sin reared its ugly head again. Having experienced the “already” of grace they were now discovering the painful “not yet” of ongoing sanctification. Sounds familiar!
For just at this point young Christians can be relatively easy prey to false teachers with new promises of a higher spiritual life. That was what Paul feared (Col. 2:8, 16). Holiness-producing methods were now in vogue (Col. 2:21–22) — and they seemed to be deeply spiritual, just the thing for earnest young believers. But, in fact, “they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Col. 2:23). Not new methods, but only an understanding of how the Gospel works, can provide an adequate foundation and pattern for dealing with sin. This is the theme of Colossians 3:1–17. Paul gives us the pattern and rhythm we need. Like Olympic long jumpers, we will not succeed unless we go back from the point of action to a point from which we can gain energy for the strenuous effort of dealing with sin.
First of all, Paul underlines how important it is for us to be familiar with our new identity in Christ (3:1–4). How often when we fail spiritually we lament that we forgot who we really are — Christ’s. We have a new identity. We are no longer “in Adam,” but “in Christ”; no more longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit; no longer dominated by the old creation but living in the new (Romans 5:12–21; 8:9; 2 Cor. 5:17). Paul takes time to expound this. We have died with Christ (Col. 3:3; we have even been buried with Christ, 2:12); we have been raised with Him (3:1), and our life is hidden with Him (3:3). Failure to deal with the presence of sin can often be traced back to spiritual amnesia, forgetfulness of our new, true, real identity.
Second, Paul goes on to expose the workings of sin in every area of our lives (Col. 3:5–11). If we are to deal with sin biblically, we must not make the mistake of thinking that we can limit our attack to only one area of failure in our lives. All sin must be dealt with. Thus Paul ranges through the manifestation of sin in private life (v. 5), everyday public life (v. 8), and church life (vv. 9–11; “one another,” “here,” that is, in the church fellowship). The challenge in mortification is akin to the challenge in dieting (itself a form of mortification!): Mortifying sin is a whole-of-life change.
Third, Paul’s exposition provides us with practical guidance for our mortifying sin. Notice how this passage helps to answer our “how to?” questions. 1. Learn to admit sin for what it really is. This pattern runs right through this whole section. How powerfully this unmasks self-deceit — and helps us to unmask sin lurking in the hidden corners of our hearts! 2. See sin for what your sin really is in God’s presence. “On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (3:6). The masters of the spiritual life spoke of dragging our lusts (kicking and screaming, though they be) to the cross, to a wrath-bearing Christ. My sin leads to — not lasting pleasure — but holy divine displeasure. See the true nature of your sin in the light of its punishment. Too easily do we think that sin is less serious in Christians than it is in nonbelievers: “It’s forgiven, isn’t it?” Not if we continue in it (1 John 3:9)! Take a heaven’s-eye view of sin and feel the shame of that in which you once walked (Col. 3:7; see also Rom. 6:21). 3. Recognize the inconsistency of your sin. You put off the “old man,” and have put on the “new man” (3:9–10). You are no longer the “old man.” The identity you had “in Adam” is gone. The old man was “crucified with him [Christ] in order that the body of sin [probably “life in the body dominated by sin”] might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6). New men live new lives. Anything less than this is a contradiction of who I am “in Christ.”
Fourth, put sin to death (Col. 3:5). It is as “simple” as that. Refuse it, starve it, and reject it. You cannot “mortify” sin without the pain of the kill. There is no other way! But notice that Paul sets this in a very important, broader context. The negative task of putting sin to death will not be accomplished in isolation from the positive call of the Gospel to “put on” the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14). Paul spells this out in Colossians 3:12–17. Sweeping the house clean simply leaves us open to a further invasion of sin. But when we understand the “glorious exchange” principle of the Gospel of grace, then we will begin to make some real advance in holiness. As sinful desires and habits are not only rejected, but exchanged for Christ-like graces (3:12) and actions (3:13); as we are clothed in Christ’s character and His graces are held together by love (v. 14), not only in our private life but also in the church fellowship (vv. 12–16), Christ’s name and glory are manifested and exalted in and among us (3:17).” – Sinclair Ferguson
- Molecular Level:
- Death-In-Life by Daily Starvation
- {Lord’s Supper}
- Cellular Level:
- Death-In-Life Program Apoptosis
- {Buried in Baptism}
- Tissue Level:
- Death-In-Life by Healing Process
- {Life of Continual Prayer}
- EXEMPTION:
- Ezekiel 18: 20; Matthew 18: 1 – 3 CONDEMNATION:
- Galatians 3: 22 JUSTIFICATION:
- Romans 5: 1, 2; 8: 1, 2
- DAMNATION:
- Matthew 23: 3; Mark 16: 16
- GLORIFICATION:
- Romans 8: 17, 30; II Thess. 1: 7 – 12
- HEARING:
- Romans 10: 17; Matthew 7: 24 – 27
- BELIEVING:
- Hebrews 11: 6; Mark 16: 15, 16
- REPENTING:
- Acts 2: 38; 17: 30; Luke 13: 3 CONFESSING:
- Matthew 10: 32, 33; Acts 8: 36, 37 BAPTISM:
- Romans 6: 3 – 5; Acts 8: 36 – 38
A Pardon Was Once Rejected
During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, George Wilson robbed a federal payroll from a train and in the process killed a guard. The court convicted him & sentenced him to hang. Because of public sentiment against capital punishment, however, a movement began to secure a presidential pardon for Wilson, and eventually Jackson intervened with a pardon. Amazingly, Wilson refused it. Since this had never happened before, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether someone could indeed refuse a presidential pardon. Chief Justice John Marshall handed down the Supreme Court’s decision: “A pardon is a parchment whose only value must be determined by the receiver of the pardon. It has no value apart from that which the receiver gives to it. George Wilson has refused to accept the pardon. We cannot conceive why he would do so, but he has. Therefore, George Wilson must die.” “Pardon,” declared the Supreme Court, “must not only be granted, it must be accepted.” George Wilson, as punishment for his crime, was hanged. Likewise, God, through His mercy, has provided every human being pardon from their sins. However, that pardon must be accepted in the way God has ordained. Those who do not accept the pardon will perish. – selected
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[1] DeMar, G. (2009). Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction (pp. 17–23). Powder Springs, GA: American Vision.
[2] Sproul, R. C. (2014). Are These the Last Days? (First edition, Vol. 20, pp. 1–55). Orlando, FL; Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust; Ligonier Ministries.