Cashing in on Fear and Faulty Theology
by Dr. Charles Roberts
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The cover story of the July 1st issue of TIME magazine was, "The Bible and the Apocalypse: Why more Americans are reading about the end of the world."
Back in the early 1970´s, prophecy author Hal Lindsey predicted the "Return of Christ" would occur in 1988, since that was forty years from the time the modern state of Israel came into existence. Hal Lindsey was wrong, but that has not stopped him from writing many more prophecy books and it has not stopped Christians and non-Christians from buying his books.
From 1998-99, we had plenty of our Dispensational friends searching their Bibles for evidence of the "rapture" and the end of all things as the Year 2000 dawned. Many books, tapes, and videos were written, produced, recorded, and bought by millions of people, many of whom were convinced the end was at hand. The prophecy know-it-alls were wrong again.
Reading the Bible Through the Newspaper
Since September 11th, 2001, even more people are wondering about the end of all things, and Tim LaHaye´s popular "Left Behind" book series (the first volume of which was originally published in 1995) has profited immensely from both the Y2K hysteria and now from the awful terrorist attack of 9-11-01.
Indeed LaHaye and Jenkins' book series have now sold over 35 million copies. That doesn't include the motion picture adaptation of the Left Behind novel or the many other spin-offs, such as "Left Behind for kids," the "Left Behind" board game, CD's, DVD's, etc.
Fear mongering about the end of the world and the return of Christ have made millions of dollars for men like LaHaye, Lindsey, Van Impe, Hagee, and Hunt, to name only a few.
As Reformed Christians, we should look with grave concern over this sort of thing.
We should be gravely concerned because Dispensational theology and its peculiar end-times doctrines are not in accord with Scripture.
Of course, they think they are being Scriptural and they can quote many, many Bible verses to support their claims. Quoting Bible verses does not, however, make something a true, Biblical doctrine.
All of the events that Dispensationalists from C.I. Scofield (that's where the Reference Bible gets its name), to J. Vernon McGee, David Jeremiah, John Hagee, Dave Hunt, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, and Charles Ryrie (author of the other popular Ryrie [Dispensational] Study Bible) have pointed to as being evidence that we are "closer than ever" to the end times were events that the Bible clearly and obviously says were to take place in the generation of the Apostles and the First Century church.
Here's what I mean.
But What Does the Bible Say?
Consider these passages and notice that in every case, the words and predictions are addressed, not tous in the beginning of the twenty-first century but exclusively to the people to whom Jesus was speaking at the time, the people of that generation, and, notice, that for them, these things were near, at hand, soon to come (note: I have used highlights to emphasize this in the text):
Matthew 10:23: When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes (ESV).
Matthew 16:27-28: 'For, the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father, with his messengers, and then he will reward each, according to his work. Verily I say to you, there are certain of those standing here who shall not taste of death till they may see the Son of Man coming in his reign.' (Young's Literal Translation of the Bible)
Matthew 26:63-64: But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." (ESV)
Matthew 24:34: Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. (ESV)
James 5:7-8: Now be patient, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains! You too must be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord's coming will be soon.(New Jerusalem Bible)
1 John 2:18: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. (ESV)
Notice the verb tenses, notice the immediacy and the urgency in these exhortations and notice, most importantly, that they were addressed to a specific people at a specific time and place!
Friends, there are two, and only two possibilities open to us in understanding these statements. Either Jesus and the inspired writers of the Bible were right, and all the things that Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey tell us are to happen in our immediate future, have, in fact already happened way back in Jesus and the Apostles time, or Jesus and the New Testament are wrong!
In saying this, I should also quickly point out that "all the things" that LaHaye and company say are to happen in the future have been misunderstood and misinterpreted by them.
They have managed to find everything from helicopters and atomic bombs to computer chips lurking below the surface of the words of Scripture, but the one thing they seem not to be able to find is the ability to interpret things like "coming on the clouds," "the moon not giving its light," and " wars and rumors of wars" in light of what the Bible itself says about those things!
The Biblical evidence and especially the time indicators associated with these prophetic statements all show that whether it was our Lord speaking or the inspired writers, they all were expecting "the Last Days" the "coming of the Lord" to occur in their generation.
When we take a fully Biblical view of such concepts, themes and ideas as "the Day of the Lord," the "Last Days," and the "coming of the Lord," we find that these things are usually not associated at all with what has come to be known in our time as "the end of the word and the return of the Lord" but rather with the Judgment of God against a covenant breaking nation.
One End is Over
The "last days" were the last days of the Old Covenant era with it's Temple sacrifices in the city of Jerusalem and with its High Priests and Scribes.
The fact is, our Lord, and His Word, the Bible, are NOT mistaken: that judgment DID come upon the earth, in 70AD with the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Roman armies of Titus and Vespasian.
This was the covenantal judgment of God against Israel, this was, to the Jewish mind of that time "the end of all things," and it was, as Jesus Himself said in Luke 21:23: "the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled."
Vengeance? Vengeance against who? Against Israel for rejecting her Messiah, for saying that they had no King but Caesar, for saying that they would not have "this man [Jesus] to rule over us!"
Jesus predicted in AD 30 that within a generation all of those things mentioned in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 would come to pass. And they did.
Now do you see why prophecy pundits and end-of-the-world rapture specialists are, and will always be, wrong? They are projecting into the future things that have already come to pass ... no wonder they never get it right!
But praise God, in spite of their errors, we may have total confidence in our Lord and His Word, because those things came to pass, just as He said they would.