The Supposed Threat While Jeffrey sees a New World Order of global domination of economic, political and military power the greatest threat to our national security, he writes that God will intervene before the last seven years of this age and sweep the church off the earth before the Tribulation begins. This is precisely the kind of crystal ball fortune-telling modern prophecy pundits engage in when they ignore or overlook the first century fulfillment of the end-time. Whatever may be on the horizon in a New World Order it has nothing to do the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It sounds great, it makes news headlines, it sells books and tapes, but it is flawed from the very outset. Most importantly, it breeds the kind of negative worldview that Jeffrey sees for the future. It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom and gloom, a stigma which Jeffrey labors to overcome. Sound The Alarm When will the alarm sound? Hal Lindsey, Harold Camping, Edgar Whisenant and others all offered doom and gloom signs of an imminent end, carefully calculating it to occur within one generation (40 years) after modern Israels rebirth as a nation in 1948. Thus, 1988 was the year on their prophetic clock, one that ticked right on by without the need for a rewind. As a matter of fact, Whisenant wrote that his calculations were so sure that "Only if the Bible was wrong, could he be in error, and I say that unequivocally." There is no way that I can be wrong and I say that to every preacher in town." (Quoted in Ralph Lyman, A Critique on the 1988 Rapture Theory). After 1988 came, Whisenant recapitualted, blaming the error on the Gregorian calendar which is always one year in advance of the true year. Therefore, Whisenants prediction should have scored mightily in 1989, but it passed without a fizzle. Hello! Its 2006, well beyond even that magical end-time destruction year of 2000. Wheres the beef! Yet many sleep, never calling these false prophets into question (Deuteronomy 18:18-20), and continually allow them to rant and rave about their fanatical, fanciful theories of futuristic falsehood. |
