The end is near! blah...blah....blah...
To my friend Brandon, you have inspired me because of this post!
Anyway, with all the problems going on in the Middle East, which are a continuation of centuries of war, there are crops of people hedging their bets that this is it - the time of the Rapture. This great line of thinking hearkens back long before the days of 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988, The Late Great Planet Earth and so on.
In fact, one would be amazed to see all the times the Rapture was predicted in the 1930s. People were unsettled because of impending war with Japan, Germany and Italy. This was not in 1940, but even earlier. The Sword of the Lord and John R. Rice was notorious for this. He predicted it in the first issue for 1938 and even published a gem in 1940 (which I own) called The Impending World War and the Second Coming of Christ. J. Frank Norris, another fundamentalist leader, was involved in this sort of thing as well. While, he did not get into the great debates of whether Hitler was really the Beast or not, he did publish articles which suggested the end was near and used his theory that Stalin was secretly involved in a shadow government with FDR to enter war with Europe and make the U.S. a "red" country, thus bringing in the one world government that would lead to the end times. Carl McIntire was guilty of this as well in the pages of The Christian Beacon saying in 1936 that students of the Bible should be pleased because they are witnessing the unfolding events of the end times right before their eyes. The most notorious offender during the late 1930s, in my opinion, was The Voice of the Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America because they actually published sermons calling Hitler the Beast, calling Mussolini the Antichrist and predicting the rapture quite frequently.
Now, what is the common theme between all of the publications I have referenced? They were wrong. If you read the Bible in one hand and have a newspaper in the other and you're looking for the key to Armageddon, you're going to be wrong everytime.
But if you must, I suggest reading the Bible in one hand, have a newspaper in the other, circle stories that point out Biblical truth playing out in real space and time (common grace, etc), nod at them in amazement because you see how Truth works itself out in the ordinary world that God created and you don't have to disappoint yourself time and time again because you're waiting for the eschaton to say, "SEE THE BIBLE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!"
Anyway, with all the problems going on in the Middle East, which are a continuation of centuries of war, there are crops of people hedging their bets that this is it - the time of the Rapture. This great line of thinking hearkens back long before the days of 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988, The Late Great Planet Earth and so on.
In fact, one would be amazed to see all the times the Rapture was predicted in the 1930s. People were unsettled because of impending war with Japan, Germany and Italy. This was not in 1940, but even earlier. The Sword of the Lord and John R. Rice was notorious for this. He predicted it in the first issue for 1938 and even published a gem in 1940 (which I own) called The Impending World War and the Second Coming of Christ. J. Frank Norris, another fundamentalist leader, was involved in this sort of thing as well. While, he did not get into the great debates of whether Hitler was really the Beast or not, he did publish articles which suggested the end was near and used his theory that Stalin was secretly involved in a shadow government with FDR to enter war with Europe and make the U.S. a "red" country, thus bringing in the one world government that would lead to the end times. Carl McIntire was guilty of this as well in the pages of The Christian Beacon saying in 1936 that students of the Bible should be pleased because they are witnessing the unfolding events of the end times right before their eyes. The most notorious offender during the late 1930s, in my opinion, was The Voice of the Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America because they actually published sermons calling Hitler the Beast, calling Mussolini the Antichrist and predicting the rapture quite frequently.
Now, what is the common theme between all of the publications I have referenced? They were wrong. If you read the Bible in one hand and have a newspaper in the other and you're looking for the key to Armageddon, you're going to be wrong everytime.
But if you must, I suggest reading the Bible in one hand, have a newspaper in the other, circle stories that point out Biblical truth playing out in real space and time (common grace, etc), nod at them in amazement because you see how Truth works itself out in the ordinary world that God created and you don't have to disappoint yourself time and time again because you're waiting for the eschaton to say, "SEE THE BIBLE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!"
posted by Bobby's blog at 2:48 PM
5 Comments:
Great post Bobby. It's been long enough since my dispensationalist days that I can proudly say that I had to be reminded that this stuff going on in the middle east leads to "end-times" doomsayer predictions.
One day I will write a paper about The Fundamentalist Old Right and Premillenialism during 1935-1939. It will blow your mind away to see how people were so focused on the eschaton that they missed some of what was going on during that time.
Wow,
That brings back memories of the ole days of me working at a Christian Bookstore! I wrote of my momories on my own blog. Hope you get a chance to read it. (http://www.skubalon.net/blog/2006/07/middle-east-and-prophecy-books.html)
I found a book in my church library that was entitled "Gorbechov: The AntiChrist has come"
I thought maybe you would find that interesting.
P.S. I can loan you one of our copies of the late great planet earth.
Hey Bobby,
Tell your friend Brandon that the bookstore I worked in was a Moody Book Store in Charleston WV. I noticed that Brandon attended Moody Bible Institute.
Tim
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