![“ArtIm:](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/artim-20091117.jpg" ““ArtIm:”) The doomsday film 2012 had a mega-weekend at the box office. It took in $225 million over a period of five days, a combination of $65 million domestically and $160 million internationally Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 11–16, 2009). In anticipation of the hype and hysteria of the Ma [...]

![“ArtIm:](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/artim-20091005.jpg" ““ArtIm:”) “Charisma magazine provides news, analysis, prophetic commentary and teachings for charismatic and Pentecostal Christians.” Lee Grady, who came out of the Maranatha movement of the 1980s, is its editor. Since I don’t follow what goes on among charismatics, I can’t comment on all the [...]

![“ArtIm:](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/artim-20090921.jpg" ““ArtIm:”) Every generation has had its prophecy analysts who claimed that current events are tied to an inevitable cataclysm. The History Channel is running “Apocalypse: The Puzzle of Revelation,” “Seven Signs of the Apocalypse,” and “Nostradamus and 2012” based on the Mayan doomsday prophecy [...]

![“ArtIm:](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/artim-20090804-chuck-smith-bible-prophecy-prophecy-books-unfulfilled-prophecy.jpg" ““ArtIm:”) Ehrich Weiss (1874–1926), best known as the master magician Harry Houdini, lived in Appleton, Wisconsin, as a young boy where his father served as rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. Over the years, Houdini ast [...]

An article on WorldNetDaily’s website reports on an anonymous “Christian with a theological education and many years in the ministry . . . who claims Jesus might have revealed who the antichrist is.” Mr. Anonymous makes it clear in his five-minute YouTube video that he is not claiming that Barack Obama is the antichrist. He states that he is only pointing out how two Hebrew words have “striking” c [...]

![“ArtIm:](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/artim-20090720-money-power-cash-666-bible-prophecy-end-times-christian-authors.jpg" ““ArtIm:”) I’m beginning to see that prophetic speculation is taking place on the fringes of the Christian publishing industry. Of course, you will still find the occasional prophetic pot-boiler. Mark Hitchcock writes a couple of [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-022409.jpg" ““Article”) What is so troubling about Christian involvement in politics? Christians like John MacArthur, Cal Thomas, and Ed Dobson have written on the subject. MacArthur’s Why Government Can’t Save You includes the following subtitle: An Alternative to Political Activism. While MacArth [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-020909.jpg" ““Article”) In 2009, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website tells us that it “will focus on the return of Jesus Christ—and how you can live a faithful life in the meantime.” This focus isn’t anything new. Graham has been preaching an end-time message since the 1950s. The arti [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-011309.jpg" ““Article”) John MacArthur is preaching series on eschatology that is being broadcast on WLQV, a Detroit, Michigan, radio station this week. Some of this material was published in his 1999 book The Second Coming: Signs of Christ’s Return and the End of the Age. Using a debater’s trick, [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-121808-a.jpg" ““Article”) Some readers get upset any time I point out how modern-day prophecy writers misrepresent the Bible. My critics don’t seem to mind that Hal Lindsey has been wrong over the years in an area of study that has made his reputation and so much of Christendom has embraced as “gos [...]

For 20 years I have been debating the topic of eschatology. It started with Dave Hunt (four debates) after the publication of my book The Reduction of Christianity (co-authored with Peter J. Leithart) and has included debates with Thomas Ice (nine debates), Paige Patterson, Robert L. Thomas, Ed Hindson, John Sweigart, Michael Wechsler, and countless radio shows where callers would rapid-fire quest [...]

In 1988, John MacArthur wrote The Gospel According to Jesus, a controversial book in certain circles because he relied heavily on the views of Calvinistic writers to deal with the lordship salvation controversy. My respect for MacArthur grew because he was not afraid to take on those in his own dispensational camp who were teaching “defective theology” about discipleship. The book got [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-120208.jpg" ““Article”) On January 21, 2009, James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries will be debating Bart Ehrman, the James A. Gray Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, on the following question: “Can the New Testa [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-111308-b.jpg" ““Article”) With America’s self-conscious move toward unfettered socialism and fascism, some Christians will undoubtedly rev up the prophecy presses and inform the world that the end is near-again! History is a sober teacher of such foolishness. In 1927, Oswald J. Smith wrote Is [...]

![“Article](“http://assets.americanvision.org/mediafiles/article-image-110308.jpg" ““Article”) The newspaper and news sources in general can be depressing reading these days. No matter who wins tomorrow’s election, America and the world are in for uncertain times. Instead of ruminating over the negative possibilities, Christians should see what will come as opportunit [...]

In a 1979 message, Jerry Falwell presented his views on the end-times using Ezekiel 38 as a backdrop to his interpretation of the passage. Falwell asked why Russia would want to invade Israel. Quoting Ezekiel 38:12, he said the purpose is “to seize spoil and carry off plunder.” Here’s what he said next: “If one removes the first two letters from this word ‘spoil,’ he soon realizes what Russia will [...]

I predicted it! When Russia invaded Georgia, a former satellite state of the former Soviet Union, I knew there would be prophecy writers who would claim that it’s all part of God’s end-time plan. Contemporary prophecy writers, following a long tradition of interpreting the Bible through the lens of current events, use Bible passages that can be easily shaped to fit any geo-political change. Why th [...]

“February 20th, 2008, at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake Washington saw something, a total lunar eclipse also called a ‘blood moon’ for its reddish hue” (read article here). “I thought ‘wow’ that looks just like what the Lord was talking about in the last days,” says Blitz. Blitz is referring to Joel 2:31: “The sun will be turned into darkness, [...]

‘Apocalyptic thinking is in the air,’” University of Connecticut psychologist Kenneth Ring said as we approached the year 2000. “Images stored in the collective unconscious begin to populate our dreams and visions.’”[1] The year 2000 was thought to be a significant eschatological date for sociologists, utopians, New Agers, cultists, psychics, and even some Christians. The late Robert A. Nisbet (19 [...]

In his book The Population Bomb, first published in 1968, Paul R. Ehrlich made a number of predictions about the future of our planet based on his understanding of population growth and food supplies. Ehrlich’s projections were not new. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834), a British political economist and mathematician, proposed that population growth would outstrip any increase in food supplies in [...]