Once again, the Bible is being interpreted through the lens of current events. “All the signs are in place,” prophecy “experts” tell us.
Nearly eight out of 10 Evangelicals say they believe the ongoing violence in the Middle East is an indication that the rapture is on the horizon, a new survey … shows.
Research conducted by the Brookings Institute’s Center for Middle East Policy on Americans’ attitudes toward the Middle East and Israel found that 79 percent of Evangelicals say they believe “that the unfolding violence across the Middle East is a sign that the end times are nearer.” (Christian Post)
But this is not true if a person believes in a pre-trib rapture. David Jeremiah, who believes in an “any moment rapture,” wrote a book with the title The Book of Signs. Mark Hitchcock wrote, Seven Signs of the End Times. Nearly every book, podcaster, and Bible prophecy expert wannabe believes that signs indicate a near rapture. But the “rapture” is said to be a signless event.
The Rapture and the Fig Tree Generation
For decades Christians have been enticed with the belief that they would be taken to heaven before a coming tribulation period in an event called the “rapture.” Since the national reestablishment of Israel in 1948, countless books and pamphlets have been written defending the doctrine assuring readers that it could happen at any moment. Some prophecy writers claimed the “rapture” would take place before 1988. We are far removed from that date. Where are we in God’s prophetic timetable?
Buy NowThere is little that is new in these types of surveys. For centuries Christians have believed current events were precursors of the end times. Two world wars in the 20th century, the French revolution in the 18th century, “wars and rumors of wars” throughout the world, the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) of the Middle Ages, the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and even the rise of Islam centuries ago have been considered end-time signs. Once again, Christian prophecy enthusiasts are being conned to boost book sales.
The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) made Hal Lindsey a multi-millionaire. The Left Behind series did the same for Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
The following was written by prophecy writer Wilbur Smith (1894-1976) about Egypt and the end times.
Personally, I must confess that when this recent crisis [of 1956] occurred in Egypt, I was driven to examine, for the first time in years of study of Biblical prophecy, the whole subject of Egypt in Israel’s history and in the Old Testament predictions concerning certain other nations of that part of the earth. Had someone placed before me, six months ago, an examination covering Egypt in Biblical prophecy, I would have “flunked” it, even if the questions were not of a technical nature. However, when newspapers were recently filled with reports from Egypt day by day, I was unable to escape a desire to review the whole theme of Egypt in the Biblical writings, both historical and prophetical.[1]
Like today, the newspapers in Smith’s day (1956) were “filled with reports from Egypt,” and because of that he concluded those events had something to do with Bible prophecy. The events he was referring to happened 70 years ago. The same claims, only the names, countries, and dates have changed.
The “recent crisis of 1956” that Smith referred to concerned who would control the Suez Canal, a significant world chokepoint connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Without this narrow passageway water transportation between Europe and Asia one would have had to navigate around Africa. When’s the last time you heard anything about the Suez Canal? Now it’s the Strait of Hormuz.
Ten Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered
Since the reestablishment of Israel in 1948, “end-time” prophetic speculation has been on the rise. While there is a long history of date setting, the past century has seen an exponential increase in the number of books proclaiming that the end is near. It’s time that the “Boy who cried wolf” syndrome be dealt with in a biblical way.
Buy NowJohn F. Walvoord’s 1974 book, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis, has undergone several revisions as supposed prophetic events changed. The book opens with this claim: “Each day’s headlines raise new questions concerning what the future holds.”[2] That was in 1974. Described as “the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy,” in 1991 he expected “‘the Rapture to occur in his own lifetime.’”[3] Walvoord died in December of 2002.
Walvoord’s Armageddon book was reprinted in 1976 and then sank without a trace until a revised edition appeared in late 1990 based on then-current headlines. It was decisively predictive based on events that were taking place during the first Gulf War 36 years ago!
The world today is like a stage being set for a great drama. The major actors are already in the wings waiting for their moment in history. The main stage props are already in place. The prophetic play is about to begin…. Our present world is well prepared for the beginning of the prophetic drama that will lead to Armageddon. Since the stage is set for this dramatic climax of the age, it must mean that Christ’s coming for his own is very near.[4]
Not many people realized that the revised editions core content was nearly sixteen years old when it was reissued. When the Gulf War ended abruptly, the book was twenty-five cents a copy if bought by the case! But by then the book had sold nearly 1.7 million copies and was “the recipient of the Platinum Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.”[5]
Tyndale House Publishers released a third edition in 2007 with a revised title and content edited and written by one of his sons and Mark Hitchcock to reflect a change in a set of new current events: Armageddon, Oil, and Terror.[6] The promotion material assured readers that its content “is as current as today’s news . . . and every prediction rings true.” Where have we heard that before? That’s right! In 1974 when the first edition of Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis was published, and the same wording was used—33 years later.
I suspect that the 79% who believe that current events in the Middle East relate to the end times don’t have a clue about the assured predictions of past prophecy writers. The Christian Post article cited above goes on to report the following:
Meanwhile, 63 percent of Evangelicals and 51 percent of non-Evangelical Christians believe that “for the rapture or Second Coming to occur, it is essential for current-day Israel to include all of the land they believed was promised to biblical Israel in the Old Testament.”
There is a problem with this statement. First, the New Testament doesn’t say anything about Israel returning to the land as being a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Israel was already in the land in Jesus’ day and the lead up to the destruction of the temple in AD 70.
Prophecy Wars: The Biblical Battle Over the End Times
If you’re willing to take the Bible at its word, the study of prophecy can strengthen your faith, but if your trust is in man’s speculations, you will be disappointed every time. And that is why Bible prophecy is such a crucial area for apologetics. Skeptics of all stripes have condemned the Bible as inaccurate merely because various well-meaning Christians have been in error about the End Times.
Buy NowSecond, the Old Testament did predict Israel would return to the land. The people returned, the nation was reestablished, and the temple was rebuilt. The Jews returned to the land after the Babylonian captivity (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). That’s why there were Jews living in Israel when Jesus was born and the temple was being refurbished.
Third, Israel had received all that had been promised regarding the land:
So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass (Josh. 21:43-45).
This was confirmed during Solomon’s reign: “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance [Deut. 1:10; 7:7; 10:22; 26:5; 28:62; Gen. 15:5; 22:17; 32:12; 1 Kings 3:8; Jer. 33:22; Heb. 11:12]; they were eating and drinking and rejoicing. Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life” (1 Kings 4:20-21).
Fourth, the most popular end-time perspective today is called dispensational premillennialism. This view teaches that no prophecy can be fulfilled until the church is “raptured,” an event that has not taken place yet. (The Bible does not say one word about the church being taken off the earth before, during, or after seven years.)
Well-known dispensational author Earl D. Radmacher (1931-2014) made an important point related to people who claim that certain world events are signs of an end-time event:
Equally as unjustified as date-setting for Christ’s return are the numerous sermons attempting to find fulfillment of prophecy in this age. Typical of them is a popular author, conference speaker, and television personality who has stated his belief that the “paramount prophetic sign” is that Israel had to be a nation again in the land of its forefathers. This condition was fulfilled, he claims, on May 14, 1948.[7] This pronouncement is simply representative of hundreds, perhaps, thousands, of others who, although eager in their anticipation of Christ’s coming, distort the Scripture and cause terrible confusion for God’s people.[8]
Radmacher called using Israel becoming a nation again in 1948 a prophetic sign a distortion of Scripture that causes “terrible confusion for God’s people.” “This conflicting emphasis,” he wrote, “begets the rather embarrassing plight of talking about signs of a signless event.”[9]
[1] Wilbur Smith, Egypt in Biblical Prophecy (Boston: W. A. Wilde Company, 1957), 5.
[2] John F. Walvoord and John E. Walvoord, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974), 7.
[3] Quoted in Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Final Days are Here Again,” Newsweek (March 18, 1991), 55.
[4] John F. Walvoord, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), 228.
[5] As reported in “Zondervan Book on Prophecy Receives Bestselling Award” by Zondervan Publishing House (1991). On file.
[6] John E. Walvoord and Mark Hitchcock, Armageddon, Oil, and Terror: What the Bible Says About the Future of America, the Middle East, and the End of Western Civilization (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2007).
[7] “The one event which many Bible students in the past overlooked was this paramount prophetic sign: Israel had to be a nation again in the land of its forefathers.” (Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), 43.
[8] Earl D. Radmacher, “The Imminent Return of the Lord,” Issues in Dispensationalism, eds. Wesley R. Willis and John R. Master (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 248.
[9] Radmacher, “The Imminent Return of the Lord,” 248.