Is Prophecy Bogus?

By Dene McGriff 

Here we are 2000 years later and Jesus still hasn’t come.  After all, hasn’t every generation of believers expected their generation to be “the one” when He comes?  They pour through the scriptures and come up with reasons that make sense to their hopeful hearts.  They come up with their own eschatology, i.e. their own “end time” view fitting it with the world around them.

Imagine the early Christians as one Roman Emperor after another increased the persecution against the Christians.  I would imagine that most were pretty sure that one of them would be the antichrist.  We come to the Reformation, and they are sure that the Pope will be the incarnation of the antichrist.  In the 19th Century, Napolean marched through Europe conquering everything in sight and many thought him to be that evil one.  We come to the 20th Century and this incredibly evil ruler named Adolf Hitler who exterminated six million Jews.  Many thought that was him for sure, but time marches on and after WWII, the evil Russian godless communist empire arose like a dark shadow spreading across the earth.  Scholars were sure that Russia represented the empire to the north.  And many still believe Russia will rise again.  More recently, some Christians were quite sure that Sadaam Hussein was the antichrist.  After all, he was the head of that country that included ancient Babylon!  We get weary of these obviously vain speculations that all seem to lead to no where.

It is completely understandable why and how Bible scholars could get the last days prophetic scenario completely wrong because, after all, it only applies to the generation that is going to live through it!  How could a 1st Century Christian possibly see 2000 years down the road to know what will happen?  How could Martin Luther in the early 1500’s?  Or for that matter, how could the great Brethren scholars of the 19th Century know what was going to happen, what the world would look like 150 years hence? 

But the sad and simple fact is that our eschatology (end times view) is handed down from the Brethren through Scofield, Hal Lindsey, Dave Wilkerson and most other evangelical Christians today.  That is what they were taught in Bible School and Seminary and that is what they pass on to their flocks.  The assumption is that Europe (representing the Holy Roman Empire) will rise again, become a world power and make war with Islam and everyone else.  America is dismissed because (as Doug recently pointed out), as they see it, America barely exists in prophecy at all. 

Many of America’s patriotic prophets are quite convinced that Europe will eclipse America as we fade off into the sunset of history as discussed in Doug Krieger’s recent article.  Christians will admit that there is an end times power referred to as Babylon in the book of revelation (specifically Revelation 16-19) that is judged in its three forms: religious, economic and political/military but they refuse or are unable to identify this entity.  I have written a series titled “In Search of Babylon” which addresses this issue in detail.  Just what nation or nations is this prophetic Babylon?  How could the most powerful, fervently “Christian” nation who dominates the world economically, militarily and politically be completely ignored?

Well, if you have been raised to think otherwise and steeped in dispensational thought, that is what you will believe.  It is for this reason that many modern “evangelical” Christians have either written off prophecy as irrelevant, because like Hank Hannegraff and the “preterists”, they are convinced that all prophetic events have occurred and we are living in the end times and have been since 70 A.D.  Other Christians who are put off by what they consider to be the defeatism of the “pre-tribulation rapture/great escape” crowd and see the church gradually wresting control of government and institutions and taking dominion over the world for Christ and the Church at which time the church will either rule over the earth or Christ will return and they will rule and reign together.  So you have several groups: the “preterists”  who claim all prophecy has already happened, the Dominionists who feel it is the church’s role to take over the world and then you have everyone else in between including those who wonder if we can even understand prophecy.

Many get discouraged and just give up.  II Peter 3:3-4 says that “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”    I guess you can hardly blame them.  After all, after literally thousands of years of reading the Bible and trying to make sense of it, we’re still here!  What good has all this study done?  Prophecy seems too cryptic, too esoteric, too open to interpretation.  It would seem you could make the Bible say anything you want.  So how are we to know which interpretation is correct?  Is there anything we can do about it anyway?  What will be will be?

Then there is a final end times group described by the Apostle Paul that have a form of godliness:  

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”  (II Tim. 3:4)

Apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ, this describes a religious person going through the motions thinking they have it all together.  These are those people trapped by the world system, the world’s values and goals, the self-fufilled, self-satisfied, people who may even call themselves Christians but have no life in their human spirit – modern day white washed sepulchers pouring out judgment on others.

If you look at the average church today and the messages delivered over the past year, you will find little or no messages on prophecy, in spite of the fact that one quarter to one third of the Bible is prophetic dealing with the last days!  And if it is preached, the escapist message of the rapture.  Or you hear a patriotic message about how the church must support the American government because it supports Israel and is in a war with a billion Islamic terrorists.

You hear Tim LaHaye tell you about how wonderful it is that you will never be “left behind” or Dave Hunt propounding the glorious hope of the rapture or any number of patriotic prophets such as John Hagee who is leading the charge for Christians in support of Israel.  But in the average church today, you will likely hear nothing at all.  Prophecy is just too confusing and negative to talk about today.  The fact of the matter is that Christians and Christian leadership have completely missed the boat on “last days” prophecy – not necessarily because of a bad intention, but because they base their teaching on those saints who lived years ago and interpreted the Scripture as best as they could given the times they lived in.

We see that even Daniel was boggled by the visions that he saw.  Daniel 12:8-9 says,

8. “Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?”  And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end”.   Here is Daniel, author of probably one of the most specific and revealing prophetic books in the Old Testament, and he said, “although I heard, I did not understand”

and we would say today.  Of course he couldn’t.  Neither could any of the saints up to the present day.

The fact is that God told Daniel that the words “sealed till the time of the end”.  Years ago, I was a Captain in U.S. Army Intelligence and in the intelligence community, there is the concept of “need to know.”  You may be handed orders and told to not open them until you reach your destination, oh and, they are for “your eyes only.”  That means I am not supposed to open them until I arrive at the right place at the right time and they aren’t meant for anyone else to see.  That in essence is what God did.  He said that these prophecies are sealed until the time of the end.  You may study them, and speculate until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t make any sense until that time. 

It is easy to see how this would be true based on what we just said.  Obviously, prophecy won’t make sense until: first, God is ready to reveal it and second, the pieces – the nations – are in place so that it will make sense.  Until that historical moment is at hand and those saints that have a “need to know” are ready to receive that message, and God is ready, it will be a mystery – and not only a mystery but a source of speculation and error for those who continue to use the old interpretations to explain what is happening.

Let me ask you a few questions:

If we represent that generation that God is going to reveal the end times to because we are in it, we have a need to know.  If God wants to open up the prophetic Word to us, we had better get into it.  We have a need to know.  If we think it is too hard and too complicated, we had better forget that – we have a need to know.

I would encourage you to forget what you have been taught.  I have been a Christian for over 50 years and have seen a lot.  Believe me, what is being taught out there (the little that there is) is based on faulty assumptions.  You have to forget it and get into the Word yourself.  You have a need to know.  Not to be redundant, but I hope you get the idea.  What is being taught out there is not based on the current reality.  God wants to give you a fresh revelation because you have a need to know.

But why don’t others see this, you may ask?  Many do, but you have to get “outside the box” you have been brought up in.  Remember that in the last days, there will be a great apostasy and deception.  Please see the Introduction of the book “Recognizing Apostasy and Deception.”  The armies of hell are endeavoring to keep our minds shut and clouded.  The most important thing is for you to go to the Lord and ask Him to reveal these things to you.  Don’t take our word for it.  We are nothing anyway.  All I know is that ninety nine times out of a hundred, when people write to us, they don’t say, “thanks for the brand new revelation”.  They say, “you have confirmed what God has already been showing me”.

Unfortunately, all that is happening in Christian circles today is that they are circulating the same misinformation that has been around for years and years.  They teach it, write it, read it and pass it on.  People have a way of making up their minds and closing them to new information.  Our prayer is that you will be open and let the Holy Spirit lead you into all truth.  One of these days soon, this will become the most important “need to know” information in your life.  We are still in the seven years of plenty but the seven years of famine are coming.  We had better get ready.

Dene@the-tribulation-network.com