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The War Against Bible Prophecy
by
Jan
Markell
I wasn’t born in the Bronze Age so I still recall wonderful prophecy
conferences in my Baptist church some twenty years ago. But in the last ten to
fifteen years the message that the King is coming has become a downer with
implications that the issues surrounding it are “gloom and doom.” When did
you last hear it preached in your church? When did you last hear radio or TV
preachers talk about it unless they were an eschatology-related ministry?
Recently a Christian publishing house editor advised me that he had learned that
most Christian houses were dropping newly-submitted Bible prophecy books with a
few exceptions. LaHaye/Jenkins will likely continue to sell as well as Mark
Hitchcock through Multnomah, and sadly, Hannegraff’s false Preterism books.
Harvest House seems open only to Dr. J. Randall Price on Temple issues. Teachers
like Hal Lindsey, Grant Jeffrey, and Dave Hunt have resorted to forming their
own publishing houses.
I was also informed that some of the finest seminaries and Bible
colleges/Institutes that shall remain unnamed but known for true Dispensational
belief are backing down. The two most prominent with the spokesmen at the head
of these organizations are now suggesting that we cannot know if this is
Israel’s final re-gathering. Perhaps they will be scattered again. What kind
of preachers will these outfits be turning out? Eschatology will finally be
thrown on the ash heap of history. But you can be sure they will push the
“seeker movement” and “church growth movement” which often downplays
prophecy and for that matter, solid Bible teaching of any kind.
As my friend Bill Koenig reports on his site, and has had the story posted for
months at www.watch.org, one hundred million church attendees in America who are
a part of Catholic or Mainline Protestant churches have no understanding of
eschatology. The silence in these churches is bad enough but even worse is the
fact that false eschatological doctrines emanate out of these denominations:
Amillenialism, Replacement Theology, Preterism (all prophecy happened in 70 AD
with the destruction of Jerusalem), Dominion/Kingdom Now/Latter Rain, and more.
Over the last two to three years I have received hundreds of emails about this.
Here are just a couple:
“It is surprising to me that there are so many people I have tried to talk to
about prophecy who have brushed it off by saying that they consider it
‘doomsday talk.’ It is difficult to get anyone to even talk about it. Even
my family doesn’t want to hear about it.”
“Your Web site is one of the few avenues available to someone like me who has
been awaiting the Lord’s return since the onset of my Christian walk 28 years
ago. My pastor will deal with it, but gets hardly any response. It is
demoralizing for him and the ‘remnant.’”
So here we are likely in the last of the last days and the topic has vanished
even though the “signs of the times” are screaming at us. As expressed
above, try to share that and expect the ice box treatment.
The Bible predicted that in II Peter. In the last days people would scoff and
say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” And naturally the devil loathes
the topic because eschatology spells out his doom in deadly detail, pun
intended. Thus he is waging a war against Bible prophecy to finish off
eschatology, make it sound irrelevant, depressing, boring, and more and even
many evangelical pastors seem to agree.
So hang on to your prophecy resources because if this “ban on Bible
prophecy” intensifies as it likely will, you’ll have to re-read your old
books and articles as new information may be hard to find other than on Internet
sites. But don’t give up! Keep spreading the truth. If just a few get their
eyes opened it will be a victory.
The secular world has noticed and is running many prophecy-related TV specials
in the last year, particularly since hurricane Katrina. Of course they have the
issues all skewed, but isn’t it tragic that they have more curiosity than our
churches today?
In the meantime prophecy lovers, keep looking up, for our Redeemer truly does
draw nigh (Luke 21:28).
