The Scoffing Church, 2

by Dene McGriff

Prophecy is of no Concern to Us

"Scholars" believe the question is purely academic. The church has been called to evangelize so the emphasis every Sunday is the gospel message and a "seeker friendly" church. You go into the average church today and you get Bible teaching or topical sermons with little mention of prophecy even though it represents a third of the Bible! Frankly they scoff at people who are into Bible prophecy for any of the reasons mentioned above.

Underlying it is a weariness and wariness with the subject. Frankly, who cares? It either happened already as Hank Hanegraaff claims, or we'll know when we rapture. To get caught up in prophecy is to dabble in conjecture, to play a guessing game. It is ignoring the problems of our times - the culture wars, immorality, poverty, and economic uncertainty.

We have way too many things to concern us than to speculate on difficult to understand subjects like prophecy - ten headed monsters, beasts coming out of the sea, plagues - way too much to wrap our heads around.

At the level of the people (the laity in contrast to the professionals), it is all they can do to make it to church once or twice a week. They are struggling so much in their everyday lives, striving to keep their jobs (amongst layoffs and furloughs), pay their bills, get the kids to soccer, swimming, baseball, mow the lawn, play with the dog, spend time with the wife, keep up with the latest TV...and they have time to worry about the Second Coming?

They can barely make it from one day to the next! Life has become overwhelming! Besides, Christians have been talking about His coming for years and where is He? Give me a break! You can't just sit on your duff and wait for something to happen when they've been playing the same waiting game for the past 2,000 years!

This generation is suffering from prophecy fatigue. Here we have all the arrows pointing in the right direction and nada, nothing, zero, zip! Hold on a minute. What is the main characteristic of the last days? Deception! Things are not as they appear to be. The whole thing has been rigged to throw us off (just ask Dracma). How does this deception work?

Why Prophecy is Not Understood?

Few clergy understand prophecy because, unfortunately, most Bible Schools and Seminaries deprecate the topic, or whatever they've been taught was within the context of a world-view (e.g., "Colonial Europe") so out-dated as to be utterly irrelevant given the immediate plight of present history.

Every generation of Christians tried to understand Bible prophecy through the prism of their own world view (political, economic, and cultural) which has resulted, for most, in a Eurocentric interpretation of Scripture. Doug Krieger has done some fabulous in-depth analysis on this "stagnant phenomenon." Please see The Prophetic Sequence or Antichrist: Reflections of the Desolator or my work on Recognizing Deception.

Christian scholars have made huge mistakes trying to understand prophecy because the timing wasn't right. In one of the most prophetic books of the Old Testament written about 600 B.C., it says, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end" (Daniel 12:9). In military intelligence, this is called "need to know."

Daniel was given incredible visions of the last days, but then tells the readers that the words are sealed until the time of the end. What does that mean? It simply means that these prophecies will not make any sense until the time of the end. Try and interpret them during 19th Century Europe and Napoleon is surely the Antichrist, mid 20th Century and it is Hitler and so on. (Again, please see Doug's work on the Antichrist). There have been more theories than you can shake a stick at.

If one is to understand last days prophecy, you need to be sure you are living in the last days before you try and figure it out. This accounts for why so many people feel prophecy is either irrelevant or completely discredited because the time was not right. At the very least, most Christians would agree that Israel has to go back to the land and become a nation with Jerusalem as her capital.

Now we can begin to understand but even then, events are unfolding daily and certain prophesy may not be understood until things happen. We look at the Bible and see that there is obviously a huge conflict brewing in the Middle East which culminates in the Gog Magog War. Again, please see Doug's thorough work on "Antichrist and the Gog Magog War."

Each generation needs to take a fresh look at prophecy, especially the last one. When you are looking at a page on the computer - say, Bloomberg.com, the numbers are changing so rapidly, you can't see them unless you refresh your screen. We need to constantly refresh our prophetic screen in the light of the Bible and the world around us. The closer we get to the "end" we will either see more clearly or be more deceived than ever.

Our preconceptions control what we see and how we see it. Teachings have been handed down by respected clergy. Who are we to question them? They are the experts, not us. The problem is, they have to keep their congregations happy. If they were to start sharing scary prophecy or unpopular teachings, they wouldn't have a job.

An example is our attitude toward our country which is revered from the pulpit. Most pastors teach that America was chosen by God to bless the nations - even going so far as to suggest that we are "God's redeemer nation." There is a certain mystique about America among Christians that America was chosen as a city set on a hill to be the light to the world and, as with any myth, there is a bit of truth and a lot of error in that thinking.

I was at a banquet last week and the speaker almost transitioned from British to "American Israelism" saying that Israel had lost the promise and we inherited their promises. A less popular position held by well known preachers such as Dave Wilkerson believe America needs to be judged for its many sins. Besides, America is a problem for those who are into prophecy. It isn't mentioned and therefore should not exist.

Like Carthage, America must be destroyed, wiped off the prophetic map because it just doesn't fit! In other words, the City Set on a Hill, that "Golden Cup in the hand of the Lord" has become nothing more than a vile and decrepit type of Babylon the Great, a Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth! Wow!

Wilkerson ought to know - no wonder he's fed up to here witnessing every day Babylon on the Hudson's degradations from the middle of Time's Square, NYC. Only thing she's good for is judgment - if the Wall Street bandits don't get you, then raunchy materialism, consumerism, and pure, unadulterated filth will! Yes, if there were something "full of abominations" it's Babylon the Great...so lets get rid of this once "City set on a hill" which ought to be hid from us all!