Reigning through Grace: FAILED PROPHECIES AND THE END TIMES

This is what a lack of understanding of the Biblical end times has gotten us. We look foolish and make Jesus like a liar. I dug this from some archives from some people watching us. They are failed prophecies about the 2nd coming and the end of the world.

1914 - Charles Russell, after being exposed to the teachings of William Miller, founded his own organization - the Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1914 Russell predicted the return of Jesus Christ.

1914 - End of World; Charles T. Russel, Jehovah's Witnesses; later explained that Michael (ie Jesus) had defeated Satan in heaven

1957-APR: - The Watchtower magazine, quoted (1) a pastor from California, Mihran Ask, as saying in 1957-JAN that "Sometime between April 16 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched.'

1967 - When the city of Jerusalem was reclaimed by the Jews in 1967, prophecy watchers declared that the "Time of the Gentiles" had come to an end.

1981 - Lindsey boldly declared that "The Rapture" would occur before Dec. 31, 1981, based on Christian prophesy, astronomy and a dash of ecological fatalism. He pegged the date to Jesus' promised to return to Earth a generation after Israel's rebirth. He also made references to the "Jupiter Effect," a planetary alignment that occurs every 179 years, that would supposedly lead to earthquakes and nuclear plant meltdowns.

1988- The book "88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988" came out only a few months before the event was to take place. What little time the book had, it used effectively. By the time Sept 11-13 rolled around, whole churches were caught up in the excitement the book generated. Finally, the days of destiny dawned and then set. No Jesus.

1989 - After the passing of the deadline in 88 Reason's, the author, Edgar Whisenaunt, came out with a new book called "89 Reasons why the Rapture is in 1989." This book sold only a fraction of his prior release.

1993- If the year 2000 is the end of the 6000 year cycle, then the rapture must take place in 1993, because you would need 7 years of the tribulation. This was the thinking of a number of prophecy writers.

1994 - Harold Camping in his book "Are You Ready?" predicted the Lord's return in Sept 1994. The book was full of methods that added up Bible numbers up to 1994 as the date of Christ's return.

1997 - Stan Johnson of the Prophecy Club saw a 90 percent chance that the tribulation would start Sept 12, 1997. He bases his conclusion on several end-time signs. The date of September 12 was chosen by Johnson because it will be Jesus' 2000th birthday and it will also be the day of atonement, although not what is currently the Jewish Day of Atonement. In his last vision he noticed the book of life only had one page left. Doing some rough calculating, Johnson and friends figured the latest time frame for the completion of the book of life would have to be September 1997.

1999 and 2000 – These were the years with the greatest predictions about the end times. I can’t post all.

1999-DEC-19 - Sun Magazine listed a prediction of "Bible expert" Dotson Meade. He predicts that "something will happen that brings about the war which will end the world as we know it... There will be a vicious cycle of storms and earthquakes that lead to the final battle the world has awaited."

2000 - Rapture; Implied in Hal Lindsay's revision. 1st said 1948+40=1988; Later Israel did not have land until 1967 War; 1967+40=2007; Rapture seven years earlier.

2001 - Jack Van Impe Ministries sponsors the largest Evangelical Christian program devoted to end-time prophecy. In his home page, he discusses his book "On the Edge of Eternity" in which he predicts that the year 2001 will "usher in international chaos such as we've never seen in our history." He predicts that in 2001, and the years following, the world will experience "drought, war, malaria, and hunger afflicting entire populations throughout the [African] continent...By the year 2001, there will be global chaos." Islam will become much larger than Christianity. (That would take a sudden growth spurt; Islam is currently followed by 19% of the world's population vs 33% for Christianity). A one-world church will emerge; it will be "controlled by demonic hosts." Temple rituals (presumably including animal sacrifice) will resume in Israel.

Why are missing it? Because we are judging based on current Israel, earthly ecosystem, natural disasters instead of what The Word says. The end of the age in the bible was about the end of the Mosaic age which occurred 40 years after died and ascended to heaven. He said it would be fulfilled in that generation (Matt 23 & 24). It ended in AD70 when Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed.

The 8 signs given in Matthew 24 must all be in place to get know the return of the Lord. These sign fell in context within from the period of 66-70AD. A missing period in church history.

Jonathan welton in his book Raptureless stated the following which is worthy of deep consideration.

“In 1970, Hal Lindsey wrote The Late Great Planet Earth. He sold approximately 35 million copies and deeply affected a generation of pastors and leaders growing up in the Jesus People Movement of the early 1970s. The lasting fruit of this book has created a generation that believes more in Lindsey's mythology than understanding what the Bible and history actually teach. In his book, Hal Lindsey concluded that, since the United States was not mentioned in Daniel or Revelation, the U.S. would not be a major player on the world scene when the Great Tribulation happened. Based on his interpretation of various biblical texts, he also presumed that the European Economic Community (now the European Union) would become what he termed the "United States of Europe." This union would have ten members and would become, according to Lindsey, the revived Roman Empire, ruled by the antichrist, needed to fulfill Bible prophecy. Currently, the European Union has twenty-seven members.

Later, Hal Lindsey released another book titled The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, implying that the battle of Armageddon would happen soon. He even went so far as to say, "The decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it," and he suggested that the U.S. would be destroyed by a surprise Soviet attack. Not surprisingly, because of Lindsey's adamant insistence that the 1980s would usher in the Great Tribulation, the book was quietly taken out of print in the early 1990s. Lindsey, however, would not give up. In the early 1990s, he published Planet Earth—2000 A.D., which warned Christians that they should not plan to still be living on earth by the year 2000.

Throughout his several books, Lindsey assumed that the Cold War would continue until the end and, in fact, play a significant part in the unfolding of end-time events. He even named Russia as the famous Gog of Revelation 20:8. Likewise, Lindsey believed the hippie culture of the 1960s and '70s would become the dominate culture in the U.S., ultimately leading to the immorality and false religion "prophesied" to arise in the endtimes by various Bible passages.Clearly, none of these prophecies have come to pass, and many have been proven wrong due to the dates ascribed to them, yet Lindsey is still lauded by many Christians as a great modern prophet.

Then in 1995, the first of the mega-bestselling book series, Left Behind, was released. Due to the paranoia and fear regarding Y2K, Christians were primed for rapture fever. When all was said and done, Y2K was all hype, and 60 million copies of Left Behind had been sold (as well as three terrible feature length films that were similar in nature and theology to the Thief in the Nightmovie series of the 1970s).

The teaching that Jesus' words in Matthew 24, the prophecies of Daniel, and the Book of Revelation are all referring to future events is a new concept, which came as a reaction to the Reformation in the 50s. It became deeply rooted in the American Evangelical sphere and has spread in Africa and Europe.

This teaching does not align with Church history or Scripture.” The error of the dating of the Lord’s return was not in line with what the 1^st and 2^nd century Christians believed and preached. The church in general has done little to question the kind of eschatology that was handed to her in recent times. It is our responsibility to research this aspect in line with the new age of age of grace and present the gospel without confusion. Where there is confusion, there is no rest. When there is no rest, we can’t find grace.

Until we properly divide the word of truth, the workman will have every reason to be ashamed. The cross is the dividing line in history. One covenant ended there and it was the last days of the Mosaic age for the generation. It has come and gone. Now it is time to love the greater glory of the New covenant without the bondage of fear hanging over our shoulders.