End Times Prophecy
What is commonly called Eschatology or End Times Prophecy is:
The theology of Biblical prophecy regarding the end of the world.
In many cases what is taught greatly stretches, and/or totally distorts, Biblical Truth. Therefore, what is considered to be Biblical Truth, and embraced by many Christians, is nothing more than the doctrines and precepts of men being peddled as God's Truth.
The term "Dispensational Eschatology" means:
End times prophecies dispensed in specific sequences and time periods.
Jesus said "it is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority."Acts 1:7.
AND JESUS MEANT WHAT HE SAID!
Editor's Note
Even though Jesus said that it was not for us to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority, He did give some general signs indicating the end of the age. Therefore, the world may actually be close to the end of this age, however, even if so we are still not to engage in divination by running to humans to tell us the future. We are also not to live in fear, we are to walk with God, read and learn His Word, live every day as if it could be the end, and most important; Trust God In Everything We Do!
(For more on this subject you can also read the "Free Book" on page 30)
The Western Christian Church
and
End Times Prophecy - Dispensational Eschatology
Today too many Christians turn to "End Times Prophecy" peddlers as their source of knowledge for future events.
The prophecy teachings and books, marketed by these people (both fiction & non-fiction), present huge complex ideologies on which too many Christians base their Biblical truth. However, one needs to remember that none of these prophecy peddlers has ever accurately predicted future events.
A better name for most of these prophecy peddlers would be “America’s Christian Psychics,” as they are leading their followers to embrace what God has told Christians not to do; seek after humans to tell them the future.
Even in Biblical times, in most cases, it was only in retrospect that Biblical Prophecy was ever truly understood. One of the best examples is that many people, at the time of Christ, including the religious leaders, studied the scriptures daily, but still never saw or understood the Messiah, and the Cross, until after the crucifixion.
The Western Christian Church is drunk with this foolishness, and modern Israel and Jews are often a key component of this end time prophecy deception.
The deception of dispensational eschatology is very prevalent within much of the Western Christian Church today. Sadly, this false teaching is now so entrenched in the Church that many Christians refuse to read or listen to anything that might challenge what they have been taught on the subject. In so doing far too many Christians are allowing themselves to be led astray and are acting like those in the cults who refuse to examine any evidence that would counter the teachings of their chosen human spiritual leaders.
Before we look at the fallacies, in what is called dispensational eschatology, we need to point out what this subject has to do with modern Israel and those who are called Jews today.
If one stands back and takes an overall look at what is taught in dispensational eschatology, what one sees is a picture of God elevating a small group of people today, called Jews, above everyone else in the world; they are, so to speak, God’s Old Testament genetic royalty. There are many reasons why this is not Biblically correct but for brevity we will only point out these two scriptures; Acts 10:34-35 & Galatians 3:28 & 29.
A large percentage of the Western Christian Church today embraces some form of what is called End Times Prophecy, and almost without exception, their End Times theology includes, and largely revolves around two key components; the modern nation of Israel, and modern Jews. Without modern Jews and modern Israel in their equation there would be no End Times Prophecy as it is currently taught.
Western Christians, from the mid 20th century on, have increasingly been led to hold modern Israel and modern Jews as special and sacred to God. Therefore, in the minds of many Christians, to criticize either Israel or Jews is to blaspheme God Himself. Israel, and to a lesser degree Jews, have become the modern Idols of the Western Christian Church.
There is an old saying: if you ever want to know what someone worships, just find what they adamantly defend and will not let you criticize. In many Western Christian churches, to criticize modern Israel or Jews is akin to spitting in the face of Jesus himself.
If these End Times teachings are Biblically correct then every Christian needs to embrace it as truth. However, if it is based on false assumptions, inaccuracies, half truths, deceptive lies, etc., then what is being taught is a lie, and as God's Word tells us, lies are of the Devil.
Although the seeds for dispensational eschatology began many years prior, the formation of modern Israel, in 1948, is when it truly began in earnest. From that year forward the Western Christian Church has increasingly become drunk with this idol worship deception.
The word “drunk” here is used as a metaphor; a comparative word (Isaiah 51:21). Just as those who are physically drunk have their minds blurred toward reality, so has much of the Western Christian Church had spiritual truth blurred by these false teachings.
Increasingly, since the formation of modern Israel, the Western Christian Church has created, and taught, many lies regarding who the Jews of the Bible were, and who they are today. Many of these lies have become rooted in our beliefs, and accepted as fact, mostly through repetition and nothing more.
Most of these lies have been taught, and spread, by honest well meaning people who thought they were presenting God's Truth, but were not. Moreover, much of what has been taught regarding End Times Prophecy is nothing more than the doctrines and precepts of men being peddled as God's truth.
As Christians we can embrace either God's eternal Truth or man's false delusions of truth, or as Jesus called it "the doctrines and precepts of men". Moreover we must always be ready to let go of, or adjust, our current beliefs if and when we get a clearer understanding of God's Truth.
At the Cross, the Christian Church became the end-times “Israel” of the Bible (See page 19). However, that truth has become badly distorted in much of the Western Christian Church today. Many Christians today have become deceived by the numerous end-time prophecy peddlers and prophecy booksellers.
These people are marketing and spreading what God has told Christians not to do. We are not to seek after humans to reveal the future. In the Old Testament God did reveal the future through men, but the prophecy peddlers of today are not like the anointed Old Testament prophets of God.
Much of the teaching from these prophecy peddlers & booksellers is motivated by financial gain, something that is not new to these times. False teachings have occurred throughout Church history, even the Apostles Peter and Paul wrote about it in 2 Peter 2:1-3 and Titus 1:10-11.
To see how prevalent End Times eschatology is today, all one needs to do is go to any Christian bookstore and look at the sheer number of books in the prophecy/rapture section. Even Christian radio seems to dedicate a large portion of their broadcast time to this subject. Entire denominations and many well-meaning Christian leaders have been deceived by these prophecy peddlers; teaching what effectively welcomes the spirit of antichrist into their church, and moves the Holy Spirit back prior to the Cross. They are also promoting a form of future event divination and, as such, they are teaching and promoting sin.
However, the real danger to the Church hasn't come from what Christians don’t know but rather what we do know that isn't biblically or historically true. Much of what we have been taught about modern Israel and Jews, for the last 70+ years, is a deceptive lie. Moreover, for the last 70+ years, virtually none of these prophecy end time scenarios has ever come true. Therefore every honest Christian should question why we still consider these people as knowledgeable teachers who can, or even will, accurately convey God's truth.
As Christians we therefore need to carefully, and personally, examine everything ourselves and not solely rely on what we have been told by men; whoever they may be. And yes that same principal even applies to anything you learn from this web site!
"examine everything carefully."
Dispensational Eschatology is a maze of false teaching largely based on misconceptions and lies.
Jews -
One of the foundational misconceptions in dispensational eschatology is that modern Jews are actual, traceable, descendents of Biblical Jews.
This is one of the most ignorant and biggest misconceptions currently embraced by the Western Christian Church today.
For anyone to trace a Jewish ancestry, back to ancient Israel, they would need to have accurate genealogical records going back at least two thousand years. In the Bible, the recorded genealogies of Jesus, in Matthew 1:1-16 & Luke 3:23-38, gives us a good example of how these genealogical records would need to be.
No one can trace their ancestry back that far today, NO ONE! If God had intended any group to have a traceable lineage, back to the time of Christ, the necessary records would be there today.
Therefore no person alive today has a legitimate, traceable, claim to being a descendant of a Biblical Israelite. There are no traceable descendents of Biblical Israelites or Jews alive today. NONE. Therefore to form any End Times scenario around any group of people claiming to be Jews, is historically baseless and foolish. Page 7 & Page 8, and to some degree Page 9, of this web site covers this subject in greater detail.
Israel -
In 1948 Israel was founded as a Jewish, Jesus rejecting state, with Orthodox Judaism as its only truly accepted religion. Modern Israel is also the only nation in world history that was ever founded around the spirit of antichrist (1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:3 & 2 John 7). Many nations have embraced the spirit of antichrist but only one, the modern Jewish state of Israel, has ever been founded around it. Moreover, as Jesus said, to reject him is to reject God the Father. Therefore, according to that principal, taught and conveyed by Jesus himself, modern Israel was established as a Godless antichrist nation (and Israel still rejects Jesus today).
Furthermore, open Christian proselytizing has never been allowed in Israel. Contrary to what most Western Christians believe, Jesus is not welcome in Israel. Therefore to consider modern Israel as a special sacred nation of God, and then to form any End Times scenario around it, is baseless foolishness. See Page 11, evangelizing Israel, of this web site for more on this subject.
Jerusalem -
In dispensational eschatology Jerusalem is considered to be God's sacred city but those who teach that ignore what God's word actually says. Moreover, they infect the Church with the misconceptions they embrace, and refuse to repent even when God's truth is clearly pointed out to them. Page 14 of this web site addresses the subject of Biblical Jerusalem in detail and here are a few key points:
When Christians embrace earthly Jerusalem today, as any kind of sacred city, it goes directly against God's word. In God's Word earthly Jerusalem represents slavery where spiritual Jerusalem represents new life. Moreover, and as Jesus prophesied, the Temple, which represented Judaism and Jerusalem, was utterly destroyed within one generation. This occurred in A.D. 70 and it fulfilled God's warning to the sons of Israel, as recorded in Deuteronomy 6: 15, where God warned that if they were unfaithful He would wipe them off the face of the earth.
Book of Daniel -
Note: The Book of Daniel was written at the time in history when God first began to call the Israelites Jews. God first used the name Jew while they were in Babylonian captivity (about 600 years before Christ). By researching God's Word we find that they were never called Jews prior to that.
Daniel 9: 24-27, is an Old Testament prophecy that is often used by the end time prophecy peddlers. It is also one area of Biblical prophecy that was fulfilled at the time of Christ and has nothing to do with modern Israel or Jews.
God’s Word, in Daniel 9:24-27, tells about future events taking place over a period of time represented by a reference of weeks of years. Physically (and probably even spiritually), they have all been fulfilled with Jesus and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Jesus fulfilled the six prophecies that were to be finished for the people and the holy city:
1. Finish the transgression.
2. Make an end of sin.
3. Make atonement for iniquity.
4. Bring in everlasting righteousness.
5. Seal up vision and prophecy.
6. Anoint the most holy place.
Moreover, Daniel 9:2 says it would be 70 years “for the completion of the destruction of Jerusalem,” and that happened in A.D. 70.
All of this was fulfilled at the time of Christ and has nothing to do with modern Israel or Jews.
Book of Revelation -
The book of Revelation is without question the main area of the Bible from which the prophecy peddlers concoct most of their end times scenarios. Knowing that, this question needs to be asked; is the book of Revelation a book of prophecy for the final days at the end of the age, or is it primarily something much different?
The first five words of Revelation states what the Book of Revelation is about. It says nothing about it being a book of prophecy for the end of the age, rather it clearly says it is; "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." Therefore, since God's deeper spiritual principals are often conveyed through symbolic expressions, i.e. Jesus baptizes with fire (Luke 3:16), Jesus has a sharp two-edge sword in his mouth (Rev 1:16), Olive trees and lamp stands are prophets clothed in sackcloth (Rev 11: 3-4), etc, it can be said that Revelation, through symbolism, is about revealing the total manifestation, of the salvation through Jesus, in deep spiritual detail.
Moreover, it also states that it is revealing "the things which must shortly take place" (Rev 1:1). Since Revelation was written almost 2000 years ago it would be quite a stretch to consider the majority of those things as set to only take place 2000 years later.
Therefore, it appears that Revelation isn't, primarily, a book of end time prophecy but rather what God's Word says that it is, mainly " The Revelation of Jesus Christ."
The sin of Divination -
Much of what is called end times prophecy is a form of divination, where Christians are running to men to tell them the future.
Here are three passages in the Bible where God's Word clearly condemns divination:
1Sam 15:23 "For rebellion is as the sin of divination."
Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.
Lev 19:26 'You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying.
A New temple in Jerusalem -
Some Christian groups support the current Orthodox Jewish movement to build a new resurrected temple in Jerusalem.
Why any Christian organization would consider this to be anything other than the foolish endeavors of men, defies Christian logic. It also begs the question if they even understand what the salvation through Jesus was really about.
If some group ever erects a copy of the old Jewish Temple, what could it possibly contain? The Spirit of God will not be in it, and the humans that would be called priests would administer nothing. They could never usurp the power from Jesus who is now the final High Priest. Nothing spiritually true can ever be done, in a reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem, that has not already been fulfilled in Jesus. He, as the symbolic sacrificial lamb, completed the final Passover sacrifice once and forever (Hebrews 7:27).
Taking scripture out of context - One example -
The following are God's words and some of them, or even all of them, are often attributed to events that are still in the future. But, what does God's word say? Has it already occurred?
"AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;
EVEN ON MY BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.
'AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE.
'THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.
'AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED." (Acts 2:17-21)
In Acts 2:15-16 the apostle Peter says that this prophecy from Joel was fulfilled at Pentecost. Therefore to attribute this solely to future event prophecy is to disregard what God's word actually says.
Examples such as this are common in the teachings of the "End Time Prophecy" peddlers.
Conclusion:
This false end-time teaching called dispensational eschatology is by no means benign; the ramifications of it are very serious. For one, it is causing too many Christians (and their churches) to have a defeatist escapist attitude.
Many Christians even look on the tragic events that are happening in the world with anticipation and a subtle form of inward glee (and sometimes not so subtle or inward), because they think it is fulfillment of some specific biblical prophecy and therefore their rapture is imminent. Pointing to these tragic events also feeds the ego of one’s human nature that says, “See, I told you so. The Bible is right and so am I.” Yet, even though the Bible (in its original text) is infallible, it does not mean that every human interpretation of it is correct, and in the case of dispensational eschatology much of it is satanic deception from the father of lies.
In closing let's not forget the words of Jesus:
"it is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority."
Acts 1:7
Permission to reprint this page in whole or in part is granted providing credit is given to this site.
Again & Final Comment:
Even though Jesus said that it was not for us to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority, He did give some general signs indicating the end of the age. Therefore, the world may actually be close to the end of this age, however, even if so we are still not to engage in divination by running to humans to tell us the future. We are also not to live in fear, we are to walk with God, read and learn His Word, live every day as if it could be the end, and most important; Trust God In Everything We Do!
NOTE:
Links to Bible references are from the web site, https://classic.biblegateway.com/passage/ It is an excellent reference to God's Word and available to anyone with access to a computer. They have no connection to our site nor do they endorse us in any manner.