Study – Grow – Know

Wait! World Will End October 21st!

September 25, 2017 at 12:27 PM Leave a comment

Read an interesting article on Pulpit & Pen regarding the number of people over the years who have unsuccessfully predicted the Lord’s return, the end of the world, and/or both. It was an interesting article that you can read it here.

True to form with most of these individuals who completely ignore the Lord’s gentle rebuke found in Acts 1:7.

It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. – ESV

From that statement, Jesus changes subjects to let the disciples know what is truly important.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. – ESV

You see what Jesus did there? While looking forward to the triumphant return of our Lord and Savior is important, what’s more important for us now is to be fully equipped by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to be witnesses of God’s glory, grace, forgiveness, and salvation. That means living the life that best reflects the character of Jesus and it is not something we come by through an unhealthy preoccupation with the end of the world.

I cannot help but wonder whether or not so many Christians who are doing little else other than dreaming about the time of His return are actually serving self? How so, one might ask? The constant focus on Christ’s return tends to put our focus on ourselves. Oh sure, some might be “excited” enough to tell others that Jesus is returning soon and they’d better get ready, but more often than not, when I read articles by these false teachers/prophets, it’s all about a specific date and little else.

Once the Tribulation begins folks, Jesus essentially said it would be the worst time this planet has ever experienced or would ever experience (Matthew 24). We are now living in the Age of Grace. Once the Tribulation begins, while grace is certainly still going to be available, the entirety of that upcoming seven years will be known for God’s judgment pouring out on this earth. Christians who gloat that “we won’t be here for it!” have lost sight of the reason we are here on this planet in the first place.

I’m one who believes the Rapture will occur prior to the Tribulation. In that scenario, the Church is gone and so to is the Holy Spirit’s main vehicle for extending His grace to the unsaved of this world. While the book of Revelation reveals that multitudes will come to know Jesus during that time, who would want to wish those horrors on anyone?

In the article at Pulpit & Pen, they note that the main current prognosticator, David Meade, who claims to be a “Christian numerologist” of all things, indicates that the start of the end of the world was to occur this past Saturday, September 23. It had something to do with Planet X – Niburu – which NASA says doesn’t even exist.

But hey, if you don’t like that particular prognostication, just search the ‘Net to find someone you do agree with because they likely exist. There are people who believe that we are actually already in the Tribulation as well as others who claim to be the two witnesses of Revelation 11.

What’s more, as Pulpit & Pen noted, just about anyone and everyone who has stepped up to the plate with a prediction of the Lord’s return (and has been wrong), has always modified their predictions once the original date came and went. Pulpit & Pen’s article notes no fewer than seven individuals who made original predictions only to modify (and modify them some more), when their first prediction failed…er, they made a mistake in the math surrounding their original prediction.

Most are familiar with Harold Camping, who according to Pulpit & Pen, made a total of 13 failed predictions regarding the Lord’s return. In the end, many Camping aficionados literally sold everything, took up placards and gospel tracts, went to the streets and tried to help people understand what was coming. Those on the street who rejected the message can’t be looked on too badly considering the amount of people who have prophesied what turned out to be failed predictions. It’s very much like the boy who cried wolf. After a while, there’s little chance of believing and yet, eventually, the Lord is going to return!

David Meade, who predicted this past Saturday was going to be a day that would live in infamy, instead of admitting he was wrong (he was wrong), is doing what many who came before him have done. He’s simply modifying his original prediction. Now, instead of this past Saturday as Judgment Day, apparently, it’s going to happen on October 21st.

Christian numerologist David Meade predicted Sept. 23 as the date a mysterious Planet X would collide with Earth based largely on verses and numerical codes in the Bible.

But as the day drew nigh, Meade backed off on the prediction and said he was misunderstood.

Right, he was misunderstood. Okay, but there were numerous others who also supported the notion that this past Saturday, September 23, 2017 was very likely going to be the day. But these individuals have a way of distancing themselves from their own failed prophecies, whether it’s Steve Fletcher, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, Scott Clark, or a hundred other individuals who seem unable to take Jesus’ words to His disciples in Acts 1:7 in their most plain and ordinary sense.

It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

Seems pretty straightforward to me. Notice Jesus uses the phrase “times or seasons.” With those three words, He is covering all the bases. By using the word “times,” Jesus is saying “It is not for you to know months, days, hours, or minutes” and by using the word “seasons” He is saying that no one will know specifically which part of the year things will happen related to His coming Kingdom. It is so clear, it’s almost painful, yet this has not stopped people from bending themselves over backwards or into the shape of a pretzel to try to figure it out.

It reminds me of people who believe that salvation can be lost. They will quote John 10:27-29.

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. – KJV

They will then add to Jesus’ meaning by stating that Jesus says nothing about the person simply walking away from Him. This is absurd! Is the person stronger than Jesus? If a person is authentically saved (John 3), having received salvation through the new birth, they are no longer their own. They are literally owned by Jesus. He becomes the Good Shepherd and owner of all those sheep. He will not allow even one to walk away from Him! Sure, even a Christian can backslide and rebel. If that continues, the Lord reserves the right to take them out of this life early. Paul says that happens to Christians when they go to “sleep” (his word for death of the saints, which he never used for unsaved individuals; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:30). Yet people arrogantly (and wrongly), believe that the individual has some strange power allegedly through “free will” to literally and permanently walk away from God, fully rejecting His salvation once received. This is not taught in Scripture.

If Jesus wanted us to know when He was returning, He would have told us. As it is, He gave us certain signs that should only be used to help us understand that we are moving toward that Day of Days. For those who constantly focus on that coming day, all I can say is that you are not living the life that Jesus means for you to live.

We are left here after we become saved in order to live a life that promotes God’s glory, pleases Him, and introduces others to Jesus. In the end, we are to glorify God in all that we do. Too many though prefer the excitement of thinking that Jesus is coming back this Saturday, or that Saturday or that Good Friday.

It is hard enough to live the Christian life without providing fodder for the unbelieving world to increase their disdain for Christians and for God Himself. All true Christians will get to heaven. Most of us will have to go through the door of physical death to get there.

The saddest part to all of these false teachers/prophets? Even though they’re wrong – provably wrong – the people who follow them with seriously itching ears will continue to follow them and eat up every word they speak! It’s indescribably sad. I’ve frankly lost track of all those individuals who have falsely predicted the return of Jesus, the beginning of the Tribulation or just the end of the world. The ones mentioned in the Pulpit & Pen article did not simply predict one time and were then done. No, they kept modifying and modifying repeatedly.

I suspect David Meade will continue after October 21st comes and goes. Steve Fletcher has done as much as have numerous other individuals who are so caught up in their numerology, constellations, and horoscopes that they can see absolutely nothing else except continuing to predict the Rapture, the start of the Tribulation or the Lord’s return. It’s a shame. It’s sad.

All the prophets of old dealt with Israel and surrounding nations. It wasn’t that often that the exact time frame was provided by the prophet regarding upcoming events. On certain occasions, yes, Jeremiah predicted 70 years of captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 25) and of course, that truth is echoed (and even expanded), in the book of Daniel (Daniel 9). Most of the time, the prophets provided a sequence of events, but not necessarily specifically timed events. God plays those things close to His chest so that Satan doesn’t learn of them ahead of time.

It’s exciting to think that someone has learned the mind of God and figured out when He is going to do the things He said He was going to do. But isn’t it a bit like knowing when you’re going to die – day and time? Who wants that? I can’t imagine King Hezekiah enjoyed the prospect of counting down the last 15 years of his life, do you? Initially, he was overjoyed that he would get longer to live (Isaiah 38), but what a weight to carry around with you knowing that God had said He would extend the king’s life for 15 additional years. Who would not start to count that down and it would tend to overshadow the remaining years.

As Jesus also specifically stated, we should be concerned with today, this day, because there is enough evil in it.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. – Matthew 6:34 (ESV)

It is difficult enough to simply live in this day without living in tomorrow or the next day. That is exceedingly difficult to be so focused on our life in Christ that we are content to live in this day, not to fret over what we did yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. Yes, Jesus is speaking of how often people worry about things that never happen. The remedy for that is to trust the Lord and live in this day. It was how Jesus was so remarkably calm and at peace. He truly lived in the moment and did not allow the future to cloud His thinking.

Forget the prognosticators. Ignore them. Live for the Lord amidst the often mundane, non-exciting, daily living that we are called to live. Do all for His glory.

Entry filed under: alienology, Atheism and religion, christianity, Cultural Marxism, Demonic, devil worship, Emotional virtue, eternity, Maitreya, new age movement, Political Correctness, Politically Correct, Politics, Posttribulational Rapture, Pretribulational Rapture, rapture, Religious - Christian - End Times, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, Satanism, second coming. Tags: book of revelation, david meade, end of the world, niburu, numerologist, planet x, rapture, tribulation.