1/10/98

THE PROPHESY
There are myriads of predictions these days ranging all the way from
the Bible Codes to the Hopi prophecies. Some of the prophecies don't
seem to be saying the same things or coming from the same spirit, but
there surely is something for everyone. I suppose it depends on who you
are that determines what it is you see. The conundrum of prophecies
relating to the world's end, as so many of them are, is in the prophecies
themselves. Suppose a prophet these days predicts the end of the world
on March 30, 1998. The prophet predicts that the world will not be in
existence after that time. Some will laugh, others will fear and all will
wait to see if their particular idea of the prophecy comes to pass. If the
world did come to an end as predicted, and everyone died, no one would
care about the prophecy since no one would live to think about it. If the
world did not come to an end, then everyone would know it was not a
true prophecy. Either way, it does not seem to make much difference. On
the other hand, if the prophecy is genuine and will come to pass unless
the people repent, there still remains a dilemma. If the people do not
repent and they all die, no one is around to worry about it. If the people
do repent and are granted a reprieve, then the obvious temptation is to
believe that the prophet was false since it did not come to pass. You may
remember the story of Jonah. Why is it these days there are so many
prophets and so many dates and nothing appears to have transpired? End
of the world prophecies have been consistently forthcoming since the
Millerite movement in the 1800's. The Internet is awash with prophecies
and some of the prophets are apologizing for a date that was missed or a
prophecy they made that did not come to pass. The Millerites who
prophesied the end of the world for 1844 had to rethink their prediction
when it did not come to pass as they had envisioned. They said they didn't
interpret their prophecy right and I think there is a good lesson in this. In
history the prophet often does not fully realize the meaning of his own
words. In the case of John the Baptist it was so. As you may recall, John
was not sure if Jesus was the Messiah after he had the opportunity to sit
in a dungeon for a time. He sent a servant to ask Jesus if he was the real
Messiah after all. John held the popular view that the Messiah would be a
great and powerful leader who would free the nation from Roman
domination. He was prophesying the coming of the Messiah without fully
grasping what that meant. Religious folk often make the mistake of
thinking prophets are omniscient. They are not. True prophets hear the
voice and speak the meaning as clearly as they can, but often need greater
understanding. False prophets, on the other hand, prophesy from the
wrong spirit. These days this false spirit is predicting that everything will
be okay, after all, and everyone will see the light and live happily ever
after. False prophets predict a solution that does not require a change in
character. Perhaps a space ship will come and deliver us or some other
such coming. The prophets of God have never spoken in this way. To the
world it has always been intriguing to know the future. Everyone seems
to want to know what is going to happen and when. From time to time we
hear predictions of a coming "big one." Ninety-nine percent of the time
the prophets from Jean Dixon to Edgar Cayce are much more wrong than
right. New Agers are holding hands and closing their eyes imagining all
sorts of wonderful prophetic possibilities for the year 2 000 or 2 001.
UFO's are on the mind of a lot of people these days. One of those crafts
was hiding behind Hale-Bopp, someone said, and off went a group of
prophets to meet it. No one else saw the craft, but the group said that they
knew it was there. No one knows for sure if the group went off into space
since their bodies are still here. We hear of those who have spoken to
Mother Mary or have seen her face somewhere. Others cannot see the
face. Some have seen the sun dancing in the sky, others thought the sun
was doing just about right. Men often desire an exciting, external
apparition. Men follow any sort of sign or wonder as proof that their God
exists. God does not prove Himself with signs and wonders. They may
indeed happen, but they prove nothing. When the Red Sea parted did the
Israelites believe? The record states that two or three did. David Koresh
prophesied that the government would come and attack the Branch
Davidians and burn them all up. He was right about that. He prophesied
the absolute truth and it happened just as he said, but very few will
believe he was a true prophet. If one predicts some catastrophe and it
comes to pass, doesn't that make one a true prophet? Maybe not. If a man
predicts something and it doesn't come to pass, doesn't that make him a
false one? Maybe not. That is what Jonah argued with God about, you
may remember. He did not want to be perceived as a false prophet. Well,
he was and, no, he wasn't. Nineveh didn't get destroyed like he said it
would, but then they repented. There is an interesting aside here. David
Koresh and his followers were under siege about fifty-one days. That was
the amount of time Masada was under siege by the Romans. The
believers at Masada were torched, as were the Branch Davadians and it
all took place at Passover time as with the believers at Masada. It seems
like these things just keep coming around. But not many people are aware
of that.
 NOT AS ONE THINKS
The problem with prophecy is that the fulfillment of the prophecy is
most often not like the hearer of the prophecy thinks. John the Revelator
wrote the book of Revelation in the Bible. John said, " I saw a beast rise
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns ... and all the world
wondered after the beast." He wrote about this beast 1 900 years ago. I
don't know about you, but I haven't seen a beast coming up out of the sea,
have you? At least not the kind of beast the mind first imagines. John said
this beast was red or scarlet-colored. Some say, Oh, that is in the future.
After nineteen hundred years that sounds like a rather convenient excuse.
Others have decided it was a symbolic prophecy. I sometimes think that
all prophecies are that way. I too think it was symbolic. Jesus prophesied
He would raise from the dead after three days. The problem with this
proving anything is that when He raised, He did not go back to Pilot and
prove that He rose. Neither did He appear to Herod. In fact, the record
states that He appeared to some believers, but that was all. Now the
others who were not believers can all wonder if the believers made it all
up, because no one saw the resurrection but them, and, even some of
them doubted the event. The record did state that some Roman soldiers
saw it, but they seemed willing enough to forget about it if they had seen
it. It seems that God doesn't need to prove anything. He will speak and
those who believe can take benefit from hearing Him and those who don't
hear will not take benefit. Light is only good for those who have eyes.
Those who are spiritually blind get no light, even though it may be
shining everywhere. Prophecy is somewhat in the eyes of the beholder. I
have been amazed to see how some prophecies have come to pass as the
prophets had said, while, all the time, the prophets themselves could not
see the event. They thought they were mistaken. Again, John was in this
group and Jesus said he was the greatest of the prophets. An example of
this can be found in the Adventist prophet Ellen White. She prophesied
over one-hundred years ago that Satan would personally come and
deceive the people at some future time making the world believe he was
the Messiah. She put it this way:

Satan will continue to act a double part. Appearing to be the

dispenser of great blessings and divine truths, he will, by his
lying wonders, hold the world under his control; and at the
same time he will indulge his malignity by causing distress
and destruction, and will accuse God's people as the cause of
the fearful convulsions of nature and the strife and
bloodshed among men which are desolating the earth. Thus
he will excite to greater intensity the spirit of hatred and
persecution against them. God never forces the will or the
 conscience; but Satan will employ the most cruel measures
to control the consciences of men, and to secure worship to
himself. And this work of compulsion is always in favor of
human creeds and laws, and in defiance of God's holy law."
4SP 444.

While this prophecy has come to pass, most Adventists, along with
everyone else, would not believe that it has. They look for some
personage to be quite literal walking through the streets killing some and
saving others, but, as stated, prophecy more often takes a symbolic turn.
Let me try that prophecy out again with a little help from the spiritual
department. "Satan [whose spirit rules in the United Nations] will
continue to act a double part. Appearing to be the dispenser of great
blessings and divine truths [such as in feeding hungry children around the
world and saying we must convert our swords into plowshares], he will,
by his lying wonders [wonderful good deeds around the world], hold the
world under his control and at the same time he will indulge his malignity
by causing distress and destruction [such as in Iraq and Africa] and will
accuse God's people as the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature and
the strife and bloodshed among men which are desolating the earth. [This
has been accomplished by promoting the doctrine that belief in God
causes things like the Spanish Inquisition and torture which accompanied
the Roman Catholic Church during its time of ruling the nations. True
Christian faith these days is blamed for just about everything]. Thus he
will excite to greater intensity the spirit of hatred and persecution against
them. [This occurs in the places around the globe where Christians are
being exterminated by offended mobs]. God never forces the will or the
conscience; but Satan [the U. N.] will employ the most cruel measures to
control the consciences of men, and to secure worship to himself [such as
sanctions and political measures which ruin economies and cause the
death of millions]. And this work of compulsion is always in favor of
human creeds and laws, and in defiance of God's holy law" [The law of
the state is favored over the law of God. The U. N. ,as well as the U. S. ,
does not regard conscience when it contradicts state or U. N. law]. So
there you have it. One fulfilled prophecy from God's point of view, yet,
the "whole world follows after the beast." It seems few have eyes to see
prophecies when you have to look below the surface to see them. Most
men think it is too much work to understand underlying meanings of
events.
 PREDICTING THE END
Just a few years ago, there were many and various individuals
predicting the end of the world. That happened in the Spring and Fall of
1994. This 1994 date was chosen by various entities because it was the
end of the age and, also, biblical numerology seemed to point to this date
along with other signs and wonders. The age ended on Yom Kippur, 1994.
I called one such prophet scientist who worked at the Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory. He was depressed because the world hadn't come
to an end as he thought according to his biblical calculations. I tried to
reason with him and asked him if he had considered the possibility that it
had. Well, he looked down at his shirt and saw he was still here, so
considering that possibility didn't seem an option to him. It all depends on
what one considers the world going on entails. It seems to me the world
has ended if one has eyes to see it. When every move one makes is
monitored and one is not permitted to live according to his conscience
any longer, the world as it was created to work has ended. It ended just as
he said, but it did not look just like he thought. This is probably the
reason Adventists don't see the fulfillment of the words of their prophet.
They look in the wrong place. They have no eyes to see. This was
precisely the problem at the time of Christ. Everyone was expecting a
Messiah, but when He came, He did not look as they thought He should,
so He was not recognized. This is precisely the way prophecy works.
When the prophecy is given, it sounds very concrete and easily
understood, but when it is fulfilled, it can only be seen with the eyes of
heaven. There is another prophecy given by a Richard Kieninger, who is
founder of the Adelphi Organization. He said:

After Armageddon and Doom's Day less than a tenth of the

world's population will be alive to see the year 2001 A.D.
The intensity of the earthquakes will be greater than has ever
been measured by scientists. All the volcanoes of the world
will burst forth and a host of new ones will join them. Vast
quantities of heavy gases like carbon dioxide and sulfur
dioxide will be hurtled into the stratosphere by the erupting
volcanoes. The gases will become super-cooled in the outer
reaches of the atmosphere and then descend upon the surface
of the Earth in convection currents of such magnitude that
hurricane winds will howl over the face of the world. The
skies will be filled with dust and choking fumes so that even
the sun will not be seen directly for months. Walls of water a
thousand feet high will roar across the submerging land and
sweep away everything before them. Sea and land animals,
vegetation, silt, and sand will be shredded into jumbled
 muck. Where soil is not washed away, it will be covered by
boulders and stone, and the newly exposed sea bottom will
be worthless for growing crops. The stench of decay and the
bleak destruction everywhere will drive many human
survivors hopelessly insane. Those who have the strength of
their convictions will retain their civilization and rebuild the
world. Those people, of course, will comprise the Kingdom
of God, and they will be brought through the awful
destruction soon to be visited upon the world. Doom's Day
will not be without advantages, for it ushers in the Golden
Age. After October, 2001 A.D. the Kingdom of God shall be
formed.

This prophecy has some similarities to the prophecies given by the

Adventist prophet. Ellen White said these events would come after the
appearing of the Satan [U.N.] mentioned earlier on in this editorial. The
difference with this prophet is that there will be no humans left on the
earth then. There will be no earthly kingdom of God. At the time of Christ
the people all hoped there would be an earthly kingdom. Today many of
the false prophets hope, as did the Jews, that their earthly hopes will be
fulfilled. She said, "The mountains shake like a reed in the wind, and
ragged rocks are scattered on every side. There is a roar as of a coming
tempest. The sea is lashed into fury. There is heard the shriek of the
hurricane, like the voice of demons upon a mission of destruction. The
whole earth heaves and swells like the waves of the sea. Its surface is
breaking up. Its very foundations seem to be giving way. Mountain chains
are sinking. Inhabited islands disappear with their living freight. The
seaports that have become like Sodom for wickedness are swallowed up
by the angry waters. Great hailstones, every one 'about the weight of a
talent,'[Rev 16:21] are doing their work of destruction. The proudest
cities of the earth are laid low. The costly palaces, upon which the world's
great men have lavished their wealth in order to glorify themselves, are
crumbling to ruin before their eyes. Prison walls are rent asunder and
God's people, who have been held in bondage for their faith, are set free".
4SP 453454. This prophet does not put a date on it as is done earlier. God
does not seem to date things because events are generated by men hearts
rather than calendars. These last two prophecies seem quite literal.

THE PLAGUES
Plagues appear to have many different faces to people. Suppose one
was sitting on a mountaintop in the Canadian Rockies that August day in
1945. The person sitting there would be smelling the fresh air of heaven
and drinking from the pure mountain streams at the same instant
hundreds and thousands are cremated under a nuclear bomb in Japan. If
you could bring everyone back to that moment, the stories would differ
widely. I don't think one could suffer a more horrible sounding death than
one by a nuclear bomb, but that is only that I am conditioned to think
that. Would not the greater plaque be the starving to death so many are
doing these days? Some of the folks suffering from government
experiments on humans are surely more plagued than the instant death at
Hiroshima. Ask the Africans, who, as I write, are being hacked to death
by their neighbors. Hundreds are being slaughtered at this very time.
These poor souls are probably suffering more terror than those Japanese
in Nagasaki. I am not speaking of the survivors of that plague who
suffered long and were greatly scarred after the attack. I suppose if you
could speak to some of these folks, they would certainly confirm the
plagues were falling. For millions the end of the world is very real. More
often these days, even in the news one can hear about plagues of "biblical
proportions". It seems to me all these prophets make a point. The world is
ended and is ending. The suffering increases and the plagues fall. Death,
famine and ruin are now circling the globe. Perhaps those who get home
from work, sit down in front of their T.V. with a beer in their hand cannot
see it, but the end is marching on just as prophesied. Perhaps when some
sit down comfortably watching the Rose Bowl game, they don't give it
any thought. Just because men are sleeping doesn't change the reality of
it. The signs in the sun, moon and stars all say it. The voices cry from one
end of heaven to the other, but few men take notice. The Jehovah
Witnesses are another group which has prophesied. Their leader predicted
the world would end in 1914. I don't know about you, but, to me,
something sure began then. Was not that the beginning of the great wars?
Was that not the beginning of the planning for the U. N. called the League
of Nations in those days? Was that not the beginning of the great
declension and the end of the world as it had been experienced before that
time? I think so. No, the world did not end as they thought, but, end it
did, in a very real way. We can never go back to that time of innocence
that seemed to exist before that time. After WW I the world would never
be the same again. God wasn't real to many of them anymore. They
thought He let them down because of that most devastating war. Since
then the whole generation seems to have lost faith. I think the Millerites
were the first to predict the date for the end which was 1844. If one is a
student of history, he cannot help but see the world greatly changed then
also. Virtually every modern invention we have came after that date. That
date seemed to be the marking of modern inventions which, for the first
time, brought terrors sophisticated enough to destroy the world.

NOW IT ALL ENDS

 I saw a movie one time called "Jesus of Nazareth". At the end of the
movie the character Zerah the scribe went to the open tomb after Jesus
had raised. He lifted the garments of Jesus in his hand, looked right at us
in a most sober way and said, "Now it all begins." In these days we have
heard the prophets. We have seen the omens in the heavens
with comets and eclipses. Comets have always been the symbols of
doom. Josephus reports that a comet hung over Jerusalem for a year just
before that city was destroyed by the Romans. More than this, we see the
trouble which fills the earth with pain. Finally, we are brought to
recognize that our country is not what we have believed. The world is run
by deception and devils, and not the gentle and noble personages we
thought. As we hold these garments of revelation in our hands, we can
say, "Now it all ends". The beast with seven heads and ten horns has,
indeed, come out of the sea. It is red as socialism and as evil. Its great
iron teeth devour and tread upon the innocent. Its courts of injustice and
its forces of control now rule the earth. The Christ has been crucified
again, but this time it's different. Those who have eyes to see can see the
beast for what it is. At least we can see it if we want to see it. If not, well,
then, men will see it when they can do nothing about it. The confusion
felt over the various prophecies is only based on our varied personal
points of view. Our doctrines color events. When God speaks, his voice is
heard over the earth. People feel the event but the describing of that
"sense" of things takes on many forms. Little minds put dates on what
they feel and try and make sense out of what they hear. This accounts for
so many things which seem contradictory but are not. Others do not like
to think of such things. They put the voice away from them. It seems too
uncomfortable to think about coming to an end. Josephus writes of a poor
prophet who wandered the streets of Jerusalem for seven years before the
destruction warning the inhabitants of the city that destruction was
imminent. His prophecy was given in the spirit of doom and gloom. He
heard the voice of doom but he could only give the warning from
desperation since he was such a wretched soul himself. He perished in the
conflagration which followed. Because one is a prophet does not mean he
is of God. He may warn others only to be destroyed himself. For the past
150 years Christians have been warning that Jesus is coming. This
prediction has intensified in recent years. It is as if we are sitting on a
bomb and the fuse is so very short now. The U.N. is the false "savior"
which was predicted to come first and the multitudes follow after that
savior, but this earthly savior is trusted in vain. The final movements are
rapidly fulfilling. A few will escape. That is what the prophet says.