Podcast appearances and mentions of Hal Lindsey

Author Paul Koudounaris explored the profound emotional and cultural significance of pet death and animal memorials, emphasizing their purity and directness compared to traditional human death rituals. He highlighted how grieving for pets often feels more personal and intimate, as the bond between humans and their pets is deeply private and reflective. Pets, Koudounaris argued, become mirrors of their owners, and their passing can feel like losing a part of oneself. This unique grief is compounded by societal norms that downplay the mourning of animals, even though most people experience the loss of a pet, he added.Koudounaris detailed the diverse global practices surrounding pet death, from elaborate Asian rituals conducted by Buddhist monks to specialized cemeteries in the United States, such as those exclusively for bird dogs or coon dogs. He underscored the rich cultural variations in honoring animals, from handcrafted wooden memorials in Finland to glass doghouses in South America. In the U.S., pet cemeteries are particularly abundant, reflecting a vast infrastructure of love and remembrance for pets, Koudounaris said. He shared touching and eccentric stories, such as the controversy over Rin Tin Tin's burial and the elaborate rituals some owners perform for their beloved animal companions.Koudounaris spoke about the spiritual and theological dimensions of pet death. He critiqued the historical belief that animals lack souls and celebrated concepts like the Rainbow Bridge, which provides hope of reuniting pets in the afterlife. Koudounaris tied this to the broader theme of the innocence of animals, asserting that their death feels unjust due to their purity. He also shared stories of paranormal activity linked to pet cemeteries, such as the ghost of Rudolph Valentino's dog, which continues to search for its owner.------------------------------------------Open Lines followed in the latter half of the program. Don in Alberta, Canada, discussed the impressive abilities of dogs, particularly their capacity to detect diseases, including cancer, seizures, and other conditions, often before symptoms become apparent. According to Don, different breeds have varying levels of olfactory sensitivity and he recounted examples of dogs detecting drugs, explosives, and even predators from great distances. Done advocated for the broader use of trained dogs in hospitals and medical settings, suggesting that dogs are more effective and cost-efficient than advanced medical equipment for certain diagnostic tasks.AC in Cleveland shared insights about the Pearl Harbor attack, highlighting lesser-known details. He recounted the story of an Army mobile radar unit at Kahu Point in Oahu, which detected incoming Japanese squadrons early on December 7, 1941. However, their warning to Hickam Field was dismissed, missing the opportunity to scramble planes and potentially mitigate the attack. He also noted the U.S. had broken Japanese codes months prior, which later contributed to victories like the Battle of Midway.The final half our featured a replay of the late author Hal Lindsey discussing biblical prophecy.

In this conversation, Andy, Jeff & Zack explore the complexities of faith, questioning the effectiveness of their beliefs and the struggles that come with them. They discuss the challenges of adhering to Christian teachings in a difficult world, the disillusionment with prosperity theology, and the search for joy beyond material possessions. The importance of morning routines and reframing negative thoughts is emphasized, along with the nature of apologies and forgiveness in relationships. The conversation culminates in a discussion about sin, confession, and personal responsibility in one's faith journey. They discuss the importance of acknowledging one's sins, the dynamics of seeking forgiveness from others, and the transformative power of love. They discuss the death of Hal Lindsey and the impact of his book 'The Late Great Planet Earth' on American Christianity, the role of celebrities in promoting faith-based products, and the complexities of voting as a Christian. Plus Listener FEEDBACK! SUBSCRIBE & SHARE us this week!Contact Us: brosbiblesbeer@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Leave Us A VoicemailYouTubeSimpleCastSpotifyApple PodcastsFacebook ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠XInstaBros Bibles & Beer is: Jeff, Zack & Andy Find us wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Oh, and share us with a friend this week! Grace. Peace. Cheers!

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 20 Gary discusses one of Hal Lindsey's lesser-known books called The Road to Holocaust. In it, Lindsey accuses what he calls "Dominion Theology" of denying the "clear teaching of prophecy" as well as promoting antisemitism (a claim still being made today). The book led Gary and Peter Leithart to respond with a small book called The Legacy of Hatred Continues. Get The Legacy of Hatred Continues and the notes from this episode here: https://store.americanvision.org/products/the-legacy-of-hatred-continues

Art Bell - Hal Lindsey - Bible Prophecy. Nancy Sinatra Interview

Ep393-Art Bell-Hal Lindsey-Bible Prophecy. Nancy Sinatra

This week, Sean & Scott discuss: UK bans puberty blockers for children, citing insufficient evidence of safety and efficacy, sparking international comparisons and debate.OpenAI's new AI video generator, Sora, raises ethical and biblical questions about truth and technology's societal impact.Designer babies now teens, with many experiencing identity struggles, reveal the unintended consequences of parental expectations and genetic tailoring.The legacy of Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, prompts reflection on eschatology and its influence on evangelical social action.Listener questions on foster care goals and Bible study methods for teaching and preaching.==========Think Biblically: Conversations on Faith and Culture is a podcast from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, which offers degrees both online and on campus in Southern California. Find all episodes of Think Biblically at: https://www.biola.edu/think-biblically. Watch video episodes at: https://bit.ly/think-biblically-video. To submit comments, ask questions, or make suggestions on issues you'd like us to cover or guests you'd like us to have on the podcast, email us at thinkbiblically@biola.edu.

Ken and Betsey reflect on the Late Great Planet Earth, the monster 197o best-seller by Hal Lindsey, who passed away on November 25th. The cottage industry of apocalyptic books and movies spawned by Lindsey's book live with us to this day. While they acknowledge the need to move on from the distress and anxiety of election day, they invite their listeners into a continued conversation of some of the main headlines. President Biden issued a complete pardon for his son, Biden. The week's political conversation focussed on the president-elect's Cabinet pick for Department of Defense, the controversial Pete Hegseth. Hegseth's extreme political views are rooted in his church's doctrine. Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches founded by the self-described “theologian,” Douglas Wilson of Moscow, Idaho. Health insurance companies are under scrutiny in the aftermath of the horrific, cold-blooded murder of United Health Care's CEO, Brian Thompson. The two agree it's time to gaze at the lights all around and be reminded of the delights and wonder of the Season.Become a Patron | Ken's Substack PageSupport the show

What happens when a pastor uproots his life, late in his career, to embrace a new community and culture? In this episode of CITN, Rob speaks with Terry Sanderson about his ministry journey from St. Louis to Toronto and how his community navigated the challenges of rapid church growth in a few years. They also discuss the church's commitment to intercultural ministry, community outreach, and evangelism with Alpha. Terry is the Lead Pastor of Bayview Glen Church in Thornhill, ON. For more information about his church, visit https://www.bayviewglen.org/. In the pre-show, Rob, Kait, and Geoff get back in the studio with some exciting news, after a two-week break.  The CITN crew also discuss the work of the late, Hal Lindsey and the impact his work had on eschatological views in the church - and whether or not we need more sermons about the end times. The conversation shifts to the season of Advent and the hope we have in Christ's return.  For more information about the podcast, visit www.churchinthenorth.ca. For questions or inquiries, email us at podcast@churchinthenorth.ca. If you like what you hear, please share this podcast with others, give us a review, or leave a comment.

Bible Prophecy Under the Microscope-Episode 17 With the recent death of Hal Lindsey, Gary discusses his popular books and the rapture and end times that they promised yet never arrived. Scores of authors and pastors have been influenced by Lindsey's books and prophetic system, but the words they use are as elastic as the timeframes they propose about events which the Bible says were "near" in the first century AD.

Many ideas about the end times including the role of Israel, the mark of the beast, and the rapture became popular through Hal Lindsey's best-selling book from the 1970s, “The Late Great Planet Earth.” Lindsay died last week at 95. We discuss his legacy and how his book is still shaping the American church long after most of its theology has been debunked. Then, Kaitlyn talks to Douglas McKelvey about his series of prayer books, “Every Moment Holy.” He explains the value of using written prayers and not just spontaneous ones, and how to find God in the ordinary activities of life. Also this week—why are Bible sales way up but church attendance still declining? And 80's orca fashion makes a comeback.   Holy Post Plus My Hill to Die On: Tipping https://www.patreon.com/posts/117227746/   0:00 - Intro   1:50 - Show Starts   3:29 - Theme Song   3:50 - Sponsor - Sundays Dog Food - Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to https://www.SundaysForDogs.com/HOLYPOST or use code HOLYPOST at checkout.   4:53 - Sponsor - AG1 - Heavily researched, thoroughly purity-tested, and filled with stuff you need. Go to https://www.drinkag1.com/HOLYPOST   6:14 - Orcas Wearing Fish Hats   13:22 - Hal Lindsey and End Times   26:51 - End Times and an Enchanted World   32:26 - Bible Sales Up!   42:07 - Sponsor - Aura Frames - Exclusive $45-off Carver Matte at https://www.AuraFrames.com. Use code HOLYPOST at checkout to save!   43:11 - Sponsor - Visit https://www.faithfulcounseling.com/HOLYPOST and get the professional faith-based counseling that you need.   44:15 - Interview   46:32 - Why Was Every Moment Holy Written?   52:13 - Why Pray Prayers Someone Else Wrote?   58:36 - What Prayers Made it Into the Book?   1:06:21 - How Is Every Moment Holy Used?   1:16:30 - End Credits     Links Mentioned in the News Segment: Orcas Wearing Fish Hats: https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/orcas-start-wearing-dead-salmon-hats-again-after-ditching-the-trend-for-37-years   “Late Great Planet Earth” Author Passes Away: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/11/died-late-great-planet-earth-end-times-hal-lindsey/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/bible   Sales of Bibles Are Booming: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/sales-of-bibles-are-booming-fueled-by-first-time-buyers-and-new-versions-d402460e   Other resources: Every Moment Holy, Volume I: New Liturgies for Daily Life: https://a.co/d/cBD9GzZ   Every Moment Holy, Volume II: Death, Grief, & Hope: https://a.co/d/8HQBvBj   Every Moment Holy, Volume III: The Work of the People: https://a.co/d/iVKc4Ka   Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/   Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus   Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost   Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop   The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying  purchases.  

American federal debt is growing faster than the GDP now. This year, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 121 percent. . . about fifth worst in the world. Interest payments on the federal debt have topped 36 percent of total tax receipts. And all of this has its roots in the Keynesian philosophies of the early 1920's and 30's. The present-orientedness, existentialism, and the ideology of Jean-Paul Sartre and John Maynard Keynes are what ran the 20th century and helped produce what we have today. So how much character would it require to reverse the worldview that has soaked our respective nations over the last 50-60 years? How much long-term vision would it take to turn the nation around? Probably a little more than what Elon Musk and Scott Bessett can offer. We review President Trump's pick for Secretary of the Treasury and revisit the history of modern economics on this edition of the program. This program includes: 1. The Worldview in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus (Kamala's bizarre video to supporters; TV channel fined for stating that abortion is leading death cause; Hal Lindsey, author of "The Late Great Planet Earth," died at 95) 2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

It's Friday, November 29th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 125 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus 12 Iranian Christian converts face prosecution On November 26th, 12 Christian Iranian converts from Islam were summoned to appear at the 1st Branch of the Revolutionary Court of Nowshahr, a port city on the Caspian Sea coast, reports Church in Chains. In the Iranian indictment, Prosecutor Mohammad Reza-Ebrahimi wrote, “They have identified themselves as Christian during their defense, and this is supported by the messages exchanged in their phones” and by “Gospels and other Christian literature found in their possession.” He concluded that they had “set up groups to teach the Christian religion” and were therefore guilty of a crime. In Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Australia bans socials for minors younger than 16 A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Senate on Thursday and will soon become a world-first law, reports The Associated Press. The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram liable for fines of up to $33 million for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts. The platforms will have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced. Online safety activist Sonya Ryan, whose 15-year-old daughter Carly was murdered by a 50-year-old pedophile who pretended to be a teenager online, described the Senate vote as a “monumental moment in protecting our children from horrendous harms online.” French TV channel fined for stating abortion is world's leading cause of death France's Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority has fined a TV channel for accurately reporting that abortion is the leading cause of death worldwide, reports LifeSiteNews.com.   On November 13, the French media regulatory authority fined CNEWS 100,000 Euros after journalist Aymeric Pourbaix accurately listed abortion as the world's highest cause of death during the channel's Catholic program called “In Search of Spirit.” In defense of their misguided conclusion, the French TV authority claimed, “Abortion cannot be presented as a cause of death. [The report] equates abortion with a cause of death and, by implication, the embryo or fetus that could not be born alive because of an abortion with a deceased person, even though in law they are not considered as persons,” the  Jean Marie Le Méné, head of the pro-life Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, said, “In order for abortion to be practiced with a clear conscience, it is forbidden to say that abortion takes life. Otherwise the keystone of the system collapses. But who believes this fiction? … Abortion, the leading cause of death in the world, is unfortunately a fact, not an opinion.” In Psalm 139:13-14, King David told God, "For You formed my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.” Trump's cabinet nominees targeted with threats Several people who have been nominated for Cabinet positions in President-elect Donald Trump's upcoming administration have reportedly been targeted in “violent, unamerican” threats to their lives and those of their family members, reports NewsNationNow.com. A Trump transition team spokesman said the threats were made Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The attacks ranged from bomb threats to “swatting” which is the criminal harassment act of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address under a fraudulent premise. Karoline Leavitt, the future White House press secretary, said, “President Trump and the Transition (team) are focused on doing the work of uniting our nation by ensuring a safe and prosperous future. With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us.” Trump's Border Czar set to use 1,400-acre border ranch for deportations Texas unveiled its newly acquired 1,402-acre border ranch purchased in October for nearly $4 million in Rio Grande City — offered as the site of detention facilities to help the Trump administration with proposed mass deportations, reports the Dallas Morning News. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said Tuesday the state is looking to identify additional land to aid the federal effort. The General Land Office has more than 13 million acres of land under its jurisdiction. Appearing on The Angle with Laura Ingram on the Fox News Channel last week, Border Czar Tom Homan didn't pull any punches. Listen. HOMAN: “Trump's made it clear coming around the gate is public safety threats and national security threats, and we have plenty of them to find. Under Biden administration, removal criminal aliens has decreased 74%. So, we got a target rich environment. "For any governor or mayor who doesn't want public safety threats taken out of their communities, you should resign your office because your number one responsibility is to protect those communities. We have ways of finding people. I'm not going to explain it here on national TV because its law enforcement sensitive, but we will find many of these folks. They will be arrested, they'll be detained and they be removed.” Kamala's bizarre message to supporters In Vice President Kamala Harris's first real public statement since her concession speech on November 6th, she released this bizarre message on X. HARRIS: “So I just have to remind you: Don't you ever let anybody take your power from you. You have the same power that you did before November 5th, and you have the same purpose that you did, and you have the same ability to engage and inspire. So, don't ever let anybody or any circumstance take your power from you.” Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, died at 94 And finally, Hal Lindsey, a teacher of biblical prophecy who wrote the bestselling book The Late Great Planet Earth which sold 28 million copies, died on November 25th, two days after turning 95, reports The Christian Post. He wrote The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 and famously suggested the climactic events of the tribulation would take place "within forty years or so" by 2010. He played a significant role in mainstreaming the premillennial view of the imminent return of Christ among Evangelicals during the 1970s and 1980s.  Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, November 29th, in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by Amazon Music or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

American federal debt is growing faster than the GDP now. This year, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 121 percent . . . about fifth worst in the world. Interest payments on the federal debt have topped 36 percent of total tax receipts. And all of this has its roots in the Keynesian philosophies of the early 1920's and 30's. The present-orientedness, existentialism, and the ideology of Jean-Paul Sartre and John Maynard Keynes are what ran the 20th century and helped produce what we have today. So how much character would it require to reverse the worldview that has soaked our respective nations over the last 50-60 years? How much long-term vision would it take to turn the nation around? Probably a little more than what Elon Musk and Scott Bessett can offer. We review President Trump's pick for Secretary of the Treasury and revisit the history of modern economics on this edition of the program. This program includes:1. The Worldview in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus (Kamala's bizarre video to supporters; TV channel fined for stating that abortion is leading death cause; Hal Lindsey, author of "The Late Great Planet Earth," died at 95)2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

Hal Lindsey Passes AwayYour support sends the gospel to every corner of Australia through broadcast, online and print media: https://vision.org.au/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Explore One Year Bibles by clicking here. Renew your commitment to daily Scripture reading, and begin your exciting adventure!Top headlines for Thursday, November 28, 2024In this episode, we discuss the ongoing debate around transgender individuals in the military, as a spokesperson for President-elect Donald Trump addresses recent reports. Plus, we pay tribute to Hal Lindsey, the renowned biblical prophecy teacher and author, reflecting on his life and legacy following his passing at 95. Subscribe to this PodcastApple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsOvercast⠀Follow Us on Social Media@ChristianPost on TwitterChristian Post on Facebook@ChristianPostIntl on InstagramSubscribe on YouTube⠀Get the Edifi AppDownload for iPhoneDownload for Android⠀Subscribe to Our NewsletterSubscribe to the Freedom Post, delivered every Monday and ThursdayClick here to get the top headlines delivered to your inbox every morning!⠀Links to the NewsChurches hold Thanksgiving Day worship services | Church & MinistriesTrump team dismisses 'speculating' about reported transgender ban | PoliticsHuman traffickers using AI to entice, exploit children online | U.S.Texas lawmaker threatens university budget cuts over LGBT studies | EducationCaitlyn Jenner threatens to 'destroy' Kamala Harris in race | PoliticsJudge upholds Missouri's ban on sex-change surgeries for minors | PoliticsHal Lindsey, ‘Late Great Planet Earth' author, dies at 95 | Church & Ministries

Israeli troops spotted Hezbollah fighters on the border Wednesday morning, violating the hours-old ceasefire agreement between Israel and the government of Lebanon. 5) Hezbollah not a signatory to ceasefire, making it worthless; 4) Anti-Israel protesters plan to disrupt Black Friday sales in US; 3) NATO military leader advises European nations to cut Russia and China out of supply chains; 2) Pagan priestess addresses invocation at Tulsa city council meeting to Medusa; 1) Hal Lindsey is called home by God at the age of 95.FOLLOW US!X: @WatchSkyWatchTV | @Five_In_TenYouTube: @SkyWatchTelevision | @SimplyHIS | @FiveInTenRumble: @SkyWatchTVFacebook: @SkyWatchTV | @SimplyHIS | @EdensEssentialsInstagram: @SkyWatchTV | @SimplyHisShow | @EdensEssentialsUSATikTok: @SkyWatchTV | @SimplyHisShow | @EdensEssentialsSkyWatchTV.com | SkyWatchTVStore.com | EdensEssentials.com | WhisperingPoniesRanch.com

we look at Dispensationalism as hyper-modern rather than anti-modern. we look at the spread of the system by "pop-culture". we conclude the series.

**Special Note: Christianity Today will unveil our new redesign on August 12th! Don't miss out—click here for a trial subscription.** "We need to do a better job as Christians of talking about the body in ways that valorize creation—not just criticizing people who want to do things we think are morally wrong, but helping them understand what God made right.” So says professor, author, and theologian Michael Horton on this episode of The Russell Moore Show. He and Moore discuss Horton's new book, Shaman and Sage: The Roots of “Spiritual but Not Religious” in Antiquity. Their conversation explores the growing cultural attraction to Wicca, why people long for a connection to the mystical, and the goodness of our created flesh. They talk about technological advances that attempt to transcend the body, how we arrived in a cultural moment where people are spiritual but not religious, and what it looks like to engage with people who don't believe there are any answers to the universe. Tune in for an episode that encourages Christians to understand how the goodness of the gospel transforms our entire beings—body and soul alike. Resources mentioned in this episode include: Michael Horton Sola Media White Horse Inn Shaman and Sage: The Roots of Spiritual but Not Religious in Antiquity by Michael Horton The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey with Carole C. Carlson The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI by Ray Kurzweil Transcendent ManYuval Noah Harari Do you have a question for Russell Moore? Send it to questions@russellmoore.com. Click here for a trial membership at Christianity Today. “The Russell Moore Show” is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producers: Erik Petrik, Russell Moore, and Mike Cosper Host: Russell Moore Producer: Ashley Hales Associate Producers: Abby Perry and McKenzie Hill Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens Audio engineering by Dan Phelps Video producer: Abby Egan Theme Song: “Dusty Delta Day” by Lennon Hutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scripture: Mark 4:26-34 In this Sunday's message, Melissa wove together the parables of the sower scattering seed and of the mustard seed growing with the tremendously destructive dispensationalist theology made popular by Hal Lindsey. Dispensationalism is a reading of scripture that is the basis of Christian Zionism, a violent anti-Semitic, literalist misuse of scripture. It is also the underpinning, for many US policies and attitudes towards the modern state of Israel. Unlike the coercive theology that runs through Christian Zionism, we see in today's passage that the kingdom of God is a mystery, one of the Gospel of Mark's favorite words. It's not a mystery in the sense that we don't understand it or can't comprehend it. It's a mystery in our lack of ability to bring it to pass. The lies of Christian Zionism are manifold, but the most central is this, that we can control history. That we can manipulate God's action that we can spur on a desired future through geopolitical maneuvering. And once you're there. Once you start down this path, you have lost the Jesus plot altogether. This is an occasion for us to look at the ways we may also think God needs our help to make history turn out right. What are the ways that we insist that particular political ends, no matter how destructive or violent, may be necessary? What are the ways that we say compromise and capitulation is simply part of the calculus of the greater good? Because there's just no room for that here. And in the seed parables we discover that we live out of control. That is part of the mystery.

In this episode we're talking about Dispensationalism with Dr. Daniel Hummel, who is the Director of the Lumen Center and Upper House in Madison, WI, a research fellow in the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the host of the UpWords podcast, and the author of The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation (Eerdmans, 2023). Over the course of our conversation we talk about what Dispensationalism is, how the system of thought developed and became so widespread within Christianity since the 19th century, and also how it fell apart at the time that it was popularized in the 1970s and subsequent decades in the writings of people like Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, etc. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Dr. Brandon Hurlbert, and Dr. Sydney Tooth. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Art Bell - Hal Lindsey - Biblical Prophecy

Revelation 1 (ESV)Andrew and Edwin discuss John's stated time frame for the book. "The time is near." It tells of things which must "shortly take place." That is, it discusses things John's original audience needed to help them with what they were facing. John was not providing his original audience with glimpses of the distant future, but with what was going on to them and what God was about to do about it.Read the written devo that goes along with this episode by clicking here.    Let us know what you are learning or any questions you have. Email us at TextTalk@ChristiansMeetHere.org.    Join the Facebook community and join the conversation by clicking here. We'd love to meet you. Be a guest among the Christians who meet on Livingston Avenue. Click here to find out more. Michael Eldridge sang all four parts of our theme song. Find more from him by clicking here.   Thanks for talking about the text with us today.________________________________________________If the hyperlinks do not work, copy the following addresses and paste them into the URL bar of your web browser: Daily Written Devo: https://readthebiblemakedisciples.wordpress.com/?p=15926The Christians Who Meet on Livingston Avenue: http://www.christiansmeethere.org/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAboutTheTextFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/texttalkMichael Eldridge: https://acapeldridge.com/ 

About the King's Business Daniel 8:1-27 by William Klock The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha detail the persecution of the Jews in the mid-160s BC, during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  2 Maccabees 6, for example, tells how “the king sent an Athenian senator to compel the Jews to forsake the laws of their ancestors and no longer to live by the laws of God; also to pollute the temple in Jerusalem and to call it the temple of Olympian Zeus” (6:1-2).  The gentiles used the temple of God for their orgies and drunken banquets.  Antiochus desecrated the alter with the sacrifice of a pig.  On holidays the king's men would round up Jews and force them to participate in his parades and sacrifices.  Those who refused to participate or who were caught living by torah were killed.  Two women, for example, were caught having circumcised their baby boys.  Their babies were tied around their necks as the women were paraded through the streets to the wall of the city and then thrown down it to their deaths.  Faithful Jews who were caught secretly observing the sabbath in a nearby network of caves were burned alive.  2 Maccabees 7 tells the story of seven brothers and their mother, who were threatened with torture to eat pork.  Despite being beaten, they refused. The king fell into a rage, and gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated. These were heated immediately, and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on. When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song that bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, ‘And he will have compassion on his servants.'” (2 Maccabees 7:3-6) The king went on to do the same to the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh brothers who all refused.  We read that: The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory. Although she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged each of them in the language of their ancestors. Filled with a noble spirit, she reinforced her woman's reasoning with a man's courage, and said to them, “I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of humankind and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.” (2 Maccabees s7:20-23) She stood firm—and so did her sons—because they hoped in the Lord.  They knew that he is the Lord of history.  They knew his goodness.  They knew his faithfulness.  They knew their story and how it was interwoven with the story of the faithfulness of the God of Israel, and so even as they were brutally murdered by a mad king, they trusted in him.  Daniel was written for these people.  The stories in the first half of the book show Daniel and his friends standing firm for the Lord during the Babylonian exile, but the dreams and visions in the second are situated right in the middle of those days of violent persecution four centuries later.  That's what we see now as we come to Chapter 8 and to Daniel's second vision.  Let's start with verse 1 and read through to the end. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision; and when I saw, I was in Susa the citadel, which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in the vision, and I was at the Ulai canal. I raised my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns, and both horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last. I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.   As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal, and he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram, and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.   Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the Prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression, and it will throw truth to the ground, and it will act and prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, “For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?” And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.”   When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, “Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.”   And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up. He said, “Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the goat is the king of Greece. And the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.”   And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.   Another vision during the reign of the blasphemous king Belshazzar.  In his ways, he foreshadows the evils of Antiochus Epiphanes.  But as the first vision revealed, the days of Babylon were soon to be over, so this vision whisks Daniel hundreds of kilometres to the east, to Susa, which would become the capital of the Persian empire.  And there he sees another animal, this time a ram.  This is another clue as to when the book was written.  The ram as a sign of the zodiac was associated with Persia—not in Daniel's day, but in the time of the Greeks. The symbolism of Daniel 7 was difficult and there's a fair bit of disagreement about what it all means, but not so much with Daniel 8.  This vision is simpler and the explanation pretty straightforward.  Most everyone agrees on the major points.  So it begins with a ram representing the combined empire of the Medes and the Persians—those are the two horns, one bigger than the other.  Horns, in ancient imagery, represent strength.  The Medes were strong, but the Persians eventually become stronger and gobbled them up and so Daniel sees the ram, lowering its head, and charging from the east into the north and into the south and into the west—which is exactly what the Persian empire did, until it controlled the known world, even as far as Greece.  Daniel writes that the ram did as it pleased and became strong.  It's the way of human empires. But as the ram reaches the peak of its power, Daniel sees a goat appear in the west.  It helps to know that in the biblical mind, the goat was stronger and more powerful than the ram.  This goat had a single horn and it made its way across the land so fast it might have been flying for all it seemed to touch the earth.  It put its head down and charged the mighty ram and shattered both its powerful horns.  In case the symbolism wasn't already obvious, the angel explains that the goat is Greece.  The jutting horn is Alexander the Great. Alexander was the son of Philip II, King of Macedon.  He was tutored by Aristotle and assumed the throne when his father died in 336 BC.  He was only twenty years old.  By the age of thirty he had conquered the known world, from Greece in the west to India in the East, from Central Asia in the north to Egypt in the south.  And then, in 323 BC, still a young man, Alexander died of a fever in Babylon.  For twenty years his generals fought over his empire, eventually carving it up into four kingdoms, which Daniel sees as four horns.  The two relevant ones for the Jews were that of Seleucus who controlled Syria and the east, and Ptolemy, who controlled Egypt and Palestine. But this is all the background to the most important part of the vision.  Out of those Greek successor kingdoms arises another horn.  He isn't named, but as the details of the first horn obviously point to Alexander, the details of this new horn point very obviously to Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  In the great sweep of history, Antiochus was hardly the greatest of the Greek kings, but when he defeated the Egyptian Ptolemies and took control of Judah he became very important to the Jews.  The Ptolemies had treated the Jews well and allowed them to govern themselves as a sort of religous state as long as the high priest coughed up the annual taxes.  Antiochus, however, wanted to make good Greeks of the Jews and to get his hands on the temple treasury.  Under his rule the priesthood was bought and sold and eventually observance of torah was outlawed and torah scrolls burned.  God's worship in the temple was ended and it was turned into a temple to Olympian Zeus.  And Antiochus murdered faithful Jews by the tens of thousands. In Daniel's vision, Antiochus takes the form of this great horn that rises up against heaven itself.  These verses, especially 12-13, are difficult.  Just when I was glad to leave the Aramaic of chapters 2-7 behind, here come these verses that I can only describe as a Hebrew word salad.  The Hebrew of Daniel is something else that points to it having been written in the Second Century, because it's not written in the great literary Hebrew of Daniel's day, but in a sort of clunky Hebrew that looks a lot like it was written by someone who probably spoke Aramaic as a first language.  But that's okay.  The gist of Daniel's vision is that Antiochus, in going up against the temple and the priesthood, was really shaking his fist at the God of Israel.  This little earthly king who called himself “Epiphanies”—the manifestation of God—was pitting himself against the living God, the Lord of history, the one the Babylonian kings had had the good sense to acknowledge as God Most High.  That never ends well. And yet, for a time, the mad king seems to have won.  Israel's identity was centred on the temple.  That was the place where heaven and earth, where God and man met.  They were the holy people who lived with God in their midst.  And not only did Antiochus do his best to make sure they broke their end of the covenant with God by preventing them from keeping his law, but he suspended the very sacrifices that acknowledged God's presence in the temple.  He wanted the Jews to live like good Greeks and when they insisted on living like Jews, he banished their God from his temple and set up an altar to Zeus.  Judah was now his land.  Their God was gone, so they had no reason to obey his law.  Of course, the Jews knew better.  Like that mother and her seven sons in 2 Maccabees, they knew the faithfulness of the God of the Israel and they knew that no puny human king could blaspheme against him forever.  But, for a time, he would seem to have won the day.  According to Daniel's vision, for 2300 evenings and mornings the temple would be desolate.  That's a reference to the morning and evening sacrifices that were—or were supposed to be—made every day.  The sacrifices that Antiochus suspended.  Depending on how you parse this detail out, it's either about three years and three months or it's about six years and six months.  Most people tend to go with the three years, which corresponds closely to the time when Antiochus had suspended the worship of the Lord in the temple.  But the six-and-a-half years works too, if you count back to when the high priest was deposed.  Either way, we know what the vision represents.  And either way and for whatever reason, it's not an exact number, which means it may also be symbolic—we just can't be sure exactly how.  However we parse out the number, the important point is that the Lord has numbered these evil days. And that's the point I want to close on.  Too often we get fixated on numbers and on fixing dates and end up missing the point.  We do it with books like Daniel.  We do it with books like Revelation.  We do it with the prophets and with the apocalyptic discourses of Jesus.  It's nothing new.  Christians have been setting dates for over a thousand years and whenever we do, we seem to end up distracted from the gospel mission we've been given.  Often it ends with the creation of schismatic sects and cults.  William Miller, for example, worked out from these 2300 evening and mornings that Jesus would return in 1843.  His argument convinced a lot of people (and it helped that he threw in plenty of “God has told mes”).  Of course, it didn't happen so he adjusted his formula, admitted a small error, and corrected the date to 1844.  That didn't happen either.  But his followers had given up everything and then many of them walked away and became jaded.  They called it the “Great Disappointment”.  But, still, to this day Miller has his ardent followers.  They're the Seventh Day Adventists and believe that it really did happen in 1843, and that it wasn't about Jesus returning to the earth, but that Jesus on that date entered the heavenly temple to begin is work of judging souls in anticipation of his return. And many of us remember Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth that became a sensation in the 1970s.  Lindsey made a point of not setting an exact date, but he wasn't shy about saying things like the 1980's would probably be the earth's last decade.  It motivated some people to become missionaries, but it motivated lots of other people to abandon their jobs, their families, and to run up massive credit card debt because they were convinced that in a year or two none of it would matter.  In more recent years we've had similar predictions made about “blood moons” and the like.  Christian bookstores were filled books about the imminent return of Jesus and end of the world.  People were, once again, all worked up about the end of the world and, once again, nothing happened. Again, we too often forget the point of passages like this one in Daniel 8.  Even if we could estimate or even set a date by it, the point is that God is in control and, because of that, we have every reason to stand firm in the midst of trials and persecution, knowing that God will vindicate us in the same way that he has vindicated his people in the past and, especially for us as Christians, in the same way that he vindicated his son when he raised him from death.  Daniel 8—and so many other passages—remind us first and foremost that God is sovereign.  No matter how it seems, history is not random.  No matter how much they may shake their fists at the heavens, no king is outside the sovereign will of God.  No matter how much we may abuse our God-given liberty, every one of us will be held to account.  Sin and evil will not go on forever.  God is judge, one day he will deal with sin and death once and for all, and eventually all of creation will be to rights—including us.  And we know that this will happen, we believe, we have hope, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  At the cross God did the hard part needed to set the world to rights.  At the cross Jesus won the decisive battle and one day the war will be over when we, the church, his people, have accomplished the work he has given.  He has equipped us with his own Spirit and sends us out to proclaim the life giving and renewing good news of his death and resurrection.  And for two thousand years, that good news has driven away the false gods of the pagans and brought kings and their people to their knees before Jesus and to give glory to the God of Israel.  Brothers and Sisters, date-setting, goofy predictions, and eschatological paranoia do nothing to witness the sovereignty of the Lord of history.  They do just the opposite and they undermine our witness.  They make Christians look foolish and the scriptures untrustworthy.  Our mission is to proclaim the gospel, because in Jesus and in his death and resurrection, that is where the world meets the living God and knows his faithfulness. And that brings me to the final point.  Look again at verse 27 and Daniel's response.  The vision left him troubled.  He even lay sick in his bed for “some days”.  He was in some sense dismayed because he didn't fully understand it.  But what did he do?  He says that he arose and went about the king's business.  Brothers and Sisters, the prophecies and apocalypses that the Spirit has given us in the scripture were never meant to send us out in a panic or a frenzy, they weren't given to have us abandon our earthly responsibilities because the world is coming to an end.  They were given to us to remind us that God is sovereign, that he will judge the wicked, and that he will vindicate his people for their faithfulness.  So be faithful.  The Lord had placed Daniel in a position of authority in the court of the king of Babylon.  That pagan court was soon to fall.  That pagan king was soon to die.  But the Lord had put Daniel in that position for a reason and so he went faithfully back to his work.  The same goes for each of us.  The Lord has put us where we are for a reason.  Be a faithful husband and father or a faithful wife and mother knowing that the Lord is sovereign.  Be faithful in your vocation, whatever it may be, however mundane it may seem.  Be faithful to your earthly obligations: to your family, to your business, to your school, to your church, to your club, to your friends, to your debts, to your country knowing that the Lord has placed you where you are.  That is, after all, the King's business.  This witness to our trust in the sovereignty of God is the foundation that undergirds our greater witness to Jesus and the gospel.  It is what prepares us to stand firm should the day come when we find ourselves forced to choose between obedience to an earthly king and obedience to our heavenly King.  May we stand firm like the saints of old and declare with the mother of those seven martyred sons, “The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us.” Let's pray: Almighty God, look with mercy on your people; that by your great goodness we may be always governed and preserved both in body and soul, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

For many American Christians, the presumptive next big event in redemptive history will be the Rapture. Many believers have been influenced by the fictional stories of the Left Behind novels and movies which depict military conflict in Israel, the Rapture in which all true believers are taken to Heaven, and the great tribulation in which those who are left behind must endure seven years of war and suffering. In this episode of the podcast, we explore the key theological ideas of a theological system called Dispensationalism, which was the predominant default theology of American Christianity for most of the 20th Century. We discuss key figures, like John Nelson Darby, James H. Brookes, D.L. Moody, C.I. Scofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, Hal Lindsey, and Tim LaHaye, and how a whole pop-dispensational media complex developed that undermined the scholastic movement of the Bible institutes and seminaries. Daniel G. Hummel, Ph.D., (American History, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the author of the new book, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation (Eerdmans Press, 2023).  Dan is the Director of The Lumen Center, located at University Square on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Lumin Center is a community of Christian scholars working at the intersection of Christianity and culture. He has held appointments at UW-Madison and Harvard University. You can purchase this book from independent booksellers Byron and Beth Borger at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. Order online through their secure server or call 717-246-333. Mention that you heard about this book on the Reintegrate Podcast and get 20% off. ________________ Thanks for listening! Please leave a review and share this podcast with your friends.  Your hosts are Dr. Bob Robinson and David Loughney. Go to re-integrate.org for the latest articles on reintegrating your callings with God's mission and online resources for further learning. You can also find out about a Bible study book that you can use in your small group or individual devotions: Reintegrate Your Vocation with God's Mission. On Reintegrate's podcast page, you'll find more episodes and ways to email us to comment on this podcast. Music provided by Brian Donahue.

Day 254 Today's Reading: Revelation 16 One of the scariest movies I have ever seen was not in a theater but in a church. It was called A Thief in the Night, and it was circulating in the 1970s about the end times. I knew I wanted to be ready for the rapture, the second coming of Jesus. I remember leaving that church service as an elementary student knowing full well in my heart that I needed to be ready for that day. I went on to read Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth. At that time, they had it in a comic book form, and it was the clincher for me that I was going to be ready for Jesus to come back as a thief in the night. If things could get any worse for earth and humanity, Revelation 16 tells us it does in the great tribulation. As if seven trumpets of disaster were not enough for the planet, God unleashes seven bowls of wrath into the earth, from bodily affliction to polluting rivers and water. What's interesting is that in the midst of these wrathful bowls of God's judgment, one theme keeps being shouted by the angels inflicting the punishment: “Righteous art Thou O Holy One.” Their words remind us that God is not doing anything we don't deserve—this is a day of wrath and judgment after millennia of mercy and patience. These bowls are terrifying, as is men's response to the outpouring of God's wrath. Almost as many times as it says “God is righteous” after one of the bowls is poured out, it says as many times, “They did not repent so as to give Him glory.” How corrupt is man by this time in his history? The chapter ends with a name many of us are all familiar with. As if things can't get any worse, we are introduced to Armageddon, the place of the final battle on the planet. All that to say that in the midst of these horrific verses, a parenthetical statement shows up and stands alone in these passages because the verse speaks to the now and not to the future: “(‘Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.')” (Revelation 16:15). Verse 15 is a parenthetical life preserver for humanity now, right now before this chapter comes upon the planet with the wrath of God. When I say parenthetical, it's just a large word for parentheses, an insert of another thought, a little path from the original thought. But this is not a little diversion. This is deliverance from the wrath of God. It is as if John breaks from the vision and, in terror of what will happen, says to humanity, This doesn't have to happen to you. Stay awake and ready for the rapture. The parentheses show us John being overwhelmed and wanting to help us all. The parentheses bring us to the rapture, the second coming of Jesus. The apostle John says that Jesus will come like a thief in the night, but this is not only John's description of the second coming of Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 24 that this is the way it happens. In 1 Thessalonians 5:2, Paul uses the thief-in-the-night image. And in 2 Peter 3:10, Peter also says He will come like a thief. The thief-in-the-night day is the rapture. The rapture is Jesus coming physically a second time to the earth, not to redeem it but to start judging it. The rapture has two important days attached to it: the wedding day and the judgment day. The wedding day is the celebration of the “born again” dead and living all going to heaven. It's the final call, our reward of heaven. And the Bible calls it a wedding-day celebration. The second day is judgment day, and it is God making all wrongs right. No one gets away with anything because of this day. Every person will be judged for what they have done. Hitler and Saddam Hussein will be there. Stalin and Castro. People from your city and my city and every pl

Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today's painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. This week, we are going to discuss the events occurring in the Gaza strip, the history of the region, and the evangelical view of the situation. This is being recorded on October 28, 2023 and we are doing our best to give the latest information. Amity: I have tried to keep this as straightforward and clear as possible. I am extremely emotional about this topic and have spent much of the past twenty days watching the news coming directly out of Palestine, sharing Palestinian voices and calling my representatives to demand a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine.  First things first - we have to state unequivocally the following: Zionism is not Judaism, and a person can be anti-Zionist and not anti-semetic, as many, many American jews are. We will come back to this in a few minutes. The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 is abhorrent and terrible and we grieve with the survivors and families of those who were killed. May their memories be a blessing.  Events leading up to October 7 Let's start with some history, which I have put together from several sources. This is a very broad, very simplified overview of the history. In the show notes, we have included an extensive reading list to get a rounder view of the subject.  Israel and Palestine: In the late 19th century, the Zionist movement called for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people to escape persecution in Europe. Immigration and the purchase of land in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, was encouraged. The land known as Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century encompasses a 25,000 square mile piece of land bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the East by what is now Syria and Jordan on the south by Egypt and on the north by Lebanon. After the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain was granted a mandate to govern the region of Palestine and Jewish immigration increased as Nazism took hold in central Europe. This brought tensions in the area with the Arab population, and after the Second World War a new plan was drawn up and agreed by the United Nations to create two separate Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem remaining international. The Arab state would include Gaza, an area near the border with Egypt, a zone near the border with Lebanon, a central region which includes the West Bank, and a tiny enclave at the city of Jaffa.But this was never implemented after Arab opposition. At midnight on 14/15 May 1948, the Mandate for Palestine expired and the State of Israel came into being. The Palestine Government formally ceased to exist, the status of British forces still in the process of withdrawal from Haifa changed to occupiers of foreign territory, the Palestine Police Force formally stood down and was disbanded, with the remaining personnel evacuated alongside British military forces, the British blockade of Palestine was lifted, and all those who had been Palestinian citizens ceased to be British protected persons, with Mandatory Palestine passports no longer giving British protection. Over the next few days, approximately 700 Lebanese, 1,876 Syrian, 4,000 Iraqi, and 2,800 Egyptian troops crossed over the borders into Palestine, starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The war, which was to last until 1949, would see Israel expand to encompass about 78% of the territory of the former British Mandate, with Transjordan seizing and subsequently annexing the West Bank and the Kingdom of Egypt seizing the Gaza Strip. The 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, known to Palestineans as the Nakba took place both before and after the end of the Mandate. The foundational events of the Nakba took place during and shortly after the 1948 Palestine war, as that 78% of Mandatory Palestine was declared as Israel, leading to the expulsion and flight of 700,000 Palestinians, the related depopulation and destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages by Zionist militias and later the Israeli army and subsequent geographical erasure, the denial of the Palestinian right of return, the creation of permanent Palestinian refugees, and the "shattering of Palestinian society" Now, back to what I brought up at the opening of this episode, the difference between Zionism and Judaism. Zionism v Judaism: Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Zionism is a nineteenth-century political ideology that emerged in a moment where Jews were defined as irrevocably outside of a Christian Europe. European antisemitism threatened and ended millions of Jewish lives — in pogroms, in exile, and in the Holocaust. Many Jews today are anti-Zionist, believing that Zionism was a false and failed answer to the desperately real question many of their ancestors faced of how to protect Jewish lives from murderous antisemitism in Europe. While it had many strains historically, the Zionism that took hold and stands today is a settler-colonial movement, establishing an apartheid state where Jews have more rights than others. Our own history teaches us how dangerous this can be. So what is a settler colony? Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers. Settler colonialism is a form of exogenous domination typically organized or supported by an imperial authority. Settler colonialism contrasts with exploitation colonialism, which entails an economic policy of conquering territory to exploit its population as cheap or free labor and its natural resources as raw material. In this way, settler colonialism lasts indefinitely, except in the rare event of complete evacuation or settler decolonization. Writing in the 1990s, Patrick Wolfe theorized settler colonialism as a structure (rather than an event) premised on the elimination rather than exploitation of the native population, thus distinguishing it from classical colonialism. He also argued that settler colonialism was centered on the control of land and that it continued after the closing of the frontier. His approach was defining for the field, but has been challenged by other scholars on the basis that many situations involve a combination of elimination and exploitation. Settler colonial studies has often focused on former British colonies in North America, Australia and New Zealand, which are close to the complete, prototypical form of settler colonialism, but is also applied to many other conflicts throughout the world. Today in Gaza, over 2 million Palestinians live within roughly 140 square miles, it is “one of the world's most densely populated territories,” according to Gisha, an Israeli nongovernmental organization. Half of Palestinians living in Gaza are under age 19, but they have few to no prospects for socioeconomic growth and limited access to the outside world. Israel has maintained a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007 that has had a devastating effect on Palestinian civilians. Israel has built an apartheid blockade, which gives it control of Gaza's borders and is also enforced by Egypt. The International Committee of the Red Cross considers the blockade illegal and says it violates the Geneva Convention, a charge Israeli officials deny. The U.N., various human rights groups and legal scholars, citing the blockade, consider Gaza to still be under military occupation by Israel. Human Rights Watch likened the conditions in Gaza to “an open air prison,” referring to the restriction of movement Israel enforces on Palestinians there. Israel prohibits Palestinians from entering or leaving the area “except in extremely rare cases, which include urgent, life-threatening medical conditions and a very short list of merchants,” according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group.  Israelis, Jewish settlers and foreigners are not subject to those restrictions and are free to travel in and out of Gaza. Over the years, Israel has gradually closed land-border crossings from Gaza into Israel except for one — which is open only to Palestinians with Israeli-approved permits. Egypt sporadically closes its land-border crossing for months on end, which is often the only way people in Gaza can gain access to the rest of the world. Further, the roads within Gaza are segregated and Palestinians and Isralis are issued different colored license plates to allow for easy identification. By limiting imports and nearly all exports, Israel's 16-year blockade has driven Gaza's economy to near-collapse, with unemployment rates above 40%, according to the World Bank. More than 65% of the population live under the poverty line, according to the U.N., with 63% of people in Gaza deemed “food insecure” by the World Food Program. Little psychological support exists for a generation of children who are “living with the long-term psychological effects of constant exposure to violence,” according to a U.N. report, which described an uptick of mental health issues, including depression, among young people living in the Gaza Strip. Israel controls food, water, electricity, internet, medicine and movement of the Palestinian people and have been annexing more and more of Gaza since 1948. Hamas, a Sunni Islamist political and military organization committed to armed resistance against Israel and the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel's place has been the de facto governing body in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it ousted the Palestinian Authority from power. Several nations and governing bodies have labeled Hamas a terrorist organization which encompasses between 20,000 and 25,000 members.  Events of October 7  On October 7, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas launched over 3,500 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel and executed a surprise invasion by land, sea and air, breaking through the Gaza-Israel barrier to attack at least 22 locations in Israel's Southern District. Civilians were targeted in those locations, which included a music festival. Thousands of Israeli citizens were injured and at least 1400 were killed. In addition, over 200 people were taken hostage. Events since October 7  Israel began bombing and airstrikes on Gaza on the 7th of October. These continue through today, October 28th. On October 13th, Israel gave the 1 million residents of northern Gaza an order to evacuate to the south and if they did not, anyone left in the north would be considered a combatant. Israelis allowed one road for the evacuation, but during that time, they bombed the roads, targeting civilians and ambulances. On October 17th, Al-Alhi hospital was bombed, killing over 500 Palestinian refugees. The Israeli defense ministry claimed responsibility for the attack, but shortly after, they rescinded that statement and blamed a misfired Hamas rocket. Israel has ceased all water, food, electricity and medicine from entering Gaza. They have also blocked the only exit available to Gazans at the Egyptian border. Over 1,000,000 Palestinians have lost their homes to bombings. 22 hospitals have been shuttered. Surgeries, including amputations required by injuries from explosions are being performed without anesthesia or fresh water often by the lights of cell phones. As of October 27th, Israel has begun a ground offensive and shutdown the satellite access, silencing any Palestinian journalists and citizens from getting information out of Gaza. They have also warned that they believe Hamas has a stronghold underneath the largest hospital in Gaza, where 15,000 Palestinians are currently seeking refuge. One report states that between October 7 and 26, 7,028 Palestinians were killed, including 2,913 children. This figure is likely significantly less than the actual death toll as this is based on bodies recovered. There are hundreds of buildings that have been reduced to rubble and contain the remains of people that haven't yet been found.  I could speak on this for hours, but we are trying to keep it as straightforward as possible, so I want to just end with some clarity on definitions.  Western media is using the phrase “Israel-Hamas War” in most of their coverage.  A war indicates an armed conflict between states or nations. A war requires two armies. Israel has the 10th largest army in the world and is backed by most if not all Western nations. Gaza, or Palestine, is comprised of 2.2 million people, half of which are children. A segment of Hamas is located within Gaza but they are not an army, they use largely improvised weapons as Israel dictates what comes in and out of Gaza. This is not a war. This is not defense. This is a calculated ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Gaza is often described as an open air prison - I used the term earlier - but this is also a euphemism. A prison indicates that the population are criminals, prosecuted and found guilty of a crime. A prison also requires that it's inhabitants are provided adequate food, water, and medical care. None of these requisites are true of Gaza. The population of Gaza have been convicted of no crimes, and the settler colony of Israel has control over it's water, food, electricity, communications, and medicine - that is a textbook definition of a concentration camp. Finally, the word genocide and ethnic cleansing are both being used, and both are accurate but they are not the same thing. Ethnic cleansing comprises the actions that can be used in the goal to remove members of an ethnic or religious group from an area. Genocide is the murder of an entire population. All genocide can be considered ethnic cleansing, but not all ethnic cleansing is genocide.  It is clear that Israel has been guilty of humanitarian atrocities for decades. These have ramped up exponentially in the past month with unyielding aerial attacks, the use of white phosphorus, the targeting of hospitals, schools, and mosques, the silencing of Palestinians communication with the outside world and the denial of basic human needs to the 2.2 million civilians in Gaza, including over 1 million children. It is becoming more clear everyday that Israel seeks to finalize their purging of Palestinians from the land they have colonized by means of genocide. And many Palestinians are making the devastating decision to stay in their homes as long as possible, afraid they will leave and lose what little they have left the way their ancestors did in 1948. They are standing their ground believing that it's better to die in their homes as many of them have nothing left to lose. Evangelical POV: Genesis 12: 7 informs us: And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.  The previous verse tells us this:  And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. This tells us that the promised land was always occupied by other peoples, other groups that had to be driven out so that Abraham and his descendants could settle there.  When the Hebrew people, having escaped famine, settled in the borders outside of Egypt they multiplied and became a threat to the Egyptians who became concerned that in the event of a conflict, or threat to their empire, the Hebrews could be persuaded to side with the invaders attack Egypt. They were taken in to slavery for hundreds of years. Returning, they were told:  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Again, the land was inhabited, and these people were, under the holy wars initiated by Moses' successor, Joshua, these people were driven off, or in some cases, assimilated. Individual people, living among the Hebrews were made welcome, and given rights.  “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  Leviticus 19:34. This story, the struggle of the Hebrew people to overcome obstacles and keep the land of their promise is central to Zionism. Evangelical Protestant Chrisitians, who largely follow a literal interpretation of scripture, have cited this set of scriptures, and endorsed and supported the idea of a Jewish homeland.  The new evangelicalism, endorsed Israel for more sinister reasons. Dispensationalist writer, Hal Lindsey, began an elaborate and exact timeline for the return of Christ that started with Israel becoming a nation.  From there he listed current events that must be fulfilled to anticipate this return, followed by years of tribulation, and a literal battle of Armageddon taking place on a ruin in Northern Israel.  This belief has been endorsed by evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell. It has been made a part of modern Christian mythology with it's inclusion in the popular, “Left Behind,” series of books and films. Follow Amity on TikTok @sassyscribbler Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ [withoutworkspod@gmail.com ](mailto:withoutworkspod@gmail.com)Our Internet home: [www.withoutworkspodcast.com ](http://www.withoutworkspodcast.com)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVuHgaTdysY https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsxdg https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/zionism/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settler_colonialism https://www.nbcnews.com/news/gaza-strip-controls-s-know-rcna119405 https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-long-history-israeli-palestinian-conflict/story?id=103875134 https://afsc.org/sites/default/files/documents/Palestinian%20Nonviolent%20Resistance%20to%20occupaltion%20since%201967.pdf https://www.usip.org/palestinian-politics-timeline-2006-election https://www.dni.gov/nctc/ftos/hamas_fto.html https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006 https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/middleeast/gaza-death-toll-report-intl/index.html Reading List: My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story by Ramzy Baroud Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh In the Presence of Absence by Richard Widerkehr On Zionist Literature by Ghassan Kanafani Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimir Power Born of Dreams: My Story Is Palestine by Mohammad Sabaaneh Stories Under Occupation: And Other Plays from Palestine by Samer Al-Saber Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank by Kareem Rabie Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd Of Noble Origins: A Palestinian Novel by Sahar Khalifeh My First and Only Love by Sahar Khalifeh Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

Bruce Gore and Jacob Toman discuss Postmillennialism, memorizing the entire book of Revelation, hearing Hal Lindsey teach, moving to Postmillennialism and more.Bruce Gore on YoutubeWatch all of our videos and subscribe to our channel for the latest content >HereHere

A DAY is coming when Jerusalem becomes “a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.” This is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Yahweh, which culminates at Armageddon. Zechariah saw the coming of Messiah, and the key verse in our view is Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” In other words, on that day, when Jerusalem is the scene of the final battle of the age, those fighting for Jerusalem will realize that “him whom they have pierced” is the One they were waiting for. The war between Israel and Hamas enters its third week. Aaron Lipkin, CEO of Lipkin Tours, has purchased equipment for the IDF troops defending his community in Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank). If you would like to contribute, go to https://bit.ly/lipkintours. Choose option #21 (donation). The Hal Lindsey book Derek mentioned is The Road to Holocaust, Lindsey's response to Dominionists and Reconstructionists who believe that the church has replaced Israel and the Jews in end times prophecy. We agree with Hal that Replacement Theology is the basis for anti-semitism, and the Israel-Hamas war is bringing it to the surface in many Christian congregations. The article by Dr. Thomas Ice on Hal Lindsey and Dominion Theology is at https://bit.ly/tommyice. Our Build Barn Better project is making progress! Our 1,200 square pole barn now has HVAC, along with a new floor, windows, ceiling fans, upgraded electric service, and insulation. Wall paneling is going up and we're beginning to produce programs out there. Thank you for your support! If you are so led, you can help out at GilbertHouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to these studies plus our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker, and the podcast that started this journey in 2005, P.I.D. Radio. Best of all, it bypasses the gatekeepers of Big Tech! The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at www.gilberthouse.org/app/. Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site! Check out our online store! www.GilbertHouse.org/store is a virtual book table with books and DVDs related to our weekly Bible study. Take advantage of our monthly specials!——————Join us in Israel! Our 2024 tour of Israel features special guest Timothy Alberino! We will tour the Holy Land March 31–April 9, 2024, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to www.GilbertsInIsrael.com.——————Subscribe to our new YouTube channels! Unraveling Revelation: www.YouTube.com/UnravelingRevelationThese weekly studies and Derek's podcast: www.YouTube.com/GilbertHouse ——————Our favorite Bible study tools! Check the links in the right-hand column at www.GilbertHouse.org. For the complete Gilbert House Fellowship archive, go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship.

A DAY is coming when Jerusalem becomes “a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.” This is a prophecy of the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Yahweh, which culminates at Armageddon. Zechariah saw the coming of Messiah, and the key verse in our view is Zechariah 12:10: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” In other words, on that day, when Jerusalem is the scene of the final battle of the age, those fighting for Jerusalem will realize that “him whom they have pierced” is the One they were waiting for. The war between Israel and Hamas enters its third week. Aaron Lipkin, CEO of Lipkin Tours, has purchased equipment for the IDF troops defending his community in Samaria (what the world calls the West Bank). If you would like to contribute, go to https://bit.ly/lipkintours. Choose option #21 (donation).The Hal Lindsey book Derek mentioned is The Road to Holocaust, Lindsey's response to Dominionists and Reconstructionists who believe that the church has replaced Israel and the Jews in end times prophecy. We agree with Hal that Replacement Theology is the basis for anti-semitism, and the Israel-Hamas war is bringing it to the surface in many Christian congregations. The article by Dr. Thomas Ice on Hal Lindsey and Dominion Theology is at https://bit.ly/tommyice.

Episode Synopsis:I begin this episode with a personal testimony.I was born and raised a dispensationalist.  Our family owned a Christian bookstore.  The first Christian book I picked out and read on my own was Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth.  Years later, I was challenged by one of our delivery men about the books we were selling–all the dispensationalist best sellers.  He said he was “Reformed.”  I thought he meant that he had gone to “reform school” or was on work release from prison.  The questions he put to me bounced off like BB's against a Battleship.  Dispensationalism was biblical.  How could anyone doubt that?But those BB's actually penetrated my embarrassingly thin armor.  Eventually, I became a very reluctant Calvinist and then I started re-thinking my eschatology.  After university and a year at the Simon Greenleaf School of Law (which was founded by John Warwick Montgomery, the faculty included Walter Martin, and Rod Rosenbladt, and is now the Trinity Law School in Santa Ana), I was steadily moving away from my doctrinal roots (Arminian and dispensational).  I found that the Reformation views on law and gospel, the five solas, and the end times, were absolutely compelling because they were thoroughly biblical.  To my surprise Drs. Montgomery and Rosenbladt suggested a career change–seminary, specifically the new seminary in Escondido (90 miles to the South), Westminster Seminary California.In the Acts and Paul class taught by Dennis Johnson, I first encountered what I came to know as the two-age model–terms I was familiar with from reading the New Testament but never thought much about–“this age” and “the age to come.”  After reading Herman Ridderbos and Geerhardus Vos on Paul, I realized how serious a challenge the two-model was to my premillennial eschatology (I had pretty much given up on most of my dispensationalism by then, although I still thought like one).  Driving home after Dr. Johnson's class, I had an “ah-ha moment.”  “I can't be premillennial any more.”   The two-age model makes premillennialism (in all its forms) a biblical impossibility.  I dug in my heels and fought the inevitable.  But here I am far down the road, presenting and defending the two-age model.  If you've not heard this before, you are in for a real surprise.  This is a game changer in terms of your view of the end times.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

In this episode, join Dudley and Karis for a conversation on the importance of understanding our place in God's story, which includes the period of time before Christ's return to earth (known as the “end times”). Dudley and Karis also discuss the repercussions of people having believed that they are part of the last generation ever on this planet, the joy and importance of learning where we as individuals fit within the Biblical story, and “The Late Great Planet Earth,” a 1970 book by Hal Lindsey. For more information and resources, visit https://kerygmaventures.com/podcast/ Follow and subscribe:Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/41N9SAP Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3LEIxeo YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@kerygmaventures Google Podcasts - https://bit.ly/kerygma-ventures-google-podcasts Watch our "Conversations At The Ranch" series: https://bit.ly/conversations-at-the-ranch Watch our "Papa, I Have A Question" series: https://bit.ly/papa-I-have-a-question This episode was produced by Story On Media & Marketing: https://www.successwithstories.com.

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.For further study:Read the original two-article series I wrote in London (1986). Click on Armageddon!Read a paper on Matthew 24 and the Destruction of Jerusalem I wrote at Duke University (1980). Click here.See also John Clayton's article The 2012 Mayan Demise of Earth.If you'd like to learn a lot more, you might want to order Revelation and the End of the World. This audio series:Includes 4 lessons on audio CD (3 hours total).Also has the paper on The Destruction of Jerusalem.Contains further material (40 days of study) on every chapter of Revelation. (These notes are also available at the premium site, under N.T. Studies.)Some failed predictions & estimates:Rabbi Menachem Schneerson: “The Iraqi crisis may spark the terrible war that will herald Messiah's arrival.”Billy Graham: “There are spiritual forces at work in the Persian Gulf confrontation. History has gone full circle, and we are coming back to these [Bible] lands. This is not another Korea, it is not another Vietnam – it is something far more sinister and far more difficult."Jack Van Impe: “Four major prophecies in the Bible pinpoint Iraq and the Persian Gulf as the prelude to the Battle of Armageddon, a conflict that will begin at the Euphrates River in Iraq.”Lester Sumrall: “I predict the absolute fullness of [the] man's operation in planet earth by the year 2000 AD. Then Jesus Christ shall reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years.”Mary Stewart Relfe: “The second coming of Christ will occur in 1997.”Jerry Falwell: 2000.Hal Lindsey: 1987 or 1988Jehovah's Witness predictions: 1914, 1918. 1925, 1941, 1975, etc.Update: Interestingly, just days before 21 Dec 2012, the very moment my editor and I were exchanging emails and joking about the big day (he said I had just 9 days to get my corrections to him before it was "too late"), I received a warning from a fellow who wanted me to know that he had intelligence that am undetectable dwarf star was on a collision course with the earth. The date of impact: 21 Dec 2012.Related podcasts in the current series:What Happens After Death?The Rapture & the TribulationThoughts on Heaven & Hell

Episode Synopsis:As a baby boomer, I grew up during the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear war was real and constant.  In 1948, Israel became a nation and many Jews began returning to their ancient homeland.  The “Six Day War” of 1967, fought between Israel and a confederation of Arab states, sure made it seem as though the dispensational expectation of the rapture of the Gentile church, followed by a seven-year tribulation period in which antichrist would make a peace treaty with Israel, only to turn upon the nation leading to the Battle of Armageddon, was at hand.  Fear and uncertainty among God's people during this time created a huge and eager audience as well as  perfect timing for Hal Lindsey to release his blockbuster book, the Late Great Planet Earth which was the best-selling book in the United States during the 1970's, selling some 28 million copies by 1990.  Lindsey put into popular terms how current events were unfolding as the fulfillment of God's plan to redeem his people, save Israel, and usher in the millennial age.  But what was to come next on this time line?  The “rapture.”  The rapture became the main hope of vast numbers of Bible-believing Christians.  Jesus will return to rapture believers before any nuclear holocaust thereby sparing believers from such horrors, and the removal of the Gentile church will allow God to return to dealing with Israel, the apple of his eye.  Everything centered upon the “rapture.”But when Paul discusses the meaning of Jesus Christ's parousia (or his coming) in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, does the apostle actually teach anything like the end-times scenario as taught by dispensationalists and popularized by the likes of Hal Lindsey?  In this ninth episode of season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast in which are working our way through Paul's two Thessalonian letters, we will consider Paul's discussion of the Lord's return.  While Paul is certain of the Lord's return to raise the dead, judge the world and make all things new, he knows nothing of the “rapture” in the form embraced by so many.  What does Paul teach about the Lord's return?  Stay tuned.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Our topic is the 70 weeks and logical conclusions. I want to share the testimony that brought me here. Back in 1981, I was caught up in Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth, which was all about futurism and the end times. But then I attended a seminar by a man named David Campbell who presented historicism, specifically the 70 weeks of Daniel. In just three hours, he proved from Scripture and history that the 70th week of Daniel was perfectly fulfilled during the ministry of Jesus Christ. This devastated everything I thought I knew about Bible prophecy. I began a ten-year journey of study and research, which resulted in my book, The 70 Weeks: The Historical Alternative. I never asked for a dime of royalties from any of the ministries who published my work. I wanted the money to go towards getting the books out and blessing the ministry. This seed, along with the seed of other ministries, is leading to an awakening of the truth. We need to get the 70 weeks right in order to understand our history and our present. We will explore different interpretations of the 70 weeks and look at the Reformation and its unifying doctrine. We need to handle the truth wisely and with fear and trembling. In this segment, we will be examining the false doctrine being taught and the sources from which it originated, designed to destroy the Reformation. We will be looking at the Jesuits and their role in the Counter-Reformation, and how their teachings have influenced most of the Protestant Bible prophecy teachers. We will also be examining the Protestant Reformation and the role of figures like Wycliffe and how they opposed the counter schemes of the Roman Catholic Church. We will be discussing relevant issues, such as the hindrance that will come and the removal of the Holy Ghost. We will also be addressing the issue of the temple being rebuilt and how it is a lie that leads to chaos. We will be exploring the divine time measures in the Bible, particularly the prophecy of Daniel 9, and how it must be interpreted as day for a year. We will also be examining the futurist teachings and their logical conclusions. Finally, we will be looking at the six messianic prophecies and the time measures surrounding them, and how they relate to Christ.

Hal Lindsey is continuing with part two--the Book of Revelation. Hal is a terrific prophetic teacher who has been around for decades. Jaggy and I thank you for tuning in! Our studio line: 888-476-3111

Excellent teaching by Hal Lindsey, who has been a prophesy teacher for many decades now. I first listened to him around 1985. Jaggy and I thank you for tuning in and sharing!

What is the Millennium? What is the Rapture? What is the difference between premillennialism and postmillennialism? What is Dispensationalism? What is the Great Tribulation? These are questions that are the primary concern of the Futurist interpretations of the book of Revelation. As they have been popularized by the Left Behind series and Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, what are the major problems with these interpretations? Listen to this episode and you will find out! Subscribe on RadioPublic (https://radiopublic.com/wrestling-with-theology-6Na4AJ) or your favorite podcast app.

Make sure to join us for this awesome broadcast classic where Bob Enyart interviews Jonathan Cahn on the end times, AND for the first 10 minutes of our Bob Enyart End Times seminar. To get the entire seminar, click here! * About this Interview and on this Page: We a'e eagerly looking forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that should not make us vulnerable to fake news, even Christian fake news, and confused Bible teaching... - Rejecting The Harbinger's Claim of Divine Signs (far below) - Leading End Times Preachers All Dyin' of Old Age (just below) - List of the Erroneous Calculated Dates - Last Days vs. Last Minutes - The Timing of Christ's Return has Changed And related BEL Resources: - Debunking the Blood Moon Claims with a Creationist Astronomer - Bob Schedules Meet with End Times Preacher 9/24/17 (after predicted rapture) - BEL Y2K Survival Kit Cuts Power to House (so our wives don't think that were nuts) - Two Decades After 9/11 End Times Predictions Still Pending - Bob Enyart's End Times Seminar filmed four days after 9/11 to a live and "still here" audience!* 2016 Update: If Christian brother Jonathan Cahn would have paid closer attention to Bob's comments in this interview, and had taken this written show summary to heart, he could have averted the embarrassment of his failed prophecy of economic collapse for 2015. Further, at rsr.org/blood-moons#rsr-vs-the-apocalypse-gurus we make our argument that while the predictions of the End Times gurus are systematically wrong, here at Bob Enyart Live and RSR our biblically-based general and science predictions have an uncanny way of being confirmed!  This is a Special Edition of Real Science Radio. * LIST OF LEADING END TIMES PREACHERS * Leading End Times Preachers All Dyin' of Old Age:  The modern end-times movement really took off way back in the 1970s and 1980s. Did all the big-name end times teachers think that they would still be preaching in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, and as a group dying of old age? No, of course not. We discuss this in a series on BEL beginning on May 14th, 2018 for the 70th anniversary of the modern State of Israel. See specifically the program, How to turn perfectly good Scripture into bad predictions. We love these guys, and Bob personally (and literally) sat at the feet of Chuck Smith and Chuch Missler for scores of Bible studies. But clearly, their dying of old age indicates that they got something very wrong in their interpretation of the headlines and the Scriptures...   - Tim LaHaye (90, 1926 - 2016, Left Behind Series) - Chuck Smith (86, 1927 - 2013, founder, Calvary Chapel) - Chuck Missler (83, 1934-2018, end times teacher) - Harold Camping (92, 1921-2013, founder, Family Radio) - Hal Lindsey (91, b. 1929, Late Great Planet Earth) - Noah Hutchings (92, 1922-2015, six decades on Southwest Radio Church) - Irvin Baxter (75, 1945-2020, Endtime Ministries) as described by B.E. - John Hagee (81, b. 1940; recent error: Blood Moons) - Jack Van Impe (88, 1931-2020; had celebrated his 60-year anniversary with Rexella; began in ministry in 1948 and as a preacher in 1952). See Enyart discuss all this with WND readers.  * 2020 Update: * List of the Erroneous Calculated Dates: Here's an example of the never-ending, and so far, universally incorrect, calculating of end times dates by a Christian author, and then another example by the leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses...   * Remember When -- The Dates & The Headlines: Countless Christians were told that the following dates were significant because they represented end-times markers. Thousands of news headlines were misinterpreted prophetically to arrive at these erroneous dates. Of course the Lord will return one day, and hopefully, soon. But confused teachers used events and dates like these to confuse others. - 1850 for the ascent of the Anti-Christ (calculated by London's protestant scholar Robert Fleming, V.D.M in 1701 by adding to 608 A.D. the "1260 days" of Revelation, converting each day to a year - 1948 the nation of Israel is reconstituted in the Middle East - 1957 European Common Market (ECM) established with six nations - 1973 The ECM added three more nations, prophecy teachers added this up to Daniel's "ten toes" - 1980 In the decade of the 80s, three more nations joined the ECM, still adding up to Daniel's ten toes - 1993 The European Union (EU) was formed with 12 nations - 1995 Ten Nation European Alliance (WEU) formed, claimed to be Daniel's 10-toed prophecy - 2001 Islamic terrorist attack on America, claimed to represent the end times - 2010 Ten Nation European WEU decides to disband claimed as major fulfillment of prophecy - 2011 Ten Nation WEU officially disbands and absorbed into the EU - 2016 The now 28-nation EU begins to unravel with the UK's Brexit and Italy's no-confidence vote- 2020 With the U.K. officially out, the EU is down to 27 nations.* Counting Backwards From 2020: It's been... 1,520 years since A.D. 500, the year when Irenaeus, et al, predicted that Jesus would return 1,220 years since A.D. 800, the year when Sextus Julius Africanus predicted Armageddon 1,020 years since A.D. 1000, the year when Pope Sylvester II, et al, predicted the beginning of the end 176 years since 1844 when the early 7th Day Adventists believed Christ would have returned 170 years since 1850 when Robert Fleming, writing in 1700 A.D., calculated the anti-Christ's reign 142 years since 1878 when Jehovah's Witnesses said would be the last year for the church on earth 116 years since 1914 when the Jehovah's Witnesses said it would be the end 99 years since 1921 when the JW's said millions now living will never die 84 years since 1936, the year when Herbert W. Armstrong predicted the end (updated to 1943, '72, '75) 72 years since 1948 when Israel became a nation again after World War II 63 years since 1957 when the European Common Market was Daniel's ten-nation alliance 39 years since 1981 when Chuck Smith, et al, taught the seven-year tribulation would begin 35 years since 1985, the year Lester Sumrall wrote about in his book, I Predict 1985 38 years since 1982, the year Pat Robertson predicted would be the end of the world  32 years since 1988 a generate after Israel became a nation with 88 reasons for the Rapture in '88 26 years since 1994, the year that Harold Camping predicted would start the great tribulation 23 years since 1997, the year that Bishop James Ussher predicted would be the end of the world20 years since 2000, when the Y2K bug was predicted to herald the end times, and when and Lester Sumrall predicted would be the end, and when Jerry Falwell predicted would see God's judgment. 19 years since 2001 when America was attacked on 9/11 13 years since 2007, the year Pat Robertson wrote in 1990 would be the end 6 years since 2014 when the blood moons were supposed to indicate the end times.* Last Days vs. Last Minutes: Many years ago my call screener put through to me someone who told him that the diseases in the world were evidence of the Last Days. The guy, Jim from Columbus, Ohio asked me, "Bob, where do you stand on the Ebola virus?" I answered, "I'm against it." Looking at the news events listed above, when they occurred popular prophecy teachers claimed they represented end times prophecies. Well, it's been a long time since. The "end times" is a lot longer than any of them would have predicted. As we say at Denver Bible Church to those misinterpreting last-days prophecies, "From now only, will you only tell us about the Last Minutes?" Afterall, the most famous end-times teachers are all dying of old age and these last-days interpretations have been around for more than half a century. * The Bible shows the Timing of Christ's Return has Changed: You can link directly to this section as kgov.com/second-coming-timing or kgov.com/second-coming-timing-has-changed. For most folks, before reading this list we recommend praying, "Lord, if Your Word clearly teaches something that I will tend to reject because it conflicts with some of my biases, please help me to be humble before You and willing to challenge my preexisting beliefs." - God Views the End Times Calendar as Changeable: "I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time" Isa. 60:22 - Believers Can Change the Time of Christ's Return: Peter wrote that believers too should set about, "hastening the coming of the day of God" 2 Pet. 3:12 - Even the Length of the Tribulation will Change: Jesus said that, "those days will be shortened" Mat. 24:22 - Like God Shortening His Punishment of Israel: the Old Testament precedents for God shortening the coming Tribulation, include, "choose... seven years... Or... three months... Or... three days' plague..." And David said... "His mercies are great..." So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. 2 Sam. 24:12-17, 25 - For God Promised Mercy Regardless of Prophecy If...: "The instant I speak concerning a nation [Israel], to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it." Jer. 18:7-8 (see also a dozen more Category 1 verses like that one, including the next, about Nineveh) - Again, Get This Down, God Promises Mercy Regardless of Prophecy If: "...forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown! [But then] they turned from their evil way; and God repented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it." Jonah 3:10 - Before You Get Through Israel's Villages: "...I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." Mat. 10:23 (yet this did not happen, because as warned, God changed His plan for Israel; Jer. 18:9-10; Rom. 11) - Some of You Won't Die Until: "there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." Mat. 16:28 (this didn't refer to the Transfiguration which occurred about a day later; see too Mark 9 and Luke 9; yet they all did die, because God changed His plan for Israel, and grafted in the Gentiles; Jer. 18:9-10; Rom. 11) - John Might Not Die Before: "Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, 'If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?'" John 21:23 - This Generation Won't Pass Until: "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." Mat. 24:34  (yet that generation did pass away, because God changed His plan for Israel and instead grafted in the Gentiles; Jer. 18:9-10; Rom. 11) - Before Paul, Believers Sold their Homes: "all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need." Acts 4:34-35; 5:1-2 (this behavior, appropriate at the time, changed after Paul's Acts 9 conversion when God grafted in the Gentiles) - Christ's Soon Return Permeated His Teachings: "Sell what you have and give alms" Luke 12:33; "And everyone who has left houses... or lands, for My name's sake..." Mat. 19:29. "...do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on" Luke 12:22. The "ravens... neither sow nor reap" yet "God feeds them" Luke 12:24. "He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff——no bag..." Mark 6:8. "Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your moneybelts..." Mat. 10:9. "Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and... come, follow Me" Luke 18:22. (yet He did not return soon, as He had warned that He may change His mind). And even that Jesus went about all Galilee preaching "the gospel of the kingdom" Mat. 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:14-15 and Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel [of the kingdom]" Mark 1:15; Mat. 3:2; 4:17 - With Homes Sold, They Became Poor: Remember that "all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them... and they distributed to each as anyone had need." Acts 4:34-35; 5:1-2 - It Was the Converts of the Twelve Who Fell into Poverty:  1 Cor. 16:1–4; 2 Cor. 8:1-9:15; Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:25–31; Acts 11:27–30; 24:17 for communism quickly fails; the sale of pesonal property was to be a short-term tactic to survive the Tribulation and enter the Kingdom; the Postponement led to their poverty. - Paul's Converts Kept Their Homes and Provided Relief: (The "apostle to the Gentiles" was able to raise relief from his converts) 1 Cor. 16:1–4; 2 Cor. 8:1-9:15; Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:25–31; Acts 11:27–30; 24:17 to support the believers in Judea who fell into poverty; they hadn't immediately become poor after selling their property, but after the delay in Christ's previously-expected soon return  - God Warned He may Not Give Israel their Kingdom as Prophesied: "And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will repent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it." Jer. 18:9-10 (see also Jer. 18:7-8; for God, unlike a juvenile judge, does not make empty threats) - One Year Probation Followed Three-Year Earthly Ministry: "'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree [figuratively, Israel] and find none. Cut it down...' But he answered and said, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'" Luke 13:7-9 - Daniel's Seventieth Week Suspended: The prophet Daniel's 490-year prophecy (Dan. 9:24-27) of 483 years between the command to rebuild Jerusalem (by Artaxerxes Neh. 2:1-8) until the execution of the Messiah, followed by the next seven years that were to be the Great Tribulation (Mat. 24:15; Mark 13:14); but Israel rejected their resurrected Messiah so as God had warned (Jer. 18:9-10) He changed what He had prophesied for them by postponing both the tribulation and the Kingdom it would usher in. - After the Cross Ten Signs of the Tribulation Were Evident: See chapter 9 of kgov.com/the-plot for details; in the year beginning with Christ's death the signs of the Great Tribulation that occurred included the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders, earthquakes, believers beaten by councils, the laying on of hands to imprison, arrests leading to occasion for testimony, martyrdom, expectation of an abbreviated end times and of the soon appearance of signs in the sun, moon, and stars, irresistible wisdom displayed. - Fulfillment of Prophetic Seven Feasts of Israel Suspended: God ceased the apparent fulfillment of the Feasts of Israel on their very calendar days, for Jesus died on the day the Jews killed the Passover lamb; He was in the tomb during Unleavened Bread; raised on Firstfruits; gave the Holy Spirit on Pentecost; and He "tabernacled" among us (John 1:14, with the Greek saying not "dwelt" but "tabernacled"), likely fulfilling that feast; but the remaining two feasts including Trumpets are yet awaiting fulfillment, as God postponed His prophetic plan for Israel.    - Jesus Hardly Spoke About the End Times Until Just Before the Cross: The apocalyptic Olivet Discourse happened when Jesus said to His disciples, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified." Mat. 26:1-2 - God the Son Didn't Know the Timing: and neither did God the Holy Spirit but only the Father, for it is in His purview to decide when Jesus shall return. Just Google: open theism verses, and see Category 15, which includes the following: The Holy Spirit, third person of the Godhead, did not know something that the Father knew, namely, the planned day and hour of the Second Coming Mark 13:32 and of course that lack of knowledge did not negate His divinity for the quantitative attribute of omniscience is not like the absolute qualitative attributes; likewise, no man, no angel, nor even the Son knew, for "of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" of the persons of the Godhead, with even the Second Person not knowing the timing of the Second Coming which was in the purview of the Father alone Mat. 24:36. - Israel's End Times Signs Not Relevant Today: When the Lord temporarily set aside Israel's Kingdom and their covenant of circumcision and grafted in the Body of Christ with its covenant of grace (this is not replacement theology), God's new sign, so to speak, of the end of the Body of Christ's time on earth is the "fullness of the Gentiles", whatever He means by that, be it a billion believers to populate heaven, or the Gospel preached worldwide, or holiness within the Body, etc.; so that, when "the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" then God will graft Israel back in again, "for God is able to graft them in again", and thereby resume the countdown on their end times calendar; Rom. 11:11-32. - To Read More about the Changed Date of the Second Coming: Click to get a copy of Bob Enyart's life's work, The Plot: An Overview of the Bible is the Key to its Details and review the list of 33 Categories of more than 500 scriptures at opentheism.org/verses. * Tonight on Denver's 7News: Bob Enyart said on 7News to Colorado's ABC audience that Christians who say that the death penalty is immoral are unwittingly accusing God the Father of being unjust, for He required a payment of death to pay for the sin of the world. We thank God for the opportunity to promote the principles of the Gospel on the nightly news! Please also see AmericanRTL.org/death-penalty.    Now Back to the Harbinger: * Enyart & Cahn Agree on the Theme of The Harbinger: Bob Enyart interviews Jonathan Cahn, the NY Times bestselling author of The Harbinger. Bob appreciates Cahn's warning to an America defiant of God but Enyart disagrees with Cahn's claim that 9/11 was a specific sign from God. See just below Bob's notes regarding his reasons for disagreeing with Jonathan Cahn's claims of a specific divine message in the events following the Attack on America.   * Rejecting The Harbinger's Claim of Divine Signs: (This is not meant to be harsh, for we love and appreciate Jonathan Cahn, and though airing a daily radio talk show, we don't want to be like David who became battle hardened; yet, this is meant to be direct.) The last nine minutes of audio on today's program were recorded twelve years ago at an End Times seminar conducted in Winona Lake, Indiana only four days after Sept. 11, 2001. Bob Enyart predicted that sincere Christian authors (who love and honor God and preach the Gospel) would find a Bible passage with a few uncanny similarities to 9/11, and so would claim that therefore Al Qaeda's attack on America was a sign from God. Consider Jonathan Cahn's few parallels (which get repeated often) from Isaiah 9:10 to 9/11 events. In the audio from September 2001, Bob Enyart illustrates how easy this is to claim fulfillment of a prophetic pattern when, compared to the Harbinger, he quoted more, and more significant, 9/11 parallels, not from Isaiah but from Revelation 17 and 18. As one small example, the greater parallel between Scripture and 9/11 is not a sycamore and a fir tree, but Washington DC and NYC debating the patent rights of murdered unborn children so that "the merchants of the earth" can buy and sell the "the bodies and souls of men." So Bob intentionally misinterpreted the Scriptures to show how easily (and even innocently) this is done, and while Cahn's parallels get to select from events over a period of years, Bob's many more prophetic parallels were all fulfilled on the very day of September 11th. Harbinger Expert Critic says: "Bob, I read your analysis this morning and it was dead right on every point." - David James, 3/24/13 The Internet hasn't existed for 2,700 years. Jonathan Cahn's nine harbingers are based on a quote in the Bible of men defiant against God, who, after suffering God's judgment, repeated in utter ignorance, "The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars" (Isaiah 9:10). If the web had been forever, a Google search would probably return countless pages recording, after attacks, utterances throughout Judeo-Christian history of that quote. About 18 minutes into the program, Jonathan Cahn says about Isaiah 9:10 and the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that back then, "you don't have anyone quoting the Scripture of judgment." Perhaps, perhaps not. In the very center of the Internet's page of Pearl Harbor Quotes we read Isaiah 9:10, not in the NIV or NASB, because those versions were translated later, but in the King James Version. Cahn chose to present his message in a book of fiction. Not unlike the folks who think Star Wars is real, for many readers, Cahn's literary device blurs the distinction between truth and fiction. The requisite suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy the elements of the story, a wary reporter, a surprised liaison, and an unnamed prophet with curious ancient seals, works to bias the reader who emerges from the novella into the real world lacking the desire to expend the mental energy necessary for an objective consideration of The Harbinger's theological claims. The first harbinger (i.e., a seal in the book's metaphor) is the 9/11 attack. Cahn says at about 6:30 into today's program that a first attack is a sign of God's judgment and that God's protection will be further lifted if the nation does not repent. Bob suggests to Cahn that not unlike 9/11, Pearl Harbor suffered 3,000 casualties, about 2,400 of whom were killed. We live here, today, and so we are inclined to discount far-flung attacks over the last 2,700 years and view the world, unsurprisingly, through our own eyes. Bob mentioned to Jonathan that years ago he had interviewed the beloved Hal Lindsey who, through a similar here-and-now-centered interpretation, suggested that the Second Coming would be in 1988. (This was not unlike superstitious European Christians who would panic when pestilence coincided with Halley's Comet, nor unlike those who thought Jesus would return on the Y2K computer bug, nor unlike those who thought that lightning strikes signified judgment from Zeus, until that is lightning rods ruined the divine aim. Superstition, sadly, is as rampant among Christian authors as it was among the Greeks who worshiped the pantheon.) We interpret our own suffering as though it were of biblical proportion, as Cahn said at about 21:40, that in addition to the harbingers (signs), America has suffered "economic collapse". Well, collapse means different things to different people. Within 48 hours of our prerecorded interview, Dow Jones reached an all time high, and at the very minute today's show began, Reuters reported, "Housing starts point to growing economic momentum." Compare that just to even recent decimation by tsunami, typhoon, earthquake, and to the countries bankrupted, the millions slaughtered, and tens of millions ruined by war, and even to the billions in Asia and Africa who've truly suffered debilitating poverty. That's economic collapse, whereas if God brought economic sanctions against America, it wouldn't look like a downturn, and it wouldn't primarily hurt the poor and middle class. Given the freedom to be arbitrary, fans of Nostradamus (who apparently predicted the second coming, to America in the year 2013, of Twinkies and Ding Dongs) and Jean Dixon point to fulfillment of prophecy. Ironically, Isaiah 9:10 itself is not even a prophecy, so any claimed fulfillment is metaphorical at best. However, The Harbinger itself fulfilled an actual prophecy, uttered in the very week of 9/11, at that End Times seminar, which predicted that such books would be written :). And I'm not even a prophet. Over a million Americans were killed in the civil and world wars. Weren't those lives worth a Bible verse? Around 25 minutes into the program, Bob agrees with The Harbinger, in that "for Israel, being a prophet was a matter of life or death" (p. 9). Enyart then explains that today, God has withdrawn His accountability system for prophets. Jonathan did not anticipate Bob's statement that stoning a false prophet to death is no longer commanded, nor permitted, by God, as the New Testament says, that with "the priesthood being changed [by Christ], of necessity there is also a change of the law" (Hebrews 7:12). So today, while Christians tend to forget and forgive (often without even admitting) the false prophecies of their brethren, unbelievers have long memories and stumble over our false prophecies and prophetic interpretations.     The actual parallel between Israel and America, regarding 732 B.C. and 2001, is only thematic, not divinely particular. When a nation ignores God, she becomes increasingly weak and vulnerable to destruction from within and without. Contrary to The Harbinger's emphasis (p. 19), this is true for Israel and America and for Italy, Germany, and Argentina. Christians disagree terribly over interpretation of the plain words in the Bible. Realize how loose our interpretations will then be of events! What is the meaning of a flood? An earthquake? An attack? It is God! Or perhaps it's the devil! Or was it, in fact, Osama bin Laden? Jesus disapproved of such interpretations of current events in Luke 13:1-5, and when Enyart debated D. James Kennedy's Professor of New Testament from Knox Theological Seminary, this very passage, regarding 2,000-year-old headlines of murder and a fallen tower, was central to the matter. The Harbinger makes the important observation that, "during national judgment, both the righteous and the wicked perish" (p. 30). Then Cahn writes, thankfully, that God was not with Al Qaeda, but he claimed this as part of the prophetic pattern, in that, God was not with Israel's enemies who attacked her. But again this is arbitrary, for there were plenty of times when God Himself orchestrated the attacks on Israel in punishment for her national adultery. Yet it is wrong to extrapolate from those extraordinary biblical interventions that, therefore, God is the one who orchestrates a molester's rape of a child, or the Holocaust. Attributing to God the designs of the wicked comes close to blasphemy, except that it is done in ignorance, although often, through negligent ignorance. Jonathan Cahn says, rightly I assert, that God was not with Al Qaeda, yet because of a degree of superstition, he then interprets defiance against Islamic terrorism as defiance against God. Is Israel defiant today against God? Yes. (Sadly, like America they are a nation of socialists who defend abortion and homosexuality.) Does that mean that Israel's defiance of Hamas is inherently condemnable? Of course not. Cahn takes a Time magazine reporter's perfectly valid quote as a double entendre, with the entire thrust of the book implying that the defiance is against God, even though it is typically explicitly stated, as in this case, that it is against Islamic terrorists. "Rebuilding Ground Zero was going to be America's statement of defiance," (p. 63, from July 1, 2008) "to those who attacked us."Four days after the attack on American on 9/11, in our End Times seminar at Winona Lake (home of a famous Bible center, Billy Sunday, and a prayer launch pad for Billy Graham's first crusade), I didn't have to stretch the details, as Jonathan does somewhat, to make far greater and more substantive parallels between 9/11 and the book of Revelation. The world trade center, her sins had reached to heaven, the nations, peoples, tongues, and languages, Babylon the great, is fallen, the kings of the earth see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, watching the smoke of her ruin, the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury, her plagues will come in one day, death and mourning, she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her, alas, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come, their commerce has ceased, no merchandising today of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, silk and scarlet, every kind of object, of wood, bronze, iron, and marble, incense, wine and oil, flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, pork bellies, and bodies and souls of men. For in the previous week, the targets of God's wrath, New York and Washington D.C. were debating the patent rights of the tiniest innocent babies, the embryos destroyed so that their bodies could be harvested and sold, by the Israelis, to businesses around the world, while American financial interests were angered that they may not be collecting the royalties they were demanding. And on the Hudson and in the New York harbor, all who travel by ship, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, "What is like this great city?" Both can't be correct, but either or both, the Harbinger and the Revelation 17-18 prophetic "parallels", could be wrong. As the above paragraph demonstrates, the more powerful and biblically extensive prophetic interpretation of 9/11 is not The Harbinger, but The Revelation. And that one is certainly wrong! For one, I intended it to be wrong. And secondly, if Revelation 18 was being fulfilled before our eyes on September 11, 2001 that would mean that we are now twelve years into Revelation chapter 19, and by now, the Second Coming should have occurred. So if the strong prophetic parallel (Revelation) isn't true, the weak one (Harbinger) probably isn't true either. Allow me to be petty. A sycamore tree and a Norwegian fir (the claimed sixth and seventh signs) do not come close to the extraordinary depth of substance and parallel between 9/11 and Revelation 17 and 18. Besides (and these are insignificant, but mentioned because such trivialities in reverse, are used in The Harbinger to make its point. The World Trade Center wasn't made of bricks. (On the contrary, it is noted for being the first supertall building to be made without masonry.) And yes, (p. 72) New York City and America rebuilt. But so did Berlin. And Rome, one could say. Destroyed cities throughout history rebuilt, with notable exceptions like Nineveh. Isaiah speaks of many sycamores, not one as at the WTC. And as Cahn acknowledges, that tree destroyed on 9/11 had the same name, sycamore, but it was a different kind of tree; in fact, a different species, and a different genus. And a different family, and a different order. If it were much different, it wouldn't be a tree, one could say. (But then again, what couldn't one say?) Isaiah says the Sycamores (plural, not singular) would be cut down (not crushed) and replaced with woods of cedar, not with a single pine tree. (2014 Update: And as the replacement of the tree was a sign of the end times, so was the removal of the tree, after it died, said Cahn.) The Harbinger also embraces the invalid contradiction of freedom yet being forced, justifying this by saying, "It takes two oars to make a boat go straight" (p. 86). Yes, but that boat illustration presents not even a theoretical contradiction, let alone an actual one. And the world isn't going straight, unless we mean straight to hell. Some of the claimed fulfillments of the prophetic pattern are really the same thing, repeated references to the attack itself, and tower falling, and the rebuilding, and the quoting, in hubris, it is true, of Isaiah 9:10 to rebuild, as by one significant government official who was… John Edwards? That disgraced non-official failed vice-presidential candidate. The 8th harbinger, coming with some peculiar justification in that spoken words are invisible, has to do with the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, which is as it should be because D.C. was also a target (although there was no harbinger from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for that was not an intended target no doubt). A claim repeated about slavery and the civil war is that every drop of shed blood was due to the judgment of God. So then why could the British and much of the world end slavery without a similar judgment? (That could be answered, but would require prophetic interpretations specific to the unique history of each country.) And a biblical hewn stone did not need to be quarried from a mountain, let alone in upstate New York, though that claim adds flavor to the fiction and yet another confirmation of the prophecy! One would think that bureaucracy could not thwart a divine sign. That stone, though, that Jonathan writes so much about, being quarried and celebrated, ended up not as the cornerstone at ground zero but at a suburban office building. For Mayor Bloomberg, et al., changed the One World Trade Center design and diverted one of the harbingers… to Long Island. A few words about Jonathan Cahn. We don't think that we convinced him, nor even gave him pause. Yet, at the same time, we don't think that he loves God any less than we do, nor do we believe that God approves more of us than He does of Cahn. We're just asking God to help us to do our best to rightly divide, and to urge all believers to rightly divide, the Word of Truth. The Ten Commandments judge Roy Moore publicly apologized here on KGOV.com for misinterpreting something as simple as a court ruling. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the partial-birth abortion "ban", Judge Moore, currently Alabama's chief justice, praised that ruling as a godly pro-life victory. Traveling to Birmingham, Alabama we challenged him to actually read the opinion, and he did, and so admitted that it was the most brutally wicked ruling in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court (and that's saying something). So there's hope for Jonathan too :) The great upside of Cahn's book is its theme, which is the nation's desperate need to turn to God and the horror of losing His blessing, for as Jonathan quoted a Bible commentary, "The defiance of God shuts out immeasurable good" (p. 76). The Harbinger's downside though, is that many of its Christian readers will become even more superstitious. -Pastor Bob Enyart Denver Bible Church (See also Bob's Writings at KGOV.com/writings, and Bob's End Times seminar, and his super fun verse-by-verse study of the Book of Revelation!)  Today's Resources: Bob Enyart's Last Days Bible Studies! Have it your way! You can enjoy Bob's: * Last Days Bible teaching on the end times (downloadable or on MP3 CD) * End Times seminar in Indiana given the week of 9/11 (downloadable or on MP3 CD) * Verse-by-verse studies on 1 Corinthians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians, both of which address rapture passages, or * Bob's Bible Study on The Book of Revelation, or read the End Times chapter in Bob's life's work, * The Plot. With any of these resources, you'll get the benefit of decades of Bible research!* See Our Bible Study Resources: We invite you to check out our theologythursday.com or our monthly subscriptions.

Joshua is a Christian hard rock/AOR band that formed in 1980 and is centered on guitarist Joshua Perahia. Despite being based in Los Angeles, CA they are probably best known outside of the United States.The band's first release was entitled The Hand Is Quicker Than the Eye, which referred to Perahia's guitar skills and songwriting ability, was released by Enigma Records in 1983. The single "November Is Going Away" was the band's biggest hit, achieving No. 1 status in Japan. Perahia had a religious experience at a Hal Lindsey–lead Bible study in 1983, and converted to Protestant Christianity from his Greek Orthodox upbringing.Perahia put together a new band for his 2nd album, Surrender, which included singer Jeff Fenholt. Surrender was released in 1985. Lyrically, the album marked a change in the band's style to lyrics which were evangelical in nature. Rob Rock was involved with their third album on RCA Records, Intense Defense. In 1988, Intense Defense, which was recorded at Dierks Studios and produced initially by Eddie Kramer and then Dieter Dierks (Scorpions fame) was characterized by the editor of HM Magazine as being "probably the best AOR melodic metal album in the universe." It sold well worldwide, but not in the United States. In 1995, the group re-formed and they released one album under the name M Pire, Chapter One, though it was never released in the US. The band then expanded its name back to Joshua Perahia. The addition of Joshua's last name was to avoid confusion as so many bands were using the name Joshua at the time. The band lacked a permanent vocalist and hired Alex Ligertwood of Santana to fill the spot on the follow-up Something to Say in 2001. However, while in production, the band recruited Jerry Gabriel and re-recorded the vocals. As a result, the album (except four tracks) contains Gabriel's lead vocals, and Ligertwood's vocals are available on a re-release. One song, "The First and the Last", appeared in the Larry Buchanan–directed movie The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdalene in 2004.2012 saw the release of the band's latest work, entitled “Resurrection” and featured vocals from Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring of Fire, Shining Black, etc.). While Joshua still writes music today for a possible future release he has shifted his focus to his son and their passion for vintage muscle cars and exotic cars as well. It's a passion that was ignited when Joshua was just 13 years old. The fact that Joshua still writes music means that fans can be hopeful of seeing a new recording in the future but for now please enjoy this episode of The Jersey Guys Podcast!

Part Two of Gary's discussion of a new book by David Jeremiah and the publishing history of (failed) prophecy books. Gary relates a conversation he had with an individual that believed Hal Lindsey's book, The Road to Holocaust, was an accurate representation of what the Bible teaches about the history of the Jewish people. Dispensationalism teaches that an unthinkable extermination of millions of Jews is still yet to come.

Gary discusses David Jeremiah's new book, which is essentially repeating the same message about being "near to the end." He also begins talking about another book written in 1989 after the failed prophecies of a prior book by Hal Lindsey. The discussion ran long so we cut decided to break this one into two parts.

In Episode 128, we talk about the part one of the five great overturnings that will happen in connection with the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in Christ's second coming. His ascension will be personal, visible, and beautiful, a joyful hope for which we must continuously watch and pray.Many find it incomprehensible that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be marked by the simultaneous outpouring of divine wrath and redemptive grace. However, it is not mercy against which people object. It is the belief that God is furious with those who oppose the gospel and will hold them forever responsible for rejecting Jesus Christ.Tune in now, and let's go bigger, better, and deeper! If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to the God Stuff Podcast, so you're always the first to know when a new episode is released.Episode Timestamps: Intro – [00:00] The Second Coming of Jesus Christ – [01:45]5 Revolutions – [06:18]Revolution #1: Rapture – [08:44]Revolution #2: Tribulation – [09:30]Outro – [25:45]Biblical References:1 Thessalonians 4:16-171 Corinthians 15:50-52Philippians 3:201 Thessalonians 4Matthew 24:21Daniel 9:24-272 Thessalonians 2, 2 and 4Revelation 13, 15-18Revelation 12 and 13Revelation 9revelation 16: 14-16Revelation 14:20Revelation 19:11-16Book References:Alpha Christians: A Manifesto for Menhttps://www.amazon.com./s?k=9781946654304&i=stripbooks&linkCode=qsThe Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031027771X/ref=x_gr_w_bb_sout?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_sout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=031027771X&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 Understanding End Times Prophecy by Paul Benwarehttps://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Understanding_End_Times_Prophecy.html?id=bCoOAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y About Our Host: Bill Giovannetti is the Senior Pastor at Pathway Church, Redding, California — an experienced senior pastor with a demonstrated history of working in the religious institutions' industry. He also teaches ministry-related college classes at Simpson University and the A. W. Tozer Theological Seminary. Bill has always had a passion to bring the deep things of God's word to the everyday people of God. Resources: Veritas School Online Theological School https://www.veritasschool.life/The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031027771X/ref=x_gr_w_bb_sout?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_sout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=031027771X&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 Understanding End Times Prophecy by Paul Benwarehttps://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Understanding_End_Times_Prophecy.html?id=bCoOAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y Connect with Bill Giovannetti: ● Visit the website: https://www.veritasschool.life/● Subscribe to the podcast: https://maxgrace.com/category/podcasts/● Follow Bill on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.giovannetti● Follow Bill on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillGiovannetti● Follow Bill on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billgiovannetti/ Thanks for tuning in! Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe!

Dr. Joye Jeffries Pugh is an alumnus of South Georgia College, Valdosta State College, and Nova University where she received her doctorate in education. Her background involves working as a researcher, counselor, mental retardation professional, human services director, and consultant. Dr. Pugh appears in several television documentaries on the HISTORY Channel concerning end times. Dr. Pugh's complete biographical history is featured in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Women, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in American Education, and Who's Who in Georgia. Joye is a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is a descendant of Dr. John Taliaferro a Minuteman who fought during the American Revolution. Joye is the daughter of the late Stella and CB Jeffries III. She was married to Melville Eugene Pugh for 33 years until his passing in March of 2018. She resides in Douglas, Georgia. Dr. Pugh has written many books, has an audio edition of one of her books, as well as, an album of her original songs. She was a contracted author with Tate Publishing through 2016. Dr. Joye Pugh, as of May 2017, became a new contracted author with Sacred Word Publishing.DR. JOYE'S BOOKS...The first edition of ANTICHRIST The Cloned Image of Jesus Christ was a TOP TEN BEST SELLER at Armageddonbooks.com in 2008, 2009 and 2010.ANTICHRIST - The Cloned Image of Jesus Christ has now been completely updated and is available as a beautiful Updated Second edition as of June 2017 with Sacred Word Publishing. The first edition of EDEN The Knowledge of Good and Evil 666 was in the TOP 50 BEST SELLERS of Prophecy books at Amazon.com back in January 2008 and went to NUMBER 1 in 3 Best Seller Categories (Theology/Eschatology/Prophecy) in February 2009 with a Sales rank of #200 for all books sold at Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Knowledge-Good-Evil-666/dp/1598862537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213839259&sr=8-1 ; EDEN, also, reached #8 in Best Sellers at Armageddonbooks.com for June 2008 and Hit #2 in February 2009. Dr. Pugh was ranked in the Top 5 Best Selling Authors at TATE Publishing during her tenure with them.EDEN- The Knowledge of Good and Evil 666 has now been completely Updated into a Second Edition and will be available in July 2017 through Sacred Word Publishing.Dr. Joye's first Album entitled "Before Time Stops" was released in May 2010. It features 12 of her original songs, original arrangements and she plays all the instruments on the entire CD. The CD can now only be purchased through the author... contact at www.drjoye.com ; DR. JOYE'S PUBLICATIONS... Dr. Joye appears on various radio shows world-wide explaining her latest research as well as appearances on the HISTORY CHANNEL. Follow her appearances at her website www.drjoye.comDr. Joye Pugh has written hundreds of articles about the mentally and physically handicapped for various newspapers and magazines over the years. Because of these outstanding articles, she was presented the prestigious Georgia Association for Retarded Citizen's "News Media Award" and their state "Public Education Community Service Award". Dr. Pugh's writing also won her the coveted Georgia Special Olympics distinguished "Outstanding Writer Award" and "Spirit of Special Olympics Award." She was also the recipient of the "Humanitarian Award" of the Nathanial Abney Chapter of the American Revolution as an outstanding Author - Educator - Humanitarian.Dr. Pugh was chosen by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to serve on the International Special Olympics Task Force to improve athletic training for handicapped athletes in the world. As a certified coach, Joye trained mentally and physically handicapped athletes for State, Regional, USA and International competitions in a variety of individual and team sports for over 12 years. She served two terms on the Georgia Special Olympics Board of Directors in Atlanta and received their "Award of Excellence". She was grant writer, founder and past president of two HUD projects in Irwin County which she served as Registered Agent for: Irwin County Resources Complex and Camelot Court, Inc. These million dollar projects, as well as, and her highly praised and respected Special Olympic Programs were funded under her leadership of annual non-profit fundraising events for over 12 years."Dr. Joye," as she prefers to be called, was the name given to her by some of her outstanding athletes. Besides being an outstanding athlete herself, she also, began her musical career playing the drums and tambourine at age 6. When she turned 9, she started piano lessons. At age 10, Joye began playing the guitar. Many years later, at 38 years of age, she added the bass guitar and a little saxophone to her musical capabilities. She added the 6 string Banjo to her talents in December 2008. Dr. Pugh plays Conga drums and percussion in her local church's Praise and Worship band, Satilla. She, also, plays piano and organ for Satilla Baptist Church in Irwin County during their weekly Sunday AM, PM, and Wednesday night services. Dr. Joye writes and composes her own songs, as well as, rearranges and performs the music of others.DR. JOYE'S CHILDHOOD...Joye began singing with her younger sister, Gaye, as a duet for church specials and holiday events, as well as, at various local pageants when they were children. She was a member of the Irwin Academy Youth Choir which competed on a yearly basis. At 12, Joye joined the Satilla Adult Church Choir. She and a musical friend, Steve Gibbons, traveled her senior year to various churches in South Georgia where they performed services of contemporary music and oral interpretations of which she developed from the sermons of James Weldon Johnson. Dr. Pugh received Christ and was baptized when she was 11 years old. Her love for prophecy began at 6 years of age after having an unusual and prophetic dream about the End of Time. Her gifts of interpreting prophetic events increased even more after reading the Book of Revelation and Hal Lindsey's Great Late Planet Earth at age 13. From there she continued writing speeches for college involving Biblical and Scientific issues affecting this generation. Her Masters thesis was entitled, "Light: A Theory Of Alpha And Omega - From The Beginning Until The End." Joye continued her research and received accolades from her Curriculum Professor during her doctoral studies for her final paper, "A Theory of Alpha And Omega - From Beginning Until The End."DR. JOYE'S RESEARCH...Dr. Pugh's dissertation, "A Program to Decrease Obesity in the Mentally Retarded Adult Population" was a major applied research project encompassing 18 months of training and data collection which allowed her to scientifically prove her theory that mentally retarded adults could achieve the same physical level as that found within the normal population. The subjects, some both mentally and physically handicapped within the clinical trial she developed, all achieved and were presented Presidential Sports Fitness Awards; something no other mentally retarded group had ever achieved. Many of her adult subjects went on to compete in athletic events against non-handicapped individuals thus proving mentally retarded individuals do not have to remain on the sidelines of life but can successfully engage in strenuous and advanced levels of competitive sports without adverse effects. Dr. Pugh is keenly interested in how the spirit within human beings allows subjects with limited mental and physical capabilities to transcend established expectation. Her theories prove that if the normal population could somehow transcend expectation then there would be no limit to capability; as capability is harnessed by what one believes one can achieve.Most importantly, for over 40 years, now, Dr. Pugh has been involved in researching Biblical prophecy. Joye consults with people from around the world on various issues and current events involving science and religion. She also serves as a consultant in education with MUFON regarding the spiritual and religious aspects of paranormal and UFO experiences.https://www.drjoye.com/

On your MARKS, get set, go! We all know those fateful numbers 6-6-6 by heart, but most people's assumptions about what they really mean don't add up. To help us decipher this inscrutable integer, we're joined by Beverly, longtime record-breaking member of our own Mark of the Beast club.   SHOW LINKS Only Sky: After legal threats, Kansas school board repeals ‘Satanism' ban in dress code Revelation 13 Against Heresies, Irenaeus (180 CE) A Commentary Critical & Explanatory of the Entire Bible: Revelation 13, Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown (1876) International Bible Commentary, William Farmer (1998) The Antichrist: A New Biography, Philip Almond (2020) The Late, Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey (1970) Naming the Antichrist, Robert Fuller (1995) LA Review of Books: The Desperate Search For the Mark of the Beast, Anna Merlan (2019) The Conversation: No, the COVID Vaccine Is Not the Mark of the Beast, Eric Vanden Eykel, (2021) YouTube: Watch out for 666! YouTube: Kathy Don't Go!   GET IN TOUCH WITH BLACK MASS APPEAL Facebook Twitter Instagram Patreon Tabitha Slander's Instagram Discord server   SATANIC BAY AREA Website Facebook Twitter (as @SatanicSF) Instagram Sign up for Satanic Bay Area's newsletter On TikTok as DailyBaphirmations Coffee Hour is the third Thursday of every month from 6 – 8 pm at Wicked Grounds in San Francisco!

Day 113 Today's Reading: Acts 24 Recently I read a quote about being good stewards of our time and made me sit back and really think about what I do with the time God has given me: Each new day brings us 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds, each moment a precious gift from God . . . each calling for us to be good stewards, mindful that one day we must give an account for how we spent the time God loaned us, how effectively we “bought up” the opportunities He provided. William Penn once said, “Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst.” Acts 24 is about a man who did not use time effectively. The man, Felix, was a king, and he heard a three-point sermon preached by one of the best, the apostle Paul. It was a sermon that made a king tell the preacher to stop: Some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. (Acts 24:24-27) Listen to an old Methodist preacher, Halford Luccock, and what he makes of Felix's mistake: There is a unique characteristic about time which we overlook: We can lose time, but we can never find it. We have to make it. Felix found lots of moments for what he wanted to do—to satisfy his curiosity about Paul and open the way for a bribe. We read that he would send for him “pretty frequently” (Acts 24:26), but he found no moments to face the big issue squarely and render a judgment. Such moments are never found. They must be made.” And what we conclude from the passage is that Felix never found time to deal with the most important issue of his life—eternity. Here is how it reads in The Message, and it's raw: As Paul continued to insist on right relations with God and his people, about a life of moral discipline and the coming Judgment, Felix felt things getting a little too close for comfort and dismissed him. “That's enough for today. I'll call you back when it's convenient.” (Acts 24:25) To say, “I don't have time,” is like saying, “I don't want to” or “I'm not interested.” I read something that is only too true: “Time is a strange commodity. You can't save it, borrow it, loan it, leave it, or take it. You can only do two things with it—use it or lose it.” Felix lost it. A. W. Tozer said it like this: “When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.” Felix heard a sermon that keyed in on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come. And he got frightened. I know that feeling. It happened to me. I was twelve years old and picked up a comic book at a youth camp, called The Late Great Planet Earth. It was the kid version of the book by the same name by Hal Lindsey, that dealt with the end times and the judgment to come. I was struck with such conviction and fear that I was not ready for the rapture that I sought out my counselor to get things right with God. What I learned was this, when you don't do something about the conviction of the soul, the intensity does not get stronger. The opposite happens and it lessens. The more we ignore the voice of God toward obedience, the more difficult it is to act. When God speaks, respond. When you feel convicted about something, do something. Felix got convicted and all he did for two years was listen to Paul but would not respond. It seems he never felt that way again, and by verse 27 he was out and another king came in.

Prophetic News Radio-Bad fruit of "Christian" TV - called to Warn? with Jackie Alnor

Prophetic News Radio-Bad fruit of "Christian" TV - called to Warn? with Jackie Alnor

With the battle between Russia and Ukraine, do you think this will be the end of the world? Ernie and Chad discuss Hal Lindsey's book that describes how things might end. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we watch the 1978 film based on the book The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.

This week, Donavon and Chaz talk about Hal Lindsey and the lead up to the Late Great Planet Earth in 1970. SORRY THE AUDIO SUCKS

How do Eschatology and Process Theology fit together?  This week we try and answer that question by sitting down with Dr. Thomas Jay Oord.  Dr. Oord is an expert on Process Theology, also known as Open and Relational Theology. Many days it feels as though the end of the world is upon us.  This is even true for people across the proverbial aisle.  Although for much different reasons.  In this conversation we explore endings through a Process Theology lens. Will things get better?  Will there be an ultimate ending?  What is God's role, or lack thereof, in endings?  Listen and find out what Dr. Oord and the Irencast team have to say about Eschatology and Process Theology. ANNOUNCEMENTS Sign Up for our Email list HERE and stay up to date on all things Irenicast! Send us Your questions, comments and/or encouragements for our upcoming 200th episode!   You can reach out on all of our social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram   Or better yet!  Email us an audio clip to podcast@irenicast.com!  Please include your name and what state or country you're from.   RELEVANT LINKS From Our Conversation on Eschatology and Process Theology Dr. Oord's Latest Book: Pluriform Love: An Open and Relational Theology of Well-Being by Thomas Oord (Book - Amazon Affiliate Link) Dr. Oord's Book with Bonnie as co-editor: Partnering with God: Exploring Collaboration in Open and Relational Theology (Book - Amazon Affiliate Link) Church of the Nazarene (Evangelical Christian Denomination) Holiness Movement Cru (until 2011 known as Campus Crusade for Christ) (Interdenominational Christian parachurch organization) Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey   Left Behind   Lutheran Augustine of Hippo Alfred North Whitehead (English Mathematician and Philosopher) Charles Hartshorne (American philosopher) Matthew 16:24-26 NRSV (Take up cross to follow Jesus verse) ORTCon 2022 ORTLine 2022 MORE ON OUR GUEST THOMAS JAY OORD Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is a best-selling and award-winning author, having written or edited more than twenty-five books. He directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. A twelve-time Faculty Award-winning professor, he teaches around the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation.  Check out his website at ThomasJayOord.com SUPPORT THE SHOW You can always count on Irenicast providing a free podcast on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month.  However, that does not mean that we do not have expense related to the show.  If we have provided value to you and you would like to support the show, here are a few options. PAYPAL - You can make a one-time, or recurring, tax-deductible donation to the show through PayPal. Just go to Irenicast.com/PayPal to make your donation. We are a 501(c)(3). MERCH - Irenicast has a merch store at Irenicast.com/Store.  We are always developing more items so check out our current offerings. AMAZON - Next time you go to make a purchase on Amazon consider using our Amazon affiliate link.  This will give us a small portion on everything you purchase.  No additional cost will be passed on to you. IRENCAST HOSTS Rev. Bonnie Rambob, MDiv | co-host | bonnie@irenicast.com You can connect with Bonnie on Facebook and at Parkside Community Church-UCC and haystackspodcast.com. Pastor Casey Martinez-Tinnin, MTS | co-host | casey@irenicast.com You can follow Casey on Twitter and Facebook, or you can check out his blog The Queerly Faithful Pastor or loomisucc.org Jeff Manildi | co-founder, producer & co-host | jeff@irenicast.com Follow Jeff (@JeffManildi) on facebook, instagram & twitter.  You can also listen to Jeff's other podcast Divine Cinema. Rev. Rajeev Rambob, MCL | co-host | rajeev@irenicast.com You can connect with Rajeev at Parkside Community Church,  Facebook, Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn, and Haystacks Podcast.   ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE CONVERSATION Join our progressive Christian conversations on faith and culture by interacting with us through the following links: Email Us at podcast@irenicast.com Follow Us on Twitter Like Us on Facebook Listen & Subscribe to Us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeart Radio, Spreaker, Pandora and SoundCloud Speak to Us on our Feedback Page and the Post Evangelical Facebook Group See Us on Instagram Support Us on PayPal, Amazon or at our Store Love Us? CREDITS Intro and Outro music created by Mike Golin. This post may contain affiliate links.  An Irenicon is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

Prophetic News Radio-The devil's chess board and the players in the New World  Order with Jackie Alnor.

Prophetic News Radio-The devil's chess board and the players in the New World  Order with Jackie Alnor.

January 6th Detainee (Hostage) is at risk of dying due to lack of care...Focus on the Family is a huge disgrace, Top 5 Conspiracy Theories that came true in 2021. Some highlights of Dr. McCullogh and Joe Rogan's interview...Already a new Covid mutated variant...a Prophetic View from Hal Lindsey's Report

In this continuing study I take a look at the Rapture Doctrine. Is this a Pre-Trib, as taught in most mainstream Churches are do Christians go through the Tribulation Period? I compare Thessalonians to Matthew 24 along with Revelation. I venture into Paul's writings to explore what he has to say, along with what Yahweh says in Ezekiel. In this Part 22 I continue in the Book of Ezekiel (EL Strengthens) Chapter 13 verse 20. Now keep in mind what we have learned in this Ezekiel that Yahweh is talking about your soul! Some of the false prophecies of our time: The 'Great Disappointment' – October 22, 1844 William Miller; Watchtower Society – 1925 Jehovah Witnesses; World Bible Society – September 11-13, 1988 Edgar Whisenant; Harold Camping – 1994; David Meade – October 15, 2017; Tim Lahey – left Behind; Hal Lindsey; TBN Ministries; Tommy Ice  A HEBREW WORD YOU MUST KNOW ITS MEANING! While using a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (not a YOUNG'S) in conjunction with a King James or American Standard Version, or English Revised Version of the Bible (and several others) where the word 'PILLOWS" has not been changed.  Yahweh said: "Don't Teach My People to Fly to Save Their Souls. It can't get much simpler than that!  When looking at two key words used in the original manuscripts, it becomes quite evident that Yahweh is not happy with those who teach His children to fly-away to save their souls.  Please, understand what's being said, when using a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance... and correctly interpret the Hebrew word 'PILLOWS' because this is a life and death situation!  THIS IS KEY, therefore don't miss the correct definition as found in: Ezekiel 13:20-Wherefore thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Behold, I am against your*pillows*(KEY-WORD) it's true meaning is: (Prophetesses) wherewith ye that hunt the soul to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly.  The word “pillows,” is found in the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance address: (St. H3704) it is the Hebrew word 'Keceth' pronounced 'ket-seth' and it literally means:{FALSE PROPHETESSES} (check this out for yourself using a Strong's). The word ‘hunt' (IS ANOTHER KEY WORD) it's the Hebrew word 'tsuwd' pronounced 'tsus'...  it literally means: to hunt eagerly or keenly, but from its prime root, as found (Strong's address, (ST# H6678) it means "to lie in wait; or to catch men." "a premeditated action". This doesn't sound like something Yahweh needs to do, or would do...or wants to do, or would have to do... this sounds like Satan's MO! This sounds like to 'lie in wait and do murder'!Keep in mind that all this has to do with the re-building of the 3rd Temple, in which Donald Trump is a key player in this rebuilding, who was put in power by the Global Elite, the New World Order, the Rothchilds Banking System. Note that the Rothschilds paid off Donald Trumps debts. His son in law and daughter are part of the cabbala elite!This could be part of the plan of “the mystery of iniquity”. Don't end up like those in Hosea 4:6 ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God (Elohim), I will also forget thy children.'But, be like those in 2Timothy 2:15 ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God (Yahweh), a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'Join me as we go Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse, Unraveling the Words of Yahweh!Have any questions? Feel free to email me at utwoy@netzero.net 

The idea of the rapture, a time when Jesus will come and take his followers out of the world, has been popularized in the broader culture through books like Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series. And while the Bible teaches that when Jesus returns he will raise his people from the dead and gather those who are still alive up to meet him in the air, the word that is used for “meet” there is a technical word for going out of a city to meet a visiting dignitary in order to welcome him back into the city; in other words, when Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 4 that believers will “meet the Lord in the air,” he's talking about Christians meeting Jesus in the air in order to welcome him back to his creation so they can rule with him forever. Chuck and Aaron briefly talk about the timing of different theories of the rapture, discussing how the Bible does not teach that the rapture does not take place before Jesus' return to rule in person on the earth. Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert Subscribe to the show at http://cacg.saintjamesglencarbon.org. To comment on this episode, visit https://saintjamesglencarbon.org/cacg-ep27.

"For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:27)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. How many predictions of the end of the world have you lived through? I'm so old that I remember predictions from the 1970s and a false prophet named Hal Lindsey. Some other old folks will remember the Y2K scare of 1999. Isn't it funny how every generation can recall any number of false and deceiving prophecies of Jesus' return? I suppose I shouldn't describe faith-destroying teaching as "funny" but it is fascinating to see how the wicked one still sows confusion in the Church. That is Satan's old trick, to get the faithful to doubt the certainty of God's Word and move off into unsure speculation. Jesus does not leave us scratching our heads about the future or His return. It will happen, according to the time set by God the Father but the exact day and hour will remain unknown to us.What is knowable for us is that Jesus will return, and the world will not miss that return. "For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:27). Christians live in the confidence that Jesus' word is sure. We can look at the world and its decay and recognize that the return of Jesus is drawing near. The day or the hour we will not know, but in the meantime, we will live by faith. Certainly, the signs of the end are all around us, including false christs and false prophets who seek to turn our attention from the sure promises of Jesus to wild speculations about the end. Don't listen to them or go after them. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). In faith, wait patiently for His return. You have nothing to fear. You are died for by Jesus and He will keep you firm in the faith until the end. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.O God, our refuge and strength, the author of all godliness, hear the devout prayers of Your Church especially in times of persecution, and grant that what we ask in faith we may obtain; through Jesus Christ, Your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for the Third-Last Sunday of the Church Year)

Revisiting our wonderful conversation with New York Times Bestselling author of "Jesus and John Wayne", Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Author of the book "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation", Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez joins the pod to talk about how white evangelicals redefined Biblical masculinity to fit the militant masculinity of secular icons like John Wayne, Teddy Roosevelt, and William Wallace. We talk about Mark Driscoll, Donald Trump, Beth Moore, egalitarianism and complementarianism in the church, Explo '72, Hal Lindsey's "Countdown to Armageddon", Kristin's favorite John Wayne film and more. For more information on "Jesus and John Wayne" and Dr. Kristin Du Mez and to get a copy of the book, you can go here: https://kristindumez.com/books/jesus-and-john-wayne/ Get a copy of Kristin's first book "A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism" by going here: https://kristindumez.com/books/new-gospel-for-women/ Follow Kristin on Twitter: @kkdumez Mentioned on the pod: -Leah Payne, who is writing a book about Contemporary Christian Music. For more information on Dr. Payne and updates on her forthcoming book you can follow her on Twitter: @drleahpayne and view her bio on the Portland Seminary website: https://www.georgefox.edu/seminary/faculty/bio/leah-payne.html -God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America by Larry Eskridge. You can get that book here: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326451.001.0001/acprof-9780195326451 -Daniel Silliman's upcoming book Reading Evangelicals: How Christian Fiction Shaped a Culture and a Faith. Follow him at @danielsilliman -Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America by John G. Turner https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858738/bill-bright-and-campus-crusade-for-christ/ -The Armageddon Experience - One Way (Live at Explo '72) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MoYtlhdirw -Check out Zach's music by going to: https://muzach.bandcamp.com -Read Dave's occasional blogging at: www.dangeroushope.wordpress.com. Twitter: @vcwpod Zach- @muzach Dave- @Davejlester Podcast music by Zach Malm Logo by Zach Malm

In this interview from 1994 Rev. Noah Hutchings speaks with Hal Lindsey about “Planet Earth 2000 A.D.” It is an exciting report on the dangers the world faced at the end of the 20th century.

Joe and Laurie look at the ancient prophecies and visions of the End Times to decipher a possible meaning for humanity about it's destiny of reuniting with our alien ancestors.*CORRECTION NOTE*   We regret inadvertently failing to mention that Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are the authors of the Left Behind series and not Hal Lindsey.  It is with our sincere apologies for making this error, and we thus set the record straight.  https://theologyimpact.com/will-there-be-a-global-rapture-event-viewpoints-explained/ https://defendinginerrancy.com/bible-difficulties/ people.math.harvand.edu/~elkies/mp666.htmlThe Late Great Planet Earth, H. Lindsey, (1970), ZondervanLeft Behind, T. LaHaye & J.B. Jenkins, (1995), Tyndale House PublishersBiblical Archeology Review, “Back to Meggido, I. Finkelstein & D. Ussishkin, (January/February 1994) The Consummation of History, G. Weber, (1978), Baker House End-Time Visions: The Road to Armageddon?  R. Abanes, (1998), Four Walls Eight Windows The End of Days, Z. Sitchin, (2007), Harper Collins Publishers Let Us Descend: The Biblical First Contact, Pages 157 to 162. L. Oldford, (2017), Page Publishing, New York, NY Follow us on Facebook

Responding to questions from listeners about false prophet Jonathan Cahn, teaching even immature Christians about the sovereignty of God, and examples of verses out of context. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

What do Archie, Biblical Apocalypse fiction, and Erik Estrada all have in common? It turns out each of these appeared in stories published by Spire Christian Comics.  Join us as we journey through history to learn about and cringe at one of the craziest publishers to come out of the 1970s. ----more---- Episode 6 Transcription [00:00:00] Jessika: Yeah. How are you going to display your deceased cult leader's body if you don't have a Tik Tok? Welcome to Ten Cent Takes, the podcast where we predict the coming of the end of days. One issue at a time. My name is Jessika Frazer and I am joined by my cohost, the savior of sweets, Mike Thompson. Mike: Eeeeeey. Jessika: The purpose of our podcast is to study comic books in ways that are both fun and informative. We want to look at their coolest, weirdest and silliest moments, as well as examine how they're woven into the larger fabric of pop culture and history. Today, we're taking a turn for the religious as we look at  Spire Christian Comics. We'll look at the [00:01:00] history behind the publication, the comics and the books they were based upon and discuss how Archie played a role in trying to educate the youths about Jesus. Mike: What. Jessika: Yeah, that's happening. Okay. I know we say this every week, but this was once again a rabbit hole filled episode. So buckle up, friends. Mike: It's almost like we're developing a theme. Jessika: Oh no. Yes. I like it though. Mike: They're worse themes to have. Jessika: There are. There are. Before we get to our main topic and the one cool thing we've read and talked about lately, let's call upon the fact that it is May 4th and May the Fourth be with you, Mike. Mike: And May the Fourth be with you. Jessika: Well, I thank you. For the record: Let it be known that I am wearing an R2D2 printed dress and I have Leia buns. So I am dressed appropriately and I saw that your household was also celebrating. [00:02:00] Mike: Yeah. We festooned everything, but we didn't have any Star Wars outfits to wear, unfortunately. So we just threw up  Star Wars comics around the household in front of our Vader poster and other things that we have. But I have a couple of the really old Dark Horse comics that I absolutely love and adore. Jessika: That's so fun. I love it. Well, we like to do something each week called One Cool Thing You've Read or Watched Lately. Mike, why don't you start us off? Mike:  Sure. So this weekend I wound up reading through DC’s Doomsday Clock collection on Hoopla.  It's basically the official comic book sequel to Watchmen.  It finally delivers the payoff that DC set up back in 2017 when they revealed Dr. Manhattan was involved in the creation of both the New 52 and Rebirth universes. Have you read Watchman?  Jessika: I haven’t read it, no. Mike: Okay.  It's one of those iconic series that everybody loves to talk about. [00:03:00] And to be honest, it's one that I never really enjoyed because I felt that I had a pretty nihilistic tone. But I've read it. I appreciate what it did for comics in the era. It was interesting. I read this and I actually was pretty sour at the start, mainly because I wasn't sure that I liked the story because again, it felt pretty nihilistic and ugly. That said, I actually really enjoyed the way that everything paid off at the end. Primarily the idea that there's now a quote unquote metaverse in the DC continuity, which feels like honestly the best response to all the different universe resets that they've been doing since the 80s   it wound up being  hopeful with a surprisingly sweet ending. I mean, it's not as good as the HBO series that came out around the same time, but it's pretty damn good. How about you?  Jessika:  I recently purchased the comic book Fangs by Sarah Anderson.  Mike: I haven’t heard of this. Jessika:  [00:04:00] it's super adorable. It's about the unfolding relationship of a vampire and a werewolf and how they relate. And co-exist in random life situations. Yeah. Like the werewolf eating garlic and going to kiss the vampire. And she has a reaction to it.  Mike: That’s really cute, actually. Jessika:  Yeah. Or their inability to take a selfie together because she doesn't show up on camera. So all of his friends are asking , we haven't ever seen your girlfriend before. Like, why can't you just post a picture? Mike: Oh, that's great. Jessika: So I highly recommend this. If you're looking for a lighthearted fun and wholesome comic, it's just been super nice and mellow, and it's been a good ease to my busy brain. Mike: Nice. Yeah, I'll have to check that out. Jessika: Onto our main topic,  Spire Christian Comics. So I mentioned on a prior episode that I ran across some use comics, at an estate sale for a dollar each. [00:05:00] So how could I not buy all of them? I legit didn't even look at them until after I'd left the sale. But when I did all, I was in for a real treat. The Archie one that was in the stack really didn't catch me off guard. That one seemed pretty basic Archie from the looks of the cover, but the other one was amazing.  Do you remember, I messaged you a picture of the covers and you were the one who discovered  the Spire Christian Comics brand for us. Mike: Yes I do. Jessika:  Yeah, that was fun. I just could not believe I found these. And when I sat down to do my research, I wasn't sure how much information there really was surrounding these. But like I said earlier, buckle up friends. This was a rabbit hole journey that I will gladly take you on. One that includes Jesus,  Archie, Erik Estrada, and more. [00:06:00]  Mike: Wait, the guy from CHIPS? Jessika: Yes, the very same. Mike: Is this more or less embarrassing than that weird  land sale thing that he was doing about 10 or 15 years ago? Jessika: I'll let you decide we will talk about it. Mike: I'm strapping in, my body is ready. Jessika: Well, before we dig too deep, and since we'll be talking about religion a lot, this episode, Mike, what is your religious background and where do you currently stand?  Mike: Um, so I like to joke that my family views me as the failed experiment because I didn't really turn out like they were hoping. And a large part of that is basically because I swiped left on organized religion as soon as I got a choice. Patton Oswalt talks about the concept of "it's all chaos be kind" in his special Annihilation, and that's kind of where I stand these [00:07:00] days. But I grew up surrounded by a religion. I was raised Episcopalian. We went to church almost every Sunday. And a large portion of my bedtime stories were from the Bible story book. My mom is from Texas also. So I've got several Baptist ministers on that side of the family, including a televangelist. Yeah. And to his credit, he has never been implicated in a scandal.  There's never really been anything bad about him. I don't want to name him because, you know, I don't want to make things awkward, but  and his family have always been very kind to my family. I know they helped my mom out a lot when she was in college. And I see him on TV or I used to, when I had TV,  I would see him appear every now and then on the early morning, sermon services every now and then. And I certainly didn't agree with everything he said, but it was just  always weird and surreal to turn on the TV, at say 6:00 AM, while I was getting ready for work or whatever and there he was. [00:08:00] I mean, growing up me and my siblings would actually go to Texas for  portions of our summers. And we would go to church with our extended family. So it was really different than what we were used to. I actually, I wasn't allowed to get my driver's license until I met certain criteria for my parents. One of those things was that I had to get confirmed and I never really had much of a personal connection with religion. And my parents made the mistake of telling me that I didn't have to go to church anymore after I got confirmed. So I wound up taking them up on that, and that was kinda much to their chagrin. And then additionally, my first degree was in history and my oral exit exam was a presentation talking about the Catholic church and how it would cement its power around the world by breaking up old nations and then forming new ones that were beholden to it. So I'd like to think I'm relatively well-informed about the various aspects and sects of Christianity, but I don't really have any spiritual [00:09:00] beliefs of my own. I just, I try to be a good person for the sake of being a good person. Not because I want to be rewarded in a theoretical afterlife. Jessika: Yeah, I agree with that. It makes me nervous when people tell me  or make it appear that religions the thing holding them back from making bad decisions. I'm like, that's really creepy. So I guess religion is for you, like. But I was raised for the first part of my life as a Lutheran, and that included  going to church. We did preschool at the Lutheran church, but we didn't continue going to church after middle school-ish. There was just some congregation changes, I think with the pastor that my parents are just like, "Oh, we don't really like this new guy." I'm sure life just got busy. Cause you know, I was however, from 11 until I was probably about 20 actually, was involved in a Masonic girls organization, which had backgrounds in religion. But that felt very secular. We definitely had some [00:10:00] girls who were Jewish. We had girls of all different religions, girls were Catholic and we actually made it a point of the person who was the Honored Queen or the kind of president they were voted in. Mike: Was that the actual term, was it honored queen? Jessika: It was honored queen, by the way, past Honored Queen, here we are. It's a whole thing. You have to memorize so much stuff. Mike: So can I just next time I see you in person, just be like, Hey Queen.  Jessika: Oh yeah. I'm actually a queen. So it's fine. And that term doesn't leave me cause I may past Honored Queen, so still a queen. Yeah. But as honored queen, they made it a point for, in at least in our Bethel. I don't know if everybody did this but in our particular chapter we would go with the honored queen to her church. I didn't have a church at the time, so I don't think I even did that. But we went to a Catholic church. We went to some Episcopalian. I mean, we, we did a lot of different [00:11:00] church visiting and so I did get a lot of hear a lot of different aspects and like ways manners that this information or information in general was being portrayed. And at this point in my life, I consider myself agnostic because the, "are we alone out there?”question seems a little above my pay grade to answer, in my opinion.  I'm not willing to commit that there's  nothing happening, but I'm also  not willing to commit to, yes, this is happening. So I'll leave it to other people to figure that whole thing out for me. Mike: That seems like a pretty fair stance to take. Jessika: Yeah. Just stay out of it. Someone wants to bring me along. They can, I guess.  So I want to list the resources that I use whole researching this topic and want to make sure I give these websites  the proper credit. So Baker [00:12:00] publishing group.com. You don't read comics dot com, Christian comics, international.org, comics alliance.com, biblio.com, wikipedia for one article, and Hal Lindsey's there's a new world coming through archive.org, which has a wonderful text to speech accessibility feature, which saved me a great deal of time. Mike: I didn't know that they did text to speech. That's rad. Jessika: It was amazing. Yeah. And I figured that out and you can speed it up. So I listened to it at two times the speed.  Mike: Nice. That’s really cool. Jessika: So yeah, that being said it did mean that I was listening to Hal Lindsey, uh, his book in robot speech. Cause it wasn't like a normal voice. It was text to speech like robot, lady speaking. So that was a trip to hear about the rapture through that. Mike: I mean, if you're going to listen to narration about the Rapture, I guess a robot on meth does seem like the best way to do it. Jessika: Oh, I would say so. [00:13:00] I wouldn't have it any other way. So Spire Christian comics were published through what is now the Baker publishing group, but was originally founded in 1870 as the Fleming H Revell company by a man by the same name, along with his brother-in-law, American evangelist Dwight L Moody. Their ultimate goal was to make Christian literature both more plentiful and more widely available, but they didn't start with comics and the company didn't entertain that idea until many years and many significant organizational changes had gone by, there seemed to be so much drama surrounding the ownership and running of this company, which I'm not going to get into here, that there was no mention in their company's history that these comics were even ever published.  Mike: Really? Jessika: Yeah.  Mike: That’s wild. Jessika: Yeah. Kind of funny, huh? Mike: Yeah, that's crazy. Jessika: In 1972. Al Hartley, freelance illustrator for comics like Archie and [00:14:00] Marvel was hired to make adaptations of some of the popular Christian novels that had been published by the Fleming H Revell company. This felt like a very appropriate and timely move for Hartley who had recently become a Born-Again Christian in 1967 and had chosen to quit working with Marvel because the owner at the time, Martin Goodman, asked Hartley to illustrate some risque scenes for some of his men's magazines, Hartley preferred quitting, rather than sacrificing his moral values in his art.   Mike: Was Hartley the artist who actually illustrated the books we read for today? Jessika: Yes, He was. Hartley was the one who illustrated the ones that we read for this episode. Although I'll talk about a little bit later, there is a little bit of mystery surrounding the artistry with There's A New World Coming, even though his name is on the cover.  I want to give you an example of one of the [00:15:00] adaptations that Hartley penned, other than the one you and I read. And we'll talk about that one in a little bit,  I'm gonna send you the, a couple of things to look at.  And the first one is the cover of the novel, the Cross and the Switchblade. Can you please describe this for me? Mike: This really looks like  a low budget thriller from the 19... probably the 1960s is what I  associate this with. There's three colors. Well, four. There's four colors. There's yellow, green, black, and white. So. The background is entirely green. There is a really, it's like a really rough illustration style of a very stylized dude running with a knife. And the knife stands out because this dude is entirely done in scratchy, all black kind of almost pencil. And then the knife is the one piece of white. He is running from another shadowy figure. There is, it looks like a ruined city in the [00:16:00] background then much more clearly illustrated drawn in white is a church, cause you can see the steeple with,  the large cross and it says the Cross And The Switchblade. "The thrilling, true story of a country preacher's fight against teenage crime and big city slums!" Which, OK. Written by the Reverend David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrell and John and Elizabeth Sherrell's billing on this title is a little bit smaller than the Reverend David and, it's $1.95 from Spire Books. Jessika: Oh yeah. Spoiler alert It is self starring. Yeah that is why his name is so large. His name is all up in that thing. He didn't even change it It's just in there.   The next is the cover of the movie adaptation.  Can you please describe the cover and read the first couple actors names at the bottom there for me.  Mike: Jesus Christ. Okay. So the title the [00:17:00] cross and the switchblade  is spray painted across some decaying brick. It's standing out from all the other graffiti that's on there and it says “now an explosive motion picture.” It's got what I'm assuming is the reverend, kind of like a  glamour shot. And then he's surrounded by smaller  shots of all the different people who are going to be taking an active role in this story. On the other side of his head it looks like he's being menaced by a "street tough," I don't quite know how to describe the kid other than that. He looks like a character from the Outsiders. That's just immediately where I'm going  cause he's got a leather jacket and it looks like M and M written on the back of his jacket I'm not entirely sure. Cause it's sort of cut off and then underneath them there's a bunch of young men of various ethnicities running and they're all holding  bats, I guess.  I'm not seeing any switchblades other than the one  that's being held by the tough who's menacing the priest. And then there is - Oh my God- so  there is the original book cover that I just [00:18:00] described  in the lower corner and it says next to it  "bares the raw needs at the core of drug addiction, racial hatred, and violence. NEVER -in all caps- has a film been more timely." Um starring Pat Boone as David Wilkerson with Eric Estrada. Oh, there he is. I'm not recognizing any of the other names. Jessika: No. Those were the only ones I needed. He's the street tough  Mike: I was going say  now that I realize that Erik Estrada is in this that is a very young Erik Estrada who is clearly in the salad days of his career. God. Jessika: Lastly  can you please describe the cover of the comic adaptation for me? Mike: I don't know if I want to. Wow. Okay This is way different! So it's again David Wilkerson's the cross and the switchblade is that the same style? [00:19:00]  It's meant to look like it's graffitied on and that there's the dripping graffiti. There's no delicate way to say what it actually looks like. It looks like jizz.. Jessika: It does. It's bad Mike: It’s really unfortunate. Like I don't know how else to describe it.  And then you have a well-dressed for the seventies dude  being menaced by again Erik Estrada his character  and he's surrounded by a bunch of   people of color who are all staring on and not really concerned  with the impending violence that's about to happen, except for one white girl who looks terrified. And then Erik Estrada character’s going "I could kill you, preach." And then the preacher is going, "yes you could Nicky. You could cut me up in a thousand pieces,  and every piece will say I love you." Jessika: Ugh, vomit. Mike: Oh God everything about this is just it is extra. Jessika:  It's a whole thing. [00:20:00] Mike:  Every variation that we've seen has started off at 11 and then it's just kept on turning it up from there. Jessika: Yeah and spoiler: Thematically, the racism is there for just…  Mike: You don’t say. Jessika: Yeah. Oh yeah It's just  rampant. Mike: Based on just what little I'm seeing here it looks like a literal white savior Jessika: Oh that's a hundred percent what it is. So really the comic was an adaptation of a movie that was an adaptation of a book. So the TLDR is that Nicky, played by Erik Estrada as we saw, is a troubled gang leader in New York city finds Jesus. Mike: I gotta say that does not look like New York on the comic cover. Jessika: No it doesn’t. They didn't do a great job with that. I don't know why, it's not hard to make a city look like New York. You can pretty much pen [00:21:00] any random looking city. And it probably is going to look like part of New York. But good job guys. Mike: Well especially because  you said that Al Hartley was a Marvel artist. Like all of the Marvel stories back then were taking place in New York. It’s not like he didn’t know what it looked like. Jessika: Maybe he forgot this time. Mike: Alright, whatever. Jessika: So Erik Estrada finds Jesus through the help of a persistent small town priest who comes to the big city to make a big difference in the lives of the troubled youth, who in his estimation just need to find Jesus's love. And that's how Erik Estrada became a comic book character, because the comic is based on him. That is based on his actual person I'm sure you've noticed. Mike: I wouldn't want to admit that that comic character was based on me but all right. Jessika: I mean there's probably a reason you haven't heard about it.   Mike: How successful was this movie? I've never heard of this before.  Jessika: I haven't heard of it either [00:22:00] And you know I didn't look that up unfortunately. Yeah. So it's a mystery. Maybe I'll update us later. Maybe I'll do more research about the Cross and the Switchblade. Along with book adaptations, the comics were also centered around the comic series that Hartley is  arguably best to known for: Archie. Hartley reached out to John Goldwater, who was the president of Archie at the time, who agreed for Archie to be included in the Spire Christian Comics publications. The comics themselves were meant as an introduction to non-believers to bridge the religious gap in a manner that was friendly to all ages. In total there were 57 comic titles published under Spire Christian comics, 19 of them were Archie.   Mike: Wow.  Jessika: Yeah I know, right? 12 were biographical and they did actually pull, I was reading on another article,  they did pull some of the themes from the Spire [00:23:00] comics and put them into regular Archie but just de-Jesused them. So if you read one you might say this sounds really familiar. Well it's probably because you've read  what actually was an adaptation version which was now regular what we would consider.  There were 12 biographical or autobiographical comics including the likes of Johnny Cash and a handful of stories pulled directly from the Bible along with other miscellaneous adaptations and some Christian comics aimed at younger children. Hartley wrote and drew most of the comics himself but other notable figures involved Dick Ayers and Dan DeCarlo. The comics weren't all wholesome and morality-filled, however, and we talked about that a little bit earlier. There were some really problematic aspects of some of these Spire comics including that rampant racism I talked about. Even in the Archie comic that you and I read there are racist generalizations about Native Americans and their [00:24:00] clothing, speech patterns, and general attitudes and demeanors which I did not love. Opposite, in fact. There's also a comic, one of the ones considered a biography, was titled wait for it "Hansi: The Girl Who Loved the Swastika." Mike could you please describe this cover for us. Give us a treat, please. Mike: This is one of those comics also that is truly infamous, especially in the age of the internet. It's one of those things that I've at least been aware of for a few years And every time you see, it it just throws you a loop. So basically it says and  in big bold letters “Hansi” and then in smaller red lettering “the girl who loved the swastika.” And it's this very Aryan looking [00:25:00] German girl in  1930s peasantware and she is standing in front of a motorcade. There's Hitler and some concerned looking you know Nazis and then the crowd around this motorcade is throwing up the right hands and there's swastikas everywhere. Like, everywhere. It's let's see one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. There are 11 swastikas on this cover and she just she looks so happy and carefree. It's wild. It's one of those things where every time you see it, the shock never goes away. Jessika: Yeah it's that's a whole vibe, not going to lie. It was based on a book titled I Changed The Gods in 1968 which, interesting title, cuz what did she really do? And it follows the life story of a German born evangelist Maria Anne Hirschman as she is indoctrinated into the [00:26:00] Hitler Youth but was later rescued by American troops.  She immigrates to the U S later in life and realizes how she had in her words been brainwashed. The comic is not subtle. Obviously. You talked about the cover just now. It's not subtle at all.  Mike: No, not even a little. Jessika: No no.  It also has a lot of really raw and adult themes like rape and violence and is incredibly overt with its Cold War propaganda at the end of the comic it was really something.    Mike: That makes sense that they would go into themes like that because it's not approved by the Comics Code so they could just throw whatever they wanted in it. Jessika: Precisely. Well Spire Christian comics were published until 1988 and were later reprinted as New Barber Christian Comics as that was one of the ever-changing names of that publishing company. Mike: Hm. That's actually longer than I would have expected for that first run. Jessika: Yeah. I thought [00:27:00] so, too. So good on them I mean that was a lot, it was a lot of publications that they did. I was surprised at how many. Mike:  Do you know if they were being sold on newsstands or were they just exclusively in  Christian bookstores. Jessika:  That's a really good question I'm not a hundred percent on that  Mike: It could’ve been both.  Jessika:  It could’ve been both, absolutely. Mike: I know that those were really those were pretty big up until the nineties. I remember couple of the local malls had Christian bookstores. Jessika: Oh absolutely. We have some still in town.  Mike: Oh, really? In Petaluma? Jessika: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I pass by a Christian science reading room on my walks with my dog. So they're around.  Mike: Hmm  Jessika: You and I read through one of those Archie's.  Mike: Sure this was effectively an anthology of Archie shorts that take place in different times and places [00:28:00] Each of the stories stars Archie and it has him facing challenges and eventually overcoming them with pretty vague help from God. Examples include him being a medieval blacksmith, he tries to slay a dragon so he can win the hand of princess Veronica. He and Jughead are space explorers visiting quote unquote twin planets with very different morality systems. There's a story about him being a World War One fighter pilot who… I'm not entirely certain what they were fighting against. Was it anti-Christian propaganda?  Was that the true enemy? Jessika: I think so, it really wasn't made abundantly clear. Mike: Yeah and then there's also this there's a really weird one which involves him randomly walking into a spooky mansion that's owned by Beelzebub, who basically traps wayward teens by getting them to sell their souls in exchange for their heart's desire. Jessika: Yeah. He was just a creepy old dude. He wouldn't let teenagers leave.  That was really what it was. Mike: I didn't understand the payoff of that, but [00:29:00] okay. Jessika: So  tell us a little bit about your thoughts on the comic as a whole. Mike: Yeah. I've got a soft spot for Archie  I fucking loved Mark Waid's run a couple of years ago. It's honestly one of the best comics out there.  Riverdale is one of my favorite horny guilty pleasures.  And the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is also a blast. Side note: the Josie and the Pussycats movie one of my favorite soundtracks. Like, that soundtrack legit slaps. We should watch it together. We should do a viewing party sometime. Jessika: Let's I'm a hundred percent into that. Yes. Mike:  Yeah. So going back to this comic, the stories didn't really work for me?  Archie books are already incredibly family-friendly and the forced morality of evangelical Christianity just felt really… I don't know. It just it fucking rubbed me the wrong way. And on top of that the godly [00:30:00] decisions  involved prayer and strict adherence to religious tenants which I don't remember seeing anything about queer people in that Archie comic.   That kind of makes sense because Kevin Keller didn't appear until  2010. But I remember Beelzebub trying to tempt Archie with women of loose morals. And it's really bizarre to see that kind of hand ringing,  especially now,  about teenagers possibly having premarital sex because we're almost 50 years in the future from this and that is very much an accepted reality at this point. These days, at least in our household, it's like just make sure that everyone is consenting to what's going on and use protection. Jessika: Exactly. Mike: I’m assuming you and I are on similar wavelengths about this but I’m curious to hear what you thought. Jessika: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought the religious theme was just so incredibly heavy handed. It was forced together with the Archie narrative and Archie, like you said, [00:31:00] he's an overall wholesome dude in general in my opinion. But the morality lessons were really in your face. Like there's the one where he's in a saloon and he orders a milkshake. And this guy is  trying to force him to drink alcohol, and he's like "I don't want to drink alcohol." And it's like okay guy this is just so like nobody's actually going to go into the world and try to force you to drink alcohol unless you join a frat. Please don't do that though.  Mike: That would’ve been way better have Archie go join a frat. That would’ve been way better. Jessika: It would’ve have made more sense. Look at I'm already making more sense for Archie. Call me, Archie. Mike: Also it actually makes a lot of sense for Archie to go into a saloon and order a milkshake.  I kind of love that but then the follow up of “no, you need to order alcohol?” That’s dumb.  Jessika: It didn't make any sense. Overall I thought the comic was cute, had some messages, whatever. There was one section that really bugged me, though. And it was the twin planets where the two planets were exactly the [00:32:00] same except one was making good choices, the other one was making bad choices and the bad choices it was like not cleaning up after yourself. And I get there's a point some of bad choices. What was another one? Mike: Everyone steals from everyone else?  Jessika:  Yeah. Exactly exactly it's just so funny. And I get there's a point but some of the bad choices are listed as complete freedom and equality.  Mike: Yeah, that stood out to me, too. Jessika: That was bad. That was listed as bad. And I was like pump the brakes. Like, we live in a society. Come on.  Mike: This was in an era where the civil rights wasn't even really history. The Civil Rights movement was still going on. I could definitely see that as being a not terribly subtle dig at equality for minorities. Jessika: Yeah, yeah. I can agree [00:33:00] with that. That's how I took it as well. And, okay, did they do that entire Pelican sequence just so they could make that stupid bird joke at the end? Because that's how it felt I didn't like it. It was stupid.  Mike: I re-read that fucking thing three times And I was like… Jessika: They literally did it just so that they could make a stupid bird joke. Oh Christianity isn't for the birds. You literally just had a whole lesson about how there was a bird teaching another bird Christianity and then you  negated it by saying Christianity isn't for the birds. And I don't know what you want out of this Mike:  That felt like  a lot of those stories was these stupid kind of punny slogans at the end of  every one of these short stories. I really found myself getting grumpy as I continued to read them because I was just sitting there and going these are dumb. And no kid is going to think Christianity is cool because… Jessika: No.  Mike: Anyway, moving right along.  Jessika: Let's move on to [00:34:00] the absolute jewel of my retro collection these days, which is Hal Lindsey's There's A New World Coming.  Before I get too far into this comic or the book it's based on I felt like you all needed a little bit of background on Hal Lindsey to really understand what we're up against here.  Mike: I’m so excited because I want to know who the fuck this guy was.  Jessika: This is very broad strokes cause I didn't want to be here all night and I'm sure you  didn't either but very interesting go check it out. So he was born Harold Lee "Hal" Lindsey in Dallas Texas in 1929. He dropped out of university to be in the Korean War, was briefly a tugboat captain -because why not- and after a failed marriage and contemplating suicide he found Gideon's Bible and became born again Christian. He entered Dallas Theological Seminary in 1958 and had his first book published in 1970. Since then, he's [00:35:00] written more books of which he sold millions of copies and has moved on with the times to include broadcasting his messages via radio and television. Messages that range from prophetic to conspiratorial. And I want to add this blip from biblio.com. Mike, do you mind reading this for me. Mike: ”Virtually none of Lindsey's verifiable predictions have been confirmed by history.” Jessika: Great. Thank you. Mike: Is this guy still doing his thing? Is he still spreading the good word? Jessika: He's 91. He's 91. He's fucking kicking  I think  he from what it sounds like he retired quote unquote whatever that means. I think he's still shouting into the ether. Yeah he's around. So speaking of predictions let's talk about those predictions of Hal Lindsey's. So there's A New World Coming. [00:36:00] First of all can you do us a solid and describe the cover of this thing, which is a journey all in itself.  Mike: It is  this is actually I would say the most subtle of the comic covers we looked at tonight. The top half is bold yellow and it says Hal Lindsey There's A New World Coming. And there are three kids getting flown through space on this very weird kind of color spiral. And in the background you can see the spiral is emanating from earth. It's actually really cool looking.  It looks like it's some sort of weird  cosmic sci-fi space opera way I can describe it.  Jessika: Yeah. Very 70s.  Mike: It's very seventies especially the fashion for the older of the kids because  they've got the bell-bottoms they've got the seventies collar and  the big heels on the guy  and also plaid pants.  The [00:37:00] two older characters are holding hands, kind of? I don't know, it looks almost like the dude is grabbing the woman by the wrist and dragging her along. Jessika: Yeah. He really took her on a journey, apparently. Mike: Yeah and then the third kid who was also a narrator.  By the way, we never fucking learned these kids' name, do we? Jessika: We don’t learn anything about them.  Mike: I don’t think we ever get an official introduction to them, either. Jessika: No it's just assumed that this woman is stupid  and sinful and needs to be taught better. That’s kind of what is presumed.  Mike: But honestly this is kind of  the first panel of the comic book because when you open the comic it actually it starts with them on this weird cosmic voyage. Jessika: Yeah. Now the cover is just the start of this banana grams comic and even nuttier book which, by the way I also listened to in it's 308 page entirety. Mike: Okay I didn't realize that this was actually a comic adaptation of a much larger source text. Jessika: Yeah. Oh [00:38:00] let's just say there's a reason this book was able to be condensed into a 32 page comic. The whole premise of both publications is dun dun duh The Rapture. Or as I much prefer to call it "the great snatch" Mike: I’m so glad you called that out, because I was going to call that out if you didn’t. That is the highlight of this book. Jessika: And they put it in such bold  different colored letters. It was in big red letters: The Great Snatch! And it was this woman flying into the air.  Mike: I was gonna say: It’s this woman… oh my god. Jessika: Oh I bet she is the great snatch.  I was laughing so hard when I read that. The long and the short is that Jesus Christ will be coming back to earth. The true believers will be abducted, without dying apparently,  [00:39:00] and eventually transported to what will be new heaven and new earth which is just one thing by the way. Both the comic and the book talk about the supposed events the mark the start to Christ’s second coming. Interesting fact I found about this comic in particular while the art is signed by Hartley on the cover, there is speculation that there were potentially multiple other artists involved in illustrating this comic, as some of the styles don't match up to Hartley’s through and through.  Mike: Yeah ,I noticed that some of the styles weren't quite cohesive. Jessika: You can tell they tried, but you can tell there's definitely some weirdness in there. And I was wondering what that was about when I was reading it myself. Mike: Yeah And also some of the faces  of some of the guys I was like, oh  you were clearly an extra from an Archie comic that has been inserted here. Jessika:  Exactly. And her face is so similar to so many other Hartley ones. The comic is a pretty faithfully distilled version of the book. [00:40:00] Although in my opinion is done in a much more organized and cohesive manner. The book provides much more scripture to back up his claims repetitively.  Mike: Well, they did that in the comic, too. Jessika: Oh they did but they didn't repeat them over and over and over and over again because that is what they did in the book. The same Bible passage would show it multiple times within very few pages. I'm just like didn't I just hear this Bible passage you're doing it again.  It was just it was a whole headache. There were also works of other authors referenced to build his case. But I found yet another interesting rabbit hole that I was unknowingly already knee deep in. One of the authors that Lindsey mentioned as being "a powerful writer of our time" and one he uses as an example is Carlos Castaneda. Which immediately piqued my interest as I was actually in the process of listening to a podcast about this very person.  Mike: Do I  want to know? Jessika: [00:41:00] Yes  Mike: OK, was it bad? I got a feeling that it’s bad. Jessika: You'll know right when I call out what podcast it is. And I want to give a huge thank you to Cult Podcast for this next information.  Mike: Welp. I have my answer. Jessika: Yup Yup I was right in the middle of the second of a two part series on Carlos Castaneda that they had done. And I heard that name within Lindsey's and I was like I guess I have to listen to the rest of that podcast before I really get involved. Now Castaneda pretty much went out to get cigarettes one day and left his family to go do a project in Mexico. No joke. He just left, not really a cigarettes part. That's kind of the Cult Podcast joke but  he left his family for a series of years so that he could go [00:42:00] and do an anthropological study in Mexico.  Mike:  How big was his family I'm curious.  Jessika: He had a wife and kids, at least a couple of kids.  Mike:  What a shitheel. Jessika: Oh absolutely. Cause like multiple years. Like he was just like bye. So he did the one thing you're not supposed to do when studying anthropology: Get involved in the local rituals and ceremonies anthropologists are supposed be studying the culture not getting involved.  Kind of a look don't touch kind of a thing. Mike:  Yeah they’re supposed to be neutral observers. Jessika: Yeah. Strip club rules. So this already a no-no in the scientific community. But he came back, wrote this killer thesis, followed by a best-selling book or two, got a ton of credit and notoriety based on his studying with this traveling shaman named Don Juan. I'm sure you'll be shocked to find out that there was no Don Juan and Castaneda's multi-year anthropological project in Mexico turned out to be more of a [00:43:00] vacation where Castaneda did a lot of peyote, slept with a lot of women, and scoured libraries so that he could pull bits and  pieces out of books and plagiarize them to make his own. So he used a bunch of different spiritual books out of them to make his thesis books coming up.  Mike:  Woooow. Jessika: Yeah. It wasn't until years later that somebody recognized one of the  pieces of his book and were like, "wait a second. That sounds like something I've read from this other book." And then it was just this whole can of worms where he was like “wait and this is plagiarized and this is plagiarized.” Mike: It was so much easier back then to pull off this kind of shit. I feel like I missed my opportunity to cheat my way through school, because even by the time that we were going through high school and college they were starting to get really aggressive about spot checking for plagiarism and things like that.  Now it's really hard to actually plagiarize stuff because of all  the software that’s out there. God damn. [00:44:00] Jessika: It was also easier to have a second family. Mike:  Before the age of social media. Jessika: Yeah. Change your name and… Mike: Can you even have a cult these days without social media? Jessika: You might be able to but I think probably a lot of them would be hinged on social media at this point. Like some of those other ones that have been really recent. Mike: You got to have those influencers who'll sell your cult on Tik ToK. Jessika: Oh my gosh. I find it fascinating that Lindsey chose to use this particular author to showcase the section of his argument for morality which is regarding abstaining from drugs by the way.  Mike:  I mean, probably he just didn’t know. Probably this dude hadn’t been exposed yet. Jessika: Oh no no. Check it out Castaneda most certainly did not abstain from drugs, as I mentioned. And in the book Lindsey makes some vague reference to drugs only being necessary at the beginning of the spiritual journey. So it's like he really was pro-drug but he's also  anti-drug. It was really strange. I re-read that section And I was like I don't know what you're talking [00:45:00] about.  And he credited Castaneda with ceasing to use drugs after a certain point. However it was really just that Castaneda was pretty burnt out after all of his heavy drug use and had to stop doing drugs for health reasons rather than spiritual ones. So while Lindsey doesn't list an exact date at the Rapture, he does make the following prediction. Mike, will you read this blurb from again biblio.com for me. Mike: Yeah, absolutely. “Hal Lindsey forecasted the end of days would be within the generation of the establishment of Israel. That was 1948. He concluded a generation in the Bible was 40 years. Therefore in 1988 Jesus would establish his kingdom.”  Jessika: So clearly that happened according to plan. 1988 was a crazy year, wasn't it? Jesus came back… Mike: Yeah. 1988 was 32 years ago and I don't remember the [00:46:00] rapture happening so Jessika: I mean, I was two, but I don't either.  Mike: yeah  Jessika: And we went to church and I wasn't taken is all I'm saying. What were your overall thoughts on the comic?  Mike: Hmm Hmm Hmm. Honestly the whole thing feels like just one giant drug trip which, now that I have this perspective, makes a lot more sense. But mainly that was because of all the swirling colors in the backgrounds and the clouds that are present throughout the entire comic.  I just don't know how else to summarize it.  It also feels like Hal Lindsey really used this for his own self promotion more than anything else.  For example, he gets top billing on both the cover and on the first page but the comic's narrated by these three nameless teens who were taken on a magical journey through the Rapture and end times when this girl opens her Bible to the book of Revelations. And then they narrate everything that's supposed to happen [00:47:00] and everything about it It's just this really passive boring exposition.  I don't understand who the target audience for this was.  Biblical apocalyptic fiction was such a massive thing in the nineties and it could definitely be made to feel more exciting. But it always feels universally terrible whenever it's done in  a quote earnest way.  I came of age during the era of those God awful fucking Left Behind books  and Tribulation Force and all of the media that they've put out around it. And it was just really not good. It actually makes me mad because this shit never feels like a good story it's always a vehicle for its creators’ egos. And again the Left Behind stuff, like Kirk Cameron I know was really involved with that too for a while. That dude's just a giant fucking shitheel. Whatever. But honestly  the best moment in this book is when everyone is getting raptured, and one of the kids that refers to the moment as the Great Snatch, like we were talking about.  The moralizing also feels really vague.  If you look at that one page that talks about societal [00:48:00] decay where they list all this really generic stuff like the decline of the family unit and then it shows a bunch of people going into and this was the quote “alternatives to marriage course.” Jessika: Like what is that? There's not a thing that's called that  Mike: I don't know. Like my family is literally the embodiment of alternatives to marriage, because  I'm registered as a domestic partner with Sarah. And we did it basically because it was the easiest thing to do during lockdown so that we could make sure that we're taken care of in case something happened to the other person basically we could mail it in. But we get all the same benefits but that wasn't thing back then. Gay marriage wasn't a thing back then. Was it just living together in sin and common law marriage? I don't understand what that was but everything about that  felt like it was that possibly racist argument that's  not quite being racist. But  one of the ongoing things is there's that decline of the black family that they love to sit there  and [00:49:00] pontificate on in conservative media where they talk about black fathers abandoning their families and stuff like that. And I've been around enough of that that it drives me up the wall whenever I hear it. I was kind of bored and kind of mad as I read through this thing because it was just it felt like they really squandered the opportunity to do something really weird and memorable here. Jessika: What I thought was really funny too about their  timing the events I was looking at the different events that they were listing and they were like "fire from the sky" I was like do you know many times that we could say fire from the sky and like a volcanic eruption or the blitzkrieg or you know there's all these different points in history. Any of these events could have been just this whole situation could have been popped into a different time period and anybody could have felt like they were in the apocalypse. We could be in the apocalypse right now, 2020 was a whole shithole. We had like death wasps. Mike: Yeah Yeah. My favorite was the one where   the helicopters coming out of the earth was that it [00:50:00] and there's a quote where it's talking about insects coming forth  with battle armor and they're giant. And they're like, “look he perfectly described helicopters 2000 years ago!”  Jessika: Yeah. He could have been talking about death wasps see? The killer bees. 2021, guys, maybe it's the coming apocalypse I don't know someone should be asking these questions now. Mike: Well I mean it certainly wasn't like Donald Trump wasn't the antichrist because he was supposed to bring us into a false peace or something like that. Jessika:Yeah That was not peaceful I know you would've thought though it really had pegged for that If I were going to say anything.  Mike: Yeah God. So it sounds like we're kind of aligned on this but I’m curious to hear your take on this comic. Jessika:  What I did like about it and just know I was so entrenched in this whole topic, because I listened to the book and then I also read the comic and I was just so refreshed that it wasn't the book, that I was like a little relieved.  I do love that it's an absolute time capsule [00:51:00] just like the estate sale I found it in the estate sale Literally They had  avocado green  carpet. Yeah like what is I a fringe or no a what's it called?  Mike: Shag. Jessika:  Shag. Thank you. Yeah they had avocado green shag.  just it was 1970 threw up in there. It was great I loved it. Mike: Could you rake the shag carpet? Was it that worn down? Jessika:  Oh it was like it was Yeah It was like it needed good rake first of all. But I did like the fashion and the overall vibe, cause that's just kinda my style anyway. So I was right there with the illustrations and the outfits drawn in the comic. And honestly if taken ironically the comic is funny as heck.  it's dated It obviously represents that has come and gone  without the promised fall of Armageddons hammer. So that was Spire  Christian comics for you in a nutshell. Mike: I don't know what I expected any expectations but [00:52:00] this blew away any expectations I could’ve had. Jessika: I mean hard same. Well let's mosey on along to our Brain Wrinkles which is the one thing that we just can't stop thinking about. Mike why don’t you start us off?   Mike: So there was a new clip for the upcoming Cruella movie that dropped this week. And… have you seen any of the trailers for this? Jessika:  I’ve seen one of them, and I generally don’t watch trailers but I was curious. Mike: Yeah I rolled my eyes so hard when that movie was announced. And every time I see something from it though I keep getting more interested.  I'm actually really digging how punk rock they're making Cruella. It's got a very 1970s British punk vibe which is 100% my jam. And also the cast in this movie is so fucking good. We're not going to pay to see it, obviously we're going to wait until it comes to the common folk on Disney Plus. But I'm curious to see what they do with her. I'm [00:53:00] not sure every villain needs a redemption arc which is something been seeing a lot of lately like the Maleficent movies,  but I appreciate it when it feels really well done Like the case with Harley Quinn, like I was talking about last week. Jessika: Yeah. Segues right into my brain wrinkle which is every once in a while on a daily basis, because I'm queer as hell, I think about Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. And I think “good for her.” And also like goals of getting out of that bad relationship that Harley was in.  Ivy's so much better for Harley than that toxic ass joker. So. That whole relationship was skeevy I didn't like it. It was one sided and controlling and manipulative and I've never liked it. It's always kind of sat with me in a weird way.  And so when they had this spin I was like “thank goodness.” [00:54:00] Mike: Even when I was in my twenties and I saw people sharing those memes of “Oh  you just need someone crazy like you” and it's Harley and the Joker and I'm like “he's abusive!” Jessika: Yes. Yes.  Mike: Even I could see that. And I was terrible in my twenties. Jessika: It should be pretty obvious but somehow it just isn’t. I don't know    Jessika: Thanks for listening to Ten Cent Takes. Accessibility is important to us. Text transcriptions of each of our published episodes can be found on our website.  Mike: This episode was hosted by Jessika Frazer and Mike Thompson, written by Jessika Frazer, and edited by Mike Thompson. That's me. Our intro theme was written and performed by Jared Emerson Johnson of Bay area sound. Our credits and transition music is pursuit of life by Evan McDonald and was purchased with a standard license from Premium Beat. Our banner graphics were designed by Sarah Frank who goes by cut_thistles on Instagram. Jessika: If you'd like to get in [00:55:00] touch with us, ask us questions, or tell us about how we got something wrong, please head over to tencenttakes.com tencenttakes@gmail.com. You can also find us on Twitter: The official podcast account is tencenttakes.  Jessika is jessikawitha and Jessika is spelled with a K and Mike is vansau, V a N S a U.   Mike:   Stay safe out there. Jessika: And support your local comic shop.

Walter Martin vintage message from the 1980s on the Rapture and Tribulation -- Here on Christian Sentinel Radio we want to examine all positions for the lateness of the hour.

Responding to questions from listeners about Hal Lindsey, Francis Chan, and whether it's okay to call God "Allah." The following are links to conferences, videos, and articles mentioned in this podcast: Coming June 11-12 to Denton, TX: Wokeness and the Gospel Conference Coming October 1-3 to Atlanta, GA: The G3 Conference WWUTT Video: When Will Jesus Return? Pastor Gabe's article: Francis Chan Defends His Friendship With False Teachers Cripplegate article: Farewell Francis Lutheran Satire video: A Latter-Day Re-Gift

We wrap up the Apocalypse series with Hal Lindsey's 1970 "Biblical Prophecy" bestseller — and it's a doosie. Get full access to Christian Rightcast at rightcast.substack.com/subscribe

Author of the book "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation", Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez joins the pod to talk about how white evangelicals redefined Biblical masculinity to fit the militant masculinity of secular icons like John Wayne, Teddy Roosevelt, and William Wallace. We talk about Mark Driscoll, Donald Trump, Beth Moore, egalitarianism and complementarianism in the church, Explo '72, Hal Lindsey's "Countdown to Armageddon", Kristin's favorite John Wayne film and more. For more information on "Jesus and John Wayne" and Dr. Kristin Du Mez and to get a copy of the book, you can go here: https://kristindumez.com/books/jesus-and-john-wayne/ Get a copy of Kristin's first book "A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism" by going here: https://kristindumez.com/books/new-gospel-for-women/ Follow Kristin on Twitter: @kkdumez Mentioned on the pod: -Leah Payne, who is writing a book about Contemporary Christian Music. For more information on Dr. Payne and updates on her forthcoming book you can follow her on Twitter: @drleahpayne and view her bio on the Portland Seminary website: https://www.georgefox.edu/seminary/faculty/bio/leah-payne.html -God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America by Larry Eskridge. You can get that book here: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326451.001.0001/acprof-9780195326451 -Daniel Silliman's upcoming book Reading Evangelicals: How Christian Fiction Shaped a Culture and a Faith. Follow him at @danielsilliman -Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America by John G. Turner https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858738/bill-bright-and-campus-crusade-for-christ/ -The Armageddon Experience - One Way (Live at Explo '72) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MoYtlhdirw -Check out Zach's music by going to: https://muzach.bandcamp.com -Read Dave's occasional blogging at: www.dangeroushope.wordpress.com. Twitter: @vcwpod Zach- @muzach Dave- @Davejlester Podcast music by Zach Malm Logo by Zach Malm

Welcome to the second part of our Eschatology series: A look at the end times. In part 1, we covered WHY you should care about Eschatology and why it's worth spending our time on. Now we are going to deep dive into the first viewpoint: Premillennialism. The next episode will feature Amillennialism and the next part Postmillennialism. We will wrap up the series with a Q&A episode! Let's dive in! Listen to the Podcast: And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. A note on this series: In no way are Jason and I an expert in this topic. But we've greatly enjoyed diving into eschatology this year and are excited to share what we've learned. We are covering the 3 main views of the end times, but even within those 3, there are countless smaller viewpoints of those. So what we are attempting to do here is a broad overview of each point. Please forgive us if we over generalize any areas or if we make a mistake on any of these. Please come dialogue with us on Instagram if you want to share anything! Defining our Terms Before we jump into the Premill viewpoint, let's first define a few terms we will talk about when it comes to all three viewpoints. Second Coming of Jesus: To conquer sin and death and Satan once and for all. Verses: 1 Thess 5, Titus 2:13, Matthew 24:30, Revelation 1:7, Revelation 19:11. When will the second coming happen? It will be like a thief in the night. No one knows when it’ll happen. Verses: 1 Thess 5:2, Matthew 24:44. Antrichrist: Man of lawlessness. Verses: 2 Thess 2:3-4, Revelation 13:5-8. The Rapture: Gathering up of all believers; the Church. Verse: 1 Thess 4:17 Millennium: the 1000 year reign of Christ (either figurative or literal 1000 years). Verse: Revelation: 20:2-3 Final Judgement: Where Jesus will judge the living and the dead. Verses: Revelation 20:11-15. Overview of the Premillennial Viewpoint: This is the view that Christ's second coming will happen before the Millennial Kingdom which will be the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth, The two most common views within premil are pre-trib and post-trib. Though there are arguments for mid-trib as well. Premills have a futurist view of the book of Revelation. This means that they believe the events outlined in Revelation to be future events (to us). Revelation chapters 4-22 are yet to be fulfilled. Premills argue that theirs is the most literal reading of Revelation. Those who disagree argue that premills take passages of Revelation as literal when in fact they should be read and interpreted symbolically or figuratively. Pre-trib Premils believe that Christ will rapture the Church BEFORE the 7 years of tribulation. Post-trib premils believe that the Church will live through the 7 years of Tribulation before Christ comes again. Dispensational Premill:  The most popular view of the end times in America today is the dispensational premill view. This view first appeared in the 19th century which distinguished it from historic premill. This view argues for a secret rapture 7 years before Jesus returns. They also emphasize the fulfillment of the promises made to Jewish people during this Millenium. Proponents of this view include: Wayne Grudem, John MacArthur, Erwin Lutzer, Charles L. Feinberg, John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, and J. Dwight Pentecost, and it was popularized through Hal Lindsey’s 1970 bestseller, The Late, Great Planet Earth, and the Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Graphs from The Blue Letter Bible Historic Premill:  As oppose to their dispensational brothers, historic premill believe that the Church will go through the great Tribulation and the rapture will happen at the end of those 7 years. They also see no radical difference between the Church and Israel. Proponents of this view include: John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, Albert Mohler,

Welcome to the second part of our Eschatology series: A look at the end times. In part 1, we covered WHY you should care about Eschatology and why it's worth spending our time on. Now we are going to deep dive into the first viewpoint: Premillennialism. The next episode will feature Amillennialism and the next part Postmillennialism. We will wrap up the series with a Q&A episode! Let's dive in! Listen to the Podcast: And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. A note on this series: In no way are Jason and I an expert in this topic. But we've greatly enjoyed diving into eschatology this year and are excited to share what we've learned. We are covering the 3 main views of the end times, but even within those 3, there are countless smaller viewpoints of those. So what we are attempting to do here is a broad overview of each point. Please forgive us if we over generalize any areas or if we make a mistake on any of these. Please come dialogue with us on Instagram if you want to share anything! Defining our Terms Before we jump into the Premill viewpoint, let's first define a few terms we will talk about when it comes to all three viewpoints. Second Coming of Jesus: To conquer sin and death and Satan once and for all. Verses: 1 Thess 5, Titus 2:13, Matthew 24:30, Revelation 1:7, Revelation 19:11. When will the second coming happen? It will be like a thief in the night. No one knows when it’ll happen. Verses: 1 Thess 5:2, Matthew 24:44. Antrichrist: Man of lawlessness. Verses: 2 Thess 2:3-4, Revelation 13:5-8. The Rapture: Gathering up of all believers; the Church. Verse: 1 Thess 4:17 Millennium: the 1000 year reign of Christ (either figurative or literal 1000 years). Verse: Revelation: 20:2-3 Final Judgement: Where Jesus will judge the living and the dead. Verses: Revelation 20:11-15. Overview of the Premillennial Viewpoint: This is the view that Christ's second coming will happen before the Millennial Kingdom which will be the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth, The two most common views within premil are pre-trib and post-trib. Though there are arguments for mid-trib as well. Premills have a futurist view of the book of Revelation. This means that they believe the events outlined in Revelation to be future events (to us). Revelation chapters 4-22 are yet to be fulfilled. Premills argue that theirs is the most literal reading of Revelation. Those who disagree argue that premills take passages of Revelation as literal when in fact they should be read and interpreted symbolically or figuratively. Pre-trib Premils believe that Christ will rapture the Church BEFORE the 7 years of tribulation. Post-trib premils believe that the Church will live through the 7 years of Tribulation before Christ comes again. Dispensational Premill:  The most popular view of the end times in America today is the dispensational premill view. This view first appeared in the 19th century which distinguished it from historic premill. This view argues for a secret rapture 7 years before Jesus returns. They also emphasize the fulfillment of the promises made to Jewish people during this Millenium. Proponents of this view include: Wayne Grudem, John MacArthur, Erwin Lutzer, Charles L. Feinberg, John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, and J. Dwight Pentecost, and it was popularized through Hal Lindsey’s 1970 bestseller, The Late, Great Planet Earth, and the Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Graphs from The Blue Letter Bible Historic Premill:  As oppose to their dispensational brothers, historic premill believe that the Church will go through the great Tribulation and the rapture will happen at the end of those 7 years. They also see no radical difference between the Church and Israel. Proponents of this view include: John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, John Piper, Albert Mohler,

Jackie walks down memory lane recalling correction attempts of compromisers with TBN who share in the responsibility of the rise of the apostate church

Today on Like It Matters radio Mr. Black goes into what sustains us. Sustenance Is defined as food and drink as a source of strength and nourishment. Hal Lindsey is famously remembered for his quote; "Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air...but only for one second without hope". Tune into Like It Matters Radio, for an hour of Power, as Mr. Black has us consider; Hope feeds! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. This Sunday kicked off the beginning of Advent. While the season is generally seen as a time of preparing to celebrate Christ’s birth on Christmas, the focus historically was a time to focus on Jesus’ Second Coming.  The doctrine of Jesus’ Second Coming has traditionally been a major focus of Christian theology: it has been a driving force for missions, it was a source of hope for suffering Christians, it helped to frame Christian worship.  American evangelicals in particular have been shaped by discussion of Jesus’ return—apocalyptic expectation helped to shape the early fundamentalist movement more than 100 years ago. Baby Boomer evangelicalism has been especially focused on the End Times, from Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth of the 70’s to the Left Behind novels of the 90’s. But it seems increasingly rare to us to hear about the Second Coming these days. This week on Quick to Listen, we wanted to talk about why that might be and why a strong understanding of the Second Coming can serve us well as we navigate the pandemic and other crises. Vince Bacote is associate professor of theology and director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College. He has been serving as a theology adviser for Christianity Today over the last year and is a contributor to our Advent devotional, “Living Hope,” which you can find on our website this week.  Bacote joined global media manager Morgan Lee and editorial director Ted Olsen to discuss why Christians aren’t talking about the Second Coming as much these days, how these conversations can serve us during the pandemic, and what responsibly talking about the End Times looks like.  What is Quick to Listen? Read more Rate Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow our hosts on Twitter: Morgan Lee and Ted Olsen Follow Vince Bacote on Twitter Music by Sweeps Quick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee and Matt Linder The transcript is edited by Bunmi Ishola Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brief overview and summary of the false system of belief known as -dispensationalism,- and why it is contrary to Scripture and the historic Reformed-Protestant faith.CORRECTIONS-Finney was not a dispensationalist, intended reference was to Scofield only- Also, the author referred to should have been Hal Lindsey and not Tim Lahaye.

Hal Lindsey's vintage message on the time of the end from about 30 years ago -- "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed". --  Romans 13:11

A press handout photo from the 1976 film The Late, Great Planet EarthA podcast? A podcast!Welcome to Young Adult Movie Ministry, a podcast about Christian culture by Sam Thielman (The Guardian, The Columbia Journalism Review) and Alissa Wilkinson (Vox, Christianity Today). We plan on publishing one episode a week and we hope you enjoy it; if you already have a subscription to the Sidereal Daily Mentioner, that will roll over. Some of the furniture is going to change around here, too, but I’ll leave up my old essays with a note absolving Alissa of my opinions. If you’re a new subscriber, welcome! And if you’re merely curious and not yet a subscriber, please enjoy this episode on us, and consider buying a subscription, it’s cheap and we have lots of amazing stuff lined up for our first season.Details, credits, errata: Episode 1, You Should Write a Book About That, is written by Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson and produced by Sam. The focus of the episode is Robert Amram’s… sure, we’ll call it a documentary adapted from Hal Lindsey’s monster bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth, a sort of Chariots of the Gods for the wooden pew set. The movie stars Orson Welles and you can get a nice edition of it from Kino Lorber. It’s an important film! Sam knows he said “Neonomicon” when he meant “Necronomicon” and “Arthur Machen” when he meant “August Derleth.” Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. The header image is a vintage press handout and is property of the original rightsholders. All other content is copyright 2020 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at yammpod.substack.com/subscribe

Randy's topic: Not studying Prophecy profits no one

Hal Lindsey is featured in this classic study of the first chapter in the book of Revelation

Santino sits down with Timesuck Podcast's own, Dan Cummins to chat about his new found interest in pony play, Albert Fish's obsession with putting sewing needles in his nifkin, doomsday peppers in rural Utah like sycophant Hal Lindsey and shitting on a windshield during the apocalypse. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! MANSCAPED Use the BEST tools for your Tool. Clean ya peen hair! Go to https://www.manscaped.com and enter promo WHISKEY for %20 off Check out the Timesuck Podcast: https://www.timesuckpodcast.com For all things CHEETO: http://www.andrewsantino.com/ ALL STANDUP DATES ARE CHANGING AS WE SPEAK AND GET THROUGH THIS THING. Join our Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/whiskeygingerpodcast Buy Merch: https://shop-andrew-santino.myshopify.com Follow Santino on Insta and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/cheetosantino/ & https://Twitter.com/cheetosantino Whiskey Ginger Insta and Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/whiskeygingerpodcast/ & https://twitter.com/whiskeyginger_

How can we best evangelize those people in our lives who claim a life without faith? Questions Covered: 28:42 – I have nephews who have left the Church. How can I help them, if the opportunity arises?  32:00 – How can I evangelize my son? He has two unbaptized children.  46:12 – Do you know that Hal Lindsey still has a show? Do you think that he’s been consistent over all these years?  51:59 – My friend really struggles with the Pachamama incident and doesn’t believe the Pope is real. How can I counter that?  Resources Mentioned: Christ in Eclipse by Frank Sheed Modern Physics and Ancient Faith by Stephen Barr …

2002-04-29 - Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - Hal Lindsey - Bible Prophecy. Nancy Sinatra Interview

“For Then There Will Be Great Tribulation Part 2”9/22/19Matthew 24:15-31This Week’s Core Belief: Eternity I believe there is a heaven and a hell and that Jesus Christ is returning to judge the earth and to establish His eternal kingdom.John 14:1-4“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”Scripture: Matthew 24:15-3115 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 19 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.The Message of this Passage:I don’t think there’s any more intriguing, any more fascinating subject than the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know of no biblical subject which can create the same amount of curiosity that this subject can create. And really, there are few things in Scripture that are as highly motivating to the believer and to the unbeliever as the sense of reality regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ. Which is one of the reasons, the Left Behind series was so popular and in the 1970’s Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth was a best seller.The apostle Paul said: “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” In other words, realizing that Christ will come in judgment and bring a terrorizing holocaust upon the earth, we present the gospel so that men may escape that. Also, Paul said that we labor whether present or absent that we may be in a sense accepted by Him. So we who are believers serve the Lord knowing that someday He’ll come to reward us, and we want to be found faithful.So the second coming of Jesus Christ, both from the standpoint of warning an unbeliever of the judgment to come and of encouraging a believer with the reward to come, is a highly motivating subject. And there’s no place in the Scripture, where it’s presented more wonderfully than right here in Matthew 24 and 25 by the Lord Himself.For Further Discussion:Identify one or two new insights that seemed important to you. Why are they important?Is there a spiritual truth in this section that is especially significant for you?According to Jesus, what will the final days on earth be like?What important warning about spiritual deception did Jesus issue?How will people recognize Jesus’ return?Why were the Jewish people of Jesus' day especially curious about the return of Christ?Why do you think Christians today are especially curious about the return of Christ?Pondering the PrinciplesGod's sovereignty is evident in Matthew 24 and 25. God is in full control of everything that happens--even to the point of leading the Romans against Jerusalem. If God can control major events like that, surely He can control the circumstances in your life! However, you won't always understand the purpose for every situation in your life. The key is trusting in God's sovereignty and His promise that "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28). In every situation, yield yourself to God, and ask Him to work out His sovereign will, knowing that it will be carried out to His greater glory and your greatest good.Notes:

“For Then There Will Be Great Tribulation”9/15/19Matthew 24:15-31This Week’s Core Belief: Eternity I believe there is a heaven and a hell and that Jesus Christ is returning to judge the earth and to establish His eternal kingdom.John 14:1-4“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”Scripture: Scripture: Matthew 24:15-3115 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 19 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.The Message of this Passage:I don’t think there’s any more intriguing, any more fascinating subject than the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know of no biblical subject which can create the same amount of curiosity that this subject can create. And really, there are few things in Scripture that are as highly motivating to the believer and to the unbeliever as the sense of reality regarding the second coming of Jesus Christ. Which is one of the reasons, the Left Behind series was so popular and in the 1970’s Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth was a best seller.The apostle Paul said: “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” In other words, realizing that Christ will come in judgment and bring a terrorizing holocaust upon the earth, we present the gospel so that men may escape that. Also, Paul said that we labor whether present or absent that we may be in a sense accepted by Him. So we who are believers serve the Lord knowing that someday He’ll come to reward us, and we want to be found faithful.So the second coming of Jesus Christ, both from the standpoint of warning an unbeliever of the judgment to come and of encouraging a believer with the reward to come, is a highly motivating subject. And there’s no place in the Scripture, where it’s presented more wonderfully than right here in Matthew 24 and 25 by the Lord Himself.For Further Discussion:Identify one or two new insights that seemed important to you. Why are they important?Is there a spiritual truth in this section that is especially significant for you?According to Jesus, what will the final days on earth be like?What important warning about spiritual deception did Jesus issue?How will people recognize Jesus’ return?Why were the Jewish people of Jesus' day especially curious about the return of Christ?Why do you think Christians today are especially curious about the return of Christ?Pondering the PrinciplesGod's sovereignty is evident in Matthew 24 and 25. God is in full control of everything that happens--even to the point of leading the Romans against Jerusalem. If God can control major events like that, surely He can control the circumstances in your life! However, you won't always understand the purpose for every situation in your life. The key is trusting in God's sovereignty and His promise that "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28). In every situation, yield yourself to God, and ask Him to work out His sovereign will, knowing that it will be carried out to His greater glory and your greatest good.Notes:

1999-02-09 - Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell - Hal Lindsey - Biblical Prophecy

To rapture or not to rapture Did you know that Jesus’ most famous statements about the rapture were actually not about the rapture at all? Stick around and we’ll talk about it. Here on 5 minutes of truth. In the 70s it was Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth”. In the mid-90s into the 2000s it was the “Left […]

“There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. Then they will see the Human One[a] coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.” Jesus told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, you know that God’s kingdom is near. I assure you that this generation won’t pass away until everything has happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away. “Take care that your hearts aren’t dulled by drinking parties, drunkenness, and the anxieties of day-to-day life. Don’t let that day fall upon you unexpectedly, like a trap. It will come upon everyone who lives on the face of the whole earth. Stay alert at all times, praying that you are strong enough to escape everything that is about to happen and to stand before the Human One.”[b] So, there are some of us who can remember the 1970’s, some as adults, some as children, me being one of the latter, but I’ve always been fascinated with that era, that great time of transition between the radicalism of the 1960’s to the law and order, conformist, economically ambitious 1980’s. I came into my own during the 1980’s but it was one of the books of that earlier era that had a huge impact on my life during the early eighties, though it was published in 1970, and was a publishing phenomenon, and a sure sign that many felt the 1960’s, with its social changes, was not a good time. Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth had already sold millions of copies when I first picked it up, though most of the people I knew in my newly embraced Christian evangelical world had already read it. Hal Lindsey had made him reputation – and a whole lot of money – by making the case that there were signs that Jesus’s Second Coming was right around the corner, signs one could see being literally manifested in world events and, most concretely, the founding of Israel as a nation state after World War Two. Hal Lindsey weaved together passages in the books of Revelation, the book of Daniel, and texts like the ones we have before us today to state his case that everything was pointing to Jesus’ imminent return to Earth. He said that the rise of the Soviet Union and China as world powers were predicted in the Bible, and he even believed the European Union had some role in the rise of a literal Anti-Christ. Lindsey was notorious for making predictions about the actual date of Jesus would come; first it was in the 1970’s, and then later he predicted it would be sometime in 1988, the year I graduated high school, and then even later he said Jesus would likely return in 2007 For those of us who grew in that evangelical culture of constant expectation of Christ’s imminent arrival, I think we approached such bold predictions with both excitement and dread – sure, I wanted to Jesus to come back in 1988, but, well, you know, I wanted to go to college and live a little before the whole “Jesus comes back and transforms everything” happens. For those who in that subculture were obsessed with the rapture, which was this evangelical belief in the unexpected taking of faithful souls to heaven in a blink of an eye, you had this great fear that you wouldn’t be raptured with the rest of your friends and family. You have all these 1970’s and 1980’s stories of young kids coming home and finding their houses unexpectedly empty, and this fear sinking in that they their parents and siblings had been raptured to heaven, and somehow they had missed it. It was a crazy time for this kind of stuff, but the world seemed ripe for the second coming of Jesus – there were signs and wonders, as Jesus said, that couldn’t be dismissed, so said the evangelical subculture that multiple generations of believers have found themselves steeped within.   But the problem has always been something I suspect you already know instinctively and that is that in almost every generation of Christians there have always been people who believed that surely, surely, this would be last generation, that all the signs and wonders of their present age was pointing to the end of history, which for us Christians is wrapped up in the Christ actually doing that wrapping up of all history, in that great Second Coming. Even the believers a few decades removed from Jesus’ time here on earth believed that they were surely in the last generation, that Jesus was surely coming, because of all that had happened in their own time, sure signs that the end was nigh – one of my friends whose mother spent the last half of her life steeped in Pentecostalism that expected Jesus’ imminent appearance would tell her constantly that “Jesus is nigh unto the door.” What likely prompted these early believers, the people who were around when the Gospel of Luke was likely written, was the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the same one that Jesus worshipped and taught within. As punishment for a Jewish rebellion in 70 AD that was eventually brutally quashed, the Romans destroyed the Temple, this center of Jewish life and identity. This caused a crisis within Judaism itself, one would that would eventually shift Jewish identity and worship from being centered in Jerusalem to a synagogue based faith now scattered throughout the world. But it wasn’t just a Jewish crisis – the destruction of the Temple was also a Christian crisis because we Christians, wrongly, to be sure, saw ourselves as the natural heir of the Jewish identity and religion – after all, Jesus was a Jewish Messiah, who came to the Jews first, and then the rest of the world, secondly. The destruction of the Temple was surely a sign that Jesus would return – perhaps it wasn’t a natural disaster that Jesus speaks of here in our text today, but it was a spiritual disaster that both Judaism, and to lesser degree, this new Christian faith, had to find ways of dealing with.   And so the text today was likely written after the great fall of the Temple in Jerusalem, and these words believed to be said by Jesus were fresh to those early Christian believers in a way that few of us can now imagine. Seemingly the greatest of disasters had fallen upon them only a few years earlier, and here Jesus is telling his earliest listeners that there will signs and wonders, natural disaster after natural disaster, and unexplained events in the sky that have rarely been seen before. Actually, in the larger 21st chapter of Luke not included in our pericope today, Jesus gives us three signs that signal the end: the appearance of false messiahs, wars and international conflicts, and what we see in our text today – natural disasters. But the reality is that false messiahs and wars on a world wide scale have come and gone – think of World War Two, where it is believed that 70 million people lost their lives – and natural disasters, well, they happen all the time. Some always say, surely, this particular disaster we are experiencing right now is a sign that Jesus was speaking of – surely it can’t get worse than this disaster, which is probably what people must have said during the time of the Black Plague in the early Middle Ages, when 30% of Europe’s population was wiped out over a few decades. Almost always we humans think that the false messiahs of our generation, the wars of our generation, the natural disasters of our generation are the worse the world has even seen, and thus they are surely a sign that Jesus is indeed “nigh upon the door.” We almost always interpret Jesus’ parable of the fig tree as speaking to our generation, because, of course, our generation is experiencing the worst of everything. I can’t tell you how many times people have told me that surely we were in the last days, because of how bad things had gotten, and I try, in my best moments, to remind them that there have been far worse natural disasters, far worse wars, far worse false messiahs, than we are experiencing now. In fact, in many ways, humanity has never had it better than right now in terms of health and longevity and the absence of major wars killing millions at a clip. God knows life is not perfect for any of us, especially the poor and oppressed, far from it, but the world has been a far crueler and meaner place than it is right now. I try to remember that in my best moments, when I am decrying what is happening in this country and in the larger world. It doesn’t mean it can’t get worse, but it’s important to stay in the moment, and to take Jesus seriously here – to look at the fig tree, the signs, and to interpret them in the larger context of history, of what has been and what could be.   But what then are we to do with this text, on this first Sunday of Advent, if the end of all things is not probably nigh, that Jesus is not literally “nigh unto the door?” And what are we to do with these particular words: “this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place.” The reality, of course, is that first century generation did pass away without the ending happening, despite the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. We don’t know for sure whether Jesus literally meant that particular generation, but it’s obviously true that every generation thinks it is at the end of the historical rope, so to speak, and this current one is no different. The truth of the matter is that we are ALWAYS living in times of turmoil or change, and the world is in fact always ending, ending the world as we know it, because it is always changing, and what was is no more, and what will be is just coming to be, and this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place, until another tumultuous change happens, as it does for every generation, as it will for us, surely. And the world is always beginning again, starting over, because what was before is now ending—and on and on we go. And, yes, I am probably getting the early church and Jesus out of a tight rhetorical spot by interpreting these particular words in this manner, but I really do think that what Jesus is saying here is profoundly true—the world is always ending, and it is always beginning, and what is new contains within it what has been—and what will be. There will be signs and wonders today, natural disasters today, within in our bodies today, within our lives today, within our politics today, within the very ground we walk on today, and some of us will indeed faint from fear today because of the cruelty of it all. Most us, however, will wake up again, and the world will be new again, though not always in ways we want or expect, but it will be new again. One of the interesting things about growing up in that evangelical subculture was one of the things they didn’t try to teach us with all their apocalyptic obsession with how the world was might end: what they didn’t teach us was that the end of all things, the arrival of this Jesus, would be the beginning of something new. The book of Revelation right at the very end of the Bible spends its last few chapters telling us that when Christ comes, the world itself will be transformed and made new again, that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. As I just said, within every ending is the seed for the new beginning. God doesn’t end the story by destroying it all – but renews what God first created, the heavens and earth, into something new, a new beginning, a new life, a new way of understanding the world as it really is.   So, you see, even when Jesus speaks of the end, there is always the new beginning that comes with it, because when all things end, all things begin again, in some new way. One of the interesting things about what scholars like to call apocalyptic literature in the Bible, texts like this one before us today, or the book of Revelation, or even the book of Daniel, is that this kind of writing is meant to reveal, to unveil, or uncover the world, to unmask the false powers that supposedly rule the world, and maybe even our lives. I was speaking with someone recently about both a devastating ending, and the possible birth of something new, something unwanted at first, but now, well, fully embraced as a new start, a new beginning. Sometimes the ending reveal what we didn’t know we needed, and the beginning of some new thing we didn’t know we wanted, until it was before us, until it was presented to us by circumstances. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression that all our endings have a happy new beginning – I don’t believe that because it isn’t true. Some endings are as cataclysmic as they actually feel in the moment. But I don’t want us to forget that sometimes, maybe most of the time, when something ends, a sense of safety, a life we thought we wanted, sometimes that ending is a catalyst to a new heaven and a new earth in our lives. Jesus says to us in this text: Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.” The Temple is destroyed, life collapses, really bad things happen, and they really are bad things – and then from the ashes of ruin some new thing begins, unexpected, and maybe unwanted, but life begins again, as it does on Christmas Day, with the birth of this child, a yearly, constant reminder that life begins again, the great human cycle of beginning, ending, and resurrection, a new thing, a new beginning. Hope arrives after utter hopelessness.   In all honesty, I am kind of nostalgic for the excitement of my Hal Lindsey days, with the constant anticipation of just when Jesus would come again, literally, and to be clear, I do still believe that in the literal Second Coming. But the truth of the matter is that we really are always in the midst of some sort of ending, we are almost in the midst of some sort of disaster which threatens to end us, or at least threatens to end our hopes and dreams. There are signs and wonders all around, warning us not to get too comfortable, because the world we are in right now might not be the world we will be in tomorrow – some new thing has happened, the ending of something, the beginning of something else. So, to echo Jesus’s words in the last part of our text, let’s take care that our hearts aren’t dulled by distractions of everyday life, and that we don’t find ourselves stunned by the last Great Ending of all things, the last Great Last Day, but also let’s take care not to be surprised by the everyday endings, the ones that just come with being human and being human in this world, as it is. What is revealed in all endings is a new beginning, an unveiling, an uncovering of that which we did not see beneath the surface of the life we just saw end before us and within us. Some of what is uncovered we will be glad to see, and some of it, not so much, but with the ending comes the new beginning and this promise: that the Human One, the Christ will meet us there, as he will meet us on Christmas Day, as he does in every moment of our lives. Amen.

The Late Great Planet Earth Made the Apocalypse a Popular Concern By Erin A. Smith , Hal Lindsey, Campus Crusades for Christ, The Jesus Christ Light and Power Company, John Nelson Darby, Premillennial Dispensationalism, Darwinism, Youth Groups, Henrietta Cornelia Mears, Operation Chaos, Hippie Culture, Bill Bright, Vonette Bright, The Council for National Policy, The Now Generation, Formalism, Mega Churches, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt Book by Associate Professor of History Darren Dochuk, Ronald Regan, Barry Goldwater, Tim Lahey, Orson Wells, Gog and Magog, Armageddon, Nuclear Annihilation, Robert Schuller, Drive-In Church, Zionism, The Jews. Intro: Do You Believe He's Comin' by David Gates Outro: Time (feat. Phil Keaggy And A Band Called David) hoaxbusterscall.com

Introduction Today and next week we will undertake background work in texts other than Revelation to help make Revelation 13 a little clearer when we take it up. There are few theological topics that so inflame the imagination and engage the mind as end times teaching. In the Book of Isaiah, God claims that unlike all the idols of the world, He is the only One who knows the future and is able to declare the end from the beginning. We saw this repeatedly in the prophecies of Isaiah. Isaiah 46:10 says “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.” Most of the prophecies in Isaiah focus on the first coming of Christ. We can see the overarching flow and direction and purpose of Jesus’ life laid out in Isaiah: Messiah would be born of a virgin, be born in Bethlehem, live a sinless life, do signs and wonders, heal the sick, raise the dead, speak in parables. Predictions of his genealogy included that he would be born a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, a son of David. Even minute details were predicted, such as his death on the cross — how He would be lifted up, how his hands and his feet would be pierced, how his blood would provide the final atonement for sins as the animal sacrificial system symbolized, how he would drink gall at his death (there was a jar of wine vinegar, or gall, at the foot of the cross), how he would be buried in a rich man's tomb, hoe he would be raised from the dead on the third day, how repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name to the ends of the earth. These things are predicted about the first coming. But what about the Second Coming? Are details predicted that lead up to the end of the world? The Bible does give details of the future. Christianity, unique among all the religions of the world, makes specific prophecies and has a track record of these prophecies being fulfilled. Many, but not all, of those end time prophecies are found in the book of Revelation. This elaborate system of truth is very difficult to put together. It is even more complex than the three-dimensional puzzle of Big Ben, the clock tower in England, that my daughter Daphne got from my sister for her birthday. Eschatology is like a puzzle, assembling pieces from all over the Bible to put together an orderly system of truth: 2 Thessalonians, Matthew 24, Old Testament,1 John 2, and others. How is this relevant to our lives? I do not know specifically how understanding the Beast from the Sea and the future Antichrist will affect your life today, but it will have some effect. Eschatology — end time teaching — has the power to shape the way you look at everyday life to realize we are moving to a definite end. That end has been thought out and predicted by the mind of God. It is a glorious end, but we also learn in the book of Revelation that it will be full of suffering and pain and difficulty. Jesus wants us to know ahead of time so we will be ready. Even though we look around and wonder, as 2 Peter 2 predicted, where this coming that he promised; it seems that everything goes on just as it has since the beginning. Those who say that are fulfilling prophecy by Peter. We must look beyond immediate circumstances to see that we are heading somewhere. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. We are not looking at a circular, cyclical view of history but a linear view. We are heading toward a glorious end, but there will be, as Jesus says in Matthew 24, birth pains before the end. It is good to know in advance that we have some suffering to go through. Eschatology is a popular subject. The Left Behind series, a fictional eschatological chronicle by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, has sold at least 65 million books. Several of the 16 volumes went to number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth, published in 1970, was that generation’s version of the same thing. He wove together current events, especially Cold War Soviet Union issues, and zeroed in on the relatively recent new establishment of the Jewish nation in Palestine. He predicted that within one generation of the Jews being re-established in 1948 in Palestine, the end would come. Calculating one generation as 40 years spurred many predictions regarding the year 1988, such as “88 reasons the Lord will return in 88.” However, though inaccurate, we should not think that the methodology of such predictions is intrinsically flawed. It is biblical to apply Scripture to current events. But the establishment of the Jews in Palestine was only one of dozens and dozens of indicators that need to be in place simultaneously. Matthew 24:32-22 says, “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things…” Those who see all the signs together will not be wondering, they will know, if they have studied Scripture — it will not be published in secular media. My job as a teacher of the Word of God is to try to make these things as clear as possible now while I am able. There is good evidence for saying that the final generation will know the exact number of days till the Lord returns, will be able to count the days. The clearest indication of that is at the end of the Book of Daniel, which we will cover next week. A Powerful, Defeated, Enraged Foe Satan’s Power We are in the middle of studying the book of Revelation, which unveils things that we would not have any other way of knowing, invisible things from the past, present, and future — God openly says to John, “I will show you what must take place after this…” so there is no doubt that He is unveiling future events. We just finished an extraordinary chapter, Revelation 12, in which the activities of a monstrous red dragon are described. Revelation 12:3 says, “Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.” It is no accident that it sounds like the Beast from the Sea. It is hard to interpret symbolism in apocalyptic literature, but we are told in Revelation 12:9 who the dragon is: “The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” God wants us to know who the red dragon is — Satan — and how powerful he is so that we do not underestimate him. We are aware of his schemes, of his power, of the vast evil conspiracy in the world run by Satan. Bible-reading Christians are not surprised that there is a method to the evil and wickedness in the world. We need to see behind current events to demonic activity. The Bible teaches it. Satan’s Defeats On the other hand, Satan is depicted again and again as a defeated foe. God is much more powerful than Satan, who is His frustrated, thwarted enemy, not His equal opposite. It is not a dualistic religion like yin and yang. The good God of the universe is infinitely more powerful than evil, so Satan is thwarted in his effort to kill Jesus before his time, in his effort to take over Heaven with his armies, in his multiple efforts to kill the woman and her children, though he brings much suffering in the world in his attempts. The “Little Apocalypse” The section ends with the dragon standing on the shore of the sea, to lead into chapter 13 in which a beast emerges from the sea. There is no doubt that the imagery links to Daniel Chapter 7. But the clearest unfolding of end times events other than the book of Revelation is from Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 24. My desire is to make these things clear so that you will be ready. In 2 Thessalonians 2, the Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonian church that the end would not come until the man of sin appeared, whom we know as the Antichrist, the man doomed to destruction. He said, “Don't you remember that when I was with you, I kept telling you about these things.” That is pastoral methodology, to tell your people about what the Bible says about the future. Prepare your youth, your children, and prepare them to get their children ready. This information will be vital to their spiritual survival. Seven Woes to the Leaders of Israel Matthew 24, sometimes called the Little Apocalypse, is Jesus’s teaching about the end times. For context, Jesus has just finished in Matthew 23 proclaiming a seven-fold woe on the spiritual leaders of Israel, the Scribes and Pharisees. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees… you hypocrites!” Seven times, he exposes the hypocrisy of those who sit in Moses’ seat to the people whom they lead. He wants the people to understand that they are white-washed tombs — not what they appear to be — and their greatest sin is not recognizing and believing in Jesus, God in the flesh, Messiah, the Son of David. They did not recognize him, and thus they rejected him. This was predicted very plainly in Isaiah 53: “Lord, who has believed our message?” questioning whether Israel would believe in Jesus. Isaiah 53:3 says “He was despised and rejected by men… and we esteemed Him not.” John 1:11 says, “He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him.” The Jews’ rejection of Jesus was predicted, but Jesus nonetheless pronounces a prophetic word of judgment. Seven times he says “Woe to you”, then he expresses grief over Jerusalem:“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. [empty, vacuous] For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’” To illustrate and emphasize his point, he walks out of the temple. The essence of the desolation is Jesus leaving. In Ezekiel 10, the shekinah, or dwelling, glory of God moved out of the temple. Jesus linguistically linked his departure to their emptiness and desolation. “Your house is left you desolate for you will not see me again.” The Destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, and Antichrists As he walked out the disciples approached him to point out the magnificence of the temple buildings and their “massive stones” [Mark 13:1]. (After Pentecost when the Spirit came on the disciples, they were finally on message, but at this point they simply do not understand.) Jesus replied in Matthew 24:2. “‘Do you see all these things?’ he asked. ‘I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’” That is a direct prophecy of the destruction of the temple of the Jews. The disciples found this troubling, so they came to Jesus privately on the Mount of Olives. His vision of eschatology confused them. Why would the temple be destroyed; was animal sacrifice not to be in place forever? They could not see that Jesus would abolish animal sacrifice by his own death. The temple would not be needed anymore. In their ignorance, they asked Jesus a three-part question. Verse 24:3 says, “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this [the destruction of the temple] happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” To them, the destruction of the temple, the coming of Jesus, and the end of the age were all one event. One of the complexities of interpreting Matthew 24 is whether Jesus is describing the destruction of the physical temple, which happened about 40 years later in A.D. 70 by the Romans, or something beyond that. Most likely, he is talking about both: the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 was a dress rehearsal or a type of the big future destruction. Verse 37 contains a key eschatological principle that I teach consistently: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Dress rehearsals of eschatological events have been through history and will continue to be repeated, but the big events are yet to come. Perhaps the clearest and most relevant of these has to do with the “antichrist”. “Anti-” means substitute Christ, or instead of Christ. The Apostle John is the only one who used that term, in 1 and 2 John, referring to the “spirit of the Antichrist.” But the teaching of the Antichrist is found in Daniel 7 and 11, 2 Thessalonians 2, and other places with different terms. 1 John 2:18 says “… you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.” In other words, first many antichrists will come, and then the one final Antichrist will come. John does not preclude the final Antichrist by acknowledging false teachers and political leaders but rather predicts him. Jesus says the same in verses 4-5: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” They will perform signs and wonders and do many things to deceive people and draw them away. The Antichrist, as we will see in Revelation 13, has two aspects: a political/military/police state that applies laws with military force, and a false religious aspect. Throughout history we have seen military leaders who use their powerful, governmental position to persecute the church, and religious leaders who establish self-referential cults of followers who worship them. Both embody the spirit of Antichrist. There have been and will be many small antichrists who will never be known outside of their small spheres of influence — big fish in small ponds. They dominate small flocks of people by extorting them and taking advantage of them materially, sexually and other ways. There have been and will be ones who are well-known who start world religions with great success. All of those will be consolidated in the end into one person. In the same way that wicked leaders like Hitler, Stalin, or Mao or others have used their power to crush the church, there will be one in the end who will have far more power than any of them ever had. He will demand to be worshiped worldwide. Uncertain Signs of the End Jesus goes on to talk about general sufferings that happen in every generation. He says “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars… famines, and earthquakes in various places.” [verses 6-7] That is general language, We could add hurricanes, natural disasters, and such. They will continue to happen. “All these are the beginning of birth pains,” [verse 8]. Worse birth pains will come later, as we are reading about in the book of Revelation. There will be specific suffering for the people of God all the way through. We will be betrayed and hated and persecuted by various peoples in various places. This has been happening and will continue to happen, but it has all been dress rehearsal thus far. The worst is yet to come. Matthew 24:14 & 37 reveals the one overarching task: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come… As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” In the days before the flood, what was Noah doing? Building an ark, a place of safety and refuge to flee the coming flood. We are building an ark as well, a spiritual one. It is the universal Church through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We preach this Gospel as a testimony to all nations. Everyone will hear about this Gospel. That is the work we are doing. Run for Your Lives What are the specific signs that have to do with the end of the world? “‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’” Jesus answers this question in verses 15-20: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel — let the reader understand — then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.” He is warning those living in Judea and Jerusalem that when they see the abomination of desolation that Daniel talked about, they should run for their lives. This is likely about both the destruction of the temple in A.D 70 and an event at the end of the world. Christian Jews living in Jerusalem in 70 A.D who were seeing the destruction of the temple should run. The Greek word for flight in verse 20 is fuge, from which we get fugitive or refugee. You hope that it will not be winter when the weather would slow you down. You hope you are not pregnant such that your physical condition would slow you down. You do not have time to go get a cloak or anything else. Jesus does not say what you are running from, what makes you run for your life, but Revelation 12 does. You are running from the devil, the red dragon. Revelation 13 says at the human level, you are running from the Beast from the Sea and his forces. Revelation 12:6 says, “The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1260 days.” The woman will be protected in the desert for a set amount of time, 1260 days. Revelation 12:13-14 says, “When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time out of the serpents reach.” The human catalyst for flight will be the Beast from the Sea. It is not easy to follow a linear pattern of teaching on this; I have already jumped ahead in Revelation. Jesus says in verse 15 to read the book of Daniel; he urges the reader to understand. Do you have wisdom and understanding to get what Daniel is saying? You must combine Daniel’s words with understanding current events. It is not only in the text of Scripture. We are to look around, wait, and try to understand whether we see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not to be. If so, then either those living in Jerusalem should run, or that is when the clock starts counting 1260 days. Revelation 13:1, 5-7: “And the dragon stood on the shore of the Sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name… The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. [Three and a half years.] He opened his mouth to blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.” People will run for their lives, but many lives will be forfeit. The “Abomination of Desolation” The abomination of desolation, which we will study more next week, is mentioned three times in Daniel. In Daniel 9:27, in the middle of this complex teaching about chronology and 70 weeks, Daniel tells us that “he” —a person of authority — will confirm a covenant with many for one seven — one “week” or symbolic for a seven-year period.“In the middle of the ‘seven’ [three and a half] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple, [NIV adds the word “temple” from a complex phrase in the original — on the wing of something] he will set up [erect or build in the Hebrew] an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” Daniel 11:31 speaks of a Greek king as a foretaste of the final Antichrist: “His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress [clear reference to a physical temple] and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation.” Further, Daniel 12:11 says, “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days.” There is another piece to the puzzle: 1260, plus 30 days. Something is set up in a place where sacrifice is offered. In Daniel 11:31, it is definitely a temple. In Old Testament prophetic language, the word abomination typically refers to idols and is commonly used to indicate something that is utterly repulsive to God. It is an idol that is connected to desolation. The NIV and other translations say abomination that causes desolation. I prefer what the actual text says, which is “abomination of desolation.” Desolation is emptiness. My dad, who was a real technology buff, would often say the phrase “nature abhors a vacuum.” If there is a momentary vacuum, something will be pulled in to fill the empty space. Jesus, talking about his exorcism ministry in Matthew 12:43-45, says, “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, [Empty. Desolate.] swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” After Jesus died and ascended to heaven, Israel was like a vacuum. There was an emptiness, a desolation, that allowed demons to flood back in. This eventually led to the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. But at that time, there was no idol set up that everyone worshiped. Titus, the Roman general who was to destroy the temple, did not want it burned, Josephus tells us. He tried to put the fire out; he wanted it saved. Gentiles in the Holy of Holies in that event does not line up with the level of significance of the abomination desolation. There is a greater desecration yet to come. In 2 Thessalonians 2:4, the Apostle Paul says the man of sin who is to come “will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” That is not apocalyptic; that is Paul making a prediction of the future. The end will come after that occurs. There must be a temple called God’s temple that this individual will set himself up in. I part ways with dispensational premillennialism and other similar teaching on this point. That theological scheme proposes a separate track for the church in Israel in which God in some way is delighted with the re-establishment of the animal sacrificial system for the Jewish nation in particular. I say an absolute, resounding NO to that. The Book of Hebrews makes it clear that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, that Jesus put an end to animal sacrifice. When he died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, ending the animal sacrificial system forever as a God-blessed way to approach God. He will not accept the blood of animals ever again. It is an insult to his son to suggest otherwise. But that does not mean it will not happen, or that the unbelieving Jewish nation does not want a physical temple rebuilt. The Jews who go to Jerusalem to wail at the wall are praying for the temple to be rebuilt. There is a mosque there now, but the Antichrist will have the ability to clear away any hindrance. We can hardly imagine how but we are heading toward one world religion, which will focus on him. A penultimate stepping stone of the end is the re-establishment of the Jewish animal sacrificial system. In the middle of the final seven years, he will stop animal sacrifices to God and focus everything on himself. That is the abomination of desolation. Revelation 13 speaks of an idol that the false profit sets up that everyones is supposed to worship; why not there? The Final Persecution When you see something like that, run for your life. Verses 21-22 say, “For then there will be great distress, [“a Great Tribulation” in KJV] unequaled from the beginning of the world until now — and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” That language goes far beyond anything that the Roman soldiers did in 70 A.D., trouble unequaled from the beginning of the world. If you want to understand trouble that has never been seen on earth, read in Revelation about how a third of the oceans turn to blood, a third of the fish die, a third of the plants and trees burn up, a third of the fresh water becomes undrinkable. Those events have never been seen in history. When you see those kinds of things happen, you know the end is near. After that, Christ returns. The Second Coming Matthew 24:27 says “As lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” The Son of Man had not returned as of 70 A.D. But these events are leading up to the Second Coming of Christ, and it will be obvious and glorious, like lightning flashing across the sky. Faith will be needed no more, and thus neither will salvation. Matthew 24:29-31, “Immediately after the distress of those days, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ [The book of Revelation] At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Studying Current Events Jesus said, “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know, that it [or he] is near, right at the door.” We are supposed to look at current events. As we head toward fall, the leaves are changing, the temperatures are cooler, the days are shorter. It is a beautiful time. You do not need to wonder whether the new season is approaching. Jesus says the same thing. The Jews being re-established in 1948 is not enough; it is only one of many more signs that need to be in place. Be Ready and Active Doing the Lord’s Will What should we do about all this? Jesus, at the end of Matthew 24, says work hard to be ready at any moment. In verses 44-46, he says, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so or doing the right thing when he returns.” Be busy building a spiritual ark by preaching the Gospel. Help people get ready to find a place of refuge when judgment comes. The church should be using God-given spiritual gifts — hospitality, teaching, preaching, administration, helps — doing our work so that the elect can be saved and built up in their faith and the church can be strengthened until the Lord returns. It is not for us to know the days or times the Father has set by His own authority. One generation will be allowed to know exactly when these things will happen but we are not there yet, so our job is to continue to prepare faithfully. Applications These Future Things Will Come True! First and most important, run to Christ. God sent his Son as the Savior for the world. There is no other way that our sins can be cleansed but by the blood of Jesus. We do not know the exact time of the end, nor the exact time of our death. Has the Lord promised you tomorrow? You do not know if you will be alive tomorrow. While you have time, flee to Christ. You do not need to do any good works for the forgiveness of your sins, just believe in Jesus. Cast your sins on him. Thank him that he died under the wrath of God, under the law, for your sins. Be Aware of and Expect the Suffering Essential to Salvation If you are already converted, Jesus says be ready, be active, be busy doing the Lord’s work, be focused on what He has called you to do. Be aware of the suffering that we have yet to go through. Jesus said these are just the beginning of birth pains. It will ramp up greatly, so be willing to suffer for the gospel now, here in America, to share the Gospel with a co-worker or a fellow student or a total stranger; be willing to suffer a snarling face, rudeness, walking away or possibly being fired. Be faithful to share the gospel, be praying that the Lord would come and bring his Kingdom. Be ready as God has called us to do. Closing Prayer Lord, thank you for the time we have had to study and for the complexity and beauty of your Word. It is not easy to put all of these things together, but help us to be clear, to understand what is coming, to be ready, to realize we are surrounded by people who do not believe the Bible at all. Some people say they do not believe in an invisible spiritual world or life after death. They think they will simply cease to exist when they die. They do not know that after death comes judgment. God, I pray that you would help us to be faithful to share, to do our good works to encourage one another and build each other up in the body. Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.