No, The Bogeyman Isn't Here Yet...

Something was happening as New Year's Eve was approaching. With Christmas just gone, all of a sudden people were being much nicer to each other. There is a far greater sense of neighbourliness in both city and township street residences, along with among village populations. Debts, many outstanding, were at long last settled. Other creditors who knew full well that they would never be repaid, forgave them who owed large sums. 

Prisoners were released from their cells and pardoned for their crimes. Even among farmers, their livestock was let out of their pens and allowed to wander freely across fields and meadows. Even strangers who would have merely passed each other while going about their business stopped to greet each other and asked about their health and welfare. But most important of all, any disputes or disagreements were quickly settled.

As evening drew in, everyone became more and more nervous. The hours ticked away. Presently, the churches began to fill up. And in Rome, the Basilica San Pietro was also beginning to fill up. As midnight approached, the huge, cavernous cathedral was crammed full of people. Five minutes to midnight. The Pope stood at the altar, holding up a huge consecrated Host he had taken out of the monstrance which stood in front of him. I would not be at all surprised that this holding up of the Host over the altar was repeated simultaneously in nearly all the churches in the Western world.

Basilica San Pietro, Rome.

As midnight struck, the Pope kept the Host held up high. Then the clock stopped ticking. The ensuing silence was broken by screams issuing from several mouths among the huge congregation packing the church building. In addition, two or three people suddenly died of fright whilst lying prostrate in expectation.

As the rest of the congregation waited expectantly, the silence continued. It was after a period of time of several minutes after midnight that a general sense of relief began to settle among the people. The service was able to continue and huge droves of people lined up to receive their Communion. Their biggest fear, their moment of terror, had finally passed. Judgement Day was not to be.

And so much of the events which brought to end December 31st, AD 999 and the ushering in of January 1st, AD 1000. The start of New Year, a new Century, and a new Millennium. This threefold beginning of multiple time periods simultaneously on one stroke of the clock was not to occur again for another one thousand years - that is, during my day.

And so, after nearly two decades into the third Millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ, I sat next to Dr Andrew Milnthorpe at a midweek lunchtime meeting at the Kerith Centre, the local Baptist church in our hometown of Bracknell. A strong friendship exists between us, despite that he is a dedicated Brexiter, while I'm a committed Remainer. And we both know where each of us stands.

It has been a very tumultuous week in Parliament. With MPs casting one vote after another on whether we should leave the EU with or without a deal, and the likelihood of a delay in leaving should the PM's deal be rejected again, much uncertainty is felt in the air over our nation. It was because of this when I turned to my friend to ask why he was so dedicated to leaving the European Union.

His answer was that he longed for the sovereignty of our country, with our own laws including border control. His opinion parallels the Daily Mail journalist Richard Littlejohn who, in his column, wrote that by now, after nearly three years since the referendum, we should be on our way to a glorious future, on the road paved with gold to economic and national glory, but then laments that due to the effect of Remainers in Parliament, we are instead left in political turmoil, even threatening Brexit altogether, despite our economy doing well at the moment.

In referral to the 400-year existence of the former British Empire, which invaded other lands and subjugated their indigenous populations under its rule, I asked my PhD friend whether this all boils down to the UK wanting to be its own boss and saying to the rest of the world, and to Europe in particular, do what I tell you, not what I do. He basically confirmed this, and then mentioned that during the Wars, there were many who gave their lives for our nation. To which I replied:

Those brave soldiers gave their lives to free us from Nazi oppression, and not from integration into the EU.

Perhaps I should have gone on to explain that the whole purpose of the European Union is to keep the threatening rise of the neo-Nazi movement across Europe under restraint. As it was since the 2016 referendum result was announced, there was a spike of anti-immigration and xenophobic violence in our cities. As long as Darwin's evolutionary theories continue to be expounded across the Media, in schools and colleges, the rise of white supremacy is inevitable. And so was the case just a couple of days ago, when the lunatic Brenton Tarrant shot and killed 49 Muslims at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. He himself boasted of being a white supremacist, unwittingly following the philosophy of Charles Darwin and his cousin Sir Francis Dalton as well as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis to the letter.

An English Defence League demo in Newcastle.

My doctor friend also raised his concern that the EU is linked to the End Days of human history when the coming Antichrist described in Revelation 13 and other portions of Scripture will arise and rule from Europe, whether it will be from Brussels or from Rome. He then named another person in his church who we both knew well, and who apparently believed in the Dispensational worldview of End-Time Prophecy, or Estachology as it's also known by. It was this third person who persuaded Andrew to vote to leave the EU.

During my former years prior to marrying Alex, I was very enthusiastic about this End-Time branch of theology. Yet what I find rather amazing is ever since the Reformation during the 16th Century, the idea of the Pope of Rome as the Antichrist was universally held in all Protestant churches. That was until a 19th Century Plymouth Brethren theologian by the name of John Darby, who first conceived the concept of Dispensationalism, with the idea of the restoration of Israel as a sovereign nation, the Church Raptured or translated into Heaven, the revival of the Roman Empire with the European Union as its forerunner, the rise of the Antichrist, the seven-year Great Tribulation which ends with the Second Advent of Christ to reign in Jerusalem.

Sceptic Reformers believe that John Darby was attempting to free the Pope from bearing the label Antichrist by inventing a future political leader who will reign immediately before the Return of Christ. However, it was Cyrus Scofield who, after taking in Darby's theology on board, produced The Scofield Bible. This was by means which The Dallas Theological Seminary was founded. One of its tutors, the late Dr John R. Rice, was renowned for winning souls to Christ and founded The Sword of the Lord publishing company in Tennessee. Through one of his books, False Doctrines Answered from the Scriptures, which I still have, he became my distant mentor, who laid the foundations to believe in the Dispensationalist worldview.

I have books written by Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Norman Robertson, and the late Dave Hunt, all supporting Dispensationalist theology, and all agreeing that Israel will be restored into a sovereign nation with Jerusalem itself being "a Cup of Trembling" to its enemies, the Rapture of the Church to Heaven and the Return of Christ after a brief reign of Antichrist. But looking back, I now believe that my sense of little worth as a window cleaner in comparison to that of a computer programmer (of which are many in our church), along with remaining single while others of my age are already grandparents, has resulted, rightly or wrongly, in my belief in Dispensationalism as my emotional and psychological support.

With Hal Lindsey writing The Late Great Planet Earth, which was followed by lesser-known books such as The 1980s Countdown to Armageddon, and The Terminal Generation, alongside Robertson's Understanding End-Time Prophecy, all indicating that the closeness of the coming third Millennium will usher in God's Kingdom at the same time or even earlier. For example, Robertson's insistence that the Russian Premier Mikail Gorbachev will rush his armies into Israel to plunder Jerusalem during the early 1990s, in fulfilment of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, has severely damaged my sense of reliability towards various interpretations of Darby's End-Time popular theology by making the whole study looking thoroughly stupid!

But the idea of the European Union as the forerunner of the Revived Roman Empire from which the Antichrist will rise to reign briefly looks to me to be advocated by fellow-Christians who has voted to leave the EU. My friend Andrew seems to be one of those Christians, but I have spoken to other believers who voted to leave, also upholding the theory. However, it does not mean that I myself believe that the European Union is the forerunner of the coming Revived Roman Empire. It might be true, but equally, it might not at all be true. At present, I have my doubts, but I won't rule out the possibility entirely. Rather, I wish to keep an open mind on this matter.

However, I do believe in the restoration of the sovereignty of Israel (having visited the Holy Land several times already) and that God will deal specifically with the Jews after the Church is first removed. It's the Covenant made by God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It's a covenant of grace, unconditional to any human act. If God's Abrahamic Covenant is already annulled because of Israel's sinfulness, then how can I rely on the Covenant of Grace for salvation, established by the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection of the Son of God? In spite of this, there are many things I do not understand about various details of this coming Kingdom. For example, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the practice of daily sacrifices. Why is that necessary if Jesus Christ has already atoned for all sin, once for all time, by dying on a cross and rising from the grave three days later?

However, I don't have to rely on Darby's theological worldview, nor on Scofield's Bible to draw on any conclusions, but on Holy Scripture itself. And much of the Bible's emphasis is placed on God's Abrahamic Covenant. Jeremiah's prophecies seem to endorse this, particularly when reading chapters 30 and 31, especially Jeremiah 31:35-37. If God's Covenant to Israel is eternal, so is the Covenant of Grace to the Church, the beautiful Bride of Christ, is also eternal. This wonderful truth allows me to believe in the possibility of the Rapture, or Translation of all believers to Heaven before the rise of Antichrist. Many, including me, believe that the Rapture is necessary in order for God to purify Israel before her King arrives to take up his father David's throne in Jerusalem.

Western Wall, Jerusalem - taken 1994.

But whether the European Union is the forerunner of the revived Roman Empire, I don't think it's anyone to decide. It stands as a possibility. On the other hand, present-day Europe may have nothing to do with this upcoming empire. If anything, if the UK is successful in leaving the EU, whether it'll be March 29th, the end of June, or in the next two years, this would go against the idea of being the forerunner of the Revived Roman Empire. And as far as I'm aware, Italy is favourable in leaving, as well as Hungary, if I have got that right.

The Rapture - Isaiah 26:19-21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 - if it occurs in our lifetimes, will be a terrifying event to all those left behind. The sudden vanishing of so many people all at once could stir up a belief in an extraterrestrial superpower, against which nobody can defend themselves, snatching people to another planet, so it might be believed, to serve as slaves. This universal feeling of terror could unite Europe into a formidable force with a leader who will insist in the UK rejoining and to intercede with this superpower against the possibility of another bout of snatching away. This could be part of the "strong delusion" sent by God to the disobedient whom Paul wrote about in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. 

No matter how near or far from the truth this scenario will be, one thing I do know, and that is, it's all in God's hands. As I sat at Starbucks with one of our Elders, as both of us are Remainers, we agreed on one important issue. And that being in the European Union will make it easier for the Gospel to spread, without the need to navigate difficult borderlines.

Don't Panic! It's Not That Bad!

It's December 31, AD 999. Across the land, jitters are intensifying. Already, especially since Christmas Day, shops began to sell their merchandise at a cheaper price. Neighbours who in the past squabbled over property and land territorial rights were far more amicable to each other, with those readily in the right to allow the other to have his way, even giving him more of his land if he wants it. Convicted criminals were let out of prison and allowed to wander freely, perhaps even receiving offers of hospitality and food. Even sheep and cattle were let out of their pens, and allowed to wonder freely.  

As the day wore on, everyone looked at each other nervously, as well as scanning the sky, looking for any abnormality seen in the heavens. Shops no longer charged for their wares, people in the streets greeted each other like lost relatives reuniting. People gathered in homes, huddling each other. Long-standing disputes were put aside or forgotten as they try to perceive their future fate for eternity.

Meanwhile in Rome, people started to assemble into the cavernous expanse of  Basilica di San Pietro, at the Vatican, the headquarters of the Church. As midnight approached, the Bishop of Rome held up the giant Host, taken from the Monstrance located above the Altar. The clock struck twelve, followed by a deep silence, and then the clock suddenly stopped. Two or three people in the assembly screamed, one or two others died from shock on the spot. As the seconds turned into minutes, the otherwise silent vigil continued. Gradually a sense of relief began to be felt among the congregation as further minutes into January 1, AD 1000 elapsed with no further supernatural incidents. No legions of flying angels filling the air, none of the stars falling from heaven, no crashing thunder outside, no flashes of lightning, no earthquakes, no sign of the basilica splitting in two, no sign of the floor opening up to swallow them up. It was over - a good example of "Whoops, not this time!"

The Basilica of St. Peter, Vatican City.

Of course, the general belief of the world ending at midnight of December 31, 999 could well have been common back then, as the ushering in of a new Millennium was perceived as a milestone of Christian history. Then wind forward nearly another thousand years and the same enigma happens yet again, only with less drama and panic, but with a whole lot of new books on sale at bookshops and even for hire at local libraries. A new phenomenon, I would say referred to as the Rapture Generation began to fill the minds of many evangelical Christians. And I was one of them, who believed at the time that my remaining days on Earth were numbered. It was due to Cyrus Ingerson Scofield who, at the beginning of the 20th Century, produced the Scofield Bible with its emphasis on Dispensationalism, together with the certainty of the Rapture, or Translation into heaven of every dead believer in Christ, immediately followed by every believer still alive at that moment.

The consequence of such thinking led to wild speculations among popular literature. For example, former NASA engineer and Bible student Edgar C. Whisenant believed that the Rapture will occur in 1988, and wrote a book, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988, itself published in 1988. However, his was not entirely original. In 1970, Hal Lindsey had his book published by Zondervan: The Late Great Planet Earth. A few years later, Lindsey released another book, The 1980's Countdown to Armageddon, along with The Terminal Generation. Both these books advocated that the 1980's is actually the very last decade of human history as we know it, and the Rapture will occur sometime before 1990. Following the Lindsey publications, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins wrote a series of fiction, Left Behind, first published in 1995, which is based on the aftermath of the Rapture, and these books has even been made into four movies. Also Norman Robertson's book, Understanding End-Time Prophecy, published in 1989 by Sovereign World Publishers, has Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev leading a massive army on horseback towards Jerusalem, in fulfilment of Ezekiel chapter 38. In reality, Gorbachev's presidency ended in 1991 with no further ado.

And so, where is Scriptural backing for the Rapture? I am aware of three references: Isaiah 26:19-21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. A less direct reference could be John 14:1-4. It is these verses that convinced me of the reality of a future Rapture of the Church to Heaven, marking the beginning of the end of human history as we know it. And anyone well acquainted with Holy Scripture will realise that a phenomenon of this kind has happened before in history - twice in fact. The first was the translation to heaven of Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam (Genesis 5:21-24) - an incident which verity was endorsed by the writer of Hebrews 11:5. The second occurrence was with Elijah, recorded in 2 Kings 2:1-18, with quite a spectacular angelic display for Elisha's benefit and endorsement of his successor's ministry to Israel.

So with such references direct from Scripture, throughout the seventies, I became a fervent believer in the Rapture of the Saints to heaven, and with C. I. Scofield's Dispensationalist theology as a backing, I took in Hal Lindsey's prophecies, together with Norman Robertson's and others as authoritative. But time beats on. December 31, 1999 came and went, and into the New Millennium normal life beats on with no divine intervention or supernatural signs in the skies. But my belief in a future Rapture has remained firm. The difference is, that the most safe attitude I can take is knowing that such an event is imminent - it will occur suddenly, completely without any expectation. But we don't know when. As far as we know, it could be another thousand years. This is something only God knows, and him alone. As far as I'm aware, there has been much anxiety over the decades over literally nothing. Life beats on, unhindered.

The Rapture of all the Saints

And exactly the same applies to this day. The Daily Mail newspaper is at panic mode when polls suggest a loss of lead for the Conservative Party at the election manifestos. It does look as if Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has gained some popularity. So this has put the frights up the Right-leaning national newspaper, as it makes every effort to demonise Corbyn whenever he hesitates slightly during any of the tough interviews he has to go through. This is because of a threat of higher taxes on demand from this private enterprise, as the Labour manifesto has promised higher taxes from larger corporations such as The Daily Mail newspaper. But on the contrary, if any uncertainty was shown by Conservative Theresa May, especially on the major issue of immigration, such shortcomings are quickly covered up. Today, an article appeared in the essay pages, which is a very panicky two-page report comparing the future of Britain under Jeremy Corbyn's administration to that of the failed socialist administration of President Nicolas Maduro over Venezuela. The article was written by The Daily Mail journalist Robert Hardman on the 2nd June, which was yesterday, a Friday following the Bank Holiday weekend. His article describes the disastrous political and economical failure of a socialist Government while he was staying at the country's capital, Caracas. Hardman warns that if Corbyn wins this coming election, Britain would end up like Venezuela.

This topic has brought up various issues here. Really, I have to ask: Does The Daily Mail really think that the English are so damned stupid and gullible, that they believe everything they read? Here I'm defending the intelligence and integrity of my own countrymen here in the UK. It looks to me that there is a certain level of dishonesty here in this debate. First of all, even if after Corbyn and his party does take over Government, there is no way that any socialist policy would consolidate into a Communistic regime and economic environment in any resemblance to Venezuela. After all, this South American country is a Republic, with President Maduro, an active politician, as supreme Head of State. By contrast, the UK is a Kingdom, under a Monarchical Head of State. As long as we remain under such a system, any chance of the UK taking even a short step closer to Venezuela is practically impossible. 

With the Queen and the Royal Family, the very political, social, and economic fabric of the nation will always remain stable. And it's extremely unlikely that any coup to overthrow the Royal Family from power by Corbyn would ever happen! And that despite even if a large percentage of Britons are leaning towards Republicanism. After all, consider the decade long administration of Labour Tony Blair as Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007. Did we shift towards Communism? Or for that matter, when we were under Jim Callaghan before Margaret Thatcher was voted in. Or even Harold Wilson's Labour administration before that. Not forgetting Clement Atlees's introduction of the NHS into the UK soon after the War. All were Labour ministers. And yet, in spite of such history, the newspaper continues to spread such nonsense and fear of a future Labour Party apocalypse. 

However, there is another issue here, and one serious enough to question the trustworthiness of the Daily Mail national newspaper. It was by simple observation and background checking of various sources from which these newspaper journalists quote from. And I couldn't have reeled in a bigger fish than in an article written by Stephen Glover just a few weeks ago. Glover accused fiction novelist, Julian Barnes, a Remainer, of deceit and dirty tricks towards Brexit voters by accusing the newspaper of neglecting the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, by relegating the news to a minor article found thirty pages within the newspaper. Instead, Barnes actually wrote that the conviction of Jo Cox's killer Thomas Lair was featured in the minor article, and not of the murder itself. These are two separate events. The murder took place on June 16, 2016. The conviction took place over five months later, on 23rd November, 2016. Barnes was referring to the conviction of the killer, not on the murder itself, as Glover insists by deliberately misquoting.

Learning about this has put a very serious dent in my trust at the newspaper's accuracy and authenticity. It has never been quite the same. The newspaper has demonstrated its right-wing bias to such an intensity, that I no longer trust it as a reliable source of knowledge, especially on political issues.

And so another question has arisen on this latest article by The Daily Mail reporter Robert Hardman. Reading what he says about a social disaster in South America, he wrote his report while he was staying at Caracas, Venezuela's capital. And he wrote it on the Friday 2nd June. That was yesterday, five days after writing a report on Sunday 28th May that his week-long family holiday to Greece, meant to start on Saturday 27th May, was ruined by the crashing of all British Airways computers, apparently by a power cut. So, under the insistence of his children, the flight was rebooked to "later in the week" - with a hint that it would be two days later, that is, Monday the 29th. Even though he would "spend a day or two" swimming with his family in Greece, to end up in Venezuela by Friday looks to me as cutting it too far to the quick. Not only that, but according to his own testimony, by Friday June 2nd, he should still be with his family in Greece, which coincides with the school half-term break. He wasn't meant to fly back home until today - Saturday June 3rd. After all, he was still in the UK when he wrote another report about his inability to collect his luggage at the airport until he posed as a foreigner from overseas. And this was written on the 29th May, which was Bank Holiday Monday. This led me to being confused over the authenticity of the Venezuela article. Assuming that they flew to Greece somewhat midweek, to return home today - I read that he was in Venezuela yesterday. Pardon me if I seem rather thick, but it looks as though the facts doesn't add up.

No Tie. Robert Hardman at Airport on 27/5/2017

Was Robert Harding in Venezuela yesterday when he should have been in Greece still? That is the confusing part. The only two plausible scenarios are, either he did not fly to Greece with his family at all, but sometime midweek, possibly on Tuesday or Wednesday, he flew alone to Venezuela from London. The alternative, which I consider to be less likely, is that two or three days before the end of his holiday, Harding was told by The Daily Mail to either fly back to London for a connecting flight to Venezuela, or even fly direct to South America from Greece, thus fulfilling his own prophecy of "one or two days swim" which appeared in his first report. Whichever way, this whole shenanigan looks very iffy. It beggars credibility.

To be committed to a cause can be virtuous in itself. Going back to the authors of popular books on eschatology (study on end time prophecy), I believe that they were sincere in what they believed in. But they all had to resort to speculation on when the Rapture will happen. The reality is, not only have they discredited the historical truth of the Bible, but they have lost all credibility themselves. In other words, they can no longer be trusted with handling Biblical revelation. Just as it is dangerous to one's own credibility to attempt to date the end times after the Bible specifically instructs us not to do so (Acts 1:6-8). So also, pushing fear and anxiety over an election manifesto by lying discredits the newspaper, and makes it untrustworthy of a source of political knowledge.

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You can read in greater detail on how newspaper journalist Stephen Glover has deliberately misquoted Julian Barnes in order to defend Brexit by clicking here

"Christ Will Be Coming Back." Whoops!

There is a story of a farmer milking his cows one Sunday morning when a church vicar who was walking past the farm, paused and called out,
"Christ will be coming back!"
He then walked on, without saying anything else, towards his church to prepare for that morning's service.

Not long after the service had began, the vicar spotted the farmer, now changed into clean clothes, sitting at one of the pews, listening to the sermon. Afterwards, the farmer was asked what brought him here.
"When you reminded me that Jesus will be coming back, I wouldn't had wanted him to catch me milking cows when I should be at church, would I?"

And so says the Scripture:
But you know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:2b-3.

The Second Coming of Christ, nowadays a belief held by nutters and crackpots - as the secular world regards fundamental Christians, or "fundies" as they are often known by. And little wonder. If the idea of supernatural creation has been robbed of any element of truth and relegated to that of a crackpot belief held by nutters and fundies, it would be of no surprise that any idea of the return of Christ would be regarded in the same manner. Just as Peter predicted:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."
2 Peter 3:3-4.

By reading the above quote, it becomes obvious that supernatural creation is intrinsically linked to the Return of Christ. To admit one is to admit the other. To deny one also denies the other. And so the idea of supernatural creation keeps on getting stabbed in the back. At present, we are about halfway through a series of programmes broadcast on the BBC, Planet Dinosaur where the theory of evolution is "proved" over and over again. Last week we watched on the development of feathers on one species of dinosaur, allowing it to glide from tree to tree in order to catch its prey. Evolutionists then declared that by fossil evidence our modern bird species are direct descendants of these gliding lizards. Divine creation doesn't stand a chance!

Then just today, the Mail on Sunday carried it front page headline, the BBC is to jettison the initials BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini) out of political correctness, i.e. that these initials are offensive to other faiths. These will be replaced by the BBC with BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era). The scoffers, by winning the heart of such a worldwide broadcaster, had certainly won a victory.

The second coming of Christ had always been a topic of great interest to me, ever since the 1970s, when I found myself in discussions with some Jehovah's Witnesses on this subject. The Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses published books on prophecy with movable dates. When that particular day in human history came and went, it wasn't a case of "Whoops, not this time" but clear proof, so they said, that the Society is constantly revising and improving on their creeds as the Lord hands down more and more revelation from his "heavenly table." As such, the Society remains unblemished.

Aside from all this, my keen interest on the Second Coming has its beginnings in the 1970s. This became a study known as Eschatology (knowledge of last things). This subject certainly peaked in sales at Christian bookshops within the last thirty years of the Twentieth Century, when a new Millennium was about to dawn. I have books written on the Last Things by quite a number of authors. These include:

Hal Lindsey: Late Great Planet Earth
Hal Lindsey: The 1980s Countdown to Armageddon
Hal Lindsey: The Terminal Generation
Hal Lindsey: There's A New World Coming

Hal Lindsey

Dr. De Hann: The Jew and Palestine in Prophecy.
Tim LaHaye: The Beginning of the End
Norman Robertson: Understanding End Time Prophecy
Salem Kirban: 666
Dave Hunt: How Close Are We?
Dave Hunt: Global Peace
Dave Hunt: Occult Invasion
Dave Hunt: The Cup of Trembling
Dave Hunt: A Woman Rides The Beast

More than a dozen books written by six different authors line my bookshelf, each either dealing directly with Eschatology or have some reference to it. And all agreeing with each other, one can call as truth the Pre-Trib Rapture and the Second Coming, two future events with the seven-year Tribulation period, dominated by the rule of the future Antichrist, in between. So to lay out the chronology of the Last Things as expounded by these authors, we get something like this:

1. Church Age (present)
2. Rapture of the Church (future, and on from there)
3. First 42 months after Rapture: Tribulation, Rise of the Antichrist.
4. Second 42 months: Reign of Antichrist, Great Tribulation. Total: 84 months or seven Hebrew years.
5. The Second Coming of Christ, Antichrist destroyed, wicked judged.
6. Establishment of Christ Kingdom on Earth, reigning from Jerusalem for a thousand years (hence Millennium). Israel to be the chief nation of the whole planet.
7. Final Rebellion.
8. Last Judgement.
9. Re-creation of God's eternal Kingdom.

It is important to note that the nation of Israel must be fully established before Christ can come back to reign. I believe it was first, the establishing of Israel as a nation once again in 1948 after approximately 2,530 years of non-existence - a phenomenon no other nation can claim. And secondly the winding up of the twentieth Century with the onset of the 21st Century and also the third millennium which resulted in "end-time prophecy mania" which hit the Christian bookshelf.

I for one, fully believe in a pre-Trib, Pre-Mill Rapture. But I want to base my belief in it on what the Bible has to say on it, not merely on authors' verifications, even if there is agreement between them all. First, 1 Thessalonians says this:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
4:16-18).

Also read Isaiah 26:16 to 27:6. Don't let the chapter break throw you. It is one passage, as it has been for the first two thousand years after it was written. The whole of Eschatology can be contained here, in a nutshell.
Breaking it down, it says first, that Israel as a nation mourns over its own history, 26:16-18.

Then the "dust of the earth gives up the dead, verse 19.
The living told to "Go, hide themselves from the wrath to come, verses 20, 21. Where they are told to hide cannot be on this planet because they could still be found by someone. This "hiding away" must be a heavenly transfer. Note that first, the dead is raised. Secondly the living saints disappear. This tallies exactly with Paul's version in his letter to the church in Thessaloniki.

27:1, Judgement of Leviathan, tallying with Revelation 20:1-3.
27:2-6, Christ's Kingdom established, as with Revelation 20:4-6.

So there is a Biblical reason on why I believe in a pre-Trib Rapture. But how did this teaching develop? Actually it comes as a surprise that some Calvinists reject this branch of Eschatology altogether. It is believed that during the Reformation started by Martin Luther and endorsed by John Calvin, many Christians who began to read and understand the Bible for themselves soon discovered that the Great Whore of Babylon of Revelation 17 was the Roman Catholic Church with its Pope as Antichrist. Both Luther and Calvin believed this, as did their followers. The Reformation, as a result, denounced the Church of Rome as counterfeit Christianity.

It was in 1590 that Jesuit Francisco Ribera, in order to protect the Papacy from these accusations, formulated the pre-Trib Rapture and the rise of Antichrist as something deep in the future. As a result, the Pope was seen as innocent from the accusations aimed at him by the Protestants. Ribera formulated a doctrine which is known by present theologians as Premillennialism.

Ribera's thesis was taken up by Cardinal Bellarmine, the same individual who convinced the scientist Galileo that the Earth could not possibly orbit the Sun. Also, Edward Irving, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, also accepted Ribera's thesis as authentic, therefore also shielding the Pope from being the beast riding the whore of Revelation chapter 17.

A leader of the Plymouth Brethren, lawyer James Darby also accepted the views of Ribera, Bellarmine and Irvine, and developed the doctrine of Dispensationalism, which features the Rapture, Tribulation, the rise and reign of the Antichrist and the Second coming of Christ, followed by his reign from Jerusalem. I feel it is necessary to expound exactly what dispensationalism is, for the reader who is not acquainted with theology or church history and teachings. In a nutshell, I could describe the dispensation system, which means that human history is divided by a series of dispensations, or time periods which were defined by James Darby. They are as follows:

1. The age of Innocence - Adam and Eve
2. The age of Conscience - from the Fall of Adam to the Flood.
3. The age of Human Government - from the Flood to Abraham.
4. The age of the Promise - from Abraham to the Exodus.
5. The age of the Law - from Mt Sinai to the death of Christ.
6. The age of Grace (Church Age)- from the Resurrection to the Rapture.
7. The age of the Kingdom - from the Second coming to the end of history.

In 1909 Cyrus Scofield published his Scofield Bible, based on Darby's work, which became central to most American seminaries. So, according to some Calvinists, the doctrine of Dispensationalism was from a Jesuit, Francisco Ribera, exonerating the Papacy from Protestant's accusations of being the Great Whore of Babylon.

The Church of Rome - exonerated from the Reformer's accusations.

There are Christians who will believe that the seven time periods are simply too many, and argue that there were only two, Law and Grace. But I dare to go a step further - the dispensation of Grace spanning the whole of human history. In reality, nobody can keep the Law of Moses perfectly. And absolutely perfect obedience is required for everlasting life. But since it's impossible to keep the Law, that's where the death and resurrection of Christ plays the major role. Eternal life is a free gift of God given through faith alone. It has always been a free gift of Grace, from the fall of Adam and Eve into sin to the very end of history. Faithful men of God were saved by Grace even before Jesus Christ came along. They were saved by faith in the promise of the coming Messiah, as depicted in Genesis 3:15. Today one is saved by looking back at the Messiah crucified.

I will ask: Is the knowing of the Return of Christ necessary for Christian living? Yes, absolutely.

As with the story of the farmer at the beginning of this article, the thought of Christ's return spurs the soul to holiness and greater purity in his life. It plays a big role in Christian living, giving greater motivation to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, to reach for the lost, to encourage love and bonding between brothers. It is also an ingredient for church growth.

I could be called a preMillennialist. I could even be accused of defending Roman Catholicism, or to be tainted with the lies of a Jesuit, or even be called a Catholic and be classed as a partaker of the Whore of Babylon. But none of these are important to me. Just as I believe that there are many Catholics who have trusted in Jesus Christ and are actually saved, so it does not matter whether I believe that the Rapture will come or not, or Christ will come with another method. What is important to me is, am I reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ? Am I filled with the Holy Spirit? Do I delight in reading the Bible? Do I love the brethren? These are the most important questions we all need to look at. Getting your points in Eschatology is lower on the list, but nevertheless, knowing that Christ will come back spurs us to holiness.