Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion: 2011 Edition. Pamela J.D. Dewey
reveal to them these details. From that day to this there has been a continual stream of prophecy pundits who have claimed to have unlocked the keys to the apocalyptic passages of scriptures which would reveal those things which Jesus said it was not for His Apostles to know. Generation after generation, they have put forth their speculations—never couched in tentative terms, but rather in dogmatic predictions—that He was going to return in their own generation and inaugurate The Kingdom. Some have claimed to have received specific, personal communication from the Lord regarding these matters. Even more have claimed to have special inspiration to interpret the Bible, so that the hidden meanings would be revealed. And all of these have managed to convince others of the validity of their schemes of prophetic interpretation, and thus gather a following of True Believers around themselves.
Some have specifically pin-pointed an exact date for the fulfillment of a prophetic event that would signal the End of the Age. This might be the date for the beginning of the final Tribulation period, the date for the Rapture of the Church, or the date for the actual Return of Christ in glory. More common than this have been those who have set a “time frame” for one of these events, using terms such as “in the next three to five years,” or “before the end of this coming decade.” And even more common have been those who have merely insisted it would be “within the lifetime of most of those now living.” At this point in history, it doesn’t really make much difference which one of these styles of date setting that such teachers from past centuries have used. For all of their predictions have failed. All of the dates have passed, all of the decades have passed, and all of the generations have passed.
And yet none of this has slowed down the current crop of those in this century who would insist that this time around they really, really have got it all figured out. This time around the keys will work—sometimes even the same keys used in the past by others who are now long dead, and whose prophetic ministries died with them! Why can this same pattern keep repeating itself? Because many of these teachers and most of their students have absolutely no historical frame of reference regarding the pattern of failed prophetic speculation. They have no idea that their “air-tight scenarios” have been suggested before, and have been proven false. They have no idea that the systems of calculation they use to connect various obscure prophecies historically have also been used over and over to add up to failure.
Why do they continue to want to make it work? The usual explanation is that the sure knowledge that Jesus will come within your own lifetime should make the average Christian more “diligent” in their Christian walk, and startle the average non-Christian into wanting to “get right with the Lord.” Thus many prophetic ministries view their speculations as sure-fire evangelistic tools to use on the “lost” and revival tools to use on the “saved.” This sounds like a good plan perhaps to those with no historic frame of reference. But the record of all the ministries of the past which have used these tools shows that the fall-out from the failure of the speculations can do far more harm than the fruit that is borne for the short time between the prediction and the failure. When a new believer hops on the bandwagon of a prophetic speculation out of fear of the wrath of Jesus at the Return, the commitment he has made is not to the true Gospel, but to the supposed way of escape from a feared event. When that event fails to materialize, what might this do to the commitment?
Sociological and historical studies have shown that there are three typical responses:
1.When the event fails to transpire, some become totally disillusioned, not just with the failed prophecy and the false prophet or prophetic teacher, but often with religion in general and perhaps even with God.
2.Others are unwilling to give up so easily if they have invested much emotionally and physically in participation with the prophetic movement in question. They may attempt to reason around the failure and make excuses for it. The prophetic teacher may explain that he just made some miscalculations and that the scenario is accurate, but the timing just a bit off. Thus the predictions are just moved forward a few months or years, and the most dedicated True Believers will redouble their efforts to get even more converts for the teacher. For, psychologically, if more people can be persuaded to believe what you believe, it gives you more confidence in your beliefs! Of course, eventually the adjusted dates will come and go also. And eventually ministries and groups built on this sort of failed speculation will fade away, with the followers drifting off to find other teachers to feed their need for certainty in the face of troubled times. Many such folks drift from teacher to teacher and ministry to ministry throughout their whole lives.
3.If there were just too many explicit details in the scenario that cannot be shifted to a different timeframe, the prophetic teacher or some of his followers may work hard at creating a spiritual fulfillment to explain the prophetic failure. In other words, they may suggest that everything did happen right on time, but they just hadn’t realized that it wasn’t to take place in the visible, physical world. The scenario was, rather, symbolic of events to happen “in heaven” or “in the spiritual realm.” This makes it impossible for anyone to prove that the scenario was false. Such a turn of events can leave the True Believers the victims of ridicule and criticism by outsiders near the time of the failure. But if they can weather the storm, within a few years their literature can play down the original expectations and play up the spiritual perspective. With the strong emotions of the time of failure in the distant past, this kind of gimmick can become established as part of a religious movement that endures, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists.
None of these three outcomes is spiritually healthy for those who have been involved with supporting a speculative End Times prophecy ministry that has, in whatever way, predicted the End to come in a specified period.
What, then, of those ministries which avoid being quite so specific, and merely insist that Jesus is coming “soon”? They claim that they have sorted out all the apocalyptic symbolism that will help their students to see the prophecies unfold “in our time.” Since they have not presented a timeframe for their predictions but, perhaps, just an explanation of the “sequence” of coming events, should there be concern about the effect this kind of teaching may have on the spiritual health of those who become fascinated by such a ministry?
The naïve Christian who gets swept up in a specific date, and may thus make some foolish life choices in order to get on board the ministry of one of the date-setters, may suffer the most from making End Times prophecy a centerpiece of their Christian walk. But those who buy into the ministries of one of these “milder” prophecy teachers may also fall victim to a serious challenge to their own walk. The obsession with reading more and more articles and books on End Times prophecy, with watching End Times prophecy programs on TV, and with attending End Times prophecy conferences and seminars may result in the immature Christian being the victim of what can best be termed Time Wasters.
Jesus gave a number of parables to warn people to “be ready” when their Lord returned. But what did He indicate was “being ready”? Was it “knowing the day and hour” when He would come? Was it sorting out all the obscure symbolism of apocalyptic passages in the Bible? Was it spending most of one’s free time with the study of such things?
Or was it living out the Sermon on the Mount and the other teachings of Jesus?
Matthew 25:31-40
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the