Protestant / Evangelical Prophecy...22
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AN ANALYSIS OF PROPHECY VIEWPOINTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 2 Our Attitude Towards Prophecy................................................................................ ..........2 CATHOLIC PROPHECY ......................................................... 5 The Great Monarch and Angelic Pastor...........................................................................7 The Antichrist..................................................................................................................15 The Two Witnesses........................................................................................................17 Fatima.............................................................................................................................18 Miscellaneous Prophecies..............................................................................................19 PROTESTANT / EVANGELICAL PROPHECY ..... 22 Hal Lindsey - The Late Great Planet Earth......................................................................22 End-time Jewish Nation and Jewish Temple................................................................23 The Rapture...................................................................................................................30 Europe Unites (the Beast) supported by a New-Age World Religion (False Prophet) 43 Israel’s treaty with Europe and Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy........................................50 King of the South is an Arab alliance that attacks Israel (Phase 1 of WWIII)...............56 Russia is the King of the North which conquers the Middle East (Phase 2 of WWIII)..58 Europe (News out of North) attack Russians in the Middle East (Phase 3 of WWIII)...64 Europeans and Chinese fight for world control at Armageddon (Phase 4 of WWIII)....66 Is America in Bible Prophecy?...........................................................................................68 THE NEW WORLD ORDER: One World Govt and One World Religion or United Europe and Catholic Church?.........89 Introduction to the New World Order viewpoint..............................................................90 Economic Globalisation..................................................................................................95 The Road to Global Governance..................................................................................106 The CFR, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group and Club of Rome......................126 Masonry.........................................................................................................................148 Pros and Cons of the One World Religion Viewpoint...................................................156 Pros and Cons of the One World Government Viewpoint ............................................168 The Mark of the Beast - a Microchip or Breaking one of God's commandments?.......182 Summary of New World Order Viewpoint .....................................................................192 Seventh Day Adventist Prophecy Views...........................................................................195 Jehovah Witness Prophecy Views....................................................................................202 CHURCH OF GOD PROPHECY ................................... 206 Herbert Armstrong’s Prophecy Views.............................................................................206 FRED COULTER’S PROPHECY VIEWS......................................................................208 First Resurrection on Pentecost and Christ’s Return later on Trumpets?..................208 The Beast Power And Great Harlot – One World Govt and One World Religion?....214 Steven Collins – “A New Look At Prophecy”..................................................................220 John Rittenbaugh’s Prophecy Views..............................................................................231 Ron Wienland’s Prophecy Views....................................................................................239 PCG Prophecy Views......................................................................................................248 Rob Ardis’ Prophecy Views.............................................................................................260 Conclusion........................................................................................... 288 1 INTRODUCTION There is something deep in the human soul that yearns to know what is ahead and what the future has in store for us. Astrology and fortune telling tap into this deep yearning mankind has to want to know the future. These sources have no ability to provide correct answers for us or are dangerous means that open people up to the evil spirit realm. Bible prophecy, on the other hand, comes direct via the inspiration of God. It’s track record has been 100% with its many specific prophecies relating to the great ruling empires of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. It even foretold the great Islamic empire of the 6th and 7 th centuries after Christ when Islam rapidly spread across North Africa and the Middle East. The apostle Peter writes: We also have a more sure word of prophecy, to which you do well to take heed (2 Peter 1:19). It has been said that 90% of prophecy is for the end time. The theological term for end-time prophecy is eschatology. Eschatology or end-time Bible prophecy is a fascinating subject. All scripture is God-inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) and can be relied upon 100% but not everything written in the Bible is 100% crystal clear and so it is open to interpretation and, as a result, there are some quite divergent interpretations of end-time Bible prophecy. What God meant when He inspired it is 100% reliable. That can’t be said of men’s interpretation of God’s prophecies. When men correctly interpret what God has said that can be relied upon but it is very easy to think we have the correct interpretation when it is not in sync with what God meant and so we can easily get it wrong if we misinterpret the prophecies. In this book I would like to explore and compare and contrast many of the common viewpoints of prophecy in both mainstream Christianity and as well as the Church of God. We shall compare these interpretations with the clues that we have in the Bible and look at their strengths and weaknesses. We will start with the mainstream christian views – Catholic and then Protestant/Evangelical views such as Hal Lindsay and Tim LaHaye along with the Seventh-Day Adventist and Jhovah Witnesses views. After that I would like to analyse the various views within the Church of God such as the traditional viewpoint given through Herbert Armstrong and other alternatives such as those put forth by Stephen Collins, Fred Coulter, John Rittenbaugh and others. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS PROPHECY What is our attitude towards prophecy? The prophecies of God’s Kingdom to come at the beginning of the millennium are exciting and are events that will bring amazing happiness and joy to this world but what about the prophecies of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? What should our response be to the terrifying events that will come upon this whole world? In Amos 5:18-20 we read: 2 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD ! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him! Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it? In Revelation 10:9-10 we also read: So I went to the angel and said to him, ‘Give me the little book.’ And he said to me, ‘Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.’ Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. There is a prophetic kick, an excitement we feel when we better understand the details of events that will happen in the future. This is natural and parallels the scroll being sweet in John’s mouth when he ate it. However, after he ate it and it sank into to his stomach it became bitter. When the reality fully sinks in to our minds what these events will be like these are not pleasant events. These are horribly destructive events where there will be a phenomenal loss of life and human carnage. The events of 9/11 will be a picnic in comparison. It reminds me of a scene I saw in the movie 2010. In order to put the crew into a gentle orbit around Jupiter’s moon, Io, they had to slingshot around the planet Jupiter and do something they referred to as aerobraking. It was an absolutely frightening maneuver which had never been done before. After they successfully came through it the crew wakes up Chandra who was in sleep hibernation during the aerobraking. He asks Dr Floyd, who was awake for the aerobraking, how aerobraking was. He said, “We’re here so it worked.” Chandra then says, “I wish I was awake to have seen it” to which Dr Floyd replies, “I wish I could have slept through it.” While there is some degree of excitement now in knowing the details of these events of the Day of the Lord most of us when we go through this terrifying time will probably be just like Dr Floyd and wish we could sleep right through it. When it comes to Bible prophecy I often find two extremes that people go to. One extreme was promoted