Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Fall Edition 2002
Eleven Common End-time Imaginations
1. Many people today imagine that all the
details of end-time Bible prophecy must center around some future seven year
period of time. They do not realize that the New Testament has never said a
single world about the very existence of any such future "time frame" period in
the first place.
2. Many people today imagine that this future seven year
period of time, around which all the details of end-time end time Bible prophecy
are supposed to harmonize, is the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy of the 70
weeks. They do not realize that all of Daniel's prophecy of the 70 weeks points
to the first advent of Jesus Christ.
3. Many people today imagine that some Roman Antichrist of
the last days is the covenant-maker of Daniel 9:27. They do not realize that the
Messiah, not some Antichrist figure, is the divinely intended covenant-maker of
the Daniel text.
4. Many people today imagine that the end-time period begins
when one-world-ruler Antichrist establishes a peace treaty with the Jews for
seven years. They do not realize that neither Jesus or his apostles ever said
one thing that would suggest the paradigm of Antichrist making or breaking a
covenant with the Jews.
5. Many people today imagine that the church is going to be
secretly removed from the earth in the rapture before the seven year end-time
tribulation period begins. They do not realize that Jesus taught the rapture of
his followers would happen only after the tribulation period is over (Matthew
24:29-31), on the last day (John 6:39-40), and at the last trump sounding
(Revelation 11:18; I Corinthians 15:51-52).
6. Many people today imagine that the second coming of Christ
happens in two stages, called the rapture and the revelation. They do not
realize that no time frame (such as a seven year period) is ever mentioned in
any of those texts where they claim to see a pre-tribulation rapture, or that
the rapture and revelation never appear in full view together in any one single,
contiguous passage of Scripture so that one can actually tell they are distinct
entities, and not one and same thing.
7. Many people imagine that Revelation chapters 6-19
describes events of some future seven year great tribulation period that happens
after the church is raptured. They do not realize that what they are really
doing is attempting to superimpose a false theory of Daniel's prophecy of the 70
weeks onto the New Testament. The book of Revelation itself says nothing about a
seven year period, about Antichrist making or breaking a covenant with the Jews,
of about any Jewish kingdom that is supposed to be set up on earth after Christ
returns.
8. Many people today imagine that this present church age
exists as a great parenthesis between the close of the 69th week of Daniel's
prophecy of the 70 weeks and the opening of the yet future 70th week. They do
not realize the great hoax concerning the chronology of the 70 weeks that was
created by Sir Robert Anderson in the latter half of the nineteenth century,
upon which that construction of ideas has been based.
9. Many people today imagine that unbelieving racial Jews are
now God's chosen people. They do not realize that Christ is the true seed to
whom all God's promises were made (Galatians 3:16), and that now God has no
favorite people other than the obedient who constitute Christ's church.
10. Many people today imagine that the purpose for Christ's
second coming is to set up his kingdom. They do not realize that Jesus already
established his kingdom at his first advent, and that the real purpose of his
return, is to resurrect and judge all men on the basis of that one standard of
true righteousness already fully revealed in the Christian gospel.
11. Many people today are prejudice to believe that this
system of "dispensational imaginations" we have described above provides the
badge of Christian orthodoxy and is champion of the biblical fundamentalists
cause. They do not realize that this system of fabrication, which they hold so
dear, is instead, rather, liberalism in disguise, and that it represents the
fundamentalism of a purely "antinomian" understanding of Christian theology, not
the fundamentalism of the Holy Bible.
Related Article Links
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A Scheme Imposed Upon The New Testament
Why The Jews Are Not God's Chosen People