1689Dave
Well-Known Member
Back in the day those claiming to know bible prophecy befuddled me. Little did I know how their forecasts came about. After many failed prophecies about the Lord’s return, first in 1988, one generation after Israel occupied Palestine. And more predictions, all failing their allotted time. I began to wonder. And on top of this, many failed predictions of the Antichrist being anyone from Henry Kissinger to Mikhail Gorbachev, I began to question my sanity for listening to them.
It turns out, much of their platform came from the hallucinations of young Margaret MacDonald, a Scottish lass who in the 1800s predicted the PreTrib Rapture while burning up with a fever. And then picked up on by J. Darby and Later C.I. Scofield who wrote of it alongside scripture in his Scofield Reference Bible in the early 1900s. This became part of Dispensationalism. A new prophetic framework through which people could relate the bible to current events. Prophecy buffs worldwide spent many hours gleaning the headlines in search of the Antichrist who already had them twirling on his string while they searched for him.
In fact, this sort of futurism is the result of a plan designed by the Jesuits to offset the Reformers who identified the papacy as the Antichrist. The Jesuits inserted a gap of unlimited time between Daniel’s 69th and 70th weeks (Daniel 9:24ff). Saying the 70th week is on hold until Antichrist arrives. But in doing this, they turned Jesus who already fulfilled the 70th week, into a future Antichrist who would fulfill the 70th week in the distant future. The Jesuits thought by doing so, people would think the Antichrist is yet future, so he cannot be the Pope.
It worked having affected a broad swath of Christendom. Placing them into a futuristic mode of reading the bible while missing the present and past. But the gap, no matter how far into the future, needed the original backdrop of the first century kingdom, Rome. This meant, they needed a restored Roman Empire. A rebuilt temple for Antichrist to desecrate. Another great tribulation, and all that belonged to the original 70th week’s prophecy. And this forms much of their prophecy today. Already fulfilled prophecy is now said to have “double fulfillment”.
And so here we are. The bible scavenger hunt began in the 1800s. Looking for scripture to support this “new way” of reading the bible. This meant chain sawing one text after another from its original setting. And trying to repeat already fulfilled prophecy well into the future where you cannot test its truthfulness. Yet many believe the current wave of false prophecy not knowing it comes, not from the bible, but from a theoretical gap inserted in the bible. And predictions based on what might happen if there were such a gap.
It turns out, much of their platform came from the hallucinations of young Margaret MacDonald, a Scottish lass who in the 1800s predicted the PreTrib Rapture while burning up with a fever. And then picked up on by J. Darby and Later C.I. Scofield who wrote of it alongside scripture in his Scofield Reference Bible in the early 1900s. This became part of Dispensationalism. A new prophetic framework through which people could relate the bible to current events. Prophecy buffs worldwide spent many hours gleaning the headlines in search of the Antichrist who already had them twirling on his string while they searched for him.
In fact, this sort of futurism is the result of a plan designed by the Jesuits to offset the Reformers who identified the papacy as the Antichrist. The Jesuits inserted a gap of unlimited time between Daniel’s 69th and 70th weeks (Daniel 9:24ff). Saying the 70th week is on hold until Antichrist arrives. But in doing this, they turned Jesus who already fulfilled the 70th week, into a future Antichrist who would fulfill the 70th week in the distant future. The Jesuits thought by doing so, people would think the Antichrist is yet future, so he cannot be the Pope.
It worked having affected a broad swath of Christendom. Placing them into a futuristic mode of reading the bible while missing the present and past. But the gap, no matter how far into the future, needed the original backdrop of the first century kingdom, Rome. This meant, they needed a restored Roman Empire. A rebuilt temple for Antichrist to desecrate. Another great tribulation, and all that belonged to the original 70th week’s prophecy. And this forms much of their prophecy today. Already fulfilled prophecy is now said to have “double fulfillment”.
And so here we are. The bible scavenger hunt began in the 1800s. Looking for scripture to support this “new way” of reading the bible. This meant chain sawing one text after another from its original setting. And trying to repeat already fulfilled prophecy well into the future where you cannot test its truthfulness. Yet many believe the current wave of false prophecy not knowing it comes, not from the bible, but from a theoretical gap inserted in the bible. And predictions based on what might happen if there were such a gap.
