False Prophets

When I first embarked on a study of eschatology I learned that some people were preterists; some were amillennialists and some were premillennialists etc. At that time I also came across the term dispensationalism. I slowly learned that those who weren’t premillennial or dispensational considered those who were, to be false prophets.

In those days I considered myself mostly post-trib. What excited me was that I might be living in the last days and I strongly doubted that I would be whisked away prior to the proverbial manure hitting the fan. My focus was on premillennialism and I simply skipped over any chapters dealing with the rapture.

My interest in the rapture was first piqued when I visited a certain prophecy website that claimed prophecy was being fulfilled now. On the one hand I was excited that perhaps we really were on the verge of entering into the 70th week of Daniel and that the anti-Christ was about to be revealed - that meant the Lord would be on His way! On the other hand I was a little perturbed by the comments on that site towards pretribulationalists I had been reading. The website owner believed the Church would be here to experience the anti-Christ. I began looking into his rapture view.

As I researched, I discovered a depth of condescension towards pretribulationism and pretribulationists that surprised me. Hal Lindsey was and is one of the favorite whipping boys but Thomas Ice and Tim LaHaye hold honorary places of mention in the pantheon. One layman even wrote a small book that was really a letter to LaHaye. Other than the fact that LaHaye was involved in the Left Behind books, I’m not sure why he got the brunt of that book given there are so many other capable pretribulational/dispensational scholars out there that could have been engaged.

Hal apparently gets special mention as false prophet on the pretext that he allegedly predicted the rapture/second coming would occur in the eighties. While commenting on Lindsey, one person even mentioned that false prophets were stoned in the OT! But what Lindsey actually did was postulate the possibility of everything coming together within that timeframe based on, then, current events and his understanding of Israel and the fig tree. He was wrong - simple as that. On observation, however, I suspect he’s been branded a false prophet for his pre-trib view rather than his failed chronology.

When I started my first blog, I compared Hal with those who fervently believed and practically taught that the signing of the ENP began the seven year Tribulation in Jan 2007, along with identifying the person who could be the AC. We now have less than six months to mid-point and it becomes increasingly unlikely that sacrifices will be established for an anti-Christ to put a stop to, or a Temple built in time for him to defile. Will these people be branded false prophets? I doubt it, and furthermore they shouldn’t be.

Modres has more to say about this false prophet phenomenon HERE

Another thing that intrigues me is that I often read where someone claims the Holy Spirit showed them that the pre-trib rapture is wrong and the rapture view they’ve come to adopt is correct. Here’s the dilemma; I’ve heard that claim from pre-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath and post-trib believers. Can you see an issue there? Is the Holy Spirit fickle?

Here’s Modres again:

The Holy Spirit Taught Me…