Other Voices

I mentioned in my last post that I have been influenced by the views of several others who have taken to writing about the times in which we are living and the crises we are experiencing and whether they have any meaning spiritually or prophetically. I even said that I regard some of these as prophetic voices. I want to say at the outset that I follow the advice of Paul in that I do not “scoff at prophecy” but test it for truth (1 Thess. 5:20-21). Moses gave us additional advice about testing prophets as well, which should also be noted here:

 “But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the Lord?’  If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.” (Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

While few of the people below have claimed a gift of prophecy, and some have even denied it, I believe that they have given a message to us from the Lord regarding our times, and where all of this is leading, and I think we need to be listening to what they have to say.

Below I have indicated each one’s name, the book or other work I have read of each regarding the subject at hand, and a brief synopsis of what each had to say. I am resisting the temptation to give a full book report on each. If you are interested (and I hope you will be) you can read each for yourself. Keep in mind that I do not agree with everything that each of these folks say. In fact, I disagree with each of them at some point.

The late David Wilkerson; America’s Last Call (1998), and God’s Plan to Protect His People in the Coming Depression (1999).                For anyone who is unfamiliar with David Wilkerson, he is best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade in which he wrote about his ministry to street gangs in New York City in the 1960’s. He is also the founder of the Teen Challenge addiction ministry and was the senior pastor of the Times Square Church prior to his tragic death in an auto accident in 2011. I think that the message he puts forth in these two books is best summarized by his own words in God’s Plan to Protect His People . . . :

“. . . what is happening cannot be fixed. There is no magic bullet to save us. God is about to chasten the nations of the world through an economic holocaust—and His sword is already unsheathed!” (P.5).

He wrote these things in 1998-1999, yet when I picked up these books in 2011 it seemed that they could have been written that very year, rather than before the turn of the century.

Dr. Wilkerson believes that what is happening is a result of our society’s turning its back on God and of three major points over which our nation is going to suffer God’s judgment:

·         Its support of abortion.

·         Its support of the homosexual agenda.

·         Its mistreatment and persecution of the Christian Church.

Dr. Wilkerson seems to see this as a phenomenon that is leading to the end of America as we know it, rather than the end of days.

Jonathan Cahn, The Harbinger   Mr. Cahn, a Messianic Jewish believer, wrote his message in the form of a novel. Unlike other novels that present fictionalized accounts similar to current events, Mr. Cahn has done a very good job of taking actual current events and the news articles therein produced, and has crafted the story of his fictional characters around these. He compares what is going on in America to the events prior to the fall of Judah in the Old Testament, particularly a passage found in Isaiah 9, verses 8 and following. It is eerie to see him point out the similarities of that time and our own, sometimes right down to the choices of words made by persons in our present day. His basic message is that God is bringing judgment on our nation for our godlessness, our unrighteousness, and our arrogance.

Dr. David Jeremiah, The Coming Economic Armageddon                               David Jeremiah is a well known TV evangelist, author, pastor of a large evangelical church, and the editor and publisher of the popular Turning Points devotional magazine. In this book he sees current financial events as leading to a collapse of the global economy, followed by a new global economy and the “new world order” that will welcome the Antichrist.

The late Grant Jeffrey, One Nation Under Attack                              Grant Jeffrey, a prolific author on the subject of Bible prophecy, wrote this, his final book shortly before his unexpected death on May 11, 2012. He predicts a financial collapse that is too late to reverse, a decline in freedom, a decline in morality, an abandonment of foundational American values, and a wholesale turning away from God and toward a secular-humanist society. He sees this as the result of a liberal political agenda in which American politicians are the (usually unwitting) instruments of Satan. He too sees the result of all of this as leading to a world where the Antichrist can rise to power. He gives considerable advise as to how Christians can protect themselves from the horrors to come as a result of the financial  collapse and how to minimize the painfulness of such a time as we are about  to enter.

Perry Stone, www. Perrystone.org          Perry Stone has spoken and written much regarding Bible prophesies. Rev. Stone claims to have had prophetic visions, as apparently did his father and grandfather before him. There is one thing in particular that I found on his website that stood out. Several years ago he had a vision that included three things:  one was a vision that he later identified as hurricane Katrina. A second feature of this vision was later identified by him as the BP Gulf oil spill. A third feature of this vision was that he foresaw a time when our ability to travel would be restricted for a brief period. This of course has not happened yet. I am waiting for the proverbial “other shoe” to drop.

Robert Jeffress, Twilight’s Last Gleaming             Dr. Jeffress, the pastor of the largest Southern Baptist congregation in America, the First Baptist Church of Dallas, sees the current upheaval as the end of America, rather than the end of the world. Jeffress claims no prophetic gift, and reading between the lines, I doubt that he even believes that prophecy is a currently available spiritual gift. In fact, in a fashion typical of many Southern Baptist authors, he doesn’t even acknowledge the importance of the Holy Spirit and His work until page 103! That being said, I particularly found interesting that which he had to say about how he had met with resistance and ridicule from both the secular world and from his own parishioners when he has tried to speak out on various moral and political issues. His advice on voting and how to stand up for our beliefs in these difficult times, I found to be especially challenging and helpful.

There are some general comments I want to make about the persons mentioned above. First, many of them engage in what I like to call “comparing Old Testament apples to New Testament oranges.”  Indeed, anyone who reads the New Testament regularly cannot help but believe that God not only differently defines who “His people” are, but deals with them differently since the accomplished work of Christ on the cross, and the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit, as compared to the Old Testament. Yet, while God deals with His people differently now, is it still a reality that He deals with nations as He did in the Old Testament? We will explore this in more detail later.

Second, nearly all of these commentators are pretribulationists, which prohibits them from identifying any of the current events as true last-days happenings. More on this later as well.

Finally, I found an ambivalence in many of these writings as to whether they believed that God’s judgment was coming upon us because the world of unbelievers were sinful, or because the church was sinful.

That all being said, the belief seemed to run through all of these that there was a need to repent and turn to God as the only hope for ourselves as individuals and for our world.

So what do I believe? Is this the end of days, or is it the end of America? Is our Lord coming soon to save us from all of this, or have we simply sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)?  We will talk about this next time.

Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.