Dec 20, 2004
Nobody Worries About the Lies of a Lunatic
In the past couple of weeks, Rapture Ready has been featured by several
secular publications. The majority of the articles were written by people who have negative views of Bible prophecy. The resulting exposure has brought the
site to the attention of a large number of people who would not consider
themselves active Christians.
Because most of these folks only have a limited interest in the site, I
thought it would be timely if I addressed some of the common views
expressed in two of these articles. The first one was written by Bill Moyers and
carried by a number of news sites. The second one came from the business magazine The Economist.
When Bill Moyers was being presented with a Global Environment Citizen
Award at Harvard Medical School, he decided to talk about prophecy. Bill
must have had to write his acceptance speech on short notice. I don't
quite understand why he decided to used the occasion to attack the end-time
views of fundamentalist Christians, but he did.
He writes, "They are the people who believe the Bible is literally
true - one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is
accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens
went to the polls believing in the Rapture Index. That's right - the
Rapture Index. Google it and you will find that the best-selling books in America today are the 12 volumes of the 'Left Behind' series written by the
Christian fundamentalist and religious right warrior, Timothy LaHaye."
It was nice of Bill to give the Rapture Index a plug and help LaHaye sell
a few more thousand copies of his books, but the journalist had more to say,
listing the "bizarre" series of events we Christians are promoting: "Once
Israel has occupied the rest of its 'biblical lands,' legions of the
Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown in the valley of
Armageddon. As the Jews who have not been converted are burned, the
Messiah will return for the rapture. True believers will be lifted out of their
clothes and transported to heaven, where, seated next to the right hand of
God, they will watch their political and religious opponents suffer
plagues of boils, sores, locusts, and frogs during the several years of
tribulation that follow."
A few days later, The Economist ran a story that also highlighted the views of rapture-believing Christians:
"During the Rapture, Christ will return and whisk believers away to join
the righteous dead in heaven. From there, they will have the best seats in the house as the unsaved perish in a series of spectacular fires, wars, plagues and
earthquakes. (Raptureready.com advises the soon-to-depart to stick a note
on the fridge to brief those left behind-husbands, wives and in-laws-about
the horrors in store for them.)"
It came as no surprise that the articles generated many negative
email messages. I've been operating this site for 17 years, and the
complaints are always the same: People say I'm crazy and express their
disagreement with my views.
My detractors offer several key reasons why they think RR is a bunch of
nonsense. Some say the Bible is invalid because it has become
corrupted; others believe Jesus would agree with their logic; and some
argue that the end-time scenario was invented by men. Unfortunately, the
majority of these folks don't cite a single reason for their opposition.
It amazes me that people are so willing to gamble their eternal souls
based on what simply amounts to their own personal views of Bible
prophecy. If people are going to dismiss the hellish reality of the tribulation
hour, they should have some type of proof upon which to base their decision.
There is no danger in crazy, fundamentalist Christians trying to conform
the rest of the world to their own view. The real threat is in how the world
is conforming to the dictates of prophecy.
As far as people writing me to complain about the site's "crazy" content:
If they truly think the rapture is a bunch of nonsense, the attention this site gives to it should be of no concern to them. Their ranting is most likely a subtle admission that, deep down, they realize Bible prophecy may be true. Of course, that belief would require them to take action and get their lives right with God.
The rapture needs not be something to dread or fear. It could be your
greatest hope. I always say, "You don't have to trust me. Discover the fact by reading the Bible for yourself." The Rapture Ready site contains a wealth of Scripture-based information.
Because I know that the occurrence of the "blessed hope" - the rapture -
will someday silence all my critics, I am not easily bothered by the guff they
send my way. Another reason for me to ignore their taunts is the fact that by attacking prophecy, they are actually helping advance it.
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they
were] from the beginning of the creation" (2 Pet. 3:3-4).
"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning
of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Mat. 24:21).
Pre-Trib Follow-Up
So many of the Pre-Trib meeting topics surrounding modern Israel are still
running around in my brain that I want to continue with what I began in last
week's column. A number of people were interested in the things I mentioned
briefly, but didn't have space to deal with adequately. There still won't be
enough space here to discuss all of the items, but perhaps we can dissect a
bit more in-depth at least one of the things only briefly bulleted last
time.
The item that seems to have raised the most curiosity is my mention of Dr.
Page Patterson's strange conversation with the now-deceased PLO leader
Yasser Arafat.
Dr. Patterson is a well-known pastor, past president of the Southern Baptist
Convention, and current president of Southwest Seminary, the largest of all
southern Baptist seminaries. He gave the message at the Pre-Trib group's
banquet the evening of Monday, December 6, at Dallas.
According to Patterson, he had another message prepared. However, shortly
before time to speak, Dr. Thomas Ice, president of Tim LaHaye's Pre-Trib
Research Center, asked him to talk about matters concerning Israel and the
Palestinians, particularly the story Ice had heard about Patterson's strange
meeting with Arafat a few years ago. We were all quite pleased that Tommy
intervened.
Patterson related first that many years ago, his parents adopted an Arab
child, a boy. Patterson and his adopted brother were close over the years,
the brother having become a Christian in childhood. He gave no details about
how his brother got to the Middle East, but I surmised that at some point he
desired to live among his birth-race of people, ostensibly for the purpose
of evangelizing them.
Arafat apparently knew about Patterson's brother through one of the PLO
leader's bodyguards, who had been befriended by the brother. Arafat was
interested, it seems, about learning more about the Christian perspective on
Middle East matters, so he told his bodyguard to set up a meeting between
himself and the brother.
When Arafat learned about Patterson, he asked that the minister meet with
him. Patterson obliged, and the two of them talked intensively for more than
two hours.
Patterson said that Arafat was genuinely interested in wanting to know more
about what the Christians saw as their interest in the whole matter. Arafat
said he knew about Jesus, and, like the Koran, saw him as a great prophet.
Patterson then went through the whole Truth with which we are familiar.
Jesus, he said, was either who He said He is, or He was the greatest liar
that ever lived. Jesus claimed to be not a prophet, but God, come to earth
in the flesh to be the sacrifice, once-and-for-all, for the sins of mankind.
Jesus said He is the only Way to God the Father -the only Truth about
Eternal Life (John 14: 6).
Patterson said that after carrying on a conversation in which they both
understood each other perfectly for two hours, when he started to talk
in-depth about Jesus and what should be Arafat's--as well as everyone'
s--relationship to Jesus, there suddenly developed an insurmountable
language barrier problem between them.
This, we know, is the root problem with everyone who says "no" to Jesus
Christ. There is a deliberately erected language barrier once a person is
faced with who Jesus is. The barrier is self-imposed, and it dooms the soul
to eternity apart from God in Heaven. Rejection is the name of that
barrier.
Mr. Arafat had opportunity to accept Christ, no doubt, on numerous
occasions. We can infer from the above recounting of Patterson's experience
that the PLO terrorist was called by the Holy Spirit. We, of course, cannot
say that he didn't accept God's call to the Savior, but we fear the worst
for his soul, which now resides in the place of his own choosing. It is up t
o each one of us, individually, to choose Heaven or Hell. God is perfectly
righteous, and calls all to repentance.
And that, of course, brings us to the purpose for celebrating Christmas.
Some these days are saying that Christmas is just another holiday begun by
pagans. And, they claim, it is now perpetuated for the purposes of feeding
the greed of the merchants.
I disagree. Christmas -the true Christmas story-is in the hearts of true
believers. Christmas is the truth about God's grace gift, which He offers
freely to all men, women, girls and boys. Christmas is what we consider it
to be in the deepest reaches of our individual souls.
Todd and I wish you the merriest, and most joyful of Christmases! --Terry
