7 Feb, 2005
Bad News For Our Critics On The Temperament Front
Rapture Ready certainly has its share of detractors. The exposure we get from various secular publications generates a continuous flow of hate mail. Terry touched on this subject last week, and I just added a few examples to our Interesting E-mail page to reinforce this fact. After posting everyone else's view of us, I thought it would be helpful to reflect on our view of the world.
When I first added Interesting E-mail to the site, my intention was to include the negative mail with the positive. It just seemed nonproductive only to post messages offering glowing praise of our site. If I don't allow for the counterview to be represented, we run the risk of becoming self-deluded.
I'm at a loss to recall any other Christian organizations that post negative email. The only explanation I can find for the lack of criticism is people’s belief that their personal trustworthiness adds to the truth. Because Terry and I have no such reliance on ourselves, we don't really care what men think of us. The Word of God is the only authority we need to stand on.
When I read the negative mail, I get a sense that some folks opposed to matters of prophecy are the most miserable people on the planet. They aimlessly vent hatred in our direction, with no real evidence to support their reasons for attacking us. There is nothing insightful about declaring that, say, the rapture is a lie. Anyone who tells me Jesus is not the Son of God should know that his or her claim needs strong supporting evidence.
Our detractors seem to think we are hateful people who are mad at the world, and that the doom-and-gloom mindset is the only thing binding us together. As far as our temperament goes, I don't see any hatred being vented from our side. I communicate with my partner, Terry, the news posters, and the message board admin team all the time, and I find we are generally a very happy group. The dire subject matter we deal with daily has not caused us to have a sour outlook on life. People's unwillingness to come to the truth is the only negative aspect of the site's operation.
I find we are the ones shaking our heads and wondering why our critics are in such miserable spirits. When attacked for no valid reason, we just assume it must be a full moon and go about our business. I may be biased in my assessment of the situation, but I think anyone can determine the truth by judging the messages we post and the type of responses they generate.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and [be] ready always to [give] an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ" (1 Pet. 3:15-16).
I have no problem with the complaints. In fact, negative feedback is vital for any ministry that is truly seeking to serve God. Whenever the world expresses its approval of a Christian organization, you can be pretty sure that it has some type of doctrinal error. I will turn pale with fright the day CNN or ABC News gives RR a glowing endorsement.
Criticism is often a validation of the truth. If we actually were a bunch of nuts, the folks who write us would have no reason to be concerned with our views. Many UFO cults think the world is coming to an end, and they rarely get any flack for their views - that's because no one believes that they are a real threat.
Rapture Ready is seen as a threat because people feel the conviction the Holy Spirit places on their hearts. Because this site has no control over the course of world events, these folks need to take their complaints to a higher level.
Prophecy doesn't have to be a menacing thing. Because Jesus will someday call us home, rapture ready Christians have a hope that rises above the despair prevalent in this sin-stained world.
"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
-- Todd
Iraq and the Root of Evil
Although those of us who supported “Iraqi Freedom” from the outset should be overjoyed with the tremendous positive things flowing from the elections held there January 31, a note of prophetic truth must be interjected. Some end-time prophecy watchers, including myself, look at the movement toward at least some form of democracy as serious evidence that evil is prophetically returning to the cradle of civilization, where it first raised its serpent head.
This is not to demean the great accomplishments of the terrific coalition of military troops. They have been magnificent in performing their duty, and continue to be so while preparations get underway for the Iraqi people to begin writing and confirming their new democratic constitution. Neither do I mean to denigrate those brave Iraqis we saw proudly display their ink-stained fingers, proving to the world they had voted, and that they indeed have a deep desire for liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Also, we must, at this point, say: “Congratulations, Mr. President. You have been right all along, and your detractors in the matter of Iraqi Freedom are being proven more wrong with each passing day. Despite the loss of life to Americans and the other coalition forces –and I agree that even one life lost is tragic—the result, with millions liberated from Saddam Hussein’s rape rooms, torture chambers, and every other personal atrocity that was suffered during his regime, is nothing short of a phenomenal achievement.”
That said, the movement of history again is proving God’s prophetic Word 100 percent accurate. Zechariah, chapter 5, continues to come alive in these closing days of this Age of Grace.
Let’s examine this assertion a bit.
Satan first introduced evil in the Garden of Eden. This is an account most all of us are familiar with, so no need to describe the whole scene. Just read the first few chapters of Genesis for a quick review. Eden was located in the region of what would later become Babylon, with the Euphrates River being one of several mentioned in the Genesis account.
That evil, introduced by Lucifer, the fallen one, spread from the Euphrates region. We know this from our daily headlines. Evil is still with us, and is as predominant in the western hemisphere as in the eastern. Perhaps the evil is often committed with more finesse and sophistication than in the majority of nations of the east, but this makes the wickedness more dangerous and pervasive, not less, than that evil that grips the Middle East and geographical points farther east.
A reading of Zechariah, chapter 5 tells the student of Bible prophecy that as the time of the end nears, just before God again intervenes mightily in the affairs of earth-dwellers, the great evil of the world will rush, like a great win, back to that place it began. There isn’t space here to put the entire passage describing this movement of evil. Please read the Scripture for yourself. I will give a brief overview/synopsis of that Zechariah chapter 5 prophecy.
Zechariah the prophet, in this amazing foretelling, first saw the vision of a flying scroll, then of a basket carrying a woman flown by two storks back to the land of Shinar (ancient Babylon). The prophet was told that the flying scroll would first go to the whole world, infecting the entire earth with its evil, then the wickedness –represented by the woman in the basket-- would be brought back to its ancient place of origin at the end of human history.
To many of us who are assiduous in studying things involving the world’s attention turned toward the Middle East, and to Israel and Iraq ( which sits upon the ancient land of Babylon), the events are fascinating to say the least. We must ask: Has the evil spoken of by Zechariah now saturated the world, and is it presently making its prophesied swift flight back to where Nimrod built the Tower of Babel?
Evil is returning to the place of its origin. Can we confirm this to any degree of satisfaction?
What is the root of all evil, according to God’s Word on the subject? We are told:
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1Tim. 6:10).
Certainly, the evil that has moved from that ancient place of its origin has gathered great wealth as it has proceeded. It has gathered unto itself wealth of unprecedented proportions in this very nation we call home. Never have any people been more blessed with material wealth than the United States of America. The democracies of the western world have also garnered great wealth –most of those nations, in modern times at least, having prospered from riding the economic coattail of America. Lest our European friends who read this wish to take exception to that statement, I gently remind them of the Marshall Plan.
The same inventions and machinery that produced such phenomenal riches are instrumental in creating that sucking wind that is quickly drawing all back to Babel. Oil!
Again, not to diminish George W. Bush’s desire to see the Iraqi people free from Saddam’s horrors, we must be honest and say that it is oil, even more than preemptive action to deal with the terrorists that want to strike us with another 9/11, that has pulled a vast portion of our military and national economy into that region of end-time Bible prophecy.
Americans, like most who have tasted it, love luxuries and the good, pleasurable things of life. These material pleasantries have become our idols, for the most part. Paul the apostle put his prophetic finger on the fact:
“Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For [people] shall be…lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:1, 4).
America is perhaps the most generous nation that has ever existed, despite our great sin of our love of money (wealth in the form of materialism). Yet our money is turned against us. Most other nations despise us precisely because of that wealth. There is great evil at the root of the envy of and love of money and the power it grants the holder. The world will, I believe, soon be rushing to the land of Shinar to get its individual pieces of the gathering wealth and power Bible prophecy indicates will increasingly manifest itself where the forces of darkness are said to dwell.
The Euphrates seems to be a location for some of the world’s most fierce evil spirits. The prophet John foretells:
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:12-14).
Evil will gather in the region for the consummation of human history. Iraq, that place called Babylon, is the gathering point in which the whole world seems to be interested. That’s where the oil that drives the great industrial economies of the earth pools beneath the sand in greatest quantity.
All of this means we should make sure our heavenly bank accounts are in good condition. Heaven is where the true wealth awaits our love for our Lord, and the kind of wealth He offers is the root of all that is good.
--Terry
