Future Shock is the name of a book written by sociologist and futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970, at just about the same time that Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth was hitting the New York Times bestseller list.

Toffler’s book was made into a movie narrated by Orson Welles in 1972. Coincidentally, Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth was also made into a movie, also narrated by Orson Welles, in 1979.

Toffler’s book addressed the speed with which technology was changing, back in the age of microwave ovens and beta VCRs.

He defined the social response to the shattering speed of 1970s technological and social advancement this way:

“Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.”

Toffler explains, “Man has a limited biological capacity for change. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock.”

As already noted, Toffler’s book was published the same year as Hal Lindsey’s Late, Great Planet Earth. Toffler’s book explained future shock as a social symptom. Hal’s book explained what future shock was a symptom OF.

The prevailing feeling of impending doom that existed in the early 1970s was real enough that both books were instant runaway best-sellers. In those days, that sense of ‘something’ was vague and undefined, but it was there.

Toffler tried to define it, Lindsey tried to explain it, movie franchises like The Omen and Mad Max tried to capitalize on it, but one thing is certain:

Whatever ‘it’ is, ‘it’ made its presence known with enough impact to make The Late, Great Planet Earth the best-selling Christian-themed book in history (excluding the Bible). It embraced Toffler’s term, ‘future shock’ so completely, it is now part of our vocabulary, and made The Omen and Mad Max franchises among the most successful of their time.

There was a sudden awakening to the fact that the Bible gave certain signs for the last days; discernible, chartable, undeniable and precise signs.

The 1967 Six-Day War awakened the world to Israel’s existence and thrust her onto the world’s stage. Jerusalem, a city which most people thought of more in mystical than bricks-and-mortar terms, was suddenly the most important city on Earth.

Although Bible prophecy was seldom discussed among Christians, suddenly, people started to connect some of the dots. Some ran to guys like Toffler for answers. Others ‘whistled past the graveyard’ by turning their fears into entertainment.

When Hal Lindsey connected the dots for the secular world through Scripture, millions turned to the Bible for the answers instead.

Assessment

Future Shock was published forty-four years ago. If the pace of change was shocking back then, consider what it means today. An entire generation has grown up in a world where everything they learned yesterday is obsolete information tomorrow.

If you were born in 1970 and went to college and majored in geography, for example, when you graduated at 22 in 1992, everything you spent the last four years learning was wrong.

There was no Soviet Union, and there were about forty extra countries that didn’t used to be there.

Technology changes so fast that last year’s TV is as obsolete as last year’s computer. Last year’s car gave GPS-guided verbal directions to any destination on the globe – this year’s car can parallel park itself.

As all this takes place, that sense of an impending ‘something’ continues to build as we look for ways to explain it. It sits somewhere at the back of the consciousness – like wondering whether or not you turned off the iron before leaving for church.

Consequently, there has been an explosion in interest in things spiritual, extra-terrestrial, occultic, and scientific as people look for an explanation for what amounts to a global ‘nagging’ feeling.

Daniel said all this would take place in the midst of an explosion of knowledge and a sense of disorientation (future shock?), writing,

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4).

At about the same time that Alvin Toffler wrote of the ‘to and fro’ nature of exploding knowledge and gave us the term, ‘future shock,’ Christians like Hal Lindsey, Dwight Pentecost and others were taking note of the fact that the words of Daniel were no longer “sealed.”

As Israel took her place among the nations, the Arab-Israeli conflict took global center stage, and Daniel’s ten toes began to wiggle as old Europe began to pull itself together. Daniel and Revelation became less about symbols and more about specific details.

Until this generation, symbols were satisfactory because there was no literal framework in which to put them. Until the restoration of Israel, everything about Bible prophecy for the last days was symbolic.

With Israel’s restoration, symbols revealed themselves as facts; the heads, horns and beasts became identifiable nations; leaders and systems and the words of the Prophets morphed from ancient prose to future history to future shock as the world slowly recognizes that the clock is winding down.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Romans 1:28-31).

The symbols are no longer symbolic; they are literal. Bible prophecy is only as futuristic as tomorrow’s newspapers. The Second Coming of Christ is much less a joke and much more a cause for sober reflection than at any time since the first century.

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:38).

Wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences, false Christs, solar anomalies, signs in the cosmos, global fear and confusion at what appears to be coming upon the earth…it’s ALL part of our present existence.

“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till ALL be fulfilled” (Luke 21:32).

This generation. That’s us. Tell your friends.

(Written by Jack Kinsella on June 24, 2011)

 

[Note: The following is an excerpt from my chapter in the book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception, edited by Terry James.

False Messiahs in End of the Age

We just looked at the “Near” view of Jesus’ answer concerning the fall of the Temple. Now let’s look at His “Far” response concerning the sign of false messiahs in answering the Apostles’ second question— “What will be the sign of the end of the age?” This entails the period we live in now called the Church Age, which one day will end with the Rapture of the Church.

According to Watchman Fellowship, a cult-watching ministry, there are some 1,200 religious organizations and beliefs in the United States and 500 registered cults.¹ Such an astounding number proves we truly are living during a time of prolific false teachings. Satan plots to dilute the truthful teachings of Jesus Christ by drowning His message under the false teachings and half-truths promoted by his demonically charged messengers.

Because such a staggering amount of unbiblical religions practice out there, we couldn’t possibly cover them all here. So, we’ll just take a quick survey through some of the most notorious cults and their foreteller-fabricating false messiahs. The term cult being, as Watchman defines, “as any religious group viewed as strange or dangerous; employing abusive, manipulative, or illegal control over their followers’ lives, and exists as a counterfeit or serious deviation from the doctrines of classical Christianity.”²

Joseph Smith

In 1830, the charismatic Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, better known as the Mormons. He added a whole other book to the Bible, calling it the Book of Mormon. He may have acknowledged that Jesus came in the flesh, but claimed that Jesus was the spirit brother of Satan! He continued Satan’s Garden of Eden lie that one day we are all going to become gods.

Smith even made a number of dated prophetic predictions about men going on mission trips that never happened, churches to be built that never were, described historical battles which never took place, and even claimed the Native Americans were Jews, which was genetically debunked. Tragically, Mormonism exploded throughout the world, and now, as the largest cult, boasts over five million members.

Charles Taze Russell

Next, there’s Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He claimed Jesus is really the Archangel Michael, and so denied the Trinity. Russell and his Watchtower Society prophesied that the world would end in 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975 and 1989. Clearly, the world did not end, proving Russell a false teacher.

Jim Jones

Jim Jones claimed to be God, Buddha, and Lenin all rolled up in one. In 1978, Jones took all of his People’s Temple Christian Church devotees down to Guyana to form a town, which he named after himself—Jonestown. At this false messiah’s command, 914 people, including Jones himself, drank poisoned Kool-Aid and so committed suicide. They followed Jones, believing he was God, but, in their last breath, realized he was of the Devil.

José Luis de Jesús Miranda

Miranda made no qualms, claiming in 1973 that he had transformed into “the Man Jesus-Christ” incarnate. His Growing in Grace International boasted two million followers across 30 nations. Miranda championed the spirit of the Antichrist as actually a good thing, encouraging his adherents to tattoo their bodies with the Antichrist’s number 666. He formed a countdown to June 30, 2012, when he proclaimed the world’s governments would usher in his “Government of the 666.” Miranda may have died of cirrhosis of the liver on November 17, 2013, but his desperate followers claimed he had instead transformed into the immortal Melchizedek.

Jeane Dixon

Jeane Dixon was a false prophetess who practiced Astrology and prognostication, yet claimed her information derived from the Christian God. She uttered many false prophecies, including prophesying a woman would become the United States president in the 1980s.

David Koresh

David Koresh left the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1984 to proclaim his divinity and form the Branch Davidians. He taught that knowing the Seven Seals of the Book of Revelation brought salvation. Though his Waco, Texas compound was burnt to the ground during a government raid back in 1993, his remaining followers continue to believe Koresh’s messianic claims and expect him to be resurrected one day soon.

Sun Myung Moon

Sun Myung Moon taught at his massive South Korean Unification Church that Jesus brought only spiritual salvation, so another savior was necessary to fulfill Jesus’ mission, and that man was him. Moon called himself the “Lord of the Second Advent” and believed himself to be the parent of all humanity. Moon’s self-proclaimed deity wasn’t powerful enough to stop pneumonia, and after a lavishly lived life, on September 3, 2012, he died at 92 years old.

Sergey the Vissarion Christ

Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop, or as his followers call him, the Vissarion, is yet another foreteller-fabricator claiming to be the reincarnated Christ and “He who gives new life.” His Community of Unified Faith in Russia boasts membership up towards 50,000 adherents spread across 83 communities. In these communities they learn about the importance of vegetarianism, reincarnation, and the coming apocalypse.

Benjamin Crème

Benjamin Crème was the esoteric false prophet for the New Age messiah, Lord Maitreya. He proclaimed in his The Emergence newsletter and Share International magazine and taught at his North Hollywood Tara Center that Jesus the Christ-consciousness had returned as Maitreya the World Teacher. Universalistic in his doctrine, Maitreya embodies the Imam Mahdi, Krishna, and the Messiah. Crème proclaimed Maitreya as the “Avatar for the Aquarian Age,” that is, until his death in 2016.

We could go on and on through the 1,200-plus modern-day false messiahs and prophets, but instead, please visit Watchman Fellowship’s wonderful website at watchman.org. Watchman proves without a shadow of a doubt that today’s world has been truly inundated with false messiahs and false teachers. And this is exactly what Jesus said would happen leading up to His rapturing His Church up to Heaven.

Resource

Indoctrination disguised as education. The religion of climate change enshrined. Witchcraft and the occult made mainstream. Fake news. We live in a world where deception is rampant and true agendas are rarely revealed. Jesus foretold of this time as He answered His disciples’ question: What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Bible prophecy experts present an analysis of today’s issues and events in Deceivers, revealing that Christ’s prophecy is literally unfolding before us today.

Order the book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception, edited by Terry James, on Amazon (Paperback and Kindle)

References

1. Staff of Watchman Fellowship, Inc., “Index of Cults and Religions,” (accessed August 2017), http://www.watchman.org/index-of-cults-and-religions/.
2. Ibid.