It Starts with the Bible

I’m shocked that some seem shocked at the “rise” of anti-Semitism in Europe (and even here in the U.S.).

Bible believers aren’t surprised.

Jeremy Corbyn, a member of parliament in England and a strong candidate to become prime minister after the painful tenure of Theresa May comes to an end, is an outright anti-Semite. He pals around with terrorists.

Europe, of course, has been off the rails spiritually for hundreds of years. One could make the case that “the glory departed” when the Puritans came to the New World. The Continent was left with God-haters in German seminaries, and that’s where it started. Darwin & Friends finished-off Christianity in Europe.

Theological failures led directly to the Holocaust.

Today in America, with the rise of radical politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, reality is being bent. There isn’t anything remotely resembling biblical Christianity going on in the halls of Congress.

Elsewhere, as I’ve stated probably too many times, our largest ministries, churches, and seminaries are contributing to the rising apostasy in the country.

Where do the Jeremy Corbyns of the world come from?

It starts with a hatred of God’s Word. All this led me this week to re-read Bob DeWaay’s landmark book, The Emergent Church: Undefining Christianity. It’s one of the most important books on radicalism within the Church that I’ve ever read.

DeWaay understands the strategies of the enemy. Notice his research into the roots of our Bible problem; it begins and ends with eschatology:

“For my study I carefully read Brian McLaren’s book A Generous Orthodoxy.  What baffled me about his theology was that his views were nearly identical to those refuted 40 years earlier by Francis Schaeffer, who had called it ‘the new theology.’ But as Schaeffer so clearly showed, the result of this theology is despair because under it there is no hope of knowing the truth. But the Emerging writers describe their theology as one of hope. If there is no hope of knowing the truth about God, man, and the universe we live in (as they claim), then how is hope the result? It turns out that a theology from the 1960s, first articulated in Germany when Schaeffer was writing his books, is the answer. We shall follow up on that idea later.”

Rather than heading toward a New Age “Omega Point” of enlightenment, DeWaay understands that we are headed into apostasy:

“The Bible does not teach social and spiritual evolution into a future paradise without judgment. We are warned to flee to Christ and His gospel in order to escape certain future judgment. We need forgiveness of sins that His shed blood alone provides.”

DeWaay’s research led him to interact with the leading pied pipers of Emergent theory, including the radical rascal, Tony Jones.

“The fourth providential event was a meeting with Tony Jones of the Emergent Village with the goal of setting up another debate. It turned out that they did not want another debate, but Jones offered to answer any of my questions about Emergent. I responded by e-mail asking about Stanley Grenz, Wolfhart Pannenberg, LeRon Shults, and Jürgen Moltmann and their influence on Emergent theology. Jones replied that Grenz (who, as I will later show, praises the theologies of both Pannenberg and Moltmann) was influential and that Jones himself was studying under a professor named Miroslav Volf who had studied under Moltmann. Also, he helped me with his comment that their hope-filled belief generally leads them to reject eschatologies that ‘preach a disastrous end to the cosmos.’”

Oddly, scholars like Motmann and Volf are hugely popular with Millennials, particularly students at ostensibly evangelical colleges.

Eventually, as DeWaay states, radicalism in religion leads to radicalism in politics:

“Theological liberalism and political liberalism are hardly different. When we hear the term ‘progressive,’ we should realize that the definition of ‘progress’ is that of Hegel and his various followers (theistic or atheistic). The reason for the heated passion we see in political debate is that those who are not joining the progressive agenda are seen to be hindering the process of social and spiritual evolution that will supposedly make the new cosmos a paradise for all.”

You see? We are the problem now, my friends. But let’s not wonder anymore why things are the way they are.

The world is heading off a cliff precisely because God told us it would be this way. Men would wander from the life-giving water of the Word and have gone after other gods.

At least we have the witness of the saints, including researchers like Bob DeWaay, to show us why support for Israel has fallen off, and why the churches are being emptied of young people.

Maranatha!

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

How Prophecy Unfolds

With the news that state governments are beginning to legalize infanticide, can the end be far away?

It got me thinking: the fulfillment of Bible prophecy often unfolds in ways we had not previously considered.

We’re always looking for Gog-Magog, or the destruction of Damascus. That kind of thing. Certainly those things are on the horizon.

But another story in the past couple weeks has me just as excited, for different reasons.

Two Israeli researchers have announced that they believe they have a cure for cancer. The story is legitimate; articles in The Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post, and Forbes prove that.

“’We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,’ said Dan Aridor, of a new treatment being developed by his company, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), which was founded in 2000 in the ITEK incubator. AEBi developed the SoAP platform, which provides functional leads to very difficult targets.

“’Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,’ Aridor said. ‘Our solution will be both generic and personal.’”

Remarkable. And…generic!

In any case, because it’s the Israelis, I believe this report. We’ll see, of course, but this would be a watershed moment.

And here’s how it indirectly is fulfilling prophecy.

The key thing indicating we are in the last of the last days, I think, is the intensifying pressure on Israel. This has steadily increased since the founding of the state, and in the past two decades has reached fever pitch. Even now, anti-Semitism is metastasizing around the world. Jews are in peril everywhere.

One would think that an announcement of a cancer cure would cause people to dance in the streets. Israel should be lauded.

Instead, a few days ago Dutch protestors chanted “Jews burn best!” on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jews are being beaten up on the streets of cities considered to be cultured. Celebrity pastors continue to de-emphasize prophecy and Israel.

This week, a story broke about American rabbis reaching out for interfaith dialogue with Gulf States. Evangelical pastors have been part of these junkets, including the anti-Israel Bob Roberts Jr., who claims to support Israel!

The world is upside down.

In all this, we are moving—I would say unwillingly—along a path that will lead to outright international war against the Jewish state. It is in this way that prophecy is being fulfilled in the most interesting ways.

While we scan the horizon for Gog, everyday things are happening that are at least as interesting. A cure for cancer? Hatred unleashed that points toward Zechariah’s prophecies.

Jews gathering in a synagogue in South America? Terrorist attack that calls to mind the viciousness of Jew-haters in Isaiah.

This is how we know where we are in history. It won’t be the “scariest” stuff that signals the time of the very end. It will be the daily evidences that the enemy is alive and well, and trudging to his gruesome destiny.

Taking with him millions who decided individually that they hate Jews.

Maranatha!

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com