Why prophecy?

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“If at first you don’t succeed; fail, fail and fail again” seems to be the mantra of those who make it their business to predict the end of the world. You’d think they would learn.

Sadly, they never do. They have convinced themselves and their followers that the Bible is a kind of crystal ball, through which they can predict the course of world events and the date of the Second Coming. Although they never get it right, they keep going. Incredibly, some people keep believing them.

Do you remember Harold Camping, the Christian radio broadcaster who predicted that Christ would return on May 21, 2011? His prophecy made national news. Many of his followers paid for billboards, took out full-page ads in newspapers. When May 21 came and went as normal, Harold Camping revised his prediction to October 21, 2011. Of course, that prediction failed too.

Another wannabe prophet, currently serving a jail term for tax fraud and hiding money in a Swiss bank account, is still predicting when Christ will return. His latest speculation is for Pentecost of this year. Don’t hold your breath.

How many times will these folks get it wrong before they realize there is something more than just faulty calculations that they are missing? As you know, our own founder also made the mistake of setting dates for the end. In 1939, in the August Plain Truth magazine, Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “But this you MAY KNOW! This war will be ended by CHRIST’S RETURN! And MAY start within six weeks! We are just THAT NEAR Christ’s coming!”

Thankfully, GCI learned the lesson. We no longer indulge in speculative prophecy. Our focus is to preach the good news of the gospel. I wish I could say the same for our many splinters and off-shoot groups, but most of them still seem to think that predicting the end of the world is the gospel. One of our former pastors, who now leads his own group, said in a sermon eight years ago: “Take a good look—study it carefully—scrutinize all that is going on, because this Pope [Benedict XVI] is the last one you’ll ever see on this earth ever! You can go to the bank with that statement.” I hope no one did!

He also predicted that something of dramatic significance would happen on January 16, 2010, the day which, according to him, ended “one more 19-year time cycle in the Elijah work.” Out of interest, I checked the news archives. January 16, 2010 seems to have been a rather quiet day. Wrong again.

Predicting the end of the world is a sure way to get attention. If all it did was provide some religious comic relief, I suppose no harm would be done. Unfortunately, it does influence impressionable people and divert their attention away from the real message of hope that is in the scriptures. The Bible does not tell us the date of the end of the world, but it is clear about how we should regard those who think it does: ^“If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed” (Deuteronomy 18:22).

Our modern false prophets have not failed because they haven’t figured out how to break the code they think is hidden in the scriptures. They have failed because that information is just not there. It is not for me to judge the sincerity (or sanity) of these purveyors of gloom. After all, certain prophecies are a part of the Bible, and they must mean something. And of course, they do.

As Jesus told the Pharisees, another group who tried to use the scriptures to shore up a false premise, the prophecies pointed to him. Studying prophecy should lead to an understanding of who Jesus is and what God has done through him. Knowing Christ now is the focus of the Christian life, not knowing exactly when he is coming back.

“Eschatology” is a term that refers to the study of the teaching of Scripture concerning “last things” and the “age to come.” Though it is a legitimate area of study, we must scrupulously avoid using it for any purpose other than that intended by the biblical authors, which is hope, not prediction. In the Greek New Testament, Jesus is called the Eschatos (Revelation 1:17; 2:8; 22:13), meaning the “Last One.” It is from this title for Jesus that we get the term eschatology. Jesus himself is the fulfillment of all history—he is our ultimate hope. That is what we need to know; that is the focus of Bible prophecy. How sad that many of our former colleagues still are obsessed with predicting the end times: “Always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).

It’s vital that we orient our study around the Bible’s real message. I believe you will find Gary Deddo’s series on interpreting scripture to be of great help for this. The first installment is posted at https://update.gci.org/2013/04/scripture-gods-gift/. I hope you will read it and share it with others. The second installment will be posted next week.

With love in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

PS: After seven years as editor of Christian Odyssey, John Halford has asked if he can step aside. John will continue to write and be involved with media projects, but he feels that since Christian Odyssey is now an online publication, it needs an editor who is more familiar with electronic publishing. I have appointed Rick Shallenberger to take his place. Rick worked in our editorial department and was editor of Youth magazine for several years before being hired into the field ministry. Rick will now join our media team on a part-time basis, while continuing to pastor one of our congregations in Cincinnati and serving as a district pastor.