On May 14, 1948, Israel became a country again. This date became of “Sign” to dispensational prophecy nuts, and Fundagelicals are dispensationalist to the core. From this number, they began to start calculating the return of Jesus. Hal Lindsey in 1980’s Countdown to Armageddon quotes Matthew 24. “Truly I say to you; this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” (Matt 24:34 NASB) “WE ARE THE GENERATION HE WAS TALKING ABOUT” he screams. Lindsey believed a generation was 40 years and that Jesus would return to the earth in 1988 one generation after Israel was reestablished as a nation.
When Jesus failed to arrive as Lindsey scheduled, other Bible numerologist picked up the slack. In 1967 Israel fought the six-day war and captured Jerusalem. Now we have a new date to play with. Forty years from 1967 was 2007 or 2008 depending if you use a lunar or Gregorian calendar. Jesus didn’t oblige by showing up for his predicted arrivals of 1994, 2007, 2008, or 2011. Biblical numerologist like Harold camping and Ronald Weinland just couldn’t get the math to work and wore out their erasers changing dates. They did, however, make big bucks selling books with new dates.
The selling of books, video and study Bibles never ends. To created new numbers to predict new years the definition for a generation keeps getting longer. Recently in a documentary called The Coming Convergence, they proclaimed a biblical generation was 40-120 years. That means they can predict dates until 2068-2087 depending if they use 1948 or 1967 for their calculations. Think of all the dates and all the books and videos that can be sold.
However, just to hedge their bets, so-called prophecy experts are now pointed to a new important “Sign.” In 2018, Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem! Let the timelines begin. Will it be 2058? Only your online subscription to Prophecy News will keep you updated on the next scheduled arrival of Jesus.
Let me try to be clear about this. If they are selling you a book or video, they don’t know when Jesus is coming back. Any prophet that plans on having a bank account and a 401k after the date they predicted Jesus would return isn’t a believer in their own prophecy. They are just a snake oil salesman selling made-up dates.
Instead of making some religious prophecy huckster richer by buying his book and video combo pack, why don’t you donate the $21.95 to cancer research? That’s money better spent, and we should be good stewards after all.
Don’t forget to subscribe and thanks to all my current subscribers! You can catch me vlogging at Rev’s Reels over at YouTube.