Reading the Bible after Christendom by Pietersen Lloyd;

Author:Pietersen, Lloyd;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL006050, REL006000
ISBN: 4573131
Publisher: Authentic Media
Published: 2011-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

10

Reading the Prophets (Isaiah – Malachi)

There is a widespread misconception that the biblical Prophets primarily foretell the future. Writings on biblical prophecy have been popular particularly in more fundamentalist Christian circles where the Prophets have been mined both for supposedly messianic prophecies and for predicting the contemporary world scene. The following report, from a Christian magazine in February 1989, neatly encapsulates this approach to biblical prophecy.

The radio broadcast last June began with a bold claim: “1988 is the rapture of the church . . . 5.7 billion people will either die or be raptured within the next seven years.”

The claim was made by Edgar C. Whisenant, a former electrical engineer retired from NASA, who had spent over 14 years studying 886 biblical prophecies. He had arrived finally at the dates September 11–13, 1988, as the period during which the church would be supernaturally taken out of the world . . . Not surprisingly for an engineer, Whisenant made his claims on the basis of calculation rather than special revelation. The predictions were printed in a booklet entitled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 and sent out in a massive mailing intended to reach every church and Christian broadcast ministry in [the USA].

Apparently, thousands found Whisenant’s calculations intriguing or even convincing. In the months leading up to the appointed dates, the book sold hundreds of thousands of copies, sometimes several thousand in a single bookstore. Meanwhile, radio and TV stations featuring Whisenant in interviews were swamped with anxious callers.

Closer to mid-September, stories began to circulate in the secular news media about the “hysteria” of some who were so fully convinced Whisenant was correct that they had sold all their possessions. Others reportedly ran up immense credit-card charges because they believed they would never have to pay them.

Needless to say, September 1988 came and went, but the church remains on planet earth. Whisenant is in fact only the most recent in a long line of end-time calculators who missed the mark. His predecessors over the last two thousand years confidently predicted the end of the age again and again: in the years 200, 380, 1000, 1260, 1533 and 1844, to name only a few.1

Rather than a vehicle for predicting what is happening in the world today, biblical prophecy should be seen primarily as a revelation of Yahweh, summed up in Amos 4:12, “prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” The prophets spoke in a specific, historical context and predictive elements in their prophecies generally concern the immediate future which is, of course, now past for us. Furthermore, generally predictive prophecy is not like history written in advance of events. There is a lack of detail and chronology is not important.

The modern mind is interested in chronology, in sequence, in time. The prophetic mind usually was not concerned with such questions but took its stand in the present and viewed the future as a great canvas of God’s redemptive work in terms of height and breadth but lacking the clear dimension of depth.

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