Time Markers

Time Markers

By Richard P. Joseph

I was flipping the channels the other night wasting my valuable time and I came across the Jack Van Impe show.  I saw his wife talking to some pastor about the civil war in Syria.  He then started quoting Isaiah 17:1 where Isaiah says something about Damascus becoming a ruinous heap.   

I love to watch these people pulling scripture out of nowhere, out of context and out of time and just plug them in any where they “feel” that would advance their preconceived notions.  This would be about as smart as going to a third world country where they still fight certain pestilences or locust swarms that ravish their crops or wipe out their populations and then start quoting from the book of exodus and shouting “Here comes the ten plagues that Moses said would come”.   When Moses warned Pharaoh of the plagues to come there was certainly a timetable attached to them.   I would sound pretty dumb getting on TV and warning that the ten plagues are about to come on the Dominican Republic if they don’t let “my” people go.  

So, that begs the question of why they get on TV today and start proclaiming that the end is coming because of certain world events and then start attaching their own timetable to them?  What ever happened to all of the timetables that Jesus and the apostles attached to their end times events?  Do you just pretend that they are not there?  Do you just ignore them?  Do you just explain them away?  I guess the answer is, you do all of those things because the millions of dollars they are scamming from people are worth it.  It seems to pay off big time if you are in the business of selling your soul to gain the whole world.  

In Matthew 24 we are all familiar with the world events of “False prophets, wars and rumors of wars, of nation fighting against nation and kingdom against kingdom and of famines, pestilences and earthquakes”.   In reality, any generation can come up with some of these events.  Perhaps not all in a row or all at once but these things were not  unique only to the first century.  In other words, if Jesus did not qualify these events and put them in a certain time frame, then anything goes.  That is why Jesus qualified his predictions with a specific time frame that those things must occur in. Isaiah didn’t only give oracles against Damascus, he gave them against multiple city-states (nations) such as Babylon, Edom, Arabia, Jerusalem, Tyre, Sidon etc.  How come the TV scammers didn’t mention any of them?  The answer is because they didn’t fit his preconceived narrative.  Jesus made it plain and clear that his prophecy would occur within the generation of the apostles.   Paul, Peter, John, Stephen et al all made it clear that those predictions in Matthew 24 were going to be fulfilled within their generation or else Jesus was a false prophet.  When Jesus said:

34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.   

Was he joking?  Was he mistaken?  Was he ignorant?  

When he said:

27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.28 “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Was he joking, mistaken or ignorant?  

When he said:

When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Was he mistaken?

I think not.  The point to all of this is to have real faith.  A practical test would be to understand that if you think one thing and scripture says another thing then you must decide who is correct; you or scripture.  I have come to the solid conviction that it would be me that is making the mistake, not Jesus or the inspired Apostles.  It takes guts and faith to do that.  One has to stop and contemplate that they just may have been feed faulty theology either by mistake or by crook but it must be corrected in order to really understand God’s plan for this world.  If you really want to be free then let the truth set you free.  You would no longer be bound to the chains of always having to explain away scripture.  It is invigorating once you come to that conclusion.  

Ps, Jack Van Impe has been predicting the end times since I was in College.  I don’t even know if he is still alive.  He has been telling us that the end is just a year or two away ever since he started his scam operation but it just never seems to come but if you want to know when it is coming all you need to do is buy his video, cassette tape, CD, or download his junk; whatever is in use at the time.  His show has been on so long that his first sales are archaic but funny enough still says the same thing from 35 years ago.  As long as he can hold the carrot in front of ignorant people he can line his pockets with green stuff.