The Downside of Being Amillennial

I was born and bred a dispensationalist.  As I grew up, I was fascinated by the prophecy punditry movement often associated with dispensational eschatology (although we Reformed folk have had our share of cranks too--remember Harold Camping?).  Any current event could be (and was) tied to Scripture.  The way in which the prophecy pundits made the Bible seem to come alive was truly remarkable.  But then after years of wrestling with the eschatology of Jesus and the Apostles as presented in the Bible, I eventually became amillennial.

I was scheduled to speak this coming Friday and Saturday (March 20 and 21) at a conference entitled "The Blessed Hope:  Christian Eschatology Simply Explained."  Among other topics, I was supposed to speak on the biblical signs of the end--rather ironic given current events.  As I was preparing my lectures for a conference which was then cancelled because of a world wide-pandemic of a killer virus, the likes of which no one alive has ever experienced, it dawned on me how different my take on the signs of the end would be, if I still held to the eschatology of my youth.

My lecture on "signs of the end" centers around those signs which refer specifically to the Apostles (and which were fulfilled in their lifetimes), those signs which characterize the entire inter-advental age (wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famine, persecution of God's people, false doctrine and false Christs), and then those signs which are true harbingers of the end (the conversion of Israel, a great apostasy, and the appearance of the Antichrist).  I see dramatic events like the Covid-19 pandemic as yet another non-specific birth pain of the end.  The worry and uncertainty we see all around us was foretold by Jesus and the Apostles.  Our Lord told us to expect such things, but did not predict any specific pandemic.  In fact, he even warned us about getting too specific.  "No one knows" when our Lord will return (Matthew 24:38).

But then I thought of the sheer creative opportunities open to me if I were still a punditry-inclined dispensationalist.  Think about it.  Some of these connections between the way in which the prophecy pundits read the Bible and the end times are so obvious, how could we miss them?  When the fifth seal is broken (Revelation 9:1-11) stinging locusts appear.  This could be a prophetic image of government repression in preparation for the Antichrist brought about by a final plague (tear gas, police and military in riot gear, helicopters), or even perhaps, some microscopic image could be found in which the Covid-19 virus somehow looks, or is made to look, like the mysterious locusts depicted by John.

Then, there is the obvious fact that Covid-19 first appeared in Wuhan, China.  The mention of an army of 200 million from the east could easily be tied in a rather dramatic way to the sixth trumpet in Revelation 9:13-21.  John foresees the angels releasing three plagues on mankind.  One of these plagues could be the Covid-19 virus coming out of China to infect the rest of the world, killing a third of mankind.

Another obvious prophecy which we could tie to the end is the destruction of Babylon the Great by a series of plagues (as mentioned in Revelation 18:8).  This too might be might be Covid-19.  The virus which spread into Western Europe might be connected to the mystery of the woman riding the scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns.  Many pundits have argued the woman is Rome (Italy was first to be hit hard--right?), and now the entire EU has been inundated with cases.  The ten horns and seven heads of Revelation 17 have long been thought to be the EU as a revived the Roman Empire, even though, rather embarrassingly, the EU now has 27 member nations.

Meanwhile, those of us who think it improper to interpret the Bible in the light of current events, and who use the analogy of faith (in which clear biblical texts tell us what more obscure texts mean) cannot do what prophecy pundits do; conjure up wild and speculative end-times scenarios, even if they are compelling to those who trust such teachers.

It does appear that the punditry business has discredited itself through so many "never came to pass" prophetic scenarios that the industry has pretty much dried up.  So far, prophecy pundits have been restrained--so far.  One bellwether end-times website I checked was more worried about Joe Biden possibly getting the Democratic nomination than it was about the spread of Covid-19.  It looks to me that many of the prophecy pundits and those who follow them have moved to a different realm of speculation--American politics.

I am thankful prophecy punditry has not dominated the recent news--especially when we face a serious pandemic with unforeseen consequences.  The prophetic prognosticators do great harm to a proper biblical eschatology, and however unintentionally, they bring ridicule down upon the cause of Jesus Christ and his word.  Peter even warned us about them (2 Peter 3:1-13).

But I must confess, for a brief moment, I thought about how different my lecture on "signs of the end," would have been had I written on this topic in the early days of my theological interest and development.  Yes, amillennialism does have a downside--there is little, if any, room for prophecy punditry.  We can tell the world that in the Covid-19 pandemic we see birth pains of the Lord's return, which is why we are not surprised nor dismayed by the news good or bad. 

Our hope for whatever happens on the world stage is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ-not in our ability to grasp the full significance of what is unfolding before us, a significance hitherto unknown until "revealed" to us by the prophecy pundits.

Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and the Antichrist

 

The two most powerful men on earth will always be the subject of prophetic speculation--especially questions about their relationship to the end-times Antichrist.  Such speculation comes with the territory, given their respective roles as the two of the key power-brokers in world affairs.

In a recent radio interview, former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, expresses the opinion that Barack Obama's foreign policy is hastening the end-times (Obama Is Hastening the Rapture).  Echoing the standard dispensational categories of prophetic punditry, Bachmann laments,

“We need to realize how close this clock is getting to the midnight hour . . . . We in our lifetimes potentially could see Jesus Christ returning to earth and the rapture of the church”

This dire prediction is based upon her perception of Obama's weakness in his dealings with Iran.  Says Bachmann,

“We are literally watching, month by month, the speed move up to a level we’ve never seen before with these events . . . . Barack Obama is intent.  It is his number one goal to ensure that Iran has a nuclear weapon . . . . If you look at the president’s rhetoric, and if you look at his actions, everything he has done has been to cut the legs out of Israel and lift up the agenda of radical Islam . . . . Any nation that accepts God and his principles is blessed, and those who push away are cursed. That’s what we’re seeing happen to the United States. . . . We will suffer the consequences as a result.”

Alluding to God's promise of favor toward Abraham, Bachmann believes that America's fate depends upon whether or not we support Israel.

Almost in passing Bachmann adds that because of abortion and gay marriage, God is punishing the United States for “embracing a pagan view.”  God may very well be punishing America for these things, and Obama's dealings with Iran on nukes may be potentially dangerous.  But apart from special revelation, we do not know such things with the biblical certainty Bachmann assumes.  There is the uncomfortable fact that God may punish America for embracing a heretical form of civil religion (like that of the politicians of the left and right who confuse American national interests with God's eternal purposes), or for our gluttony, sloth, self-righteousness, or a host of other sins which never are mentioned by politicians.

Then there's Vladimir Putin, the prophecy pundit's best friend.  The only problem the pundits have with President Putin is that he is not part of a revived holy Roman empire, so they turn to their faulty exegesis of Ezekiel 38-39 to explain how Putin might just be the supreme end-times foe.  I've responded to this misuse of Ezekiel 38-39 previously (Why the Dispensational Interpretation of Ezekiel 38-39 is Wrong).

According to a recent essay from Matthew Avery Sutton in the Washington Post, (Could Putin Be the Antichrist?) Putin's name is now bandied about in recent antichrist speculation,

With the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, it looked to evangelicals that perhaps they had misread their Bibles. During the George W. Bush presidency, evangelicals began to invest more time and energy into working in this world rather than in preparing for the next.

And then came Putin. It appears that the former KGB agent may well be helping to lead a revival of apocalyptic thinking among some evangelicals. Best-selling evangelical author Joel Rosenberg, megachurch pastor John Hagee and television prophecy expert Jack Van Impe and many others have recently connected the Russian leader to Old Testament prophecy.

Sutton concludes,

Even if Putin does not actually do battle in the end times with the Antichrist, he serves as a reminder to millions of American evangelicals that the Bible is the best guide to the future. Although Jesus may not be coming today, he is coming soon. And as they keep a wary eye on peace promises coming out of Ukraine, that is all they need to know.

Goes to show, the evening news (or the google news feed) provides continual fodder for the prophecy pundits, even if Scripture doesn't support any of these claims or fanciful speculations. 

It is just a matter of time before the next political crisis produces new antichrist candidates and a spate of creative exegesis to support these bizarre claims about political figures and their supposed connection to the end-times.

America in Bible Prophecy

 

One of the conundrums raised by the dispensational understanding of end-times is explaining why the United States of America is not mentioned in biblical prophecy.

Greg Laurie is one of the latest to offer an explanation as to why America is not mentioned in connection with end-times (America's Inevitable Collapse),

In a November 30 sermon entitled "Israel, Iran, ISIS and Bible Prophecy," Laurie preached that Christians are now living in the "last days" before the fulfillment of various End Times prophecies laid out in the Bible book of Revelations. Current events such as Israel establishing itself as a nation, Russia alignment with Iran and the rise of Islamic extremism, he said, are setting the stage for a predicted conflict in which the world's forces turns against Israel.

One force that will be missing during that conflict, Laurie says, is the United States of America. "[As] the forces of antichrist emerge, I believe that America will fade from the scene." Putting the United States in the context of Scripture, he explained, "We are not found in the End Times scenario."

Laurie believes that America's absence in the global map described in the Revelations can be explained by one of two scenarios. "No one can say with certainty, but it would appear that we're going to fade as a world power [because] maybe we fall in line as one of the confederated nations under the antichrist but the version I prefer the most is we would have the rapture and so many Americans would be taken to heaven that that would be the explanation for our demise as a nation."

The article goes on to explain,

The California pastor quoted Bible passages and former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to show that the Great Tribulation is at hand.

"Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was quoted recently stating that the world is experiencing 'historic defining times that will result in a new world order' while questioning America's role in the emerging world. Elaborating further Hagel said 'This is a time of global transformation. We are essentially seeing a new world order evolving and being built. I don't think we've seen such a time since right after World War II.'"

He summed, "I don't know what Defense Secretary Hagel meant by that but I believe a new world order is coming."

Since the United States is supposedly missing from the new world order, an explanation must be offered.  According to Laurie, America will be weakened and enter into an alliance with the Antichrist, or else greatly weakened by so many Christians being taken away in the Rapture.  The usual explanation given for America's massive decline, is our nation's current moral, economic, and political situation.  Laurie doesn't go there. 

Although Laurie believes that America is missing, Russia, Iran, Sudan, and Israel are specifically mentioned.  This is based upon the usual dispensational misreading of Ezekiel 38-39 (A Russian-Iranian End-Times Alliance?).

Israel's future is discussed by Paul in the New Testament (in Romans 9-11), but in that passage, Paul speaks of the future of Israel in terms of the Jews as a race living after the first coming of Christ.  Furthermore, Paul's discussion takes place in light of God's larger redemptive purposes until the Lord returns a second time.  If dispensationalism is correct, you would think that in the one passage where Paul speaks of Israel's future, the Apostle would make mention of Israel's return to the land in Palestine.  He doesn't.  In fact, Paul makes no mention of a "golden-age" millennium occurring either before or after Christ comes back.  He makes no reference to Jesus returning to occupy David's throne in Jerusalem (a key feature of the dispensational understanding of the millennium).

The reason why America is not specifically mentioned in Bible prophecy is because there are no specific nations mentioned in biblical prophecy!  Israel is spoken of only in terms of the Jewish race, (i.e., true Israel, the believing remnant, and "all Israel") but not as the modern nation we know in the Middle East.

The great irony in all of this is that although dispensationalists are patriotic citizens and fellow believers, their eschatology pushes them to anticipate (if not root for) the decline of America so that Christ can return.  The irony is greater still when we consider that many dispensationalists (certainly not all) are "Christian America" folk who mistakenly believe that America has a national covenant with God, much like Israel possessed in the Sinai Covenant.  So, God must "cut-off" America, in order to bring about a new world order, and then allow Russia, Iran, and Sudan to invade Israel, at or about the time of the Rapture and the tribulation.

It is a shame that none of this is taught in Scripture.  It does make for a good story, and it surely sells many books.  America's absence from the end-times even explains, to the satisfaction of many, why Barack Obama is ruining America--after all, he's fulfilling biblical prophecy! 

Greg Laurie, however, holds out hope that so many Americans will become Christians that when the Rapture occurs, America will be seriously weakened and will not be a player in the new world order.  This is a less-politically oriented view than is usually offered, but ends up making Greg Laurie a postmillennial, dispensational, premillennarian.

Now that is ironic!

Explaining the Book of Revelation by Treating It as Fiction

It used to be the case that dispensational prophecy writers attempted to justify their unique interpretation of the prophetic portions of the Bible, by correlating current events with relevant biblical passages.  Dispensational prophecy experts possess an uncanny ability to deftly explain the most consequential events in the evening news or morning headline on Drudge, as enabled by their distinctive system of biblical interpretation.  Every natural disaster, war, or plague, can be used to prove the Rapture is near.  This gives the Bible relevance, we are told, and it also proves that the dispensational understanding of the Bible is the correct one.  The Bible predicts and explains current events.

Admittedly, the Book of Revelation is difficult to understand.  The book is full of symbols, numbers, and references to both obscure and well-known prophecies from the Old Testament.  Yet, dispensationalists have been quite eager to introduce, interpret, and explain this mysterious Book of Revelation to those interested in politics and world affairs, by claiming John's Apocalypse is "history written in advance." 

According to the dispensational understanding of Revelation, the Apostle John is foretelling the terrible things to be unleashed upon the earth after the church is supposedly removed from the scene, at or near the beginning of the seven year tribulation period.  Dispensationalists tell us that in Revelation 4:1, when John hears a voice saying "come up here," he is referring to the Rapture.  Therefore, everything which follows in the Book of Revelation is an account of what will happen after the Antichrist makes a peace treaty with Israel, as the Gentile church (now raptured) awaits with the Lord his return from heaven.

Dispensationalists claim that they find all of this in the Book of Revelation, because they interpret the book "literally," while the dreaded amillennarians (like me) "spiritualize" Bible prophecy, enabling us to explain away the otherwise obvious dispensational interpretation of the Book of Revelation. 

Over the course of my adult life, this was a debate both sides (dispenationalists and amillennarians) thought worth having.  In fact, I'm still engaged in it.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I ran across a recent interview with Dr. David Jeremiah, the well-known dispensational writer and pastoral successor to Tim LaHaye (Interview with Dr. David Jeremiah).  In discussing his newest book, Agents of the Apocalypse, Dr. Jeremiah offers a very surprising justification for introducing fictional characters into a book explaining the meaning of Revelation to the American masses.

Dr. Jeremiah tells the interviewer,

"We took 10 characters from the Book of Revelation and told the story of that book built around those individual characters or groups of characters and we introduced every chapter with a fictional element that drives this down into the hearts of people," the California megachurch pastor explained. "It's really been fun to see how it's opened up this book (Revelation) to so many people."

The characters and groups that begin each chapter of Agents of the Apocalypse, published in October, include "The Exile," "The Martyrs," "The Two Witnesses," "The Dragon," "The King," and several others, including the two "beasts," one from the sea and another from the earth.

Dr. Jeremiah contends that the best way to explain the Book of Revelation is by introducing fictional characters so as to "drive the message down into the hearts of people," and to open this book (Revelation) "to so many people."  I'm surprised at Dr. Jeremiah's justification for doing this because I always thought that the heart of the defense for reading Revelation through a dispensational lens, is that biblical prophecy only makes sense when interpreted "literally."

Why would Dr. Jeremiah move from a popular-styled verse by verse exposition of the text, as dispensationalists have done for years, to introducing fictional characters to help us understand it better and drive its message home?  I'm having trouble seeing the logic in this.

No doubt, the main reason is that the LaHaye/Jenkins Left Behind series paved the way for successive waves of Christian fiction focusing upon end times.  Even the self-professed "Bible Answer Man," Hank Hanegraaff, jumped into the lucrative Christian fiction market with an anti-dispensational series of novels tied to the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (The Last Disciple).  The Left Behind novels were unashamedly marketed as Christian fiction, and although they were overtly dispensational in their theology, they were not offering commentary on a specific book of the Bible.

I get that Dr. Jeremiah is using fictional characters as a literary device to explain and articulate the dispensational reading of the Apocalypse.  Yet does not this approach fly in the face of the long-standing dispensational presupposition that we must read the Book of Revelation literally to ensure that we do not spiritualize its meaning?  How is the introduction of fictional characters not spiritualizing biblical prophecy?  How is this not a serious undermining of the very reason why Dr. Jeremiah interprets Revelation as he does in the first place?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Tim LaHaye's successor, of all people, would be so unapologetic for using fictional characters to explain his "literal" understanding of biblical prophecy.  Jeremiah adds,

"these are really cool characters that we created. Judas Christopher is the name we gave to the anti-Christ, the one who's going to come and take over control of the world. Damon Detherow is the false prophet who is his religious and economic czar."

When I think about it, giving the Antichrist and false prophet fictional names and seeing them as "cool characters" is but another way of doing what dispensationalists have always done--attempting to interpret the Bible in light of current events.  But when there are not obvious candidates for the Antichrist and False Prophets in the evening news, why not just make up substitutes who do the same thing dispensationalists expect to happen at the time of the end?

I hope my dispensational friends can see the irony that we spiritualizing amillennarians strive to resist such efforts to explain Revelation through any means other than interpreting Scripture by Scripture (Harold Camping aside).  We work from clear passages to harder texts.  Striving to read the Book of Revelation through the broader lens of redemptive history, amillennarians believe the Book of Revelation is a divine commentary on those Old Testament prophecies which find their fulfillment in Christ at both his first and second advents.  The key to interpreting the symbols in the Book of Revelation is to determine how they are used in the Old Testament.  The apocalypse clearly reflects the already-not yet tension found throughout New Testament eschatology. 

Fictional characters cannot help us understand this book--but real biblical characters (like those in the Old Testament) can.  Shouldn't we turn to them first?  Granted, some amillennarians have tied the Antichrist to current events and historical personages, such as the papacy during the Reformation and post-Reformation periods.  Yet in most cases, Reformed writers avoid identifying a particular Pope as "the" Antichrist.

Many more have embraced the wise counsel of Geerhardus Vos, who warned Christians that there will be a number of end-times prophecies we simply cannot fully understand until they are fulfilled--but this will be at that time when the Lord returns, when all prophetic speculation is no longer an issue.

Using fictional characters to "explain" the Book of Revelation is the last thing I would expect a dispensationalist prophecy expert to do.  I guess the times have changed.  Fiction sells.

Hal Lindsey Celebrates his 85th Birthday -- But His Mustache Is Only 40

End times prognosticator Hal Lindsey just celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday.  Although his 1969 book Late Great Planet Earth was the first theology book I read on my own as a teenager, I have since moved far away from Lindsey's dispensational premillennialism.

While I am thankful that God has granted Mr. Lindsey long life and good health, I cannot help but wonder if Lindsey is surprised to have lived this long without seeing the Rapture.

One thing has always bothered me about Lindsey--besides his eschatology.  The older he gets, the darker his mustache becomes.  Men usually start to go grey at the chin, temples, and mustache in their late 40's.  Indeed, Lindsey has a fine head of silver hair--the well-earned sign of long life.  But his mustache is a whole generation younger than the rest of him!

One of the most popular posts in the history of this blog was "signs of the end" and the changing colors of Hal Lindsey's mustache (There Will Be Signs on the Earth).  And so as we wish Mr. Lindsey a happy birthday, we wonder, if like the leaves changing color in the Fall, whether or not his mustache will grow old with him--or if it will continue to stay 40.

In Light of All the Hubbub About the Re-Release of "Left-Behind," It Is Time to Check the "Rapture Index"

It has been a while since we checked the "Rapture Index."  You'd think with the Ebola crisis, Isis, Putin's Mussolini-like antics, the "Rapture Index" would be at an all-time high.

But no, it stands at 185, down from an earlier high this year of 188.  Looks like improving economic numbers are driving down the likelihood of the Lord's return, despite an increase of plagues (Ebola) and Satanism in Oklahoma.

I am not making this up.  The Rapture Index

Left Behind All Over Again?

The cynic in me understands that there is big money to be made on rapture movies, which is why film-makers keep on cranking them out.  The claim is made that these films are intended to lead people to Christ--the stark reality is that they really don't.  But they do make money for those making them, apparently, lots of money.  In fact, we will be treated to two rapture films in just one year.  A couple of weeks ago I posted about another new rapture film, Final Watch.

Billed as the "scariest Christian movie ever," "Final Watch: The Rapture" is marketed as a sure fire way to scare someone into accepting Jesus by using the horror film genre to warn unbelievers (as well as careless "professing" Christians) of the terror of being left behind after the Rapture occurs (h.t. Gene Veith--Cranach).

Now the 2000 Left behind movie, starring Kirk Cameron is being "replaced" (dispensationalists love this word) by a new version of Left Behind, starring everybody's favorite actor, Nicolas Cage.  The sure sign of career failure in Hollywood is when B-list actors like Cage start turning up in moves like this one.  Michael York comes to mind.

And, of course, we are treated to the obligatory movie poster featuring a packed airplane--which we know will either crash because the pilot is a Christian and is suddenly raptured away from the controls at a critical moment in the flight, or suddenly, the plane will be missing a whole bunch of passengers who instantaneously disappear to the horror of all those left behind.

The commercial success of AMC's The Walking Dead, is clearly be responsible for this spate of rapture movies, because one of the promo pictures from the new version of Left behind, tells us of the horrors of having to go through the tribulation, aping the critical issue faced by Walking Dead's main character, Sheriff Rick Grimes and the ubermensch himself, his son Carl.  The rules go out the window after the rapture, just like they do after the zombie apocalypse.

One more pet peeve of mine is, why do characters in movies of this genre always have highly improbable nicknames?  "Buck" Williams sounds far more like a Seinfeld quip applied to George Costanza, than to a nickname someone actually possesses.  Where are the guys named Bob, Steve, Mike, or Fred?  You know, like real people . . . 

If you haven't heard enough, here's the website so you can check it out for yourself:  Left Behind All Over Again

The Christian "Horror" Film Designed to "Scare the Living Daylights Out of Non-Believers"

This is what happens when you lose confidence--or if you never had confidence--in the power of the gospel to create faith.  The same thing holds true for those who do not regard the sacraments as the divinely-appointed means to sustain that faith created by the gospel (cf. Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 65).  Without confidence in God's chosen means to create and sustain faith, why not engage in evangelism by manipulation?

Billed as the "scariest Christian movie ever," "Final Watch: The Rapture" is marketed as a sure fire way to scare someone into accepting Jesus by using the horror film genre to warn unbelievers (as well as careless "professing" Christians) of the terror of being left behind after the Rapture occurs (h.t. Gene Veith--Cranach).

There is no question that the final product is slick and well-presented (the website is first rate).  I do not doubt for a minute, the movie will achieve its purpose--to scare people.

But for the Christian, the return of Jesus Christ is pure gospel, and not something which should frighten us.  Jesus' return is the blessed hope (Titus 2:13), when we shall see Jesus as he is (1 John 3:2-3).  It is that moment when death is finally defeated, when the curse is overturned, and the time when every tear is wiped from our eyes (Revelation 21:4).  For those in Christ, the return of our Savior is not to feared, but is something for which we eagerly wait. 

For the non-Christian, however, the second coming of Christ is pure law (Matthew 25:41).  There is not one bit of hope or good news for those outside of Christ, once he returns and every eye beholds him and the heavenly host in their collective glory.  For those who have rejected the Savior, this is the moment in which the terrible realization dawns that it would be far better to be buried in an avalanche (Revelation 6:16) than face the wrath of the lamb!

In the hands of film-makers seeking to terrify people so as not to miss out on the rapture, the gospel is mutated into something like the old Sunday school refrain, "oh be careful little hands what you do."  The law, on the other hand, becomes trviialized into yet another post-apocalypse Hollywood thriller, the likes of which every fan of The Walking Dead has seen many times before, and to which viewers grow increasingly desensitized.  The law is now presented as "you certainly don't want to live through anything like that!"

We should not be surprised that this happens when folks don't really believe that the preached gospel is the power of God unto salvation, or that the penalty for breaking God's law--even but a single time (James 2:10)--is to face the wrath of God for all eternity without a mediator or his cross.

I don't question the motives behind those making and distributing the film.  I grew up in the dispensational world where such things are common--remember Thief in the Night and Left Behind?  In fact, I assume that folks behind this movie have the best of intentions--a desire to see people come to faith in Christ. 

Because of my own personal interest in eschatology, I'll stick with the preaching of the law in all its terror, and the gospel in all its wonder.  Scaring the living daylights out of people in this manner falls far short of the power of the means which God has given us in his word.  And even worse, The Final Watch trivializes the blessed hope, by reducing Christ's return to the Netflix category, "Horror."  Attempting to scare people into the kingdom (based on an improper view of law and gospel) will help create that myriad of scoffers about which Peter has warned us (2 Peter 3:1-13). 

End Times Smack Down! The Third Eagle Takes on John Hagee!!!!

If you watch this, please understand in advance, this will consume fifteen minutes of your life which you can never get back.  On the other hand, it is entertaining (if these prophecy pundit types fascinate you), and it certainly provides a lesson in how not to understand biblical eschatology.  (h.t. Robin)

Now John Hagee Jumps In

In the previous post (The Russians Are Coming), I made mention of "a Russian-Muslim alliance which threatens the nation of Israel, [which] has long been a feature of dispensational prophecy punditry."  John Hagee explains this much better than I can.  Notice Hagee's erroneous assumption that Ezekiel 38-39 refers to the modern nation of Russia, ignoring both the historical context of the original prophecy, and the reinterpretation of Gog and MaGog by John in Revelation 20.