The Effects of Futurism

The Effects of Futurism

Recently, we acquired some old books on prophecy from the internet. They are listed and linked to in the Bibliography.

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One of them had a very interesting statement on the effect that Futurism would have on the church.

Now, if the theories of these writers are entirely groundless, the effects of their error may prove extremely fatal to the Church. The strongest bulwark against the revived zeal of the Romish Church will have been taken away when it is most needed; and the danger of a renewed apostasy will have been fearfully increased, at the time when its guilt would be most aggravated, and its punishment most speedy and sure. A spirit of feverish and skeptical doubt, the most fatal to real progress in divine truth, will have been injected, without warrant, into the  minds of thousands; the light which the word of God has thrown, for the benefit of the Church, on behalf of the whole period of her history will have been quenched in darkness; and her hopes for the future, by a perplexed and fallacious application of irrelevant prophecies, be involved in a chaos of fanciful conjecture and inextricable confusion.  First Elements of Sacred Prophecy by Rev T.R. Birks, page 2, London 1853

He seems to have had the foresight on our present church worldview quite accurately. We have gone from the crazy notion of a rapture, which is what they were teaching in Birks’ day, to the hoax of Blood Moons. Once you deconstruct what prophecy means into what one imagines it means, all the extravagantly concocted spurious errors become doctrine. This lunacy of errors has blinded many a believer into staying babies, continually feeding on the “milk” of the Word. They have been convinced that they cannot read the Bible for themselves. For they do not test what their spiritual leaders claim is in the Text. If they did, they would be throwing many spiritual leaders out. They come to the erroneous conclusion that it is they who cannot understand prophecy and they are stupid.

We are here to tell the congregation of the Lord. YOU ARE NOT STUPID! These things are not in Scripture. There is no rapture, seven-year tribulation, or political antichrist in the Bible.

Whether they are misinformed on their own, or they are following some other teacher they have not checked out. They are making it up. The story they tell is a scary one, and because scared people put more money in the collection plate there is no reason for them to stop. They are seeking followers and financial gain over the sure word of prophecy.

See Also: The Messianic/Hebrew Roots movement and Dispensationalism (part 1)

See Also: Faith without Dispensationalism

See Also: Futurism – What it does to your Faith

Hosea 14 – The Ten Lost Tribes

The promiss of a return is in Hosea 14.

Jerusalem_from_mt_olives1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.  2 Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept that which is good and we will render the fruit of our lips.  3 Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In thee the orphan finds mercy.”

God’s call to “Return” is in the continual tense in the Hebrew. Meaning that He never gives up on this call to return to Him [Song 6:13]. However their “stumble” is over and done. They had stumbled into the worship of the work of their hands i.e. idols. It is not a permanent condition they just need to pick themselves up and start walking back.

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