What is Emerging in Prophecy?

Last Updated on Saturday, 20 November 2010 06:00 Written by Jim Fletcher Tuesday, 02 November 2010 00:44

After spending many years as editor for Master Books, the world’s leading publisher of creationism books, I observed up-close the hostility the world has for such frontlines ministries as Answers in Genesis, Creation Ministries International, and the Institute for Creation Research. The withering attacks made the gentle grace and steadiness of Henry Morris all the more breathtaking.

Sadly, our worst critics came from within the Church, not the wider, Darwinian world. It is an ironic, astonishing fact that we live in a time in which the Church has a problem with biblical authority. The early Genesis accounts are a flashpoint of controversy today, simply because many Christians first look at what the world teaches about origins; the biblical accounts are an afterthought, if not an outright embarrassment.

And yet, in my opinion, the premier worldview battle today is clearly between those who believe in the Bible’s predictive prophecy, and those who do not. Again, this titanic struggle is within the Christian community. In fact, non-believers are more apt to be open to discussions about prophecy fulfilled; they sense the end might be near. Many, many Christian leaders do not, at all.

The fiercest battle has shifted (although my creationist friends would argue vigorously with me about this, I suspect). For this I credit the sophisticated presentations of creationists like Ken Ham and John Morris. They have gained a significant degree of credibility in the culture. The faith of many has been bolstered by the sensible (may I say, brilliant) arguments of these leading apologists.

Bible prophecy and, specifically, Israel, garner the most ire from critics now, though. I am now involved in the publishing and promotion of Bible prophecy and pro Israel materials, and I’ve never seen anything like this hostility from critics. It has the feel of being almost unreal.

In fact, the hostility and opposition are other-worldly. As a friend said the other day, the opposition to Israel activism is vicious and unlike anything he’s ever seen.

The marginalization of pro Israel supporters and those who teach and believe in predictive prophecy has intensified just in the past year. The contempt that some have for Bible prophecy teachers is making it “safer” for prophecy critics to mock the idea of Christ’s Second Coming. The ranks of the critics are swelling and by extension, those who support Israel are being demonized as well.

An emphasis on Palestinian speakers coming to American churches and spreading the “Palestinian narrative” is having a dramatic effect. For some time I have been watching the actions of American Christian leaders, and there is an upsurge in criticism of Israel.

Members of the so-called Emergent Community, and their spiritual kin like Tony Campolo, are making inroads in churches, with their attacks on prophecy and Israel. Brian McLaren, a rising star on the lecture circuit, in his book A Generous Orthodoxy, wrote that the idea of a literal, imminent return of Christ is “pop-Evangelical eschatology.”

One wonders, has McLaren read 2 Peter 3? Elsewhere, he makes declarations apparently free from the fear that American Christians have actually read their Bibles:

“The Jewish people were told again and again you were once aliens and strangers in Egypt, so you better treat people well. Even though the neighbors of the Jewish people were always trying to conquer them, the Jewish people were never told to expand and conquer everybody else.”

Has McLaren read the book of Joshua?

There are a few voices of reason. Ray Yungen, in his book A Time of Departing, made the following point:

“Christians must remember that the authenticity of Christianity itself is predicated upon its prophecies coming to pass. Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, and various apostles and prophets of the Old and New Testaments make clear and direct references to particular events occurring in the future. If these events are only fantasies, then everything else could be deemed equally fictitious as well.”

Apologetics teachers need to internalize this, the reality that if the Bible’s prophecy isn’t true, the rest of it is open to doubt. Many times youth have asked me, “If Genesis [or the prophecies] isn’t true, how can I believe Jesus actually lived?”

And if you want to really understand where the Emergent Community is coming from, Bob DeWaay’s extraordinary book, The Emergent Church: Undefining Christianity. Bob has taken the time to really explore the roots of Emergent thinking, and he discovers that their eschatological views are key in understanding them. I urge you to get this book and read it, if you want to understand the growing hostility to prophecy teaching and Israel support. Just like dispensationalists and Zionists, the Emergents and their leftist friends also come with preconceived ideas, presuppositions. It’s just that they want us to believe they are enlightened thinkers who aren’t biased.

As Bob writes, the Emergent philosophy is effectively nihilistic:

“The result of this theology is despair, because under it there is no hope of knowing the truth.” This teaching touches on all aspects of life, including how we view the Middle East conflict.

A little-reported fact is that there are Arabs who don’t buy into the ideological attacks on Israel:

Tass Abu Saada, a Palestinian Christian, wrote online for Charisma magazine in December, 2008: “Replacement theology is from the devil himself.”

Replacement Theology is the teaching that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan for mankind, and the OT promises to the Jews have been transferred to Christians.

Again, McLaren and his many friends are infecting the Church with this virus, in their drive to marginalize the Jews and predictive prophecy:

“I believe it's time for Christians of good will to speak out more directly against the kind of Christian Zionism that treats the Palestinians with the same disregard that Jesus refused to be part of in his day regarding Samaritans. That kind of theology of divine favoritism needs to be abandoned as a moral embarrassment. It's time for Christians, Jews, and Muslims to come to the back fence and start conspiring together how to bring pressure on all parties, so that neither Israeli nor Palestinian children need to wake up day after day to the sounds of bullets, sirens, broken glass, exploding bombs, falling missiles, and mothers wailing in their grief.”

Of course, McLaren wants to avoid real discussion about why there are bombs and missiles falling in…Israel. Palestinian terrorism, the bane of the Middle East for a hundred years, drives this turmoil.

McLaren doesn’t want to write about that.

When the Bible’s predictive prophecy is attacked and marginalized, the rest of the Bible is open to attack (just as in the beginning—pun intended—Enlightenment thinkers first attacked Genesis). The Bible is the true guide for life, and everywhere, we see its practical value and relevance.

Think of the biblical prohibitions against sexual sin and deviancy. Now notice what the actor Richard Burton once said:

"The minute you start fiddling around outside the idea of monogamy, nothing satisfies anymore."

When our teachings jettison our lives from their biblical moorings—whether those teachings attack origins, the Bible’s philosophy for life, or predictive prophecy—we lose our way in every area.

This is the heinous legacy of the Emergents.

The Bible predicted their heresy and apostasy in exact detail a long time ago.

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