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What was equally intriguing was the certainty projected in the printed summaries of the videos. The viewer was assured that the countdown to Armageddon had started and that the final sign of the end was the formation of the Franco-German E.C. army. The 666 video was said to be the culmination of 70,000 hours of intensive study and promised that it would make the viewer a firsthand witness of the future.
This prognosticator will undoubtedly take his place alongside the thousands of interpreters since the time of Jesus who were all certain of their identification of the Antichrist, the meaning of 666, the date of our Lord's return and a host of other prophetic details. These were pious believers, many of them extremely learned and steeped in Scripture, yet their predictions proved wrong. There are poignant lessons to be learned from their legacy.
Although numerous early examples of failed prophetic schemes and schedules could be cited, the Reformation period was especially abundant in end-time predictions. Martin Luther denounced the Pope as the Antichrist and the Ottoman Turks, who were threatening to overrun Europe, as the Gog of Ezekiel 38. In 1530 the reformer was so convinced that the end was about to occur that he hurried to publish his translation of Daniel as a warning. He feared the translation would not be completed before the Second Advent.
Some radical Anabaptists began predicting precise dates for the end. Hans Hut and Leonhard Schiemer both set Pentecost, 1528 as the time. In 1530, a Hessian Anabaptist prophesied three successive end dates--September 11, November 11 and Christmas, 1530. Melchior Hoffman announced that Strasbourg was to be the site of the New Jerusalem and that the Lord would appear there in 1533.
Hoffman's disciples took his teachings a step further. The city of Munster in Westphalia was seen as the New Jerusalem where the faithful were to gather and prepare the way for Christ's return by force. Those who were not converted had to leave the city. In a terrible battle, the radicals were massacred, and Anabaptism was given a black eye.
Of the hundreds of end-time scenarios spun out in America, perhaps that of William Miller is most dramatic. Miller was a Baptist minister and an ardent student of the prophetic Scriptures. He was a convinced premillennialist, looking for Christ's immediate return. His studies convinced him that the Second Advent would occur between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. Miller had a following estimated to be as high as 100,000 at the peak of his prophetic activity. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church had its origins in the wake of Miller's radical teaching.
The integrity of the whole prophetic enterprise is brought into question by past and present "calendarizers". The cover of Vernard Eller's book on Revelation shows a jigsaw puzzle with certain pieces missing. The intimation is that calendarizers treat the Bible like a box of jigsaw pieces. While they take the pieces out one by one and fit them into a picture, history has shown that they frequently create pieces of their own to fill in the gaps they so desperately want filled. Then they often have to trim some of the remaining pieces to fit the prophetic picture they think should emerge. This flexibility of apocalyptic interpretation is bewildering to the skeptic and discredits the legitimate balanced study of prophecy.
Furthermore, apocalyptic belief, under certain circumstances, can lead to tragic results. The Munsterites of the 1530s and the Millerites of the 1840s are just two examples. The Branch Davidians are an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventists, making David Koresh a spiritual descendant of William Miller. Obsession with apocalyptic teaching can distort one's view of the total teaching of Scripture and lead to horrific results.
Eschatology shapes social attitudes for good or for ill. The pessimistic premillennialism which became so prominent in America after 1860 largely undercut Christian social action. Evangelist D.L. Moody popularized what became known as the "lifeboat ethic" through the description of his calling--"I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said to me, `Moody, save all you can.' " The Christian's main concern, in Moody's view, was not the repair of a doomed world but the rescue of doomed souls--getting individuals off the sinking vessel of this world and into the lifeboat of salvation.
The net effect of this "the world is doomed" mentality was that Christians gave up on the future. The world situation had become so horrendous that there was nothing to be done but save souls and look for the Second Coming. Eschatology became an escape from the broad Christian mandate, rather than a motive to it.
An understanding of the history of prophetic interpretation should bring considerable humility to present-day prognosticators and caution to their followers. The Hal Lindseys and Grant Jeffreys of our day do not deserve the attention they are receiving, not because the Second Coming is not imminent--it has always been imminent, and we have been living in the last days, indeed the last hour, since Christ first came 2000 years ago (Romans 13:12, I John 2:18).
It's a matter of focus. There are two great biblical themes regarding the fulfilment of God's end-time purposes--what God will do and what we as God's people ought to be doing. We need to avoid any prophetic emphasis which gets us caught up in the mechanics of the former and leads to a neglect of the imperatives of the latter. And we need to resist any prophetic system which leads to a fixation on the calendar, current events, Israel, the Antichrist and escape from tribulation. "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority," cautioned Jesus (Acts 1:7).
Our focus needs to be on doing and being what God has called us to do and be (II Peter 3:11-12, Titus 2:13-14), trusting God to do what He surely will do in His own good time (I Corinthians 15:24-28).
Walter Unger is president of Columbia Bible College, Abbotsford, B.C., and a member of Bakerview MB Church.
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