Returning to the year 2,000 "Jesus is coming" fiasco, and how
it may have had a negative effect on some Christians, I have
mentioned before that in the Scriptures, Jesus offers a very
serious warning regarding those people who cause His children
to fall from the faith. Please realize that in the following
verse, the word "offend" is somewhat of a mistranslation. It
is derived from the Greek word "skandalizo". According to my
Greek lexicon, the primary meaning of this word is "to put a
stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another
may trip and fall, metaph. to offend". Jesus specifically
said:

"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which
believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth
of the sea."
Matthew 18:6, KJV

So it is indeed serious business to cause one to fall away
from the faith. Tragically, in spite of the fact that these
American Christian leaders and preachers were so very wrong
regarding their predictions that Jesus would return in the
year 2,000, apparently, as is evidenced by the message that
I received from this person, some of them are still at it,
and are still trying to force their interpretation upon the
Scriptures. Obviously, these false prophets cannot deny that
adding fifty-two years to 1948 was a major blooper on their
part. Not only did they lead many Christian people astray,
but they gave free ammunition to the enemies of our faith;
that is, to the atheists, and made us Christians look like
half-witted idiots. These leaders have been a reproach to
the name of Christ.

But apparently, some of them still can't seem to let go of
the idea that there must have been some secret meaning in
Jesus' words regarding the Parable of the Fig Tree, and the
word "generation". They are still trying to squeeze a deeper
meaning out of it, and still attempting to figure out how
the number fifty-two fits into the equation. Having realized
their error in adding 52 to 1948, some of these leaders are
now suggesting to their followers that the triggering event
for counting to the year of the Lord's Return, was not the
birth of the nation of Israel in May of 1948, but rather the
1967 "Six Day War", in which, against all odds, Israel was
victorious over her Arab enemies, and reclaimed the eastern
half of Jerusalem, as well as the Golan Heights, (which were
recaptured a second time during the 1973 Yom Kippur War).

In other words, if this person's email message to me is any
indication of what is now happening in American prophetic
circles, then these Christian leaders have now scrapped the
52 + 1948 equation, (and rightly so), and are now using the
52 + 1967 equation. In other words, as this person points
out in his message, it seems that some of these preachers
are now suggesting that Jesus will make His Appearance in
the year 2019; that is, 52 + 1967.

So what are my thoughts on the above speculation? Well, quite
frankly, at this point in time, I honestly don't know in what
year Jesus will return, and I am not ashamed to say so. As I
have already pointed out, I am waiting for certain Endtime
events to occur, so that I can get my prophetic bearing, and
hopefully, by God's Grace, properly gauge where we are at in
the Endtime timeline. Until I am absolutely certain of this,
and have a good idea of when Jesus will be returning, please
don't expect me to publicly state any given year, as some of
these American preachers have so foolishly done, to their
own shame.

Since the time that I first began this online ministry not
quite fourteen years ago, I have never offered a date, and I
have absolutely no intentions of offering one now; so please
don't hold your breath. For the record, I have been reading
the news, watching world developments, and patiently waiting
for some of the Endtime prophetic events to be fulfilled for
almost forty years; and I will keep on waiting. If, by God's
Will, I should die anytime soon before the Lord appears, I
suppose that my waiting will be over, as I'll go to see Him
face-to-face anyway. As the Apostle Paul so famously wrote:

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I
live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what
I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is
far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more
needful for you."
Philippians 1:21-24, KJV

But no matter what I do, one thing is absolutely certain: I
most certainly won't place my faith in anything that these
American false prophets are saying, no matter how convincing
it may sound. I have told my readers many times before that
Jesus very specifically stated in the Gospel of Matthew that
we can know a tree by its fruits; and the prophetic fruit of
some of these American spiritual leaders is obviously rotten
and definitely not good for one's health. Jesus stated the
following regarding the false prophets of His own time:

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheepÕs
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall
know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns,
or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth
good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into
the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
Matthew 7:15-20, KJV

Those of you who are Christians, and who are reading this,
may have already been familiar with that final verse, but
did you know that when read in its proper context, Jesus was
actually warning us about false prophets? Well, there it is
before your very eyes. The evil fruit of a false prophet is
obviously a false prophecy . . . like the year 2,000 "Jesus
is coming" prophecy.

In part one of this series, I mentioned that I would offer
an explanation regarding why I don't believe that Jesus was
using the Parable of the Fig Tree as a veiled message which,
as we have already seen, some American preachers have chosen
to interpret as being a cryptic reference to the creation of
the State of Israel in 1948. While I have already presented
some of my arguments to explain why I've adopted my current
position, there are other reasons as well, which I will now
share with you.

In addressing this issue, I think that it is important that
we first understand the huge difference which exists between
many people of our current time, and those who lived almost
two thousand years ago. Unlike ourselves, who live in a very
loud, fast-paced, modern, gadget-oriented world filled with
all kinds of electronic and technological distractions, the
people of two thousand years ago lived in a more leisurely,
natural world. By leisurely, I do not mean that they all led
easy lives; after all, the Jews of that period were in fact
subservient to Roman domination and cruelty; but what I do
mean, is that they led slower lives, compared with today.

Because the Jews led slower lives, without all of our modern
trappings and distractions, obviously, they had more time to
observe the natural world around them, and they were in fact
in tune with it. From the calendar that they used, to when
they chose to plant their crops, or to breed their animals,
or to make long journeys, as well as the very holy days that
they celebrated, everything that they did was in large part
determined by their observation of the natural world.

It is to this environment that Jesus arrived preaching the
Gospel of Salvation. While the proud people of the twenty-
first century like to boast of their intelligence, I posit
that the people of that era were equally as smart. This does
not mean that they understood all of the advanced scientific
concepts that have been discovered in our current time, but
they weren't stupid either. In fact, as I have noted before,
unlike some Bible-bashing evolutionists, I believe that God
created the first man and woman with intelligence. I do not
believe that the first couple communicated by grunting and
groaning, as is so often depicted in a number of modern pro-
evolutionary movies. Yet at the same time, I also believe
that the people of 2,000 years ago were simpler as well.

In the case of the Twelve Apostles, to whom the message of
Matthew chapter twenty-four was directed, we also need to
remember that they weren't exactly what we would call the
cream of Jewish society. They weren't highly educated men.
The majority were fishermen from Galilee, along with a few
revolutionaries, (the Zealots), a tax collector, etc. Jesus
undoubtedly kept this fact in mind when He spoke with them.
Yet, at the same time, I also suspect that it was probably
because of their lower social status, that Jesus chose them
in the first place. For more on this topic, I encourage you
to read my article "The Only Credentials You Need", as well
as "The Wisdom Of God vs The Philosophy Of Men".

My point in all of this, is that Jesus fully understood into
what kind of world He was coming, and He adapted His message
so that it would reach, and be understood, by as many people
as possible. What better way was there to reach out to those
people then, if not by speaking to them of things with which
they were already familiar in their daily lives?


Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
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