LET US BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS AND THE DECEPTIONS OF SATAN
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” – Psalm 119:105
Thus we have the prophetic word [made] more sure; and you do well by paying attention to it as to a lamp that shines in a dark place, until the day breaks and the morning star rises, in your hearts. For you know before all this, that no prophecy of Scripture arises from private interpretation. For prophecy was never brought by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit” – 2 Peter 1:19-21
The year is 1874 and a certain Nelson Barbour, together with the movement called "Midnight Cry", awaits the end of the "present order of things", an event announced several times and several years before.
Having passed this date with a "nothing done", Barbour will begin to argue that since 1874 a special invisible presence of Jesus Christ has begun on Earth to prepare a flock of the elect in view of the imminent end of the world.
Charles Taze Russell will become Barbour's closest collaborator, and will help him formulate the date of 1914 for the end of the present order of things, reinterpreting with new calculations the numerological speculations widespread in the post-Millerite Adventism environment.
Obviously 1914 also had to concern the end of the present order of things and not simply the presence of Christ but so be it…
1914, though it witnessed the beginning of a bloody war, did not bring about an end.
Again, however, an attempt was made to "stand", despite the hasty and erroneous statement, saying that not the end but the Lord's invisible presence in heaven had begun.
It goes without saying that, after this, it was then the turn of 1919, 1925, 1975... although today a certain historical revisionism is in vogue, similar to that of the "Catholic historians", which insists on saying that things did not go Like this.
For the sake of fairness it must be said that Adventists or Bible students were not the only ones or the first to make doomsday declarations.
Listed below are several “prophets” and dates stated in the past for the end of the world.
• 992 - Second Bernard of Thuringia. • 999 - December 31, 999 is the date of the end of the world according to the apocryphal gospels ("a thousand years after the birth of Christ").
• 1186 - In September of 1186, according to the astrologer John of Toledo, who had calculated an alignment of the planets for that period.
• 1524 - February 20, 1524 was to be a year filled with disasters, floods and catastrophes culminating in the end of the world, according to astronomers Johann Staffler and Jakob Pflaumen.
• 1532 - According to the Viennese bishop Frederick Nausea.
• 1533 - October 3, 1533 was the date calculated by the German mathematician Stifelius. Also in 1533 a huge fire would have destroyed the Earth but, according to the Anabaptist Melchior Hoffmann, the city of Strasbourg would have been saved.
• 1537 - According to the astrologer Pierre Turrel (who also predicted the end of the world for 1544, 1801 and 1814).
• 1584 - According to the astrologer Cyprian Leowitz.
• 1588 - According to the sage Regiomontanus (pseudonym of Johannes Müller, a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer).
• 1648 - According to Rabbi Sabbati Zevi, of Smyrna. • 1654 - According to the Alsatian physician Helisaeus Roeslin.
• 1665 - According to Quaker Solomon Eccles.
• 1704 - According to Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa.
• 1719 - May 19, 1719 according to the mathematician Jacques Bernoulli
• 1732 - According to some interpretations of the writings of Nostradamus.
• 1757 - According to Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg.
• 1774 - According to Joanna Southcott, leader of an English religious sect.
• 1761 - April 5, 1761, according to religious fanatic William Bell.
• 1820 - October 14, 1820, according to the prophet John Turner, new leader of Joanna Southcott's sect (the one who predicted 1774).
• 1836 - According to complex calculations based on the Book of Revelation, John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) came to the conclusion that the "expiry date" of the world should have been June 18, 1836.
• 1844 - October 22, 1844, according to Baptist preacher William Miller, again based on the book of the prophet Daniel.
• 1881 - According to the calculations of some scholars of the geometric measurements of the pyramids; the date of the apocalypse was later redefined to 1936 and later to 1953. • 1947 - According to John Ballou Newbrough, one of America's many prophets.
• 1967 - According to Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church
• 1975 - In addition to Jehovah's Witnesses was Herbert W. Armstrong, head of the Worldwide Church of God.
• 1977 - According to John Wroe, John Turner's successor as leader of Joanna Southcott's sect, who made his prediction in 1823.
• 1980 - According to an ancient Arab astrological omen. And according to the astrologer Jeane Dixon the end of the world would have come following the impact of a huge comet, during the 80s.
• 1999 - According to some interpretations of Nostradamus' prophecies (exactly like in 1732)
• 2000 - For many, the year of the Millennium Bug, ie a flaw that if not promptly fixed would have brought technology to the beginning of the 1900s, could have been the end of the world as we know it.
• 2012 - December 21, 2012 is the "principal" date of the list. Among the various peoples who cite this date, the most famous is undoubtedly the Maya people, who calculated for this day the end of one era and the beginning of another (and according to some, these passages of eras are always accompanied by huge environmental disasters).
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| Are we sure we are not falling into yet another deception of Satan? |
And obviously the list above refers only to the most common news: it would have been too long to list them all.
Even if, as we will see shortly, the Lord was referring to a particular period, we understand well why he said to his disciples, the real ones, “Take care that no one misleads you; for many will come by my name, saying, 'It is I,' and, 'The appointed time has drawn near.' Do not go after them” – Luke 21:8
To avoid falling into yet another deception of Satan, therefore, we must cling more than ever to the Word of God and pray to Our Loving Father to give us understanding and wisdom - Ecclesiastes 7:12; Proverbs 2:1-6; John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:14-17
Although we are perfectly aware that we still do not know many things, thank God we have learned some very important things that can help us not to be deceived, therefore awake.
One of these is understanding the centrality of Israel in biblical prophecy.
Satan has misled humanity in general, through religions, creating a symbolic Israel, managing to give the idea of a "parallel truth" and obviously falsifying the Bible but without directly or openly denying it.
All those who have been led to believe that Israel is no longer in God's purpose or that it is now "a thing apart", apply various prophecies to their organization (misinterpreted, too) or even to their ministers.
It is easy to imagine that these, without necessarily going so far as to declare a specific date for the end of the world, if they do not change when the time comes, will fall during the coming deceptions of Satan, the Greatest Deceiver.
We know, to begin with, that since Israel is central to biblical prophecy, no date prior to its existence (or re-existence) held up as an "end" can be entertained at all.
This alone already eliminates most of the statements made even in the recent past (and this also applies to the "presence" of Christ).
Obviously we know several other things that lead us to exclude even the later dates because the return of Christ would have been evident with the "wars in one place after another" and the more or less direct involvement of the nation of Israel.
True… there have been several wars since 1948 and some have involved multiple nations (such as the Gulf War) so we are not in a position to “relax”: we must be careful – Mark 13:35, 36
In this regard, however, let us also reflect on the effect that all these proclamations have had on the world at large.
Is it possible that humanity in general has gone to the other extreme and that Satan's deceptions were not limited to that?
Let's reflect.
We know that religions exist to mislead from the truth of God's Word and that the whole world lies in the power of the wicked – 2 Peter 2:1-3; 1 John 5:19, 20
If this is true, and God's Word says it, why have so many dates declared for the end of the world and then shown as false?
Were not people, blind adherents of these religions, already misled by Satan?
Perhaps stating a wrong date would make them “more backslidden than before”?
And why would Satan have an interest in clearly showing himself a liar or at least revealing these tools as false?
“If Satan expels Satan, he has become divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom endure?” said the Lord in Matthew 12:26.
So isn't it strange, especially for us who have understood the true role of religions, that the ruler of the world has something declared that is denied years later and does it countless times?
If we recognize that, as spirit creature and ruler of the world, he is much more powerful and intelligent than we are, perhaps we could speculate that the ultimate purpose of these statements was another.
Those who live for thousands of years can afford to make long-term plans exactly as a man would make long-term plans but from his temporal point of view.
Maybe a little boy can think about going to university in the future, imagine the job he will do, whether he will get married or not and the country where he will go to live.
We human beings, if we are not too old now, can make plans for the next 20 or 30 years, can't we?
Obviously “20 or 30” years is already a long time for us, because they already represent a third or a quarter of our life.
Let's try to relate this simple concept to someone who may live not 70 or 80 years but thousands of years – compare Genesis 3:4; John 8:44; Revelation 12:9
We know that he is called "opposer" and "slanderer" and is the father of lies.
Not only that, but the lawless person who uses it will use "every unrighteous deception" to mislead more people from the truth of God's Word - 2 Thessalonians 2:9. 10
Putting two and two together, it is not difficult to imagine that even the statements of these "prophets" in past or recent history have had a purpose that goes far beyond the deception itself, which occurred at that moment.
Knowing human nature deeply, he evidently also knows the tendency to go from one extreme to the other and this truth is well known to us too, if we are thoughtful people.
One of Aesop's most famous fables, in fact, touched on this very aspect.
Summing up, the fable said the following.
In a village there lived a shepherd boy who had to watch over his father's sheep at night. He was bored and so he decided to play a joke: while the other people were sleeping he started shouting: "Wolf, wolf!", So everyone woke up and ran to help him.
But the prankster pastor told them it was a joke. This joke continued for several days, until one night when a wolf actually came.
The shepherd began to shout: "Wolf, wolf!", but no one came to help him because everyone thought it was the usual joke. Thus the wolf devoured all the sheep (other versions following the original narrate that it was the shepherd boy who was devoured).
Some today, precisely because of these false declarations, have come to argue that the explanation given by the Lord to his disciples (which speaks of wars, pestilence, earthquakes, etc.) did not concern the "sign of His presence" but simply the trend of life as it always was.
In practice, the Lord would have said "there will be wars, earthquakes and pestilences because it is normal for these things to happen but they will not concern my arrival or my presence at all".
Unfortunately, however, this interpretation is belied by the scriptural context and simple logic.
If Jesus was speaking of wars, food shortages and earthquakes in a general sense (i.e. completely unrelated to his arrival) what would be the meaning of his next words “All these things are the beginning of pains of distress ” ? - Matthew 24:8
If there is a "beginning" there is also an "end" and if only the beginning lasted 2000 years... one has to worry about how many years the final phase should include (hoping that there is not also a phase intermediate).
The Lord also says that "because of the increase of lawlessness the love of the majority will cool off" but if this situation concerned the past two thousand years we should conclude that humanity, until the first century, loved each other much more and that exactly from the first century onwards (and only from the first century) has had a fall in good feelings.
Furthermore verse 13 says “but whoever perseveres to the end will be saved”… but to the end of what?
If this situation concerned the span of 2000 years, the "end" would concern the end of one's life, from generation to generation, that is, all those who died during the persecution but even here a problem arises related to true worship.
We have learned that true worship ends at the end of the first century, in fulfillment of prophecy – compare 1 John 2:18
So the question is simple: If the people Jesus was referring to were the people alive over the span of 2,000 years—that is, a time when there was no longer true worship—what should they have "endured" in?
Perhaps they should have persevered in reciting the rosary, praying to the Madonna or something similar?
Not to mention, of course, that in the same context and period Jesus speaks of a certain good news that would be “preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end would come” – Matthew 24:14
Now… even assuming that this preaching could last two thousand years (we know it will last much less) who would have preached it? Catholics, perhaps? Maybe the Orthodox? The Jews themselves?
It is true that the crucial event they should have been paying attention to would have been the disgusting thing established in a holy place, but acknowledging this does not cut out the previous verses (or context) which explain precisely "the beginning of the pains of distress". while the next, crucial part explains the final part of the tribulation which concerns the disgusting thing and the period that "will be shortened" - Matthew 24:22
As we have also seen in the articles dedicated to the number of seals, trumpets and bowls, we know that the Lord, in his description. it stops right at the sixth and then at the seventh seal or when “the sun will be darkened, the moon will no longer give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be upset. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. He will send the angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather all his elect of him from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” – Matthew 24:29-31 compare Revelation 6:12-17; 8:1, 2
The principle of the pains of affliction, therefore, does not concern the wars, pestilence or earthquakes that have occurred over the past two thousand years but what is described by the second, third and fourth horsemen of the Apocalypse – Revelation 6:3-7
And it goes without saying that all these things simply demonstrate what Jesus was explaining to his followers: the sign of His coming, described by the very first of these horsemen - compare Matthew 24:3 with Revelation 6:1, 2
So let's not be fooled.
Over two thousand years there have been many wars, many earthquakes and many pestilences but Jesus could not refer to this, first of all because he was speaking to his disciples (who no longer existed since the end of the first century) and secondly because it concerned the centrality of Israel and the preaching of the good news: news that was no longer preached according to the knowledge and will of God.
And obviously also with regard to the false prophets, who have existed in all ages of history, he could not refer specifically to them but to those who would have sprung up like mushrooms just before and during the beginning of the pains of affliction.
If there have already been these wicked statements in recent history that have identified them for what they are, we can imagine what will happen when the next great war breaks out.
Many will say it will "lead to Armageddon," which is definitely the last war and things like that exactly as it happened during World War I and then World War II.
They will confuse the “beginning of the pains of distress,” which did not begin in the first century or even in 1914, with the complete end and this, among other things, will put them in the right position to welcome the false prophet because… what will happen , according to both Daniel and Revelation, after the first and terrible wars that will have to occur? - Daniel 11:36-39; Revelation 13:11, 14, 15
For this reason they will fall into error, misleading and being misled, and the result for many of them will effectively be the epilogue of Aesop's fable.
After having cried "wolf, wolf" hundreds of times over the centuries but especially in the last period, a part of humanity will not wake up when the Lord really comes but to judge.
By then, Satan's unjust deceptions will have made much deeper sense and his "long-term plan" will have success for those who perish - 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
Having the tremendous privilege of knowing these things, what is the responsibility we have?
As we have already seen in a previous article we have a duty to speak to others even if our knowledge is still limited and even if we do not have the authority of the early Christians.
At the same time, let us pay attention to ourselves lest we fall into the snares of the devil – 1 Peter 5:6-8
Let us stick strictly to the Word, studying it carefully and asking for God's help, for only thus will we be protected - John 17:15, 20
Those who will be saved from the “great tribulation” will be a great crowd of people from all tribes and peoples and tongues and they will be people not misled by religion or false prophets so Satan's deceptions will not work for everyone.
We already do everything we can today to be among them - Psalm 119:9-16
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