Apocalypse None
The shemitah is over.
Nothing happened.
I could list a dozen other proclamations of doom that have circulated in the last couple of years with the same result.
The doomsayers got huge play on social media and were spread far and why by Christians seeing them as harbingers (no pun intended) of the end of all things.
They were proof that Jesus was coming soon…and He is as mad as a wet cat.
Before the next round of not really apocalyptic non events grab your attention, let me give you a fact and a possible change of focus.
Jesus is already here.
His kingdom has come.
No, the kingdom is not here in it’s fullness and Jesus has not come physically to set up His final kingdom…but He is here and He is reigning all the same.
He is here in the hearts and hands of everyone who claims Him as Savior and Lord.
He is working and ruling the same way.
While we wait expectantly for something really godawful to happen to merit His return, He is calling on us to be His ambassadors and do His work in a world where there is already more than enough terror and tragedy to go around.
We expand the boundaries of His kingdom when we do and it’s the spread of that kingdom that will lead to His return, not the political machinations or sinful folly of mere men.
These are desperate times for many.
Your neighbors do not need prophets of doom, they need the hands and heart of Jesus Christ extended to them…they need the kingdom come into their lives as we do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven.
We are not called to proclaim the bad news, but the good…the best news there is.
This world is not our home, but we have been placed here to make it look like His to the degree we are able with His help.
May He find us working at His return, not spreading rumors of doom, but the promise of life.
Make your own application…
A-men.
There is much more to come on the Shemitah thing… next year or this Jewish year is supposedly a Jubilee when the big release happens. So they are just beginning.
The Blood Moons effect is still being ballyhooed. So that hasn’t quite passed yet.
Finally, some qualifying event will happen somewhere … something will shake somewhere.
This Shemitah is an unfalsifiable claim.
Amen.
I’m weary of “gloom and doom” Christianity. I been a great distance away from it now for a couple of years. “Spiritual overtime,” “the end is around the corner,” “You don’t know what will happen tomorrow, so get saved today.”
And, people wonder why some people want to run, not walk away from Christians. It’s not giving any glory to God, or Jesus. Go out and help someone. Show them the love Christ showed you. People get sick of hearing how bad they are, and then they are offered the solution, and abandoned after that. They don’t want to hear that if they aren’t getting better it’s because they aren’t praying enough, and don’t have the Holy Spirit. That just throws it back on them, and makes it a matter of works.
Rant over.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
To Michael, Paige, BD, and David, a hearty AMEN (shouted for emphasis!).
I am so done with all of this.
Sorry to be pithy, but what is the old saying? No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Yes, Michael we all need to follow the second great commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Beginning with me, now if Christians would just follow that guy who said that.
The article linked before was talking all about Israel and America, as though those are the only places God is interested in.
Here in Australia our Prime Minister got unexpectedly ousted on Monday night, but there’s nothing apocalyptic about that. It happens every few years.
Agree with Dread…it’s just beginning.
Have you heard the latest prophecy? A phoenix will rise out of a forested valley and fly all over the country to poop on the heads of celebrity pastors and drop burning brands on ‘Christian’ leaders who are abusing their positions in the church.
You heard it here first.
🙂
Enough of this nonsense!
And now for some America reality…
Syrians are heading to the United States. But the system that awaits them has proved perilous for others.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/population-2043/after-refugees-wash-ashore?mref=landing-big
What will Christians do?
Will they get involved?
God is bringing in the sheep.
Please note, comment #7 is meant as sarcasm. I am not a prophet and I am not hosting a prophecy conference, nor have I written any doom-and-gloom books, unless you count my fantasy novel. Well, at least I admit that I deal in fiction…
blood moons have more to do with hemorrhoids than prophesy
thoughtful & well-stated post. thanks.
I just came home from our church board meeting. I began the meeting asking what everyone thought of the shemitah. I got blank stares. My church is safe for now. 🙂
When Jesus is not the center of your doctrine, no telling what you will replace it with. Even prophecy conferences are there for one of two purposes – (1) to fill the void of no Jesus or (2) to keep people away from Jesus.
As God is my witness I have never heard the word, shemitah, except in discussion on this blog.
Not one of the Christians at Elsinore in my news feed posted anything on the subject that I ever saw….
We’re safe too MLD 😉
Good post.
Being amillennial, I’m not exposed to Christian doomers, except when referenced here. What’s odd about this “event” is the play it got on a gun forum I frequent, along with a gigillion youtube vids of all stripes.
i remember when a Christian friend was ready to hit me over my y2k mockery. Fortunately, no one I interact with face to face bought into this one.
Surfer51 says: Syrians coming to the US…
God is bringing in the sheep???
More like, God is bringing in the Jihad!!! We are the sheep for the slaughter…
once a cc guru, why wouldn’t you think that God could use this refugee crisis to His glory and for the salvation of souls? (re your comment , number 14)
I agree, that the governments should be wise as they start processing all these people, and be on the look out for some who are coming through with wrong motives. However, I believe that there are many more sincere, frightened, hurting people who need help from God’s people, in Jesus’ name. What the enemy means for evil, God can redeem for good.
So once a cc guru,
Perhaps it is a Good thing your not a cc guru any longer IMO.
Your heart is not in the right place, your thinking is carnal concerning this “bringing in the sheep” opportunity.
Even a thieve on a cross can enter the Kingdom of God.
Which one of the Syrians did Jesus not give up His life for?
The opportunity to present the life changing gospel message just got a bit easier to any Christian who comes in contact with the refugee Syrians coming to America.
They can and do come to salvation through Jesus Christ…
https://www.facebook.com/please.born.again/posts/634228663349784
Jonah was sent to whom and for what purpose?
And what was the result of Jonah’s mission from God?
“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice” Phil 1:15-18 ESV
My only hope is that Christ is preached. Even in some small way, past the end times hoopla, that Christ crucified, the hope of the world, is shown to be the way of salvation, and that the Father Himself draws many to Him. Not by wonderful words or of persuasion, but by the Spirit of God. That it would be by the fear of the future, but by the faith in the Saviour.
I too had never heard the term shemitah until I read it here.
#8-i don’t know what the Christians will do, but i know what the nations should do… there’s a whole lot of healthy, young men fleeing for their lives – it may be the Syrian way, i don’t know – but the west should conscript every one of them, form an invasion army and let these fellas participate in a fight for their homeland… tell Russia to stand down or else, because we’re going in to give these people back THEIR OWN land… no wonder Trump is looking good to a lot of people… we need more than smiles, back room deals and pontificators these days (beware of Trump, tho – a master of the deal)
that’s what this old Christian granny thinks 🙂
and i still don’t get what shemitah means …?…
Michael,
This post, “Apocalypse None” is one of your most beautiful, touching, reassuring and empowering.
Thank you!
Thanks, G man!
Em,
I believe it simply means “release”
Leviticus 25 is the basis
The shemitah thing is just one that I had listed before I chickened out.
Yesterday was also the end of the Jade Helm exercises where some Christians were claiming that Obama was going to declare martial law and herd believers into empty Wal Marts that would serve as detention facilities…
We were all going to get ebola because we flew that doctor home and treated him…
There was an ISIS camp just over the border and they were coming for us…
We could round up fifty years of prophecy books from dispensationalists that list the current political evils when they were published… some have been reedited over the years with the new bogey man and published with new covers.
It’s all fear based sensationalism that should make us embarrassed and ashamed.
The second coming is supposed to be the blessed hope, not the time of cringing fear…
“The second coming is supposed to be the blessed hope, not the time of cringing fear…”
While I agree with that, Revelation does seem to say that the end times will bring some awful circumstances here to earth.
Furthermore…all this stuff is a Gospel disaster.
It doesn’t lead to evangelism or holy living which is what the Scriptures emphasize we are to be doing when we see the “signs of the times”.
It leads to demonizing the “enemies”…which are an incredibly fluid group that changes with the political winds.
But remember:
In the year 1916 Russians went about their lives, attending church and speaking their minds in relative freedom. There was revolution in the air but most people were not affected.
In the year 1918 the Tsar and his family were murdered, “wealthy peasants” (kulaks) were being exiled to Siberia and the program of destroying churches and sending Christians to (what was to become) the Gulag had begun.
Things can change faster than you can say Господи, помилуј.
Xenia,
True…but that wasn’t a sign of the end.
In the 13th – 16th centuries the plague wiped out a third to a half of the population of Europe.
It wasn’t the end.
If that wasn’t a “sign of the times” I’m not sure we will be able to recognize one.
My post was in response to this:
“….some Christians were claiming that Obama was going to declare martial law and herd believers into empty Wal Marts that would serve as detention facilities…
Xenia,
There wasn’t and isn’t a shred of evidence that any of those things were happening.
It’s all as empty as the blood moon/shemitah nonsense.
That means that lies were told, people were slandered, and no good came from it.
Brothers and sisters who spoke out with caution or disbelief were completely trashed in social media where all this stuff breeds.
I get that most Christians do not like the current group of elected officials.
I’m not real fond of them myself.
I do not get how that is a license for claims with no merit.
I haven’t seen Shemitah or any of this stuff discussed among Christians.
I’ve seen the Jade Helm stuff talked about among conspiracy theorists.
I was not speaking of Obama as an individual but to the the signs of the time. It would not be the first time in history that Christians were rounded up and imprisoned. People think it couldn’t happen here. I think it could.
“It’s all fear based sensationalism that should make us embarrassed and ashamed.”
It may be ALOT of sensationalism, and there MAY be a shred of truth to some of the conspiracy theories, but to say its that ALL of it is hogwash is to broadbrush.
Which I think was Xenias point.
The “shemitah” stuff was all over World Net Daily, Charisma , and a host of other publications.
It is being pushed by Jonathan Cahn whose book ‘The Harbinger” has sold millions of copies and is embraced by a big chunk of American Christendom.
I’m premillennial, so I’m not sure…but is there any reading of End Times prophecy that doesn’t view the seals, trumpets, and bowls as unpleasant?
Christians could be rounded up here someday.
That wouldn’t necessarily be a sign of the end.
It would be persecution, which the last time I looked, the Bible promises.
Year before the Russian revolution there were prophecies predicting catastrophe.
Turns out they were mostly correct.
Well, none of those are mainstream Christianity. I’m not sure I’ve ever run across World Net Daily, only see Charisma when you link to it, and there are lots of crazy books that have sold millions of copies.
I’ve always known we run in different circles, it just becomes more clear in these type articles.
Josh,
The book of Revelation is about the very end of all things when judgment comes.
It is unpleasant.
It is also highly symbolic.
When you see a demon with a scorpions tail, you’ll get my attention.
Michael is talking about The End whereas I am talking about severe persecution.
I don’t read those “publications” and when my friends comment or share these links on social media, I do the eye roll pretty quick.
That’s not to say that there isn’t ANY truth in these reports, but that’s like believing every story in the National Enquirer….
Never heard of Jonathan Cahn… didn’t he play with Journey? No – that’s Jonathan Cain.. who married Paula White…so he’s not off the hook…yet.
Josh,
WND is one of the biggest sites online.
I don’t run in any circles, I go look at them all.
“I go look at them all.”
Why?
Josh,
Because I am constantly asked questions about this stuff, on and offline.
You may think it’s ten hillbillies with a microphone, but I assure you it isn’t.
Honestly, I never, NEVER, hear about this stuff anywhere but here. And I’d say I’m pretty middle-of-the-road, evangelical, almost fundamentalist.
Josh,
Cahn has been on the bestseller list for years.
He’s been on all the “Christian” media repeatedly.
This reminds me of when Christianity Today did the first story on Calvary Chapel.
The reporter called me and confessed that he knew little or nothing about CC and would I please fill him in.
I couldn’t believe what he was saying….there are CC’s everywhere here and they are a huge influence on the Christian community.
We all live in a bubble of some sort…
Michael isn’t the only one who has been hearing about this.
A lot of my FB wall was linked by FB friends to Shemetah and Jonathan Cahn.
Lots of blood moon talk, shemetah links, etc.
I just un-follow or scroll past….
We live in perilous times. (Not the first perilous times, but theses are the ones we are assigned to live in.)
Be prepared, for you don’t know the day or hour when your Lord is coming.
Be prepared, for you don’t know the day or hour when you will die.
Preparations:
1. Go to church regularly..
2. Pray regularly
3. Read the Scriptures
4. Read the lives of holy men and women of the past, especially the lives of martyrs so you will know how to behave if you find yourself in similar straits.
5. Fast
Prayer:
Many say they don’t pray very often or very well. Here is something I have found to be very helpful:
Write down on paper all the people you know, both friends and enemies. Especially enemies. You should have several hundred names. Include you mailman, everyone at church whose name you know, all your neighbors, your kids’ teachers, etc. Missionaries, fallen pastors, politicians, captives, blog owners, etc.
Divide the list into seven smaller lists so you have a page of names for each day of the week. This is more manageable than praying for all 300 every day.
Each morning, pray for the day’s people. Pray especially fervently for the people you can’t stand or are angry with. Pray for reconciliation. You might be surprised at the results.
If you are stuck on how to pray and are adverse to using a traditional prayerbook, read a few Psalms, pray for rain, and then read the names on the day’s list.
I’ve said too, Everything I know of CC came from this site. We never hear about them here in NC.
I don’t doubt that any of this stuff is talked about, or seen as important by a lot of people…I just don’t know those people.
Franklin Graham breaks wind, I get 50 messages about it. OF course, all the politcal guys I hear about. Just not really this stuff. Hmm.
Xenia’s entire #48 is wonderful.
“The book of Revelation is about the very end of all things when judgment comes.”
The Book of Revelation contains some information about the end times, but it is really a continual retelling of the history of God’s people from beginning to end … about 5 or 6 different times from different angles..
MLD – The Seals, trumpets, and bowls : Do you see those as End Times unpleasant events?
Because I am constantly asked questions about this stuff, on and offline.
—————————————————————–
I certainly do not say this to doubt Michael’s experiences (for the record)
But given that I am a CC, premill, pretrib, pastor – who is preaching to a few hundred (mostly) likeminded brethren each week…and I DON’T talk about all of this sort of stuff in my messages (not that I could have talked about shemitah if I wanted to having no idea what it was)….one might expect I would get lots of questions on it..
I get maybe, MAYBE one inquiry every six months or so that is somehow gloom and doom prophecy related, citing someone and asking my opinion of the guy.
There was one blood moon question back in March or so I think….and I got some link in an email once from a guy who on occasion shows up at our church. Those are the only two I can recall this entire year.
(The Jade Helm/Walmart thing was another one I had to look up now…)
I amen Xenia’s comments and would add there is definitely a difference between expressing concern and updating on what seems like a continuous erosion of Christian freedoms in this nation and the persecution of our brothers and sisters worldwide…and tying that in to a direct link to a “sign” that Jesus’s return is just around the corner.
FWIW, i think the seals well may fit MLD’s description but, at least, that last trumpet and the bowls of wrath are ahead of us yet IMHO
agreeing with Josh’s #50 regarding Xenia’s #48 – if not Xenia’s exact plan, still have a plan, don’t just come to the Throne trying to clear your head and gather/edit your thoughts 🙂 … emergency prayers and spontaneous moments of wonder and praise excepted 🙂
Perhaps it is a Good thing your not a cc guru any longer IMO
You couldn’t be more right on!
And you’ll get your wish as well… Obumer is letting in 100,000 more. Better get a second job to pay for all those Muslim invaders. Alla hu-snackbar
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-16/white-house-refugee-plan-overwhelmed-by-syrian-exodus
i’m equi-distant between 2 Walmarts, i wonder which one i’ll be sent to …?… that is a very strange theory, but then who knows?
“MLD – The Seals, trumpets, and bowls : Do you see those as End Times unpleasant events?”
Well, I see the church age as in these last days.
I see trouble in all times.
But yes, contained in the book are end times unpleasant events.
But remember, I do not look at the book as chronological but as a repeating cycle.
Thanks, MLD. So in your view the waters turning to wormwood , for instance, COULD be descriptive of an event that has already occurred. IS that right?
I said years ago that all of the prophecy talk is a deflection away from Jesus. I am still waiting for one of these groups or churches that do all of these prophecy conferences, to any degree to show that they may be a Christian group and hold a Justification conference.
They not only won’t but I am sure they are incapable of doing so.- A Friday night, All Day Saturday & Sunday morning – one speaker after the other to discuss Justification.
“Thanks, MLD. So in your view the waters turning to wormwood , for instance, COULD be descriptive of an event that has already occurred. IS that right?”
That is not what I said – you might want to go back up and read my original thought @51
Not all of the book is last days stuff.
http://rbseminary.org/home/reformation-conference-on-justification.html
I’m not trying to argue, MLD, I want to understand your take specifically on the seals, trumpets, and bowls. Are all of those yet to occur, or do you think some have already taken place?
Good for them, but they probably are not the ones proclaiming shemitah or holding prophecy conferences. That is who the comment was directed at.
The CC out in the Inland Empire just had a big prophecy conference. I am sure none of the pastors involved have ever held a justification conference.
Josh,
“Are all of those yet to occur, or do you think some have already taken place?”
I don’t know the timing – how would any of us. What would make you say that we aren’t in the 2nd seal right now?
I don’t know, just curious of your view.
Pre-trib says these are all future events.
I am sure none of the pastors involved have ever held a justification conference.
———————————————
MLD, I would argue that all those annual mens conferences that CCs do (including us) would classify as a justification conference….we don’t do prophecy conferences but you are way out of bounds to imply that is all that matters in the typical CC
I have some friends, family members, and acquaintances who are Calvary Chapel related. I have many others who are not. Unfortunately, I seem to regularly see/hear a lot of this type of talk, coming from some of those in both camps. Blood Moons, and Shemitah, and Jade Helm, and the Harbinger, and the like. Along with a hyping and sensationalism of news headlines in general in relating them to the “End Times”. Rarely do I seek it out, it just seems to happen upon me. And it’s not just Facebook or the internet. Happens in real life, too. Just two days ago while I was listening to sports talk radio and a guy calls in and tells the host that he needs to read The Harbinger. I just can’t seem to escape this stuff. Even my Calvary Chapel sermon a week and a half ago was all about the Blood Moons and the Shemitah and other like things. Now, thankfully, my pastor was not in support of these things. But still, I end up having to sit through a whole sermon on these things, along with a series of sermons on the end times.
That is all to say that in my experience, I have come across this stuff a lot, again many times when I was not seeking it out. Some of the times were Calvary Chapel related, other times not. Others have had different experiences. But these have been mine.
As an amillennialist I would argue that the seals trumpets and bowls have happened over and over and will happen over and over.
Thanks BD. So I’m guessing you see the very much as symbolic rather than literal.
Kevin H,
Thank you for that.
I sometimes get the impression that people think I just wake up and make up this stuff…
Josh,
The most obvious reality about the nature of the writing of Revelation is that it is hugely symbolic. Nothing is altogether one or the other, but apocalyptic writing is intentionally symbolic with the knowledge that well versed believers know the code.
Josh I am sure you know that amillennialism has a deeper and more pervasive history among Baptist than pretribulationalism which popularized in this generation. Historically the Southern Baptist were amil long before they were pre-trib, the mediating position was historic pre-trib which always amuses me with the sudden switch to literalism in the 20th chapter.
I think the easiest way to avoid persecution is to not persecute others “in the name of Christ”.
“I think the easiest way to avoid persecution is to not persecute others “in the name of Christ”.”
That’s not what Jesus said.
“The most obvious reality about the nature of the writing of Revelation is that it is hugely symbolic”
Yeah, I agree with that, for sure.
I did not know SBC’s history with Amil. Looking for info on that now.
Josh
G-strings sees evangelical christianity as by nature persecution of others and he thinks we are causing the world to hate us by our expressed disapproval of the world. He would craft the statement more deftly but that is about it.
Well Josh,
The info about Southern Baptist is the history of their writings. When I discovered the amil position as a viable alternative to futurism the best commentaries available were from the SBC seminary professors. If you go very far back you simply will not find pre-trib teaching. It was not there in any abundance among the published works.
Jesus said it like this in John 15:19 – “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.”
I sometimes get the impression that people think I just wake up and make up this stuff…
——————————————————–
Well, that was certainly not my implication (and I doubt it was Josh’s)…in fact I made every effort to claim that I was simply sharing MY experience, in my office and affiliation – and not doubting whatever you might say.
Well, if you live life in cozy Orange County California in the good old US of A..like G-man, maybe you don’t realize how ignorant and insulting your comment about persecution happens to be towards millions of Christians
I could recommend some villages in India he might visit to broaden his horizons…
Steve’s 81. Wright is right!!
The Calvary Chapel I attended pushed the Harbinger – showed the DVD in lieu of a service even. This was part of a much wider pattern of focusing on “end times right now!!” and telling kids not to bother dreaming about their future because the world would be over by then.
It was a harbinger to me that the time had come to get the heck out.
What a load of horse crap.