"YOUR TIMING IS OFF"
Why is there so much speculation and error about when the end might be, whether the end has reference to the rapture, the return of Christ to set up his millennial kingdom, or the return of Christ to inaugurate the new heavens and new earth (2Peter 3:13 ; Rev. 21:1)?
While there are a number of reasons why prophetic speculation continues unabated, one reason stands above them all: Fulfilled prophecy is being interpreted as if it were unfulfilled prophecy. This error was also made by the first-century Jews. When Jesus "came to His own...those who were His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11).
These unbelieving Jews did not believe Jesus was the fulfillment of centuries of prophetic pronouncements that are found in "the Law of Moses and the Psalms (Luke 24:44)....
A similar contemporary example would be that many Jews today are still awaiting the Messiah. Like their first-century counterparts, they do not believe that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus in the first century. The messianic prophecies have been taken from their first-century fulfillment context and have been projected into the distant future as unfilled prophecy.
In a similar way, many Christians take prophecies that have been fulfilled--either in Old Testament events or in events following the ascension of Jesus --and view them as still unfulfilled. They then manipulate these fulfilled prophecies and apply them to contemporary events. Their speculations are wrong because they are applying fulfilled prophecies to current events. They ignore the time texts that speak of a near coming of Jesus in judgment upon an apostate Judaism that rejected its Messiah in the first century.
(Last Day Madness by Gary DeMar)
While there are a number of reasons why prophetic speculation continues unabated, one reason stands above them all: Fulfilled prophecy is being interpreted as if it were unfulfilled prophecy. This error was also made by the first-century Jews. When Jesus "came to His own...those who were His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11).
These unbelieving Jews did not believe Jesus was the fulfillment of centuries of prophetic pronouncements that are found in "the Law of Moses and the Psalms (Luke 24:44)....
A similar contemporary example would be that many Jews today are still awaiting the Messiah. Like their first-century counterparts, they do not believe that the messianic prophecies were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus in the first century. The messianic prophecies have been taken from their first-century fulfillment context and have been projected into the distant future as unfilled prophecy.
In a similar way, many Christians take prophecies that have been fulfilled--either in Old Testament events or in events following the ascension of Jesus --and view them as still unfulfilled. They then manipulate these fulfilled prophecies and apply them to contemporary events. Their speculations are wrong because they are applying fulfilled prophecies to current events. They ignore the time texts that speak of a near coming of Jesus in judgment upon an apostate Judaism that rejected its Messiah in the first century.
(Last Day Madness by Gary DeMar)
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