In HOW TO STUDY Revelation, we looked at the telephone game; and, how, in that game, when the phrase comes out wrong people like to find out where it went wrong. We are going to do that right here. Where did modern “end day” prophecy teaching come from?
In the 1500’s Luther was splitting from the Roman Catholic church. Just prior to this, in the 1400’s, the Gutenberg Press was invented. Prior to this invention, it took about 10 - 12 months to print a Bible; yet the press greatly shortened that timespan.
As Bibles were being printed and Luther’s writings now distributed in mass, people were starting to point the finger at the Roman Catholic church as the beast of Rev 13 and the whore of Rev 17. People were leaving the church in masses. The church leaders had to do something, and they did.
The Roman Catholic church had a Jesuit Priest, by the name of Francisco Ribera, distort the way people were understanding the prophecy of Revelation. His commentary, titled In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarij, released in the late 1500’s, was widely rejected.
Ribera proposed that the first few chapters of the Apocalypse apply to ancient pagan Rome, and the rest he limited to a yet future period of 3½ literal years, immediately prior to the second coming. During the 3 1/2 year time frame, the Roman Catholic Church would have fallen away from the pope into apostasy. Ribera had to include such teachings because of the Reformations cry stating that "the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist." (Martin Luther, Aug. 18, 1520). Then, he proposed, the Antichrist, a single individual, would:
Persecute and blaspheme the saints of God
Rebuild the temple in Jerusalem
Abolish the Christian religion
Deny Jesus Christ
Destroy Rome
Be received by the Jews
Pretend to be God
Kill the two witnesses of God
Conquer the world
Until Ribera’s commentary, these points were never taught. Even upon the release of the commentary, the beliefs were widely rejected and his commentary placed within the Vatican Library.
In the late 1800’s, Cyrus Scofield wrote his Bible (Scofield Bible) in which he included the commentary of Ribera as footnotes.
In the early 1900’s, Clarence Larken took the footnotes of the Scofield Bible and wrote a book called “Dispensational Truth” in which most all Bible seminaries today look at this book as the “bible of end day prophecy”. Far be it from me to point out the obvious, but, wouldn’t the “bible of end day prophecy” be... well the Bible?
From the teachings of this book, we get books like “The Late Great Planet Earth” and the “Left Behind” series. It’s also from the teachings of this book that most of the modern teachers (Lester Sumrall, Herold Camping, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, etc.)
In the book “Late Great Planet Earth”, written by Hal Lindsey, he predicted many great things that did not come to pass, including the coming of Christ in 1988. There has been a vast number of failed predictions from the foundational teachings of the “Dispensational Truth” book.
Truth is, “Dispensational Truth” was so incorrect that it had to be re-written and re-published, not once, not twice, but four different times. Question: How is that book the “bible of end day prophecy”?
Here’s two truth’s we gather from this information:
1. Popular modern end day teachings come from a book that was so far from correct that it’s been re-written four times
2. Popular modern end day teachings originate from a writing with the PURPOSE of distorting understanding of end day prophecy
Let that sink in. Modern-day teaching, that is so popular, started from a purpose distorting of Biblical understanding.
Once this really sinks in, we understand that we need to stop listening to all these “parrots” and start studying the book on our own.
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