Scoffers in the Last Days

Like Lot’s wife, most people today simply will not face the fact that this world is about to end. Regular readers of theTrumpet.com know that warning signs are everywhere: the nuclear arms race, America’s decline, the rise of the rest, global shortages of food and fuel, wars and rumors of wars, famine and disease epidemics, unnatural disasters, economic instability—a list that is seemingly endless.

Yes—the handwriting is all over the wall. But most still scoff at the prophecies of God.

Even those who took control of the church founded by that 20th-century prophetic watchman, Herbert W. Armstrong—after pledging to “follow in his footsteps”—now mock the prophecies their spiritual forefather proclaimed for decades—even as those fulfilled prophecies are now making headlines.

In his book The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God, Michael Feazell dishonestly accused Mr. Armstrong of leaving a “trail of failed predictions.” In 2006, Feazell mockingly challenged his readers with this (Christian Odyssey, April-May 2006):

If you want a good case of prediction addiction, go hand your brain over to the self-proclaimed messengers of God so they can fill it with fiction about which particular despot is actually the “king of the south” or the “king of the north” or the “beast” or the “false prophet” or the 10th “horn.” It’ll be loads of fun, very exciting, and almost as spiritually useful as playing dungeons and dragons for the rest of your life.Or you could take a lesson from the Apostle Peter. He had a few thoughts about prophecy—its origin, its value, and its purpose. He knew what it was all about. And he passed that info along to us in what we call the first epistle of Peter.

Feazell then quoted 1 Peter 1:10-12 and grossly misinterprets the passage to mean that the purpose for all prophecy was only to predict the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Of course, of the more than 300 biblical prophecies about the Messiah, many of them do describe events surrounding His first appearance on this Earth—the 3½-year ministry, the establishment of the Church, Christ’s final agony, His death, burial and then resurrection after three days and three nights in the grave.

But most of those prophecies tell us what will happen in the lead-up to and after Christ’s Second Coming to this Earth. Peter knew all about this. He even passed the info along in what we call the second epistle of Peter (2 Peter 3:1-4, Revised Standard Version):

This is now the second letter that I have written to you, beloved, and in both of them I have aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder; that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Notice what Peter emphasizes first—that which the holy prophets and Jesus Christ predicted for the last days—scoffers who put off the return of Jesus Christ and who simply refuse to accept that catastrophic events prophesied to unfold immediately before His appearance could ever actually happen! This they are “willingly … ignorant of,” Peter says, even though Earth’s inhabitants were destroyed once before during the days of Noah (verses 5-7).

This willful ignorance implies that these people should know better. “As Christians,” the Worldwide Church of God now says, “our job is to ‘watch’ our own spiritual attitudes to be sure we are in a relationship of faithful love with our Creator. We have no need to watch world events in that sense.”

That is appallingly ignorant—and it comes from people claiming to preach God’s truth. In fact, they’ve been swept along with the spirit of this age—scoffing at the prophecies of Almighty God!

Never have the vast majority of people on Earth been so utterly unconcerned about world events—and at a time when some commentators now see the threat of world war as being legitimate and real. Yet most just stumble along, paying no attention to what’s happening, apathetically assuming world affairs do not concern them, blindly unaware of the overwhelming impact these events will soon have on their personal lives.

Those who have “no need” to watch the world are themselves trapped in a vortex of self-obsession and gross materialism. They’re just too selfish to concern themselves with future events and to begin changing their lives now in anticipation of what’s coming.

What they don’t realize is that by scoffing at God—by saying in their hearts, My Lord delays His coming (Matthew 24:48)—they themselves are actually fulfilling a specific prophecy for these latter days! And nothing will snap them out of their drugged-up stupor—except for the terrifying bolt of thunder that God says will happen during the biblically prophesied Great Tribulation.

Thank God He’s raised up another watchman and has given him the responsibility to watch world events in this last hour so that you, dear reader, might be warned of the unprecedented calamity soon to ensnare the entire Earth. A watchman who prophesies in the same spirit of Herbert W. Armstrong, who, while he may have died just a few years before the final fulfillment of these end-time prophecies, was nevertheless well ahead of his time, as today’s headlines have now made obvious.

Thank God He has raised up a watchman today who prophesies in the same spirit of the holy prophets and also Jesus Christ, who commanded us to watch and pray always so that we might escape what is coming to pass. One who, like the Apostle Paul, admonishes God’s people to awake out of sleep because their salvation is much nearer than many believe. One who, like the Apostle John, warned of events that “must shortly come to pass”—even prophesying in terms of kings and beasts and horns and false prophets. And one who, like the Apostle Peter, has his focus on the end of this present evil world and the beginning of the wonderful World Tomorrow!

What better incentive is there for us to break free from the cramped surroundings of everyday life—the self-centered monotony of the present—and to think and live anew with our whole life oriented around God and what He is doing than fulfilled prophecy?

There is no greater proof of God’s eternal existence, His all-encompassing power and His absolute authority over the affairs of mankind.

To read much more about the cabal of leaders who methodically destroyed the worldwide work of Herbert W. Armstrong and how, beginning in 1989, God raised up a watchman work through Gerald Flurry, order Raising the Ruins at your local bookstore or online at Amazon.com.