"As the dates have passed and Christ has not come, the evangelical church in America has had to battle ridicule of others and confusion within its own ranks. Disillusioned, some have even turned away from the faith." opening page, Soothsayers of the Second Advent, by Alnor

Y2K TidalWave-D.S. McAlvany
2000 A.D. -Are you Ready? -P&P Lalonde
2001  -Dr. Jack Van Impe
The Millennium Bug -Michael S. Hyatt
As Time Runs Out
Armageddon
Final Warning   -all by Grant R. Jeffries
The End-Why Jesus could Return by 2000-Ed Dobson
1 & 2 Thessalonians: Living in the End Times-John R. W. Stott.
The 90'S ; Decade of the Apocalypse : The European Common Market--The End Has Begun
by Steve Terrell.
Y2K- Feldham
How Close are We? -D.Hunt
Foreshocks of the Anti-Christ- eclectic
Prophecy Watch -Ice & Demy
2000 A.D. & Predicting Christ's Return -Ice & Demy
Anything by Hal Lindsey...and believe me, there is plenty more.
...and the Left Behind-the Series
According to this issue of Time magazine, evangelical authors, like Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are making money hand over fist, feeding on people's fears that the end is near. "A TIME/CNN poll finds that more than 1/3 of Americans say they are paying more attention now to how the news might relate to the end of the world, and have talked about what the Bible has to say on the subject. Fully 59% say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true, and nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 attack." This is the same magazine (Time, July 1, 2002) that calls Evangelical author Tim LaHaye, a prophet.

The fact is, many of Ron Rhodes fellow "christians" were awaiting the End/Rapture in the year 2000 or thereabouts. Other "christian" writers feed off that by even providing fictional novels of the coming tribulation with titles like THE WARNING(T.D.Bunn), BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT(G.R.Jeffrey &A.Hunt) and others like THE VISITATION(F.Peretti).
Ice & Demy warn:"As speculation intensifies, we must return to the teachings of Jesus to build a Christ-centered foundation for the future."
So, it is "False Prophecy" when JW's do it, but it is "speculation" when they do it. Does Ron Rhodes know this? Yes he does. In 1990 Ron Rhodes wrote "Millenial Madness" for the Christian Research Journal. In it he describes how the Christians in the year 999 A.D. feared the end also. Did he slam them. No, of course not, they were god-fearing trinitarian Christians after all.
Were there others in the past? Yes, most certainly. Early Church fathers Hilarianus and Hippolytus predicted the end in 500 A.D.(Paula Fredriksen-Tyconius and Augustine on the Apocalypse)
Irish Bishop James Ussher's prediction was for 1996.
Puritans Issac Watts, Joseph Mede and the Mathers in America were date-setters.
The Father of Protestantism himself, Martin Luther taught Christ would return by 1564.
Does that mean that all Protestants or Lutherans are false prophets? No, of course not, but they are by the reasoning of a certain few.
German Reformer Philip Melanchton was a date-setter too, as was German theologian Johann Alsted.
Remember the booklet, "88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988" by Edgar Whisenant? Also "Christ Returns by 1988: 101 Reasons Why" by Colin Deal.
Or the Korean Christians(Pentecostals) for October 1992?

The most famous one was actually a Baptist....William Miller who predicted 1843.
Wait...there's more

In the 5th century, the Council of Ephesus decided the millenium had already begun.

Pope Gregory I,  590-604 C.E., predicted the imminent end of the world.

Spanish Monk Beatus predicts it for 800 A.D.

An ecumenical council for the Roman Catholic Church announces Christ's return by 1000.

Aelfric, the Abbott of Eynsham predicts it for the year 1000.

Abbo of Fleury, the French Abbott predicts it for predicts it for 994/996.

Richard of St. Vaast leads a pilgrimage for the predicted end in 1033.

1184 is the target date for the return of the Antichrist according to many...

and again in 1345-1385

Joachim of Fiore(1135-1202) used the New Testament and the Trinity to proclaim the coming of the anti-christ in 1260 A.D.

1260 is also touted by Brother Arnold (Dominican Monk)

Speaking of the Trinity, the Church Father who first coined the term, Tertullian was a Montanist(a deeply apocalyptical sect).

Jean de Roquetaillade announced it for 1366

Roman Catholic, Arnald of Villanova, predicted the appearance of the Antichrist in 1378

The Taborites predict it for 1420.

Priest Martinek Hauska announces doom for 1420.

Hans Hut announced the end for1528

Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa announced it for 1533

Melchior Hoffman announced it for 1593

The Fifth Monarchists predicted between 1655-57

A Lutheran named Adam Nachenmoser announced it for 1635

Lutheran leader, Andreas Osiander announced it for 1672

Jan Matthys announced for 1534

Archbishop of York and Primate of England, Edwin Sandys (1519-1588) proclaimed the imminent end

John Wycliffe announced it for 1379

One of the first Baptist groups, The Anabaptists believed that the Millenium would occur in 1533

Reformer John Foxe believed the last days would start in 1600. He was shared in this view by Robert Pont

New England Minister Jonathan Edwards predicts 1866

The Puritans predict it for 1700

Emanuel Swedenborg predicts the end for 1757

Anglican rector Thomas Beverly predict 1697

Anglican rector John Mason for 1694

Pierre Jurie predicts the end for 1689

Sir Walter Raleigh, Hugh Broughton and Thomas Brightman thought it would not be until 1700

Christopher Columbus said the world was going to end in 1656

Deacon  William Aspinwall (General Court) predicts the end for 1673

Feb 28, 1763  Devout Methodist George Bell foresaw the end of the world on this date.

Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly announced it for 1789

The Shakers announced it for 1792

1790  The Second Coming, according to Irish orator Francis Dobbs.

1792  The end of the world according to the Shakers.

1794 The end of the world according to the Shakers.

Charles Wesley, brother of Methodist Church founder John Wesley, predicted Doomsday would be in 1794.

Lavater announced it for 1795

Some Christian believers in Russia thought that Peter the Great was the Anti-Christ in the 1660's.

Historic Jews in the 17th century believed that the Messiah would come in the year 1648.

John Napier announced it for 1688 or 1700

John Cummings of the Scottish National Church, predicted Jesus would return in 1865.

Isaac Newton announced it for about another 90 years in his day

Richard Brothers announced it for 1795

Methodist Church founder John Wesley foresaw the Millennium beginning in 1836, the same year that the Beast of Revelation was to rise from the sea.

Reverend M. Baxter (Church of England) predicts it for 1868

Scottish National Church official, the "Reverend" John Cumming (1807-1881) proclaimed "Redemption draweth Nigh" in 1867

In 1832 Pope Gregory XVI indicated that the time of the "plague of locusts

(Revelation 9:3)" had arrived in his Encyclical "Mirari vos arbitramur."

Pat Robertson announced it for 2007(in a novel)

Born-Again, R. Henry Hall for 1998 (AD 1991-The Genesis of Holocaust)

Hart Armstrong posts the Tribulation for 1989

Chuck Smith, Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa proclaimed it for 1981

Tommy Hicks, a noted evangelist, received visions of the end in 1961

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, predicted the world's end in the 19th. Century.

Elizabeth Claire Prophet announced it for 1989

Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California predicted the Rapture in 1981.

Hon-Ming Chen predicted Christ's return on March 31, 1998.

Methodist Joanna Southcott(1750-1814 announced she was the Bride of the Lamb and began to seal the 144,000

Early in the 20th century, Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, predicted that the Antichrist would appear before the Jews return to Palestine

Assemblies of God official, Thomas M. Chalmers, announced it for the early 1920's

Pentecostal leader, Lester Sumrall predicts 1985

Evangelical prophecy teacher has announced it for 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989 (see Sooth-Sayers of the Second Advent, Alnor)

September, 1981, Baptist itinerant preacher (a.k.a. an evangelist) in Springfield, Missouri makes the sure- fire claim that he had determined from Bible study that Christ absolutely HAD to come back between October, 1981 and September, 1982. (see THE SCOURGE OF THE "PROPHECY MONGERS" from "AS I SEE IT" Volume 1, Number 3, March, 1998

Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth, predicted the Rapture would occur in 1988.

Nationally syndicated TV show host (Prophecy in the News), J.R. Church predicted the rapture for 1988.

David Webber and Noah Hutchings of the Southwest Radio Church (SRC) announced it for "1981 or '88".

Henry Kreysler announces Armageddon for 1995

Author Reginald Dunlop announces the Rapture for 1991.

Mary Stewart Relfe announced the Great Tribulation for 1990.

Salem Kirban - Bible prognosticator, predicted "the Rapture" would take place in 1989.

Benny Hinn predicted the Rapture would occur in 1993.

Dr. Jack van Impe has speculated that the end will come between September 1999 and 2000.

Lester Sumrall for 2000.

Grant Jeffrey predicts it for October 9, 2000

Texe Marrs predicts it for 2000 (Storming toward Armageddon, 1992)

Philip B. Brown has stated that the millennial reign of Christ will begin April 6, 2008.

James McKeever ends his 6000 year theory by at least 2030 (End Times News Digest).

Dr. Harold Camping, president of Family Radio, expected the end of the world in 1994.

 

 

"Not a few ministries that began well have been turned aside by an obsessive bent toward prophecy. I will mention as one example Jack Van Impe. In the 1970s, Van Impe's ministry was singularly used by God in numerous crusades in various cities. At least two members of my immediate family were converted in his Wichita crusade. As a youth pastor in Indiana, I took our young people to his South Bend crusade, and several were saved as a result. As a seminary student of very restricted financial means, I was a weekly contributor to his ministry. But in those days, his focus was the Gospel, sin, and salvation by faith, with only a night or two in the week directed at prophetic themes. In a word--it was balanced.
But what has he become 20 years later? His television broadcasts (which I can scarcely endure for more than a few minutes) are virtually nothing but the newest sign of the times, and latest "fulfillment" of a contorted misinterpretation and mangling of some Biblical text, presented by a man who seems to be all hyped-up and scarcely more sincere than a used car salesman. It is to me a very sad sight. A progressively more restricted pre-occupation with prophecy is unmistakably the cause. It is spiritually low octane stuff."
THE SCOURGE OF THE "PROPHECY MONGERS" from "AS I SEE IT" Volume 1, Number 3, March, 1998

    "One faith united the scattered congregations: that Christ was the son of God, that he would return to establish his kingdom on earth, and that all who believed in him would at the Last Judgement be rewarded with eternal bliss. But Christians differed as to the date of the second advent. When Nero died and Titus demolished the Temple, and again when Hadrian destroyed Jerusalem, many Christians hailed these calamities as signs of the second coming. When chaos threatened the Empire at the close of the second century, Tertullian and others thought that the end of the world was at hand; a Syrian Bishop led his flock into the desert to meet Christ halfway, and a bishop in Pontus disorganized the life of his community by announcing that Christ would return within a year. As all signs failed, and Christ did not come, wiser Christians sought to soften the disappointment by reinterpreting the date of his return.
He would come in a thousand years, said an epistle ascribed to Barnabas; he would come, said the most cautious, when the "generation" or race of the Jews was quite extinct, or when the Gospel had been preached to all gentiles; or said the Gospel of John, he would send in his stead the Holy Spirit or Paraclete."

Even the earliest Christians prepared for the imminent end of the age in their own time:

"That the earliest Church regarded itself as the Congregation of the end of days, is attested both by Paul, and the synoptic tradition....Further testimony for eschatological consciousness is the fact that Jesus' disciples after the Easter experiences in Galilee soon betook themselves to Jerusalem as the focus of the coming Reign of God."
Theology of the New Testament-Complete in One Volume, by Rudolf Bultmann, p. 37

We do not object to changing our opinions on any subject, or discarding
former applications of prophecy, or any other scripture, when we see a good
reason for the change,-in fact, it is important that we should be willing to
unlearn errors and mere traditions, as to learn truth. . . . It is our duty
to "prove all things."-by the unerring Word,-"and hold fast to that which is
good." -- "The Ten Virgins," Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's
Presence, October 1879, reprint, 38.

Nor would we have our writings reverenced or regarded as infallible, or on a
par with the holy Scriptures. The most we claim or have ever claimed for our
teachings is that they are what we believe to be harmonious interpretations
of the divine Word, in harmony with the spirit of the truth. And we still
urge, as in the past, that each reader study the subjects we present in the
light of the Scriptures, proving all things by the Scriptures, accepting what
they see to be thus approved, and rejecting all else. It is to this end, to
enable the student to trace the subject in the divinely inspired Record, that
we so freely intersperse both quotations and citations of the Scriptures upon
which to build. -- "Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness," No. 2,
Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, 15 December 1896,
reprint, 2080.

Nevertheless, we are far from claiming any direct plenary inspiration. . . .
A careful examination of the subject leads us to the conclusion that the Lord
providentially shapes our course so as to give us such personal experiences
in life as will bring us to his word for comfort and instruction in
righteousness; and thus he permits us to sympathize with the experiences and
questionings of his people, and then present to them at appropriate times the
lessons drawn from our own experiences, backed by the instructions and
comfort of the Scriptures. -- "Interesting Letters," Zion's Watch Tower and
Herald of Christ's Presence, 15 July 1899, reprint, 2506.

We are not prophesying; we are merely giving our surmises, the Scriptural
basis for which is already in the hands of our readers in the six volumes of
SCRIPTURE STUDIES. We do not even aver that there is no mistake in our
interpretation of prophesy and our calculations of chronology. We have merely
laid these before you, leaving it for each to exercise his own faith or doubt
in respect to them. -- "Views From the Watch Tower," Zion's Watch Tower and
Herald of Christ's Presence, 1 January 1908, reprint, 4110.

"6000 Years of Human Existence"
In 1969 the Watchtower Magazine in Czech began publishing a series of articles based on the book Life Everlasting- In Freedom of the Sons of God. Chapter 1, under the sub-heading "Six Thousand Years of Human Existence Closing," contained an explanation of the Jubilee and of the Bible chronology. This material influenced some in a positive way; it also led to many questions and much speculation.
The office in Czechoslovakia sent a letter dated February 22, 1972, to all congregations. It set out a lengthy explanation of reasons why we should not make any definite assertions about the date when Armageddon will strike. It pointed out that no publication of the Society had said that Armageddon will come in a certain year. The letter concluded: "Jehovah's Witnesses around the world are familiar with these facts, and no one should any personal claims as to what will happen before or during the year 1975. There are no Scriptural grounds for any claims, and they could have a detrimental effect on the preaching work. Strive, therefore, that you 'all speak in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you may be fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought.' (1Cor 1:10) For concerning that day and hour nobody knows." Matt.24:36
--2000 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses pp.196,197

For more info, go to http://homepages.picknowl.com.au/hepburn/prophecy.htm

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