W. S. McBirnie

If we were to take the next 150 pages just to document more of what we have already seen, it would be no problem at all. Presently, I have in my possession sufficient copy to provide another 500 pages and more of such decisive detail.

One of the more esteemed of the false prophets of our day is W. S. McBirnie, a doctoral graduate of one of Southern Baptists most prestigious Seminaries. He is a very learned man who once pastored Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio when it was "the fastest growing church in America" or the nation. He now is listed as a "News Analyst," and as the President of a Seminary in California. Today, as most religious folk with a TV doubtless know, he is the regular scholarly one on the Trinity Broadcasting Net Work of national and international television stations.

In July of 1988, this man had some rather interesting words. He said then, "Whoever is elected President will hold this nation and the free world in his hands when Russia strikes the Middle East. This will probably happen during the new President's first year" (Dr. McBirnie's Newsletter, July 1988. p. 1).

Since then, as of January of 1993, we have been through four years with George Bush. Now, in early 1993, we, of course, have a new President. Usually, I stay pretty current on the news of the world for I still have a rather insatiable curiosity and a desire to know how others here and there are faring in the midst of our world. Unless I have missed some of the news, I do not recall hearing that Russia has struck in the Middle East. On the contrary, even when we and several other of the United Nations were involved in "Desert Storm," the word was that Russia was not and would not be involved.

Then, this man, W. S. McBirnie, in his brochure, "Update, The Dooms Day Curve," a publication that he put out in 1989, says, "No man knows the date of His coming. But we now have sufficient evidence that we may be living in the terminal generation. The whole creation groans under the weight of perplexing problems, which could produce worldwide calamity by 2000 A.D. My study of the Scriptures indicates Jesus will return for His own people before 2000 A.D. We must note that our calendar is four years off the correct date. '1989' is actually 1993! That is where we are right now."

It would seem that this man had obviously forgotten what he said in July of 1988, or perhaps he just figured that his people would have forgotten, or that they, as he, would not really care. So, according to this one who is deemed to be a scholar, a minister of considerable prominence, together perhaps with Hal Lindsey's more recent and often-revised endtime agenda, as well, we can expect "the catching-away" to be upon us around 1996. Or, can we, really?

W. S. McBirnie, too, gives us his listing of "endtime signs" for "The Church Age" which understandably differ from all others in a few details. They are, "Water Shortage, Pollution, Population Explosion, AIDs [I wonder why some of these prophets did not know about AIDs in the 60's and 70's, and before? RW], Ozone Depletion and Global Warning, Natural Disasters, New Energy Crisis, Wars and Rumors of Wars, Mideast, Economic Instability, Terrorism, Escalation of Evil, and The Rise of Cultism" (Update, The Dooms Day Curve," 1989. pp. 1-11).

Another false prophet has spoken!
The people have bought his word!

In June of 1976, Ray Brubaker, in his Radar News had these words, "Secretary of State Kissinger came away from the memorable two-day meeting of the North Atlantic Alliance as the hero of the occasion. In Norway, the newspapers headlined him as 'Super Henry.'"

It may be of some interest to go back just a little further in the Ray Brubaker files. In his Radar News of January 1972, Vol. 17. #1, on the back cover he has these words, "in rallies across the country we have been speaking on the subject - 'Are We Thru in '72?'" In the center of the paper, there is a rather large picture of Hal Lindsey's, "The Late Great Planet Earth." He goes on to say, "This is a book about prophecy -- Bible prophecy. If you have no interest in the future, this isn't for you." And down below on the same page, Ray Brubaker says, "The Late Great Planet Earth" is "one of the most prophetic significant books of our time."

Then, in his May, 1973, Vol. 18. No. 5 issue, he has a center insert, "Israel's 25th Anniversary" which is given the subhead, "Tribulation ... Just Two Years Away? . . ." Needless to say, he is attempting to get all he can out of his sensationalism. Following, he referenced, "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled (Mt. 24:34). After this are these supposedly "prophetic words" designed to excite his readers, perhaps:

We're supposing that our Lord was saying that the generation of those who see Israel come into being will also see His coming! If so, how close then might be our Lord's return? Well, Webster defines a generation as being 33 years [Recall Van Impe's generation of a few more very convenient years? RW] which is the 'ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another. Realizing that Israel has been a nation for 25 years, leaves 8 years left before the completion of 33 years or a generation. Is that correct? And, if the tribulation is seven years in length, could this mean that it's possible for the Lord to come within the next two years? Something to think about!

If we are understanding Ray Brubaker correctly, he is suggesting to those who were reading him in that day that Jesus would be coming or returning in 1975. This, of course, was one of the dates that Herbert W. Armstrong had pointed to from the 1940's, and others had the end within that same general period. Quite obviously, these prophets have been wrong, since by the calendar that I have recently referenced, we are now into the year of 1993.

If we will search the Word of God with care from Genesis through the book of Revelation, we will discover that not one of any of God's true prophets ever indulged in such cheap and subtle "sensationalism." When God's prophets put forth their prophecies, they did so with specificity and with unquestioned accuracy. Who, then, puts forth this sort of unscriptural sensationalism that has been proven false for the last 20 years and more?

Is it possible that this man who has given most of his Christian Ministry to indulging in such sensationalism’s and "such timely questioning" could also have been heeding the voices of demons? On the third page of this center section we find his reason. Perhaps, we should say, "the nature of his greed"! He says, "Beloved, with our Lord's return so very close at hand, I ask sincerely -- what if Christ does come within the next two years and your money in the bank becomes worthless?"

False Prophets, indulge in deception!
They do so, without any conscience!

Then, one Roy Culley, an American Baptist Association leader, wrote for a prominent ABA publication, "A Bible Forecast of Christ's Coming." In this, he references Hosea and II Peter and does a bit of fancy mathematical calculating which is supposed to provide him some detail as to when Christ will return. This man takes violent issue with all of his peers -- most of whom -- who deem themselves to be premillennialists.

He says, "According to the Lord Himself in Hosea 5:15, He will not leave heaven until the Jews seek Him. According to the Bible the Jews do not seek Him until the end of the final seven traumatic years of this age. Don't count on being raptured until the Lord Himself leaves heaven, I Thess. 4:16" ("The Baptist Monitor," Vol. 43, March 1991, Vol. No. 3, p. 2). In the process, he advises us that Christ will return in 2004 A. D. (Ibid.). Evidently, this ABA Pastor has no regard either for Matthew 24:36.

One of the sources that C. I. Scofield may have used without ever bothering to honor it was a man by the name of Joseph A. Seiss whom we have referenced earlier. In 1865, J. A. Seiss copyrighted his work that he called, "The Apocalypse" in three volumes, and I have a copy of the "eleventh edition" of this publication. In this particular instance, I chose to work from the 556 page one-volume book that also was called, "THE APOCALYPSE" published by Zondervan without a date. This author was born in 1823 and died in 1904. His death came just five years before C. I. Scofield put his "Scofield Reference Bible" together in 1909. J. A. Seiss says this concerning the Seven Churches in Revelation two and three:

They are neither exactly nor only prophetic. They were really messages to these particular Churches, in view of their several condition, to stir them up to hold fast what was right, and to amend what was wrong, as also all other Churches in like condition. But as the seven Churches were representative and inclusive of the entire Church, these Epistles also give Christ's judgment of the entire Church, and are necessarily anticipative of its entire history. In other words, they give us, from the beginning, the exact picture of the whole history of the Church, as that history, when finished, shall present itself to the mind of Christ as he contemplates it from the judgment seat, which is really the point from which everything presented in the Apocalypse is viewed ... (Joseph A. Seiss, "The Apocalypse," Zondervan Publishing House, "Fourth Reprint Edition," no date. p. 68).

It would seem that C. I. Scofield was deeply indebted to J. A. Seiss for the notes which he appended to his "Scofield Bible," but his source is not honored with any reference. This thinking of J. A. Seiss may seem to be very good reasoning. Yet, when it is analyzed in the light of the Scriptures, we can know that it is total speculation. And it would seem that even he realizes that this is so when he says, "as that history, when finished, shall present itself to the mind of Christ as he contemplates it from the judgment seat . . ." Surely, this is fiction -- built in part upon the imaginative fiction of Archbishop James Ussher who concluded that Creation took place in 4,004 B. C. -- derived from his fertile imagination. Even he must recognize it as such. Nevertheless, it is the basis for practically all of the false prophecy which has been designed around these Seven Churches in the book of Revelation in this 20th century. He is not finished with his rationalizing, however.

A little later, we read:

It is impossible to find an adequate reason why only these seven were written to in this manner, except upon this assumption. The number is that significant of dispensational fullness, entire completeness ... There is also an evident historical consecutiveness in the several pictures, as well as contemporaneousness; and such a complete successive realization of them can be traced in the subsequent history of the Church, even down to the present, that it seems to me impossible fairly to get rid of the conclusion, that these seven Churches were selected as affording, in their respective names, states, wants, and messages, a prefiguration of the entire Church in its successive phases from the time John wrote to the end of its history . . .if these things be well considered, it will seem that these seven Churches, besides their literal respect, were intended to be as patterns and types of the several ages of the Catholic Church from the beginning thereof unto the end of the world; that so these seven Churches should prophetically sample unto us a sevenfold successive temper and condition of the whole visible Church, according to the several ages thereof, answering the pattern of the seven Churches here (Ibid. p. 76. [In this connection, he references Mede's Works, Book V, Chap. 10, p. 90, also Andreas, Vitringa, and Augustine, Epist. 49:2]).

All of this may sound like a good hypothesis, but he is setting it forth as truth. The issue of all of this speculation is what he calls his part, number "II. In relation to the entire Church represented" (Ibid. p. 77). There follows nine closely written pages in which he expounds his hypothesis as being truth. This unscriptural handling of the Seven Churches in the book of Revelation is climaxed in part with these words, "Can any man scrutinize narrowly the professed Church of our day, and say that we have not reached the Laodicean age ... Friends and brethren, I have not made these pictures; I have found them; and the sevenfold admonition of Almighty God with reference to them is: 'He that hath an ear, let him hear'" (Ibid. p. 85).

It is upon such unscriptural and speculative hypothesizing as this that C. I. Scofield -- without ever once honoring his sources -- has set forth the notes on Revelation 1:20 in his "Scofield Reference Bible." Then, it is upon these C. I. Scofield notes which he has made to be a part of the Scriptures that almost a whole century of false prophecy has been constructed. With thanks almost exclusively to C. I Scofield, a multitude of men have anticipated the end of the Church Age and the Rapture as the conclusion of "The Laodicean Period," after which they suppose will transpire "the Tribulation" and "Armageddon."

It should be rather clear that by taking it upon himself -- without benefit of any Scriptural warrant -- to emphasize that "The Seven Churches" in Revelation two and three were prophetic in nature, C. I. Scofield really mocked the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:36. And all of this has been built upon the fiction of the speculation such as that in which J. A. Seiss, J. N. Darby, and others earlier indulged. Very subtly, in the process of attaching his notes to the Scriptures, C. I. Scofield further made it to appear that those notes were actually part of the Bible.

By the means of such a scheme -- whether he did it wittingly or unwittingly is not mine to say -- C. I. Scofield succeeded in convincing a multitude that it was all right to add to the Scripture, and that John's Revelation or Apocalypse really was not the last of God's revelation after all! It needs to be emphasized and re-emphasized that C. I. Scofield did all of his copying or -- if you prefer -- his plagiarizing without ever once acknowledging his indebtedness to J. N. Darby, J. A. Seiss, Ellen G. White or William Miller, all of whom were Advent Dispensationalists long before the thought could have crossed his mind.