Some time ago, I received a letter from a preacher friend who gave me some unexpected insight into some sort of a new "false prophecy scheme." On "8/18/92," this preacher friend wrote to me, "I do not believe in any specific signs of the end of the church age and the rapture. However, I feel that there are indications that point to the time following the rapture -- and if this be true; those indications would also indicate the nearness of the rapture." Immediately, I said to myself, "What sort of a new twist is this?" On the one hand, he is saying that there are no endtime prophecies. On the other hand, he is saying, nonetheless, that there are, nevertheless, endtime prophecies.

Needless to say, this is "double-talk"!
All who indulge such aren't very wise!

At first, I had a momentary thought that this preacher-friend of several years had come up with some sort of an original and new or novel way of giving semantics "a new glory"! Then, in a later and better moment, I somehow realized that this preacher friend of mine probably had read or heard somewhere what he had written to me. So, I just put the thought aside for the time and continued on with some of my research.

In pursuing my objective research, one day I "chanced" across John F. Walvoord's, "Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis" (Zondervan, 1990). I noted that this volume purportedly contains, "What the Bible says about the future of the Middle East and the end of Western civilization." On page 217 of this volume, I discovered these words:

But if there are no signs for the Rapture itself, what are the legitimate grounds for believing that The Rapture could be especially near for this generation?

The answer is not found in any prophetic events predicted before the Rapture but in understanding the events that will follow the Rapture. Just as history was prepared for Christ's first coming, in a similar way history is preparing for the events leading up to His Second Coming. Previous chapters in this book have explained the amazing historical developments that seem to be setting the stage for precisely the predicted events that will occur soon after the Rapture. If this is the case, it leads to the inevitable conclusion that the Rapture may be excitingly near (Ibid.).

Eureka! There is was, before me!
My own friend's unnamed source!

What awful darkness must be in the heart and the mind of a man who will say that he is not giving us prophecies for the end of the Church Age, when the whole of his emphasis seems to be or appears to be prophetic. He may be attempting to tell us that he has some insight into some truths that no one else has ever seen.

Then, he goes on and indulges in what appears to be semantic double-talk, perhaps in the hope of separating his false prophecy from all of that other false prophecy that has gone before and that is raging even now in The Dallas Theological Seminary, where he once labored! Even more, what awful darkness must be upon the heart and in the mind of my preacher friend who finds it convenient to follow a man who is involved in or who indulges in such double-talk? Is it possible that these brethren are not aware that our God condemns all such device with, "Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" (James 3:11).

Old Testament prophets spoke truly!
We assume, with a straight tongue!

These redeemed men apparently are in some "deep bonds of bitterness." Therefore, there obviously is a blindness upon their hearts. They evidently have not yet realized that when they say that certain "events" must take place before Jesus can return that they are taking an unscriptural stance against the words of Jesus, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mt. 24:36).

What awful darkness is upon their hearts that they could have chosen to believe the unscriptural nonsense and fiction of C. I. Scofield, Clarence Larkin, and other such men who appear to have given a supposed-prophetic emphasis to the Seven Churches in Revelation. They seem to be telling us that the whole of the prophetic picture will be brought to a climax in what they are calling "the Laodicean Period" when Jesus was simply dealing with existent Churches in the hour of His Inspiration. They do this even though they do not have one line or one word of Scripture from the Biblical book of Genesis through the Biblical book of Revelation by which they can justify such thinking? How is it that men who claim to believe that God has provided us with His Holy Word -- that Holy Word of God to which they have had immediate and continuing access -- can then make a move to discountenance or mock the Words of Jesus in Matthew 24:36?

It is, a tragedy, almost beyond repair!
As Christians, these do "double-talk"!

These men apparently have not realized that they are saying the same thing as all of the other false prophets. We can only presume that they are doing it with an attempted subtlety which they may hope will preclude their coming under the condemnation of God as "false prophets." These need to realize that our God is not playing games with men when He declares indubitably and absolutely, "every city or house divided against itself shall not stand" (Mt. 12:25). And when they prophesy and yet say they are not prophesying, we can know that they are "a house divided against itself."

Just recently, in a letter which I received, I read the following, "As believers in the Word of God, we have only one accurate source: the Holy Scriptures." This, of course, is very good and it is very true. He, however, will misapply the Scriptures, as we shall see. This one continues on to say, "All other sources fall into the category of which Ezekiel 14:9 speaks of, 'And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet ... '" (Arno Froese, Midnight Call Ministries International, personal letter, February 1993. p. 1). He follows immediately to say, "Why, we may ask, does God do such things? The Scripture says, 'Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie . . .'" (Ibid.).

It would seem that this one has come to the conclusion that men who indulge in false prophecy in this Church Age are not or cannot be saved. It seems to me that he has done what a lot of people seemingly delight in doing. That is, they make it a point to presume that some sins are worse than other sins, when our God does not make such "sin distinctions." Rather, as James advises us, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all" (James 2:10). Paul who advises us that "There is therefore, now, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1) also explains that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).

Failing to properly apply the Scriptures, this one has referenced two Scriptures, but his relating the one with the other for the Church Age is really somewhat out of line. In the one instance, God was dealing with "false prophets" in connection with the Law of Moses. In the other, God is dealing with unbelievers during the time of Jacob's Trouble or that which will be "The Tribulation Period" which will be in effect once the Church has been caught away to be with her Savior.

Therefore, though we shall demonstrate several times that John F. Walvoord is a false prophet, we would not ever assume that he a lost or an unredeemed man. On the contrary, I have heard him speak marvelously. I have read him with much satisfaction at times. He is as positive as I ever shall be that Jesus is the Christ, verily the Son of God, and no man can do that apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart and mind. His environment doubtless has had some lasting effect in his ministry. Most of his ministerial life apparently has been spent in the midst of that C. I. Scofield milieu, The Dallas Theological Seminary. Consequently, whatever hypnotic spell Scofield was able to cast on others, he apparently also was able to exert over John F. Walvoord.

We are not really surprised, then, to find John F. Walvoord indulging in some double-talk -- somewhat as my preacher friend -- on page 219 of the above mentioned volume of Walvoord, he gives us, "A Prophetic Checklist for the Church." On pages 220 and 221, he follows this with thirteen signs which include, "The rise of world communism ... Liberalism ... The movement toward a super-church ... Apostasy ... Moral chaos ... The sweep of spiritism ... Jerusalem becomes a center of religious controversy ... ." After this, numbers 8 through 13 are indicated to relate to the rapture and following "events." How very subtly has he attempted to confuse all who make any attempt to read him, presume him to be a Christian Biblical Scholar, and then succumb before his prophetic DOUBLE-TALK, or perhaps we should say, his DOUBLE-WHAMMY; namely, "prophecy is not prophecy," but it, nonetheless, should really be considered prophecy, anyway!

This, however, is not all!

On page 221 of the same volume, he continues with, "A Prophetic Checklist for the Nations." Here, he gives us 22 signs of the end, "The establishment of the United Nations ... The rebuilding of Europe ... Israel was reestablished as a nation. ... Russia rose to world power ... The Common Market ... Red China rose to world power . . .The Middle East becomes the most significant trouble spot in the world .. . The oil blackmail awakens the world ... The Iron Curtain falls [This, needless to say, is a revised sign that did not appear in his 1974 and 1976 editions. RW] ... Russia declines as a world power [Believe me! Ditto from the last. RW] ... A world clamor for peace ... Ten nations create a united Mediterranean Confederacy [Ditto, from the last. RW] ... ."

Numbers 13 through 22 deal with the supposed rising of the Antichrist from "The Ten nations," [When from the days of Herbert W. Armstrong, there have been more than "ten," RW.] "Russia attacks Israel and is destroyed, Antichrist becomes dictator, Temple is desecrated, terrible judgments of Tribulation are poured out, world-wide rebellion, Christ returns to earth, armies of the world unite, and Christ establishes His millennial reign.

This man continues and gives us "A Prophetic Checklist for Israel." As in the above "prophetic details," we note a few "after the fact insights" that many of his readers doubtless suppose are insights such as were those of the Old Testament Prophets who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21). Believe me, dear friends, the "prophets of our day" whose prophecies are always -- there is never any exception -- false have not, and they are not speaking as they are moved by the Holy Spirit. Most, or perhaps, all of their prophetic sensationalism’s with which they go forth to deceive the ignorant or the wise, the learned or the unlearned masses doubtless are "inspired" by their ignorance, their naiveté, or it maybe their greed, as such "sensationalism’s" seemingly pay very well.

We notice that the first 8 of the 17 endtime signs that John F. Walvoord gives us for Israel relate generally to the past and the present. He gives the signs as, "The intense suffering and persecution of Jews ... Jews return to Palestine ... The infant nation survives against overwhelming odds. Russia emerges as an important enemy of Israel ... [It may be that God may have been working on Walvoord's "forgetter," and he may have slept through the German Holocaust. Many "prophets" did, you know. RW]. Israel's heroic survival ... Israel's military accomplishments become overshadowed by the Arab's ... The Increasing isolation of the United States and Russia from the Middle East makes it more and more difficult for Israel to negotiate an acceptable peace settlement" (Walvoord. op. cit. pp. 223-224). He concludes with the Antichrist in power and eventually Jesus returning to reign with numbers 9 through 17.

Under the subheading, "An Intricately Woven pattern of Events," he goes on to tell us, "The earlier chapters of this book have attempted to present the overall prophetic message about the future as it relates to history and today's headlines" (Ibid. p. 225). Believe me, dear friends, this supposed desire of his is nothing but gobbledygook. The prophecies that he put forth in 1990 were no more "Biblical Prophecies" than those that he put forth in 1976 and earlier in 1974. As it has been with Lindsey, Robertson, McBirnie, and others, this one apparently has experienced no conscience of shame as he has deceived the masses even as Scofield who sat in his chair before him in The Dallas Theological Seminary. What awful darkness has been upon the hearts of these who have indulged in false prophecy without any apparent conscience of having indulged in any degree of wrong. Surely, "their conscience is seared as with a hot iron" (I Tim. 4;2), and when their prophecies do not come to pass, they just go on to make revisions of their false prophecies that are no more Scriptural or true or truthful than the previous ones.

How can they despise Jesus' words?
How desperate is their satanic-drive!

John F. Walvoord, then, has said, in effect, that the Rapture could not have taken place prior to the list of happenings which he calls "events" that speak of "events" that supposedly will take place before and after the Rapture. As C. I. Scofield and all of the rest, he has declared that Jesus did not know what He was doing or what He was talking about when He gave us Matthew 24:36. As all of the rest of the false prophets, this one has been saying that Jesus could not have come in the First Century, the Second Century, or any of the subsequent Centuries until we reached what Scofield -- [believe me dear friends, God had no part in Scofield's attempt to make the Lord of Glory to be or to appear as a liar] -- without any Scriptural warrant whatever has deemed to be the supposed "Laodicean Period" of Church history.

Perhaps, then, it really is not surprising that Walvoord has spent a goodly portion of his ministerial life in that institution which was the twice-married Scofield's [If my facts are accurate, C. I. Scofield's first, and Catholic wife, never gave him any Scriptural justification for divorce.] place of supposed ministerial glory for so many years. Surely, it is a further circumstance almost beyond belief, that the darkness of unbelief that apparently had settled over the life and the ministry of C. I. Scofield obviously later has settled over the life and the ministry of John F. Walvoord. So, today, John F. Walvoord spends the final years of his closing mortality calling the Jesus who said, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mt. 24:36) a prevaricator!

What impossible, and awful darkness!

Is on the heart of my preacher friend!

All of this is but a continuation of that mockery that men have been making of the Holy Word of God where our blessed Savior declared indubitably and absolutely, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mt. 24:36). We see the epitome of the tragedy of the works of C. I. Scofield spelled out rather clearly in the graphic designs or charts of Clarence Larkin that were copyrighted first in 1918.

First, it needs to be noted that Almighty God declared "One Creation," as I have indicated in "Will We Ever Have Peace On Earth?" Yet, out of C. I. Scofield's confused handling of creation, his graphic "spokesman," Clarence Larkin, provides us with "The Gap Theory" and essentially "two creations." So, on pages 16 and 17, of Clarence Larkin's "Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth" graphic, he shows, "The original earth, Gen. 1:1," "The Chaotic Earth, Gen. 1:2," and "The Restored Earth, Gen. 1:3 -2:3." Clarence Larkin calls this "The Creative Week" (Clarence Larkin, "Dispensational Truth," 1918 & 1920. pp. 16-17).

Since those very, very dark days of unbelief that apparently were "inspired" by C. I. Scofield and which were dramatized by Clarence Larkin's graphics, millions of men have had their spiritual and Scriptural insights ruined. Resultantly, many of them have spent their lives attempting to find some Scriptural basis for "Pre-Adamic peoples" who supposedly populated the earth before it was "without form and void" (Gen. 1:2). Some have actually employed their twisted hypotheses in order to provide some sort of an "explanation for demons" arising from that milieu of supposed of "Pre-Adamic Peoples."

Some of them, as a direct result of C. I. Scofield's "Gap Theory," that was dramatized by Clarence Larkin, have supposedly found humans "cohabiting with angels." Needless to say, they have done this without any regard whatever for the Scriptures. Jesus has some very positive words against such a teaching. If we read the Scriptures with care, we learn that Jesus very plainly indicates and explains that angelic beings are not sexually-active creatures. In Matthew 22:30 we find these words, "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Those who are insistent in following that pattern of unscriptural Scofield thinking, however, seemingly have no problem whatever in deeming Jesus to have been a prevaricator in this instance.

Climactically, in this same volume, chapter XXXIV which is identified as, "The Signs of The Times," we find the source of much of the confusion and the false prophecy that has raged almost untouched throughout some three quarters of this 20th century. Here, we find Clarence Larkin advising us that "The 'unsealing' [of Dan. 12:4, 9-10, RW] began about 100 years ago [around 1818, perhaps, RW], when the 'Midnight Cry,' 'Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,' [emphasis, Larkin's, RW], was heard in the Revival of Premillennial Truth."

A little further along, he follows this with, "Let us take a hasty glance at the 'Signs of the Times.' A careful study of the Chart will reveal 'Ten Signs'" (Ibid. p. 173). Then, he begins the list:

Post-Millennial Scoffers ... Apostasy ... False Teachers ... Spiritualism ... Perilous Times ... Heaped Up Treasure ... A Laodicean Church ... The Fig-Tree Sign ... The Distress of Nations ... and Noah Days (Ibid. pp. 173-175).

This man, Clarence Larkin, lived, labored, and died, and apparently never realized that he was one of those "false teachers" whom he presumed to be among the people. As Scofield before him, and as Walvoord, and my preacher friend, as well as some others like them, Clarence Larkin apparently followed C. I. Scofield very closely. As a result, he obviously walked helplessly and hopelessly in a very deep darkness of unbelief. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, we can know that Clarence Larkin did not care for the Word of Jesus, "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Mt. 24:36). In a very real sense, he had followed C. I. Scofield rather than the Word of God.

In the process, he and these others certainly reverenced the false teachings of C. I. Scofield above the Scriptures. Consequently, it should be rather evident by now that those who spend their lives indulging in false prophecy have spiritual eyes that are blinded. Too, it should be obvious that their spiritual ears are not hearing Likewise, their spiritual hearts and minds are cold and unreceptive to the truth of the Word of God. In fact we may say that they turn from the Holy and Eternal Word of our God and choose instead the figments of the imagination of men such as J. A. Seiss, C. I. Scofield, or Clarence Larkin or some others such as these, thereby despising the Word of Jesus in Matthew 24:36.

Prevaricating preachers, rage today!
They lie! And people delight in the lie!