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Meditation 1164
The End Is Nigh, Again

by: John Tyrrell

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This week, the Express website published an article on Dr F. Kenton Beshore's prediction that End Times are approaching. According to the Express, Beshore, President of the World Bible Society, says the "Rapture" is likely to occur sometime between now and 2021 followed by the Second Coming anytime between 2018 and 2028.

My concerns with those who make such predictions remains their influence on others. As we saw with Harold Camping a few years ago, some followers make irrevocable life-changing decisions based on these predictions. And Beshore, through his radio show and his World Bible Society position has the capacity to influence others to act based on his predictions.

In doing a little research on Beshore who I'd never heard of before, though apparently he is well known in Rapture-ready circles, I found that this particular prediction is old news. Perhaps the Express had been saving the article as a filler for a slow news day.

Essentially what the Express reported was contained in an October 2012 press release from the World Bible Society. And that press release seems to have been a fundraising gimmick to solicit money so to distribute millions of copies of Beshore's forty-five page "Jewish Scriptures" to Jews worldwide. He promised that with "a donation of $65 or more, 50 Jewish families will receive their personal copy of the Jewish Scriptures in the mail." I'm sure those Jewish families will be deeply appreciative.

Beshore seems to operate under the delusion that 144,000 of those Jews will be so inspired by receiving a version of the Tales of Jesus tailored especially for them that they will then proceed to preach the gospels and the coming End Times worldwide. I think that illustrates the fantasy world in which End Times people operate.

Strangely only a year earlier, Beshore was pushing his book "When? When Will the Rapture Take Place." Discussing his book on his blog in September 2011, Beshore stated "The Rapture is not an imminent event that can take place at any moment." And yet only a year later, we find him proclaiming "The Rapture is coming, the Rapture is coming - by 2021!"

Continuing with his 2011 blog discussion, he stated certain things must happen before the Rapture.

And to hammer the point home "Until all of the above these prophecies are fulfilled the Rapture cannot take place." (emphasis added.)

He followed that with the statement "Jesus Christ cannot break His Word." Beshore seems unaware of Matthew 16:28.

In any event, looking at Beshore's nine prerequisites for Rapture - using the standard commonsense meanings of the words*, not one of them has been met or even seems to be close to being met since Beshore wrote them. I don't know on what basis he has come up with his current forecast. Whatever the grounds are, they are as just about as valid as Harold Camping's for his various End Times predictions.

But Beshore has made a testable prediction. I'm prepared to make several of my own. In 2022 we will have absolute certainty Beshore was wrong about the Rapture. In 2029 we will have absolute certainty Beshore was wrong about the Second Coming. Further, I will predict the Rapture (in the Christian sense) will not occur, not only in the next seven years, but also not in the next seventy years, in the next 700 years, nor the next seven thousand years.

One more prediction - when Beshore is proven wrong, yet another Rapture-ready Christian will make the mistake of making a testable prediction about End Times and be proven wrong in turn, and then another will appear.... and so on. They've been proven wrong for 2000 years, and will continue to be so for at least 2,000 more. As long as some Christians hold to the various confused beliefs of Rapture / Second Coming / Tribulation . Apocalypse / End Times, preachers are going to come up with their insights into God's secret code for his calendar. And they will all be wrong. But unfortunately, not before they ruin the lives of some of those who make the mistake of believing them.

Note:

* Isn't this always the issue with interpreting prophecy - we never see interpretations based on standard commonsense meanings of the words.

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