Tag: prophecy

What Good Is It to Know the Times and Be Found Wanting before Jesus?

The Sons of Issachar knew the times, but do we?

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The most well read article on this Blog since September of 2020 is Who Were the Sons of Issachar? And What Might They Mean for Us Today? I wrote the article in response to the charismatic prophets who were prophesying another Trump victory in the 2020 presidential election. At least one man prophesied that Trump would be elected president in 2016, and too many people to count were prophesying a second presidential victory in 2020.

The message floating in the charismatic ether in 2020 was about “knowing the times.” Knowing the times became a buzzword for having the inside track on what God was doing. It became a signal for those who knew God had chosen Donald Trump, and he was their man who they rallied around – like the Sons of Issachar rallied around David.

The “chiefs” of the Sons of Issachar were described as “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should be do” in 1 Chronicles 12:32 when they left King Saul’s army to rally around David, who was hiding from Saul in the wilderness. The implication was that embracing Trump for a second term would be “knowing the times” and doing what should be done – as ordained by God.

When I researched the Sons of Issachar and wrote the article, I noted that the Sons of Issachar were not the first people to gather around David. They weren’t even in the first wave of people who supported David. Though the leaders of the Sons of Issachar apparently knew the times, many other Israelites, including the sons of Benjamin (from Saul’s own tribe), had already rallied in defense of David. The Sons of Issachar were actually late to the party.

I don’t know exactly how we should parse that. Was “knowing the times” said tongue in cheek? Did the leaders have a hard time rallying their men to follow? (The Sons of Issachar were specifically the leaders of that tribe, unlike the descriptions of the other tribes that responded in greater numbers.)

Whatever was going on there, the author of those words in 1 Chronicles 12:32 had the benefit of hindsight. Those words were penned after Saul’s fall from grace and David’s rise to the power. The modern day prophets in 2020 didn’t know how the presidential campaign would play out, but they were certain “they knew the times.”

I was skeptical. It didn’t sit right with me, so I spent time studying the passage from which “knowing the times” came and seeking God on the subject. The article was written by me as a way of working out what I was seeing in Scripture and sensing in my own spirit as I sought to be guided by God’s Holy Spirit. Whether, I understood the times will be known only in time.

A year earlier (in 2019), the same crowd was describing Donald Trump as a King David (and later King Cyrus), but I was thinking that he was more like King Saul. (See Is Donald Trump the King We Wanted?) I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but I didn’t feel good about it. I was disturbed by the fruit of his life – his sordid past, his bullying, his coarse talk, his ignorance about the Bible, and his demeanor – because none of it added up to reflect the kind of person Christ followers should follow.

I had given him the benefit of the doubt, but I was unsettled in my spirit. I had not yet thought to research what Jesus told us to look for in discerning false prophets – that we would know them by their fruit. I was torn.

I was mindful not to despise prophecy, but I recalled Paul’s admonition to “test everything.” (1 Thess. 5:20) I spent years testing, not letting myself completely dismiss Donald Trump as an imposter – a wolf in sheep’s clothing – but feeling the whole time like that is exactly what he was.

Paul’s admonition about testing everything may come from Deuteronomy:

“If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him…. If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them…. If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly.….”

Deuteronomy 13:1-4, 6-8, 12-14

Continue reading “What Good Is It to Know the Times and Be Found Wanting before Jesus?” →

A New Donald Trump?

“I’m going to be watching to see if this was really a life-changing, life-altering moment….”

kevingdrendel46 Comments

This morning I watched two different videos about Donald Trump in the aftermath of the assassination attempt that came within millimeters of ending his life. Such an experience would sober the hardest of self-made men. Trump experienced the proof of the reality of personal mortality and the razor line between alternate fates.

The first video I might have ignored, but for the source. Capturing Christianity is a YouTuber who manages a thoughtful and circumspect apologetic presence online. He interviews good people and engages in civil conversation with people who disagree with him. I am attracted to people like that.

The video purported to be about a prophecy predicting the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I don’t run after so-called prophecies. I am immediately skeptical when I see anyone claiming to be a prophet or to have some message from God.

With that said, I do not completely dismiss the idea that God could speak to or through anyone. If we believe anything in the Bible, we have to accept that God has spoken to and through people in the past. I also don’t see anything in the Bible that indicates God can no longer do that if He chooses to speak to or through people in the present.

I believe that skepticism is the right posture from which to consider any claimed prophecy, but I believe we also have to acknowledge and respect Paul’s admonition:

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast to what is good.”

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 (ESV)

The title of the video is, Viral Trump Prophet Now Admits THIS. I don’t like clickbait headlines either, though I admit to being persuaded to click on them sometimes. When I do, my Spidey senses are always tingling, expecting to be disappointed by another bait and switch or overblown story that has little to no factual support, is (likely) full of misinformation and disinformation, and (maybe) even outright misleading information. I have seen it too many times.

I respected the source, however, so I clicked.

The 15-minute video walks through a purported prophecy published by one, Brandon Biggs, four days before the assassination attempt. Mr. Biggs seems very sincere and forthright, but many people can be sincerely and forthrightly wrong. I will let you discern for yourself:

The gist of the Capturing Christianity take is that Biggs got some things wrong, though he accurately predicted the assassination attempt.

Of course, anyone could predict an assassination attempt. I have personally heard people speculate that such an attempt might be made, given the current, polarized and tensely emotional political climate.

The video commentary includes clips of what Mr. Biggs claims he saw in a vision and his interpretation of it. Some of what he saw and reported days before the incident are generally accurate to the events that occurred. In particular, he saw a bullet whiz past Trump’s right ear. He saw blood coming from Trump’s right ear, and he saw Trump down on his knees.

As the commentary points out, anyone might predict an assassination attempt, but the details of this vision are remarkably close to what actually happened. The bullet didn’t whiz past the left ear. It didn’t whiz past the top of the head, or chin, or cheeks, or neck or chest. It whizzed past Trump’s right ear.

Biggs added that Trump’s eardrum was ruptured and that he was “radically born again”. This is where the reality differs. Donald Trump’s eardrum was not ruptured. We also have no way of knowing what happened in Donald Trump’s mind or heart.

The central point of the commentary focused on Mr. Biggs’s “admission” that he added to what he saw in the vision. Biggs says that he didn’t see the bullet pierce Trump’s ear, but he saw the blood coming from the ear. He also mentioned seeing sonic waves behind the bullet, as in the movie, Matrix.

(I am reminded in this comment that prophets are people who perceive things in the context of their culture, experience, and understanding. Food for thought as we read the Old Testament prophets – not that Brandon Biggs should be compared to an Old Testament prophet.)

Briggs admits that he assumed the bullet somehow caused Trump’s eardrum to burst. He added that part, because it seemed like be a logical conclusion to him from what he believed he saw. What he saw, and what he assumed are two different things.

I believe Biggs was sincere and forthright, as I said above, and he was humble in explaining these things. He wasn’t defensive. He didn’t seem intent on defending himself. In fact, he was apologetic and called himself “immature” in not recognizing the difference between what he saw and what he assumed.

So much for these basic facts. They aren’t what I want to focus on here.

As I stated just three days ago, the original prophecy about Trump being President (in 2011) and the miraculous escape from death this week (even if we admit God’s hand in the prophecies and the saving of Trump’s life) do not mean that Trump is God’s man and that Christians should uncritically support him in whatever he says and does.

Paul said we need to “test everything” (1 Thess. 5), so I think that is exactly what we should do. Some people may say that I am vacillating, but I am not. I am keeping an open mind in taking a closer look.

Continue reading “A New Donald Trump?” →

The Trump Assassination Attempt: Knowing the Times

The church needs to maintain perspective and test everything

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The world is chattering about the Trump assassination attempt. Some people are gnashing their teeth, and others are thumping their chests and pumping their fists. I don’t want to rush to conclusions about anything. There is far too much of rushing to conclusions in our world – or reflexively doubling down on the conclusions we reached long ago.

The assassination attempt, however warrants some kind of response. No one is without some thoughts on the matter. My goal, though, is to be circumspect and seek perspective

I have not been shy in my writing on my concerns about Donald Trump and the uncritical support of Trump by the body of Christ in this country. The most read article on this blog, Who Were the Sons of Issachar? And What Might They Mean for Us Today?, is an attempt to find some perspective in the swirl of religious fervor with which people support Trump.

As I write this, I recognize that Trump may likely become the next President of the United States – an unlikely two-time President. I also recognize the prophecies about the first Trump presidency and the prophecies predicting a second Trump presidency that did not come to fruition four years ago. They appear (to me) about to be vindicated in 2024.

If Donald Trump is elected for a second time, we must admit that these prophecies came true. The test of a true prophet and of a prophecy from God is whether the events predicted happen.

That isn’t the end of the story, however. Paul exhorts us to test everything and hold onto only what is good. (1 Thess. 5:21) The context in which these words were spoke is prophecies, among other things:

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22

What do we hold on to here? What is God saying, and what is God doing in these times

Does a second Trump presidency as prophesied mean that Trump is God’s anointed? Like David? Or Like Saul? Does it mean that the American church must put its uncritical allegiance behind Donald Trump, including all that he says, all that he does, every position he takes, and all that he stands for?

These questions are ways of asking, “What God is doing in our times?” And, maybe more importantly, “What should we be doing in these times?”

We need to be careful – to test everything. God has a way of doing things that we don’t expect and don’t understand. If we don’t believe that, we are not reading our Bible closely enough.

Continue reading “The Trump Assassination Attempt: Knowing the Times” →

The Significance of Eve’s Seed in the Plan of God

The description of the virgin birth of Jesus harkens back to Genesis 3:15.

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I am constantly amazed at the “new” things I see in reading the Bible year after year. I read the Bible for the first time in a World Religion class in college in 1978, and I have been reading it ever since. In the last 5 years (6, or 7, I don’t know), I have read the through the Bible from beginning to end – from Genesis to Revelation – in chronological order and in other ways.

At the beginning of this New Year, I am going to try writing some shorter articles, as I have noticed my articles are getting progressively more wordy and lengthy. The Bible is a rich tapestry, but some threads are longer than others, so I am going to try to pull on some shorter threads from time to time.

In this article, I am focusing on Genesis 3:15 inspired by a brief comment in a sermon I heard during the Christmas season. People often credit the following verse in Genesis as a foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus. God speaking to Eve after the fall said:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:15 niv

I confess that this foreshadowing never seemed crystal clear to me. Jesus is the offspring of Eve, but so are billions of people. Thus, that connection didn’t seem obvious to me. I saw nothing in that verse that seemed to be specifically about Jesus.

I always figured that theologians connect the second phrase of Genesis 3:15 to Jesus: Eve’s “offspring” (Jesus) will “crush” the serpent’s (Satan’s) head, and the serpent will “strike” his heel. Crushing the head and striking the heel is imagery that doesn’t seem to tie in specifically to what happened with Jesus, except in a very general way. It isn’t completely inappropriate (Jesus certainly had the victory!), but the imagery doesn’t closely fit the details of the crucifixion (like Isaiah 53 does, for instance).

Crushing a head is a fatal blow. Striking a heel is not fatal. Satan’s blow wasn’t fatal, though it seemed to be the dramatic end to Jesus. The crucifixion turns out to be more like the striking of a heal, because Jesus rose from the dead! And that “blow” was crushing to Satan and his purposes.

The end!

Mic drop….

While this is generally accurate, the imagery doesn’t remind us of Jesus in the same way that other Old Testament passages clearly foreshadow him, like Isaiah 53 (by his stripes we are healed).

Hindsight helps us see Jesus in these words spoken by Isaiah hundreds of years earlier. Jews before the time of Jesus knew that many passages in the Psalms, the Prophets, and other places spoke of a Messiah to come. Scholars also go back to Genesis 3:15 to see the foreshadowing of the Messiah (an offspring of Eve crushing the serpent that fooled Adam and Eve into sin).

But, there is more in Genesis 3:15 than the crushing of the serpent’s head that may point to Jesus, and it points to Jesus uniquely and poignantly. It also reveals another thread that runs throughout Scripture.

To see the thread I want to pull on today, we need to focus on the first part of the verse:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers….

Genesis 3:15a
Continue reading “The Significance of Eve’s Seed in the Plan of God” →

Certainty in Uncertain Times is the Theme of the Top Article from this Blog in 2021

The most read article in 2021 for this blog has prophetic and apocalyptic undertones.

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Each year since I started this blog in 2012, I have reviewed the most read blog posts of the year. Certain posts on timeless themes, like “It is Well with my Soul: The Story” (from 2014), are perennial contenders. Not this year, though. That article doesn’t even make the top ten.

While some timeless “favorites” (recognizing this is a relative term here) tend to make the list each year, 2021 is marked by the emergence of relatively new writings and a new theme. We might call that theme the signs of the times. At least, we might say that writings which reflect the current times have emerged on top.

That statement is certainly true of the article that is by far the most read article on this blog this year: Who Were the Sons of Issachar? And What Might They Mean for Us Today?

This article was written in September of 2020. At that time we were careening toward a contentious presidential election. Though it was written with only three months to the end of the year, it became the most read article of 2020 (beating out It is Well with My Soul), and it is the most read article in 2021 by far.

In fact, the Sons of Issachar article has quickly become the most read article of my blog, ever, beating out the 2014 article (It is Well with My Soul) three times over. That it grew out of my own angst leading up to the presidential election is certainly a sign of the times. We have had much angst in the last two years!

I have never highlighted a single article in my past annual summaries. This year is different. I will get to the summary, but first I will tell the back story and reflect on the significance of the Sons of Issachar article, which seems to have hit home with people.

Continue reading “Certainty in Uncertain Times is the Theme of the Top Article from this Blog in 2021” →