“The End” is Coming! Prepare for More False Teaching on the End Times
This is quite a weekend. The movie “2012″ is in opening in theaters, a special-effects extravaganza, premised on a thoroughly nonsensical view of Mayan prophecy, which even NASA has refuted handily. But I received news today that is far more insidious and dangerous. Via Publisher’s Weekly, I learned that Tim LaHaye, co-author of the mega-selling Left Behind series, is switching publishers and in a partnership with lawyer-author, Craig Parshall, is now working on a new apocalyptic series of books. Zondervan has signed the pair to produce The End, described as “a series set in the near future chronicling political events leading up to the end times.” The first volume in the series will be titled The Edge of the Apocalypse, and will be releasing on April 20, 2010, with a first print run of 500,000 copies. LayHaye is quoted in the story as saying: “While my past works have piqued interest in biblical prophecy on a global level, The End series includes many prophecies that were not covered in Left Behind.” Please be aware and be warned that we can expect this series to repeat all the same millennialistic false doctrine the first series did. This is not Christian teaching, this is all false teaching, dangerous to souls and should be marked and avoided (Rom. 16:17). It is good to remind our folks of what the Bible actually does teach about the End Times, and you can do that briefly, with the What About pamphlet on the End Times, or in more depth with the excellent study on End Times put out by The LCMS’ Commission on Theology and Church Theology a number of years ago. The announcement of this new series, today, comes at a perfect time for many of us who will be hearing our Lord’s warning about false teaching about the End Times in this Sunday’s appointed Gospel reading in the three-year lectionary series used in congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. The two helpful documents I mentioned are available below as PDF files.
The End Times: LCMS CTCR Document
The What About pamphlet on End Times
It’s just going to get worse the closer we get to 2012. People are scared and uninformed, and they will buy LaHaye’s book in droves.
More resources from cph.org:
Deceived by Light (Bible study with reproducible student pages); item 20-3273 (also on sale right now)
The Lutheran Difference: End Times (Bible study); item 20-3261
Doesn’t LaHaye have enough money to retire already? Jeepers creepers! I wonder if his writing is Gospel driven or profit driven.
Thanks for the reminder about the ‘What About the Millenium’ pamphlet.
I’m preaching at an inter-parish service tomorrow on Mark 13, and I’m going to run off enough copies to distribute to those present. Hope that’s OK.
I love it also that this weekend with the three year lectionary series B, the Old Testament Lesson from Daniel 12:1-3. Which we might remember was the Old Testament Lesson for All Saints’ Day. Nice sermon illustration with the release of 2012 this weekend.
I cannot tell you how hard it was growing up in a Pentecostal church. Every minute we were deathly afraid that Jesus would snap up all of the righteous any minute and the rest of us would be left for the Devil’s dinner. If we weren’t asking forgiveness for every sin every second of our life, we would be LEFT BEHIND. I can smile about it now but its still a bitter memory.