Blogging through Revelation - part 3

Mid - Awakening Views

In April of 1978, I was formally recognized and ordained as the Upper Room Fellowship's lead pastor. With a little bit of theology under my belt I began to have more of an "opinion" on the end times. Whenever I spoke or taught "from the pulpit" I would advise people on adopting a post-tribulational view of the rapture for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post. Our church fellowship was also closely connected with similar fellowships that had been birthed during the Jesus Movement. Much of the teaching that we connected with supported and encouraged Christians to be prepared to go through the Tribulation.

Within the leadership of the Upper Room we learned all kind of practical things in preparing for difficult times. We bought wheat grinders and wheat and learned how make our own bread. We stored up water and food and bought water purifiers. We learned how to can and how to dry and store food. We subscribed to Mother Earth News and bought all the Foxfire books. We began to ask ourselves what we would do when we couldn't buy toilet paper and tampons. (Really! Well, what would you do if knew you were going to go through the tribulation? I remember one girl saying being without tampons would be the Great Tribulation! Even today I have a list of "Tribulation Food" - things I would only eat if I had to - oatmeal is at the top of this list for me.)

Actually all this was practical stuff which could be used in any natural or national disaster. I never regret doing any of it or learning about it. And we did it all without a sense of panic. We believed not in our resources but in One who was His people through all kinds of tribulations.

In 1988 another end time book hit the "fan". Wikipedia gives the details:

Edgar C. Whisenant (September 25, 1932 – May 16, 2001) was a Bible student who predicted the Rapture would occur in 1988, sometime between Sept. 11 and Sept. 13. He published two books about this: 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988 and On Borrowed Time. Eventually, 300,000 copies of 88 Reasons were mailed free of charge to ministers across America, and 4.5 million copies were sold in bookstores and elsewhere. Whisenant was quoted as saying "Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong; and I say that to every preacher in town," and "[I]f there were a king in this country and I could gamble with my life, I would stake my life on Rosh Hashana 88." [1]

Whisenant's predictions were taken seriously in some parts of the evangelical Christian community. As the great day approached, regular programming on the Christian Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) was interrupted to provide special instructions on preparing for the Rapture.

I was one of the ministers that received Edgar's book for free. I only looked at it to see how many of his 88 points he got wrong (in my humble opinion). I doubted Edgar's predictions would hold true.

In 1988, September 11 came and went like normal. No rapture on the 12th or 13th either.

I became tired of predictions and charts. If people living in the first century couldn't discern Jesus coming in their day and time why did we think we would be able to figure out his second coming in ours?