Search the Scriptures Daily Program #3501c:
Gary :
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation, please stay with us. Now:
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: Dear Dave Hunt: I was recently at a prophecy conference where you spoke and you said you believe that the rapture of the church will be the most traumatizing event the world will experience. So much so, that it will cause the world to turn to the Antichrist who seems to have the answer to what happened to the millions who suddenly vanished. I certainly agree, but you stated that he will claim to be in contact with the alien civilization who supposedly removed the Christians. That sounds a bit too much like science fiction. Do you have a better, biblical explanation?
Tom:
Dave, the phenomenon of UFOs, of close encounters, of extraterrestrials, and so on, that’s almost become less fiction and I don’t want to say fact, because there’s never been any real substance to it, but certainly the phenomenon conditions people to be more accepting to these things.
Dave:
Yes, well first of all Tom, who ever wrote this in, I wish he had mentioned it to me at that conference, but he misunderstood me. I did not say that this would be THE claim. I said I could think of a number of scenarios and I’ll give you one possible one: that the Antichrist claims to be in touch with an intergalactic counsel. This was some remote civilization that snatched these people, you know, “beam me up, Scotty.”
Tom:
Now we’ve had examples of individuals like Uri Geller and others supposedly in contact with these entities. So that wouldn’t be new.
Dave:
Oh, many people have been in touch with these entities. Ed Eslon—
Tom:
Or at least they believe what they believe.
Dave:
Well that’s what they’ve said. I was at a UFO conference, do you remember? Where there were abductees and—
Tom:
Now were these just fringe people, or these wild—
Dave:
Oh no, this was main stream, this was sponsored by Rockefeller money. There were government people there, military people there, there was a top psychiatrist from Harvard who claimed that he had regressed people into the past and they came out with these experiences and so forth. No, these were very serious minded people and they believe this sort of thing really happens. I’m not saying that this is what the Antichrist would say, but it is a very likely scenario, because as you said, people are being conditioned. Now this isn’t just science fiction, but these things could really happen. Nothing is impossible today. What other explanation there might be, I don’t know, but Tom, I’m convinced you’re not going to unite the world through terrorism, through war, a nuclear holocaust is not going to unite the world. There’s only one thing that would unite Muslims, and Hindus, and Buddhists, and capitalists, and communists and so forth. The sudden mass disappearance of 100 million people, I don’t know how many there would be, but let’s say there would be about that many, compared with a couple billion professing Christians, Catholics, Orthodox, signs and wonders people, Baptist, Methodist and so forth. If 100 million people suddenly vanished from this earth, the reaction is absolute stark raving terror. Where did they go? Who took them? Why didn’t they take me? Will they come back for me? I mean you’ve got no explanation for this and the one thing it would do—the world has faced a disaster such as— we were shocked to see the World Trade Center dissolve. Just imagine if 100 million people disappeared from this planet! It would drive you mad. You never anticipated it, you couldn’t believe it and in fact, I believe from the scriptures that God will send them a strong delusion if they rejected the gospel, they will not believe it’s the rapture. That’s the last thing they would believe.
Tom:
2 Thessalonians 2.
Dave:
Yes, so the world would have to unite. Let’s say that we were on a plane even with terrorists and they are about to take over, we crash in the Himalayas and there’s a dozen people left as survivors, even the terrorists would join together and the other people would accept them in a common quest for survival. So the one thing that would unite this world would be a terrifying experience like that. The world would be united in a common defense against an enemy. How are we going to prevent the rest of us from being snatched from this planet and I think that would be a great opportunity for the Antichrist to have the answer. Now he has all the power of Satan and if he has the answer and he says well I’m in (let’s say) negotiations with an intergalactic counsel—well President Carter believed in an intergalactic counsel.
Tom:
Which was it—Voyager space craft?
Dave:
Yes, he put a message out there that said we hope to join an intergalactic community someday. So this is very believable, but the only thing that would unite the world—I don’t think there’s anything else that would do it. It would be the terrifying experience of 100 million people vanishing in the rapture. Now I didn’t say what the explanation would be, but I know for certain that the terrifying experience would unite the world in a common goal of survival and defense against this incredible enemy.
Tom:
Dave, and as you go through the book of Revelation, and you see that the whole world will worship the Antichrist, there has to be something of that magnitude and maybe even beyond the ramifications of what we can even comprehend at this point.
Dave:
Satan can turn himself into an angel of light. I believe he will—this man will be embodiment of Satan and he will have all the power of Satan—quite a bit of power. He could take Jesus up on a high mountain, he can send a wind that could knock down a house and kill all of Job’s children and leave one survivor in every instance. So all that power now will be available to the Antichrist and the world will worship him.
