WHAT “PROPHET MEADE” AND SEPTEMBER 23 SHOULD TEACH US
MATTHEW 24:36
We have just escaped another day when the world was supposed to end. This time it was September 23 and the main voice announcing this event was “prophet” and “Biblical numerologist” David Meade. Apparently many believed the prognostication of his book Planet X –the 2017 Arrival. Christian author and researcher Ed Stetzer called this prediction “an embarrassment to Christians and the faith convictions we take so seriously.”
As a student of prophecy for more than 50 years, I have become numb to such predictions. Sadly we still have thousands of Christians who take these regular predictions seriously. We hear a lot today about “fake news.” This is a good example and Christians should take this miscalculation as a warning of others to come and how to respond to them.
Meade used a combination of the location of a planet in the constellation Pisces known as IC 5385 along with some obscure Biblical references. He throws in some Jewish calendar events and other Biblical numbers. He calls himself a “Biblical numerologist.” The recent solar eclipse was also a part of his reasoning that focused on September 23. His theories and conclusions leave me shaking my head and wondering if I am just not smart enough to figure all this out.
Meade’s central claim is that the alignment of the constellations, sun and moon will somehow be a celestial representation of what’s described in Revelation 12. It is difficult to understand how he reaches his conclusions but he does and many people accept his theories.
Can anything of value come from all this non-sense? Actually yes it can. There are some valuable lessons for believers to learn from this.
- There is an intense and widespread interest in Bible Prophecy indicating the need for pastors and teachers to give people wise, prudent and practical understanding of Biblical eschatology.
- Setting dates for any of these eschatological events is folly.(Matthew 24:36)
- The capacity of even a scholar to be tragically wrong.
- The gullibility of even sincere believers who ignore sound Biblical principles. (My denomination, Southern Baptists, continue to be the biggest contributor of people to the cults that abound today.)
- The folly of investing your financial support into questionable ministries. Scripture teaches us to give the tithe into the storehouse, then to the poor, widowed, orphaned, missions, and evangelism. There is such a tragic waste of financial resources in the Christian community.
- The importance of sound Biblical teaching on eschatology.
- The importance to stay focused on missions and evangelism.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. I John 4:1