P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

PROPHECY PONZI SCHEMES

“How can I get my money back?” That’s the plaintive cry of the universe when people get “taken” over the telephone, or with an Internet scam. “I’ve been robbed!” But in recent years, Christians have sometimes been the ones to get suckered the most. A recent study revealed that, over a three-year period, 90,000 investors got scammed with religious schemes . . . to the tune of $1.8 billion. That’s a 400% increase just in the last ten years or so. It appears that God’s people are perhaps the biggest charity chumps around.

A group called Baptist Foundation of Arizona – and believe me, no connection and no reflection whatsoever on our solid Christian friends in the Baptist community – promised investors a sparkling 6.75 percent yearly return, and removed $590 million from innocent pockets in an elaborate Ponzi scheme. An Internet story by reporter Peter Ramjug describes how an outfit called Greater Ministries International Church fleeced its flock by almost an identical amount – $580 million – by “promising to double investors’ money through ‘divinely inspired’ investments in the currency market and gold, silver, and diamond mines.” My own denomination, about 20 years ago, suffered through a scandal that tragically lost millions.

Well, it always hurts to get ripped off, and those of us in particular who work in Christian television or radio need to be squeaky-clean and extra-conscientious about wasting a single dollar that comes in on expensive treats and furnishings or inappropriate perks for ourselves or our families. But today I want for us to think about an even more serious kind of “con,” because it’s possible to lose something more valuable than your hard-earned money. Our series title for these three weeks is this: BEHOLD, HE COMES! . . . and when it comes to the Second Coming of our Lord, the Bible plainly warns that there will be those who will fall prey to a kind of satanic pyramid scheme.

Here’s the Word of God – Matthew 24:21 and following:

“For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days WILL be shortened.” And now please notice these stark words of warning: “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible.” Then Jesus graciously points out: “See, I have told you ahead of time.”

It’s a very serious matter to respond to the genuine without swerving off course for the counterfeit. And the Bible is crystal-clear in telling us the counterfeits will be all over the place in these last days. I appreciate very much how the new Message paraphrase puts this truth-in-advertising warning:

“If anyone tries to flag you down, calling out, ‘Here’s the Messiah!’ or points, ‘There he is!’ don’t fall for it.” And listen to this: “Fake Messiahs and lying preachers are going to pop up everywhere. Their impressive credentials and dazzling performances will pull the wool over the eyes of even those who ought to know better.” That’s a nice way of saying “the elect,” isn’t it? And Eugene Peterson, the author, finishes this way: “But I [Jesus] have given you fair warning. So if they say, ‘Run to the country and see him arrive!’ or, ‘Quick, get downtown, see him come!’ don’t give them the time of day. The Arrival of the Son of Man isn’t something you go to see. HE comes like swift lightning TO YOU!”

So what do we make of all this? Clearly, we do have one protection. The Bible tells us that we won’t have to GO anywhere in order to witness the arrival of Jesus. There won’t be a car ride involved, or a trek to the desert or to some retreat. You won’t have to have a ticket in order to watch Jesus return. The Bible tells us that we’ll hear a trumpet. We’ll hear a great shout. We’ll see lightning and hear thunder. And we’ll see Jesus Himself, our returning Redeemer and King, coming in the clouds of heaven. From wherever you happen to be standing, all you’ll have to do is look up. No one else will have to tell you about it, because Revelation 1:7 says that “every eye shall see Him.”

So this is one form of sure protection. You can be sure not to follow a false christ because only the REAL Christ will be able to come in this way: in the clouds, with a host of angels, with trumpets and shouting, and with God’s faithful saints who have been sleeping in the dust coming to glorious life, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” I was gratified to see in the official commentaries for my own Adventist denomination a clarion call for God’s people to learn from our past tragic mistakes on this issue. Don’t even GO there, say the authors. Don’t play with those intriguing headlines, those mysterious promises that Jesus is HERE or THERE. “Go not forth” says the King James, and these commentary scholars add:

“That is, do not even be curious to hear what they have to say; do not appear to be in sympathy with them by being present to hear them speak. To ‘go forth’ is to place oneself on enchanted ground and thus to be in danger of falling into deception.” Then they add this comment about the Bible’s expression, “As the lightning.” Here it is: “There would be nothing secret or mysterious about the return of Jesus. No one would have to be told that He had come back to earth, for all would see Him.”

We saw a letter-plus-video that came to us a couple of years ago, and the author brazenly announced:

“No one knows the DAY or HOUR, but the WEEK, down to a 3-day span, I believe we can know.”

We’ve already mentioned in this current radio study the importance of not being deceived regarding time predictions and date-setting. We have here in the office a ministry letter by a husband-and-wife pastoral team, and it states their clear conviction that a kind of secret rapture absolutely will take place on October 13-14 . . . of the year 2000. The Rapture AND World War III. And then the rest of the letter went through about seven arguments and numerical schemes, pulling together this verse and that one, to try and buttress their support for their chosen dates. The thing ended by concluding that Bill Clinton, who, of course, is now just a private citizen, was probably the Antichrist.

Well, friend, the passing of time does slowly eliminate some of these potential deceptions, but every time another preacher pulls out a calendar and puts a big red circle around some future date, faithful Christians are deluded into believing them. Good people are fooled, and innocent onlookers lose their way spiritually as repeated slices of cynicism set in.

We have a very helpful Bible commentary here at the office, published by Baker, and with over a thousand pages just studying the book of Matthew. And author William Hendriksen has some excellent observations about these Matthew warnings by our Savior. Notice:

“In spite of [the] clear warning,” he writes, “which our Lord gave to His disciples, many present-day church members are filled with admiration for the minister or evangelist who speaks learnedly about ‘The Signs of the Times,’ and strives to show his audience that this or that terrible battle, serious earthquake, or devastating famine ‘on the basis of prophecy’ is the infallible ‘sign’ of Christ’s imminent return.” And then he corroborates the warning we just studied together: “Some, with reflection on John the Baptist” – who was preaching “out in the desert” – “may point to the wilderness as the place where the Messiah is to be found. Others, to the inner rooms, as if the Christ were only for a few initiates, the Head of a private fraternity, revealing himself to no one else. In fact, the very opposite is the truth. It will not be necessary in that day to go in search of the Christ, as if He were to be found in some arid waste or some dark corner.”

You know, friend, there’s an interesting parallel here with some of the telephone scams that come along. Don’t these “boiler room operators” often give the impression that just a lucky chosen few are being selected to get this bargain vacation, or this “insider” interest rate on their stock tip? Do you ever get mailings suggesting that just you and a few discerning others have been granted this exclusive privilege of investing with some rare, high-up group of experts? And the same could happen here. “Jesus is here . . . but only you and I and a few others know!” Listen, friend, both the gospel of Jesus and the Second Coming of Jesus are open events. Anyone can be saved, and anyone can be in that joyous crowd looking to see Him in the clouds. When Jesus says “Whosoever will,” He’s extending the invitation both in terms of salvation and also heavenly mansions. There IS an inner circle, but our loving Rescuer wants to draw the widest circle He possibly can, and that we’ll allow Him to create with His redeeming blood.

So not only do you have protection against the wrong eternal investment . . . God generously gives an ironclad guarantee that you can reap the everlasting benefits of the right one. Friend, there IS one TRUE Christ – let’s just patiently and confidently wait for HIM.