Excerpt from Chapter 1 from Beyond the End Times: Should We Heed the Words of the Prophets?

With so many voices coming from so many sources with so much uniformity and all pinpointing the same time frame, let’s face it, we are being bombarded as never before. And we humans are fascinated by these prophetic visions and claims. But are they true? Is “the end of the world” near? Are we now living in the apocalyptic “end times,” the biblical “last days”? Is history drawing to a close? Or, is this a fantasy perpetuated by profit-hungry media and self-serving ministries cashing in on the public’s almost insatiable appetite for doomsday scenarios? These questions are being asked by more and more people, more and more often, and with a greater sense of urgency as we near the turn of millennium.

Perhaps you too have wondered what’s in store for us. Could this actually be it? Should we be heeding the words of these “prophets”? Worldwide, people want to know what’s going to happen. Are things going to get worse? Is there hope for the future? If there is, what is the basis for that hope? Two things are certain: uncertainty about the future is running at an all-time high and apocalypticism is burgeoning.

As the 20th Century draws to a close the conviction grows, more than ever before, that the end is surely coming, and coming very soon. Others try to avoid thinking about it, and only pay a degree of uneasy attention to the doomsday pundits in times of global crisis. After the heat’s off they forget about it until the next time. Some spend a lifetime harboring secret doubts and worries. A few simply dismiss the whole thing as ignorance gone to seed, but lack an authoritative reason for doing so. Whatever we try to do with it, it’s always there, waiting to rear its ugly head and spread its stench.

If the “end of the world” was an established fact, it would be tragic for most if not all people alive at the time. But, as we shall see in this book, it’s not the truth. Still, we must recognize that endsaying will not go away easily. The idea that the end is coming soon is not only a deeply embedded religious concept and dominant ideology, it’s also an effective marketing and fund-raising tool. Those who profit by it will not want to let it go. Sensationalism, fear-mongering, scare tactics and crisis-oriented pleas are the names of the endsaying game:

• Environmentalists sound alarmist trumpets of impending ecological disasters which threaten our lives and life on earth itself. The culprits are global warming, ozone depletion, deforestation, acid rain, toxic waste, and shifting weather patterns. We are headed for disaster, they tell us.
  -Economists preach global economic apocalypse, worldwide famine, overpopulation and plagues (AIDS). The earth cannot support indefinite expansion, they plead. The stage is set. This is how the world ends.
  
  
• Computer experts conjure images of a secular Armageddon and predict January 1, 2000, as “The Day the World Shuts Down” and “The end of the world as we 00 it” (that’s “oh-it”). Some Christians have recast this “Y2K” problem in religious terms. They see it paving the way for an end-time Antichrist and portending the return of Christ and the so-called end of the world.
  
  
• Astronomers project how all life could end by an asteroid or comet colliding with earth. After all, this is how the dinosaurs became extinct, they reason. It could happen to us, too.

• Scientists measure the motion of a million galaxies. Some say that the cosmos is expanding in different directions and that the whole thing could snap like a rubber band. Others warn that the universe is winding down or decaying via the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy). Everything could implode. Which is it? Either way spells doom.
  
  
• Psychics and astrologers galore “see” unimaginably horrific cataclysms coming our way very soon.
  
  
• Best-selling authors cash in on our fear of and fascination with apocalypse. They look for any excuse to bring out another doomsday book and find more reasons to be pessimistic about the future.
  
  
• Nuclear scientists grip us in an extended anxiety attack. They warn of the growing threats of a nuclear Holocaust—everything from global war, mad dictators, power plant accidents, and disarmament fiascos, to nuclear proliferation, accidental launches, mishandling of nuclear waste, and loose nuclear material in the hands of terrorists. The hands on the Doomsday Clock at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Building in Chicago are now at 11:51 P.M. When they strike midnight, it’s all over.
  
  
• Religious extremists, like David Koresh in Waco, Texas, garner major headlines and tragically lead gullible followers astray with end-of-the-world views and bunker-mentality lifestyles.
  
  
• Self-proclaimed prophecy experts assure us that “history’s hourglass is almost empty” and that “it will all be over soon.” Many base their predictions on personal calculations from the Bible. Others base them on the frequency of natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, plagues, and famines, which are supposedly occurring more than ever before. Almost every major, global crisis is regarded as a sign of the end. In the popular style, they assure us that “it’s all happening just like the Good Book says it would.”
  
  
• Saddest of all are the devout, well-known, respected, and gifted church leaders who are now, more than ever, echoing the termination refrains they have been taught in their particular tradition. They were taught that God determined a specific plan for history’s last days and the earth’s demise, a plan now coming to fruition. For many, it’s a driving force behind their ministries.
  
  Meanwhile we, as a society, pay an enormous price. The termination tirade is far more damaging than most people think. In this author’s opinion, it’s a crime against humanity and one of the greatest psychological and theological travesties of our century. In actuality, it’s the awful smell of our future being fried. And it’s spreading more rapidly than ever nowadays. But growing numbers of people are sensing that there might be something wrong with this message. Unfortunately, they don’t really know what it is or how to refute it. Something is indeed wrong with the endsaying message. This book will show you where the error lies and why we can count on the future.

| Table of Contents |
| Foreword | Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 11 |