I have noted many times the apparent convergence of the New Age movement and Evangelical Christianity. I mean that many things Christians say about the End Times, are echoed by New Agers.

Christians speak of a seven year time of chaos, ending with Armageddon, and then followed by a thousand year time of peace, with Jesus Christ physically ruling the world from Jerusalem.

Many Christians are pointing to the quadrad of lunar eclipses, as “Blood Moons”, with the last one occurring in September this year, as an indication that the Tribulation must closely follow. As I explained in another post, the “blood moons” found in Scripture are not lunar eclipses, but phenomena related to large amounts of smoke and soot being kicked up into the upper atmosphere, as a by-product of war. The bible actually tells us this, but many false teachers are teaching that this quadrad of eclipses are the real blood moons, and ignoring the biblical statements.

Unfortunately these people are ignoring a lot of what the bible has to say, and as a result they are fulfilling biblical prophecy themselves;

And he said,Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. Luke 21:8

There are other places in Scripture which talk about false Christs, but this is not one of them. This is saying that people with a correct Christian testimony can still be deceivers. They use their testimony that “Jesus is the Christ” as a means of gaining credibility among Christians, and then they teach errors.

Satan is sure to take advantage of these errors (indeed, he is behind them!). So, don’t be surprised if something big does happen this fall, but also don’t believe that we are in the Tribulation period itself. A much better explanation is that we are entering the time Jesus spoke of as “wars and rumours of wars”. This is a time where Satan is going to attempt to make Christians believe we are going through the Tribulation, to the end that when he brings out his real Antichrist, people will be looking for a Saviour!

Why would they be looking for a Saviour instead of the Antichrist? This would be because they think the Antichrist and the false prophet have both been incinerated in the destruction of Rome! This is purely logical; if the Antichrist and false prophet are dead then the next thing on the prophetic agenda is the return of Christ, and Satan is sure to meet their expectations!

My article about the Denver International Airport would be a good case in point. The artwork of the Denver Airport is absolutely NOT Christian, and yet the story it tells is a parallel of the biblical account, with some New Age twists.

They show the death of the current order, and the death of world religions;

Close up of Judeo Christian girl

And the Tribulation, including death of wild animals

The death of the current age

An evil world dictator,

A New Age view of Armageddon

and then the dawning of a New Age of peace and prosperity, built on the graves of the “Antichrist” and the old order;

New Age view of the millennium

Happy kids and their “plant” (a lotus)

So I was talking with a friend the other day, a friend who is not a biblical Christian. We got on to world events, and he began to tell me of what he expects this fall. He began to tell me about how there will be a huge economic disaster, probably in September or October, and there might be some war over in the Middle East, but he then said that “This is a good thing”, “This is a badly needed correction, and the result will be great for the world”! He has his investments somewhere he thinks is a safe place to ride out the storm, and come out on top!

So I said one word to him; “Armageddon?” (no context, just the word) and he said, “there’s nothing to worry about, that won’t happen for another seven years”!  Now where did he get the idea of seven years from?

So I realized that he is talking about the same thing that I have been warning about, only he is coming at it from a New Age world view. I have asked him for some links, but as yet he hasn’t responded, so I did my own research; Depending on how you search you will get over seven million hits for a search term like “World War 3 September 2015”, most of which are New Age in character.

Here’s a picture from one;

A New Age view of a Tribulation

Notice their end-date is 2025, which they label as “the Divine Kingdom”. This “Divine Kingdom” will actually, very closely, coincide with the beginning of the Great Tribulation and the kingdom of the Antichrist! That is if we take Hosea’s prophecy seriously;

I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Hosea 5:15-6:2

If Jesus was crucified around 28-33 AD then this New Age prophecy will set-up their “kingdom” just three to eight years before the 2,000 year anniversary of that event.

Or, if you like, you can search for terms like “Great Tribulation 2015” and you will get more “Christian based” hits.

The amazing thing is that these two different groups are actually teaching very much the same thing, and the timeline is almost identical!

World Net Daily is jumping on the bandwagon with this article from Mark Biltz;

http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/will-tribulation-begin-a-year-from-now/

Pastor Mark Biltz is one of the leaders of this movement. There is a video on this page where he lays out his idea on Jim Bakker’s show. For starters I noticed that he heavily emphasized the word “Shemitah” as if this is very important, and claims that Daniel, in 9:2 had discovered that the Shemitah was very important. There is no doubt that there is some significance to certain numbers, such as 666 or 7, but I think Biltz takes this to an extreme. When he claims to be laying a foundation, the foundation he lays is not Jesus Christ, but a foundation of numerology. I find this troubling. It is almost as if he is saying “you’re OK so long as you get the numbers right”!

The End of the American Dream has an interesting article.  I would have no problem accepting that something major just might occur this fall, but I stand on my statement that it will not be the Tribulation. 

Zephaniah (2:1-2) told us that Israel must be gathered together before the Tribulation begins, so as long as there are Jews, and other Israelites, living outside of Israel, the Tribulation has not begun.

As I have noted before, the final gathering of the last remnants of Israel will occur in the aftermath of the Gog/Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39.  This means that this major war will occur during the Church-Age!  Consequently skirmishes, wars, and even the Psalm 83 war which will occur prior to that event, are NOT a part of the Tribulation!

The New Age movement is heavily into numerology, as are many of these “Christian” scholars. I see this all the time on Facebook and it troubles me. It troubled me when Grant Jeffrey got sidetracked with his book on the bible codes, and then another on the fraudulent Shroud of Turin. We should be studying the plain text of Scripture and not attempting to calculate hidden mysteries.

So I looked it up in Daniel 9:2 and Jeremiah 25, and this term is absent from both texts. It simply says “seventy years”, or “shevim shanah” (שבעים שנה ). Daniel did not have to calculate seventy years, or use some sort of mystical hidden formula, it says it in plain Hebrew. “I Daniel understood by books the number of the years” By Books he means that it was written in the book, for anyone to read! The other problem is that no one knows when any shemitah year starts or ends. All that information has been lost.

Here is what Jeremiah said; “And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.” Nothing mystical, or hidden, here!

Jesus did not tell us to calculate His return by figuring out the Shemitah years, in fact it is still impossible to calculate the exact day and hour of His return, but it won’t be once the Antichrist confirms the covenant between Israel and her enemies.

No, remember when Jesus said “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” (Matthew 24:5)? This is exactly what many professing Christians are doing today; they are using their Christian testimony as a means of gaining credibility, and then they are teaching error! They are using the gospel as bait in order to get people off their guard!

So, as I said above, don’t be surprised if there are some major events this year or next.  It will not be the Tribulation, at all, but it may be “wars and rumours of wars”.