Doomsday Déjà Vu: How Prophecy “Experts” Have Led People to Question the Authority of the Bible

Those who are new to the world of Bible prophecy have no idea how many of today’s end-time “authorities” have made predictions that did not come to pass or how many of their predecessors also miscalculated when the end would come.

Today’s prophecy enthusiasts are under the false assumption that what they are reading in books and magazines, seeing on television, and hearing on the radio are recently discovered end-time truths of what they believe are current. We’re assured that this time, in our generation, the “prophecy experts” have finally gotten it right. Don’t bet on it. The track record of prophetic certainty is not very good.

There has been a large appetite for end-time books in the modern era—from Oswald J. Smith (1889–1986), who in 1926 predicted that Mussolini was the biblical antichrist, to Edgar Whisenant who was emphatic that the rapture would take place in 1988. Then it was 1989. Twenty-three reasons were offered in evidence for a 1993 rapture that never came. Still not shaken by his poor prophetic track record, Whisenant predicted earth’s destruction by nuclear fire in 1994. He continued to speculate into 1997 with similar results.

Neither of these prophetic speculators was the first... or the last. The Bible is clear about the timing of the “last days,” and the answer may surprise you.

36-page PDF ebook