Re: the World's Last Chance website (Part 1)

Could it be that the Seventh Day Adventists (who were the first to postulate the idea) are right to suggest that Pope Benedict will be the penultimate pontiff before the final fulfilment of prophecy in the Book of Revelation?... Before dismissing the idea out of hand, on the basis that Jesus said no-one would be able to predict His return, it is important to note that what World's Last Chance (WLC) are predicting is not the Second Coming of Christ (i.e. not the end of the world), but "the beginning of the end..."

Having had to give them some credit for not being so foolhardy as to go against the eschatological teaching of Christ himself, I felt compelled to read on, to see how they justify their ideas, which are built upon the visions of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (c.550BC) and the Apostle John (c.100AD), as recorded in Daniel Ch.2:26-49, and Revelation Ch.13:1-8 respectively.

King Nebuchadnezzar had a vision of a statue made up of four parts, which (as the prophet Daniel revealed) represented 4 empires - that of the Babylonians of his day; and the three that were to come after it. On the other hand, John's vision (the whole book of Revelation) has proven to be much hard to interpret with any certainty. It is generally not contested that the former vision predicted events up to and including the fall of the Roman Empire in 476AD. However, despite some entirely credible interpretations of the "beast", "dragon", and "woman", WLC go and blow it all on a very dubious interpretation of the mention of "42-months, as follows: "...This period is equivalent to three and half years (42 divided by 12 months). And the Bible was written based on the Jewish calendar where every Jewish year is 360 days (30 days for each month). So, three and half years and forty-two months are both equal to 1260 days. The reason why we are changing the months to their equivalent in days is that when God gave time prophecies, He often equated a day for a year "...even forty days , each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years..."; and "I have appointed thee each day for a year..." (Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6)."

Thus the 42 months becomes 1260 years; and is equated to the 1260 years for which, as it happens, the Roman Catholic Church held both religious and political power over Europe (538-1798AD), which was brought to an end by Napoleon. However, the key point is that, even if most people would equate the fourth empire of Nebuchadnezzar's dream with the the Roman Empire, WLC equate "the Beast out of the Sea" in Revelation 13, to Church of Rome rather than the Roman Empire.

For many, this will be a leap of faith they feel unable to take, but this is not the half of it. WLC also drag the USA into the picture (as "the Beast out of the Earth" in Revelation 13), and conclude that the worldwide, post-reformation, protestant Church (in it's widest possible sense) has been duped into wrongly adopting Sunday as their Holy Day. Please note, here, that I am deliberately avoiding use of the word "Sabbath" here, because I do not accept arguments about this that are based on a literal interpretation of the Creation stories in the first two chapters of Genesis. I am also mindful of Christ's warning that, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." [Mark Ch. 2:27].

I am not finished yet, but this will do for now...