by Don Preston
A new mini-series entitled Revelations, began airing on NBC Wednesday, April 13. The movie is capitalizing on the current Hollywood “interest” in Jesus. It goes without saying that Hollywood is interested in religion for one reason. It is not for morality, faith or Truth. It is about $$$$, pure and simple. Hollywood hates Jesus, and despises the Truth and morality that his word teaches.
This new mini-series is supposedly a representation of the “second coming” of Christ and the “end of the world. Strangely (to say the least), Jesus comes back as a baby, found floating on a raft in the middle of the ocean! Hmm, the prediction of that happening must be in 3rd Hezekiah chapter 6!
The movie supposedly depicts the enemies of Jesus attempting to kill him, again, to prevent the establishment of his will on earth. What I find interesting is what is being said about the mini-series by the authors of the popular Left Behind books, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
Keep in mind that LaHaye/Jenkins, like Revelations, believe in a coming catastrophic end of history. LaHaye/Jenkins believe, with Revelations, that the enemies of God will try to thwart His purposes. There are, of course, differences in details, but there are similarities as well. By the way, LaHaye/Jenkins and the producers of Revelations also say that their productions are fiction. Of course, LaHaye/Jenkins claim that their books are based on facts.
When asked his response to the new mini-series, Jenkins made a remarkable statement. Commenting on the fact that in the movie Christ’s enemies seek to thwart his mission, Jenkins said: “There is no way in this world that man is going to get in the way of God fulfilling His promises.” Now, wait just one minute!
Jenkins and LaHaye are dispensationalists. Fundamental to that view of the “end-times” is the belief that Jesus came to establish the kingdom, but because of Jewish unbelief, God postponed the kingdom until our future. So, according to millennialism, (LaHaye/Jenkins), man not only “got in the way,” man thwarted God’s original purpose for Christ.
Jenkins says that man cannot prevent the future fulfillment of His promises. But, if man cannot prevent the future fulfillment of God’s promises, then how did man prevent the fulfillment of God’s promises in the past? Thomas Ice says that Christ came to establish the kingdom, but that the Jewish unbelief made it “impossible” to accomplish his mission. (End Times Controversy, 85). Likewise, Spargimino (The Anti-Prophets), says that Jesus came to offer the kingdom to Israel, and would have established the kingdom, but that Jewish rebellion prevented his success.
The fact is that God set the time for the establishment of the kingdom, and Jesus said that time had arrived in the first century (Matthew 4.17). In the Old Testament Jehovah said that His servant would not fail to establish the kingdom (Isaiah 42.6f). He also said He would not alter His kingdom promises (Psalms 89.34f). LaHaye, Jenkins, Ice, Spargimino, et. al., believe that Jesus failed to establish the kingdom at the appointed time, and God did alter His word, because He postponed the establishment of the kingdom 2000 years, so far! Man definitely got in the way of God’s plans! Virtually all dispensationalists insist that God sent Jesus to do something, but that man got in the way! How can Mr. Jenkins say that man cannot prevent God from keeping His word, when his own theology says that man prevented God from keeping His word?
God did not fail, Jesus did not fail. Man did not, and surely, man cannot get in the way of God keeping His promises. And this unalterable fact completely undermines the theology of Mr. LaHaye and Jenkins.
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Don Preston is a columnist for PlanetPreterist.com. Don is an advocate of Covenant Eschatology and the author of eight titles on the preterist view of prophecy, including Who is This Babylon? a book that has received a positive scholarly review.
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