Has Bible Prophecy Failed?

After decades of failed expectations and false predictions, it is time for believers to reexamine popular ideas about the Last Days.

Fifty years ago, I was greatly influenced by the book, ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’, by Hal Lindsey. In it, I read how last-day prophecies were being fulfilled before our eyes in daily news headlines. All the “signs” indicated that I was a member of History’s “last generation.” I, and many others, would see the return of Jesus. The Antichrist, Armageddon, and the Millennium were just around the corner.

This claim was, and remains, seductive. Who is not thrilled by the thought of witnessing the fulfillment of prophecy firsthand? At first glance, all this was quite compelling. Reportedly, the “Last Days” commenced with the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948, and the “generation” that witnessed this event would also witness the appearance of Jesus. In the popular interpretive scheme, a “biblical generation” was defined as forty years in length.

[Dartboard - Photo by Marc A (Pennsylvania) on Unsplash]

This was a life-changing perspective. I could expect to see the rise of a ten-nation confederacy and the Antichrist, the start of the Great Tribulation, the invasion of Israel by Rosh, Gog, and Magog, the Mark of the Beast, the False Prophet, and, of course, the return of “the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven.”

Mathematics is not my strength, but by simply adding 40 years to 1948, I came up with a date of 1988 for the arrival of Jesus, and so did many other unsuspecting Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Charismatic Christians.

By the late 1980s, expectations were running so high that the Prophecy Industry began to produce books and pamphlets with titles like ‘88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988’. And since 1970, the view represented by ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’ has become the dominant interpretation of the Bible's teachings on the Last Days.

And so, here we are in 2025. Two “biblical generations” have passed since the founding of modern Israel. Rather than become a ten-nation revived Roman Empire, the former European Common Market is now the European Union, headquartered in Brussels, with 27 member states. Rather than becoming Gog and Magog and attacking Israel from the north, the former Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight, a pivotal event none of the prophecy “experts” saw coming. 1988 came and went with no sign of the Great Tribulation, no Antichrist, no Mark of the Beast, no False Prophet, and no “Rapture” or Second Coming.

I admit it. At times, I have hesitated to challenge the popular trend. Still, by around 1990, I was beginning to smell a prophetic rat. Things did not turn out as expected. In fact, not a single predicted event had materialized. So, what went wrong? Had Bible prophecy failed?

According to the Prophecy “experts,” things are still proceeding according to plan, though they have found it necessary to make slight adjustments here and there to their arithmetic, and to update the definitions of their terms.

JESUS, NOT ISRAEL

The Prophecy Industry still pegs the start of the Last Days to 1948, but rather than admit error, they have redefined a biblical generation, so that it is now anywhere from forty to eighty, and even up to one hundred and twenty years. All very convenient and intellectually dishonest. It seems, whenever an interpretation fails, they must redefine their terms and recalculate their dates.

To put it another way, when have the prophecy “experts” ever made a correct prediction or a chronological projection that came to pass? According to the Book of Deuteronomy, if a prophet gets one prediction wrong, he is a false prophet. While this principle may or may not remain in force under the New Covenant, their many failures do not speak well of these prophecy gurus.

However, the many failures of the Prophecy Industry do not mean that Bible prophecy itself has failed. This consistent pattern of prophetic failure demonstrates that something is fundamentally wrong in popular assumptions about the Last Days, and this track record argues that it is high time to discover and restore the Apostolic Faith and what the Bibe actually says about the Last Days.

It would take days, even weeks, to examine all the predictions, assumptions, and interpretive nuances of popular preaching, so I will point out three critical but common mistakes.

First, in the Bible, the Last Days began with the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost following the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus. “In the last days, declares God, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” This may be counterintuitive; nevertheless, this final period has been underway since those pivotal days. The Last Days did not begin in 1948 – (Acts 2:16-21).

Second, no one except “God alone,” period, knows the timing of that day. He alone knows the “day,” “hour,” and “season” of the “coming of the Son of Man.” The idea that we can approximate the date of his return by adding a certain number of years to 1948 is contrary to the teachings of the New Testament – (Matthew 24:36, Acts 1:8).

Third, Israel is not the determining factor or the key to understanding prophecy. Jesus was explicit. The “end” will only come when the church has completed its primary task – to preach “this Gospel of the Kingdom to all nations,” which would include proclaiming the Good News to the modern state of Israel, something the contemporary church is failing to do – (Matthew 24:14, Acts 1:7-11).

In the Apostolic Tradition, there is one Lord, one gospel, one means of salvation, one covenant, one covenant people of God, and your ethnicity has no bearing on inclusion in it. In Christ, no longer can there be “Jew or Gentile.” Jesus is the key that unlocks Bible prophecy and all of God’s mysteries, not the modern nation of Israel. All God’s promises find their “Yea” and their “Amen” in Jesus – (Romans 16:25, 2 Corinthians 1:20, Galatians 3:28).

Sooner or later, the prophecy “experts” must explain why Christ’s warning does not mean what it obviously does, and why it does not apply to them. Most often, they claim we cannot know the “precise day or hour,” but Jesus did not say we cannot know the general “season.” Putting aside the false logic (‘argumentum e silentio’), Jesus said that very thing. “It is not for you to know the season” or ‘kairos’ (καιρος), or “the times and seasons” – (Mark 13:33, Acts 1:8).

Church history provides many examples of men who have predicted the timing of Christ’s return. While their methods and conclusions have varied, one thing they all have in common is that all of them, without exception, have failed. Today’s Prophecy Industry is no exception to the rule.

In none of this am I claiming that Christ’s return is not imminent, nor that it will not occur before the present generation ceases. For all I know, Jesus may arrive “on the clouds” tomorrow, and that is why we must always be ready for his “sudden” appearance.

And that is the point. I do not know, you do not know, and most certainly these self-appointed prophecy “experts” do not know when “the end” will come, or whether we are members of any supposed last generation.

Since we cannot calculate the timing of the end, is it important to study Bible prophecy? Yes! Absolutely! Among other things, prophetic passages teach us what is coming and what to expect (e.g., the apostasy, deceivers, the resurrection), and how to prepare for every eventuality so that his sudden appearance does not overwhelm us:

• “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all sons of light, and sons of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. So, then, let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober” – (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6).

What I am suggesting, indeed, shouting from the rooftops, is that it is time to reexamine the many popular claims, assumptions, and fads about the Last Days. Bible prophecy has not failed. The so-called prophecy experts and the Prophecy Industry have failed, and miserably so. Therefore, we must return to the words of Scripture.

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SEE ALSO:

• Selling False Expectations - (Jesus warned of coming deceivers who will mislead many by pointing to natural and manmade disasters as signs of his imminent return)

• Disinformation - (Rumors about the Day of the Lord caused alarm and confusion in the Thessalonian congregation – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)

• Howling Impostors - (The New Testament repeatedly warns of coming deceivers and false prophets who will cause many to depart from the faith)

• La Prophétie Biblique A-T-Elle Échoué? - (Après des décennies d'attentes déçues et de fausses prédictions, il est temps pour les croyants de réexaminer les idées populaires sur les Derniers Jours)