by Campus Crusade and more than 1,500 other Christian agencies in every country on the planet. According to the JESUS film project’s website, the film “has had more than 6 billion viewings worldwide since 1979” and “as a result, more than 200 million people have indicated decisions to accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.” [117] These trends too are consistent with the fulfillment of Bible prophecies.
Skeptics and Cynics
Are there skeptics out there, people who are cynical about the possibility that we may be living in the last days? Are there those who mock followers of Jesus Christ for believing in the Bible and in the prophecies of Christ’s second coming? Of course. But that should come as no surprise. Indeed, Bible prophecy tells us there will be mockers in the last days. “Know this first of all,” the apostle Peter wrote, “that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Such mockers are all around us, and we should expect their numbers to grow.
One night in the spring of 2011, while I was taking a break from working on this book, I was scanning through the TV channels and saw MSNBC talk show host Lawrence O’Donnell mocking the Bible. “The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world,” O’Donnell said. “No half-smart religious person believes the book of Revelation.” [118]
In his 2000 book, The End of Days , Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg mocked belief in biblical prophecies of the End Times as a “fantasy” and “dangerous.” [119]
Bill Moyers, the longtime PBS journalist and former White House press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, mocked American Christians during a 2004 speech, saying that evangelicals care nothing for the environment because the last days are here. “Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine, and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?” he sneered, quoting a left-wing journalist who had caught his attention. Calling End Times beliefs “bizarre,” Moyers was incredulous that there are actually “people who believe the Bible is literally true” and that they are trying to shape the future of America. [120]
Kevin Phillips, the former Republican political strategist, wrote in his bestselling 2006 book, American Theocracy , that Americans who believe in Bible prophecy are “overimaginative” at best and “radical” at worst, asserting that “the rapture, end-times, and Armageddon hucksters in the United States rank with any Shiite ayatollahs.” [121]
Over the years, I’ve met similar skeptics, cynics, and mockers. Occasionally they’ve challenged me during speaking events. Often they e-mail me. I have been interviewed by some of them on radio and television and for various newspaper and magazine articles and for books. Fox News Channel analyst Alan Colmes once asked me on his late-night radio show whether Jesus was coming back so soon that he needn’t bother picking up his dry cleaning or buying green bananas.
A few years ago, I was interviewed by a Cambridge- and Princeton-educated professor of history from Great Britain named Nicholas Guyatt. He said he was writing a serious book about American evangelical Christianity and Americans’ interest in Bible prophecy. I was happy to answer his questions, even knowing he was, at best, a skeptic. The final product, unfortunately, did not turn out to be a serious look
Skeptics and Cynics
Are there skeptics out there, people who are cynical about the possibility that we may be living in the last days? Are there those who mock followers of Jesus Christ for believing in the Bible and in the prophecies of Christ’s second coming? Of course. But that should come as no surprise. Indeed, Bible prophecy tells us there will be mockers in the last days. “Know this first of all,” the apostle Peter wrote, “that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Such mockers are all around us, and we should expect their numbers to grow.
One night in the spring of 2011, while I was taking a break from working on this book, I was scanning through the TV channels and saw MSNBC talk show host Lawrence O’Donnell mocking the Bible. “The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world,” O’Donnell said. “No half-smart religious person believes the book of Revelation.” [118]
In his 2000 book, The End of Days , Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg mocked belief in biblical prophecies of the End Times as a “fantasy” and “dangerous.” [119]
Bill Moyers, the longtime PBS journalist and former White House press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, mocked American Christians during a 2004 speech, saying that evangelicals care nothing for the environment because the last days are here. “Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine, and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?” he sneered, quoting a left-wing journalist who had caught his attention. Calling End Times beliefs “bizarre,” Moyers was incredulous that there are actually “people who believe the Bible is literally true” and that they are trying to shape the future of America. [120]
Kevin Phillips, the former Republican political strategist, wrote in his bestselling 2006 book, American Theocracy , that Americans who believe in Bible prophecy are “overimaginative” at best and “radical” at worst, asserting that “the rapture, end-times, and Armageddon hucksters in the United States rank with any Shiite ayatollahs.” [121]
Over the years, I’ve met similar skeptics, cynics, and mockers. Occasionally they’ve challenged me during speaking events. Often they e-mail me. I have been interviewed by some of them on radio and television and for various newspaper and magazine articles and for books. Fox News Channel analyst Alan Colmes once asked me on his late-night radio show whether Jesus was coming back so soon that he needn’t bother picking up his dry cleaning or buying green bananas.
A few years ago, I was interviewed by a Cambridge- and Princeton-educated professor of history from Great Britain named Nicholas Guyatt. He said he was writing a serious book about American evangelical Christianity and Americans’ interest in Bible prophecy. I was happy to answer his questions, even knowing he was, at best, a skeptic. The final product, unfortunately, did not turn out to be a serious look
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