https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5FkVL4Jdc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1YZnmOpNcdpLzWzwLWvIF15eSfQGNZ-Hq-MAJAUSuKKi983lt8M9thCac
DEBATE With Joel Richardson & Chris White: Will The Antichrist Be A False Jewish Messiah?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy2ytMSFvm0
This post exposes the various inconsistencies in Charles Cooper's "appraisal" of the recent debate between Joel Richardson and Chris White regarding the ethnicity of the Antichrist. Charles Cooper's assessment, including his personal remarks about Robert Van Kampen, Chris White and Joel Richardson was extremely insulting and unnecessary. I really did not want to hear that Van Kampen could be "very mean and nasty" and that "his bible study skills were limited". Apparently Cooper thinks that it is acceptable to say negative things about Van Kampen because he died in 1999 and is no longer with us. I wonder how Van Kampen's family feel about Cooper's attempt to tarnish his reputation. As founder of the PreWrath Resource Institute in Orlando, Florida, I question whether Cooper's remarks were helpful to the prewrath cause, especially since this debate did not specifically concern either Van Kampen or the prewrath rapture position.
Van Kampen was a very gifted man. As well as being a successful businessman and investor, he rediscovered and developed the biblical prewrath rapture position held by the early church fathers. As such, he presented a significant challenge to the false the pre-tribulation rapture camp. I don't know whether Van Kampen had any recognized theological qualifications, but his prewrath work surpassed that of many qualified theologians in my view. Unlike the pre-trib or post-trib views, the prewrath rapture view is incredibly accurate when tested against the scriptures. (1 John 4:1; Acts 17:11).
I was aware of Van Kampen's view that Hitler will be the Antichrist, but I have not read his books The Sign or The Fourth Reich. The sign is a discourse on the end times featuring the prewrath rapture, and The Fourth Reich is a novel. Undoubtedly Hitler was a type of the Antichrist in that he fulfilled many of the "qualifications" for such a candidate, in particular his hatred for the Jews. Van Kampen clearly convinced himself about Hitler, but his conclusion is questionable. Considering that Van Kampen's views about the Antichrist were not the subject of this debate, I can't see that Cooper's remarks were at all relevant or edifying to those considering the prewrath position.
The Van Kampen Collection is one of the most significant collections of biblically related artifacts, scrolls, manuscripts and early printed editions of the Bible in the world. The Collection was assembled by the Van Kampen family and is open to the public at The Scriptorium: Center for Biblical Antiquities at The Holy Land Experience in Orlando Florida. Unfortunately it is now owned by TBN. {1}
Cooper's "expert advice" was to counsel people not to watch this debate. He also stated that he was "very disappointed" at least three times.
DEBATE With Joel Richardson & Chris White: Will The Antichrist Be A False Jewish Messiah?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy2ytMSFvm0
This post exposes the various inconsistencies in Charles Cooper's "appraisal" of the recent debate between Joel Richardson and Chris White regarding the ethnicity of the Antichrist. Charles Cooper's assessment, including his personal remarks about Robert Van Kampen, Chris White and Joel Richardson was extremely insulting and unnecessary. I really did not want to hear that Van Kampen could be "very mean and nasty" and that "his bible study skills were limited". Apparently Cooper thinks that it is acceptable to say negative things about Van Kampen because he died in 1999 and is no longer with us. I wonder how Van Kampen's family feel about Cooper's attempt to tarnish his reputation. As founder of the PreWrath Resource Institute in Orlando, Florida, I question whether Cooper's remarks were helpful to the prewrath cause, especially since this debate did not specifically concern either Van Kampen or the prewrath rapture position.
Van Kampen was a very gifted man. As well as being a successful businessman and investor, he rediscovered and developed the biblical prewrath rapture position held by the early church fathers. As such, he presented a significant challenge to the false the pre-tribulation rapture camp. I don't know whether Van Kampen had any recognized theological qualifications, but his prewrath work surpassed that of many qualified theologians in my view. Unlike the pre-trib or post-trib views, the prewrath rapture view is incredibly accurate when tested against the scriptures. (1 John 4:1; Acts 17:11).
I was aware of Van Kampen's view that Hitler will be the Antichrist, but I have not read his books The Sign or The Fourth Reich. The sign is a discourse on the end times featuring the prewrath rapture, and The Fourth Reich is a novel. Undoubtedly Hitler was a type of the Antichrist in that he fulfilled many of the "qualifications" for such a candidate, in particular his hatred for the Jews. Van Kampen clearly convinced himself about Hitler, but his conclusion is questionable. Considering that Van Kampen's views about the Antichrist were not the subject of this debate, I can't see that Cooper's remarks were at all relevant or edifying to those considering the prewrath position.
The Van Kampen Collection is one of the most significant collections of biblically related artifacts, scrolls, manuscripts and early printed editions of the Bible in the world. The Collection was assembled by the Van Kampen family and is open to the public at The Scriptorium: Center for Biblical Antiquities at The Holy Land Experience in Orlando Florida. Unfortunately it is now owned by TBN. {1}
Cooper's "expert advice" was to counsel people not to watch this debate. He also stated that he was "very disappointed" at least three times.
Cooper: "Joel Richardson ~ I have never met the man.. I have only just read some of his works. Friends of mine have.. but when I read some of his first works, it became very clear to me that Mr Richardson is a fiction writer ~ most of what he writes is fiction. He thinks it's truth but it's not. He has very limited exegetical skills, same as Van Kampen, they don't work in the original languages.. When you get to the level that these men are presenting themselves, you got to know how to deal with the text.. Mr Richardson violates and makes the error of 'illegitimate totality transfer' over and over again, assuming that because a word or phrase or idea in one place that it is going to mean that same thing somewhere else.. When I read his book I realized he has no spiritual discernment, none.." (22:00 mark)
Cooper openly admits that he only has a superficial knowledge of Richardson's early material (apparently only one book). As such, he is not in a position to make any judgements about Richardson's work. (Matthew 7:1-5).
Following his attack on Richardson, Cooper proceeded to direct his negative attention towards White.
Regarding White's book (presumably) False Christ: Will the Antichrist Claim to Be the Jewish Messiah? {2} Cooper said: "I really really really REALLY wish had allowed me to read it before he published it." (15:20 mark)
Cooper: "As prewrathers we got to stick together particularly when it comes to teaching what is essential to prewrath. Its alright to speculate.. to have cofee-esk... what or what is not the meaning of the scripture we should have extreme caution and we should proceed very carefully.. needless unnecessary distractions... and we don't need that... Chris has used a lot of my material... in a lot of ways he is like Van Kampen, these guys are tenacious.. he is in many many ways the consummate researcher, but in many ways he doesn't have refined exegetical skills.. you cannot use a simplistic hermeneutic.. illegitimate totality transfer... argue that the antichrist is a Jew a Jew who is timing to be the messiah, the true messiah and that he is a Jew... the accumulative build up of a lot of circumstantial evidence.." (29:00 mark)
Clearly White did not feel that it was necessary to defer to Cooper before he published his book, and why should he? Although Cooper claims to know White, he obviously does not know him very well. Cooper admitted that he has not read White's book and that he was not even aware that he held this view. White has stated that it took him some years to come to this view, and that two previous books preceded this one. {2} This suggests that the two men have had no contact for a number of years, since the book in question was published in 2014. It seems very strange that Cooper should denigrate White's exegetical skills when (apparently) he has had no recent contact with him and has not even read his material. Cooper's unkind attacks on both Richardson and White were superficial in that they were not based on a thorough or current assessment of their work.
Cooper has a strong personality and is very good at promoting himself. He tells us that people are waiting with bated breath for him to publish his latest book: "..people want me to (publish), they are begging me, they want me to put it out, they are excited.." (18:00 mark)
Cooper seems to think that other prewrath scholars need to defer to him in order for them all to sing from the same hymn sheet, in other words he seeks to rule others. In reality this is never going to happen. It appears that Cooper believes that he is the only bible scholar with superior exegetical skills. I must say that I haven't noticed! Cooper also boasts of having superior revelations that most of us mere mortals are not ready to hear. (47:00 mark) I can only hope and pray that he continues to keep them to himself! Having observed his cringeworthy performance at Fellowship Bible Chapel Fall Prophecy Conference Q&A last year, I can say nothing good about Cooper's exegetical skills:
Fellowship Bible Chapel Fall Prophecy Conference Q&A: Charles Cooper Concerns
https://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.com/2019/10/fellowship-bible-chapel-fall-prophecy.html
Fellowship Bible Chapel Fall Prophecy Conference Session 3 - Charles Cooper
https://bewareofthewolves.blogspot.com/2019/11/fellowship-bible-chapel-fall-prophecy.html
Cooper does himself no favours by attacking others in the guise of protecting the prewrath position. As far as I can determine, the biggest obstacle to the prewrath cause is Cooper himself rather than those he perceives as his underlings.
Was the debate between Richardson and White a waste of time as Cooper claims? Even though I did not resonate with a number of points on both sides of the debate, I found it interesting and I learned a lot from it. In my view, the anti-Semitic remarks were overdone by Richardson. Although he did not directly claim that White was anti-Semitic, the inference was there. By the same criteria, we could say that Richardson's position is Islamophobic.
Richardson seems not to value the principle of biblical separation. His appearances on TBN and CBN with various questionable characters alarms me very greatly. Those with any kind of influence in the church should not defile themselves, and by implication, influence others, by knowingly associating with apostates and false teachers. (Romans 16:17; Ephesians 5:11).
For the purposes of this post, I will limit myself to Richardson's co-author Walid Shoebat ~ God's War on Terror: Islam Prophecy and the Bible) {3} I am in the process of reading Chris Whites book, Islamic Antichrist Debunked. {4} In chapters 7 and 8 of this book, White successfully demolishes Shoebat's flawed exegesis of Isaiah 21 which refers to historic Babylon and not end time Babylon as Shoebat claims. White also destroys Shoebat's proposition that Edom is Babylon, and he also unmasks Shoebat's unsound translation of pséphizó (calculate) and arithmos (number) in Revelation 13:18. In short, White thoroughly exposes Shoebat's unhinged hermeneutics in favour of an Islamic Antichrist. I have to say at this point that it absolutely astounds me that so many "teachers" change the book of Revelation, apparently for their own quesionable reasons. (Revelation 22:18)
Shoebat's translation of the mark of the beast can be found on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtquNNEO7Fw
Shoebat's tranlsation is also exposed by C Michael Patton:
https://credohouse.org/blog/walid-shoebat-youtube-video-on-the-mark-of-the-beast
Apart from his dubious theology, Shoebat's claim to be a former terrorist has come under scrutiny and was investigated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper in 2011: "..finding no evidence of him being a terrorist, nor did Shoebat’s relatives, who were interviewed for the investigation, support his claims. More damningly, CNN’s Jerusalem bureau reported: “The Tel Aviv headquarters of Bank Leumi had no record of a firebombing at its now-demolished Bethlehem branch. Israeli police had no record of the bombing, and the prison where Shoebat says he was held ‘for a few weeks’ for inciting anti-Israel demonstrations says it has no record of him being incarcerated there either.” {5}
For the purposes of this post, I will limit myself to Richardson's co-author Walid Shoebat ~ God's War on Terror: Islam Prophecy and the Bible) {3} I am in the process of reading Chris Whites book, Islamic Antichrist Debunked. {4} In chapters 7 and 8 of this book, White successfully demolishes Shoebat's flawed exegesis of Isaiah 21 which refers to historic Babylon and not end time Babylon as Shoebat claims. White also destroys Shoebat's proposition that Edom is Babylon, and he also unmasks Shoebat's unsound translation of pséphizó (calculate) and arithmos (number) in Revelation 13:18. In short, White thoroughly exposes Shoebat's unhinged hermeneutics in favour of an Islamic Antichrist. I have to say at this point that it absolutely astounds me that so many "teachers" change the book of Revelation, apparently for their own quesionable reasons. (Revelation 22:18)
Shoebat's translation of the mark of the beast can be found on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtquNNEO7Fw
Shoebat's tranlsation is also exposed by C Michael Patton:
https://credohouse.org/blog/walid-shoebat-youtube-video-on-the-mark-of-the-beast
Apart from his dubious theology, Shoebat's claim to be a former terrorist has come under scrutiny and was investigated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper in 2011: "..finding no evidence of him being a terrorist, nor did Shoebat’s relatives, who were interviewed for the investigation, support his claims. More damningly, CNN’s Jerusalem bureau reported: “The Tel Aviv headquarters of Bank Leumi had no record of a firebombing at its now-demolished Bethlehem branch. Israeli police had no record of the bombing, and the prison where Shoebat says he was held ‘for a few weeks’ for inciting anti-Israel demonstrations says it has no record of him being incarcerated there either.” {5}
There is too much to say about the flawed Islamic Antichrist theory in this post. I recommend White's book in which he comprehensively breaks down the position point by point.
White keeps better company than Richardson. However, I have difficulty accepting his thesis that the Antichrist will be Jewish.
White: "The thesis of this book is that the Antichrist will attempt to present himself as the Jewish Messiah, that he will try his best to appear as if he is instituting what Jewish believers know as the Messianic Age and what Christians know as the Millennial reign." {6}
White's claim that this was the earliest view of the church can be confirmed, but I am still not convinced. {7} Problematically, I find nothing in the scriptures that supports this view. As Richardson points out: "The Bible does not specifically say that the Jews will accept the Antichrist as the Messiah." {8} This is a a critical point.
My view is that at this stage it is impossible to definitively identify the ethnicity of Antichrist. All the various theories about the Antichrist seem to be fraught with difficulties. Certainly the various conjectures about Obama, Macron etc. are mere speculation. It is entirely possible that no one will know the answer to this question until the Antichrist is "revealed".
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
White keeps better company than Richardson. However, I have difficulty accepting his thesis that the Antichrist will be Jewish.
White: "The thesis of this book is that the Antichrist will attempt to present himself as the Jewish Messiah, that he will try his best to appear as if he is instituting what Jewish believers know as the Messianic Age and what Christians know as the Millennial reign." {6}
White's claim that this was the earliest view of the church can be confirmed, but I am still not convinced. {7} Problematically, I find nothing in the scriptures that supports this view. As Richardson points out: "The Bible does not specifically say that the Jews will accept the Antichrist as the Messiah." {8} This is a a critical point.
My view is that at this stage it is impossible to definitively identify the ethnicity of Antichrist. All the various theories about the Antichrist seem to be fraught with difficulties. Certainly the various conjectures about Obama, Macron etc. are mere speculation. It is entirely possible that no one will know the answer to this question until the Antichrist is "revealed".
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Having said that, it appears that it will be possible for the wise to identify the beast at some point: ..let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Revelation 13:18).
There is much to think about following this debate. It has certainly challenged me to search the scriptures and to undertake further research on the subject.
1. https://legacy-cdn-assets.answersingenesis.org/assets/pdf/am/v4/n2/scriptorium-guide.pdf
2. https://www.amazon.co.uk/False-Christ-Antichrist-Jewish-Messiah/dp/0991232925
3. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gods-War-Terror-Islam-Prophecy-ebook/dp/B00C0UQGLU
4. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Islamic-Antichrist-Debunked-Comprehensive-Critique/dp/0991232941
5. https://tribune.com.pk/story/247165/walid-shoebat-false-prophet-of-fear/
6. https://www.amazon.co.uk/False-Christ-Antichrist-Jewish-Messiah/dp/0991232925
7. https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-antichrist
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH5FkVL4Jdc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1YZnmOpNcdpLzWzwLWvIF15eSfQGNZ-Hq-MAJAUSuKKi983lt8M9thCac
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