My Problem with Prophecy Conferences…

Do I have a ministry death wish or what? The first blog of the year caused someone to accuse me of belonging to the synagogue of Satan because I dared to question whether the Hebrew Roots Movement was heretical. Now I am stating that I have a problem with the money-maker known as prophecy conferences. Am I crazy or what?

For since the days of Clarence Larkin and his “infamous” charts (see example below), prophecy charts have and are all the rage among many evangelical circles – does anyone remember Y2K and Blood Moons?

However, and while Tzedakah Ministries is premillennial in its doctrinal position, the ministry does not do prophecy conferences. Why? Blame my dad and Acts 1:10-11…

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

This passage occurs immediately after the ascension of Jesus and after Jesus gave them the orders to go out into the world with the Gospel. And I remember my dad (who had all of Larkin’s charts) preaching from this passage he ne of favorite messages “Stop Looking Up”:

1. Look DOWNWARD in reflective prayer
2. Look INWARD to change our hearts for Him
3. Look OUTWARD to see the lost world … and GO!

The point that my dad was trying to make is that too many Christians spend too much time looking for the return of Jesus and not on our job … NOW. For while dad had Larkin’s charts as well, he rarely pulled them out because there is a lost world dying and prophecy conferences rarely if ever save a soul. In other words, they are merely preaching to the choir…

We instead need to get our hands dirty by getting out IN the world … where the lost people are. They are hurting and the fourth vial of the seventh horse MEANS NOTHING to them. Yes, I am being sarcastic but you know what I saying. 

This is my problem with prophecy conferences but perhaps Dietrich Bonhoeffer says it better when he wrote the following…

“I am to be a sojourner, with everything that entails. I must not close my heart indifferent to the earth’s problems, sorrows and joys; rather I am to wait patiently for the redemption of the divine promise–truly wait, and not rob myself of it in advance by wishing and dreaming.”