By Brook Ardoin
I first began this topic by approaching it from a position of objectivity. The result came across as if I was neutral on the subject. After hearing something spoken by Joel Richardson of The Underground[1], I realized it was written in a the very way in which he reminded us we should not do, and in which I see many of God’s teachers doing in the prophetic realm.
Though I am no prophecy teacher, I believe that anyone who the Lord has given a platform in order to reach people with such as AMTM should hold to certain standards when presenting a message. In no way do I want to sound like I am double-minded. The book of James warns of this in chapter 1.
In Joel’s video entitled, “The False Sign of September 23, 2017” (ep 65), which I have linked under sources at the end, he states,
“As teachers we are responsible…It is so critical we are not jumping on the End Time bandwagon. A teacher is going to incur a more harsh judgement because they are responsible for their hearers. Whether we are commanded to be Bereans or not, people are not always Bereans.
People trust teachers in this sort of thing. So it is critical that we are not, once again, jumping on the End Time bandwagon and saying, “This is a sign! This is a sign”! When in fact, there is no sign”.
His research took him all the way back to the 1800’s through recent times, and a number of ministers or leaders in the Body have put out literature or videos, all based on some specific sign(s) pointing to when and why the rapture was to occur at a specific date or time. There were even movements started because of this. All their theories failed terribly, leading to many disappointed or discouraged Christians. We see how this kind of thing can even cause some to fall away from Christianity altogether. It is very important to be wiser than this and learn from all these past mistakes.