Wallace G. Smith

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

A Widely-Held Falsehood

A vast portion of professing “Christianity” is obsessed with a myth—a myth that clouds their understanding of the end-times, that obscures other doctrinal truths of the Bible, and that provides a false hope concerning the Great Tribulation and the days before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And yet, it is widely believed! When I travel to various cities giving public presentations concerning the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and what to expect before Christ’s return, some of the most common questions I receive are centered around this myth.

So, it’s about time we put that myth to rest.

Join me for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, where we’ll debunk the Rapture myth.

What IS the Rapture Myth?

Warm greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we work to help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

You know, if I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked about the Rapture, I’d be a wealthy person. When is it coming? Is it before the Great Tribulation, during the Tribulation, or after?

At the heart of most of these questions is a more fundamental one: Is the common belief in the Rapture actually true?

Today, we’re going to tackle that question, and we’re going to do it with irrefutable evidence from your Bible.

Now let’s begin by being as clear as we can. Before we can address what the Bible does or does not say about the “Rapture,” we first need to define what we mean by the word “Rapture”—because people use it to say many different things.

Most use the word to indicate their belief that before Jesus Christ returns to rule the world, and before the time of trouble and suffering known as the Great Tribulation, Christians all over the world will be “raptured” into thin air—taken to heaven. Those who are NOT Christians will simply see that many people have suddenly vanished without explanation. Planes will plummet as their Christian pilots disappear, non-Christian husbands or wives will despair as they wonder where their Christian spouse has disappeared to. And as the world sorts through the mass disappearance, the Great Tribulation will be unleashed on those who are “left behind”—as the book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins worded it. Then, 3 or 7 years later—depending on who’s explaining—Jesus begins His reign on earth.

This idea of the Rapture as being mysteriously and mystically whisked away from the earth is often associated with the words of the Apostle Paul, who says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17,

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

This is an important passage for those who believe in the “Rapture” because in the Latin Vulgate translation of verse 17, the word for “we shall be caught up” is rapiemur /ra-pee-Ā-moor/, from rapere / rah-PEHR-ay/. Thus, the “Rapture.”

But is Paul describing what many think of as “the Rapture” or is he talking about something else entirely?

God wants us to read His word CAREFULLY, putting the details together to get the most complete picture we can, and that takes diligence. As Paul told the evangelist Timothy,

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Similarly, the prophet Isaiah wrote the following:

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:9–10).

Let’s do that. Let’s “rightly divide the word of truth” and put the WHOLE of God’s word together to help us see the truth about the Rapture theory and to understand what to truly expect of the end times.

And since ideas differ so widely in their details concerning the Rapture and what it really means, we are going to focus on Bible passages that will help us clarify the most common elements that are central in most people’s beliefs about the Rapture. So, as the program progresses, keep in mind these three crucial questions:

Will Christians vanish around the world without explanation?

Will Christians be caught up into the air years before Jesus returns?

[And] Will Christians spend the Great Tribulation in heaven?

Remember those questions! And as we look into what the Bible says will ACTUALLY happen with true Christians at the return of Jesus Christ, you will see each of these questions answered plainly and simply in God’s word. And when you do, you will see that the popular idea of the Rapture is little more than a popular myth.

Resurrection, NOT “Rapture”

So, does the Bible teach that YEARS BEFORE Jesus returns in visible glory to rule the world, Christians around the world will VANISH and secretly be caught up into heaven right before the time of global horrors known as the Great Tribulation?

No, it doesn’t. We can begin to see this if we go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. But this time, let’s begin in verse 13.

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17).

Too many are so “enraptured” (pun intended) with seeing the “Rapture” in this passage that they skip right over those elements that prove Paul is NOT talking about their idea of a “Rapture.”

For instance, Paul says that this is the time of the RESURRECTION of those who died in Christ—those he describes as “asleep”—saying, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” He also says that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.”

This doesn’t seem like a quiet, mysterious vanishing to me—more like a triumphant event announced to the world by the returning Christ.

But my personal opinion doesn’t matter—and neither does yours. Instead of settling for opinion, let’s look into additional Bible passages that describe this event—as we read earlier, “precept upon precept… line upon line… here a little, there a little….”

For example, the Apostle describes this EXACT SAME event in another passage 1 Corinthians 15. Let’s read there starting in verse 50:

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 

Now notice: The dead are raised in incorruptible glory and the living will be transformed at that time, as well, just as we read in 1 Thessalonians. Now, is this done quietly? No! AGAIN just as we saw earlier, this happens with the sound of a mighty TRUMPET:

“…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the TRUMPET WILL SOUND, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50–53).

In fact, read that again CAREFULLY: It happens not just at ANY trumpet, but at the LAST trumpet. This implies that there is a SEQUENCE of trumpets, and the resurrection and glorification of the saints occurs at the LAST of these trumpets.

So, ask yourself: Is there any passage of Scripture that describes a series of trumpets in the end times? Because if there is, then we have located the time of this resurrection and transformation of faithful Christians!

And, in fact, YES, the Bible DOES describe a sequence of trumpets! We don’t need to guess, or theorize, or debate about it. The Bible makes it plain! And as it does, we will see the answers to our three questions beginning to take shape as well.

The Real Sequence of Events Before Christ’s Return

The book of Revelation gives us a specific sequence leading up to Jesus’ return and the commencement of the Kingdom of God. Revelation chapter 6 reveals the Seven Prophetic Seals of Revelation, which the Apostle John sees in vision, opened in sequence by Jesus Christ to reveal the end-time events ahead. The FIRST FOUR SEALS represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, symbolizing global Religious Deception, Warfare, Famine, and Disease. Verse 8 says, that “power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

The prophetic pathway continues with the FIFTH SEAL, describing a martyrdom of many true Christians. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus describes this time, saying, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This is a time so terrible that no time before nor after will ever compare.

After two and one-half years of this Tribulation, the SIXTH SEAL is opened, and the Heavenly Signs take place: a great earthquake, the sun darkened, the moon red as blood, the stars falling from the sky, and every mountain and island on earth shaken! These announce that GOD AND JESUS CHRIST are about to PERSONALLY INTERVENE in world affairs! That time is described by the prophet Isaiah as “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the YEAR of recompense for the cause of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8).

This year-long Day of the Lord begins when the SEVENTH SEAL of Revelation is opened. We read of this in Revelation 8:1–2: “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given SEVEN TRUMPETS.”

Finally, we see where a SEQUENCE OF TRUMPETS appears in end-time events—exactly what Paul’s description told us to expect! AFTER the end-time rides of the Four Horsemen, the Great Tribulation, and the Heavenly Signs, we come to the series of Trumpets indicated by the Apostle Paul!

And those first six trumpet blasts are devastating. One-third of earth’s vegetation is burned up; one-third of the seas become blood; one-third of ships and marine life are destroyed; one-third of the planet’s waters become bitter; and one-third of the sun, moon, and stars cease to shine. Then, in the most destructive military exchange in history, one-third of mankind is obliterated.

Joel 2 calls the Day of the Lord “great and very terrible” (v. 2) for a reason! It represents God’s wrath unleashed on unrepentant mankind! Yet, these terrors are only the first SIX of Seven Trumpets! The Seventh, Last Trumpet is described in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

Paul says that at THIS TRUMPET—the SEVENTH, declaring the authority of the Kingdom of God over the world—the Resurrection occurs, when faithful Christians, past and present, are gathered, glorified with immortality, and brought to meet Christ to become His Bride and to participate in the vanquishing of His enemies and the inauguration of the reign of God’s Kingdom!

All of this PROVES that this no secret “vanishing!” In fact, Jesus Christ personally described this moment to His disciples to make the PUBLIC nature of this event very clear. Read it yourself, starting in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH will mourn, and THEY WILL SEE the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29–31).

My friends, these passages are inseparable. Their descriptions of the end-time events are consistent and in perfect sequence: The Great Tribulation, the Heavenly Signs, the Seven Trumpets, the revealing of Christ to the world at the Last Trumpet, and the resurrection, gathering, and glorifying of true Christians as the Kingdom of God commences its glorious reign.

And where will that reign begin? Not in heaven! Rather, as Revelation 5 [v. 10] says, those glorified Christians will have been made kings and priests to [their] God; and [they] shall reign on the earth.

No one will vanish into thin air as unsaved loved ones wonder where they went. All eyes will see, and all ears will hear. The Rapture is simply a misunderstanding that conceals the magnificent truth of Scripture.

Still, that might leave some worried. Does this mean that every Christian must go through the Tribulation?

No, it doesn’t, though some will, while others are protected—though NOT by a “Rapture.”

God’s Saints Protected on Earth During the Great Tribulation

We asked:

1. Will Christians vanish around the world mysteriously and without explanation?

We saw in the pages of the Bible that, no, they will not. Christians will join Christ at the first resurrection at the same time when ALL the tribes of the earth will see Jesus returning.

2. Will Christians be caught up into the air years before Jesus returns to rule?

Again, no they won’t. The resurrection of true Christians occurs at the very Last Trumpet when Christ is inaugurated as Ruler of the world, only days before Satan is bound for 1,000 years, as described in Revelation 20.

Finally,

3. Will Christians spend the years of the Great Tribulation in heaven?

Again, no! They rise to meet Christ at the commencement of His reign, AFTER the Tribulation. Indeed, from that moment on, they will reign alongside Him, ruling ON THIS EARTH, with Him, for 1,000 years.

At the same time, some Christians WILL be protected during the Tribulation—but they will be protected HERE ON EARTH. While God reserves many details to Himself, He does make this plain in a number of passages. For instance, in Revelation 12, we read of the Church in the end times, symbolized by a woman, persecuted by Satan the Devil, symbolized by a dragon-like serpent. Starting in verse 14, we read, “But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.” The “time, times, and half a time” here is the two-and-one-half years of the Great Tribulation before the Heavenly Signs, followed by the year-long Day of the Lord we read about earlier.

This passage makes plain, too, that while a portion of the Church is protected, she is NOT protected in heaven. Note that the passage says she is protected in “the wilderness”—a word which is never used by God to describe heaven in the Bible, but which He does use to describe locations here on earth.

If we’re going to let God interpret His own word, then we have to agree that Christians are going to be protected during the Great Tribulation, but that protection is NOT going to be in Heaven as many Rapture fans would have us believe. It will be right here, somewhere on planet earth.

But notice, too, not all Christians are protected. As we read in verse 17, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Yes, some Christians, “the rest of her offspring,” must endure the trials of the Great Tribulation and the anger of Satan.

The distinction—one group protected and one sent into the Tribulation—is reflected in Christ’s comments to the two prophetic End-Time Churches of Revelation 3. The zealous Christians of Philadelphia are told by Jesus that He will “keep [them]from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” [v. 10], while the lukewarm Christians of Laodicea are told that they must “buy… gold [from God] refined in the fire [of persecution]” [v. 18] and that they need His “chasten[ing]” [v. 19].

Those Laodicean Christians who must go through the Tribulation are described as those unable to see their need to repent and to change—too self-satisfied in what they already believe they know, and too willing to compromise in their actions.

There is a reason that Jesus Christ says to all of us concerning the times to come, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted WORTHY TO ESCAPE all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yes, there will be protection during the climactic, earth-shattering events of the end times—not in a Rapture off to heaven, but right here, somewhere on earth—for zealous, faithful Christians who are unwilling to compromise on the truth God has shown them.

Thank you so much for watching. All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work very hard to help you understand your world through the pages of the Bible.

And if you’d like today’s free DVD talking about heaven, hell, the resurrections, the rapture, everything, just click on that link in the description.

If you liked the video, we’d appreciate you clicking that you liked it, if you’d like to see more of this kind of content, just hit subscribe, and if you’d like be notified, just hit that bell.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

The Antichrist—Already Here in Today’s World

Perhaps no figure looms larger in our prophesied future than the ANTICHRIST. Your Bible is clear that he IS coming, and that a level of destruction, persecution, and death arrive with him—such as the world has never seen before or will ever see again. And there is cause to believe that he is alive TODAY—certainly, his tools of deception are ALREADY in place and ALREADY impact the lives of most who consider themselves “Christian” today.

Will you be among the few to recognize him when he steps onto the world stage? Most won’t—but you can.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, as we reveal Seven Signs of the End-Time Antichrist!

Relevant Prophecies About the Antichrist and His Impact

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World—where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

Consider this list of famous—or infamous—men: Ronald Reagan, King Juan Carlos (of Spain), Saddam Hussein, King Charles III, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, and Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum.

What do they have in common? Well, each, at one time or another, has been accused of being the Antichrist—that dark and mysterious figure foretold by Bible prophecy.

Some of these men are dead. Some are still alive. NONE of them fit the Bible’s description. Today, we will reveal SEVEN SIGNS of the END-TIME ANTICHRIST, as detailed by Bible prophecy, that will enable anyone to identify who the final Antichrist is.

Now, in our world of high-tech wonders and modern comforts, talk of an “antichrist” might seem archaic—“doom and gloom” preaching in an age that has moved beyond scriptures and prophecies.

But the opposite is true. Time hasn’t left prophecy behind—rather time has finally CAUGHT UP to prophecy, and only now do the times in which we live fit the circumstances describing the end-time stage onto which the Antichrist will enter.

For instance, Matthew 24 and verse 22 says that in those prophesied days, it would be possible that “no flesh would be saved” from mankind’s destructive capacity. That has only really been true since we entered the era of weapons of mass destruction, capable of eradicating humanity. And Daniel 12:4 describes the end-times of prophecy as an era when many “run to and fro” and “knowledge shall increase”—ancient words that describe our modern world, in which global travel is commonplace and we are beginning to suffer from a daily deluge of information.

No, the prophecies of the Antichrist are not dusty old writings, irrelevant for our modern age. They were WRITTEN for our modern age—inspired by the God who declares the end from the beginning! [Isaiah 46:10] And His warnings about the final Antichrist are VITAL. Because his rise is profoundly connected to more death, destruction, and human suffering than humanity has ever before experienced—a period called in the pages of Scripture, the Great Tribulation.

During the lives of most of you watching this today, the Antichrist WILL rise to power and deceive the VAST MAJORITY OF HUMANITY—subtly and seductively swaying men and women around the world to willingly accept a false and demonic COUNTERFEIT of Christianity! In fact, that version of Christianity is ALREADY present on the earth, possessing great influence. Many of you watching, right now, are already under its sway, making you all the more vulnerable to this future tyrant.

Imagine the full complement of modern warfare—the almost limitless destructive capacity of mankind—available at the beck and call of a man under the direct influence of Satan the Devil, devoted to destroying true Christianity—and true Christians—from the face of the earth, ensuring that it is replaced with a religion that SOUNDS like true Christianity, and uses the NAME of Jesus Christ, but which represents the very opposite of the Christianity of Jesus Christ.

That individual IS coming. Whether or not you will be able to recognize the Antichrist WILL BE a matter of life and death. And prophecy is plain: Most WILL NOT recognize him.

But you CAN recognize him with the SEVEN SIGNS that we will reveal on the remainder of today’s program.

These Seven Signs Identify Him

And this first sign is one most get wrong.

1. According to God’s word, the Antichrist is NOT a military or political leader. Rather, the Antichrist will lead a RELIGION, a great FALSE CHURCH.

This mistake arises because many confuse the Antichrist with the Beast of Revelation, which IS a military, political, and economic powerhouse that WILL dominate the world. However, while they are connected, the Antichrist and the Beast are two distinct beings. Turn to Revelation chapter 17. Here the Apostle John records a vision, shown to Him by Jesus Christ and the angels under His command:

And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:1–5).

There is MUCH that is worth noting in this passage, but I want to focus on one particular point. The Beast here with seven heads and ten horns, ridden by a prostitute, is the end-time military-economic juggernaut called the Beast of Revelation. But what of the woman?

Normally a rider mounts a beast to control it and influence its movements—and this beast is being ridden, or guided, by a prostitute.

If you’ve watched Tomorrow’s World for long, you know that we allow the Bible to interpret its own symbols, and women in the Bible are frequently used to picture different faiths and religious organizations.

But rather than the chaste virgin that God uses to symbolize His church in passages such as 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Revelation 19:7–8, the church that is riding this powerful Beast is described as a wealthy prostitute.

Fornication, adultery, and harlotry are often used by God to symbolize the corrupting influence of RELIGIOUS COMPROMISE with pagan practices and pagan worship, as in Jeremiah 3 and Ezekiel 16.

The religious system of the ANTICHRIST is the Harlot riding this Beast! It is not the SAME as the Beast. In fact, later in Revelation 17:16, we see that the Beast will eventually TURN on the woman to destroy her. No, the Harlot RIDES the Beast—manipulating it, influencing it, guiding it for her purposes.

This is why the Apostle John, in 1 John 4:1–3 speaks of the Antichrist in the context of false prophets—because he will be the ULTIMATE false prophet!—not a military or political ruler, but a RELIGIOUS FIGURE who will control the most powerful church on earth. In turn, he and that church will influence the military-economic powerhouse known as the End Time Beast Power of Revelation.

What more can we understand about the religious system led by this Antichrist?

That brings us to today’s second sign of the Antichrist:

2. The Antichrist will appear CHRIST-LIKE and come IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!

In his powerful Olivet Prophecy given on the Mount of Olives in the area of Jerusalem and recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, Jesus Christ warned His disciples that many would come practicing religious deception, and come in HIS OWN NAME—that is, the NAME of JESUS CHRIST! And they did! John reveals the spread of that deceptive, counterfeit Christianity even in the first century, saying in 1 John 2 and verse 18, “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.”

Yes, many antichrists had come by the time John wrote those words, and the deceptive, counterfeit Christianity they wove, falsely under the name of Jesus Christ, persists and dominates world religions today!

Many fail to recognize that the word “antichrist” represents more than a person. It represents a system of belief that APPEARS Christian, but is actually a COUNTERFEIT to true Christianity. Paul writes in the Bible of those who preached “another Jesus” and brought a “different gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4). This system has been in place since the time of the Apostles, and in John’s own day, many representing that system, “many antichrists,” were already preaching.

The final, end-time Antichrist will be the culmination of this deception—a great False Prophet representing this false Christianity who will APPEAR very Christian on the outside. Turn to Revelation 13 with me, where we see the Antichrist described in prophetic symbolism.

Beginning in v. 11, we read of a different beast rising from the earth—not the seven-headed Beast of Revelation: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).

Scripture consistently uses the Lamb as a symbol for Christ but a Dragon as a symbol for the devil! So this False Prophet to come, this final Antichrist, will LOOK like the Lamb, Jesus Christ! He may seem kind, compassionate—he may seem to teach from the Bible! Yet prophecy says he will be speaking the words of the DRAGON, the DEVIL! The Christianity he teaches will be a subtle, twisted version of Christianity—NOT the Christianity of Jesus Christ, even though it will claim His name!

The Antichrist and His Laws and Teachings

One of the tools the end-time Antichrist will use to deceive even the skeptical and bring them into his twisted version of Christianity is our next sign:

3. He will eventually work “miracles” and supernatural “wonders.”

Staying in Revelation 13, let’s continue to read, beginning in verse 13: “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast…” (Revelation 13:13–14).

This individual will have the ability to call fire from heaven, much like the prophet Elijah did in the Old Testament. How amazing will that be! In 2 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul describes this coming false prophet, mentioning in chapter 2 verse 9: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9).

But the key to resisting the appeal of supernatural signs, intended to deceive, is to compare the “miracle worker’s” teachings to God’s truth. Remember, the Antichrist LOOKS like Jesus Christ, but SPEAKS like the SUBTLE DRAGON, Satan the Devil.

That brings us to the fourth sign:

4. He will DENY that Christ continues to come in the flesh.

This is a VITAL point, but a subtle one—easy to miss. We dive into detail on this crucial sign in our free booklet, but let me summarize.

This doctrine of the Antichrist is described in 2 John 7: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

Now, many think John just means that antichrists teach Jesus didn’t really come in the flesh 2,000 years ago. And, yes, John condemns such falsehoods.

But read carefully: John says that the deceivers do not teach Christ “as coming in the flesh.” That is a present tense verb—continuing to come in the flesh.

Dr. Charles B. Williams, whose translation of the New Testament is praised for its attention to the detail of the Greek verbs in the original New Testament text, translates this passage as saying that the antichrist does not confess that Christ “continues to come” in the flesh.

But what does that mean?

It means that the Antichrist does not teach that Jesus Christ CONTINUES to live in Christians TODAY, reliving the life He lived 2,000 years ago, helping them to grow in obedience and godly character.

The Apostle Paul explained this in a beautiful passage. Let’s read it in the King James Version, Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

This is why Paul says in Romans 5:10 that we are reconciled by His death, but SAVED BY HIS LIFE. As opposed to Christ doing it all at His crucifixion as many false preachers teach, Christ lives His life in the converted Christian daily, helping him or her grow and conquer sin NOW, in THIS life! The Antichrist will deny this fundamental but often ignored teaching, and this connects directly to our fifth sign:

5. The Antichrist will REJECT God’s law.

Remember: we read in 2 Thessalonians 2 that Paul called the final Antichrist “lawless.” But God isn’t concerned here with HUMAN laws. The Antichrist will oppose the laws of GOD.

In fact, he will REPLACE GOD’S LAWS as REVEALED in the BIBLE with religious laws rooted in HUMAN TRADITION and PAGAN SUPERSTITION.

Daniel chapter 7 describes this effort of the Antichrist. We see this end-time false prophet described in detail in verse 25: “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:25).

He will “CHANGE TIMES AND LAW”—he will replace the times of worship as God designed them with a counterfeit set of worship days, and he will replace the laws of God with a different set of laws—laws that will feel Christian, but will NOT be rooted in the laws of God, revealed in the Bible.

The Antichrist will promote MAN-MADE church laws, creeds, confessions, and traditions and will claim the authority to OVERRULE the clear commandments and laws of God revealed in Scripture! Church calendars with man-made holidays will OVERRULE the holy days and festivals of God, found in your Bible! This coming “lawless one”—the Antichrist—will claim authority that no one but God Almighty has, attempting to change the very law of God... And, frankly, many of you watching today are ALREADY affected by this.

Who Can Escape the Antichrist’s Persecution?

However, the Antichrist will not be content with simply converting the world to false teachings. He will also want to deal with the few who dare to believe the true teachings of the Bible that contradict His false doctrine. That leads to our sixth, tragic sign:

6. The Antichrist will PERSECUTE true Christians.

We saw this mentioned in Daniel 7:25, where we read that the Antichrist “shall persecute the saints of the Most High”—true followers of God and those who keep his laws and his commandments, not the man-made doctrines, holy days, and teachings of the Antichrist.

Jesus Christ warned of this time when He told His disciples in John 16:2 that a time will come when those who kill true Christians will think they are doing God a service!

Think back to the images you have seen of concentration camps and the horrors of World War II, in which millions of Jews were herded to their deaths. Now imagine such machinery turned onto a new minority, those Christians Jesus calls His “little flock,” who actually believe in the Ten Commandments of God and in the need to obey them.

Revelation 12 describes the anger true Christians’ obedience engenders in Satan the Devil and how he will respond: “[T]he dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

How does the Antichrist accomplish this persecution? That power is connected to our final sign:

7. The Antichrist will point the world to a revived “Roman Empire”— a political/military powerhouse of strength and might such as the world has never seen before.

Remember—the woman RIDES THE BEAST! Revelation 13 tells of how the False Prophet will influence the people of the world to support the coming Beast of Revelation, and how the Antichrist will influence the might of this Beast Power—an end-time, revived “Roman Empire” that will outshine even the power and might of the United States today. He will direct the might of the Beast AGAINST those who refuse to cast aside the laws of God and the true worship of Jesus Christ, and who refuse to accept the FALSE Christianity the Antichrist offers. The result will be a MODERN-DAY INQUISITION on a horrific scale, never before seen in human history.

This unholy alliance of false church and tyrannical state will DOMINATE THE WORLD in the end-times just ahead of us.

Even with their powers combined, this most powerful of religious, political, economic, and military entities will still be NO MATCH for the returning Jesus Christ! He will return in their days to glorify His faithful followers and to establish the Kingdom of God, forever!

So, what do we DO about these things? Remember: The “Antichrist system” that this final Antichrist will sell to the whole world exists TODAY, and most are already deceived by it! We do not need to wait until this religious despot appears on the scene—we can act NOW to reject his system and his Counterfeit Christianity. As Jesus admonishes all of us in Luke 21 and verse 36, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yes, Jesus does promise protection for those who are not ashamed to reject the false Christianity around them and who are willing to embrace the fullness of His teachings and life—allowing Him to live His life of obedience to God’s commandments in their lives today.

We hope you will heed His admonition and avoid the deceptions of the coming end-time Antichrist and his religious system at work in the world today.

Thank you for watching, from really all of us here at Tomorrow’s World, where we work very hard to help you make sense of your world through the pages of your Bible.

If you’re interested in what we offer today, there’s a link in the description you can click on to get that material.

We hope that you’ll like it. If so, please click on like, even more so if you’d like more, click on subscribe and then click that bell. Thanks alot!

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Destruction of Values

In sex, gender, and sexuality, what is normal? What is normal marriage? Normal family? Western Civilization once knew. But no longer. Academics, philosophers, and politicians are waging a passionate ideological war to establish a world in which NOTHING is considered normal—where even SUGGESTING that one thing is normal and another is abnormal is considered an act of hatred and violence. That conflict is eating away at the foundations of civilization itself.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, where we expose the war against normal.

Ideological Attacks and Radical “Theories”

A warm welcome to you from all of us here at Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

In Jeremiah 10:23, we see a statement made of profound importance: “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”

Our topic today illustrates the truth of that statement and the civilization-wide tragedy that unfolds when we ignore it.

We asked at the beginning—in gender, sexuality, marriage, and family, what is normal?

Many can no longer answer this question, thanks to a long-running war against all things “normal.” In fact, we are in the final stages of that war in the West, which we will demonstrate today.

We used to know what “normal” was. At least we thought we did, right? Marriage was a lifetime commitment between a man and a woman, defining family and creating the healthiest environment for childrearing. Mankind was organized into males and females, and sex was to take place between a male and a female, and that was an obvious matter of biology.

That was our world as recently as 20 years ago. But today, simply ASKING what is normal is offensive to many—and may offend some of you. That’s because we’re living in the final stages of a war against normality. Social engineers have mounted an aggressive campaign over multiple decades, seeking to eradicate ANY idea that some things are normal and some abnormal.

And as normality is losing this war, an abnormal world is quickly filling the space left behind. It is this NEW world that our children will inherit—in which there is no such thing as “normal” and it’s the highest offense to suggest that there should be.

How did we get here? How bad is it? Can it get worse? And finally, what does God think of a culture in which anything normal is the enemy?

While the combatants attacking normality are not as coordinated and conspiratorial as many think, there ARE common doctrines and goals that drive and unite them. Originating in the infamous Frankfurt School in the 1920s, so-called “Critical Theory” in various forms has become all the rage. The 1970s saw the rise of Critical Legal Theory, and more recently, Critical Race Theory became the hot topic of discussion.

No less pervasive in its influence on modern culture is QUEER THEORY. Queer Theory seeks to “deconstruct” common ways of thinking, to overturn widely held norms, and to define all of society as a power play between the “oppressed” and their “oppressors.” Developed in LGBT Studies and Women’s Studies programs at universities across the Western world, Queer Theory focuses on deconstructing SEXUALITY AND GENDER—and, consequently, everything affected by those facets of life, such as family structure.

Academics steeped in these ideas seek to subvert what has been considered normal and celebrate what were previously “abnormal” ideas and practices. To them, it is not enough for society to merely accept or allow the fullest spectrum of sexual behaviors and “gender constructs.” Their goal is to “queer” the discourse entirely, meaning to change mainstream thinking so that nothing is even thought of as “normal” or “not normal” any longer.

For example, Dr. Roberta Chevrette of Middle Tennessee State University has written of the need to “‘queer’ family communication” (Theories of Human Communication, December 22, 2016, p. 235)—changing discussions WITHIN FAMILIES so that heterosexuality is no longer treated as normal in those families. The goal of these social engineers is to change societal thinking so that all forms of sexual activity are considered equally “normal.”

Weaponizing Language and Changing Terms

The prejudice against normal, healthy sexuality and gender expression can be seen in, essentially, a new vocabulary. Are you familiar with its words? Because your college-educated children probably are—and, increasingly, your younger children are, too. More importantly, those designing school policies and programs definitely are.

One new word is heteronormative. As of mid-2023, Merriam-Webster defines it as “of, relating to, or based on the attitude that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural expression of sexuality” (“Heteronormative,” Merriam-Webster.com), and an Internet search is enough to show you that “heteronormative thinking”—that is, thinking that the normal expression of sexuality is between a man and a woman—is no longer “right thinking.” In fact, if you think that sexual relations between men and women are more normal than others, you are considered guilty of heterosexism.

Similarly, if you are a man or a woman who, like almost all humans beings, still considers yourself the same gender the doctor observed you to be at birth, it is not enough to call yourself a man or woman anymore. Now, you must be a cisgender man or cisgender woman, to distinguish you from a transgender man or transgender woman. If you are, say, a man who thinks referring to himself as a “cisgender man” instead of just a “man” is strange, watch out—now you’re engaging in cisgenderism. Also, you had better not think it is normal for someone in a male body to think he is a man, because if you do, you’re practicing cisnormativity. How dare you think ANYTHING—ANY sexuality, ANY relationship between sex and gender, ANY family structure—is NORMAL?

For a glimpse at how normal sexuality and family structure have been recast as evils, one need only look at—believe it or not—Black Lives Matter.

While the Black Lives Matter movement made global headlines in the wake of George Floyd’s death, some interested in the cause were distressed by what they found on the organization’s “About Us” webpage. There, under the heading “What We Believe,” they saw Black Lives Matter declare, “We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege,” “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure,” and “We foster a queer-affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking” (“What We Believe,” Black Lives Matter, sourced from Web.Archive.org).

While that page was removed in the days leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the question remained: What does ending discrimination and violence against black people have to do with transgender ideology? Why would supporting black lives require standing against “heteronormativity” or traditional family structures?

The answer is that the war against normal has successfully woven itself into nearly every effort to create social change. As critical theorists irrationally recategorize human relationships as expressions of coercive power, any attempt to address injustice then also has to be made to connect with all other injustices, real or perceived. Believing there is a normal family structure, a normal human sexuality, and a normal understanding of sex and gender is increasingly equated with power structures designed to oppress.

To today’s social engineers, if you believe that family is best grounded in a marriage between a man and a woman, sex between that man and that woman represents normal and natural sexuality, and that it actually is possible in virtually all cases to identify a child’s gender at birth, well then you’ve aligned yourself with the likes of Mussolini and Hitler or the Ku Klux Klan. Presuming someone’s gender based on their appearance is labeled an act of ignorance at best and violence at worst. If a young girl is plagued by thoughts that she might be transgender, to help that girl feel more comfortable being a girl is committing the sin of “conversion therapy.”

But as bad as things are, we are far from how bad they can get.

Ultimately, the war on normality is a war on BOUNDARIES. Human beings crave sexual “freedom,” unbound by any rules, definitions, laws, and even shame—to define sexuality based solely on individual desires. So, the boundaries keeping sex within marriage must fall, the boundaries defining marriage as between one man and one woman must fall, and the boundaries defining differences between sexes or genders must fall.

There is, however, at least one boundary that remains—one land the War Against Normal has not yet conquered, but that is under siege and could fall at any moment—the age boundary.

Targeting Children with Perversions

Thankfully, many still consider childhood a time for protection from the incursions of modern sexual “liberty.” Yet many of our self-appointed superiors deem that this boundary, too, must fall.

Consider the flood of sexual content into school libraries. In the United States, the American Library Association found that nine of the top ten school library books most challenged in 2021 were challenged due to their sexual content and explicit nature (“Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists,” American Library Association, ALA.org, March 26, 2013). The MOST challenged book, which we will not name, so as not to risk promoting it accidentally, contained imagery that any reasonable person would consider pornographic. Not long ago, any teacher who shared such a book with a child would have been labeled a pedophile and a predator, and that teacher would have been disciplined or dismissed.

Consider, too, the phenomenon of Drag Queen Story Hour, in which men who dress as women—often in exaggerated and sometimes sexually suggestive clothing—read to children in libraries and other venues. Such events are designed to blur sexual and gender lines and family attachments in children’s impressionable minds so that they grow up thinking that everything is just as “normal” as everything else.

Don’t take our word for it. Take theirs. In the academic journal Curriculum Inquiry, “critical pedagogy” researcher Harper Keenan and a drag queen organizer of events known as “Lil Miss Hot Mess” collaborated on a paper titled “Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood” (“Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queerimagination in early childhood,” January 25, 2021, pp. 440–461).

The authors are COMPLETELY PLAIN concerning the goals of Drag Queen Story Hour. “Ultimately, we suggest that drag pedagogy offers one model for learning not simply about queer lives, but how to LIVE QUEERLY.”

They note that drag is “implicitly transgressive” and that “While drag has some conventions, it ultimately has no rules—its defining quality is often to break as many rules as possible!” they note that drag “is all about bending and breaking the rules,” often, “turn[ing] rejection into DESIRE, transforming the labour of performance into the pleasure of PARTICIPATION.”

They tell us “Drag Queen Story Hours offers a QUEER RELATIONALITY with children that BREAKS from the reproductive futurity of the normative classroom and nuclear family.”

In their conclusion, they point out that they “have occasionally encountered critiques that [Drag Queen Story Hour] is sanitizing the risqué nature of drag in order to make it ‘family friendly.’ We DO NOT SHARE this PESSIMISTIC view,” noting, “it is less a sanitizing force than it is a PREPARATORY INTRODUCTION to ALTERNATE MODES OF KINSHIP.”

It’s not an exaggeration or hyperbole: The war against normal IS coming for our children.

You might wonder—how could things get so far? Well, a large part of the answer is that, to a great extent, the attitudes and philosophies motivating this are nothing new. Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new’? It has already been in ancient times before us.”

Indeed, the attack on sexual barriers between children and adults goes back to philosophers and academics whose ideas helped lay the foundations of today’s Queer Theory. In 1977, supposedly “enlightened” souls such as Paul-Michel Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacques Derrida signed a petition to the French government to allow adults to engage in “consensual” sexual relations with children. As reported in the Guardian, these intellectuals demanded that French law “should acknowledge the right of children and adolescents to have relations with whomever they choose” (“Calls for legal child sex rebound on luminaries of May 68,” TheGuardian.com, February 23, 2001).

The same article reported on the positions of French philosopher and author Tony Duvert of the 70s, who “praised ‘the great adventure of paedophilia’ and raged at ‘the fascism of mothers.’” According to its English-language publisher MIT Press, Duvert’s 1976 book Diary of an Innocent ends with “a fanciful yet rigorous construction of a reverse world in which marginal sexualities have become the norm.”

God Set the True Standards for “Normality”

We began by reading Jeremiah’s comment to God, “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). But the very next verse (v. 24) gives us the key to resolving the war against normal: “O LORD, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing” (Jeremiah 10:24).

God is creator of all reality! It is His design, His law, and His will that defines what is normal—or what SHOULD BE, and what WILL be normal in the world Christ will bring at His return.

Concerning sexuality, gender, and family, God made it plain from the beginning. Referring back to the Genesis account of creation, Jesus taught about marriage. In Matthew 19 we read, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,’and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4–6).

In one fell swoop, Jesus definitely affirmed the gender binary of man and woman, the biological design of male and female, and the place of sex in marriage between a husband and a wife.

While the War Against Normal seeks to abolish any sort of boundaries, God seeks to ESTABLISH boundaries and to make them clear and firm. In fact, the VERY FIRST PAGES of SCRIPTURE illuminate exactly how our Creator deals with boundary-obliterating chaos—and that is REESTABLISHING ORDER AND NORMALCY by REESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES.

The opening pages of Genesis [detail] chaos: “The earth was without form, and void” (Genesis 1:2). A world “without form”—without guiding distinctions, shapes, and ideals—is exactly the society today’s social engineers seek to create.

The Creator brought order to that chaos by establishing clear boundaries. He separated light and darkness (v. 4), the waters below from those above (vv. 6–7), and the land from the seas (v. 9). He established a distinct boundary between animals and humanity. Humans are created beings, yet unique in bearing God’s own image (vv. 25–26). He organized humans into two sexes: male and female (v. 27).

Upon ordering the world He had created, God declared it “very good” (v. 31). We enjoy the goodness of that ordered world today.

Eradicating all borders, boundaries, and limitations does not produce a better world. It only creates a more chaotic one—in which the joys God designed go unrealized, and the sufferings He intended to keep at bay become the new normal.

Still, let’s be careful. It’s ironic that so much of the world is waging a passionate war against normal, because Jesus Christ Himself will fundamentally correct the definition of what is normal when He establishes a new world at His Second Coming.

Often, those who lament the war agains normal also fail to see that the traditions THEY see as normal are tainted and broken in their own ways. The Kingdom Jesus will establish will not look like 1950s America, nor the Judea of Jesus’ day. Nostalgia for a better past is no substitute for the full transformation called for in His Gospel, and the life to which Christians are called transcends what was ever lived throughout history. To live God’s way requires a complete change in how we see ourselves, our relationships, and our obligations. And, frankly, no civilization has ever fully gotten it right. As God tells us through Isaiah: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

After Jesus’ return, the world will learn what family, sexuality, relationships, and society can be when we follow the original design and intention of our Creator. From the blessings that follow, mankind will finally understand why no one should ever exchange God’s normal for anything less.

It is that time to come that we proclaim here on Tomorrow’s World. If you want to begin seeking the power of tomorrow’s world in your own life, seeing through the madness of today’s world is a great start.

Thanks so much for watching! All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work very hard to help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

If you’re interested in today’s offer, please click on the link in the description for your own free copy. If you like this content at all, please consider subscribing and hit that bell if you want to be notified about more.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

A Truly Reliable and Holy Book

The Bible is, beyond any doubt, the most influential book in human history. Today, it is dismissed by many as unreliable; filled with superstition and best not taken completely seriously. Yet, if this book truly is what it claims to be—the word of God—then there is no book on earth that you should take MORE seriously.

Join me on this episode of Tomorrow’s World as we debunk five myths about the Bible.

The Historical Accuracy of the Bible and the Biblical Text

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible. Today, you and I are going to debunk five myths about God’s word, the Holy Bible, and demonstrate how they are little more than fantasies, wielded by those uncomfortable with what God has to say about the world—and about their lives.

Here’s our first one: That…

The Bible is historically unreliable.

Many claim that the Bible is filled with myths and made-up stories, but nothing could be further from the truth. Time and time again, when historians and the Bible conflict, the fight goes in the Bible’s favor.

For instance, many skeptical historians believed that the Hittites were a fictional kingdom of Old Testament stories—until they discovered the empire, exactly as the Bible described! In the 19th century the ENTIRE CAPITAL of the Hittite people was discovered, along with their royal archive containing thousands of ancient records related to their vast empire.

The critics mocked the Bible, until, in all their digging, real history mocked THEM and vindicated the Bible!

This is the pattern: Skeptics doubt the Bible and are proven wrong. We don’t have NEARLY enough time to list the countless ways that archaeology has shown the Bible to be trustworthy, but let’s look at a few.

Archaeological evidence for major individuals in the Bible continues to be found. Figures in the Old Testament, like King Hezekiah, King Ahaz, and the infamous Queen Jezebel—as well as figures in the New Testament, such as Pontius Pilate and High Priest Caiaphas—all show up in various artifacts or ancient records as historians continue to press into the past.

For some time, the Bible’s King David was widely considered a myth, like England’s King Arthur—until excavations uncovered an Aramaic stone inscription in the ancient city of Dan, referring to “the king of the house of David.”

One of my favorite discoveries is not of a famous person. In 2007 an archaeology professor from Vienna was examining a small, 25-century-old clay fragment from ancient Babylon—essentially, a receipt for a payment made to a sun-worship temple. In ancient cuneiform writing, it bore the name “Nebo-Sarsekim,” a chief of eunuchs. Well, who cares? Well, the same individual is mentioned in the same position in the biblical book of Jeremiah!

And think about it; this isn’t a “big name” person.

If the Bible were full of fiction, getting the names of FAMOUS people right might be easier to explain. But the names of the non-famous people? Getting them right, too, would be remarkable!

It’s never wise to bet against the Bible when it comes to history! Mock the Bible, and, eventually, the facts mock YOU.

So, let’s turn to our second myth. This myth claims that…

The text of the Bible has been dramatically changed over the centuries.

I have some sympathy for those who believe this without researching it. After all, the Bible is a collection of books, the most recent of which was written almost two thousand years ago—and the oldest of which was written thousands of years before that!

Given that were no digital hard drives or photocopiers, the words of the Bible had to be meticulously hand-copied from one document to another, century after century.

How could it be even remotely possible that the text was faithfully preserved?

Yet an unbiased look at the evidence shows that this is exactly what happened.

For instance, before the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the oldest copy of the Book of Isaiah dated back only so far as 1,000 AD. The discovery of scrolls containing the text of Isaiah among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including one nearly full copy of the book, pushed that date BACK a full THOUSAND YEARS or more, to the century before Christ. And the level of accuracy in transmission over those thousand-plus years was remarkable.

In Romans 3 and verse 2, the Apostle Paul notes that God entrusted the transmission of the Old Testament to the Jews, and their traditions of meticulously copying the texts have served us well. Counting the words in each book, the occurrences of each letter in each book, and performing other mind-numbingly detailed checks—their traditions were designed to ensure the accuracy of the words from parchment to parchment, with the care and devotion that the word of God deserves.

So, what about the New Testament?

The evidence is clear that it, too, contains a faithful record, transmitted through the centuries. Even fragments such as the Rylands Library Papyrus containing a fragment of the gospel of John and dating within 50 years of the ORIGINAL WRITING of that gospel validate how well the text has been transmitted.

Yes, errors and mistakes HAVE taken place. Yet, more manuscript evidence for the New Testament exists than for any other ancient document. And within that vast collection of copies, the fact that the original message comes through loud and clear to our time is made plain.

Even detractors of the Bible admit this fact. As popular Bible scholar, critic, and skeptic Bart Ehrman admits,

“To be sure, of all the hundreds of thousands of textual changes found among our [New Testament] manuscripts, most of them are completely insignificant, immaterial, of no real importance for anything other than showing that scribes could not spell or keep focused any better than the rest of us.” (Misquoting Jesus, p. 207)

The vast number of manuscripts illustrate that, rather than changing dramatically over two thousand years, the original message of the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus Christ continue to shine through, undamaged by time.

We should not find this surprising in the least, as Jesus Himself declared in His famous Olivet Prophecy,

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” [Matthew 24:35]

So, no, the text of the Bible has NOT been dramatically changed over the centuries. In fact, it has been miraculously preserved.

Outright Lies about What the Bible Contains

Myth #3 is that…

The Bible was assembled by the Roman Catholic Church.

This is often claimed by individuals who want to say that the Roman Catholic Church chose what books would be a part of the Bible, with political motivations and to crush opposing ideas or unwanted versions of the faith.

Yet this claim is baseless fantasy.

First, it is clear that the 66 books of the Bible were recognized as Scripture long before any Roman Catholic councils could have claimed to make them “official.” The Jewish first-century historian Josephus writes of the Old Testament and the Jews of his day—and Jesus’day—“For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from, and contradicting one another: [as the Greeks have:] but only twenty two books: which contain the records of all the past times: which are justly believed to be divine.” [Josephus, Against Apion 1.8]

Some of those 22 books were later broken up into multiple pieces, such as 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, and the twelve Minor Prophets. They make up the 39 books of most modern Old Testaments.

As for the 27 books of the New Testament—all of them written by first-century apostles and disciples and concluding with the book of Revelation—the testimony of their authenticity is ancient. Later councils of various versions of Christianity could only recognize those books that were ALREADY recognized and could not be refuted. In fact, as my old pastor John Ogwyn used to say, one of the best proofs that the Roman Catholic Church did not decide on the canon of the New Testament is that they would never have approved so many books that directly contradict their teachings!

And the Bible, itself, contains evidence that the New Testament authors knew they were collecting God’s word. The Apostle Peter, for instance, refers to the letters of Paul as “Scripture” [2 Peter 3:16] and tells his own readers in 2 Peter 1:15, “Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.”

A careful review of the history of the Bible, along with its own internal evidence, shows that its books were settled long before any Roman Catholic council ever convened about anything at all.

Our next myth is a particularly popular one. That myth claims that…

The Bible is racist and misogynistic.

Again, such claims bear no connection to reality.

On these matters, the Bible is abundantly clear. Turn to Colossians 3 and verse 11. There you see the teaching of the Bible as plain as day:

“… there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” [Colossians 3:11]

To many in the first century, the idea that Jew and Greek could be seen as equal in the sight of God was scandalous. Yet, the words of the Bible are clear: The salvation it describes is open to all, regardless of race, tribe, nationality, or ethnicity!

In fact, in 1807, when William Wilberforce published his famous [A] Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which played such a crucial role in ending that terrible practice in the West, he cited that passage in Colossians, as well as others in the book of Acts, the gospels, and other places to support his contention.

Far from being racist, the Bible provides the only sure witness to the divine potential of every human being, regardless of race.

As for the idea that the Bible is somehow “anti-woman,” that despicable lie has been allowed to go on for far too long!

In a similar passage to that in Colossians, the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:28,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In God’s eyes, men and women have equal potential to become His children in His Kingdom. In fact, the Apostle Peter writes that husbands and wives are “heirs together of the grace of life.”

So, where do such lies about the Bible being misogynistic come from?

Some are based on a misunderstanding of God’s laws, statutes, and judgments in the Old Testament. Accusers who want to discredit the Bible fail to acknowledge how the laws of God protected women from harm and from abuse, required men to treat them with dignity instead of like property as so many ancient cultures did, and acknowledged that women, like men, were made in the image of God. Rather than only being the story of God working with men in the world, the Old Testament records stories of courageous women whom God used and inspired, such as Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, and Esther.

It’s true that the Bible does teach that men and woman have different but complementary roles to play, such as in the traditional family. And it’s true that many modern, feminist scholars depict marriage and family life as mere tools for keeping them from satisfaction and happiness. But is that true?

Not according to research! As reported in an October 2022 article in Newsweek by Brad Wilcox and Alysse Elhage [“Why Conservative Women Report Being the Happiest—and How You Can Be, Too”], respectively a Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and the Editor of Family Studies, married mothers are “more financially prosperous” and more likely to be “‘completely satisfied’ with their lives” than childless, single women, who are “about 60 percent more likely to report feelings of loneliness compared to married mothers.”

The authors conclude,

So, if you wish to be a happy and prosperous woman, don’t listen to the me-first Gospel proclaimed by our ruling class that encourages you to delay marriage—or even to toss it aside altogether. Instead, be open to the gifts of marriage and children and look for opportunities to embrace family life as a key part of a rich and meaningful life. Therein lies the better path to a more prosperous and happy future for today’s women.

The traditional family recommended to women in the pages of the Bible—versus the anti-family vibe pressed by our culture—tends to make women happier, more satisfied, and more financially secure. So if you want misogynistic, anti-woman attitudes, you might consider looking in Hollywood or modern universities—but you won’t find them in the Bible.

A Book for Today

So far, we’ve looked at, and debunked, four myths about the Bible:

1. The Bible is historically inaccurate. (Instead, we’ve shown it is extremely reliable.)
2. The Bible has been radically changed over the centuries. (Instead, we’ve shown it has been astonishingly well preserved)
3. The Bible was assembled by the Roman Catholic Church. (Instead, we’ve demonstrated that the canon was established long beforehand. And…)
4. The Bible is racist and misogynistic. (Instead, we’ve shown that the laws of God, revealed in the Bible, protected and honored women.

In fact, as we discussed this last myth, we mentioned an important element that related to the final myth we’ll debunk today. Myth #5,

5. The Bible is out-of-date and irrelevant to modern life.

Yes, many like to mock the Bible, claiming it is nothing more than a text written by Bronze Age goatherders, filled with ignorant, outdated ideas that simply don’t apply in our modern world.

But we’ve already seen one example in which the Bible is ahead of our modern world: its guidance concerning the structure of the family and the path to happy and fulfilling womanhood.

No matter how hard our society tries to press new, man-made values on humanity, the deep longings of our hearts are still in line with the designs of our Creator.

It is not a coincidence that women seeking to align their lives with the patterns of life revealed in the laws of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ and His disciples, as recorded in His word, are generally the happiest. Because the Bible was inspired by the Designer and Creator of humanity. He knows how we tick, how our minds and our hearts work, and how we were designed to interact with each other.

So much of the suffering we see around us in our modern relationships—broken families, growing epidemics of sadness and depression, and tensions in society—are addressed directly in its pages.

In the pages of Scripture, you find inspired instruction from the omnipotent, all-knowing Creator of life concerning…

• how to build a happy, joyous marriage
• how to raise good children and give them a foundation for their future
• how to relate to your coworkers, boss, and employees
• how to be optimistic, peaceful, and even thankful, in difficult times
• how to interact with those who disagree with you
• even how to love and tolerate those who hate you and wish you ill

Which of these areas of life no longer apply?

And time and time again, experience teaches us that the principles of the Bible work. Far from just a collection of goatherders, you will find among those who penned its words people of all walks of life—kings, commoners, scholars, laborers, governors, fishermen. Even a doctor and a tax collector. But inspiring all of their words, to be recorded forever, was the God of Creation, who designed life itself, who loves us, whose character is the pinnacle of that which is good and right, and who sent His Son into the world that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly.

Frankly, there is no book on earth MORE relevant than the Bible.

And even further—while its pages were written thousands of years ago, the God who inspired its words is the One who saw the days ahead of us even more clearly than we can see them now without Him.

As the Eternal and Ever-Living Author of the Bible declares in Isaiah 46 [vv. 9–11]:

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it. [Isaiah 46:9–11]

Truly, the future is already a reality in the mind of God. Compared to His understanding of today AND tomorrow, we are the ones who are “out of date”!

That’s why we say here at Tomorrow’s World that our goal is to help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible. Because the Bible is the mind of God in print, and it’s ONLY within its inspired pages that your world ever WILL truly MAKE SENSE.

The principles, promises, and prophecies of the Bible provide those who will live in their light with powerful understanding of modern life and how to live it—even the purpose of life itself. And you will not find that understanding anywhere else.

So, the idea that the Bible is out-of-date and irrelevant to modern life? A foolish myth if there ever were one.

God’s Word Will Not Be Broken or Done Away

The myths we’ve debunked today, and many others like them, tend to be thrown out by those trying to discredit God’s word. Sometimes they are thrown out foolishly by those who should know better, and other times they are claimed in ignorance by people who are simply repeating the things they’ve heard without taking the time to research and learn for themselves.

Such individuals have made such claims for centuries. And as they have lived the dissolute lives that result from ignoring the words of life and then died as all men do, the Bible has outlasted them all and has remained. Steadfast, unchanging, century after century, generation after generation—God’s word endures.

Jesus Christ told us that His teachings, recorded in the Bible as they are, would outlast all of its detractors. Again, we see His prophetic promise waiting for us, as it has for two thousand years, in Matthew 24 and verse 35:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

That promise is reported three times in the pages of sacred scripture. It has been true for the last 20 centuries. And it will remain true for all time.

Can anything similar be said of any work that mankind has ever created? Is there any other book in existence whose words will last for eternity? Or whose words can bring us into CONTACT with eternity?

And so is there any other book more worthy of our time to get to know and to understand?

I hope today’s episode will spur you to dive deeply into the word of God—to open it up, to appreciate it anew, and to understand it for what it is: a gift from your Creator that bears the words of life.

Thanks so much for watching! All of us work hard here at Tomorrow’s World to help you truly make sense of your world through the pages of your Bible.

If you would like to learn more, please click on the link below for The Bible: Fact or Fiction?

If you enjoyed this at all, we hope you would subscribe, and if you want to be notified when we make more, just click on the bell. Thanks alot!