The State of Israel's blockade against the Gaza Strip could never create peace. Only a political solution could stop another round of fighting. Without a political solution it was essentially inevitable that fighting would break out again. In the six years since previous war in Gaza the Israeli government did not forge a political solution so now the dreadful prospect of war has been brought to pass.
It is not possible to know with certainty what is going to happen with the recent dreadful upsurge in violence. The situation may calm down soon as in 2012 or it may get far worse. Sadly the latter seems more likely at the moment.
There are many things in life which it is not possible to know definitively but there one thing can be known: These recent events are not a sign that (Armstrongism's interpretation of) Christ will soon return.
Surely the Armstrongites will get excited regarding these events and say that this time their prophecies of the Great Tribulation and (their interpretation of) the Second Coming will soon actually occur. But what will happen is that time will pass and the Armstrongites' false prophecies will fail miserably yet again. Paying tithes to the Armstrongite organizations will not get any supernatural favor from God for those paying tithes.
Some Armstrongites or former followers might fear that these events may indicate that the end is near. There is no need to be afraid of that. The Armstrongites are false prophets. Their predictions of doom and gloom are empty words that will never be fulfilled.
Possibly the biggest slip in Mid East prophecy was failure to foresee the 1967 war, which scuttled HWA's much hyped exclusive radio deal with Jordan.
ReplyDeleteHis only comeback was having given an outline of future events, which after the war became his "Bricket Wood Prophecy".
There are also some differences between COGs on the building of a Third Temple - Dave Pack was back and forth (and who knows where now) while Bob Thiel insists it's not needed for prophetic fulfillment.