Date Prognosticators and Apocalyptic Fever

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯 broadcast, reflects on a scene from James Michener’s historical novel, The Covenant. Among the Xhosa people in South Africa, there was a shaman who looked into a dark pool of water and predicted that the great chiefs who once ruled the Xhosa people would miraculously return and regain control of the land, and the people would once again flourish—on the condition that Xhosa warriors first kill all of the Xhosa cattle and burn all of their grain. The shaman set a particular date on which the great miracle would happen. The warriors killed their cattle and burned their grain, and the people watched the sun rise and set on the day in which the prophecy was to be fulfilled. But there was no fulfillment, and soon tens of thousands of the Xhosa people horrifically perished from starvation. And we in the Christian world have our own shamans—people who are constantly predicting that the end is nigh, that a rapture would take us away while all hell breaks loose on earth. Multitudes make life decisions based on these predictions, concluding there is “no need to polish brass on a sinking ship.” But Christians must learn to discern what Scripture actually teaches—and develop immunity to errant apocalyptic fever.