Signs Of Heaven

The Church of God has been growing in apostasy for several centuries, ever since persecution ceased by The Church of Rome in Europe. Worldly compromises have steadily crept into the church-world over the last two centuries. (For detailed information about these compromises, the Reader is encouraged to read such articles as…) 

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And yet, in spite of this growing apostasy, God did not completely abandon His Lukewarm people. Perhaps, the world’s most popular daily Bible study is now the 5-year “Thru The Bible” study, heard daily via many radio stations, both domestically as well as in other nations, hosted by the late, John Vernon McGee.

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And when it began in the 1970’s it seemed like a very great way to be introduced to the Bible via its, book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, and sometimes even verse-by-verse systematic study through the entire Bible, over a five year period, then repeating itself for another five year period. And so, a new listener could “jump in” at any point and continue, knowing that in five years, he or she would have completed the entire Bible, regardless of whatever book of the Bible they first jumped in at.

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And Vernon McGee made a very plain and easy to understand presentation, often adding his own humorous quips, grandfatherly advice, and folksy “down-home” witticisms, which only made his study that much more popular with neophyte Christians.

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Unfortunately, McGee’s study has its flaws.

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First, how McGee ever concluded that there is humor in the Bible, thus allowing him to tell jokes, quips, witticisms etc., is truly a mystery! Because the Bible, while being the very essence of godly love, sympathy, tenderness, etc., never resorts to humor, or jesting, no, not even once! This uses of worldly humor is just one of the worldly compromises which has crept into the Christian community. 

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McGee was an avid supporter of the Scofield Study Bible, and as such, McGee was misled by this false teacher in a number of different areas, such as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. 

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McGee also believed in Eternal Torment, which was a heresy via The Church of Rome’s misunderstanding of proper Bible hermeneutics requiring all related passages to be rightly balanced concerning this subject. Well, time and space does not permit McGee’s flaws to be thoroughly reviewed.

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Sufficed it to say, that McGee had many other errors in his teachings which marred his efforts to present a systematic, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, book-by-book daily study through the entire Bible in five years.  

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But aside from that grave error, Doctor McGee also allowed himself to be heavily influenced by the extremely flawed, even heretical writings of Cyrus Scofield, who, among other heresies, convinced McGee that there was a previous creation, dying off prior to the 7 day Creation week recorded in Genesis! This grievous error, McGee somewhat publicly renounced on his radio program, prior to the end of his 5-year Thru The Bible radio series.

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He also clung tenaciously to Scofield’s Pre-Tribulation Rapture teachings, as well as Scofield’s hyper-dispensationalism teachings.

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On the other hand, to McGee’s credit, he did believe in Election by grace and grace alone. And his 5-year series stayed fairly much within the basic parameters of Bible truth. And truth-be-told, much of his daily teachings were really excellent, barring the aforementioned Scofield-inspired false doctrines (A Pre-Adamic-Creation, Hyper-Dispensationalism, and Pre-Tribulation Rapture, as well as his irreverent humor).

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Nevertheless, his grandfatherly demeanor was very biblical and even much needed and appreciated by so many of his followers, who grew up in non-Christian homes, void of Bible-believing parents to nurture them up in the Word, on a daily basis.

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Therefore, with great sadness it must be confessed that McGee’s ministry was severely tarnished with the same Babylonish influences and errors, of which God is now calling His people to come out of and separate from… “Come out of her (Babylon) My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4

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The great day of God is upon us! And God is wanting to purify His Elect with the same purity as Jesus Christ possessed, even as it is written…“And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1st John 3:3. Without such Christlike purity, it would be impossible for God’s people to “shine forth as the Sun“, as Matthew 13:43 prophesy’s of in these last moments of New Testament times.

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But the very Good News is, that we still have opportunity to study God’s Word for our own selves. And along with the teachings of the messages of the three angels of Revelation 14, there is ample study material to keep one extremely busy “until the Lord come”. 1st Corinthians 4:5

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And praise the Lord, He has given us two very wonderful patriarchs  who did not rely on worldly humor, to fill the void of our “less than godly family situations”! Both Harold Camping and Ellen White can more than compensate for our needs as we join this end-time exodus away from this City of Destruction, and begin our heavenward sojourn to the Celestial City of God, the heavenly Promised Land!