By Berta Delgado, The Dallas Morning News
This 2001 piece captures Christian leaders cooling apocalyptic fever post-9/11—a rare win for restraint. In 2025, with wars and crises still sparking end-times chatter, the lesson holds: no one knows, and guessing’s a fool’s game. As a Classical Deist, I’d say Revelation’s a Rorschach test—people see what they want, not what’s there. Nature’s laws, not prophecy, guide us; obsessing over “signs” just distracts from living rationally. These scholars got it right—focus on now, not some cosmic clock. —Lewis Loflin
The photographs and TV images after Sept. 11 were so ghastly, so surreal, that many turned to apocalyptic thoughts. With war looming after the terrorist attacks, some wonder: Are these the days of Revelation? A sign of the end times?
Maybe, say some Christian scholars and leaders, but no one can know. Those claiming otherwise misread the Bible. “Some Christians—a minority—try detailed speculation, calculating the end despite Scripture saying no one knows the day or hour,” said Dr. Vern Sheridan Poythress, New Testament professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. “They know these verses but ignore them.”
Poythress, a 25-year Revelation scholar, recalls failed predictions—like “88 Reasons Why Christ Will Come in 1988,” a book he keeps as a reminder: only God’s in control. Quoting Matthew 24:36, “‘But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only,’” he notes Jesus dodged the disciples’ end-times curiosity, per Bishop T.D. Jakes of Dallas’ Potter’s House. “Jesus ministered to needs, not speculation—I aim to follow that,” Jakes said.
Jakes sees Revelation passages eerily akin to 9/11 but urges focus elsewhere. “This nation’s in tragedy—churches shouldn’t be stuck in libraries debating while victims suffer,” he said. “Don’t get lost in eschatology and miss the 911 call.”
Meanwhile, book sales spiked—Nostradamus and Christian end-times titles flew off shelves at Borders and beyond, said district manager Holly Linden. Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” series, co-authored with Jerry Jenkins, sold 32 million copies since 1995, peaking in Dallas. The ninth book, “Desecration,” hit October 30, 2001.
LaHaye, based in California, denies 9/11’s a specific prophecy. “This ruthless act isn’t in Bible prophecy beyond pointing to perilous times (2 Timothy 3:1). Hopefully, it’ll lead millions to Christ while there’s time,” he said. Rev. J. Don George of Calvary Temple in Irving, Texas, agrees these are “perilous times”—kingdoms clashing as Scripture predicts—but not uniquely so. “It’s part of the process, not the end,” he said. “Evil forces oppose good, but no single event pins the date.”
George warns against fixating. “Jesus could come anytime, but we shouldn’t halt good works expecting it tonight. Live like it’s today, work like it’s a thousand years off.”
Copyright 2001, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services, October 4, 2001.
Acknowledgment: Written by Berta Delgado for The Dallas Morning News, hosted and updated by Lewis Loflin with thanks to Grok (xAI) for assistance.
