A couple of years ago, while listening to a teaching by the great faith teacher, Kenneth Hagin, I heard a profound statement from him that has stayed with me for a very long time and has guided my attitude and commentary on issues concerning end time bible prophecy.
During the Second World War from 1939 to 1945, Kenneth Hagin was still in pastoral ministry and he said that during this period, there was a very popular theory in the area of end time bible prophecy among Christians especially Pentecostals in which Adolf Hitler was considered to be the Antichrist. Kenneth Hagin said he also preached this theory with “scriptures” to back up his position.
After the death of Adolf Hitler, the theory developed an obvious problem because the world had not ended yet and Adolf Hitler was already dead. They did their “calculations” and discovered that the Antichrist was not Hitler but Joseph Stalin. After the death of Stalin, the theory encountered the same problem as in the first case. According to Kenneth Hagin, “after our second Antichrist died, I humbly accepted that there was something wrong with this theory and washed my hands off this topic completely”.
Part of the reason for this problem was an unwise tendency to mix end time bible prophecy with general political predictions and conspiracy theories. In seasons of lingering questions, it takes great discipline to lean purely and completely on the Holy Spirit alone for information.
In the times we live in, I see the same thing happening. The body of Christ worldwide has been caught unawares by COVID-19. I must sincerely and humbly say that as a minister, I am shocked that a phenomenon of such magnitude is shaking the whole world and we could not pick this up in the spirit before it happened.
Since the beginning of this pandemic, I’ve seen a couple of prophecies which in a general way predicted something like this will happen but to the best of my knowledge, the warnings weren’t loud enough and only a little segment of the body of Christ heard these voices. This is in addition to the fact that these warnings were not repeated on these platforms to emphasize the urgency of the situation. I guess the absence of unity in the body of Christ may be one of the reasons for this.
In the Bible, we have a clear example of how the church was warned and prepared for a crisis.
“And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea” .
Acts 11:27-29
Returning to my main point, I will like to state that due to the critical position we find ourselves in as the body of Christ, there is a lot of pressure on us ministers to give answers to our congregations and this pressure can lead ministers to dabble into conspiracy theories as a remedy. Ministers begin to propose theories about New world order, Illuminati, One world government, etc. This always ends terribly.
History has shown that anytime we begin to mix this up with bible prophecy, tragedy and confusion is not far. We are gospel preachers and not conspiracy theorists and we shoulder a great responsibility before God and man to disseminate truth.
Please Man of God, stay with the gospel of Jesus Christ, intercede for the nations and let us keep doing the work that our master Jesus left for us. Preach the Gospel of Christ and warn people about the end time without going into unfounded conspiracy theories and here-says.
We know in part and we prophesy in part. We cannot have all the answers and we cannot know everything. In strange times like this, quietness is not weakness. Don’t allow pressure from the people you minister to lead you into preaching conspiracy theories. Many ministers are under this pressure. Please act wisely so you don’t make statements that you will regret in the future.
Pastor Godwin Ikwuchegbani, founder and senior pastor of Mount Zion churches, Russia.
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