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(A look back) at Y2K Prophecies
by Teri Lee Earl

Important disclaimer: The prophecies below are posted for the education of the reader. Many were never considered true prophecies by myself--- especially those with endtime 'scare tactics' and a 'conflict of interest' (money to made).

Overview

On August, 1999, I looked through all the prophecies regarding Y2k that I could find that had been sent to our Netchurch e-mail list over the past year or more. I also gathered my own observations and findings. From these, I have summarized my findings on these 'prophecies' below.


--Cindy and Jacobs and friends in Colorado's "School of Prophets" conference, (February 1999) emphasized that y2k would not be that bad, but would 'usher in' more troubles like attacks (terrorism) from communists and Islam. [[note: At the World Congress on Intercession in Colorado Springs on December 4, 1999, Dr. Peter Wagner read a corporate prophetic word, prepared during hours of concentrated labor by the Apostolic Council of Prophetic elders. Part of what CPW said there is quoted at http://www.generals.org/gi_news_2k.htm#gi: "There will be a great harvest of Jews, which will begin during this decade. This will particularly affect the Russian Jews around the world. There will be what some missiologists term a "people movement" among them. There will also be a persecution of the Jews in Russia that will notably escalate during the fall of 2000. This is so serious that it requires an immediate response from the church in prayer. We believe that it is the devil's strategy to precipitate another holocaust, and that prayer will help open a window of escape for those who feel called to leave, and protection to those who are called to stay."...It continues later with: "Cindy began declaring that an exodus of Jews from across Russia would soon come, and those fleeing for their lives would cross the North Sea looking for refuge... Cindy declared that by November of 2000, doors could begin to close and the ensuing persecution would result in a mass exodus... " To our knowledge none of this has come true in any sense. See our page regarding C. Peter Wagner and his group:  "The New Apostolic Reformation"]]

--Bobby Conner in his Shepherd's Rod 1999, predicted that Y2k would be much worse than we anticipated, but that's about all he said.

--There were of course some 'fringe' Christian Identity groups, who have warned/prophesied of lots of violence mixed with Latter Rain emphasis on helping Christ reign, etc.

--Many of the known 'prophets', especially those who made money off the Y2K Christian interest in books or conferences, held numerous conferences. One such conference was the Feb 13th 1999 Toronto Y2K Prophecy Conference, which featured Hal Lindsay, billed as: "the author of 16 best-selling books on prophecy with combined worldwide sales of more than 35 million copies. His book Late Great Planet Earth has sold more copies than any other book  in history outside.... Hal's most recent book Planet Earth - The Final Chapter combines his -prophetic knowledge as one of the worlds greatest Bible prophecy teachers, with the expertise of one of the world's most insightful intelligence analysts," and Grant R. Jeffrey, who wrote The Millennium Meltdown, and whose 9 a.m. session at the conference was titled, "How the Greatest Technological, Crisis In History Will Impact Our Nation & Our Families." (these are quotes from the www.grantjeffrey.com site when the announcement was up)

After these 'experts' made the rounds, they then began to retract or redress their statements later. See,

As Jan. 1 Draws Near, Doomsayers Reconsider
December 27, 1999 Washington Post article reproduced here
-
--Benny Hinn, the controversial healing evangelist who is not usually considered a 'prophet', entertained his detractors yet again with a combination of false prophecy and urges to donate so that his TBN audience could "survive the year 2000".  The following is quoted from a report by Jackie Alnor <jalnor@bellatlantic.net>, sent out on Jan. 7, 2000, posted at: http://www.cultlink.com/ar/hinnfalse.htmwhich and edited down here for brevity:

"TV mega-preacher, Benny Hinn, used prophecy to extort millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims. He warned TBN's TV audience that 1999 was going to be a year of plenty and the year 2000 would bring disaster.

He threatened the viewers that those who didn't double their giving in 1999 would not survive the year 2000. Even the donors who had already called in their pledges were ordered to call back and increase their giving or face the consequences.

This isn't the first time Hinn has prophesied falsely....Yet no matter how many times Hinn's false prophecies have been exposed, he still performs to overflowing crowds in stadiums around the world.

Hinn shares his latest blunder with 700-Club founder, Pat Robertson, though Robertson could not be reached to verify his involvement. It was the spring, 1999 Praise-a-Thon, Trinity Broadcasting Network's (TBN), biannual fund-raiser, seen around the world via satellite. From the discussion between Paul & Jan Crouch and their guests, pledges were down because people were apprehensive anticipating potential troubles arising from Y2K hysteria. 'Prophet' Hinn exhorted TBN's supporters to not let Y2K
fears affect their donations.

Hinn started out by establishing his credentials as a prophet of God. He called upon TBN's fellow guests for help in interpreting a disturbing dream he had had. "I do not fully understand it," he lamented, "but I really believe it deals with what God is about to do in the world."

He gave a long narrative of his mystical dream that he said was "more of a vision of the night" than a dream. "In this dream, I did not see his face," Hinn began. "Everything in me knew it was the prophet Elijah . . .I walked up to him and he was turning water into blood." Hinn continued, "As I came to him, he said to me, 'Take this!' I took the rod from him.".

When he finished, fellow guest Mark Chirona, offered the interpretation. "The formless essence of Elijah is the spirit of Elijah that God promised to pour out on the last days' company of seasoned ministry...."And when Elijah handed you the rod, God was putting in your hand a new level of apostolic authority for the nations. . . You are entering into a new age of the miraculous. There will be a sharpening, for the spirit of Elijah rests on you.""...

Hinn laid out his first prophetic message under Elijah's mantle. "Pat Robertson, in January, said 'I have just come out of two days of prayer and fasting. The Lord has said to me that this year, 1999, would be the greatest year for the body of Christ, economically and spiritually, but beginning the year 2000, disasters would hit in the world, economically and otherwise, and only those in the church who have been giving to God would be spared.'"

Turning his attention to the viewers, Hinn said, "So when I say to you here and in your home, increase your seed, God knows you can and you must because if you do not, you will be the one to suffer."

TBN supporters then jammed the phones in order to survive the coming year of disaster. Hinn gave dire warnings to those that pledge and then fail to follow through. "And one final thing, if you break your promise, hear this! Some of you make a pledge and along the way you decide to forget about it. The Bible says God will destroy the work of your hands if you do that . . . We can't play games with him!"

" Now, some of you will have to step out in faith tonight," Hinn said. "You may not even have the money right now. In fact, most times you make a pledge you don't even have it."

Then he followed up with a warning to the skeptics. "You know, you do not get under the kind of anointing I get under just because you sing hallelujah," Hinn said.. ''There's a heavy price and I would not want to be in the shoes of the one who touches the anointing. Don't touch the anointing!"

"I'm giving you a prophetic word. You know the scripture says they prospered because they obeyed his prophets. I'm telling you tonight, I'm speaking prophetically. Obey the Lord!"

Hinn had a solution for those who were short on cash, -- liquidate! "You know if I was you and God spoke to me like this, I'd take it out of my investments to give it to God now cause it's already spring and the year 2000 is almost next door."

--It was not only the popular speakers on prophecy or 'prophets', 'experts' on the end times of Revelations or healing evangelists who made strong predictions about Y2K and benefited from it. The most well known anti-Institutionalized Church publisher, Gene Edwards, wrote and sold Economic Doomsday, a book where he "breaks all precedence by writing on economics and making an unequivocal prediction concerning the immediate future...Edwards presents the inevitable crash of present day economics simply because it has violated the moral laws of the universe...This book may be the only help which will keep you from losing everything as a result of the coming Y2K disaster." (quoted directly from the Fall, 1998 publication of "The Seedsowers")


These examples above were among those who stood to gain from their warnings about the Y2K 'disaster'.Of those who did not or would not reap any such monetary gain off of Y2K, we had a different set of concerns expressed.

David Wilkerson admonished everyone not to fear if they are in right-standing with God  in "Without Fault Before the Throne of God - Very Good News for Perilous Times!" written in October 5, 1998.

Here is Roger Holmes statement on it:

"During a recent staff meeting at Storm-Harvest we asked the Lord about Y2K and what to do about it. Part of the reason we moved to
the country was because we felt (and still feel really strongly) that we are to prepare "an island of refuge in a sea of trouble". We are not running from the problems of the world - rather we are preparing to help those who later will not know how to survive. The Lord's reply was simple: "Y2K is not THE issue"."

'Christian' and Secular Scams

Timothy Sheaff in his book, "Visions of America," printed in 1999, states the following concerns:

On pg 63, he speaks of the frenzy of fear and states this is not what he prophesied in the book. He is concerned that such fear will keep people from listening to the (real) prophets re: Judgment on America, when things do not occur as severely over Y2k as expected.

He acknowledges that if Y2k causes anything, it will be merely a "prelude for much greater terrors that will surely come later." He is concerned over the Americans who are preparing based on "their own independence, pride, wealth, and self-sufficiency. God's judgments are on some of the very attitudes which motivate some to prepare. All of man's preparation shall not deliver him from the hand of an Almighty God."

Timothy Sheaff also exposes this: "My third concern is over the survival products merchants who are also fear mongers.Many of them wrongly present themselves as prophets...The fear they spread helps them profit from the products they sell. I know of pastors being middlemen in food purchases for their entire congregation who get a percentage of the purchase to put in their own pocket. They are in trouble with God for profiteering when they should be comforting the flock. God does not want His children to be afraid but to walk in faith."

This book, Visions of America concerns itself with much more than Y2K, and is available from

IMF Publishing
P.O. Box 3079
Denton, TX 76202 U.S.A.
(940) 566-3260

Cost is $7.50 which includes shipping and handling.

Here is a secular URL on Y2K Scams, put out by CNBC, entitled:

Scam Watch
                    Don't let con artists prey on your Y2K fears
                    The government is trying to spread the word about "opportunistic" hoaxes such as banking fraud and phony
                    investments, but here are a few ways you can protect yourself.
                    By Steve Gillmor

at: http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/smartbuy/scam/3218.asp



We hope you benefited from our short report and expose of Y2k/'endtime' scams of various types to fleece the flock.

Additional information:
Ed Yourdon is highly respected in mainframe programming circles. He was co-author, along with his daughter, of the book, "Time Bomb 2000" which was the best layman's introduction to the Y2K crisis at the time. Of this book he stated in a February 25,1998 internet announcemnt, "Yes, I've written a Y2K book which will sell more copies if Y2K is a problem-- but I've also written 24 other software-engineering computer books, starting in 1967, that are doing quite well, and generating much higher royalties than a mass-market, low-priced, heavily-discounted Y2K book. I could make at least as much money, if not more money, during the next two years by focusing my efforts on OO technology, Java, and the Internet; but in my opinion, the Y2K problem will make any discussion of OO and the Internet roughly akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Frankly, I couldn't care less whether your computer veterans agree or disagree with my views on Y2K; my daughter and I wrote our "Time Bomb 2000" book to articulate personal Y2K contingency plans for our family, our friends, and other personal acquaintances. If Y2K does turn out to be as bad as I think it will be, nobody is going to care abut the opinions of software professionals on 1/1/2000 (other than possibly lynching them for having created the problem in the first place!); instead, everyone is going to be concentrating on how to get food, shelter, clothing, and the basic necessities of life."...  By Nov. 2001, he writes on his http://www.yourdon.com  website about the same book, "Yes, I know that Y2K is over, and that it turned out to be a non-event -- though the horrible events of September 11th have demonstrated the virtues of having backup plans for infrastructure  disruptions that we once thought would be caused by innocent technology failures. In any case, I still have a few dozen copies of this book, sitting in a corner of my office; I suppose I can use them as door stops or boat anchors at this point. In another section of this site, I began an effort to conduct a "20-20 hindsight" postmortem of Y2K -- not by reviewing this book, but by re-examining some of the essays that I published on this site during 1998-1999. I must admit that I haven't gotten very far with this effort -- at this point, nobody seems to care about what did or didn't happen with Y2K...." (Note: His "20-20 Hindsight: A Y2K Postmortem," on his site is rather thorough)

 
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