My sister thinks Jack Hibbs is so wonderful. Hibbs can find biblical prophecy being fulfilled when the local fire department rescues a kitten. Wow. Just think what Jack can do to the Bible when Donald Trump drops bombs in Iran.
Actually, Sunday, I got to find out just that. My sister sent me an hour and 38-minute video from Hibbs about all the wonders of Israel and the USA teaming up to liquidate a few Ayatollahs.
Hibbs was so excited that he started off his church service with his Middle East Bible Prophecy update. Guess he wanted to go on record before the Rapture happened so when the rest of us were left behind, he could say, “Told ya.”
I endured about 55 minutes of his presentation, at which time he seemed to be done dazzling the audience with bullshit. In the entire time, he quoted one Scripture as proof that these events were all predicted in the Old Testament. Oh, said Scripture was not cited until 49 minutes into his song-and-dance routine. I’ll have more to say about this lonely passage in a few minutes.
The sloppiness and misrepresentation of biblical theology was staggering to behold. Talk about a guy appealing to itching ears. Any time Hibbs got close to a biblical theme, he spouted distortions, lies, and half-truths.
I will not give you a play-by-play review of his talk, but I did make a few notes as I listened. I shared these with my sister. My problem is that my sister will take Hibbs over the Bible any time a conflict or contradiction is mentioned. She thinks that she is a “good Christian” but simultaneously denies that Scripture is the final interpreter of Scripture. How can you win a biblical argument with someone that denies biblical authority?
Here are a few gems from Hibbs’ talk that caught my attention:
Hibbs talked about Iran and other nations being run by evil principalities. Sorry, Jack. These principalities were overthrown at the Cross. Jesus is ruler of all the nations and has been for about 2,000 years. Check out Michael Heiser’s Unseen Realm if you really want a deep dive on the spiritual world.
For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
Hebrews 2:5.
Oh, and we are rulers with Christ.
And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Daniel 7:27.
Later, Hibbs talked about the Roman Empire. Jack claimed that the Roman Empire “just fell apart.” No Jack, biblically, it was struck by a rock which was Christ and His Gospel that destroyed the old pagan order and is growing into a rock that will one day fill the earth. It’s a dominant part of prophecy in Daniel.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Daniel 2:44–45.
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Daniel 2:35.
Or if you prefer a New Testament analogy, the Gospel is the yeast that is leavening the whole world.
33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Matthew 13:33.
20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Luke 13:20–21.
After talking extensively about Esther, Hibbs gets to Jeremiah 49:34-39. Again, this is a Bible prophecy update and the only Scripture that Hibbs quoted is 49 minutes into his presentation. He claims that Jeremiah’s prophecy is a future event that we see fulfilled before our eyes in the attack on Iran. Sorry Jack but the footnote in my Bible says the passage in Jeremiah was literally fulfilled in 595 B.C. Using the prophetic scissors on biblical texts mind trick doesn’t work on me.
The footnote for Jeremiah 49:34-39 reads: “A prophecy against Elam, an important power to the east of Babylon, subjugated by Assyria, but resurgent in the Babylonian period. The prophecy possibly relates to a Babylonian containment campaign against Elam in 595 B.C.”
As I was writing this, I found a related post from Gary DeMar that takes a well-deserved whack at Hibbs.
Such a belief is pushed 24/7 on Facebook, Christian television, numerous pop-prophecy books, and articles. Jack Hibbs, Amir Tsarfati, David Jeremiah, and numerous online prophetic end-time “experts” are promoting the belief that the rapture is near, citing passages such as Jeremiah 49:34-39. Hibbs said in a recent message, “God has a plan for Elam…. There is no historian and no biblical scholar that will tell you that the prophecy of Elam was fulfilled, and it’s done and completed…. Remember the bucket you saw about the past—it doesn’t go there—but it does go in the bucket of the present.”
You might wonder what Elam has to do with Iran? Nothing. Jeremiah is not describing modern-day Persia. Elam was the son of Shem (Gen. 10:22). The Elamites are mentioned in Abraham’s time (Gen. 14), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Acts. Hibbs wants to turn a fulfilled prophecy into events surrounding Iran with no justification by ripping texts out of their historical context…
Like so much of what Jack Hibbs teaches on Bible prophecy, he is incorrect. Jeremiah 49:34-39 goes in the bucket of the past. “This prophecy was fulfilled by Cyrus,” Theodore Laetsch states, “the shepherd and anointed of the Lord (Is. 44:28; 45:1), who incorporated Elam as a province in his vast empire. Elamites and Medians formed part of the army of Cyrus and aided him in conquering the Babylonian Empire (Is. 21:2; Jer. 50:3, 29, archers; v. 22 bow).” There is also a New Testament counterpart where the redemption of Elam is accounted for, as Laetsch and other commentators point out. “In the New Testament era, Elam also will participate in the spiritual deliverance and salvation of God’s kingdom of Grace (cp. 2:9), for Jehovah is the God not only of judgment, but of salvation for Jews and Gentiles.”
Then, like a good dispensational/premillennialist, Hibbs plays the futurism card and starts talking about Jesus sitting on a literal throne in literal Jerusalem. Hey Jack, biblical Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. The Apostle Paul says our citizenship is heaven, we belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above is free, the one below is the slave, the fraud, the apostate, the shadow. Jesus is sitting on the throne now in the true Jerusalem, he has no need of a literal chair in a literal Jerusalem to fulfill His purposes.
22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; wbut he of the freewoman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Galatians 4:22–26.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Hebrews 12:22–23.
I just get tired of every new generation of advocates for dispensational/premillennialist thinking they will get it right when all others before them have failed. If only we stoned false prophets like they did in the Old Testament … They are just as stuck on stupid as Liberals thinking, when we get our chance to try socialism, it will finally work. Both are equally tilting at windmills of their own creation.
No matter how much prophecy pimps like Jack Hibbs can itch your ears and dazzle you, you are still being led away from the Truth. Repent means turning around. Try it sometime.