解開伊比鳩魯的謎題

「末世」風情畫︰世世代代都是「末世」

竟有耶教學者把由 1900 年起定為「末世教會時代」，真令人噴飯！耶教自耶穌就不斷認為世界末日在他們的年代來臨，不斷把末日推遲。耶穌如是、使徒如是、早期教父如是 (早期教父已大大推遲了末日來期，但仍造成他們蔑視科研的其中一個主要動因？——既然大地將滅，還研究大地作什？)、宗教改革時期如是。現在又有人說 1900-- 才是末世時代。

在早期的教會中，按照《新約全書》非常重要的學說，地球很快就毀滅了，隨後又出現了「新的天空和新的地球」，因此，天文學像其他科學分支一樣，被看作是無用的。在舊的天空和舊的地球很快被比它們好無數倍的東西取代，為什麼還要研究它們呢？……（(美)安德魯‧迪克森‧懷特《基督教世界科學與神學論戰史》p. 108）

「到了十一世紀，全歐洲 一般人都抱著最後的末日裁判將至的恐懼，並且相信世界將迅速歿落。靈魂的沉淪逼著人們 去做最不合理的事情。有些人把全部家私贈給教會，而終其生於長期的苦行之中；大多數 人 則把所有產業揮霍於縱欲之中。只有教會以幻覺惑人，收受各種贈遺而日臻富裕。」（黑格爾《歷史哲學》，420 頁）

「他（加爾文）提請人們注意，《聖經》年代學表明，宇宙的年齡不足 6000 歲，而且現在已經臨近末日了；」（安德魯‧迪克森‧懷特《基督教世界科學與神學論戰史》，15 頁）

Lutheran Church
The founder of the
Lutheran Church
was the reformer,
Martin Luther
(1483-1546 A.D.). According to one authority, Luther stated: "For my part, I am sure that the Day of Judgment is just around the corner. It doesn't matter that we don't know the precise day... perhaps someone else can figure it out. But it is certain that time is now at an end." (Reformation Principles and Practice: Essays in Honor of Arthur Geoffrey Dickens, p 169). Some take the position that this would not be a failed prophesy, because on the larger scale of time, "near" can be centuries in God's eyes. The reason for Martin Luther to say that the time is near, is to urge all people to examine themselves and ask themselves if they are sure they would be saved if the World were to end at any moment. However, his words indicate that he believed the end was near based on human understanding. Another work says: "In all of his [Luther's] work there was a sense of urgency for the time was short... the world was heading for Armageddon in the war with the Turk." (Luther's View of Church History, John M. Headley, Yale University Press, 1963, pp 13,14) Even after his death in 1546, Lutheran leaders kept up the claim of the nearness of the end. About the year 1584, A zealous Lutheran named Adam Nachenmoser wrote a large volume entitled
Prognosticum Theologicum
in which he predicted: "In 1590 the Gospel would be preached to all nations and a wonderful unity would be achieved. The last days would then be close at hand. Nachenmoser offered numerous conjectures about the date; 1635 seemed most likely." (Prophecy and Gnosis—Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation, Robin Bruce Barnes, p 64) Other date predictions followed but all failed.
（摘自
Unfulfilled historical predictions by Christians - Wikipedia）

Baptist Church
The
Baptist Church
also has a history of date and time predictions that have failed. In the early 1900s, the well-known Dr. Isaac M. Haldeman, pastor of the First Baptist Church in New York City, predicted that before the Jews returned to Palestine to establish a Jewish State--an event that happened in 1948--that the Antichrist would appear. Haldeman explained: 'The Scriptures teach that this man (the Antichrist) will be the prime factor in bringing the Jews back, as a body into their own land; that he will be the power that shall make Zionism a success; that through him the nationalism of the Jews shall be accomplished." There is still a group of believers that continue to believe that Haldeman was correct; and that in truth,
Adolf Hitler
was the antichrist predicted in the Bible (or perhaps one antichrist of many). They offer as "proof" the fact that the end result of WWII and the holocaust drove many Jews out of Europe to their new Israel. The fact that Hitler's Holocaust killed millions of Jewish believers (called "saints" in many Old Testiment prophectic passages) would correlate positively with several Bible predictions that antichrist will seek to murder multitudes of "saints." (The Signs of the Times, Isaac Massey Haldeman, pages 452, 453).
（摘自
Unfulfilled historical predictions by Christians - Wikipedia）

Roman Catholic Church
The members of the
Roman Catholic Church
also has a history of failed predictions about the "time of the end." For example,
Gregory I
who was pope from 590-604 A.D predicted that the end of the world was near in a letter that he wrote to
Ethelbert, a
European
monarch. He advised: "Further, we also wish Your Majesty to know, as we have learned from the words of Almighty God in Holy Scriptures, that the end of the present world is already near and that the unending Kingdom of the Saints is approaching. As this same end of the world is drawing nigh, many unusual things will happen—climatic changes, terrors from heaven... All these things are not to come in our own days, but they will follow upon our times." (Visions of the End—Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation, Bernard McGinn, p 64).
Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa
(1401-1464 A.D.) was " a cardinal of great learning...At the age of 23 Nicholas became a doctor of law, but when he lost his first lawsuit he left the profession of law for the study of
theology. Possessing a thorough knowledge of the Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages, and a rare degree of eloquence, soon attracted attention... was made a cardinal (1449 A.D.)" (Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
by McClintock and Strong, Volume II, p. 611). Cardinal de Cusa later held that the end of the world would come in the year 1700 A.D. Another Catholic scholar, Arnald of Villanova predicted that the Antichrist would appear in 1378 A.D. (Visions of The End, McGinn, p. 147)
（摘自
Unfulfilled historical predictions by Christians - Wikipedia）

二十世紀 70 年代，美國人
Hal Lindsey
寫的 "The Late Great Planet Earth" 預言 80 代末一場由蘇聯引發的核子戰爭揭開世界末日的帷幕。該書售出過千萬本。

二十世紀 80 年代，美國人
Edgar Whisenant
著 "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988"（《1988 年被提的 88 個理由》，按「被提」乃指當世界末日到來，神審判世人時，「信主」的會被神帶到天國去）一書，由 World Bible Society 發行，總銷量起碼數百萬本。

更多末日預言(有部分包括少量其他宗教)︰

42 FAILED END-OF-THE-WORLD PREDICTIONS FOR THE YEAR 2000
http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl10.htm

Unfulfilled historical predictions by Christians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unf ... tions_by_Christians

End times
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_times