You would think that after watching 60+ years of failed prophecy go by while he has been part of the Church of God that Richard Ames would give end time prophecy predictions a rest.
With the hundreds of documented failed prophesies that Herbert Armstrong, Dean Blackwell, Herman Hoeh, Gerald Waterhouse, Rod Meredith, Gerald Flurry, and others have uttered over the years, you would think they would all stop making fools of themselves.
Fear mongering is the only way that the present Church of God leaders can keep a few faithful in their grasp. The fear of the unknown is a powerful thing for cults to latch on to.
Ames has written a little screed for the the latest Living Church of God Commentary with the fear mongering title: Armageddon Postponed? Fifty Years After the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The only time Ames mentions Jesus is mentioned is when Jesus Christ comes back at the battle of Armageddon. One sentence in the entire screed is all that Jesus got. Fear, death and destruction are in almost every single paragraph.
Fifty years ago, our world came very close to Armageddon, hardly more than a decade after General Douglas MacArthur had characterized the state of the world in his farewell address to the U.S. Congress: “Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be the way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door” (April 19, 1951).
Since MacArthur’s speech, has the world devised “some greater and more equitable system”? No! Will Armageddon soon “be at our door”? Your Bible reveals a great prophetic climactic battle, popularly referred to as “Armageddon,” described in Revelation 16:14, when “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” will gather for “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” This present age will end with a climactic battle between the forces of good and evil, and the returning Jesus Christ—the coming King of kings—will win that battle (Revelation 19:1-21)!
Sadly, Ames gives more credence to the "doomsday clock" baloney than he does to resting in faith in
Even those who do not take the Bible seriously admit the danger of nuclear catastrophe. On January 10, 2012, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand of their symbolic doomsday clock one minute closer to midnight. They announced, “[F]ailure to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by leaders in the United States, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, and North Korea and on a treaty to cut off production of nuclear weapons material continues to leave the world at risk from continued development of nuclear weapons. The world still has approximately 19,500 nuclear weapons, enough power to destroy the earth’s inhabitants several times over.”
The Bulletin announced: “It is five minutes to midnight.” The scientists concluded their announcement with this sobering warning: “The Clock is ticking.”
Sadly, the Church of God WANTS that clock to be ticking. Without that fear mongering tool they would have to talk about