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The errors of the Prophecy Club

I was invited to a meeting last night (4/23/2004) by a friend of mine. I didn't know anything about the speaker, and I suppose my friend was wanting my take on the guy and his subject matter.

The first thing that threw me when I got to the hotel was the sign on the marqee stating that the speaker was sponsored by the Prophecy Club. My memory was a little fuzzy about that group, since I haven't listened to christian radio for several years now. However, I did a little research this morning, and here's what I've found so far:

The Prophecy Club

Basically, the Prophecy Club is a tangled web of false doctrine and misinformation, done up in 4-color print, video, radio, and live seminar. They seem to enjoy running around after prophetic signs supposedly backed up by the Old Testament. Their doctrinal stance is rather fuzzy and hard-to-define, but one of their favorite topics seems to be the fall of the USA as we know it, where the present government is replaced by a shadow government that will delight in tossing Christians into concentration camps.

Oh, and did I mention the black helicopters? The Prophecy Club is real big on conspiracies. The term lunatic fringe doesn't begin to describe these flakes.

My main gripes

not based on solid theological scholarship
fleecing the flock
faulty theology concerning end-time events (apparently they don't believe in the rapture)
Archaeology is bandied about, yet the seem to place inordinate focus on the destruction of the USA, never mind the fact that the only biblical reference to the Americas is the phrase isles of the sea, in reference to evangelism and the harvest of souls worldwide.
including frauds, fakers, con artists and cult leaders in its list of approved speakers, and promoting the same.

Web searches

Michael Rood, false prophet

Is he a false prophet? I think so, but I did a [google search http://www.google.com/search?q=%22michael+rood%22+%2Bfalse+%2Bprophet&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N] to see what others are saying about him.

[Rood http://aroodawakening.tv] was the featured speaker last night.

Michael Rood was apparently very high up in [The Way International http://www.google.com/search?q=%22the+way+international%22&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8] cult (see http://www.seekgod.ca/rood.htm and http://www.seekgod.ca/revrood.htm) in the 1980s, and apparently his speaking ministry is to be regarded as merely a promotion inside their ranks. He has gone to great lengths to hide his Way background, and has substituted a fictitious background with ministry positions in baptist churches, and on John Hagee's staff. None of his claimed background experiences check out, by the way.

Supposedly his meeting was to be on the feasts of Israel (that's what the advertisements said), but he went an entirely different direction. The general tone of the meeting was, hey, we planned something else, but this other information is just too hot, we just had to share it with you.

At any rate, he started off by giving reasons why Christmas and Easter were babylonian in origin. I've got no arguments with the statements he made (I personally do not keep either of these holidays, and agree that these and other traditions are pagan and were given a christian veneer by Rome), but in light of the fact that he's a representative of The Way International, his statements must be taken as a teaser, with other, more sinister beliefs kept conveniently out of sight. This is a common cult tactic, and is an attempt to lure unsuspecting sheep down a path of destruction.

My reactions to his presentation

he announced at the beginning that his meeting would last over 4 hours. My only other experience in a meeting run by a false prophet also lasted over 4 hours. Is this just coincidental?
He did a song-and-dance about avoiding injury during a suidice bomb incident in Jerusalem, and used this as a means of demonstrating credentials originating directly from God. My friend also spotted this, and recognized it as a common speaker's trick, used to auto-suggest a command of attentiveness and obedience to the audience.
he showed a page supposedly from a copy of a hebrew manuscript of the gospel of Matthew, claiming that one cannot understand the New Testament from greek, or from a greek translation. I've heard [similar claims about the Syriac or Aramaic texts http://watch.pair.com/peshitta.html]. Either the gospels were originally written in greek, aramaic or hebrew, but certainly not all three languages — see my notes: NewTestamentLanguages. This falls right in line with the Hebrew Roots Movement (see http://watch.pair.com/hrm.htm and http://www.seekgod.ca/topichr.htm ). As far as I can tell, Rood is one of the main propagators of this heresy, which finds a home among the messianic crowd.
He is selling Torahs supposedly smuggled out of Iraq, which were hidden inside the tires of trucks bound for Syria, just prior to GWB's invasion. This is interesting, in light of his claim of being a former US Marine.
I got a sense of his rejection of Jacob's Trouble. Today's research confirms that he and his ilk do not have a sound theology of the end times.
I picked up on many little bits of error: misleading statements, inaccurate statements, incomplete descriptions of events, places or explanations of scripture, etc..

Jim and Penny Caldwell

Geographical research: the Red Sea