Many readers of Christian Media CURRENTS are aware of the efforts of key prophecy writers who continue to defend the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine in spite of scriptural and historical evidence showing the doctrine to be specious. Media figures such as Dave Hunt, Jack Van Impe, J R Church, and Tim LaHaye continue to promote the lucrative prophetic proposition.

    In each case, these authors cleverly conceal key elements of data that would undermine their credibility as they propagate the false pre-tribulation system that constitutes the Rapture Cult.

    Ironically, in the course of attacking various American cult systems by pointing out the inconsistencies and cultic origins of these aberrational sects, the rapture leaders refuse to recognize how the very same critique should be applied to their own religious eschatological view.

    In such an arena of gross hypocrisy, few writers are as brazenly deceptive as Dave Hunt. The author of many popular prophecy books written from a pre-tribulationist perspective, Hunt's monthly newsletter The Berean Call excels at pulling the proverbial splinter out of the eyes of others, while they "perceivest not the beam that is in [their] own eye" (Luke 6:41).

    In the present example, Hunt's Berean Call chose to attack the adjacent cult known as the Jehovah's Witnesses for their early embrace of the occultic lore found in the subject of the Egyptian pyramids. The following criticism of the JW religion is drawn from the website of Dave Hunt's Berean Call as it lambasted JW founder Charles Taze Russell for his association with pyramidology:

"Russell introduced occultism into his religion by teaching that the pyramids in Egypt are divine omens. He taught that they contained prophetic secrets known only to him. According to Russell, only by reading his books can one understand the 'Divine Plan.' One of the strangest 'revelations' from the pyramids was his calculated date of 1914. The date was based on his measurements of the interior passageways of the pyramids. He said that 1914 would be the end of the world and God had revealed it to him exclusively."

"However, when his 1914 date for the end of the world failed, he tried to cover his tracks. The calculations were first printed in 1897 where he stated: '...this measurement is 3416 inches, symbolizing 3416 years...This calculation shows A.D. 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble....' (Thy Kingdom Come, Series III, p 342, 1897 edition) Then in the 1916 edition it was changed to read: 'We find it to be 3457 inches, symbolizing 3457 years...This calculation shows that the close of 1914 will be the beginning of the time of trouble....' Russell's pyramid actually grew 41 inches in 19 years!"

    In this essay, Dave Hunt's Berean Call scrutinizes C T Russell's utilization of the pyramids in the Jehovah's Witness prophetic belief structure, and concludes the association has "introduced" occultism into the Jehovah's Witness religion. Russell used the study of the pyramids as a support mechanism for his theoretical system wherein the measurements in the pyramid would help calculate events that would culminate in the return of Christ in 1914.

    Yet history plainly shows that the Rapture Cult, of which Dave Hunt is a primary contributor, has repeatedly used the same pyramid "measurements" to support their version of a secret return of Jesus Christ!

    For instance, Piazzi Smyth, one of the key British figures in pyramidology as well as pre-trib, believed and promoted the idea that the measurements of the pyramid "arose representing the Christian Dispensation...." (Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, 1864). Smyth, as an early British proponent of the Rapture Cult (which is a much larger and far more dangerous Cult than the Russelites could ever hope to be), taught that the high upper exit at the end of the pyramid known as the Grand Gallery represented the Rapture, whereas the low passage after the Gallery supposedly represented the tribulation.

    Unstated by Mr. Hunt is the fact that American Rapture Cult writer J A Seiss led the way for many others, and plagiarized Smyth as he also used the pyramid as "proof" for the pre-trib rapture. Seiss also used the astrological Zodiac to support the "rapture" - and his work was so well accepted that Hal Lindsey repeatedly quoted him in his epic Cult work The Late Great Planet Earth.

    Predictably, a brief bit of research will show that both Lindsey and Seiss also plagiarized Rapture Cult writer E W Bullinger's use of the zodiac to support their Rapture Cult perspective.

    During the same period when Russell was using pyramidology to support his apostasy, the "pyramid-proves-pretrib"theory exploded with popularity in England. General Howard Vyse discovered openings and measurements in the Great Pyramid, as did Nathaniel Davison, of the British Consulate in Algiers. Sir John Hershel also believed the pyramid was built for an astronomical purpose.

    By 1859, one John Taylor published a work on the subject incorporating Mssrs. Herschel, Davison, and Vyse's research. Taylor's work subsequently influenced prominent Rapture Cult leader Noah Hutchings of the Southwest Radio Church ministry here in the states.

    It should be stated at this juncture that although I staunchly oppose the false doctrine of the Jehovah's Witnesses on Scriptural grounds, in the interests of accuracy (something in short supply at Hunt's Berean Call), shortly after Russell's occultic importation of pyramidology into his JW Cult, subsequent Jehovah's Witness leader Judge J F Rutherford "abandoned pyramidology and declared the Great Pyramid was really inspired by Satan" (The 3 R's: Rapture, Revisionism, and Robbery, Dave MacPherson, page 41).

    What is not widely recognized is the fact that although the JW's dumped the use of pyramidology as a tool for their apostate religion, the Rapture Cult continued to use it for some time thereafter. For example, former Astronomer Royal of Scotland Smyth predicted the Rapture would occur in 1881 based on his measurements of the Great Pyramid. Lindsey's prediction of the Rapture was a century later in 1981. Obviously both missed, but not a peep from the Berean Call as it's clear they're not interested in heresy hunting when the offender comes a bit too close to home.

    Rapture Cultist J A Seiss' 1877 book was based upon the fallacious calculation of an inch for a year in the pyramid's measurements. Seeking to mask his plagiarism of Piazzi Smyth's work, which predicted the fictional event would occur in 1881, it paraphrased Smyth's pyramid-proves-rapture equation, and simply stated that the Rapture must occur within "a few years."

    Shortly thereafter, one of the most popular Rapture Cult writers of the century - Clarence Larkin - also adopted the pyramid to support his version of the lie - years after the Jehovah's Witnesses had renounced the tenuous connection between the occultic oriented pyramidology and the pseudo-Christian cultic system known as Russellism.

    In his wildly popular but oxymoronic Dispensational Truth, Larkin wrote that the measurements of the Grand Gallery are used to "represent the Dispensation from the Birth of Christ to the Rapture of the Church" (Dispensational Truth, Clarence Larkin, 1920).

    Incredibly, the Rapture Cult is using the pyramid as an argument in favor of pre-tribulationism to this very day. For instance, a prophetically myopic rapture writer named F M Riley has been aggressively publishing a prophecy newsletter entitled The Last Call for many years. In his August 2003 issue, he continued the long-standing tradition of utilizing the occultic element of the pyramids to support pre-tribulationism!

    Citing favorably from a book called The Great Pyramid Decoded, Riley implies that the pyramid measurements in the book indicate a momentous prophetic event will occur in late 2003 or 2004 (The Last Call, F M Riley, August 2003). Based upon consistent themes in his prophecy letter, it is clear that Riley expects this event will be the pre-tribulation rapture - and like his spiritual antecedents in the Cult for the last 100 years, he has unabashedly drawn on the pyramids as a prophetic indicator that the "rapture" is near.

    Ironically, the pyramid book quoted by Riley comes from yet another British publishing house - the latest in a long line of Anglo pyramid aficionados seeking to build a bridge between the ancient Egyptian hermetic heresies and the modern aberrational "Christian" eschatological system that is the Rapture Cult. Not coincidentally, a careful study of doctrinal origins plainly demonstrates that the Rapture Cult was largely imported to the US from England via high profile speaking tours of one John Nelson Darby - to say nothing of the Oxford University Press published Scofield Reference Bible.

    Those that closely track prophecy are also aware that Rapture ridden Riley has repeatedly set dates for the Rapture - predictions that were all destined to fail before he uttered them, as the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is as fraudulent as the fruitcakes using the pyramids to pitch their false prophetic future.

    And Riley is not alone as a contemporary cultist in his concerted efforts to show the pyramids predict pre-trib. Chuck Missler, a prolific prophecy writer close to the Calvary Chapel Cult has also repeatedly mentioned the pyramid's measurements in the same breath as his prognostications concerning the timing of the fictional event.

    Another Rapture Cult writer named Dave Breese functions in the same hypocritical spirit as Dave Hunt. In his book Know The Marks Of Cults, Breese even utilizes the occultic Egyptian symbol known as the Eye of Horus to serve as an emblem of what he dubs "the 12 basic errors of false religion." Yet in this book that critiques several pseudo-Christian cultic belief systems, there is not one mention of the extensive use of Egyptian mysticism by the very Cult the author belongs to! There are many other examples.

    What is singularly amazing is how Dave Hunt and his Rapture Cult crowd at The Berean Call can keep a straight face when they use this data so selectively to disparage their theological opponents - even as they ignore the same data when it undercuts their own delusion. One might ask that if, as Hunt writes, the use of the pyramid measurements "introduced occultism into his religion" when applying it to the Cult of Jehovah's Witnesses, why Hunt does not acknowledge that the use of the pyramid measurements introduced occultism into Hunt's own Rapturist religion?

    Thus, the dance of deception that emanates from the historical revisionists and state sanctioned Sadducees in the Cult continues. The simple truth is, the Rapture Cult is now at the top of the evangelical food chain, and any serious inquiry into the origins and early development of the doctrine is carefully and quietly suppressed. In fact, we would prefer to provide the reader with internet links where they can find more free information on this subject - but after publishing Christian Media for more than 22 years, we've learned that when we include links to our multiple websites in newsletters of this nature, Scripturally illiterate angry Cult members always attempt to have us thrown off our internet servers in retaliation. Although clearly unscriptural, such tactics (and much more) have already been repeatedly used on us to attempt to suppress this embarrassing information.

    Thus, if you would like to know more about the Rapture Cult and the true history of the doctrine, you'll have to send me an email. I can then forward you more internet links and send you information that will assist you, as you (hopefully) begin to conduct a proper SCRIPTURAL inquiry for yourself.

    We have learned that most "Christians" react with antagonism to information that contradicts their programming. We would hope that they would instead re-examine their assumptions through the clear lens of a sincere Biblical analysis. However, one of the most wonderful aspects of the Good News is the fact that "God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). The truth is, the Strong Delusion the LORD promised he would bring is closely related to the lie of the Rapture Cult - and God warned them that "I will choose their delusion" (Isaiah 66:4), "...because they received not the love of the truth...." (II Thessalonians 2:10).