My wife and I attend a local Baptist church. We like the pastor. He’s a humble man who teaches the Word of God directly from the King James Version of the Bible. He preaches the true doctrine of salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, through Christ alone. He teaches us good practical lessons on how to avoid sin in our lives. But we also think Baptist eschatology is wrong because it was influenced by C.I. Scofield and his reference Bible. We are thankful that our pastor doesn’t preach these false Endtime doctrines of Scofield. He himself confessed to being weak in eschatological doctrines. That’s fine with me and my wife. Better not to teach them at all than to teach false doctrines. And what are these false doctrines that are held as truth by many evangelicals today?

1. Pre-tribulation rapture
2. Secret rapture of the saints
3. The 70th Week of Daniel being an Endtime event of the seven-year reign of the Antichrist
4. Israel is the time-clock of the Endtime.
5. The creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 was fulfilment of prophecy
6. The Temple of Solomon will be rebuilt in the Endtime so that the Antichrist will sit in it and declare himself to be God.

The most commonly held Southern Baptist eschatology is known as “pretribulational premillennialism.” In this view, Jesus will return to earth but not stay. He will rapture believers, removing them from Earth. Southern Baptists believe that a seven-year-long tribulation period will follow the rapture. They believe during the tribulation period that the Antichrist will conquer Earth, and they believe that Jesus will return again after the seven years and judge the living and the dead. Finally, they believe a 1,000-year-long Kingdom of God on Earth will follow. (From Southern Baptist Eschatology Beliefs

Where do the Baptists get the idea of a seven-year-long tribulation person after the rapture? Not from the Bible! They got it from a false interpretation of Daniel 9:27 promoted by John Nelson Darby and C.I. Scofield.

The Geneva Bible was published in 1560, which is 51 years before the King James Version. It was translated by men of God in Geneva Switzerland who were not under any political / government pressure that influenced their translation. The translators included footnotes to help make difficult passages clearer. Those footnotes are all based on what all Protestants in general held to be true. King James of England did not like some of those footnotes. He wanted a Bible that didn’t include them. Hence we have the King James Version which is very similar to the Geneva Bible but without the footnotes. Let’s see how the footnotes interpret certain scriptures.

Daniel 9:27 is probably the most misinterpreted prophecy in the entire Bible! Let’s see how the Geneva Bible interprets it:

Daniel 9:27 And he {a} shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to {b} cease, {c} and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

(a) By the preaching of the Gospel he affirmed his promise, first to the Jews, and after to the Gentiles.
(b) Christ accomplished this by his death and resurrection.
(c) Meaning that Jerusalem and the sanctuary would be utterly destroyed because of their rebellion against God, and their idolatry: or as some read, that the plague will be so great, that they will all be astonished at them.

And how does modern evangelical eschatology interpret it? They replace the “he” which is Christ with Antichrist and say the Antichrist will make a 7-year covenant with the Jews in order that they can rebuild a third Temple of Solomon to renew their animal sacrifices to God. Just ask yourself, would a rebuilt Temple Solomon honor God? Absolutely not! And why? Because it would represent a further rejection of the Blood of the Lamb, the Blood of Jesus Christ for our sins, and substitute animal blood instead! Would such a Temple be therefore the “holy place” of Matthew 24:15? Again, absolutely not for the reason stated above. There is no prophecy anywhere in the Bible of a third Temple of a Solomon. And not only does Daniel 9:27 not talk about a rebuilt Temple, it’s a prophecy about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD! It’s only speculation that the Jews need to rebuild the Temple in the Endtime so that the Antichrist can sit in it to proclaim himself to be God! And why did they speculate that? From a false interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: {3} for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and {e} that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

(3) The apostle foretells that before the coming of the Lord, there will be a throne set up completely contrary to Christ’s glory, in which that wicked man will sit, and transfer all things that appertain to God to himself: and many will fall away from God to him.
(e) By speaking of one, he singles out the person of the tyrannous and persecuting antichrist.

2:4 Who opposeth and {f} exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; {4} so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

(f) All men know who he is that says he can shut up heaven and open it at his pleasure, and takes upon himself to be lord and master above all kings and princes, before whom kings and princes fall down and worship, honouring that antichrist as a god.
(4) He foretells that the antichrist (that is, whoever he is that will occupy that seat that falls away from God) will not reign outside of the Church, but in the very bosom of the Church.

Any Protestant reading the Geneva Bible footnote of verse 4 would know for certain it is talking about the Popes of Rome. Evangelicals today do not interpret it that way. They say 2 Thess 2:4 is talking about the Endtime Antichrist sitting in a rebuilt Temple of Solomon. What does the New Testament call the Temple?

1 Corinthians 3:16  ¶Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

The Church, the saints of God, is the Temple of God, not a physical temple made with hands. The early Protestants knew that which is why they believed the identity of the Antichrist is the popes of Rome. It was the Pope who set himself above the kings and princes of Europe. It was the Pope who claimed to be the head of the Church and the vicar of Christ. Does Pope Francis today say the same thing? He does.

Here is the crux of the matter and the reason for false Endtime teaching: They were cooked up by Jesuit priests who lead the Counter-Reformation to get the Protestants to get their eyes off the Popes of Roman as the biblical Antichrist! They sure did a bang-up job, didn’t they? But thankfully there are Christians today who know the truth, and they are mostly Christians who still remember what Protestants used to teach up to the 18th century. The Baptists do not identify with Protestanism because they claim to be descended from the Anabaptists who predate the Protestant Reformation. This is true. It’s just sad that Baptists and other evangelicals such as Pentecostals were influenced by C.I. Scofield’s doctrines while the Presbyterians and other mainstream Protestant churches were not.

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