Prosperity and the Coming Apocalyspe

PROSPERITY AND

THE COMING

APOCALYPSE

Jim Bakker

with Ken Abraham

Copyright © 1998 by Jim Bakker and Ken Abraham

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, 1465 Kelly Johnson Blvd., Suite 320, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers

Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the KING JAMES VERSION.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted TLB are from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bakker, Jim, 1940–

Prosperity and the coming apocalypse / Jim Bakker with Ken Abraham.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7852-7458-8 (hc)

ISBN 0-7852-6987-8 (softcover)

1. Wealth—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Tribulation (Christian eschatology).

3. Bakker, Jim, 1940– . I. Abraham, Ken. II. Title.

BR115.W4B35 1998 241'.68—dc21

98-39749

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

05 06 07 08 09 RRD 6 5 4 3 2

In memory of my father, Raleigh Bakker (9-13-06 – 5-21-98)

Dedicated to my mother, Furnia Irwin Bakker

My daughter, Tammy Sue Bakker-Chapman, her husband, Doug

My grandsons, James and Jonathan

My son, Jamie Charles

My brother, Norman Bakker, and his wife, June

My sister, Donna Puckett

With special thanks to a wonderful Board of Directors

under whom I have the privilege of serving:

Pastor Tommy Barnett

Governor Julian Carroll

Rick Joyner

Dr. R. T. Kendall

Pastor Tommy Reid

And to those special people with whom I work on a daily basis:

My executive assistant for twenty-one years, Shirley Fulbright

Kendon Alexander

Doyle Borden

Bradford Bryson

Tess Burdios

Pastor Murray and Sally Cresswell

Connie Elling

Jamie and Rob Feist

Dominic and Debbie Gaccetta

Clayton Galligher

Michelle Grogan

Dave and Gina Hanley

Myrna Hernandez

Robert Jackson

Aaron Jayne

Todd Leader

Calvin McClary

Victoria and Richard McCue

Howard and Leanne Bailey

Willette, James, and B.J. Brown

Terri and Milt Bulian

Pastor Andrew Clay

Doug Diebele

Maria Evarts

Pastor Marco Friese

Henny Givens

Lynda Gray

Irene Gutierrez

Anthony Scott Harris

Melanie Hopson

Greg James

Chrissy Keeville

Jose Luna

Jamie and Danielle McClanaghan

Jennier McDevitt

Mike McMahon

Kelli Miller

Amanda Moses

Carolina Olsson

Leo Pitts

Robert Sayles

Louise and Carl Schlittenhart

Lynn and Dennis Smith

Jason Terry

Bobby and Ceci Tores

Margie and Don Watson

Scott Zoph

Allan and Joy Meyer

Rick Mills

Cynthia Ofnhausen

Dave and Debbie Peters

Armando Saavedra

Gene Schaefer

Ken and Beth Smith

Billy and Cheryl Soto

Katie Thompson

Pastor Julian Toriz

Wesley and Elaine Webb

My good friends, John and Joyce Caruso

My good friend and senior pastor of Los Angeles International Church,

Matthew Barnett

All my New Covenant Fellowship friends and partners

All my friends at Los Angeles International Church

And all my faithful friends who stood with me through the valley years

Contents

Foreword

PART I—THE FINAL WARNING

1 A Reluctant Messenger

PART II—THE PROSPERITY MESSAGE: A FALSE GOSPEL

2 My Road to Revelation

3 Another Jesus, Another Gospel

4 An Unwitting False Prophet

5 I Want My Hundred Houses

6 The Love of Money

7 A Christian Work Ethic

PART III—THE COMING APOCALYPSE

8 Get Ready . . . Jesus Is Coming!

9 Will We Go Through the Tribulation?

10 The Horses Are Out of the Barn

11 Fire from the Sky

12 The Great Event

13 The Day the Money Goes Away

14 Surviving the Coming Apocalypse

APPENDIX A

My Daily Walk

APPENDIX B

Scripture References for Further Study

Notes

Foreword

IN THE FALL OF 1997 I was sitting in my mountain cabin reading the book of Revelation. I was especially interested in the message of chapters twelve through fourteen. I prayed and asked the Lord for understanding. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. It was Jim Bakker. I had a dream last night, he began. I’ve got to show you some things from the Book of Revelation, especially chapters twelve through fourteen. He had my full attention! For several hours we went on a very interesting spiritual journey.

What Jim shared with me that day is the essence of what is written in this book. The Lord had prepared me to hear it. I already believed the general principles of almost everything he shared and had preached or written on many of them. Even so, much of it was still hard for me to hear. The message of this book will be like a cold slap in the face. However, the slap is not meant to hurt us, but to wake us up.

I do not like pain or problems. I try to get through life with as few of them as possible. I love peace, prosperity, and the country I live in, all of which I believe are blessings from God. I also love truth and the Word of God. Because I love the truth, I must accept the fact that the Scriptures make it clear that at the end of this age there is going to be a time of trouble such as the world has never known. If we cannot face this we have been deceived, and we are not building our lives on the truth of Scripture.

The Scriptures are also clear that in Christ we can not only be prepared for the times, but we can prevail through them. It is also a basic biblical truth that the Lord wants all of His people to be financially independent.

That does not necessarily mean that we are to be wealthy according to the world’s standards, but rather something even greater than that. It means that we should all have a lifestyle where we never have to base our decisions on whether we can afford to do something or not, but simply on the will of the Lord.

God does want His people to prosper. During the most difficult times that the world is going to go through God’s people will be prospering. That is a part of the message of this book (though you may question that through the first few chapters). However, this book is also a necessary challenge to many popular definitions of prosperity and a call to establish our definition of prosperity on sound, biblical truth not popular trends or worldly philosophies that the Scriptures vehemently warn us to reject.

We also know by the Scriptures that one of the ultimate tests to come upon the whole world at the end of this age is going to deal with our relationship to money. The mark of the beast is an economic mark. That mark will determine who can buy, sell, or trade with the present system of the world. Many are hoping to avoid taking this mark by trying to figure out the form that it is going to come in, while they are building their lives on the very spirit of the beast every day.

Jesus said the harvest is the end of the age. The harvest is the reaping of everything that has been sown, both the good and the evil. Good and evil will both be coming to their full maturity at the end. One of the ultimate idols of the human heart, and therefore one of the ultimate evils, is the love of money. An idol is not just something that people worship, but it is what they put their trust in instead of God. In 1 Timothy 6:10 we are told: For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (KJV).

The love of money is fundamental to evil, and doctrines that are promulgated which try to dilute this are helping to set up many people for the ultimate tragedy, worshiping the beast. If we trust our bank accounts, our retirement accounts, our other worldly assets, more than God, we are building our lives on a trust in this present world more than in God, and are therefore worshiping the beast.

If you are sincere seeker of truth, a simple test will determine whether you are building your life on a true faith in God or in this present world. Ask yourself, Where do I get my encouragement, or discouragement, from? Does it depress you when the stock market takes a jolt or when you hear other troubling economic news? If we are troubled when the world begins to shake, it is a revelation of what we have been building our lives on.

Hebrews twelve declares that everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Even so, as that chapter also declares, we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. If we will build our lives on that kingdom, all of the kingdoms of this world can fall apart, but we will stand strong and confident.

If the message of this book angers you, especially the first few chapters, you are probably in the most desperate need of its message. If the latter chapters scare you, you are probably one of those who most needs to read them. This is not to imply that you must agree with everything that is said here, or the way it is said. There will forever be only one man whose message was perfect— Jesus. There is only one book that is infallible—the Bible. Even so, I believe that this is a message that is on time and critical for our time.

Jim Bakker is himself a message that we need to hear. His life has been a prophecy. Few people have ever experienced the kind of extremes that he has. He rode to the heights of popularity and material prosperity, and then sank to the lowest levels of reproach and poverty as a federal prisoner cleaning toilets. To the surprise of many, Jim not only survived this ordeal, he emerged stronger with a greater clarity of vision, and a much greater resolve to walk in sound biblical truth.

I did not know Jim before he went to prison. The few times that I saw Jim’s PTL program it seemed very foreign to me. If I was asked to describe it in one word, I would have probably used the word unreal. I did not believe that it presented real Christianity. Since Jim’s release from prison I have gotten to know him quite well. I confess to being very surprised to find him to be one of the most genuine, and sincere, Christians that I have ever met. He is also one of the most passionate seekers of truth, and devoted lovers of Scripture. I am constantly amazed by his depth of wisdom and knowledge. At times I cannot believe that he is the same person who used to host the PTL program, and then I realize that he isn’t!

By his own admission, Jim had to go to prison to have enough time for God to speak to him. He had become so busy in ministry that he did not have time for God. If we will hear the message of Jim’s life, we may be able to judge ourselves lest we be judged (1 Cor. 11:31). Jim had to be stripped of everything but God in order to truly learn that he did not need anything by God.

The Lord does not want this to happen to us, but it will, for our own good, if we do not hear the message of Jim’s life and change many of our ways. Many churches, ministries, and individual Christians have been betrothed to Christ but are married to the spirit of the world. Many have already suffered shipwreck, and many others are drifting closer to the reefs. They will hit them if they do not make some very radical course changes. The message of this book, and the message of Jim’s life, is intended to save us from the disasters that many are still headed for. It can even save many from the ultimate disaster—worshiping the beast.

The world can look at Jim Bakker’s past and have good excuse not to listen to him. The early church could have looked at the apostles the same way. Did they not deny the Lord, abandon Him in His time of greatest need? Men could have had a greater excuse not to hear the apostle Paul. Did he not even persecute the church? However, those who come to truly know God come to understand that His primary business in this world is redemption. He loves revealing His strength through those who are weak, His wisdom through those who are foolish, and His nobility through those who have been shamed. Therefore, those who love His truth will also love redemption. If we know God’s power of redemption in our own life, how can we keep holding others in bondage to their past?

I have watched Jim closely for the years since his release from prison. I knew that he was changed, but the changes that come from such circumstances are not always lasting, especially when the circumstances change. With Jim they have lasted. Every time I see him, I feel that he is closer to the Lord, has an even stronger grasp of truth, and has an even deeper love for people. After all that he has been through, I have yet to hear a bitter word come from him concerning anything that happened to him, or about anyone who betrayed or attacked him. I have seen him challenged by some of the most difficult circumstances without compromising the fruit of the Spirit. That is genuine Christianity, and Jim is one of the most genuine Christians that I know.

One of the great encouragements to me concerning the present state of the church has been the way that believers almost across the spectrum of Christianity have embraced Jim Bakker since his release from prison. Whether it has been Pentecostal, Charismatic, Baptist, traditional, or nontraditional churches, he has been constantly introduced to standing ovations. He is listened to with genuine openness and respect. Large stadiums have been filled by people wanting to hear what he has to say. That has been a great encouragement. I have had Jim share in our conferences, our home congregation, and our school of ministry a number of times. I have watched people grow dramatically every time he comes—even those who disagree with him. As I told our ministry team, even if I disagreed with all of Jim’s conclusions, I would still have him come. He imparts such an esteem for the Word of God, and for truth, that I know those who listen to him inevitably go away with a greater devotion to seek the Lord and know His word.

In the past, the church has not generally treated its leaders who have made mistakes very well, but it must if we do not want to fall ourselves, which Paul explained in Galatians 6:1:

Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. (NASB)

Here we are commanded to restore those who are caught in any trespass so that we will not ourselves be tempted. To restore means much more than just to forgive. Restoration is also a word that is linked strongly to these times. This is not just the end of the age; it is the beginning of the age in which Christ will reign over the earth and His people with Him.

This reign is for the restoration of all things as Peter declared in his second sermon after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 3:20–21).

The church has been given the greatest message of hope that the world has ever known. The Lord is coming back! He is not coming back just to get even with those who rejected Him, though they will certainly mourn when they see Him. He is not coming back to destroy the world—He is coming back to restore it to its original condition of paradise. What we are coming to is not just an end—it is the beginning!

Even if you completely disagree with the message of this book, it is important for you to read it. Even if you completely agree with it, I encourage you to seek an even deeper understanding of it. At the very least, this will help you to sink your own roots deeper into the Word of God. It could save you from many troubles. It could save your life. The Lord’s sheep know His voice, and we must all know His voice for ourselves.

I encourage you not to judge the entire book by any single section of it but by its whole. This message is going to go forth, and it is going to have a significant impact on the church.

—Rick Joyner

Founder of Morningstar Ministries

Author of The Final Quest

August, 1998

Part I

The Final Warning

1

A Reluctant Messenger

Ifidgeted nervously as the officer at the airport security checkpoint stopped the conveyer belt and scanned the X-ray image of my briefcase. The man stared at the screen, glanced icily at me, then fixed his gaze again on the gray monitor in front of him. For a moment I wondered if perhaps he had guessed that I was carrying a package that was potentially far more earthshaking than any bomb he might ever discover.

Without saying a word, the security officer restarted the conveyer, and in a matter of seconds my briefcase emerged and slid down the stainless steel counter. I quickly gathered my carry-on luggage and, as discreetly as possible, looked inside the briefcase to make sure the package was intact. I shuffled some papers next to the volatile materials, zipped the case shut, and hurried toward the customs station, where I answered a few questions concerning the reason for my trip, and my bag received a thorough search by a U.S. Customs officer. When I finally boarded my flight to Singapore on December 17, 1997, I slumped into my seat like a fugitive on the run.

Before stowing my briefcase, I retrieved the package and held it warily in my hands. Why, God? I thought as I stared at the package. Why have You given me this assignment? You know I’ll do anything You instruct me to do; but I confess, I’m scared. I don’t really want to be the one to deliver this. But I have promised to obey no matter what the cost, so I’ll do it.

I leaned back in the comfortable seat of the 747 and closed my eyes as I waited for takeoff. It would be a long flight, nearly thirty-two hours including transfers, as the huge airship carried its five hundred passengers literally to the other side of the world. Sometime tomorrow I was scheduled for a brief layover in Taiwan, then on to Hong Kong, the newly acquired jewel of the People’s Republic of China. From there it was a direct flight to Singapore, another former British colony and one of the richest societies on the face of the earth. Yet even as I pressed the recline button on my seat, I knew that the very fabric of Singapore’s society was about to change.

Indeed, life on our entire planet was about to change.

Nearly a day and a half later, as I unpacked my luggage in a hotel room in Singapore, I took the package out of my briefcase and opened its contents.

Inside a leather three-ring notebook was a message—the most explosive, exciting, frightening, yet exhilarating message I had ever received from God.

The message had been ten years in the making; five of those years I had spent in a federal prison while God got my undivided attention and brought me to the point where I was willing not only to hear this message and accept it as the truth, but to proclaim it.

After my release from prison, the message remained sealed in my heart, burning within me, refining my own thinking and lifestyle. It was not until a few days before Christmas 1997 that God gave me the go-ahead to speak it aloud.

It was not the kind of message most people want to hear. It was a warning from God, and I felt that He had called me—of all people—to sound the alarm.

A CHANGED MAN

A decade earlier, I would have been preparing for a gala celebration at Heritage USA, the twenty-three-hundred-acre Christian retreat center I had headed in Fort Mill, South Carolina, in the 1970s and 1980s. I would have been getting ready to preach a much different sort of message—a message that said, "God wants you to be happy. God wants you to be rich.

God wants you to prosper, even as your soul prospers."

I preferred happy messages; I liked people to go away feeling good after hearing me speak or watching one of our PTL television programs beamed by satellite all around the world. On our television network I did not want to hear any bad news. I would not allow my staff to book a guest who was sick or having severe financial, emotional, or spiritual problems. If a guest had not come out on the victory side of life, he was not asked to be on the air. I was not being cruel; I just wanted everyone to praise the Lord and be happy. Like a car salesman, I did not want anyone to see any defects in our product. I wanted to put God and His people in a positive light. Although my own life was not perfect, and my wife and I at times were going through extreme marital stress, I still felt I had a responsibility to protect God’s reputation somehow. I tried desperately to project an ideal image: Everyone is happy; no problems; everything is grand; life is wonderful.

For at least half of my ministry, I had presented a Disneyland gospel, in which the good guys always get rich, the bad guys are defeated, and everyone lives happily ever after. I lived in, and attempted to promote, a spiritual fantasyland, where God’s people are always blessed materially, physically, and of course, spiritually.

But by 1997 my message had changed. Now my heart burned with a new, imperative word. But it was not a message I would have chosen to carry. Actually, it was not even my message anymore. It was the Lord’s. In prison, God had not only shown me how wrong my thinking had been, He had set my heart ablaze with the gospel I should have been preaching all along.

Still, I was reluctant to speak the word God had seared into my heart. After all, who wants to be known as a prophet of gloom? Who wants to be the bearer of bad news? My temperament is one that cries out for people to like me. I have never enjoyed confrontations, arguments, or battles (although I’ve been in more than my share). My personality is that of a peacemaker. It is simply not my nature to bring a negative message. My desire has always been to bring joy and encouragement, and that is what I tried to do in a variety of ways during most of my ministry.

Yet now, as I studied the Scripture and contemplated the warnings I believed God had placed in my heart and mind, I came to realize that even this dire word was a message of hope, an encouragement for the body of Christ, the family of God, the true church. But it was genuine hope based on sound doctrine, rather than foolish spiritual slogans propagated by pleasure-loving disciples. This message had been formulated by considering a mass of scriptural evidence rather than contrived concepts derived from one or two obscure passages or the twisting or shading of biblical truths to one’s personal interpretation.

For those who heed this word from God, it will be life; those who do not pay attention to God’s final warning will be sealing their own tombs.

A CHANGED MESSAGE

In a nutshell, the new message was this: the era of prosperity is over; perilous times are upon us, the end of the age is at hand. Get ready, not just for the second coming of Jesus Christ, but for a worldwide shaking, a sifting of epic proportions, far more devastating than anything men and women on earth have ever before experienced.

The specifics of God’s message stirring in my heart grew more ominous with each passing day. I shuddered when I thought of what the Lord had shown me. Catastrophic calamities are coming upon the earth, not one of these days in the distant future, but soon—now! Torrential rains, unsettling weather patterns, violent storms, floods, famines, droughts, earthquakes increasing in frequency and intensity, volcanic eruptions, and a host of other signs of the times Jesus told us to watch for are happening now.

Moreover, the fulfillment of the prophecies in the book of Revelation are imminent: prophecies concerning the sun being darkened for long periods of time, wreaking devastation upon the earth; millions of people being killed by meteors impacting the earth, mountains falling into the sea, large portions of land being scorched; worldwide economic chaos and collapse, people willing to trade their treasures of a lifetime for a piece of bread to eat . . . all of this and more the Lord showed me, with the warning that these things will be happening soon and we need to get ready. As Jesus said concerning His second coming and the end of the world, When you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place (Matt. 24:33–34 NKJV).

Most important, as I studied the words of Jesus for hours on end in prison—often sixteen hours a