Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.messianic
Subject: Chuck Missler and imminent Armageddon
From: lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard)
Date: 28 Dec 1992 19:41 MST  
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona
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While visiting my parents over the holidays, my stepfather gave me
a cassette of a lecture by Chuck Missler to listen to.  Missler
claims to be an "internationally known business executive" who has
been on the boards of dozens of large corporations, including chief
executive of six of them.  He claims to have attended the Naval
Academy and been in the Air Force, and to have had the highest of
security clearances.
   He is, however, associated with Hal Lindsey and Lambert Dolphin
(former SRI scientist who promoted Barry Setterfield's "the speed of
light is declining" theory).  Anyway, here are some of the claims he
made on the tape I listened to:

1.  In Genesis 5, the meaning of the names in the genealogy give
a message about the Messiah.  (He said exactly what it was, but I
don't recall offhand.  He got the message by inserting prepositions
of his own between nouns and verbs that were allegedly the meanings
of the names in Hebrew.)  He also made the more general claim that
absolutely everything in the Bible is meaningful--every number, every
name, every apparent contradiction.

2.  In Genesis 49:10, the first letter of each Hebrew word spells out
(in Hebrew) the message "I am Yeshua, the shepherd king."  (Anyone here
know enough Hebrew to verify/refute this?)

3.  Russia, Syria, various north African nations, and Iran will soon
invade/fire nuclear weapons at Israel.  Why soon?

4.  Iran has just bought four nuclear missiles from one of the former
Soviet republics, and they have only a seven-year "shelf life."

5.  Islam predates Mohammed; it is a Babylonian religion which aims
at world domination and involves the worship of Satan.

Missler publishes a monthly "Personal Update" newsletter (Koinonia
House, P.O. Box D, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816-0347), the December issue
of which had an article criticizing the New International Version
("Nearly Inspired Version," according to Missler) and other modern
translations based on the Codex Sinaiticus/Codex Vaticanus.  He
claims that these versions were the result of deliberate tampering
by gnostics--so it sounds like he's one of the "King James only"
crowd.

The December issue of his newsletter also advertised a series of
"briefing packages" he sells, including one of interest to skeptics:

    Monuments: Sacred or Profane
    The recent discoveries of apparent monuments on the Planet Mars,
    and their possible relationship to the Great Pyramid of Egypt
    and Stonehenge are explored.

I think this guy is a complete crank, but any comments on the above
(especially #2) would be appreciated.  I would particularly welcome
any information about criticisms of Mr. Missler by Christians which
I could send to my parents.
   It is possible that he also has some association with Ron Wyatt
or David Fasold (of the "Noah's Ark has been found at the *foot* of
Mt. Ararat" claims, which have already been well-debunked by evangelical
Christians such as John Morris of the Institute for Creation Research),
but I base this only on comments at the very beginning of the tape I
heard, which did not record the beginning of his lecture.  (He made some
comment about Noah's Ark being found, but did not elaborate.)

Jim Lippard              Lippard@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Dept. of Philosophy      Lippard@ARIZVMS.BITNET
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic