I believe there are, for whatever reason, whole Bible books that get overlooked when it comes to prophecy. This is the case with Jeremiah. This happens because that book does not seem rich in those details that help us to pinpoint events of the endtimes, or to find ammunition for our own views of Which horse precedes Which trumpet. The teaching of Jeremiah has more to do with the purpose of judgment than with the particulars. It should not be lost on us that God's judgment comes first and primarily on His own, on those who take, or claim to take, refuge in His Name. Many have the name and form of godliness, all the while actively and stubbornly suppressing the Spirit that can actually work out godliness in us. The tragedy of the Jews of that time - and some believers in this time - is that they believed selectively in God's Word. They wanted the message of deliverance but not of judgment. They wanted the message of deliverance but refused to make themselves "deliverable".

This is exactly what is happening today with many (not all) prophecy enthusiasts. They adopt a certain mindset when it comes to God's judgment ("We'll be out of here, praise God!") not thinking that the very threat of tribulation, hardships and judgment is God's means for All of us to allow God to work the likeness of His Son in us as we are obedient to the Spirit of holiness. Many people who are enthusiastic about "Left behind" and in speculating about who the Beast might be, I really believe, still haven't crossed over from death to life themselves. That is my nagging conviction about this, I just can't escape it. To paraphrase the cliche, "Not everyone talking about the Rapture is going there". I often find in myself, I have to admit, more of a desire to argue details of Christ's coming than to watch myself as He commands us to do.

Reading Jeremiah I get the impression that there was a great need for discernment - just like there is today. Like today, you couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys by what color hats they wore. You had some (on the face of it) pretty convincing prophets like Hananiah who spoke promises that were to some degree scriptural. Hadn't God promised to bless Jerusalem and keep it as the apple of His eye? Yet Hananiah failed to take into account other truth - like Moses' equally inspired warning that if they sinned against the Lord and worshipped the gods of Canaan (which they were doing at that very time) they would be dispossessed of their promised land. The people who knew God's Word should have been able to detect that Hananiah was not genuine. The problem was that, instead of being familiar with God's Word, they were indoctrinated by various dreamers and uncommissioned false prophets who told them what they wanted to hear; Rescue instead of Judgment.

So in our case, when we are confronted by claims from someone who insists he is speaking for God we will need to apply the WHOLE counsel of God in evaluating him. The leaders (and to a lesser extent, the people) were more prone to believe the "uplifting" message of Hananiah because it required no change in their walk - or lack of walk, rather - with God. And what can be more "uplifting" today than the promise of the rapture? The rapture is scriptural, yet if it is overemphasized and prematurely expected it will lead to disastrous failure. We are to told to wake up (Romans 13:11-14), watch ourselves (Matthew 24:42) and purify ourselves (1st John 3:1-3, Phil 2:12-13). But if, instead of these, all of our Christianity consists merely in talking about the Rapture - and arguing about it - we may find that having our head in the clouds is no assurance that our souls will follow.