" And as he sat
upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him
privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be?
And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many
shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and
shall deceivemany.
And ye shall
hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet."
A System of Prophecy
"Bible prophecy figure" James
Lloyd
(who does his business as Christian Media Network) claims that he has
developed a prophecy "system". It is most appealing to the "troubled".
To understand the "system" requires that one be "deceived"
enough to believe the various and sundry teachings of
the same James Lloyd who claims to be a gifted "prophet of
the Lord". The most devoted of these have entered into
a symbiotic relationship with are called "cmnfolks."
To believe these teachings, one
must cast away ones normal process of thought and adopt new
thought patterns. These new thought patterns are described
in Lloyd parlance as a "perspective". This is thought
control, which is akin to mind control. Agreement with this
"perspective" is required to become one of Lloyd's "cmnfolks."
Plainly stated, James Lloyd has a megalomaniacal disorder
and his cmnfolks feed into it.
Anyone who might point out
the obvious deceit and discrepancies in Lloyd's prophecy
system is labeled an "enemy of the gospel" and Lloyd's
followers ("folks") are instructed not to give consideration
to any information which does not fit with Lloyd's
"perspective". They are not encouraged to defend their
version of "the faith", but are instructed to report all
violators and avoid contact with them. This insulates them
from any unpleasant truth they might encounter.
Lloyd's "perspective" includes a belief in the immanent
appearance of a so called "planet X", which will cause
famine, death and global devastation. Another such
foundational portion of this "perspective" is a belief that
the book Beyond Babylon by James Lloyd, is inspired by God
and underlying it all is the "perspective" that James Lloyd
(who does his business as Christian Media Network) --- is an
inspired "prophet of the Lord". This new pattern of thought
replaces the old pattern in Lloyd's "remnant" and is
reinforced through regular and repetitive listening to
Lloyd's network programming. As new recruits are added to
the ranks of Lloyd's "clients", customers" and "folks",
sales increase as their infatuation seeks to study to show
themselves approved in the remnant.
Lloyds prophecy "system" has made a great deal of money from
the fear "endtime-believers" (labeled "the remnant")
for many years. One great fear this "remnant" has is the
fear of facing Great Tribulation prophesied by Christ and
recorded in Matthew 24. Lloyd's
"Christian Media Network friends" forum
represents the inner court of Lloyd's following.
Although the inner workings
of this system can be fully known only to those initiated
into the mysteries of this closed "Bible based" society,
if one studies the historical patterns associated with the
"prophetic output" of James Lloyd, a number of consistencies
emerge, which help us understand it more clearly.
This "system"
seems to operate on an assumptive model, the assumption
being that Lloyd utters prophecy and his teachings and
doctrines are inspired by God. The canvas for any given
utterance from Lloyd which is declared to be "prophecy" is called "the scenario"
upon which any given prophecy is based and which generally begins a new
cycle of "prophetic activity". Once in place, the
Lloyd prophecy system assigns identification, assumes chronologies and attaches
prophetic significance to various people, places and events
in the news, upon which the scenario is supported. Each of these aspects of Lloyd's
prophetic system are assigned their function and they may be assigned a place in a "timeline". A number of
smaller assumptive supports are put into place to hold each
underlying aspect of the scenario together, making the
system seem cohesive to and facilitating
acceptance of both the "prophecy" and the "perspective" by the flock.
The James Lloyd System
The system seems to work this
wise;
An event is
taken from the world news. The focus could be upon recent
unrest in Israel, earthquakes, wars, or any occurrence or
public issue which is likely to hit a hot button of fear
from among those who are attracted to the style of product
because of their "perspective.
Fear is the motivating factor in the purchase of survival
supplies and is the first step in the prophecy system which
facilitates the selling prophecy products.
The next step of the
system is to call such an event "significant", tying it to
as many Bible verses as one can find that might be used to
build and sustain any given Lloyd "prophecy".
Next, a decision must be
made as to when this "significant event" "would be expected
to occur" in Lloyd's timeline, relative to some other
"fixed" prophecy event (Lloyd has in the past consorted with
the 3 1/2 year model).
Next you start your
timeline, setting a terminus date. This establishes a "window
period" and represents the amount of time from the present to
the terminus and corresponds to the window of opportunity
Christian Media has to sell the merchandise they offer which
is tailored to the expected needs presented by any current
prophecy.
The period of time
beginning at the introduction of the "prophecy" and the date
when it has been predicted to occur is titled the "window
period", during which
"prophetic activity" is conducted. Although
exactly what
is meant by the phrase "prophetic activity" is not clear, it
may relate to that part of the cycle wherein products sell
briskly in response to Lloyd's predictions.
Each
prophetic model is elaborate which keeps the faithful flock
straining to comprehend. The "prophecy" is propped
up by the use of fearful descriptive imagery of events to
come, conclusionary language and "remnant" buzzwords
delivered during Lloyd's "Bible studies".
Once the system begins to break down (as it must), secondary
supports are identified and presented as "new data" which
are positioned to sustain the foundational, "prophetic"
assumption.
Eventually, a "window period" expires and a new "scenario"
is introduced and a new cycle of "prophetic activity"
begins. One might imagine that most would get wise to the
systems flaws but given the fact that the target audience is
often consuming the programming regularly via shortwave
radio and streaming audio on the internet, and once and
individual has become overcome by conditioning to accept
Lloyd's "perspective", critical thinking skills are often
subordinated to sentimentality.
The antichrist
had to fit Lloyd's prediction to be the previous UN
Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali
And given the
fact that on July 4, 1998, the ruling UN Secretary General
Kofi Anan would have 42 months left in his term of office
which Ghali could then assume
And given Lloyd's
prediction that the antichrist would rule at the United
Nations
And the fact that
the number 1998 was 222 times three
And given Lloyd's
prediction that...etc.
His predictions for the tribulation
and his products were a perfect match. The needs of any
individual facing a 3 1/2 year period
of death, disease and famine intersected with the
availability of Lloyd's long
term survival food, "alternative health" products and
survival gear. There was however a slight problem with the
scenario, the system and the prophecy...
It
Didn't Happen.
Despite the
magnitude of this significant non-event, Lloyd's belief that
he was a prophet of God did not dampen.
In early
2003,
James Lloyd made the same prediction about July 4, 2003.
This time, the same scenario was "supported" by new "data"
which pointed to the ages of Moses and Aaron when they stood
before the Pharaoh . This was predicated upon the assumption
that since:
The
antichrist still had to fit Lloyd's prediction to be the previous
UN Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali
And given
the fact that on July 4, 2003, the ruling UN Secretary
General Kofi Anan would again have 42 months left in his term of
office in July of 2003 which Ghali could then assume
And given Lloyd's
prior prediction that the antichrist would rule at the United
Nations
And the fact that
Moses and Aaron were aged 80 and 83 years when they stood
before the Pharaoh
And the fact that
Lloyd's antichrist" and "False
Prophet" would be 80 (Ghali) and 83 (Pope John Paul
II) years old between May and November (the new window
period) of 2003
And given Lloyd's
previous predictions that...etc.
Given this new
"scenario" based upon Lloyd's "perspective, it was only
reasonable for the "remnant" to conclude that the great
tribulation had to begin before Ghali turned 84 years old in
November, 2003 because he would be too old to be the
antichrist.
It Didn't
Happen again
For some reason,
2004 was next declared to be the year the "prophecy" would
be "fulfilled".
It
Didn't Happen again BUT...
At 00:58:53
UTC December 26, 2004, a 9.2, earthquake with an epicenter
off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The second
largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph, triggered
a series of devastating tsunamis along the Indian Ocean
coast of, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven
countries.
In early
2005, James Lloyd gleefully trumpeted his vision that the tribulation
had begun:
"Dear
Christian Media Friend,
"Although
many Bible prophecy commentators are pointing to this
event as a significant portent of the future series of
judgments commonly referred to as The Great
Tribulation, we now believe that with this event, the tribulation
has already begun".
He repeated this towards at
the close of the same publication: "As I stated before, this,
and many other facts which space precludes covering in
this brief update, has convinced me that
the tribulation has now
begun."
Long term storage food (some of doubtful quality) was again being sold by James Lloyd DBA Christian Media Network, along with a number of other survival essentials. Ironically, some of Lloyd's prophecies have been "self-fulfilling". While "predicting" and warning his "folks" of an immanent persecution of the saints, James personally fulfilled the tribulation prophecies by persecuting the saints, bringing them before synagogues and magistrates earlier the same year! This persecution was "Godly" of course, because the saints in question had rejected the authority God had given Lloyd.
Lloyd has long railed against Bible prophecy teachers who hold to the conservative view that the time Christians refer to as the Great Tribulation, will be a seven year period. James has steadfastly taught that this forthcoming tribulation will be a period of 3 1/2 years.
What is notable about this is the fact that, if this Lloyd "prophecy" was correct, then the tribulation should have been over in the summer of 2008 (according to Lloyd's Sumatra Quake "scenario") and Jesus Christ should have returned shortly afterward. This didn't give the Antichrist much time to get busy as according to the book of Revelation, the antichrist must serve for 42 months and thus, he has to appear before Christ does. Of course, Lloyd's antichrist should have appeared at the same time as the quake but the "timing" always proves to be a bit sticky for Lloyd and this prediction seems to be no exception.
One must recognize that Lloyd's predictions rely upon his prophetic "system" and upon any new interpretation he receives from God which Lloyd can use to fine tune his "system". Thus, a 42 month period of time could mean anything and could even start all over again. There would then begin another "window period" of "prophetic activity" when you will still have time to prepare for the coming tribulation.
And when deciding to buy their survival goods, the "remnant" should remember to buy all those survival products they heard about on the network commercials for Christian Media merchandise. These messages can be heard every thirty minutes on his network in 3 to 6 minute installments. And James Lloyd's mail order company is a logical choice as a source for such products. After all, when you have the right "perspective" who else would you trust?
