Bulletin of Prophetic Historicism

24 December 2014                                                                    Editor and Proprietor

                                                                                                   Edwin de Kock

Bulletin # 18

                                         A Basketful of Joy

oday will be Christmas Eve and a tree to celebrate it atwinkle with lights. A week from now will bring on January 1, 2015, and New Year with its midnight fireworks and good resolutions. We are also looking forward to a special occasion. The day after Christmas, December 26, will be the sixtieth wedding anniversary of Edwin and Ria de Kock. As a reader of these Bulletins, you will probably already have received your invitation to celebrate it with us on Sabbath, December 27, at a Senior Ministry potluck in the Fellowship Hall of our church. This is located at 602 W. Wisconsin Road, Edinburg, Texas 78539. We thank our gracious Lord for sparing and keeping us together for so many years.  

     We also want you to know how much we treasure our book friends. You help to keep us going as the wind under our wings. Your reactions to our Prophetic Bulletins are greatly appreciated.

     The month of January was named after Janus, an ancient Roman god of doorways. With two faces, he looked both before and after. For us, January 1 is the hinge of the year. We likewise look back on multiple blessings that we received in 2014, while we do our best to peer into the future. Let us see how this is likely to affect our publishing ministry.

                      Cuba in World and Adventist News

he day before yesterday, while Aileen and Henry Stubbs were at the airport in Miami, Florida, he sent us his last e-mail just as they, together with other members of their team, were on the point of flying to Havana. Awaiting them was a jubilant Cuba. Presidents Barack Obama in the United States and Raul Castro, the Communist ruler of that island country had announced that they would try to end the embargo. This requires Congress to change the law, a step that many Republicans oppose. But one of the parties which had brokered the deal was Pope Francis, and many of America’s top legislators are Roman Catholics, including the Speaker of the House.

     A new day will soon be dawning on that island, with exciting possibilities for, amongst others, Seventh-day Adventists. This is what Henry Stubbs wrote in his e-mail: “We bow our heads in awe of what we’re seeing God accomplishing for the advancement of His Kingdom in Cuba. His desire for Cuba must really be colossal. The rapidity with which we see Him bringing impossible events together convinces us that He is after the entire nation and that we don’t have long to work.” Indeed. Since we went there, we too have been praying an audacious prayer: “God, give us Cuba!” Unlike much of Latin America, a large percentage of that nation is highly literate. One of every eleven Cubans is a university graduate. Harnessed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Three Angels’ Messages, this people can be a tremendous power for good throughout the Caribbean and further afield.  

     Henry also tells about several new developments regarding the acquisition of further property to develop a permanent center where Bible Worker-Medical Missionaries will be trained for six months. Providentially this is near our Seminary. ASI has pledged further funding. Most amazingly, “SDA Union officials have asked us to train all the pastors in Cuba and their wives in the Medical Missionary work so they can better understand and work in harmony with the army of youth being trained and sent out to more and more of the unreached towns and cities of Cuba. We know only the Lord could orchestrate this precious harmony.”

     For further details about Henry and Arleen’s activities, please consult their website www.WorldYouthGoup.org.

                        New Books in English and Spanish

s mentioned in Prophetic Bulletin # 17, our extremely fruitful trip to Cuba has produced an unexpected and bountiful harvest: enough material for a brand-new work. Its English title is A More Sure Word of Prophecy. On 17-19 October, Edwin presented four lectures at Havana in the La Vibora Seventh-day Adventist church, the largest of that city. With reformatting and some additional material, it is now a book manuscript of five chapters, a little more than 60 pages. In English, that is. There is also a Spanish version: La Palabra Profética Más Segura, translated by Néstor Rivero.

     The front cover depicts Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image in full color, with the belly and thighs of bronze that represent the Greeks as stretching right down to the knees. Although this fully agrees with the original language and is therefore impeccably Biblical, it challenges commonly used pictures and charts in which the iron of the legs includes the thighs. Please look at the attachment. The book also contains six other illustrations in full color.

     On the back cover, the reader will find an overview that shows what the book is about: a vigorous presentation of prophetic Historicism. Its interpretation of Revelation 13, especially verse 18, identifies the Antichrist as the papacy. This is buttressed by the Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14. Other methods of explaining Biblical prophecy, Idealism, Preterism, and Futurist Dispensationalism contradict this idea. Though they differ among themselves, they have one thing in common: they deflect the finger of accusation away from the papacy. In fact, they are much indebted to Catholic eschatology. In other words, they are the Beast’s attempt to cover its tracks through the centuries.

     But despite repeated attempts to negate it, prophetic Historicism is the only method that validates itself. It compares Bible predictions with events as they have unfolded through ancient, medieval, and modern times.

                                More News from South Korea

n “Meanwhile Half a World Away,” Prophetic Bulletin # 16 told of the wonderful exposure that Edwin’s trilogy The Truth About 666 and the Story of the Great Apostasy (2011, 2013) enjoyed in South Korea (see propheticum.com). An influential layman had written an article which maintained that the number 666 in Rev. 13:18 did not refer to Vicarius Filii Dei, a title of the pope. It appeared in Church Compass, the official Union Conference journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in that country.

     But through the intervention of an expatriate South African, Koot van Wyk, D.Litt. et Phil., Th.D., and leading scholars in that country, a two-part Korean article was written to defend The Truth About 666 and to show that it was the latest research on this topic. The first half appeared in November 2014. The second has just appeared in December. This article upholds the ideas of Uriah Smith and our evangelists. Whether you can read Korean or not, you may find it interesting to read the attachment, which now contains the three articles: first the one by the layman and then the other two upholding the scholarship of Edwin de Kock.

     It is also remarkable that no scholar, Protestant or Catholic, has to date been able to refute this work.

                                               To Pay for the Printing of

                               A More Sure Word of Prophecy

     To print this new book in English and freight it to Southernmost Texas will cost about $3,000 per 1,000 copies. The same applies to a Spanish edition. Unfortunately the kitty is now empty. Until enough of Edwin’s other publications have been sold or kind donors have provided the necessary funds, it may be necessary to start with data CDs. We are praying for God’s guidance about this.

     You, dear reader, can help in one of two ways: 1. Buy Edwin’s books for yourself or your friends, to supply the funds, or 2. Through a direct donation. Recently a dear couple assisted in both ways.

     We were also touched by the act of a Jewish cleaning lady, who is not a Seventh-day Adventist, though she sometimes goes to church with us. She was so excited to hear that this book would also become available in Spanish! She had previously offered to help with a translation of her own. We thanked her but told her that somebody in Cuba was already preparing a Spanish version of Edwin’s books, which pleased her very much. Then, from her meager means, she gave us a check for $100.00. This money has already arrived in Cuba.

     For further details about us, Edwin’s books, our activities, and readers’ responses as well as previous Prophetic Bulletins, please go to our website propheticum.com.