The infighting will increase the closer we get.

I think, in line with what happened in the prophecy community the last two weeks (see recent blog posts), you will appreciate this video, particularly the beginning.

Pete Garcia's usage of the aviation concept of the cone of confusion is so spot on, it's brilliant. Essentially, in aviation, the closer you get to final on an instrument landing, the more sensitive the instruments are and the needles on some can bob around a bit. If you chase the needle, you'll never hit your mark.

For those like me who fly VFR, it would be about course corrections, or chasing the pink line on GPS. You do that, and you'll constantly weave across the line, back and forth, focusing on the line instead of taking into consideration the winds and crabbing and such. Big course corrections, from chasing the line, create big course misdirection.

We are in the cone of confusion in the sense that we're close to the end and so much is happening and there's a lot of sensitivity and confusion and we're chasing after the needle instead of holding course. I can't pretend to know what his idea was at what was chasing after the needle, but in my book, it would be chasing after unnecessary arguments about true/partly true/mostly false/false conspiracy theories.

I've seen several videos in the ensuing weeks since September 11 where I can tell prophecy leaders are kind of beating around the bush, hinting warnings or explanations or support for one side or the other based on what went on. 

It's a bit awkward, to be sure.

Some have come out a bit defiant, saying "conspiracy theories are real!" and I feel they've missed the point. It isn't about whether they are or aren't. It's about making them front and center. Some have defended teachers against others, exhibiting a strange case of tall poppy syndrome. Different cultures, personalities, and ministry approaches have been used as proof to tear down or defend as folks took sides. There are some very popular teachers who seem to be a favorite target. I don't know why this clique was created.

Division is so ugly. 

I have, personally, stopped listening to a handful of prophecy teachers and pastors in the weeks since mid September, not as a judgment call on them, exactly, but more because I felt a nudging to step back. Perhaps it's more a judgment call on me, and I'm fine with that. I can't take the barrage and arguing, so I'm stepping out of it.

Too much division. Too much spinning off into theoreticals that people want to argue about. Too much incitement to argue in comments or forums. 

And frankly, nothing is as disheartening and discouraging as having two godly spirit-filled believers who are adamant that the other guy is wrong and they're going to build their ministry around it. I've always struggled to parse that kind of a conflict, and it's even more difficult in these waning times. How do you warn people, or talk to people, about the things you believe are true and important without causing division?

I don't know. But it's been a weird two weeks.

My home church pastor used to joke that he hoped some Christians would have a mansion way way way way over the hilltop, his point being that it is so difficult to get along or find the common ground among some other believers as to the point of it being almost incredulous to think the same spirit is in us.

Some are false believers. Some are deceived. Some are genuine and have arrived at a different conclusion. I have no particular answers, no system to explain the confusion of confusion among believers.

But I know that what the Holy Spirit is telling me is to step back from some teachers right now, and be very cautious going forward. For the time, I've shifted what I listen and read mostly away from Bible prophecy right because the needles are bouncing all over the place and I need to keep my eye out for the runway. I can't be sure which needle is just wanting attention, which needle is simply fulfilling content publishing demands, and which needle is broken.

Maybe it's just the VFR pilot in me, but I don't like to stare so much at the instrument panel; I want my head up and out. We have a brilliant future and it's exciting and that's where I'm looking.