‘End of Days’ Is Further Proof the End Is Near

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The premise: Invite Pastor John McClure, an expert on the Book of Revelation, to see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new apocalyptic film, “End of Days.”

He’d be my spiritual Roger Ebert, giving the movie a theological thumbs up or down.

Soon after the opening credits is when it all went very, very wrong.

How wrong? Try sitting in a movie theater with a man of God when Satan emerges on the screen and engages in a dream-like menage a trois (there’s a phrase I never thought I’d use in this column) with a mother and daughter.

What in heaven’s name had I done?

“This can’t be rated only R, can it?” McClure kindly whispered to me.

“Ah, well, gee, pastor. . . .” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

The frequent sex scenes kept me from being embarrassed by the endless barrage of four-letter words, gunshots, knifings, blood and guts that passed across the screen for nearly two eternal hours.

At a nearby Coco’s restaurant after the movie, McClure’s movie review was succinct.

Thumbs way down.

“The film so violated every biblical principle,” said McClure, the 54-year-old senior pastor of Newport Vineyard Christian Fellowship. “They snatched a piece here and a piece there from the Bible to create something for themselves. This isn’t just irresponsible, it’s pure evil. And I’m surprised at Arnold for doing that kind of a movie.

“Nearly every commandment in the Ten Commandments got broken in our sight.”

For the past two years, the “End Times” has become an obsession for McClure. He’s putting the finishing touches on a book, “Countdown to Apocalypse.” In it, he contends we’re already in the Great Tribulation period predicted in Revelation and that the apocalypse will likely happen sometime in the first half of the 21st century--but not on Jan. 1, 2000.

“My fascination with Revelation is because I think this is all happening now,” McClure said.

Revelation is the last book of the Bible, and few Christians venture within its pages with much confidence because of its wild imagery (“I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns. . . .”) and apocalyptic tone (“. . . blood came out of the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs”).

“The Lord is letting evil loose on society to drive them toward him,” McClure said. “God is now shaking the tree to get all the fruit he can off of it. Because when he shows up from the heavens, the game’s over.”

The book--a vision communicated to the apostle John by an angel--is simple and encouraging, McClure contends, especially if you think of it as a series of political cartoons, in which metaphors are exaggerated to make a point.

McClure spent more than a decade dissecting Revelation for its meaning, and his conclusions were jarring enough that he’d kept them to himself for years.

Until 1997, when he says he heard a voice from Jesus Christ asking, “John, do you believe the trumpets of Revelation 8 are sounding now or not?”

McClure answered yes.

“Then why haven’t you told my Church?”

That prompted McClure to write his book. He’s also finishing up a 12-part sermon series on Revelation at his church on Sunday evenings.

McClure is more scholar than fire-and-brimstone preacher. He combines both his degrees--in mechanical engineering and theology--to methodically explain why the apocalypse is almost here.

“Some of the teaching on the end of the age wants to make people head for the hills,” McClure said. “But my conviction is that Jesus wants us to move with faith in Christ, in love and wisdom, and call society to right living and to prepare to meet God.”

Among McClure’s conclusions:

* The Great Tribulation period began with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. (“And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth.” Rev. 8-7)

* The nation beast in Revelation is most likely the U.S. government. “There’s only one candidate right now,” McClure said. “I hope I’m wrong. I’m a very patriotic guy.”

* The most probable candidate for the Antichrist will be a future U.S. president.

* The new Babylon will be the East Coast financial world. “If I’m right--and I hope I’m not--then the new Babylon will burn in one hour. It might not be a nuclear holocaust. At minimum, it will be a financial collapse that throws the world in disarray.”

* Revelation’s false prophet--who encourages people to break God’s law--is the entertainment and news media. “That’s what we were watching in ‘End of Days.’ The media--and this doesn’t apply to all of it--presses the immoral envelope further and further out.”

Before our Tuesday night experience at Edwards Theatre, McClure hadn’t been to the movies “in years and years.” So maybe the idea wasn’t so bad. I did expose a man of the cloth to nudity, violence and vulgarity. But I also gave him more proof that the end is near.

William Lobdell, editor of Times Community News, looks at faith as a regular contributor to The Times’ Orange County religion page. His e-mail address is bill.lobdell@latimes.com.