Perry Stone - Prophetic Rumors That Are Not True
Summary:
The preacher warns against prophetic rumors and date-setting speculation fueled by the internet, citing Deuteronomy 18:21–22 that false predictions discredit a prophet. While firmly affirming Christ’s return and end-time events as biblical certainties, he recounts historical false predictions—from early church beliefs about Nero to modern ones like Y2K and 88 reasons in '88—showing how tying prophecy to current events or symbols often leads to error. He urges sticking strictly to Scripture, distinguishing inspiration from speculation, to avoid discrediting genuine Bible prophecy.
Title and Warning Against False Prophets
The title of this message today is called «Prophetic Rumors That Are Not True.» Prophetic speculation and rumors are being fueled by the internet. Deuteronomy Chapter 18:21–22 states, «And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know that the word of the Lord has not spoken? ’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if a thing does not happen or come to pass, then that thing is what the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.»
Now, the reason He gave this warning is that there were people who would speak in the name of the Lord, trying to manipulate others. You may not know this, but years ago, there was a preacher sending out letters to people, telling them that if they did not support him financially, God told him they’d come under the curse of cancer. Of course, that man went to jail; thank God he has a prison ministry right now, but this is actually what the Lord is warning about here.
Absolute Facts About Christ’s Return
There are some things I can stand tonight and tell you that are absolute facts. I can absolutely tell you Jesus Christ is going to return again in 32 AD. In John 14:1-2, it was Christ Himself who said, «I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.» Then, it was in about 32 AD, in Acts 1:1-2, where two men in white apparel said, «This same Jesus which was taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go.»
It was in 52 AD, in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4, that the Bible says, «The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God. The dead in Christ will rise first; we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.» In 56 AD, Ephesians 1:9-10 states, «In the dispensation of the fullness of time, He might gather together in Christ all things, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even unto Him.»
In 95 AD, Revelation 1:22, and also all the way to the end of the book, which is Chapter 22, John saw a revelation of the Kingdom that was coming to the Earth, which would end in the New Jerusalem, with the saints of God living forever in eternity. However, in the process of men and women teaching that Jesus is coming back using the Scriptures to teach it, there has been error that has been promoted, and I don’t think it’s been on purpose. I think a lot of it has been based on what we call speculation.
Inspiration vs. Speculation
There is a difference between inspiration and speculation, as we’re going to show you tonight. In the first and second centuries, there were people in the early church that taught that the Antichrist was Nero, who committed suicide. They believed he went to hell but was going to come back from hell, embodying a man called the Antichrist. Of course, we know that’s not possible, but that was a belief for quite some time.
Then, in the year 320 AD, St. Martin, who was the Bishop of Tours, announced that the Antichrist was alive and had just been born and was a child. In the year 1080 AD, the Bishop of Florence said the Antichrist had been born in his time. Then we go further into 1412 AD, when Vincent of Lérins, a minister, wrote to Pope Benedict XIII, saying the Antichrist was at that time 9 years old.
In 1900, Josephine Lamartine predicted that the Antichrist had just been born. In 1962, some of you will remember this—a woman by the name of Jean Dixon, who was a psychic, predicted that a man had been born in Egypt who would unite the world by the year 2000. So much for Jean’s prediction. So, in other words, the point is that people have always had times in which they believe this has got to be the season, this has got to be the opportunity. There’s no doubt that this is it.
Historical Date-Setting Errors
One of the things that happened years ago was that people would go to the Book of Daniel and they would read 1,260 days in the Book of Revelation and 1,335 days in the Book of Daniel, and they would start saying, «Could that be the year 1,335? Could that be the year 1,295?» Here’s a mistake that a whole bunch of people made in the year 999 AD. They read in the Bible where it says, «You will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years.» They saw the word thousand and thought, «Aha! It’s the year 999. One year from now is going to be the year 1,000. The Lord’s going to come.»
There were people all over Europe who sold everything they had—their property, their homes—and made white robes, making a trek by ship to the city of Jerusalem. When they arrived there and it came time for the new year, they all stood by the thousands upon the Mount of Olives in their white robes, looking upward. And then guess what happened at one second after midnight? Nothing.
So what happened after that? They realized they’d made a mistake, and, of course, after that, the church in Europe began to grow. They had the Bible prophecy wrong. It did not say look for Him in 1,000; it said, «We will rule and reign with Him for 1,000 years.» If they had carefully read their Bible, they could have kept their stuff, stayed home, and lived through the next transition.
An astronomer by the name of Johanan Stoehr announced that another flood was coming like the days of Noah. This was in the 1600s, and he told people to prepare an ark. So they all got together and started preparing an ark. All of Europe got into fear. But a stargazer by the name of George Tanan sent a letter to that Johanan’s calculations were totally and completely wrong.
Now it sounds funny that a guy would tell people to build an ark, but let’s go back to the Bible. God already said in the Book of Genesis, «I will never destroy the Earth with water again, and as a sign of that, I will send a rainbow in the sky that you’ll know the Earth will never be destroyed with water again.» Poor fella didn’t read the Book of Genesis. Apparently, he must have just believed, as some people do, «Forget the Old Testament, it’s outdated; read the New.» If he’d have read the Old, he’d have found out that every time he saw a rainbow in the sky, God was reminding everybody that the Earth is not going to be destroyed with water again.
Somebody say this with me: Stick to the book! Stick to the book!
Prophetic Teachers vs. Prophets
You need to understand something, and that is this: there have been some great prophetic preachers and teachers across the land, even in my day—generations before me—but prophetic teachers are not always prophets. There are several ways that major prophetic teachers base their interpretations of prophecy.
Number one, there are those who simply base it on the entire revelation of God’s Word; honestly, that’s what I try my best to do. Number two, there are those who base it on the Bible through the lens of world events. In other words, this world event has happened; this has to be that. Sometimes it is, but a lot of times, some people can go to the extreme with that.
There are others who base it on the Bible based on events, but also they put their speculation into their interpretation, and boy, sometimes it just doesn’t come out right. There are others that base their teaching on world news and speculation, believing that the world news is that verse and it’s this verse and that verse. Now, sometimes it can be, but sometimes, I’ll tell you, it can get you into serious, serious trouble.
Some basic understanding that you need to know: number one, there is a difference between speculation and actual prediction. In other words, if you speculate, you say it could be; if you predict, you say it will be. So ministers of the Gospel, such as myself, must be careful when we talk about prophecy that we will say it like this: «This could be; I’m speculating, ” versus „It will be; the Lord has showed me this.“
Because I’m going to tell you something—if you tell somebody, „The Lord showed you, ” and you put a date on it and it doesn’t come to pass, you’re in deep trouble. If you’d have been in the Old Testament, you’d have gotten stoned to death. All right? There’s a difference between predictions based on opinions and predictions based on inspiration. There is a difference between saying, „I think this is possible, ” versus „God said this is going to happen.“
So, we all have to be aware of this, because I know this is a crowd that loves Bible prophecy. I know you guys. Okay, we have to be careful, though, listening to people who are trying to put dates and trying to set dates.
Five Basic Principles of Prophecy
I shouldn’t even go there, but I have a very good friend of mine, and I’m not going to name the guy; you’ll figure it out if I talk about it long enough. But he’s a very good friend of mine. He is a godly man; he’s a great man of God. We have been on television together in debates, and we’ve sat together. But I’ve always told him, I said, „Now brother, you’re making one mistake. You always want to put a date and a time frame of months or a day or the month on something.“ And I said, „Now let me tell you something: you keep doing that and you say, ‘God said it, ’ I’m going to have to get some rocks and just kill you, you understand?“ And we’ve laughed about that. But we do have to be careful as ministers of prophecy.
So, five basic principles of prophecy—everybody say this: „Prophecy 101.“ Five basic things that you need to know: number one, I believe with all of my heart, based on the Bible, we are in the last days. Those are the days prior to the return of Messiah.
Number two, there is going to be, in these last days, a shaking of Gentile nations, and everything is going to center around Israel and trouble in Jerusalem. Number three, there is coming an eighth kingdom of Bible prophecy according to the Book of Revelation, ruled by ten major kings who will give their kingdom to the Antichrist for 42 months.
Number four, the Antichrist will eventually be accompanied in the middle of the tribulation by a false religious leader called a „false prophet, ” and religion in the last days, in the tribulation period especially, is going to become totally perverted, corrupt, and controlled by Satan. Number five, the fifth thing I can tell you is I can guarantee you—based on my life, let me say it this way—based on everything I know, based on my eternity on it: Jesus is going to return for the saints of God, take us to heaven, come back with us, and rule on this planet for 1,000 years. I can guarantee you that situation.
The problem is that over time, men have set dates on certain things that never came to pass. What does that do? It hinders the effectiveness of Bible prophecy preaching. Pretty soon, you end up with skeptics; you end up with people that don’t believe anything.
1930s Speculation: Hitler and Mussolini
So, I began to do some research, and I began to try to discover when did people make some of their greatest mistakes on predicting things related to prophecy. Believe this or not, one of the greatest mistakes that was made—and I can understand people making this mistake and I’m going to show you how easy it was for them to get in error—was the rise of Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930s. Some of you may be old enough to remember this.
There was a war going on between three ideologies: communism, capitalism, and fascism. In 1933, Hitler was elected as the chancellor of Germany. In seven years, he rebuilt a defunct German economy and brought Germany out of the economic pit. By 1939, Germany was a force to be reckoned with economically and militarily. In 1939, he also began persecution against the Jewish people, which lasted for seven straight years and ended in what was later to be called the Holocaust, with six million Jews being killed.
Now, Mussolini was a dictator out of Italy; he was actually the Prime Minister of Italy. He hated communism, and Hitler hated communism. That’s what they had in common. In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. Hitler was greatly impressed by his invasion and how he did it. In 1939, Mussolini, the Italian dictator, and Adolf Hitler, the German Chancellor, signed a pact known as the Pact of Steel.
Now, why is it important to understand the Pact of Steel? Because in Daniel 2, there are legs of iron that represent the east and west in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The ministers of that day were saying, „Oh my goodness! We have an Italian dictator!“ Revelation 13 says there’s a false prophet, and we’ve been taught for years, all the way back to the time of the reformers, that he is coming out of Italy. „Oh my goodness! We have a German dictator now, and they’ve just signed the Pact of Steel! That’s the legs of iron in Daniel 2!“ They began to preach this immediately.
But here’s what made it worse: in the year 1897, there was a book written about the Antichrist and the Beast that was very popular. Are you ready for this? Here’s what it says: „The Beast does not look what he is. He may even have a comic mustache.“
Why did they believe that Hitler could be the Antichrist and Mussolini, being the background he was religiously, could be the false prophet? Because you have two men in Revelation 13: the Antichrist and the false prophet. One is connected to Rome, and the other is connected—some used to believe—back in that day to Europe.
Number two, the Book of Revelation says there will be a mark of the beast. The currency of Germany was, and still is, the German Mark. Because the Mark was being used as currency, they thought, „Aha! Mark of the Beast!“ Then it says in Revelation 12 that he goes after the Jews; Satan does, and the Antichrist does, to destroy them. When the Jews were being slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands, they said, „This has got to be the Antichrist!“
Then there were markings; there’s a mark on the right hand and on the forehead. People began to notice something: there was an emblem called a swastika—it was on all the flags, it was on the rings, it was on the armbands, it was on the soldiers, it was on the flags. They began to say the German Mark money is the mark! But wait a minute! There’s also a connection to symbols, which is the swastika, called the twisted cross, and that must be the emblem of the Antichrist.
They also noticed in Daniel that the Antichrist has a mouth speaking great things, changes times and laws, and marches over the world, trampling underfoot. Based on those prophecies in Daniel, they believed Hitler was changing laws; he could make a speech and spellbind hundreds of thousands of people at one time.
And when Mussolini invaded Northern Africa, this is very important for you to understand: Daniel 11:42–43 says Ethiopia, Libya, and Egypt would fall to the hand of the Antichrist. So, when Mussolini began to take Northern Africa through his dictatorship and military, I’m telling you, people in that day began to say, „This is the Antichrist! We are living in the tribulation, and we’re in the last days!“
What even made that belief more intense was America coming off of the gold standard. And if you had gold, you had to turn it into the U.S. government or face jail time. Anyone remember those days when that happened? And then, you had a number called a Social Security number? „Oh, wow!“ So here’s Hitler—he’s a picture of the Antichrist. There’s Mussolini, a picture of the false prophet. Woo! And now, everybody’s getting a number! The Bible says the Beast is going to give you a number, and you can’t buy or sell without that number.
Now, the odd thing was that if people had read the Bible, they would have known the Social Security number wasn’t the Beast system because you weren’t buying or selling with it. It’s something you got when you retired, and the government gave you money. Come on, are you listening? So the thing I’m sharing with you is you’ve got to go back to the Scriptures to see how they’re worded. Stick with the wording of it, and you can keep from getting in some of these errors.
1940s Pyramidology and Other Speculations
Now, in other past predictions, in 1940, a good friend of mine, Vonda Bishop, sent me a book. I love old books, and she sent me a book called „Armageddon Has Come: The Climax of the Ages Is Near, ” by Frederick Haberman written in 1940. Now, I’m not going to tell you everything that’s in the book, but I found it very interesting and, at times, humorous.
The author noted the major job losses during the war and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Now here’s what he predicted in this book: he predicted the end of the capitalistic system since America had gone off the gold standard. He said the three frogs of Revelation 16:13, the Bible says three frogs come out of the mouth of the Beast and the false prophet and the Antichrist, right? He said those three frogs were the three isms being dealt with: capitalism, communism, and fascism.
He then identified Babylon in Revelation 16:19, which would be divided into three parts as the Anglo-Saxons, the Soviets with their communism, and the Asians in Japan. So he’s looking at these passages and actually trying to make them fit situations of his day. So I got to reading the book and I said, „Now what’s the guy basing this on?“ He’s just kind of throwing some stuff out there. Guess what he’s basing it on? Here’s the actual map from the book, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s look on the screen. The Great Pyramid!
I laughed when I saw this because people have tried to do this for years. They’ve noticed some odd things about the Great Pyramid that are very interesting. But to make a long story short, pyramidology—who are the people that have studied the chambers and tried to say, „This happened in this year; and it turns here, and that was that year; and it turns here, and this was this year“? Everything was supposed to end in the year 2000, and guess what? Nothing ended in the year 2000. We are all here! So someone’s interpretation was either off, or the pyramid is a tomb where people are buried now, which it is, by the way.
Modern Speculations in Perry Stone’s Lifetime
Now what I’ve seen in my lifetime: let’s talk about what Perry Stone has seen in his lifetime as it relates to what people believe about Bible prophecy. In 1979, I remember being called to preach in the ministry and reading a book called „The Parade of Planets.“ There was going to be an alignment of the planets that would introduce the Great Tribulation, causing havoc—earthquakes, hell was going to break loose on Earth. And guess what happened? They aligned! And nothing happened.
In 1988, most of you will remember „88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Come in ’88.“ Everybody in the United States was talking about it! I got up and preached, „There’s one reason why He won’t come in '88: 'cause everybody’s looking for Him, and the Bible said that in the day and hour they think not, the Son of Man’s coming! Stick to the Bible!“
In 1991, when the Gulf War broke out, there were men saying, „My goodness! Could this be the tribulation?“ I got up and told people, „It’s not the tribulation; don’t worry about it!“ They said, „Could it be Armageddon?“ I said, „Neither is it Armageddon, because they got the wrong location! Send the journalists to school! Send them some Perry Stone videos. Armageddon is not in Iraq! Armageddon is not in Syria! Armageddon is a valley in Israel; it’s where the last battle’s going to take place!“ So I knew that Armageddon was not happening during the Gulf War.
In 1992, during the peace agreements, they said, „This is the beginning of the seven-year tribulation.“ The problem with that is that nobody talked about seven years; all they did was talk about a peace agreement. I said, „Don’t, don’t call up the tribulation 'cause it’s not!“
In 1999, everybody remembers Y2K: „Get your pinto beans! Get your rice! Get your crackers! Get your Spam! Make sure that you can survive!“ Look, I had a whole storage load full of this stuff. I was believing what these preachers were telling me. Man, I’m telling you, I was ready! I was fit for bear! I’m going to feed the whole town! But at midnight in the year 2000, there were a few glitches here and there; a lot of people spent money getting their computers fixed. So nothing directly happened.
And then the terrorist attack—could Bin Laden be the Antichrist? A lot of people were saying that he could be. He wanted to be the Mahdi of Islam. Bin Laden’s now dead, buried somewhere in the ocean, so that’s so much for that. When the Iraq War broke out in 2001, once again everybody began to talk about Armageddon.
Here’s what I’m trying to say: all those things are interesting, all those things have their points, all those things may have stirred prophetic interests, but a lot of the interpretations were based on speculation and rumors.
Internet Rumors About 9/11 in the Quran
So what we’re going to do now is address some rumors on the internet. Everybody ready? Say, „I’m ready!“ You’re going to like this. I received mail; I still occasionally receive mail that says something like this: „911: the attack of 911 was predicted in the Bible and also in the Quran, Islam’s holy book.“ And here’s what the email says: „In Surah 9:11, it predicts towers falling!“ And they say, „Look at Surah number nine, under section just 11, meaning ninth month on the 11th day, under verse 109, and you’re going to find it!“
Well, just so happens Perry Stone doesn’t just have Bibles; I have Muslims who have sent me Qurans, and I’ve got three of them, so I have a choice of looking through three. Now, here is the verse that actually is in the Quran where people are saying this is the prediction of 9/11 on the internet. Here’s the verse: „Which then is best? He that layeth his foundation on the piety of Allah and His good pleasure, or he that layeth the foundation on an undermined sand cliff, ready to crumble to pieces, and it doth crumble with him into the fire of hell? And Allah guides not people who do wrongdoing.“
Now, because it says „crumbling to pieces“ and „the fire of Hell, ” someone got a hold of that and said that was the buildings burning on 9/11 crumbling into the ground. It says nothing like that! It says nothing about a building! In fact, what it’s talking about there in the Quran is building on a sandy foundation, and the house will crumble! Does that sound like somebody else’s teachings that we heard? And may Muhammad have actually gotten it from the gospels because it quotes the gospels where Jesus said, „If you build on a sandy foundation, your house is going to collapse?“
Well, I remember this one went all over the internet, and you got to remember, I’m not going to get and preach this stuff like some people were preaching it, and I’m thinking, „You better research it first!“ The Quran predicted that the wrath of a great eagle would be felt in Islamic lands in verse 9:11. „911! 911!“
Oh, so I said, „Well, let’s look it up!“ So I go and pull the Quran out again. Again, Muslims have sent me Qurans, so I looked at the verse. Let me give you the actual verse. Here’s the alleged verse: „For it is written that a man from Arabia would awaken a fearsome eagle; the wrath of the eagle would be felt throughout the land of Allah. And lo, while some of the people trembled in despair, still more rejoiced, for the wrath of the eagle cleansed the lands of Allah, and there was peace!“
Now that sounds like the eagle is America! America’s going to go to Arabia; they’re going to go in that part of the world; they’re going to cause a war; they’re going to cleanse it of Saddam or whoever it was. And that’s how it was being interpreted. This thing went viral into tens of millions of people who sent it to me! I mean, every day we were getting this verse!
So what did I do? I went to the Quran to look up to see if there’s anything about an eagle. Couldn’t find it! Here’s the actual verse that they’re saying is mentioned there. Now how many of you know what we’re talking about? We’re talking about prophetic information that’s a rumor! It’s not true! Here’s the actual verse: „But even so, if they repent, establish regular prayers, and practice regular charity, they are your brethren in faith. Thus, we explain the signs and details for those who understand.“
Says nothing about an eagle; says nothing about going into Arabia. So in other words, when you hear people and they’re sending you these things, don’t just take it at surface value that it’s there. You need to go back and research it from its source to see. So, there are two rumors I’m telling you were everywhere—some of them still on the internet—and those rumors are totally false. Where they came from, I have no idea; who interpreted them that way, I have no idea.
Rumors About the Antichrist and EU
So those were two false rumors. Now let’s talk about this for a moment: the rise of the Antichrist. Some teach that the Antichrist is going to come out of the revived Roman Empire in the future; some suggest he is the head of the EU and takes over ten of those nations. But one of the things for the people who believe that the Antichrist will one day be the head of the Common Market or the EU-this rumor is active on th