By Tsvi Sadan, Israel Today—
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. (Matthew 24:6)
Rumors regarding the imminent coming of Messiah are bountiful today. The latest among them is that of the Riminov Rebbe (pictured), a Hassidic rabbi living in New York.
Visiting his followers in Florida, the rabbi urged them to leave the United States as soon as possible. According to the Orthodox website Behadrei Haredim, on the seventh day of Passover the rabbi pressed his listeners to leave the Diaspora to Israel.
“Listen to me carefully dear Jews,” said the rabbi, “whoever has in his hand to get up and go and go to the Holy Land Israel as soon as possible while it is still is possible, this includes leaving large parts of South America and most of Europe … also the United States will be a place of danger in the war and it is still too early to say which states within the United States will survive, but many parts will be destroyed and poisoned, even civil war will break out in the United States and states will cut themselves off from the federal government … the Land of Israel will be the safest place to survive the war, although there will also be terrible difficulties there.”
To add credibility to this prediction the rabbi reminded his listeners that “I am one of the few men in our time who can say this since it has been published all over the world that my eyes see very far away, like three boys in Halhul and dozens more who were missing, where others do not have permission to see … and this was planted in me by God and Divine Providence and when I had to talk to many and give instructions, I do it and the Divine Presence speaks from my throat, and wherever my name goes out to, it is known that those who listen to me shall be safe.”
Interestingly enough, exactly a year ago a similar End Times prediction was made by the 106-year-old mystic, Rabbi Sasson Tabashi.
On last year’s Passover, Rabbi Tabashi said that “it was revealed to me from Heaven that a week after Shavuot (May 29, 2015), a giant war will break out in the Middle East, and it will be a difficult situation until Sukkot (September 2015), and afterwards, Messiah will come.”
There is more than one way in which to relate to such “prophecies.” If the prophecy of Jesus given in Matthew 24 is to be taken seriously, then the current abundance of such predictions may be a sign of the End Times.