Y2K DOOMSAYERS REFUSE TO TAKE THE $25,000 CHALLENGE

Y2K DOOMSAYERS REFUSE TO TAKE THE $25,000 CHALLENGE

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December 14, 1999 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - For the last two years many influential Christian ministries have been proclaiming doom and gloom associated with the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problem. Those who have joined the doomsayers bandwagon to one degree or another have included Gary North, Michael Hyatt, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson (who gave much airtime to Michael Hyatt), Don McAlvany, D. James Kennedy, R.C. Sproul, Larry Burkett, Grant Jeffrey, Steve Farrar, Chuck Missler, and Hal Lindsey.

The doomsayers claim that the Y2K problem is so enormous and the time to fix it so short that it is insurmountable. The astonishing doom and gloom scenario that has been devised by Y2K prognosticators envisions the collapse of the banking system, long-term power failure, a breakdown in the police and military, airplanes falling out of the sky, public health systems breaking down, no more court system, social anarchy, and many other things.

Gary North, who says he decided to stake his reputation on his Y2K predictions, anticipates that the Y2K Bug "is going to take down every national Christian ministry" and will bring in famine, pestilence, failure of public health systems, no more court system, no more public schools, etc. North predicts an economic collapse that he describes as "the mother of all bank runs." Not to be outdone, Don McAlvany warned of "the mother of all electrical blackouts" (McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, Feb. 1998). Grant Jeffrey, in his book The Millennium Meltdown, predicts a global crisis, the scope of which we have not experienced since World War II. Dr. D. James Kennedy warned that the Y2K Bug is a dark cloud that "is going to catch the unprepared and drench them like they have never been drenched." Larry Burkett predicts an economic disaster, with a 25% failure rate of small businesses in America and as high as 15% of large corporations. Dr. R.C. Sproul said we may see "the meltdown of civilization with one billion fatalities--the end of the world as we know it" ("The Great Collapse," Tabletalk, April 1999). Hal Lindsey, on his television program, warned that Russia’s nuclear missiles might be launched due to the Y2K problem. Michael Hyatt’s book The Millennium Bug is advertised as a manual to "protect yourself and your family from the coming chaos as critical computer systems crash around the world." The back cover of the book warns of planes unable to fly, military defense systems failing, massive, long-term power failures, banks failing, telephone systems failing, and employers going out of business. Jerry Falwell has devoted at least three televised broadcasts and several articles in his National Liberty Journal to "the Y2K Computer Crisis." Falwell’s video A Christian’s Guide to the Millennium Bug, which retails for $28, stated: "Y2K may be God’s instrument to shake this nation, to humble this nation." Viewers are urged to stockpile food, water, gasoline, and ammunition.

Many of the Y2K doomsayers have made a lot of money from the anxiety they have helped to excite. For example, Michael Hyatt, author of the popular and influential book The Millennium Bug, which has been at the forefront of stirring up the Y2K craze, markets a "Y2K Prep Food" package for $3,395.

THE $25,000 Y2K CHALLENGE

Tired of all of the hype, the Christian Jew Foundation issued a $25,000 Y2K Challenge to the doomsayers. The funds backing the challenge were provided by a Christian businessman who "believes many Y2Kers themselves know that no crisis is coming."

The challenge is as follows: If even half of what alarmists like Gary North, Don McAlvany, and Michael Hyatt have predicted actually comes to pass, the Christian Jew Foundation will write a check for $25,000 to the favorite charity of any of them who has signed the contract and formally accepted the Y2K Challenge. If, on the other hand, it turns out to be pretty much business as usual on January 3, 2000, with only scattered (and relatively inconsequential) glitches here and there, anyone who has accepted the challenge must write a check for $25,000 to the Christian Jew Foundation. The funds will be put into a special account "to help reimburse elderly folks and others who have been financially victimized by Y2K alarmism over the past several years."

This challenge was faxed and mailed to all authors of negative Y2K scenarios, but NOT ONE OF THEM HAS RESPONDED.

All of the details of the $25,000 Challenge can be found in the following book: SEVEN THINGS THE DOOMSAYERS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT Y2K by Gary Hedrick (Harvest House Publishers), available from Amazon.com. Hedrick can be contacted directly at Box 345, San Antonio, TX 78292. 800-926-5397 (voice), gary@cjf.com (e-mail).

RECOMMENDED Y2K MATERIALS

There are several articles at the Way of Life web site under the Y2K section of the End Times Apostasy Database. http://www.wayoflife.org/

The following books are also highly recommended:

Y2K: A REASONED RESPONSE TO MASS HYSTERIA by Dave Hunt. [Harvest House Publishers; available from The Berean Call, P.O. Box 7019, Bend, OR 97708, 503-383-4595 (fax), www.thebereancall.org]

LIE-2K: WHY THE ALLEGED END-OF-THE-WORLD YEAR-2000 COMPUTER CRISIS IS REALLY JUST A HOAX by Sherman S. Smith [879-969-1123 (voice)]

STOP THE Y2K MADNESS by William J. Murray and Robert Armstrong. [Available from Amazon. com]

THE MILLENNIUM BUG DEBUGGED: THE FACTS BEHIND ALL THE Y2K SENSATIONALISM by Hank Hanegraaff (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1999).