Information by Robert W. O’Neal, Ph.D., posted at www.onealclan.com convincingly indicates we are already in the End of Days.
Cardinal Biffi, one of the leading candidates considered to be the new Pope, professes that the antichrist is alive and with us now, and that "we know him."
How many visitors here believe that we are in the End of Days and, if so, on what do you base your conclusions?
You'll probably find
about zero people around here willing to jump into your categorizations. I, for one, would answer yes to your question. We are in the end of days. But not because of some configuration of current events. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven we’ve been in the end of days. Or the "last days." I don’t exactly know how you can be "in" the End of Days.
Do I, as your website states, believe that I am in the "last generation?" As in, am I sure Jesus is going to return, the creation renewed, etc. etc. before I die? No I am not sure of this. I have not heard anyone on this site claim anything of the sort.
End of days
You will get a good impression of the views of people on the website from these discussions; Ivan Latham’s ‘End of Days’ post was especially fruitful.
My own view is that the sort of approach to biblical eschatology represented by the website you provided a link to is almost entirely misguided. The notion of ‘last days’ in the New Testament, as I understand it, relates to the period of turmoil that marked the end of second temple Judaism and the inauguration of a new age in which Christ ireigns as Lord and the church relates to God through the Spirit. The ‘signs’ of the end were for the benefit of the ‘generation’ that would see the destruction of Jerusalem and the eventual defeat of the enemy of the people of God, namely Rome. Here I would differ slightly from erlenmeyer: I think that the New Testament ‘last days’ were a transitional period. We are not still in the last days because Rome as an ‘antichristian’ power has been defeated, we are now in the age which has come, in which we have the responsibility to be a faith and effective people of God in the world. What still lies ahead of us is the final defeat of death and evil and the renewal of creation.
Dr. Robert O'Neal and onealclan.com
I have been following Dr. O’Neal’s writings and occasionally checking his website for at least a year. What has made his site so popular is that, although he apparently has a scientific background, the website and his organizaiton’s published writings are presented as entertainment rather than as theology or hard science.
In his newsletters, he presents the information in a manner that allows the reader to reach his own conclusions about such biblical events as the parting of the Red Sea, the End of Days, Ezekiel’s experiences and the surprising nature of Moses’ meeting with the Creator.
The only comment I recall he has presented as a declaration as fact is his conviction that no conflict exists between proven science and biblical writings. The website keeps changing but he has taken up all the above topics at one time or another and backed them up with corroborative scientific discoveries in the fields of physics, geology, archaeology, astronomy, paleontology and other disciplines. His insights into basic physics and his travels are impressive. I’d like to live his life for a month or so.
I don’t recall the precise wording but almost everything I’ve read by him includes a disclaimer that his writings are presented as entertainment, not as fact. I agree that he has achieved his goal in that sense.
Re: We are in the End of Days.
Who exactly is Dr. Robert O’Neal (or Dr. Robert W. O’Neal)? I find references and quotes about him about many subjects all over the internet. And amazon has a passel of books written by him. But the subjects associated with his name or references cover every subject under the sun. I can’t find any personal information about him. Help! Is he a theologian, a scientists, a mathematician, an environmentalist - or what?
Is Dr. Robert O’Neal some kind of renaissance man or does he have some specialty that someone here knows about?
Re: We are in the End of Days.
I Googled your question. Dr. Robert Walker O’Neal has a website at www.onealclan.com with a lot of personal information on his background. I searched his name various ways (Dr. Robert O’Neal, Dr. Robert W. O’Neal, and Dr. Robert Walker O’Neal) and various words of current events or of interest.
SEARCH TIP: When using Google, if you put the phrases and exact names in quotation marks (as in "Dr. Robert Walker O’Neal" "End of Days" as an example), you will eliminate all those irrelevant sites that have just the first or last name or any one of the words in a phrase.
An instructor at my school passed out some quotes by Dr. O’Neal and the paper identified him as an archaeologist. But another instructor told me he believed him to be a mathemetician. Even after searching his website and the web in general, I’m uncertain as to his exact profession, but he clearly knows a lot about science and religion. His name is often identified with that of Dr. Timothy LaHaye, the author of the Left Behind novels, but he’s also found with Dr. Behe, a scientist and various names in the news. Some people write on the web that he has addressed the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderberg Society, but he denies this at his website.
Just for the intellectual experience, I wish I knew how to meet with him. One book publisher’s site indicated he lived in Florida, perhaps Sarasota, but another indicates he lives in Orlando.
Cindy Katerra
Re: We are in the End of Days.
edited The following has been edited due to corrections provided by Steven_b, but still presents my perspective:
I have no interest in starting a flame war, but I just want to correct some information about Dr. Robert O’Neal. If anyone has any information contrary to what I am presenting, please tell me. From what I have found about Dr. Robert Walker O’Neal I can only see a solid background in law administration (he was involved in ALA) [and he was an Army military policeman]. I think he sees his site as a clearing house for anything entertaining with a religious/apocalyptic connection. I think it is a hobby for him.
He claims to be a 32nd Degree Mason [Steven_b has confirmed this online], with no claims to religious affiliation [he has at times affiliated himself the the Methodist and Presbyterian churches], but he doesn’t list any of the colleges that he went to, exactly what qualifications he attained, or which colleges he taught at [Steven_b remembers from a newsletter that he attained bachelors and master of science degrees from Rollins College]. He doesn’t say which lodge he is a member of. As the site is just a hobby his credentials are not of prime importance. He feels free to give details about where she got her qualifications from, so privacy is obviously not an issue.
What he does say is that he graduated from military and civilian police colleges, has some legal connections (“honorary member of the American Bar Association” and involved in Association of Legal Administrators [Steven_b has confirmed the ALA connection online]), was an “associate professor of economics and social sciences”. Nothing about archaeology or mathematics. As he emphasises the populist interpretation of the Bible Codes (Drosnin) rather than the scholarly/mathematical interpretation (Ripps) I would think it unlikely that he has a significant mathematical background [in his newsletters he did talk about Ripps more, but these are not available any more]. Based on some of the other material that he references on his site, I doubt that he has significant archaelogical background [He wrote in his newsletters that he was not a professional but participated with group digs].
He does not claim that the information on his site is original from him. It is mostly referenced to other sites (this is a compliment, most sites like this don’t bother to reference). I don’t think he is too picky about what he puts on as I found some articles based on the discredited research/entertaining novels of Ron Wyatt!
Throughout the site he refers to himself as ‘Webmaster’, but the quality of the site shows he does not take the site too seriously, and I don’t think he intends us to either. For someone with his intelligence, doing a free online course for only a few hours would lead to a massive improvement. I am not trying to be mean, but his website is obviously just a little hobby.
In conclusion, I think his website was created as a hobby for entertainment, with the added purpose of getting some interesting perspectives out there. So be entertained by the content, maybe find a hidden gem, but don’t base any of your theology on content from this site. I don’t think he has anything of substance useful for developing the end times theology of the emerging church.
Re: We are in the End of Days.
Re: We are in the End of Days.
Much of what I know about Dr. Robert Walker O’Neal was found online, but I was also a long-time subscriber to his former newsletter. At the time, the newsletter was distributed to several thousand on four continents, but he discontinued the effort several months ago when demands of his charitable activities and expeditions became a bit overwhelming.
The newsletter covered current events, politics, End of Days, religion and science. His archaeology and paleontology interests may be considered hobbies as Richard suspects. He wrote that he was not a professional in either field but participated with group digs. He travels across much of the globe. He wrote that he believed the Bible code is real and he often provided extensive information about the code and Dr. Eliyahu Ripps, the Hebrew University math professor who developed the Bible Code. The Newsletter was established in order that he could go into greater - and intellectual - detail than the website could have provided for the public at large but has some of the old newsletter’s topics posted on various web pages. The website is not a spoof. Dr. Robert O’Neal was once a Methodist and is now a Calvinist (Presbyterian.
While his website is clearly established for entertainment, I couldn’t locate the particular newsletter with details of his personal information, so my response to Richard’s comments are somewhat restricted herein. I recall that his bachelors and master of science degrees were from Rollins College. A search-engine effort tells me that Rollins is rated by U.S. News and World Report as the South’s foremost private college. I don’t remember the institutions for the other two degrees. He taught economics and social sciences at Florida state and private colleges.
Dr. O’Neal did not cover up his career to his subscribers. He has never been, nor has claimed to be, a civilian law enforcement officer. As a young man, he was an Army military policeman and later graduated from a civilian police academy. He works with law enforcement as requested on a volunteer basis and does not charge for his services. I confirmed online that he is a Scottish Rite 32nd Degree Mason.
I have the impression that he is a frequent public speaker on various topics. He was once scheduled to speak at a political event in Tallahassee, but I was unable to attend and therefore have never met him. Wherever he lives, his residence is far from here. Many photos of his various activities are at his website, www.onealclan.com. My impression is that he retired comfortably at an early age and now does whatever he wants.
I learned online that he once served a legal administrator for one of Florida’s largest law firms and his name is still listed at an official website as “(former) President of the Central Florida chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators.” I suspect that position was the beginning of what I assume to be his wealth. I remember reading a subscriber’s newsletter reply that he worked his way through the six colleges and universities, without scholarships, loans, or grants.
Among other topics, he included a “Letters to the Editor” forum with complaints and e-mails to his website. Half or more of these published letters were critical hate-mail, mostly from atheists and doubters of the Bible code, but he published and responded to each. I wrote him a couple of his times at the website concerning ongoing scientific research and its relation to biblical professions and, although my e-mail wasn’t published, he personally answered both, elegantly and intelligently.
I know this doesn’t answer all the questions but I hope it helps. I now wish that I had saved every O’Neal newsletter I received.
Why are we talking about Dr O'Neal?
I appreciate the effort that has gone into this interchange, but could I ask why we are discussing the work of Dr O’Neal at such length on this website? I don’t want to stop people talking about what matters to them but I do want to keep the overarching objective in view, which is the renewal of theology. If you feel that this guy is important, help us to see how this discussion will contribute to the development of an appropriate eschatology for the emerging church (in whatever sense we want to understand that term). I suggest we go back to the original question: ‘How many visitors here believe that we are in the End of Days and, if so, on what do you base your conclusions?’ But let’s not forget that we do this within the framework of a larger concern.