Two trees, two sticks, becoming one again in the hand of the Almighty. The expectation of some, while others do not yet see this paradigm and are unfamiliar with the concept. Yet still there are others for whom this paradigm will not fit within their eisegetical reading of the Scriptures. This latter group is increasingly comprised of those who firmly believe that all of the prophetic events in the Bible have already happened – save for the final judgment. They argue from a fringe, or alternative history, point of view that includes theories of mud floods and the mythical Tartaria; they have a theological position that the millennial reign of Messiah Yeshua has already happened.

These groups often claim that:

• Messiah Yeshua, along with the resurrected saints, already reigned on Earth for 1000 years.
• There was a series of cataclysmic events (mud floods) that erased the evidence of the Millennial Kingdom, or as some call it Tartaria.
• Now we are living in “Satan’s little season” and are in a time that is post-resurrection of the saints.

They claim that we are currently living in a time when Satan has deceived the world to such an extent that the masses of people, including fellow believers, are completely oblivious to the level of deception; we are living in a Matrix-type system, where even the elect are deceived into believing the lies. Christ already returned, the resurrection already happened, the millennium is over and Satan has been released from his prison to lead the world astray before the final judgment and lake of fire.

The only problem is that Messiah hasn’t returned for the harvest of the first fruits, and the millennial Kingdom has not been established yet. Satan has not been imprisoned for 1000 years. While we are living in a time of deception, it ain’t that.

The promised second coming of Messiah has not occurred, and there are some indications why we know this to be true. History is not as broken as many who follow “Satan’s Little Season” would claim, according to an amalgamation of conspiracy theories. (I use the phrase “conspiracy theory” with a grain of salt, because I know that it can be used derogatorily.) More importantly, the Bible speaks of a greater Exodus, one that is so great that the first Exodus from Egypt will no longer be mentioned. There is also the prophecy of the Two Sticks, or Two Trees, or Two Houses (comprised of the House of Judah, and the House of Israel – or Ephraim), becoming one unified Kingdom again; what we might call the restoration of the whole House of Israel.

The Two Houses becoming one and the Greater Exodus happen in tandem – you don’t have one without the other. They haven’t happened yet – but the Little Seasonist will say, “Prove that they haven’t happened.” Here is my contention with that: arguing that someone must prove that something did not happen – especially when there’s no initial evidence that it did – is a logical fallacy, in most cases. This is shifting the burden of proof to the wrong party, or argument from ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantiam); it is appealing to ignorance. If there is absolutely no historical, scriptural, or factual evidence whatsoever that an event happened, and someone claims that it did, but you must prove that it did not, then that my friends, is what we call a logical fallacy.

Why is this fallacious? In a logical debate, the person making a claim – in this case, the restoration of the Two Houses and the Greater Exodus has already occurred – carries the burden of proof; they must provide the evidence or reasoning to support their claim. If someone asserts that such-and-such, we’ll say “X” happened, then they need to provide evidence for X. It is not logically valid for them to say, “X happened unless you can prove X did not happen.” A favorite phrase of the adherents to the Little Season is “what if.” What if the Greater Exodus and unification of the Two Houses already happened? Can you prove it didn’t?

Let’s illustrate this with an example: The Anunnaki built the pyramids. Prove they didn’t. This is a logical fallacy that is shifting the burden of proof. If I believe that the Anunnaki built the pyramids, then I need to prove that the Anunnaki built the pyramids with reliable, verifiable evidence. You are not expected to prove that they didn’t; I made the claim. (Maybe you have documentation that shows who actually built the pyramids, OK, but this is a hypothetical…) Here is a more logical approach: I believe the Anunnaki built the pyramids because of X-Y-Z reasons. This illustrates proper burden of proof. Once the evidence is brought to the table, then it can be examined. So someone might say, “I believe that the Greater Exodus has already happened, and here is the evidence to show it.” Then the evidence can be evaluated and decisions made. But to say, “What if the Greater Exodus already happened? Prove it didn’t,” is just not logical. There is zero evidence to support that it has happened already, therefore it is safe to say that the Greater Exodus and restoration of the whole House of Israel hasn’t occurred.

Consider for a moment the navi, Jeremiah the prophet. In chapter 16 of Jeremiah and verses 14-15 we have an indication that the Greater Exodus – and therefore the restoration of the whole House of Israel – has not yet to take place :

“Therefore see, the days are coming,” declares YHWH, “when it is no longer said, ‘YHWH lives who brought up the children of Yisra’el from the land of Mitsrayim,’ but, ‘YHWH lives who brought up the children of Yisra’el from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I shall bring them back into their land I gave to their fathers.
(Jer 16:14-15)

Those who keep the Commandments of Elohim, and observe the annual mo’edim are still remembering the first Exodus from Egypt every year at Pesach. We’re still saying, “YHWH lives who brought the children of Yisra’el from the land of Mitsrayim.” We are still talking about the first Exodus! We are not talking about the Greater Exodus as if it already happened. We remember the first Passover every year, and have discussions about a cominng Greater Exodus which could happen in the near future. We’ll see. We know that it hasn’t happened yet though, based on these verses. For those who need proof, Jeremiah 16:14 & 15 proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the future Greater Exodus has not yet happened.

There are always exceptions to the rule. This is particularly true in a court of law: one is considered innocent unless proven guilty. If there’s already good reason to assume an event happened, with sufficient evidence, then you would need to prove it didn’t. Say you are arrested on charges of bank robbery, but you were in another state at the time – you may be accused of something, but the burden of proof is on the accuser to provide sufficient evidence of the crime. They claim the event happened, and so they need to prove it. If you were actually in another town, and it wasn’t possible that you could have committed the crime, then they would still need to prove their case with solid evidence – which isn’t available. However, if you claim to have been in another state, and yet there is video evidence of you being at the bank on the day of the robbery, a car matching the description of the get-away car is found in your driveway, and you have a stash of cash and weapons. Even though you are innocent until proven guilty, there is a well-documented case based on the evidence, and you are going to have to prove that you weren’t the culprit. Good luck. In general, however, you don’t have to disprove a baseless assertion. There is a reason why we are instructed to not bear false witness… I digress.

To further break this down, at the risk of sounding redundant: if someone claims an event happened, yet they have no evidence to support this, but they demand you to prove it didn’t happen; this is a logical fallacy. The burden of proof lies on the person making the claim: “The event happened.” Prove the Greater Exodus didn’t happen? No, you need to prove that it did if that is your claim.

If there is no evidence of something, then there’s no rational reason for anyone else to take the claim seriously, much less try to disprove it. Requiring someone to disprove something that has no evidence in the first place is unreasonable — because logically, we can’t disprove every possible imagined event that someone could think-up. This is shifting the responsibility unfairly to the other party, and then assuming something is true because it hasn’t been disproved; appealing to ignorance. It’s not your job to disprove baseless claims. The person making a claim that something happened must first show some reason or evidence for believing it happened.

It is irrational to attempt to disprove something that has no evidence to support it in the first place. Otherwise, anyone could claim anything at all — and waste our time trying to disprove things that were never proven to begin with. This is one of the pitfalls of the online conspiracy theory subculture: too often people succumb to every wind of tall-tale fantasy that proliferates across the interwebs. Many a claim is made with little factual evidence, or the evidence presented is suspicious at best. If there isn’t sufficient evidence of something, there’s no reason to accept it as true.

Let’s apply this logic to the different aspects that adherents to Satan’s Little Season seem to believe: that Messiah’s 1000-year reign already happened, that a mud flood erased history, and that we’re now in Satan’s short season. These are extraordinary claims, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Yet no verifiable evidence has been presented to support them. Often though, images and videos are cherry-picked off of the internet and ordered in montage-like sequences, then sprinkled with some Bible verses in an attempt to give credence to these ideas. The only thing really missing are reliable primary source documents. If the claim is that thousands of years of accepted history is false, and that one of the greatest eschatological events ever is behind us, then where is the verifiable evidence? Images and videos from the far corners of the internet are not reliable resources. Until the Little Season adherents provide sufficient evidence to support their claims, there is little reason to believe them.

In reality, these claims are extraordinary and unsubstantiated. There is no credible historical, archaeological, theological, or scientific evidence that supports the idea that Messiah already reigned on Earth for 1000 years, or that the resurrection already happened, and now we’re living in Satan’s short season after a series of cataclysms in the form of mud floods erased history.

This theory relies on forcing the Bible and history into a box, and taking a very eisegetic approach to the study of scripture. No reliable historical records from any time in history ever document a 1000-year Millennial reign of Messiah Yeshua. None. There are no known ancient or medieval texts that describe the Millenial reign followed by a mud flood that erases evidence. There isn’t 1000 years of missing history. Religious and secular historians spanning different times and geographic locations have written detailed chronologies that predominantly agree, and contain no missing millennium. This theory relies on these myths, however.

Some might say that the evidence was destroyed or hidden by evil powers. That is appealing to a type of conspiracy theory logic which makes the claim impossible to test or falsify. This is in and of itself a logical fallacy. If no evidence can ever count against such a theory because it was destroyed by evil powers, then it’s not a rational claim anymore. This is not to say that we should not consider the possibility of conspiracies, or even that evil powers lurk in dark places, but they need to be substantiated by solid evidence, and not supposed evidence that is cherry-picked from the internet to support your ideas.

The scriptures teach that Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom, and the time leading up to it, would involve visible, tangible, transformative conditions around the world that includes not only a time of peace, but also the near destruction of all of humanity, resurrection of the dead, massive earthquakes, the mark of the Beast, plagues, famine, war… Satan bound… No such conditions are historically recorded on such a earth-shattering scale; there is absolutely no record or tradition of this being fulfilled already. Only eisegesis. Someone might say, “historians are lying,” or “you’re brainwashed,” or, “you just can’t see it yet.” However, that is attacking people instead of addressing evidence, which is an ad hominem fallacy. Solid evidence must be presented; insulting others to prove your claim is faulty logic usually lead by emotions, or pride, or both.

There is no geological evidence for a worldwide mud flood, or even large-scale individual ones, in the last thousand years. Modern archaeology finds continuous layers of human settlements that match conventional history; there is no erased “hidden” empire or lost millennial reign. It is likely that the conventional historical timeline is, for the most part, correct. The mud flood theory requires assuming a massive worldwide cover-up, fabricated history, hidden technology, and erased records, all without evidence, or the evidence that is presented is very suspect. There is, however, Biblical and geologic evidence of a worldwide flood of water, but again, I digress…

But look at the buried buildings! Don’t they prove the mud flood happened? No, they don’t. Often the lower levels of cities and towns are buried. Which is the result from changes in street levels over time, urban development, flooding, or construction practices. Many ancient cities such as Rome and Jerusalem have ancient layers of city below the modern streets and buildings. Buried basements are not proof of a worldwide civilization, or a 1000-year Millennial Kingdom.

Don’t old maps portray geology that is no longer there? Isn’t historic architecture far too advanced for primitive hand-tools and horse-drawn carts? Don’t these prove a history that has been systematically erased? Well, old maps can be inaccurate. Oftentimes maps from the same period in history are very different, especially if they were made before the modern technological era. Interesting historical architecture reflects the differing cultural styles, not lost empires. These are awe inspiring artifacts that human civilization has been more than capable of constructing over the ages. How arrogant of us to think that earlier people who lived prior to the modern age were incapable of creating architectural masterpieces. Old maps and buildings surely aren’t evidence of a 1000-year reign, or massive mud floods. Often, the architecture that is claimed to be too advanced has literal historical documentation of it’s construction. Many cultures independently invented similar architectural designs like arches, domes, or columns because they’re practical or express an idea that was relevant at the time.

Surely there are gaps in history though, so doesn’t that prove that something is missing? All history has gaps because not everything was recorded or survived. There are definitely cultural biases as well that maybe tell similar stories differently. However, these gaps don’t prove that an entirely different timeline happened. It is incumbent upon adherents of the Little Season to provide reliable historical documentation. It is truly a waste of time and effort to attempt to disprove every idea that fails to have solid evidence. “Prove it didn’t happen,” is shifting the burden of proof, a fallacy that appeals to ignorance.

Many of these new doctrinal tares are proliferating because of the seeds have been sown in the fertile soil of the internet. They have been allowed to flourish in conspiratorial circles where, until recently, they remained relatively obscure. Due to a lack of serious critical attention given to them, they were allowed to creep-in to the greater body of believers. As tares that grow to fruition, they are now taking their toll on the assembly at large. However, popularity in a new idea isn’t proof that idea is true. We are not to be as children tossed to-and-fro and carried around by every wind of doctrine. We were warned several times that their would be false teachers with false teachings bringing in destructive heresies. They must have warned us for a reason.

“Proclaim the Word! Be urgent in season, out of season. Convict (or prove them wrong), warn, appeal, with all patience and teaching. For there shall be a time when they shall not bear sound teaching, but according to their own desires, they shall heap up for themselves teachers tickling the ear, and they shall indeed turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to myths.”
(2Ti 4:2-4)

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Master that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the Way of Truth shall be evil spoken of.”
(2Pe 2:1-2)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from Elohim, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
(1Jn 4:1)

We need to be careful of falling for every teaching that is on the internet. Test their fruit! Some of these conspiracy theories that proliferate give the Way of Truth – that of Torah observant followers of Yeshua Messiah – a bad name being evil spoken of. It is important to expose and convict bad doctrine. As stated above, just because a doctrinal idea has grown in popularity in recent times does not mean that it’s true. It means that people are easily swayed by heresies. (Heresies are dissensions arising from diversity of opinions; they are divisive.)

Provide evidence, not how many people believe a new, or resurfaced idea. If you want to accept that the millennial reign, mud flood, and resurrection already happened, good on ya! You do you. However, you must provide solid, verifiable evidence if you want to be taken seriously by those of us who are expecting the restoration of the whole House of Israel, the restoration of all things, and the triumphal return of Messiah Yeshua – not speculation, not eisegesis, not demands to disprove something that is not provable, not attacks on individuals who disagree with your point-of-view, and certainly not fringe media cherry-picked from the internet.

For those of us who are Watchmen on the wall, we wait for (and expect) the restoration of the whole House of Israel. This restoration will be accompanied by an Exodus so great that the Exodus from Egypt will no longer even be mentioned. This will usher in the 1000 year Millennial Kingdom of Messiah Yeshua and His chosen elect. Amen.