Due to curiosity, I've been keeping track of Bakker since I was a journalist assigned to cover the PTL scandal in the 1980s. Yes, Bakker has now embraced the survivalist side of the view that we are living in unprecedentedly dangerous times that signal the end of the age.
My own view is that since every century since the first coming of Christ has been part of the end times, it's not surprising that someone like Bakker can find ample Bible prophesy to suggest our century is the end. It is the end, but not unprecedented. The centuries preceding it were also part of the end.
A common thread among people who teach that the times are unprecedentedly dangerous is that they tend to make conditions in this world their focus. They often become intent on trying to preserve the comforts and freedoms of Western society, perhaps at great cost, while failing to be heavenly minded. This becomes especially dangerous when some people use this teaching to justify un-Christian behavior on the part of Christians. They start to celebrate or excuse those who would sin against Christ's enemies, and they scold believers who want to keep loving our enemies, claiming that dangerous times call for drastic actions.
Happily, Bakker does not seem to have gone down that road. Instead of, "The times are unusually dangerous, so stop talking about love for your neighbor," Bakker is more likely to say something like, "The times are unusually dangerous, so stock up on canned goods and build a survival shelter." That message is relatively less harmful, so long as your Aunt Susan isn't sending in her life savings to stock up on survival gear.
In fact, the message of Revelation is not, "Avoid the coming plagues by building a survival bunker that can withstand them." And it especially is not, "Avoid the coming plagues by being more hostile back at those who are hostile toward you." Rather, the message of Revelation is, "Survive and endure the coming plagues by remaining faithful to Christ and his teaching."
My sense when I covered Bakker as a journalist all those years ago was that he didn't get how it's all about Jesus, and was instead pitching this-world prosperity and comfort as the solution to this world's problems. I suspect that's the main thing he got wrong, so that the fraudulent acts he was convicted of came more from a skewed view of what it means to overcome the world than from any intentional plot to deceive his followers. I suspect the prosecutors and most of the media at that time misunderstood Bakker, assuming he was more conniving than he actually was.
Like Jacob, I was cautiously encouraged when I read Bakker's book, I Was Wrong. He seemed to have benefited from reading the Bible in prison, began associating with better company, and perhaps really understood the gospel for the first time. Alas, he moved into a new "ministry" that still has the same fundamental problem as the old one.
