CBD: At this juncture, what do you think will be the severity of Y2K?

Steve Hewitt: I think at this point in time there's a problem; it's being fixed.  It's within the norm of computer problems.  I'm not trying to say there's not a problem, I'm not saying companies aren't working hard.  For the average person in America I think the effects will be almost nonexistent.

CBD: What misconceptions do you think people still hold about Y2K?

SH: That something big is going to happen January 1, 2000.  Eighty-eight percent of Y2K will already take place by December 1999.  So when they are worried about this big Y2K event; they need to realize 88% of it is over with.  January 1 was a big deal, February 4 was a big deal, and April 1, 1999, was a major deal.

CBD: And why was that?

SH: Canada, Japan, the state of New York have all rolled over their fiscal years.  Right now, their corporate calendars, their financial calendars are already working into March 31, 2000, and yet there's no crashes.  Michael Hyatt on the Focus on the Family show last January stated that when April 1, 1999, came, we would see enough of the beginnings of Y2K that no smoking mirrors could hide it from the public. They would know how bad it was going to be.  This is April 6 – nothing.  Michael Radcliffe of Ziff-Davis News shared in his column on April 2 that there was even a camera crew from a news agency that went into the capitol of New York state waiting all day to get a story about the crashes, and nothing happened. . . .  Everybody agrees that Y2K is happening now.  Around 70% of all the companies in America and Europe have already suffered Y2K crashes, and yet few people noticed it.

CBD: How has Y2K become not just a computer issue but a spiritual one?

SH: That's a very, very good question, and I don't have all the answers.  It has, for a couple of reasons.  One is we're looking for signs of the times.  And I'm certainly one.  I believe in the soon coming of Jesus Christ.  I don't want to minimize that at all.  We are to be watching and waiting , and I'm ready for His coming.  But we've gone a little overboard with that.  We sensationalize every time three planets line up, or there's going to be a meteor shower, or somebody's name has six letters in it, or the sun spots look like you can connect the dots and come up with a six.  What's happened now is we have a whole bunch of guys, that's all they do for a living.  Their whole ministry (not just 1 or 2, there's about 20 or 30) is to gather support for their ministry.  Because they're not prophets but they're bible teachers,  trying to analyze the signs of the times that are in the paper each and every day so that somehow we don't miss the coming of Christ.  It's caused us to just go a little crazy with this.  . . .

The Bible says in the last days the very elect will be deceived.  That's always been a hard Scripture for many people to understand, but after Y2K I'm starting to believe it's very possible.  I'm amazed at what's happened here.  The thing is, unfortunately, so many ministries are dependent on sensationalizing subjects in order to gain contributions.  Now, not everybody.  I'm not making an accusation, but the fact of the matter is look at all the ministries that if you sent a donation, you will get a book or something about Y2K.  That has tended for us to be looking for something sensational because we are becoming like the secular news sources.  Instead of being about ministry and Bible study, we're about something sensational in order to help our profit margin.  I think that has got to be considered as one of the problems we have had happen as a result of Y2K.

CBD: What do you think is the effect of the message that is being sent out on the credibility of the Christian voice?

SH: That's one of the biggest dangers.  There are two major things we are being damaged by Y2K with.  One is the credibility of Christian sources.  There's a cartoon that was in the Kansas City Star called, "Judges Opinion."  A little boy turns to his daddy in the first frame and asks, "Is Y2K going to cause something horrible?"  In the second frame, they're standing on a street corner, and the daddy turns to the boy and says "Son, it already has."  And behind them is a huge crowd of really goofy- looking people holding up signs, "Y2K Nuts" "Y2K Survivalists" and in the middle of the group someone is holding up a Bible.  That's exactly the results of what Y2K is bringing on our society.  Chicago Tribune, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired Magazine, they've all done stories not about America's reaction to Y2K but the Christian overreaction to Y2K.  This is not legitimate persecution that we can be proud of.  This is ridicule that we deserve.  That's pretty sad. 

The second aspect that's going to start becoming clear as we go farther along that I'm discovering from speaking across the nation on Y2K is we have maybe tens of thousands of victims of Y2K now, Christians who went overboard.  I know Michael Hyatt has said, "If I'm wrong, people can just eat the food.  If he's wrong, they'll starve and freeze to death."  I could give him the names and addresses now of people who cannot just eat their food.  A lady in Eugene, Oregon told me how life is over because of Y2K.  It's not just because she sold her dream house, she quit her job before retirement, she cashed her IRAs at 10% loss, she pulled out of the stock market, she now has cows and chickens and 2 years of survivalist food.  None of those are reasons of why her life is over. . . .   The reason Y2K has destroyed her life, she now knows, is she'll never be able to witness again.  She'll always be the crazy Y2K lady.

 I'm running across this each and every day.  I got an e-mail this week from a family thanking me that because last November, I spoke at Calvary Chapel in Las Vegas and through a lot of talking and a lot of praying, that was the turning point that brought their marriage back because Y2K had separated them.  I met a couple in Indianapolis . . . His wife of 35 years has not talked with him for four days. He told me, " I was no longer her spiritual leader."  After 35 years she had never told him that.  But because he wouldn't go out and get $200 of bullets, and he already got $200 worth of candles.  He had been doing the whole thing.  But he went out and got $70 worth of bullets and all the 380 shells Wal Mart had.  They followed him out and wrote his license plate number down.  That was it. He said this is all I'm getting.  Because of that they hadn't spoken.  Now she's seen my presentation since.  And has e-mailed me and thanked me for bringing her back to her sanity.  But this is happening across the nation.  . . . I think when this is over we're going to discover tens of thousands of victims of Y2K hysteria.  And unfortunately that has been in the Christian community.  More so than the secular community… Y2K has done more damage to the church than this great opportunity for ministry that some have claimed.

CBD: Has the tide turned at all?  Are leaders of these various churches starting to listen to reason?

SH: It has turned, but it is going to continue to divide bigger and better.  Right now in Texas and  San Jose they are getting ready to hold a huge Y2K rally.  They have over 200 booths.  That's what drives this.

CBD: Economics?

SH: There's a market.  You're having a rally of 200 booths of people selling Y2K paraphernalia and junk.  The market is still driving it.  But the surveys show that in January  31% of Americans overly worried about Y2K.  It's dropped to 20%.  The survivalists food sales have peaked and begun to slow down.  So has the sale of gold.  So the very fact that the overreaction we have to worry about is going to take care of itself.  I think by November this is just going to be a big joke.  Except for the people who aren't laughing because they're the victims.

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