The Purveyors of ‘Peace and Safety’

Rapture Ready ^ | 2/14/24 | Paul J. Scharf

[Roman_War_Criminal]

To me, one of the strangest oddities of the year 2020 was the call for safety in the face of COVID-19.

“Stay safe,” we were cautioned. Here in Wisconsin, our governor even issued an order titled “Safer at Home.”

This seemed to me to be an extraordinary choice of wording—because COVID-19 results from a virus. I’m sure that experts disagree on the best methodologies for warding off infection from a virus. But one thing that you certainly cannot do to escape it is to stay safe. Your only hope is to stay healthy.

So, the expression itself was bizarre but yielded little public scrutiny. I wondered from the beginning if it was setting us up for some future use of safety as a new cultural buzzword.

I share all that to illustrate—not necessarily form a connection with—the fact that the Bible tells us of a time when the universal catchphrase will indeed be “Peace and safety!” (1 Thess. 5:3). It seems to me that we are seeing a precursor to that even now.

Since the events of Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel was attacked by Hamas terrorists, Bible prophecy teachers of all stripes have been on high alert.

Being a dispensational premillennialist who loves Bible prophecy, I have certainly tried to do my part to warn and teach that I believe we are witnessing what Jesus called “the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:3). I believe that such signs (of His second coming, and of future prophetic fulfillment in the tribulation) are intensifying as never before, and I am certainly not alone in that view. Many pretribulationists are on the very same track.

I’ve noticed that those who hold other eschatological views have also been turning up their own volume in response. Postmillennialism seems to be on the march once again. Amillennialism remains popular in many realms. These camps often present a more sophisticated appeal than we dispensationalists seem to be able to muster. And our theological opponents are very quick to seize on those kinds of advantages—and sometimes disrespect our views in a manner that borders on mockery.

Granted, some of this criticism is deserved. We certainly have some within our broader pretribulational prophetic circles who have devoted their ministries to speculation and sensationalism—including far-out subjects, wild predictions, spiritualizing the text of Scripture, engaging in unbiblical date-setting, and sometimes just offering nonsense.

But this is not the dispensationalism that I have received, nor that which I preach. Every time I speak, I attempt to handle the Word of God reverently and responsibly, emulating the scholarship which has been bequeathed to me by “faithful men” (2 Tim. 2:2).

Sadly, dispensationalists have not always done a great job of policing their own. The temptation is always to accommodate those who might be considered borderline even in their faithfulness to Christian orthodoxy—if we feel we might benefit from reaching their audiences. But transgressions committed by those on the outer edge of the movement do not warrant throwing the baby out with the bathwater. No matter where you’ve been or what view you hold, the ultimate issue is the literal, clear meaning of the text of Scripture.

To those brethren who disagree with my prophetic position, I would simply state that I was raised in an amillennial environment and understand that system quite thoroughly. I have been involved in ministry contexts where varying end-time views had to be respected. I have read and listened to—and certainly benefited from—many great Reformed teachers who embrace a different understanding of eschatology. While I disagree with them, I deeply respect them and would never malign their motives.

So, I would also throw out a caution to the men in these other camps: Feel free to engage with dispensationalism—and even to criticize it. But, in your criticisms, watch out so that your voices do not begin to meld, to the undiscerning ear, with those of the outright skeptics, even atheists, who have nothing but utter disdain for a pretribulational rapture. Beware that you do not begin, like them, to offer a baseless hope of “Peace and safety!” (1 Thess. 5:3), almost as if to cry sneeringly, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4).

Of course, such contempt only leaves me wondering if the signs are intensifying even more.

I close with a plea to my dispensational brethren: We must do a better job of representing the cause of Christ and heralding His imminent return with integrity and valor.

This is our time to explain to the world that what lies ahead will be anything but “Peace and safety!” (1 Thess. 5:3).

[Roman_War_Criminal]

End Times Ping

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Maranatha!

[sauropod]

.

[combat_boots]

The Terrorist in Chief

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/the-truth-about-the-jihad-in-dearborn

[TomEd]

~~~ Why the traffic is only going in one direction ~~~

CP/M, an 8-bit operating system, pioneered in the early days of the personal computer. I grew very attached to my KayPro II, a luggable device with a green screen that could display 25 lines, each with 80 ASCII characters, and sported two DSDD 5.25” floppy drives. But what an excellent keyboard!

People described it as “Darth Vader’s Lunchbox.”

I became proficient in Wordstar, an early word processing program, that was “like Darth Vader — powerful and cruel.”

Now, imagine trying to use Microsoft Word 2000 on a Kaypro II, an 8-bit operating system running on a Z-80 chip in 64 kilobytes of memory ...

Post-mil theology compares to premillennialism in just about the same way that Windows 10 compares to CP/M. The Post-mil position address ALL of life, and provides traction in the real world. The loser perspectives preemptively take a dive, paint themselves into the “religious” corner of life, and can render the believer incompetent in real life. After all, nothing “worldly” really matters, right?

We once sat where you sit. Most of us grew up in an world where dispensational premillennialism was the default position for “faithful” Christians. Those of us who were FAITHFUL to that vision of assured failure — failed. Crashed and burned. We’ve been where you are. And we KNOW where it leads. And we know the Lord who leads His beloved saints OUT of that insanity.

I don’t have much patience with proof-texting. Yes, there are premillennialists who are avid to beat you over the head with their pet isolated verses. Dolly the camera back, though, and look at the big picture. Why would anyone who’s breathed the brisk fresh air of God’s good purposes for ALL of life want to trade in a Great King, Who is even now doing great things — for a Personal Private Piety? Competence for impotence? Meaning for mysticism?

Bottom line:
Winners and lovers shape the future.
Wankers and losers try to predict it.

[metmom]

“Stay safe,” we were cautioned. Here in Wisconsin, our governor even issued an order titled “Safer at Home.”

And people were as opposed to going to a hospital where they'd try to kill you with venting and Remdesivir, or just flat out wrong medication schedules all the while pretending to be doing something that is supposed to help.

[metmom]

I have always seen date setters as being chastised by actual pre-mol believers.

[EliRoom8]

Thank you, R_W_C. l think we’ll be able to fulfill this request by staying close to good, sound Biblical exposition (generally transcribed).

[SaveFerris]

(The Purveyors of ‘Peace and Safety’)

Luke 21:34-36
21st Century King James Version

34 “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so that Day come upon you unawares.

35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole Earth.

36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+21%3A34-36&version=KJ21

[SaveFerris]

(The Purveyors of ‘Peace and Safety’)

Saved from the Blinken thread - posted for THIS thread - a warning to the world 🌎🌏🌍

(unveiled his grand plan for Middle East peace: a Palestinian state.)

One of these days....it's actually going to happen.

The man who confirms the 7-year Covenant of 'Peace and Security' (Daniel 9:27) will be the Antichrist. The "instead-of" or "counterfeit messiah" prophesied in Revelation chapter 13 and 2nd Thessalonians 2:8-12 (and elsewhere in the Bible).





(Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Israel has to accept a two-state solution)

Trust me folks, the 7 years of 'Peace and Security' are coming. And the Godless Reprobate United Nations / Globalists are going to get Satan's Antichrist.

Beware the coming confirmation of 7 years of 'Peace and Security'