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Posts by topcat54

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  • To the Jew first

    06/03/2011 5:23:59 PM PDT · 43 of 44
    topcat54 to Seven_0
    What criteria do you use to determine if a passage of scripture is an allegory? The Lord is my Shepherd. I see two allegories here. Shepherd and sheep. If we see the meaning of the allegory in this passage, is it the same elsewhere?

    It should spell out the allegory clearly, e.g., Galatians 4 where Paul used the images of the bondswoman/Mt Sinai and the freewoman as allegories of the two covenants; one depicting earthly Jerusalem and other the heavenly Jerusalem. Earthly Jerusalem is in bondage, while “the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

    Revelation 2 and 3 have no characteristics of a biblical allegory. The notion that they depict dispensations/ages within a dispensation is pure invention.

  • To the Jew first

    06/01/2011 7:30:57 PM PDT · 41 of 44
    topcat54 to Seven_0
    There is nothing in the Bible that gives the meaning of the number “7,” but you can determine the meaning. It’s an allegory. The fact that there are 7 churches adds significance.

    There were seven real churches in Asia Minor. This fact alone in no way supports the notion that the churches somehow represent distinct and identifiable dispensations within the so-called church age. That is pure dispensational allegorizing.

    What do you suppose the Jews are going to find when they go looking for food?

    Nothing, since the church will be gone according to the dispensational theory.

    According to the Bible and contra dispensationalism, the Church will be preserved until Christ returns at the Second Coming. It will hold forth the truth of the gospel to all nations until the end.

  • To the Jew first

    05/31/2011 12:06:30 PM PDT · 39 of 44
    topcat54 to Seven_0
    The early dispensationalist recognized that the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 represented periods of time between Christ's ascension and his return.

    That’s a bogus interpretation of Revelation 2 and 3. There is nothing in the Bible to support the theory. It’s an example of dispensational allegorizing.

    Watch Israel.

    What exactly are we watching for? All I suspect is we’ll see her conversion en mass to faith in Jesus Christ prior to His coming.

  • Horton vs. the Sermon on the Mount (take 2!)

    05/30/2011 7:34:56 PM PDT · 1 of 2
    topcat54
  • Life and Death and the Last Days, or Why Eschatology Matters

    05/30/2011 7:20:16 PM PDT · 24 of 27
    topcat54 to throwback
    If the Church is going to prevail, who needs Christ?

    Christ is the head of the Church. She will prevail because He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

  • To the Jew first

    05/30/2011 7:17:40 PM PDT · 37 of 44
    topcat54 to Seven_0
    It is necessary that Israel does not exhibit true faith in the triune God until the time of the gentiles ends. If Israel comes to Christ before the rapture, I will admit that I was wrong.

    Since God’s timetable is not ours, you and I will probably be quite dead before this ever happens. It's already 2000 years and counting.

  • To the Jew first

    05/27/2011 1:14:12 PM PDT · 28 of 44
    topcat54 to dartuser
    Many of the theologians in the article are supporting national restoration for Israel; as opposed to individual redemption for elect Jews. What gives?

    Many Reformed theologians, like theologians in general, have believed in a future for national Israel. The difference between their biblical outlook and what goes around in dispensationalist/futurist/rapturist circles is considerable.

    Dispensationalists believe that the modern state of Israel is prophetically significant in spite of the fact that they exhibit no true faith towards the triune God of the Bible. Dispensationalists believe we are the terminal generation because of what happened 1948 -- a purely political action -- not because any true faith is exhibited in the nation

    The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that blessing is predicated on faith, true faith in the God of Abraham, and the Savior of mankind, the Lord Jesus Christ. National repentance will be exhibited in Israel before the return of Christ for His own. That may be in the near future, or, more likely, it may still be many generations away. Of course this is true of all the nations, not just Israel.

  • Life and Death and the Last Days, or Why Eschatology Matters

    05/27/2011 1:03:44 PM PDT · 1 of 27
    topcat54
  • To the Jew first

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/26/2011 10:55:37 AM PDT · 45 of 50
    topcat54 to Salvation
    Do you have any specific examples of error?

    Yes.

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/26/2011 10:54:43 AM PDT · 44 of 50
    topcat54 to Iscool
    And as you ignore the rest of it: We who are still ALIVE and remain will go up as well...Bodies and all...

    I didn’t ignore anything. In fact I explicitly dealt with the saints militant. Take off your rapturist glasses and read more carefully.

    At Christ Second Coming the souls of the saints who have “fallen asleep” return with Christ to be reunited with their bodies (first), then the saints who are alive are translated body and soul, and both classes of saints are with Christ in their resurrected bodies.

    There is no direct indication in the Bible that the “marriage supper” of the Lamb takes place in heaven. While this is asserted in rapturist theology, the fact is it will take place when the Bride is fully prepared, at the Second Coming at the (one and only) resurrection, perhaps in the new heavens and new earth.

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/26/2011 10:40:25 AM PDT · 43 of 50
    topcat54 to Salvation
    If you were baptized Catholic you are still Catholic. That mark is still on your soul.

    I’m certainly catholic (universal), but no longer Roman Catholic (sectarian).

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 7:28:33 PM PDT · 36 of 50
    topcat54 to Iscool
    Nope...When Jesus shows up at the 2nd coming, He's staying...For a thousand years...Nobody's going up at that time...

    Thus spake JN Darby. But it ain't in the Bible. 

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 7:26:09 PM PDT · 35 of 50
    topcat54 to Salvation
    We invite you to investigate the Catholic Church with an open minds and join many famous converts.

    I was Roman Catholic by birth. I'm Reformed by the grace if God, never to return to the pigsty of the papacy. . 

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 7:22:37 PM PDT · 34 of 50
    topcat54 to Salvation
    Being written in 1881 by a priest hardly compares with apsotate, Camping.  

    Error did not begin with Camping. Rome is an expert in that regard. 

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 7:19:22 PM PDT · 33 of 50
    topcat54 to Salvation
    There is only ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH.  

    There is one holy, catholic and apostolic Church, but it ain't hq'ed Rome. 

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 8:47:38 AM PDT · 27 of 50
    topcat54 to onthelookout777; grumpa
    In fact, what’s ridiculous is to paint Dispensationalists as advocates of wooden literalism.

    What they do in practice is more like "literal when convenient." They have no consistent hermeneutics. They can pick and choose when to be "literal" and when to spiritualize.

    See The Myth of Consistent Literalism.

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 8:42:41 AM PDT · 26 of 50
    topcat54 to Salvation

    Roman Catholic propaganda is as bad as protestant propaganda.

  • Before Harold Camping, There Was Chuck Smith

    05/25/2011 8:38:07 AM PDT · 19 of 20
    topcat54 to P8riot
    My theology today is solidly reformed 5-point Calvinism, but I credit men like Chuck Smith, who taught that personal Bible study was necessary for Christian growth for planting the seeds that have brought me to where I am today.

    I was converted in the heyday of dispensationalism back in the ‘70s. Fancied myself a true believer until a good friend opened the Bible to reveal the richness of what is embodied in the Reformed faith.

    Interesting that is was the process and not the substance that stuck with you. I find that true of many former CC members. Truth is in the Bible, not in men. How we learn to study the Bible is obviously the key.

  • Theologian Clarifies Rapture, Last Days Beliefs

    05/25/2011 8:31:36 AM PDT · 25 of 50
    topcat54 to Iscool
    I must be missing something because Jesus comes back WITH his church but then his church rises to meet him in the air???

    What you are obviously missing is a biblical view of the Church, and the nature of the saints who have fallen asleep vs. those who are alive at His coming.

    There saint triumphant and saints militant.

    The saints triumphant (in their souls) return with Christ at the Second Coming to be reunited with their bodies that rise from the grave.

    The saints militant are changed in the twinkling of an eye and they meet Christ body and soul in the air. All these transformed/resurrected saints accompany Christ to the earth in triumph where He judges the sheep and goats.

    All this proves is that those who don't want to believe in the Rapture will say just about anything, no matter how ridiculous to justify their disbelief...

    You just need to read the Bible to get the complete picture. There is a ”rapture” in the Bible, just not the false view of the rapture invented by the JN Darby and perpetuated by the dispensationalists. It’s called the Second Coming.