Posted on 10/22/2004 8:11:53 AM PDT by missyme
The publishers of "Left Behind" are launching a new series that challenges the end-times theology of the phenomenally popular books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
Illinois-based Tyndale House Publishers says the first book in the new series, "The Last Disciple," by "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff and award-winning fiction author Sigmund Brouwer, asks the question, "What if the prophecies of Revelation have already been fulfilled?"
The opposing interpretation of the Bible is presented in a historical novel centered in first-century Rome and Jerusalem, the publishers say, as "these historical sites begin to experience the turbulence Christ prophesied as the beginning of the 'last days.'"
"Tension mounts as a villainous adversary seeks to find the disciple John's letter (the book of Revelation) and destroy it," a promo reads. "As a result, the early Christians must decipher a mysterious code in order to survive."
Hanegraaff, president and chairman of the board of the evangelical-based cult watchdog Christian Research Institute International, hosts a daily radio program, "Bible Answer Man," that boasts more than 6 million listeners a week.
"This series of novels constitutes one of the most significant projects I have ever been privileged to be involved in," Hanegraaff said in a statement. "Indeed, this initial novel is intended to be the first 'shot' in a debate that I believe will produce a paradigm shift -- a change in the way many in the church look at the end times."
He hopes the book will help people "read the book of Revelation, as well as the rest of Scripture, through the eyes of the early believers to whom it was originally written."
Hanegraaff also wrote best-sellers "The Prayer of Jesus," "Resurrection," "Christianity in Crisis," and "Counterfeit Revival."
Hanegraaff succeeded Christian Research Institute founder Walter Martin after Martin's death in 1989. Some Christians have criticized Hanegraaff for moving beyond Martin's critique of groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses and charging prominent evangelists with false teaching.
Hanegraaff contrasts the "Exegetical Eschatology" in his book with "Left Behind's" Dispensational theology, which grew in popularity in the 19th century and is embraced by many evangelical Christians today.
Dispensationalists believe in a future "rapture" of the church in which Christians will be suddenly taken to be with Jesus Christ before a seven-year period called the Tribulation. Jesus then will establish a 1,000-year reign on earth before Satan is released again on earth and then thrown in the lake of fire. They believe God will then establish a new heave and earth.
Hanegraaff believes most of the prophecies of Jesus and the book of Revelation were fulfilled with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The tribulation, he contends, was the persecution of believers during the reign of Emperor Nero in Rome. When Jesus returns again, Hanegraaff says, he will immediately judge all peoples and establish a new heaven and earth.
Meanwhile, Tyndale has signed with LaHaye and Jenkins to extend the 12-book "Left Behind" series, creating two additional books.
The plot of one takes place before the first book, "Left Behind," and the other is set after the 12th book, "Glorious Appearing."
I am not convinced about pre-trib(I'm just not sure), I have always been 'historic premil', and I would love to see something come out challenging LB theology (or at least something better written!), but this Hanagraff/ preterist stuff I don't believe in either, that is for sure.
"Quite clear" as in you already have swallowed the Left Behind mindset.
You don't seem to have any mind set at all...look at my post at #60!
There are many "quite clear" passages in the Bible(which wasn't written by the Tim LaHay et al LB'ers) that speak of a general time of judgment and rule by Jesus Christ upon the earth. It also speaks of an event that will cause all believers (dead and living) to be given the same type of bodies as Jesus Christ. I don't hold that the LB chronology/interpretation is the correct one, nor do I feel it is incorrect. But the Bible uses some very strong black and white/ can't interpret any other way language about some things that definitely will happen "at the end"!
Christ said no man would know the times and seasons, only "the father in heaven would know them", but we were to "keep watch and occupy until" he should return. The mistake some LB'ers would be vulnerable in making would be to adopt a fatalistic kind attitude that says..."hang on, the end is coming so get ready for the great joy ride to heaven...then oh boy the antichrist is coming and is he ever gonna be mean...!"
I don't think the Bible quite promises that Christians would escape the total effects of the reign of the Antichrist...the Bible says that there are many false Christs in the world now, but I know some argue for the pre-antichrist rapture view. Still what ever your view, never take a mark or electronic ID chip on your right hand or forehead....(The digital "Angel" chip for example).
Despite the "historicity" arguements that everything that Christ and the apostles prophesied has already happened, it is clear from the Bible that everything prophesied has not happened. In the 1700's there were Protestant folks being scoffed at for predicting that Israel would again become a nation, and this scoffing continued until 1948 when it occurred. These were the same sorts of folks arguing for a more literal interpretation of scripture prophecy including a mass "change" of all living and dead believers...they got Israel correct, what else did they get "correct", ?
Daniel was told that the meaning of his visions "would be sealed" until the time of the end for"in the latter days KNOWLEDGE would increase and the people would run to and fro upon the earth". Only in this day of knowledge without wisdom and the wandering restlessness of humans in need of their God, do the Biblical prophecies start to make any sense. God has hidden himself in plain sight!
It's this sort of comment from Christian Luddites that makes me think that things are not so clear as some think.
Let me ask, if I get the chip implanted in my left hand or the back of my head will it be OK?
One of the major problems with this analysis is that the Church is already married to Christ.
Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,Note that the apostle speaks in the present, not future, tense.
Husbands <-> wives
Christ <-> The Church
You have to understand Jewish marriage customs to understand how that fits together. First, the marriage contract was drawn up, and something akin to our betrothals began. It typically lasted for a year or more, during which the man and woman were considered legally husband and wife, though not yet become one in their flesh. During that time, it was expected that the man would build or prepare a house for his bride-to-be, and only after that did he come to gather up his wife, be formally married in a great feast, and live together under his roof.
Our marriage contract has been written up in Christ's blood, and it is legal and binding, but we are still waiting for the Day that He comes to gather us to live under His Roof--and that day will take place at His Second Coming.
Let me ask, if I get the chip implanted in my left hand or the back of my head will it be OK?
Sure, if you think that giving Uncle Sam the ability to track everything you do at all hours is OK.
So now Uncle Sam is the antichrist??
I didn't say that. I just said getting a chip implanted in you was a dumb idea--it doesn't matter what appendage you put it in.
Help me out here...Is Hanegraaff's position basically preterism? I suppose I've always been a pre-mil dispensationalist, but I would be interested to see an objective comparison of the various eschatological positions.
http://www.zambezitimes.com/news/zt543c.html
Money in Islam
Freedom
According to Islamic Law, no merchandise can be imposed as the 'only money'. Imam Malik defined money as 'any merchandise commonly accepted as a medium of exchange. That means that people are free to chose their medium of exchange. Artificial money is a coin or a piece of paper without value as merchandise, and whose only "legal value" is established by the state. That is not admitted. But even if paper money was a debt of real wealth ;gold, silver or other specie;, which it is not, it would not be allowed either, because in Islamic Law debts cannot be used as a medium of exchange, their use is restricted within their own nature as private contracts. Imam Malik related to us in his "Muwatta":
Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that receipts were given to people in the time of Marwan ibn al-Hakm for the produce of the market at al-Jar. People bought and sold the receipts among themselves before they took delivery of the goods. Zayd ibn Thabit and one of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, went to Marwan ibn al-Hakam and said, "Marwan! Do you make usury halal?" He said, I seek refuge with Allah! What is that?" He said, "These receipts [sukuukun] which people buy and sell before they take delivery of the goods." Marwan therefore sent guards to follow them and to take them from people's hands and return them to their owners.
(Al-Muwatta, Book of Commercial Transactions, 44)
You can’t buy or sell unless you use the Islamic Dinar!
And print out a hard copy for reference!
Well..I was joking in a away...to be "marked" in any sort of way from a political point a view is anathema to freedom. Simply as an American, to be chipped and tagged like cattle, to be kept track of, to have to present "papers" like it was some sort Nazi state would stick in my craw.
The chip could be offered to be stuck on my big toe and I wouldn't except for freedom's sake alone....so get lost with the "luddite comments" will you. Fascist state or anti-christ...would you ever like to be tagged like a cow, sir? Yet that is what companies such as Digital Angel are offering, of course it's only "volunteer" right now...just wait 'till they start "insisting"! (By the way, standard practice for Digital Angel is the righthand or forearm)!
We have a technology that appears to be frighteninly close to the "mark" in Revelations. Never mind that most banking and info transactions are based on a hexidecimal binary sytem or "base 6" and that this system is tied into it. Never mind that at all. Just close your mind, don't look at the facts in front of you.
Yet at least keep your mind open to the fact that such an ID system would be such a fundamental attack on our basic rights and freedoms, that it would be right to oppose such a system in the name of our Constitutional rights alone, never mind in light of one's religious principles.
By the way sir,Israel exists! What other crazy ideas were and are the Luddites right about?
The relationship is one of a marriage with the church true, but the imagery in Revelations was future tense, a final joining, a time when we know as we are known as individuals as well as the collective body of believers.
Paul stated
"Behold, now we are the sons of God...but it doesn't yet appear what we shall be, for we know that when he shall appear, we shall BE LIKE HIM, for we shall SEE HIM AS HE IS!"
That event hasn't happened yet, neither has"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye...and the dead in Christ shall rise first"
Those events speak of the Church, enmass, from Adam,Seth, Enoch and all saints living and dead, being presented as a "Bride, with-out spot or wrinkle, to Christ".
Yes of course, Christ is the Church's husband, in the spirit and in truth...the event I'm talking about is when we see him "face to face"! And that hasn't happened yet in our temporal frame of reference, though by God's authority the word has gone out and the ceremony has already begun, the Bride price has been paid thru the spilling of the Blood of Christ. We have been wedded, what is left is the consummation of that marriage...the meeting of the church corporately with "Christ in the middle of the air", the exchanging of corruptible bodies for that which is incorruptible and unable to sin. It is this "change" that was part of his "wedding gift" to the church, the final consummation of our joining with Christ!
Now I haven't speculated as to when in "Bible eschatology" that is all supposed to take place, people have different opinions!
Nero was a archtype pattern. There were things about his reign and nature that were similar to certain prophecies about anti-christ so naturally the arguement is that John the Revelator had a few dreams and patterned all sorts of prophetic rwritings based on the Roman system...thus all prophecies occured or at least events of the time were twisted by some to reflect that view, according to some modernists.
But Daniel said that the final week of years was to be delayed for a long period after "the prince was cut off but not for himself" and that the meaning of the Book of Daniel was going to be sealed until the "latter days when knowledge shall increase and the people shall run to and fro over the earth."
The view that all the major prophecies have happened is a preterist view, the view that much is yet to happen is mostly a pre millenial view.
Some points to counter...there has never been a thousand years of peace under the reign of Jesus Christ nor has there been a binding of Satan to be let loose again at the end of a 1000 years to tempt men to rebelling against God again! Israel became a literal country again even after many years and despite the scoffing of so called religious and temporal scholars. In history, there hasn't been a dumping of fire and Brimstone on a major Northern Eurasian army as is predicted in the Old Testament.There are many things to look at that tell you that the preterists don't have a leg to stand on!
LOL. Just when ya think you're out, they pull ya back in.
"The Exorcist."
ROFL, you crack me up! Isn't that the name of a song? Yea, You Crack Me Up.
I think that if many Christians who call themselves dispensational premillennialists understood what "dispensational" means, they might revisit their eschatology.
I've been a Christian for eight years, and it was three years into my walk before I discovered that there was another way to interpret endtimes prophecy other than premillenial dispensationalism, or the "Left Behind" position.
LOL. I never heard it, but the lyrics are interesting. 8~)
Artist: Huey Lewis And The News
Album: Sports
Title: You Crack Me Up
Oh my god, I can't believe my eyes
Underneath that ghostly pale is that you
Someone in your shape shouldn't be driving
Someone in your shape shouldn't be doing anything at all
You should see yourself in the mirror
With your leather lips and your snakeskin shoes
Do you have to shout in my ear
Do me a favor, just stop talking for a minute or two
You crack me up, you really really do
With your sunglasses on, acting so young
Only I know what you're really up to
You break me up
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