Posted on 04/30/2006 4:03:53 PM PDT by Teófilo
You're correct. The point is that the MSM has ignored this excellent book for years and now swoons over so much drivel. I never implied this was written as a response to the DVC etc. Only that it is an infinitely better work than it or the Left Behind series. But, since in this book the Church is the victim and Catholics are heroes, the MSM and the Evangelicals have seen fit to ignore it.
-Theo
"The Antichrist may yet be converted to the Gospel."
I find this implausible since the Antichrist's acts, like Judas, are foretold - as is his destiny.
Revelation 19:20
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Right away, I was reminded of Year Zero by Jeff Long.
Thanks for the recommendation!
There is no sequel but there is a prequel! The book, Sophia House, is the book which precedes Father Elijah. I have not read it.
http://www.ignatius.com/
Search string, Michael O'Brien
Frank
Well, this is a work of fiction.
Having said that, prophecy does not exclude human freedom, which I think was the author's thesis, which he handled masterfully. As Judas before him, the Antichrist will freely choose to oppose God and his Christ, thus fulfilling prophecy.
-Theo
A fantastic question! I will not presume to dissuade you otherwise in a few lines--or even in a whole treatise.
I'll say that "dispensationalism" was one of those manifestations of the same 19th century mentality that gave us Campbellism, the 1833 fiasco, and the birth of Christian sects such as Adventism, and others clear out of Christianity, like Mormonism, Christian Science, the Christadelphians, and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Theirs was an attempt to make sense of Salvation history by imposing a rationalist framework on it, and them formulate extrapolations about the End of the World and its likely date.
Methinks that "dispensationalism" imposes an eisegetical (not exegetical, I am sure you know the difference) framework on Scripture, by lifting verses out of their primary literary context and concatenating them in order to forge a series of doctrinal tidbits which are different from what the earthly author(s) originally intended--which is where "revelation" occurs, in the literal sense, the sense they intended not the sense one literally understands.
I disagree with another of the premises underlying dispensationalism, which is that "Scripture interprets Scripture." This is not to deny that there are verses in the New Testament that are interprations of the Old, but I become very skeptical when the onus is transferred from clear New Testament interpretations of an Old Testament saying or prophesy, to the individual believer, no matter how well-versed or well-intentioned s/he might be, alone approaching the Scripture alone (this is not a typo, I mean both "alones") via free examen. I judge that to be the case because of the fisciparous results we observe in history derived from the Protestant tenets of "free examen," "sola Scriptura," and the ability of the individual believer alone to approach Scripture, not only to bind his/her own conscience--and there might not be anything wrong with that--but others' as well, including imposing erroneous interpretations as "binding" upon other people's consciences.
In my view, the risk of spiritual tyranny are higher here than the risk the Reformers decried against the Papacy. But that's another ball of wax.
So there you have it. I am sure that others have said it better than me. I hope this lets you know where I stand--pun on Luther not intended. Verbosity not intended either.
-Theo
I don't want a prequel; I want to know what happens NEXT!
I just finished reading it. What fun that was!
Enoch and Elijah together just as described. I thought I had interpreted that part correctly, and now I find may people agree after all.
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