Posted on 07/24/2006 8:28:49 AM PDT by topcat54
Events in Israel are viewed by millions of evangelicals as a sure sign that the rapture is near. Again! Jerry Falwell, who stated on a December 27, 1992, television broadcast, that he did “not believe there will be another millennium . . . or another century,” has written on July 23, 2006:
It is apparent, in light of the rebirth of the state of Israel, that the present-day events in the Holy Land may very well serve as a prelude or forerunner to the future Battle of Armageddon and the glorious return of Jesus Christ.1Something similar happened in 1990. John F. Walvoord recycled and revised his Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis to fit with what was then considered to be the latest in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in our day. The 1974 edition opened with this declaration: “Each day’s headlines raise new questions concerning what the future holds.”2 As we now know, Walvoord’s book was guided by current events and not sound methods of biblical interpretation. Described as “the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy,” in 1991 he expected “‘the Rapture to occur in his own lifetime.’”3 While Walvoord didn’t invent the prophetic speculation game, as Frank Gumerlock points out it his The Day and the Hour, he did make a ton of money playing it.
Walvoord’s book was reprinted in 1976 and then sank without a trace until a revised edition appeared in late 1990. By August 1991, it had sold 1,676,886 copies.4 It was decisively predictive based on the events transpiring in the Gulf War:
The world today is like a stage being set for a great drama. The major actors are already in the wings waiting for their moment in history. The main stage props are already in place. The prophetic play is about to begin. . . . Our present world is well prepared for the beginning of the prophetic drama that will lead to Armageddon. Since the stage is set for this dramatic climax of the age, it must mean that Christ’s coming for his own is very near.5
Not many people realized that the basic content of the revised edition was nearly sixteen years old when it was reissued in 1990. When the Gulf War ended abruptly, the book was being remaindered for twenty-five cents a copy, if you bought it by the case!
Walvoord’s failed predictions have not deterred other prophecy writers from taking up the mantle of prophetic dogmatism by proclaiming that prophecy is being fulfilled today. And what about their past failed predictions that seemed so sure at the time? They simply moved on “without ever acknowledging their mistake.”6 This is because current events, not Scripture, serve as their interpretive grid.
In 1974, Thomas S. McCall and the late Zola Levitt wrote The Coming Russian Invasion in which they stated that “the Armageddon conflict grows out of the Russian invasion of Israel.” Now that the former Soviet Union no longer has super power status, a new prophetic theory had to be invented to fit current events. Since necessity is the mother of invention in the end-time speculation business, prophecy speculator Mark Hitchcock wrote The Coming Islamic Invasion of Israel. But that was in 2002 and it’s old news. Now that Iran is threatening Israel again, prophetic publishers are looking for the next prophetic blockbuster to take advantage of the always gullible Christian market. Similar in title to Walvoord’s book that was first published in 1974, Hitchcock has written Iran—The Coming Crisis: Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat. How many unsuspecting readers will know that Hitchcock has traveled this prophetic road before in The Silver Kingdom: Iran in History and Prophecy published in 1994?
The only winners in the Armageddon game are the authors who tell us it’s near and the publishers who print their books by the truck load. The losers are the integrity of God’s Word and the poor souls who pin their hopes on prophetic speculations passed off as certainties that are always said to be near.
Gary DeMar is president of American Vision and the author of more than 20 books. His latest is Myths, Lies, and Half Truths.
Reprinted with permission: American Vision P.O. Box 220, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-628-9460.
Notes:
1. Jerry Falwell, “On the threshold of Armageddon?” (July 23, 2006): www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51180
2. John F. Walvoord and John E. Walvoord, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974), 7.
3. Quoted in Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Final Days are Here Again,” Newsweek (March 18, 1991), 55.
4. Press Release, “Kudos,” Zondervan Publishing House (August 1991).
5. John W. Walvoord, Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), 228.
6. Stephen D. O’Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 191.
IIRC 2/3 of everyone on earth will be slaughtered. There will be no escape no matter if you are in Jerusalem or in Chicago. Are you going to find fault with God for that one?
The fact of the matter is that those who come to Christ will not be the objects of God's wrath.
BTW your post is seething with bile. You really ought to keep your tone civil.
Marlowe, I'd honestly like to believe that this reflects the Premillennialist position. My problem is that it's not consistent. Many on your side of the aisle have told us that every man can, and eventually will resist God's grace until the point where only the Second Coming itself can break their resistance. These contradictory expectations comprise the cognitive dissonance I spoke of earlier.
"...the facts are, that the state of the world is not one in which things are getting better and better. It is getting worse and worse - just as Scripture said it would."
You have my attention. What's the source for this? According to Sh'mot (Exodus) 12:41, "And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of YHVH went out from the land of Egypt," and in vv. 50-51, "Thus did all the children of Israel; as YHVH commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass the selfsame day, that YHVH did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies."
Now, it is to be admitted that the Hebrew word for "all," kol, does not require absolutely 100% participation--but it does require the vast majority. So it is possible that a relatively few Hebrews, perhaps some who were in comfortable positions of servitude, remained behind, but one would be hard-pressed to suppose that only 20% left.
. . . because in Jewish belief, the Messiah/Moschiach (that's a title, like "President," so it gets capitalized) is a normal human being.
*chuckle* Don't forget the old Yiddish proverb: "Where you have two Jews, you have three opinions." The idea that the Messiah would be a human being, born of a woman, but yet be so much more is not a uniquely Christian invention, but is found in Jewish tradition as well.
In the Targum of Isaiah we read: "His name has been called from old, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, He who lives forever, the Anointed One (Messiah), in whose days peace shall increase upon us."Another page on this subject can be found here. While it is accurate to say that classical Judaism does not teach that the Messiah would literaly be God Incarnate, it would not be accurate to say that the rabbis have expected a "merely" human king.Pereq Shalom: R. Yose the Galilean said: "The name of the Messiah is Peace, for it is said, "Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
Midrash Mishle, S. Buber edition: The Messiah is called by eight names: Yinnon, Tzemah, Pele ["Miracle"], Yo'etz ["Counselor"], Mashiah ["Messiah"], El ["God"], Gibbor ["Hero"], and Avi 'Ad Shalom ["Eternal Father of Peace"] . . .
There is only one Divine Being.
No educated, Biblical Christian would disagree. We believe that Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Christ, is the Sh'kinah, the visible Presence of God, not a second god. He is the Wisdom and Word of God, the Living Torah by whom and for whom all creation was made. And it is for that reason that I capitalize His pronouns--I refuse to capitalize my personal pronoun ("I") without doing so for the Sh'kineh of God.
Other than that, we obviously have a lot in common. All things considered, its better for people to concentrate on those things, rather than that which divides us (one need only turn on the TV to see the result of that).
I certainly agree that we should not let our disagreements divide us, especially when we have so many mutual enemies. But neither should they be the elephant in the corner--we should be able to talk about our differences as friends and even (if you will accept me as such) brothers. Or at least cousins. ;-)
If you just want to leave it at that, then have a wonderful day, and God bless.
I'm curious. Do the Jewish people not regard the Talmud as authoritative? and does not the talmud teach that "(Jesus) is boiling forever in excrement?" I don't want to bear false witness. What does the talmud have to say about the final condition of Jesus of Nazareth?
For the record, groups that claim allegiance to the Bible but deny the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, are, by definition, cults. As Jesus told the pharisees, if they'd taken Moses seriously, they'd have recognized Him. Other than regarding Jesus with greater venom and contempt than do the Muslims, Mormons, and Moonies, how is Judaism not a cult? Or do we need to discard that useful four-letter descriptive word?
Help me out. What is an acceptable alternate word for a group predicated on denying the Lord Jesus Christ, while giving a token nod of respect to the Bible?
Haven't we forgotten one thing? What did Christ say?
"My kingdom id not of this world. If it were, then would my people fight."
"I go to prepare a place for you, that when I come again, I will receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also."
Premillinial, post millinial, Amillinial, pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib...."Oh my brain! It's strained!"...Lil Abner
I mean Blue-D is almost a grpl and they don't even know it. (Sorry for outing you ole buddy.)
And this nonsense about the world gettin' gooder 'n' gooder does not sound like it's working with totally depraved building blocks, does it?
But, along comes the dispensational neererites saying, "depraved people will live in a depraved world".....and we're the ones who get yelled at.
It makes me proud to be a double-predestination, quarter-pelagian, fundamental, dispensational calvinist in the tradition of arminius.
:>)
id=is
24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8 All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.
Yes and no. The Talmud is comprised of the Mishneh, which are the traditional interpretations and expansions of the Torah's commands, and the Gemara, which are just records of what the various rabbis have said about the Tanakh (the OT) and the Mishneh over the centuries. It would be impossible to regard the Gemara as "authoritative" in the absolute sense that you are using the term, since it is basically the minutes of a centuries-old debate between various highly-regarded rabbis.
That being the case, no Jew today is bound by their Jewishness to regard the opinion of one rabbi recorded in the Talmud that Jesus is "boiling in excrement." And if most through the centuries accepted that as true, I would suggest that we look at the Christian policies and polemic against the Jews as the source of that opinion.
If we do the deeds of Antiochus Epiphanes, we should not be surprised if the Jew assigns the false image of Jesus that we have given him a similar curse.
For the record, groups that claim allegiance to the Bible but deny the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, are, by definition, cults.
For the record, groups and individuals who claim allegiance to the Messiah of the Jews but who express hatred towards His people are, by definition, Marcionian.
As Jesus told the pharisees, if they'd taken Moses seriously, they'd have recognized Him.
The difference is that the Pharisees could see that Yeshua kept and taught the Torah correctly and that He was fulfilling the prophecies and doing the deeds of the Messiah before their eyes. The Jews of the eighteen centuries since have seen only the Jesus that we have presented them: A Torah-breaking false prophet (by definition; see Deu. 12:32ff again) whose followers have tried to destroy the Jews.
Ergo, the Pharisees who rejected Yeshua (and not all did--Acts 15:5) rejected the true person and image of the Messiah. Those Jews who have rejected Him since the Church started joining the Romans in persecuting them have rejected only the blasphemous (slanderous) image that we have presented them with.
Tell me, if the emissaries of the Messiah represent Him falsely and a man (rightly) rejects the false image he has been presented with, who is to be condemned? The one who was honestly blind, or the one who claimed to see?
Other than regarding Jesus with greater venom and contempt than do the Muslims, Mormons, and Moonies, how is Judaism not a cult?
Other than regarding the Jews with greater venom and contempt than do the Muslims, Mormons, and Marcionites, how is Reconstructionism not a heresy?
What is an acceptable alternate word for a group predicated on denying the Lord Jesus Christ, while giving a token nod of respect to the Bible?
In this case: "Christianity's" Victims.
You should be ashamed to call yourself a "quarter-Pelagian" and there is no such things as an Arminian Calvinist.
That's like saying you're a Democrat Republican.
Pick one. They are different.
Saved by grace/saved by merit.
Precisely!
I prefer to think of it as:
Totally saved by grace
lost by resistance.
God unleashed His grace at the cross. God's word is in the world now doing the work of God's will.
Once there were only 12 disciples and one of them was evil.
How many disciples are there now?
Excellent answer. Very helpful. Definitely a perspective to take to heart, meditate upon, and factor into further discussions. Perhaps the one nugget of value I've derived from this conversation, beyond the satisfaction of stating my own case! Sincerely, Thanks!
I think we would agree that the reason "reconstructionism" has power to grip the imagination, and inspire people to strive for greater excellence for the glory of God is -- our willingness to take the WHOLE counsel of God seriously. God's WHOLE Word reveals His character, and needs to be studied by those who would be wise. You might call us the "anti-Marcions."
(We are also very grateful that God expanded the definition of Israel enough to include us, who had been formerly "without hope, aliens to the promises, without God in the world.")
But, since the greatest theologian of the last century was an ArmEnian Calvinist, we have proof positive that even God enjoys a pun now and then!
If we do the deeds of Antiochus Epiphanes, we should not be surprised if the Jew assigns the false image of Jesus that we have given him a similar curse.
So now it's Christians who are responsible for the Jews' disbelief???
I don't think Paul would agree with you. True Christians do not kill Jews.
Repent of that libel.
That's the core difference. Men are either 100% fallen and 100% in need of God's grace through faith in Christ...
Or men are not completely fallen and can respond to some indiscriminant offer of grace on God's part since there is intrinsically something better, more righteous, more discerning about one man than the next.
And from this core difference comes all sorts of error and liberalism and universalism.
"You're going the wrong way."
Smedley completely mischaracterizes xzins' post and you stamp it with an Amen? You know darn well that is not what xzins believes and that is not the point he made in that post.
Let's try to keep this discussion Civil. We will not make it that way by high fiving mischaraterisations of each others' posts.
Most welcome.
I think we would agree that the reason "reconstructionism" has power to grip the imagination, and inspire people to strive for greater excellence for the glory of God is -- our willingness to take the WHOLE counsel of God seriously.
Perhaps, though I've personally found that inspiration as a Messianic, and I've seen Dispensationalists who find that inspiration in the expectation of the Lord's soon return. (As indeed I've been inspired to action by my belief in the same.)
My disagreements with Reconstructionism are fourfold:
First, the emphasis on political victory. That same emphasis in the second through fourth centuries led to the Papacy, as well as to watering down the Biblical faith to appeal to the pagan culture. In every instance one might site of Christianity's (apparent political) victory over the world, either the Church has been corrupted, or genuine spiritual revival withing the Church preceded and carried through the political/cultural results.
Second, the vitriol towards the Jews and Israel that many--including yourself--have displayed. I outright refuse to associate with such bigotry against our Lord's people, whom I consider my adopted brothers through Him. (Even if they don't currently accept either Yeshua or myself.)
Third, the flawed eschatology. We've been around the block on that before, and I see no need to restate all the old arguments here.
And fourth, the constant search for scapegoats. Blaming the failure of a political solution to solve a fundamentally spiritual problem on "the Dispensationalists" is rather paranoic.
God's WHOLE Word reveals His character, and needs to be studied by those who would be wise.
Not just studied, but followed (Mat. 7:24-27). That includes loving our neighbors, and not putting up stumbling blocks between them and the Cross by lashing out at what some rabbi was proported to say 1400+ years ago.
Again, I invite you to retract your statement and apologize to the Jews who are watching this thread (there's at least one who's pinged me) for your earlier hate-filled posts.
(We are also very grateful that God expanded the definition of Israel enough to include us, who had been formerly "without hope, aliens to the promises, without God in the world.")
Then stop slandering the Messiah that you are an ambassador for by your words and actions, keep God's commandments, and stop speaking against the branches that were broken off that you might be grafted in. "Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee" (Rom. 11:18).
Doc, he's stating a fact. There is no doubt but that Jews have been killed in the name of Christ throughout the centuries. Whether those who killed them were "Christians" or imposters does not take away from the fact that from the point of view of the Jew, "Christianity" has not been all that friendly.
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics And the Catholics hate the Protestants And the Hindus hate the Moslems And everybody hates the Jews
Tom Lehrer
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.