OK, I see where that came from.
This Heraclius guy does look a lot like Jesus -- Beard, Robe, the dove on his shoulder. Heck the only thing missing is the halo. A lot of people might have been confused.
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.
Their salvation is totally of grace.
OK, I see where that came from.
This Heraclius guy does look a lot like Jesus -- Beard, Robe, the dove on his shoulder. Heck the only thing missing is the halo. A lot of people might have been confused.
"A lot of people might have been confused."
See things seemed to be going so good and looked like things were progressing that the ruling religious thought that in spite of the ruthless controls of the Roman Empire and the fact that the Emperor claimed to be god and all the wars going on around them that the time was right for Messiah to come. Along comes Bar Kokhba (Numbers 24:17: "There shall come a star out of Jacob" ("Bar Kokhba" means "son of a star" in the Aramaic language) to lead them out of the Roman captivity.
After Jerusalem had its head handed to it and the Temple Mount was desecrated, never to be used again for religious purposes, they figured out they had been snookered and that the times were not getting better and began to refer to Bar-Kokhba as "Ben-Kusiba", a derogatory term used to indicate that he was a false Messiah. The Jews began then to revise their concept of Messiah.
I don't think that believing we live in a fallen world populated with totally depraved human beings is gnostic. It is very Pauline.
Jesus himself in the parable of the wheat and tares said the two should live together. Who was he speaking of?
(1) Regenerated totally depraved people (see Rom 7) and (2)unregenerated totally depraved people.
They were to be together until separated by a harvest which would end with the weeds being burned.
So, what is the hope of the us sinful folks in this life?.... Regeneration and being one of the saved-by-grace wheat.
DrE, anyone who believes in a millennial reign of Christ is necessarily a dispensationalist. We might quibble over what does and doesn't constitute a dispensation, but the millennial reign is definitely one. At a minimum, there are two others: the old and new covenants.
""Eph 1:8... in which He did abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself, 10 in regard to the dispensation of the fulness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth -- in him; 11 in whom also we did obtain an inheritance, being foreordained according to the purpose of Him who the all things is working according to the counsel of His will, """
Well, if things are getting progressively better then I guess we can do away with the Armageddon battle with all of its gore and the final annhilation of Satan and his cronies just before the great judgment seat. Whew, I can't bear to watch Steven King movies let alone the violence in Revelation, what with vultures eating all the enemy armies. Boy am I glad things are getting better. Now if only the NEA, the ACLU, the NCC, Islam, China, Korea, AIDS, etc knew about this. Of course, there is that little cryptic phrase in Rev. 16:17; "it is done!" I don't think He is saying "finally, man has brought in the Kingdom of God, let's go home"
= = = =
/SAR
Now there you go again, trying to be sensible and accurate . . . in a context where there seems to be little market for such! LOL.
He also seems to have a sense of humor in a context where there seems to be little market for such.
Wellllllllllll, what does one expect where
!!!!!!!TRADITION!!!!!!! REIGNS! LOL.
God's best to you Marlowe.
"He also seems to have a sense of humor in a context where there seems to be little market for such"
Look, for the umpteenth time, it's not humor! I'm practicing to be sardonic, sardonic do you hear? I've paid good money to learn that, so work with me. Sardonic!
Ah welllll . . .
I don't think, in 59 years, I have ever succeeded much at all in getting the world to buy into my labels for a lot of things . . . usually, with some effort, one learns to live with such a phenomenon.
From this day forward you shall be known as... (drum roll)... "SARDON".
{!}
N3
At least it's better than
Sauron.
"From this day forward you shall be known as... (drum roll)... "SARDON"."
Hey, any chance you could add "the Great" to that. I think it would impress K a little and it would really look good on the business cards.
I wasn't thinking "the Great." I was thinking "3."
I had some chess software similar to that.
Sardon 3 Chess: Mock, Taunt, and Murder.
"I was thinking "3.""
That reminds me. The last episode of the 5th season of "24" is on 8:00 P.M. on Friday on Fox.
In order to be known as "SARDON THE GREAT" you must first prove the existence of an inferior Sardon that can be known as "Sardon the Lesser". Once you prove your superiority over the inferior Sardon, you shall be granted the title of "Sardon the Great". Until then it's just plain "Sardon".
Sorry. There is a method to our madness.
Please do not use potty language or references to potty language on the Religion Forum.
Sorry. Please delete it.
Amillennial bumpus ad summum
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