Through no fault of their own? You have just undercut your whole Calvinist theology with that one tc.
The fact of the matter is that God said he would purge the land and he will. As I indicated before the purging is not necessarily believing Jews or Jews at all. The prophecy appears to relate to the inhabitants of the land and the land that is promised and the land that is Israel's by birthright is the land from the Nile to the Euphrates and all the way north to Damscus. If 2/3 of the inhabitants of those lands are killed off, then God could do it without killing off a single Jew. But the fact of the matter is that if God wants to do it, nobody on earth can stop him.
Finally you preterists are stuck with the problem that the prophecy in Zechariah has never been fulfilled. So it is either a false prophecy or it is yet to come. Take your pick.
Finally you preterists are stuck with the problem that the prophecy in Zechariah has never been fulfilled. So it is either a false prophecy or it is yet to come. Take your pick.
157 posted on 08/08/2006 8:17:38 AM MDT by P-Marlowe
How about the one in Isaiah :
b'shem Y'shua Isaiah 17:1 An oracle concerning Damascus:
“See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.
Of course I was speaking from the dispensationalist standpoint of Israel being God's earthly, chosen people.
There is no theological reason to think that God would "preserve" Israel for over 2000 years only to see 2/3 of them killed of in the "final holocaust" before coming to salvation in Christ. That is the way the "literalist" futurists reads Zechariah 13:8,9.
In 1991, Sid Roth, host of "Messianic Vision," stated that "two-thirds of the Jewish people [living in Israel] will be exterminated."
The purge of Israel in their time of trouble is described by Zechariah in these words: "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried" (Zechariah 13:8, 9). According to Zechariah's prophecy, two thirds of the children of Israel in the land will perish, but the one third that are left will be refined and be awaiting the deliverance of God at the second coming of Christ which is described in the next chapter of Zechariah (John Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy (1988), p. 108).
As I indicated before the purging is not necessarily believing Jews or Jews at all.
Note that according to Walvoord only 1/3 of the "children of Israel" (not dwellers in Israel as you wish) are actually looking for Christ after this happens. The implication is that the 2/3 of Israel destroyed were not looking for Christ in the futurist "great tribulation".
Have I misread Walvoord and dispensationalism? Do you take issue with the popular dispensational interpretation of Zechariah 13? After all, it is "literally" speaking about the children of Israel, not merely the inhabitants of the land. Just look at the context; "Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones." Who are the "sheep" and "little ones" in this passage?
Clearly, according to the Walvoord theory, the 1/3 represents a more highly favored chosen group of people.
Again, I can understand why you are reluctant to affirm the popular dispensational interpretation of Zechariah 13. It is anti-semitic in that it calls for the killing of people through no fault of their own, merely the fact that they happen to inhabit a location and are genetically/culturally/socially united somehow. Unless you wish to go further and state they are killed for not accepting Christ.