IOW dispys have never had a taste of God's glory; Dispys have never had a taste of the wonderful purposes in their lives.
IOW preterists are better Christians and more spiritual than Dispys.
IOW preterists are better Christians and more spiritual than Dispys.
That does seem to be what he's saying, doesn't it?
While I'm not a Dispy, I do get mistaken for one a lot, and I know many Dispys whose experiences parallel my own: I've seen a woman healed of AIDS, the spirits of the Adversary flee at Yeshua's Name, and lives completely changed by the Gospel. I've seen prophecy come to pass, received dreams (twice), and known long-estranged brothers to reconcile the day after they were prayed for. I've prayed in tongues and felt the Spirit move to bind up the broken-hearted.
I've watched holes torn through the wall that separates the Christian and the Jew, and seen Gentiles weep for joy at rediscovering their Jewish spiritual heritage and Jews weep for joy at the evidence that God has not forgotten His promises to their people. I've seen Jew and Gentile sit down together at one table to eat of feasts that are but a foretaste of the glory that will be known at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and seen them love each other as brothers born.
I've known Dispy missionaries that have seen contests between the Spirit and the local powers of darkness of Biblical proportions. I've seen the Gospel penetrating into territory that has been held in darkness by the Adversary for six thosand years.
And in the midst of all that, on the dawning of the day when the Great Commission will be completed and the Gospel truly preached to all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, I see Israel back in the Land in fulfillment of God's promises that He would bring them back first for His Name's sake, and only after that bring them into the New Covenant and put His Spirit within them.
Yeah, clearly Dispys never know the taste of God's glory.
I will tell you this, Tom: When I have kept my eye on the signs of the times, when I have worked with the sense of urgency that comes from knowing that the time is short but there is so much more to do, I have walked closest with God. It is when I take my eyes off the prize, when I slip into the thinking that He is not, in fact, coming back all that soon, that I'm most apt to goof off. That, I think, is why the Apostles always used imminent language to describe the Coming--they didn't know for certain when He would come, but they wanted everyone to be "Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat" (2 Pt. 3:12).
IOW dispys have never had a taste of God's glory; Dispys have never had a taste of the wonderful purposes in their lives.
IOW preterists are better Christians and more spiritual than Dispys.
Granted, dispys have had a taste of something. Something powerful enough to provide mystical thrills, maybe. But not powerful enough to drive back the darkness around them, or to enable any permanent human progress. Their situation reminds me of G K Chesterton's wonderful comment from his book Orthodoxy.
Let me repeat myself:
Many of us once sat where they sat, and thought as they did. Then, we got a taste of God's glory, of His wonderful purposes for our lives. Purposes that extended beyond the realm between our ears, and embraced objective reality.
The traffic is only going in one direction. Once you are apprehended by a faith big enough to apply to ALL of life, the stylites' pillar loses its attraction.