to go through the 
, than for a to enter into the 
. 3 + 100 + 3 + 50 = 156 =
Matthew 27:57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple...
Posted on 08/10/2006 12:22:56 PM PDT by OrthodoxPresbyterian
A Young Fool encounters Foolishness
Once upon a time, I was but a wee child in Reformed Theology, taking my first baby-steps into the beautiful Cathedral of Calvinism as a young Debater for Jerry Falwell's world-beating Liberty Debate Team (Our Creed: "Defeat Harvard. Defeat Navy. Defeat American Catholic. Defeat everyone. Crush them all, every time, no exceptions. Win every single National Championship, every year.... because as long as we Calvinists keep winning, Jerry won't excommunicate us for being Calvinists!!".)
Since a Debater is always expected to be able to immediately argue either side of any given question, I spent a lot of time in the local used book-store picking up various books on philosophy and theology and politics and economics... anything I could get my dirt-poor hands on for $2 or $3 dollars a copy. Anything to familiarize myself with multiple intellectual perspectives and multiple modes of argumentation.
Now, in the course of my researches, I happened across a little book entitled War Cycles, Peace Cycles by Richard Kelly Hoskins of Lynchburg, Virginia, regarding the short and long-term economic effects of Monetary Expansions and Contractions in the context of fractional-reserve lending. Hoskins was by no means an uneducated fellow (a capable Financial Advisor and Econometricist, some of his works are still occasionally cited today), but I was singularly disturbed by several passages in which he seemed to suggest a Racial component to Fractional-Reserve Lending (which he called "the Babylon System") versus his contrary suggestions for Joint-Venture Lending.
One passage which stood out in my mind read as follows:
The further I read, the more it was apparent to me that Hoskins regarded "Israel" as The White Race, the Adamic Race descended through Abraham, and that all Non-Whites were considered to him to be zuwr "strangers": Pagans at worst, "Samaritan" Christians at best... but never "Israel".
And so, being the young fool that I was, I did what any young fool would do... I looked Dick Hoskins up in the Lynchburg, Virginia phone book, and called him at his house.
I asked him what he would make of my spiritual position -- a Confessing Christian by Faith, mostly Prussian German by Ethnicity, but with a little 1/16 smidgen of Sioux Nation mixed in 3 or 4 generations back on my mother's side.
Hoskins informed me, quite cordially and without any rancor whatsoever, that God considered me to be a mixed-breed Bastard and that "A Bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 23:2) He advised me to marry "one of my own kind".
Well, I decided at that point (even before I knew him to be the godfather of the "Phinehas Priesthood", the most violent expression of the Christian Identity movement) that even if he was a good money-runner, Dick Hoskins' theology was a barrel full of wet, smelly, foolish Scheißdreck, with which I would have no truck whatsoever. The Christian Creed is this: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, KJV).
Unfortunately, however, "Christian Identity" (derived not from pagan Nazism but rather from its bastard godfather, British Israelism) is not the only theology which Racially divides the Body of Christ into Jew and Gentile, "Israel" and "Not-Israel", Blood and Blood-lines.
Dispensational Zionist Foolishness
The future dispensational kingdom involves a racial prejudice favoring the Jews above even saved Gentiles during the millennium. As such it re-introduces the distinction between Jew and Gentile and replaces Faith with Race as a basis for divine favor. Consider the following citations from leading dispensationalists: (DISPENSATIONAL DISTORTIONS PART TWO, Redemptive History Distortions ~~ Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., Th.D.)
However, with the establishment of the New Testament phase of the Church, the distinction between Jew and Gentile has been abolished. This was the whole point of Peter's vision of the sheet filled with unclean animals in Acts 10: "What God has called clean, let no man call unclean." Thus, there is no separate Jewish program exalting them over saved Gentiles. THE CHURCH, which includes Jew and Gentile in one body, is the fruition and culmination of God's promises to the Jews. In evidence of this, we should note that Christians are called by distinctively Jewish names in the New Testament. "He is a Jew, which is one inwardly" (Rom. 2:29). Christians are called "the circumcision" (Phil. 3:3), "the children" and "the seed of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7, 29), the "Jerusalem which is above" and the "children of the promise" (Gal. 4:24-29). In fact, Christians compose "the Israel of God" for we are a "new creature" regarding which "circumcision availeth nothing" (Gal. 6:16).
Comparing Foolishness with Foolishness
In closing, I ask only (according to the Hebrew logical-interpretive method of "how much the more?")... if the heretical British-Israel/Christian-Identity Racialists pervert True Christianity by dividing the People of God along Racial lines, then how much the more do Dispensationalists also pervert the Word of God and divide the People of God along equally Racialist lines?
Consider the following:
Those aren't Quotations from Richard Kelly Hoskins... granted, they may sound like Christian Identity quotations, but they aren't.
These are nothing less than direct quotations from the leading lights of Dispensationalism in America -- Ryrie, Pentecost, Walvoord, Hoyt, Hunt, Thomas Ice. (I could've quoted Hagee, I suppose, but the man is absolutely freakin' nutbar).
All that I did was to replace "Israel" with "The White Race", and replace "Gentiles" with "Non-Whites".
Does Dispensationalist "theology" destroy the Racial equality of the Body of Christ? What you see is what you get.
God Damn all Racial Theology.
I don't feel that I can be emphatic about the sacrifices mentioned post Christ at all. They are a curious, mysterious thing, to me.
But they are also Biblical.
God clearly has some purpose in mind. Seems unlikely to have anything to do with Salvation Given Christ. But, to pontificate emphatically on the base of such little information seems vain, arrogant to the max, to me--NOT suggesting you do. But some do.
Oh, dear! Differences in the BIBLE between the Kingdom and Heaven? Oh my!
LOL. Sometimes I wonder how many folks really read the text.
Thanks for more good points.
Really?
Everyone is a dispensationlist to some extent.
The Bible has to be 'rightly divided' to understand it.
You do make a difference between the Old and New Testament do you not?
Thank you for your kind words.
Bu Xie; de nada.
Thanks tons to you for your efforts and wisdom. LUB Bro
He also didn't tell them that He was going to return and set up a physical kingdom. Again, that was the error of the rabbis. Don't read into the text what is plainly not there.
Rather, Jesus told His disciples the true nature of the kingdom:
"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."His disciples were still thinking in carnal terms. So Jesus explained to them once again how the kingdom would be advanced. The kingdom would advance gradually, starting in the city of Jerusalem and surrounding regions and finally going out to the entire world.
"Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.' " (Matt. 13:31,32)Ironically it was because of the persecution of God's true Israel by the Jewish leaders that the gospel was advanced. Even Saul of Tarsus was used in this endeavor.
And it was a good thing that the gospel moved out from Jerusalem, since that earthly city -- the center of apostate Israel -- was about to be removed from God redemptive program once and for all. "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it." (Matt. 21:43)
It's interesting that Jesus would use the term "kingdom of God" the spiritual kingdom that allegedly didn't yet exist. But Jesus said it would be taken from the Jewish leaders. How could something that did not exist be taken from the rulers of earthly Israel?
After Acts 1 the disciples never again bring up the matter of earthly kingdom centered in earthly Jerusalem. Rather, we see the apostles transferring all identification of God's people from national Israel to the church.
"For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar-- for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children-- but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Gal. 4:22-26)The rabbis of Jesus' day wanted to live in "the great city", earthly Jerusalem (Rev. 11:8). But the great city was deceptive, for she was really a harlot (Rev. 14:8; 17:18). The rabbis died in "the great city" because they did not flee to the mountains when the "abomination of desolation" appeared in the form of the Roman army. The true sons of Abraham -- the spiritual circumcision -- were able to make it out alive and take the gospel to the rest of the world."But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." (Heb. 12:22-24)
We who live in the heavenly Jerusalem have no interest in seeing old, decayed systems revived.
This is where I get lost. I just can't imagine that God would suddenly require sacrifices again after Jesus was the one true sacrifice. It makes no sense whatsoever to me.
Amen. The prophesies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
What else is the Old Testament but God's preface to the New Testament? Both testaments have the cross at their center. Christ has redeemed us.
"The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New." -- Augustine
But not "dispensationally" ala Brother Scofield.
I fear this verse has been as much abused at the hands of dispensationalists as Romans 6:14.
Amen. So many of these beliefs are merely to neuter Christians, to hinder the Gospel being preached and to deny that the victory of Christ on the cross affects every life on earth.
Were the Jews of Jesus' day looking for the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven, according to the dispensationalist theory?
When Jesus came did He offer the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven to the Jews?
Amen.
But no one can explain the difference without resorting to dispensational sleight of hand.
Just to be precise, the Bible does not say that tares exist in the kingdom of heaven either. Only if you misread Matt. 13:24 can one come to that conclusion.
"Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ..."
The field is not the kingdom of heaven, at least not in that parable. It is a common misconception. Perhaps the result of a faulty "rightly dividing".
So many of these beliefs are merely to neuter Christians, to hinder the Gospel being preached and to deny that the victory of Christ on the cross affects every life on earth.
= = = =
WOW. Incredible.
--are merely
NO! NOT AT ALL--merely or otherwise!
--to neuter Christians
NO! ACTUALLY, MORE TO EMPOWER THEM TO REACH MORE UNBELIEVERS FOR CHRIST when the unbelievers realize how many prophecies have already come true in our time and as they observe with their own eyes and in the daily news more and more such coming true just as Scriptures predict.
Such beliefs also empower new believers in their faith to grow in greater confidence while observing tangible manifestations of God's Majesty and supernatural knowledge and power in prophecying such AND in bringing such prophecies to pass in our era.
--to hinder the Gospel being preached
NO! QUITE THE OPPOSITE, ACTUALLY. Such have been a great aid in my sharing The Gospel on the mission field and off. I think I've lost track of the number of folks brought into The Kingdom through sharing of my perspective on such Biblical prophecies and their in-context interpretations.
--and to deny that the victory of Christ on the cross
NO! NO WAY DOES OUR POSITION DENY THE VICTORY OF CHRIST ON THE CROSS IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM. Quite the OPPOSITE, actually. Christ in all his resultant Revelation MAJESTY and Glory is anticipated, celebrated, exaulted in.
--affects every life on earth
Well, we are quite blessed that our perspective on such Biblical prophecies about the END TIMES AND END TIMES EVENTS DO affect every life on earth--calling with the most dramatic, loudest, clearest call to date for all individuals everywhere to choose God; choose life; Choose Christ; choose eternity with God; . . . vs choose dead religion; vs choose the Anti-Christ's deceptions etc.
And PRAISE GOD for that!
I don't, in the natural, with my natural mind, make linear sense out of a lot of cryptic Scriptures.
Nevertheless, there is a Biblical mention of sacrifices which clearly has to do with something well post The Cross--at least at the time of The Great Tribulation. Some insist in the Millenium.
I don't think there's enough evidence in Scripture to be the least bit dogmatic about such. All such assertions seem to me to be exceedingly vain, arrogant and pharisaical. We just don't know. God hasn't told us that much about that cryptic verse, yet.
But it IS Scripture. It is clearly post the Cross. It is or at least seems clearly about the END TIMES &/or after Armageddon.
Beyond that, I don't think anyone can say with any serious confidence unless their arrogance is greater than and leading their 'confidence.'
But I'm not about to tell God what He can and can't do. He happens to be
ALMIGHTY GOD!!!
much abused
= = = =
Not at all.
Merely trusted to say what it means and mean what it says. Trusting the most plausible, in-context meaning(s) available
. . .rather than trying to shoe horn some straw dog posutlation out of thin air to confirm some tidy boxed theologies founded on thin air.
There are no real differences, except in the mind of the dispensationalist.
One of the most remarkable verses in scripture I have encountered.. The gravity and scope of that is astounding.. Would bring any Rabbi's mind back to Exodus chapter three immediately...
to go through the , than for a to enter into the . 3 + 100 + 3 + 50 = 156 =
Matthew 27:57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple...
[ Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." ]
One of the most remarkable verses in scripture I have encountered.. The gravity and scope of that is astounding.. Would bring any Rabbi's mind back to Exodus chapter three immediately...
With an understanding of the statement, or a misunderstanding? The experts and scholars [of the NT] had a comprehension problem, as is documented in the Gospel accounts. Besides, Levi met Melchizedek.
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