Posted on 09/01/2006 5:32:18 AM PDT by xzins
I suspect that most of you have been at a theological crossroad at least once in your Christian life. I have stood at several over the years. Let me tell you about one such instance, since it is one that many have faced down through church history. It involves the question of "What do you do with a future national Israel in the Bible?" The decision one makes about this question will largely determine your view of Bible prophecy, thus greatly impacting your view of the Bible itself and where history is headed.
Back in the early '80s I lived in Oklahoma and was in my first pastorate after getting out of Dallas Seminary in 1980. I had been attracted for about a decade to the writings of those known as Christian Reconstructionists. Most reconstructionists are preterist postmillennial1 in their view of Bible prophecy. Up to this point in my life I considered myself a reconstructionist who was not postmillennial, but dispensational premillennial. Through a series of events, I came to a point in my thinking where I believed that I had to consider whether postmillennialism was biblical. I recall having come to the point in my mind where I actually wanted to switch to postmillennialism and had thought about what that would mean for me in the ministry. I remember thinking that I was willing to make whatever changes would be necessary if I concluded that the Bible taught postmillennialism.
I went on a trip to Tyler, Texas (at the time a reconstructionist stronghold) and visited with Gary North and his pastor Ray Sutton. I spent most of my time talking with Ray Sutton, a Dallas graduate who had made the journey from dispensationalism to postmillennialism. As I got in my car to drive the 100 miles to Dallas where I would stay that night, I expected to make the shift to postmillennialism. In fact, I spent the night in the home of my current co-author, Tim Demy, who told me later that he said to his wife after talking with me, "Well Lynn, looks like we've lost Tommy to postmillennialism."
The next morning as I drove from Dallas to Oklahoma, my mind was active with a debate between the two positions. About two-thirds of the way home, I concluded that to make the shift to postmillennialism I would have to spiritualize many of the passages referring to a future for national Israel and replace them with the church. At that moment of realization, which has been strengthened since through many hours of in-depth Bible study, I lost any attraction to postmillennialism.
Since that time, more than fifteen years ago, further Bible study has continued to strengthen my belief that God has a future plan for national Israel. It was the Bible's clear teaching about a future for national Israel that kept me a dispensationalist. What the Bible teaches about national Israel's future has been a central issue impacting the action of Christians on many important issues. It is hard to think of a more important issue that has exerted a greater practical impact upon Christendom than the Church's treatment of unbelieving Jews during her 2,000 year history. As we will see, treatment of the Jews by Christendom usually revolves around one's understanding of Israel's future national role in God's plan.
Over the years I have been asked many times, "How can a genuine, born-again Christian be anti-Semitic?" Most American evangelical Christians today have a high view of Jews and the modern state of Israel and do not realize that this is a more recent development because of the positive influence of the dispensational view that national Israel has a future in the plan of God. Actually, for the last 2,000 years, Chrisendom has been responsible for much of the world's anti-Semitism. What has been the reason within Chrisendom that would allow anti-Semitism to develop and prosper? Replacement theology has been recognized at the culprit.
What is replacement theology? Replacement theology is the view that the Church has permanently replaced Israel as the instrument through which God works and that national Israel does not have a future in the plan of God. Some replacement theologians may believe that individual Jews will be converted and enter into the church (something that we all believe), but they do not believe that God will literally fulfill the dozens of Old Testament promises to a converted national Israel in the future. For example, reconstructionist David Chilton says that "ethnic Israel was excommunicated for its apostasy and will never again be God's Kingdom."2 Chilton says again, "the Bible does not tell of any future plan for Israel as a special nation."3 Reconstructionist patriarch, R. J. Rushdoony uses the strongest language when he declares,
The fall of Jerusalem, and the public rejection of physical Israel as the chosen people of God, meant also the deliverance of the true people of God, the church of Christ, the elect, out of the bondage to Israel and Jerusalem, . . .4
A further heresy clouds premillennial interpretations of Scripture--their exaltation of racism into a divine principle. Every attempt to bring the Jew back into prophecy as a Jew is to give race and works (for racial descent is a human work) a priority over grace and Christ's work and is nothing more or less than paganism. . . . There can be no compromise with this vicious heresy.5
Replacement theology and its view that Israel is finished in history nationally has been responsible for producing theological anti-Semitism in the church. History records that such a theology, when combined with the right social and political climate, has produced and allowed anti-Semitism to flourish. This was a point made by Hal Lindsey in The Road to Holocaust, to which reconstructionists cried foul. A book was written to rebut Lindsey by Jewish reconstructionist Steve Schlissel. Strangely, Schlissel's book (Hal Lindsey & The Restoration of the Jews) ended up supporting Lindsey's thesis that replacement theology produced anti-Semitism in the past and could in the future. Schlissel seems to share Lindsey's basic view on the rise and development of anti-Semitism within the history of the church. After giving his readers an overview of the history of anti-Semitism through Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Jerome, Schlissel then quotes approvingly Raul Hilberg's famous quote included in Lindsey's Holocaust.
Viewing the plight of the Jews in Christian lands from the fourth century to the recent holocaust, one Jew observed, "First we were told 'You're not good enough to live among us as Jews.' Then we were told, 'You're not good enough to live among us.' Finally we were told, 'You're not good enough to live.'"6
Schlissel then comments approvingly upon Hilberg's statement,
This devastatingly accurate historical analysis was the fruit of an error, a building of prejudice and hate erected upon a false theological foundation. The blindness of the church regarding the place of the Jew in redemptive history is, I believe, directly responsible for the wicked sins and attitudes described above. What the church believes about the Jews has always made a difference. But the church has not always believed a lie.7
The truth, noted by Schlissel, is what his other reconstructionist brethren deny. What Schlissel has called a lie is the replacement theology that his preterist reconstructionist brethren advocate. Their form of replacement theology is the problem. Schlissel goes on to show that the Reformed church of Europe, after the Reformation, widely adopted the belief that God's future plan for Israel includes a national restoration of Israel. Many even taught that Israel would one day rebuild her Temple. For his Reformed brethren to arrive at such conclusions meant that they were interpreting the Old Testament promises to Israel literally, at least some of them. This shift from replacement theology to a national future for Israel resulted in a decline in persecution of the Jews in many Reformed communities and increased efforts in Jewish evangelism. Schlissel notes:
the change in the fortune of the Jews in Western civilization can be traced, not to humanism, but to the Reformed faith. The rediscovery of Scripture brought a rekindling of the Biblical conviction that God had not, in fact, fully nor finally rejected His people.8
Yet Schlissel is concerned that his Reformed brethren are abandoning this future national hope for Israel as they currently reassert a strong view of replacement theology.
Whatever views were maintained as to Israel's political restoration, their spiritual future was simply a given in Reformed circles. Ironically, this sure and certain hope is not a truth kept burning brightly in many Christian Reformed Churches today, . . . In fact, their future conversion aside, the Jews' very existence is rarely referred to today, and even then it is not with much grace or balance.9
This extract establishes that the "spiritualized" notion of "Israel" in Rom 11:25, 26, was known to and rejected by the body of Dutch expositors. . . .
Since the turn of the century, most modern Dutch Reformed, following Kuyper and Bavinck, reject this historic position.10
Reconstructionist Schlissel seems to think that part of the reason why many of his Reformed brethren are returning to replacement theology is due to their reaction to the strong emphasis of a future for Israel as a nation found within dispensational premillennialism. Yet, dispensational premillennialism developed within the Reformed tradition as many began to consistently take all the Old Testament promises that were yet fulfilled for Israel as still valid for a future Jewish nation. Schlissel complains:
just a century ago all classes of Reformed interpreters held to the certainty of the future conversion of Israel as a nation. How they have come, to a frightening extent, to depart from their historic positions regarding the certainty of Israel's future conversion is not our subject here. . . . the hope of the future conversion of the Jews became closely linked, at the turn of the century and beyond, with Premillennial Dispensationalism, an eschatological heresy. This, necessarily, one might say, soon became bound up and confused with Zionism. Christians waxed loud about the return of the Jews to Israel being a portent that the Second Coming is high. It thus seemed impossible, for many, to distinguish between the spiritual hope of Israel and their political "hope." Many Reformed, therefore, abandoned both.11
As it should be, the nature of Israel's future became the watershed issue in biblical interpretation which caused a polarization of positions that we find today. As Schlissel noted, "all classes of Reformed interpreters held to the certainty of the future conversion of Israel as a nation." Today most Reformed interpreters do not hold such a view. Why? Early in the systemization of any theological position the issues are undeveloped and less clear than later when the consistency of various positions are worked out. Thus it is natural for the mature understanding of any theological issue to lead to polarization of viewpoints as a result of interaction and debate between positions. The earlier Reformed position to which Schlissel refers included a blend of some Old Testament passages that were taken literally (i.e., those teaching a future conversion of Israel as a nation) and some that were not (i.e., details of Israel's place of dominance during a future period of history). On the one hand, as time passed, those who stressed a literal understanding of Israel from the Old Testament became much more consistent in applying such an approach to all passages relating to Israel's destiny. On the other hand, those who thought literalism was taken too far retreated from whatever degree of literalness they did have and argued that the church fulfills Israel's promises, thus there was no need for a national Israel in the future. Further, non-literal interpretation was viewed as the tool with which liberals denied the essentials of the faith. Thus, by World War II dispensationalism had come to virtually dominate evangelicals who saw literal interpretation of the Bible as a primary support for orthodoxy.
After World War II many of the battles between fundamentalism and liberalism began to wane. Such an environment allowed for less stigma attached to non literal interpretation within conservative circles. Thus, by the '70s, not having learned the lessons of history, we began to see the revival of many prophetic views that were returning to blends of literal and spiritual interpretation. As conservative postmillennialism has risen from near extinction in recent years, it did not return to the mixed hermeneutics of 100 years ago, which Schlissel longs for, but instead, it has been wedded with preterism in hopes that it can combat the logic of dispensational futurism. Schlissel's Reformed brethren do not appear to be concerned that, in preterism, they have revived a brand of eschatology which includes one of the most hard-core forms of replacement theology. And they do not appear convinced or concerned that replacement theology has a history of producing theological anti-Semitism when mixed with the right social and political conditions. In fact, Schlissel himself preached a sermon a few years ago in which he identified James Jordan, a Reformed preterist, as advancing an anti-Semitic view of Bible prophecy.12
What one believes about the future of Israel is of utmost importance to one's understanding of the Bible. I believe, without a shadow of doubt, that Old Testament promises made to national Israel will literally be fulfilled in the future. This means the Bible teaches that God will return the Jews to their land before the tribulation begins (Isa. 11:11-12:6; Ezek. 20:33-44; 22:17-22; Zeph. 2:1-3). This has been accomplished and the stage is set as a result of the current existence of the modern state of Israel. The Bible also indicates that before Israel enters into her time of national blessing she must first pass through the fire of the tribulation (Deut. 4:30; Jer. 30:5-9; Dan. 12:1; Zeph. 1:14-18). Even though the horrors of the Holocaust under Hitler were of an unimaginable magnitude, the Bible teaches that a time of even greater trial awaits Israel during the tribulation. Anti-Semitism will reach new heights, this time global in scope, in which two-thirds of world Jewry will be killed (Zech. 13:7-9; Rev. 12). Through this time God will protect His remnant so that before His second advent "all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:36). In fact, the second coming will include the purpose of God's physical rescue of Israel from world persecution during Armageddon (Dan. 12:1; Zech. 12-14; Matt. 24:29-31; Rev. 19:11-21).
If national Israel is a historical "has been," then all of this is obviously wrong. However, the Bible says she has a future and world events will revolve around that tiny nation at the center of the earth. The world's focus already is upon Israel. God has preserved His people for a reason and it is not all bad. In spite of the fact that history is progressing along the lines of God's ordained pattern for Israel, we see the revival of replacement theology within conservative circles that will no doubt be used in the future to fuel the fires of anti-Semitism, as it has in the past. Your view of the future of national Israel is not just an academic exercise. I beg everyone influenced by this article to cast your allegiance with the literal Word of God lest we be found fighting against God and His Sovereign plan. W
1 For a definition of terms and labels used in this article consult the Glossary in Thomas Ice & Timothy Demy, editors, When the Trumpet Sounds: Today's Foremost Authorities Speak Out on End-Time Controversies (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1995), pp. 473-4.
2 David Chilton, Paradise Restored (Tyler, TX: Reconstruction Press, 1985), p. 224. 3 Ibid.
4 Rousas John Rushdoony, Thy Kingdom Come: Studies in Daniel and Revelation (Fairfax, VA: Thoburn Press, 1970), p. 82.
5 Ibid., p. 134.
6 Steve Schlissel & David Brown, Hal Lindsey & The Restoration of the Jews (Edmonton, Canada: Still Waters Revival Books, 1990), p. 47. For a survey of the history of anti-Semitism in the Church see David Rausch, Building Bridges: Understanding Jews and Judaism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988), pp. 87-171. 7Ibid., pp. 47-48. 8Ibid., p. 59. 9Ibid., p. 42. 10Ibid., pp. 49-50. 11Ibid., pp. 39-40.
12 Steve Schlissel, The Jews/Jordan & Jerusalem, an audio tape obtained from Still Waters Revival Books, 4710 - 37A Ave., Edmonton, AB T6L 3T5, CANADA.
Thanks Quix. The angels told us that "in like manner" as he ascended will he return.
FWIW the Greek word for "this" which is used there can also be translated as "the same" Mt24:13. So it clearly can be translated as "the same generation" which sees all these things shall not pass away until all if fulfilled.
Since all that which preceeded the statement was clearly not fulfilled in 70AD we can therefore conclude that the reference was not to the 70AD generation, but the same generation that would see all these things fulfilled.
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NOW BRO MARLOWE, TSK TSK!
I'd think such an esteemed scholar would realize that trying to enlarge tidy little boxed constructions on reality with hard Scriptural facts would be a useless exercise in futility. Such tidy little boxes are immune to
1. Scriptural truth
2. Linguistic truth
3. Cultural truth
4. Logical truth.
But, it's a valiant effort. Commendable in the caring. But, please, dear brother, avoid holding your breath waiting for agreement!
LOL.
Great points. Thanks.
I think we are well able to recognize the rubber Bible stuff on this thread.
Nothing is "clear" unless it conforms to artitrary literalism that changes depending on the "prophecy expert".
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Balderdash.
There's plenty in the basic broad outline that all the reputable folks would agree on.
1. The descendants of Jacob were brought back by God to their homeland in 1948; formed a nation and again used Hebrew as the national language as also foretold in Scripture--and as no other nation in all of recorded history has ever done after such a dispersion.
2. Jerusalem has become a mill stone around the neck of the whole world as Biblically predicted for the END TIMES.
3. Gog and Magog have risen as powers sufficient to fulfill END TIMES PROPHECIES in league with the king of the south--also rising in power as predicted . . . and with Syria as predicted . . . Turkey has yet to overtly join them but has the culture suited for it. She will
4. The "King of the East" whether China; China and the -stans; India and the -stans or all the above is also poised and in league with military agreements against Israel as Biblically predicted.
NONE OF THESE THINGS OCCURRED ANY WHERE NEAR 70 AD.
5. Knowledge had not increased a fraction of what it has in our era as Biblically predicted.
6. Men were not travelling to and fro speedily upon the whole earth as Biblically predicted in end times in 70 AD
7. The signs in the Heavens have increased . . . well . . . astronomically in variety, strangeness, frequency, drama, intensity MANY orders of magnitude well beyond the most dramatic anywhere near 70 AD
8. The degredation of the GLOBAL culture into lawlessness seriously akin to the days of Noah did not occur anything like it is now anywhere close to AD70. One can point to spheres of various outrages against morality including horrid violence etc. But such was not part of a WHOLE GLOBAL ETHOS as it is now with mass communication and media the way it is now.
9. The Gospel was not preached into ALL THE WORLD in 70AD and still has not been. But the group in Albuquerque working to get WINDUP MP3 PLAYERS into all the people groups without a Bibl estimates that they can have it done with MORE THAN 90% of the unreached people groups by 2016. THAT IS A MORE SERIOUS END TIMES TIME CLOCK BENCHMARK THAN ABOUT ANY OTHER that folks could come up with rom Scripture.
NOTE: THAT GROUP IS HOSANNA 2421 Aztec Road NE
Albuquerque, NM 87107-4200
Toll free 1 800 545 6552
www.fcbh.org
infofcbhmail.org
They have MP3 formatted CD's available for individuals in churches who wish to sponsor a new language. Each new language costs about $25,000.
The copyright holders of the NIV--THE INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY are funding all the other costs of delivering the WINDUP MP3 PLAYERS etc. to the tribal people groups.
THE requirement of Hosanna is that the tribe designate THE PERSON OF PEACE in the tribe--i.e. the person most known and characterized AS A PERSON OF PEACE. Then, they contract with that person to receive a "Proclaimer"--the WINDUP MP3 player. And, the PERSON OF PEACE agrees to host a group meeting of listening to the dramatized NEW TESTAMENT for 30 minutes per week with 30 minutes of discussion following the listening.
The statistics show that reliably for every 10 Proclaimer's distributed--AT LEAST ONE NEW CHURCH IS SPONTANEOUSLY FORMED BY HOLY SPIRIT AMONGST THOSE LISTENING TO THE WORD OF GOD. And, the churches proceed to disciple folks with surprising healthiness "merely" by LISTENING TO THE WORD OF GOD WEEKLY. FAITH COMES BY HEARING AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD. PTL.
This is but another END TIMES SIGN that had absolutely no parallel GLOBALLY in any other era but our own. Earlier such efforts in the last few hundred years have not come close to matching ours. And there was nothing remotely comparable in 70AD.
If you are speaking of the "second coming in AD70" preterists, then I agree. One needs to distinguish between the temporal judgment appearing of Jesus by the hand of Rome against apostate Israel, and the personal bodily appearing of Jesus at the end of this age.
One vine. One faith. One savior. One blood. One word. All one in Christ Jesus.
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AND
THAT SUCH SCRIPTURAL, SPIRITUAL TRUTHS
HAVE
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
--NOTHING--
To do with the descendants of Jacob being removed from God's Promise of Covenant keeping with Abraham . . .
and
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
to do with the descendants of Jacob missing out on the Biblically predicted prophetic promises to them and about them for the END TIMES ERA increasingly upon us in our era.
You don't think he's talking about the past do you?
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LOL. Isn't it a bit . . . . something . . . to tempt folks to mangle Scripture!??!
LOL.
You are ignoring Luke 21. All is clarified in Luke. Luke absolutely uses "this" in a future present sense just a few sentences earlier.
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Trying to confuse folks again with obvious Biblical facts? That's too easy on this topic, evidently! LOL.
It's clearly (and thankfully) the majority of Christians who rebuke your end-times scenario. Dispensationalism is very much a minority view within Christendom.
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Not so.
Pentecostals/Charismatics have or are rapidly becoming the largest block of Christians the world over . . . often spontaneously by Holy Spirit's exclusive doing without any outside intervention. And, interestingly, HE LEADS the folks into the vibrant expectancy of Our Lord's return in our era.
Perhaps Holland should notify Holy Spirit that He has it wrong? /sar.
Actually, no I didn't. But I don't expect you to see that since everything in the dispensational theology is race based.
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No, not from my perspective. That's not the point at all.
The POINT is GOD'S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM and the descendants of Promise. They COULD have been all those who drink water at the creek with their hands vs lapping like dogs. They could have been all those who were right handed. They could have been all those who liked popcorn without butter. But GOD HAPPENED TO CHOOSE TO COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM REGARDING CERTAIN OF HIS DESCENDANTS. THAT WAS GOD'S CHOICE. Not ours. We merely believe what GOD SAID.
I think it's well known
THAT . . . DRUM ROLL . . .
AS IN MOST THINGS . . .
CONTEXT . . . . C O N T E X T
IS VITALLY, CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT IN LINGUISTIC UNDERSTANDING.
And, as has been pointed out, the root word translated as "this" can as accurately or even more accurately be translated as "the same." IGNORING THOSE TWO FACTS does not help the silly notion that 70AD was the END TIMES era.
1. CONTEXT DETERMINES MEANING
2. "THIS" in that context and even per the root word meaning = "THE SAME" as in THE SAME GENERATION THAT BEGINS TO SEE SUCH THINGS COMET O PASS WILL SEE ALL OF THEM COME TO PASS.
SIMPLE.
So, Jesus was telling about the 33 AD present when He was delivering the Olivet Discourse.
Are you a new breed of preterist that can't even wait to get to 70AD?
I assume we'll hear from you that John wrote Revelation in 32AD???
Tell me, Dr. E, was Jesus talking about the future in the Olivet Discourse?
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ROTFLOL! LOL! TOOOOOOO TRUE!!!! TOOOOOO RICHLY TRUE!
ROTFLOL! WHAT A KNEE SLAPPER!
BRILLIANT.
Are the people arguing with you about Luke 21 trying to say that Jesus has already returned "in a cloud with power and great glory?"
Seems to me, they have to, if they think all of his prophesy there has to do with the generation of people extant at that time.
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DON'T YOU KNOW????
DIDN'T YOU GET THE MEMO???
Were you LEFT BEHIND????
OF COURSE JESUS RETURNED IN GREAT POWER AND GLORY in 33.2 AD.
Of course He had to transmorgify into a tiny little gnome to fit inside the narrow, rigid, tidy little boxes of the CONTRARIAN REPLACEMENTARIANS . . . but that was fine with them. They just stuffed Him in his tidy little box at the foot of Calvin's casket and have pontificated on a plenty as though nothing happened.
Apparently, this scares the bejeebers out of semi-preterists,
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I think you hit a very key nail squarely on the head.
1. It scares them to their bones because the implications are their whole pontificated theological house of cards could be suspect. That would be scarey to anyone, I think.
2. It scares them to think that they've been on th wrong side of God's Holy Word so seriously for so long.
3. It scares them to think that thay haven't begun to wrap their minds, lives, families around getting ready in all the ways they can for what might happen in our era relative to Biblical prophecies.
4. It scares them to their bone marrow to think that they might not be as brilliant, proudly perfect etc. as they've been telling the blokes in their mirrors all these decades that they are.
That is not in doubt by most Bible scholars.
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Please show me the solid, well constructed research study proving that
"most"
I'll be waiting.
Not is you take the immediate context in an unnatural way and ignore the rest of the Bible to boot.
= = = = =
I find that assertion a great struggle to reach up to even 0.0005% true.
It sure is a wonder why any Christian would want to say, "I am a follower of {Paul, Apollos, Calvin, Luther, the Pope, whomever}" when we have the Word of God given so directly and so very, very painstakingly to us and the Holy Spirit to interpret for us.
Do you not remember why it was granted for Jews to once again have a homeland?
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EXCELLENT POINT.
SCRIPTURE IS QUITE CLEAR THAT AFTER THE DIASPORA OF 70AD, the gathering again of the descendants of Jacob to the Covenant lands would be at the time OF THE END TIMES.
Didn't happen until 1948. No amount of rubber Bible bouncing will change those facts.
Just a caveat:
Chickens pick on each other. Let's Christians make sure we're not so fowl.
Thanks Quix. The angels told us that "in like manner" as he ascended will he return.
= = = = =
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! GOD SAID IT. I BELIEVE IT. THAT SETTLES IT.
- - - -
Alternate interpretation . . . the angels had been smoking something funny and really meant that Christ would return in power and glory but hidden from the MSM and be quickly transmorgified into a tiny little gnome and stuffed into some tidy little boxes in Holland and buried under a big dike so He couldn't disrupt all the popular private interpretations that the true facts about His Return would upset if allowed to stand as plainly as Scripture published them.
/sar
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