Posted on 04/10/2010 11:52:10 AM PDT by Anti-Hillary
Has anyone else read "Ezekiel Option" by Joel Rosenberg?? While I KNOW scripture will unfold EXACTLY as God fortold, it seems as though God has given Rosenberg a true gift. I can't help but think with the nuke treaty, this plane crash, they way Obama is turning his back on Israel, etc. that we are on the precepise of something HUGE and that it may be unfolding very close to what Rosenberg wrote. Rosenberg is not the authority, God's word is, but I really feel God has given him the gift to take scripture and current events and tie them together. Does anyone else see this?? What are your thoughts???
Yes, Jesus said to the Church at Sardis “ if therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” (Rev 3:3). Conversely then, the passage implies that there will be those that are watching and that they would know when Jesus was coming. Jesus confirms this with His message to the church at Philadelphia. Jesus said, He will deliver them from the trial that comes on everyone on the earth because they were faithful and watching (Rev 3:10).
Why tell believers to look up when you see the signs if there is nothing to see (Lk 21:28)? Hebrews tells us not to forsake the assembling together and so much more as you see the day approaching (Heb 10:25). If we cannot see the day approaching, what is the point of this passage saying that we can? Elijah knew when the Lord was coming to take him to Heaven and also told Elisha.
Paul also tells us the Church would know the times and seasons: SEE vs. 4 explicitly. Notice the first word, BUT. This denotes a new truth is being brought forth. Also, see vs. 6 in which we are commanded to WATCH!!!
1 Th 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
We are COMMANDED to watch and apply prophecy to the world around us! I shall do just that! And I shall do it not NOT because I revel in the wrath that will be poured out, but rather I rejoice that evil will be conquered once and for all and for those that believe, we shall rule and reign with Jesus Christ forever!!! Rev.22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Yes, the certainly could, and many prophecy students believe that Isaiah 17 could be fulfilled as Psalm 83 is occurring.
“Sorry my friend, but I have spent WAY to much time applying scripture upon scripture and and having truth revealed to me by the Holy Spirit ..” ~ Anti-Hillary
‘It doesn’t take very long to realize that a thorough understanding of the Bible — and this would actually apply to any complex work from any culture — requires specialized knowledge, and a broad range of specialized knowledge in a variety of fields.
Obviously the vast majority of believers spend their entire lives doing little more than reading the Bible in English (or whatever native tongue) and importing into its words whatever ideas they derive from their own experiences. This process is very often one of “decontextualizing” — what I have here called “reading it like it was written yesterday and for you personally.” ....
Let’s anticipate and toss off the obvious objection: “Why did God make the Bible so hard to understand, then?”
It isn’t — none of this keeps a person from grasping the message of the Bible to the extent required to be saved; where the line is to be drawn is upon those who gratuitously assume that such base knowledge allows them to be competent critics of the text, and make that assumption indifferent to their own lack of knowledge — what I have elsewhere spoken of in terms of being “unskilled and unaware of it.”
And is my observation to this effect justified? Well, ask yourself this question after considering what various fields of knowledge a complete and thorough (not to say sufficient for intelligent discourse, though few even reach that pinnacle, especially in the critical realm) study of the Bible requires:
Linguistics/language — indeed three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Criticizing the Bible in English is a hallmark of critics, who must inevitably resort to one of several excuses: “The translators obviously thought this was good enough, so that settles it.”
It never occurs to them to ask why a certain translation choice was made, or to make a critical study of the word in question as needed; in a most extreme case — veteran readers know to whom I refer — we have persons who think that it is impossible for there to be any new insights into ancient languages, and will openly reject out of hand any more recent study suggesting a word or words have a more nuanced or different meaning than the chosen English word.
It is also wrong to assume that even the matched English word can be vested with the same contextual significance as the original word — any bilingual can attest that there are plenty of examples between languages of words that do not adequately capture all nuances when they are used to translate another word.
Literature — One prominent critic advises people to “read the Bible like a newspaper.” That is absolutely the worst advice that can be given for reading any text that isn’t a newspaper. The genres of the Bible include narrative, poetry, proverbial literature, wisdom discourse, a treaty (that’s what Deuteronomy is), legal codes, genealogies, biography (that is what the Gospels are), personal letters and general letters, rhetoric (an art form in the ancient world), riposte, and apocalyptic.
Treating each one as a newspaper — written yesterday and with our own ideas in mind — is a mistake constantly made by critics who impose their own genre-demands on the text.
Textual criticism — this is a specialized field of determining the original state of a text.
Archaeology — a field with many sub-fields of it’s own, which may involve knowledge of geography, geology or chemistry.
Psychology — the study of human behavior, essential to understanding the motives of persons in a text; yet most people do not even have basic knowledge of their own psychology. This aspect is complicated by the variance in human behavior we note in our next entry:
Social sciences — it is in this field that we have found the most lack among critics, and not much less of it in others. It would shock the average Christian to be told such things as that: persons in the world of the Bible did not have what we would call an internal conscience; or that Biblical society was heavily focused on honor, much like Japan’s culture.
No, most assume that people everywhere and at every time have been pretty much the same. That’s one of the biggest mistakes a critic can make.
History/historiography.
Theology/philosophy.
Logic — most critics think they have a handle on this one; but most have done little more than memorize the names of a few fallacies, and then look for them everywhere they go. Sadly this is the one area in which people are mostly “unskilled and unaware of it” — or else, they presume that this is all they need, and never bother to study in any other area.
Miscellaneous — I may think of more later, but as a catch-all, for example, you may have to learn a bit about biology (for example, if someone says the Bible teaches wrongly about the ostrich’s living habits) or other areas.
That’s quite a list, but there’s one more note to add — the holistic ability to put all of it together. How serious is this? Very. A carefully crafted argument about a text being an interpolation can be undermined by a single point from Greco-Roman rhetoric. A claim having to do with psychology can be destroyed by a simple observation from the social sciences.
Not even most scholars in the field can master every aspect — what then of the non-specialist.... Should they be recognized as authorities?
No, they deserve calculated contempt for their efforts. By this, I do not mean emotional or behavioral contempt, but a calculated disregard for their work from an academic perspective. They have not even come close to deserving our attention. .....
So, in closing: Don’t take any critic’s word in an age when any person with typing skills can post a website claiming just about anything. Chances are they haven’t done a fraction of the homework they need to do to be a reputable commentator. -JPH Here: http://www.tektonics.org/af/calcon.html
Prophetic Scripture fulfilled on Free Republic!
I've read each of these many, many times and find absolutely nothing suggesting a pretrib rapture or a 7 year period of tribulation. Nothing. The only thing the article brings up are the "works" of Pseudo Ephraem. Nobody knows who this was or when these works were written. There is nothing persuasive to suggest he was an early father of the Church. The first anybody ever heard of him in a dispensational context was when Grant Jeffrey brought him up. Further, Chapter 20 of Revelation makes it clear the battle of Gog/Magog referred to in Ezekiel occurs at the end the Millennium which just doesn't fit in with the dispensationalist construct.
Okey dokey.
WHAT????? I do not mock God!!! I am not scoffing at His return or the fact that it has not yet happened. When He returns is going to happen at a time that is pre-determined since the begining of time. If He returns in my lifetime or He does not, is of no consequence to me. It is not the thing on which my faith hinges!!! I don’t understand how asking if others see what I think I see (and I am always aware that I could be WAY wrong in that regard) is mocking God???
I wasn’t referring to you, dear.
Feelings are for liberals. Being grounded in the facts of the scriptures is for the Conservative mind. For instance why just feel like you are saved when scripture gives us the facts, direction, and certainty if we are or not. This is the one thing I’ve always held against some of the Pentecostal church, they travel on feelings and emotion. That is okay for them but I don’t need that in my life. (like a scene out of Elmer Gantry)
I heard it was an older Russian plane on Fox.
I think her post was aimed at all of the vitriol that comes up on any thread that discusses end times prophecy and the rapture.
When God discredited the Japanese Shinto cult, Douglas MacArthur begged America for 10,000 missionaries. What he got was engineers -- and today, Japan is one of the most materialistic countries on earth. When Soviet Communism fell, we were somewhat better prepared, and made it to the Eastern bloc just about the same time as the porn merchants. My church, for example, started planting daughter churches in Poland and Ukraine in 1990.
When Islam falls, and a billion people wander what to do with their lives, I pray we'll be ready. The fortune tellers, however, who have already conceded the game to the other team, should shut up and quit undermining the morale of God's people. See Numbers 13 -- doomsaying is not a safe occupation. I pray that the doomsayers will be speedily silenced, so that the faithful and faith-filled Christians can get on about their assigned tasks.
Can we ALL agree (well maybe not all) that Jesus is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE and there is no other way unto salvation and that He is returning and we need to be busy in spreading the gospel to a dead and dying world??? Sheesh!!!
Yep.
Anyone who contemptuously dismisses the power of the Gospel in this life deserves to be hooted off the stage. Anyone who preaches, promotes, and celebrates an anticipated global triumph of evil is furthering the ambitions of Satan, and working against God and His people.
Myself, I always fall back on Ecclesiastes 1 - 9.
"The King of Beers presents.... THE KING OF KINGS!"
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