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To: Aquinasfan

All the NT writers believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime. This is apparent in many places where they use words such as "soon" or "at hand". If you say they were wrong about the timing then most other things they said would be suspect. Fortunately they were correct.

In Daniel's vision he was told to "seal up the prophecy, for its time is not yet." 450+ years later, John's Revelation has a last admonition "do not seal up the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand." The date of the writing of Revelation is of much debate but some scholars put it as early as A.D. 64, shortly before the seige of Jerusalem by the Roman army. The Christians had already left Jerusalem by the time the Romans surrounded the city, as they had been told to "flee to the mountains" so they were not there when the prophesied tribulations took place in Jerusalem.

Also:

Item 1 was fulfilled during the time of the Apostles (although late in this period). Paul said that they had preached the gospel to all creation. Apparently he is referring to the known creation of that time, i.e., the known world. In Acts the apostles were termed "those who have turned the world upside down". In Romans Paul told the church in Rome that "your faith is spken of throughout the whole world".

Item 2 - the conversion of the Jews - has nothing specifically to do with eschatological timelines.

Item 3 - return of Enoch and Elijah - v. 17:12 says that Elijah had already come at the time of the writing of the book. I assume Sirach is in the Apocrypha, which I am not familiar with.

Item 4 - the apostasy - this passage in 2 Th. was fulfilled during the siege of Jerusalem (A.D. 67-70) when the Temple was desecrated by a man who proclaimed that he was God.

Item 5 - The term "Antichrist" never refers to one person. Ref: 1 John 2:18, 2:22, and 4:3. Nowhere is there a tie between 2 Th 2:3 with the passages in 1 John, in fact the passages can't tie together because 1 John refers to numerous "Antichrists" and 2 Thess. refers to a man.

Item 6 - The Extraordinary Perturbations of Nature - meaningless, as there are no more recorded earthquakes and other disasters today except in Algore's mind. Also, there are still many wars and rumors of wars today, so the idea of the end coming during a time of peace can't apply to current events. The Pax Romana of the first century would have been a time of peace when it would have been appropriate to look for the End Times.

Item 7 - These passages are subject to interpretation, but if interpreted in keeping with the rest of Scripture, then they are not literal, but figurative. For example, the famous passage in Acts about "the sky shall be darkened and the moon turned to blood" is also found in Joel 2:31. This is familiar poetic language which applied to eariler OT prophecies and would be familiar to the first-century Christians and students of the OT.

Item 8 - The Trumpet sound was a familiar reference which occurs many times in the OT. The people knew to gather for battle when the Trumpet sounded. In the OT the word was used in both a literal and a figurative sense. See also the next item.

Item 9 - Sign of the Son of Man - refers to Christ coming on the clouds of glory. In the OT the symbology of clouds is used to refer to God's appearance, such as Duet. 33:26, "There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heaven to your help, and in His majesty on the clouds." This is used as a literal reference sometimes and a figurative one sometimes.


121 posted on 08/02/2006 10:28:41 AM PDT by webstersII
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To: webstersII
The Catholic Encyclopedia itself indicates that these passages are much debated, but, as a Catholic, I submit myself to the constant (or dominant) Church teaching (and capital "T" Tradition and small "t" tradition) regarding various theological and philosophical topics, including the end times.

Your interpretation of Scripture begs the question as to the authority of Scripture itself.

Proving Inspiration

153 posted on 08/02/2006 11:13:51 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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