Posted on 05/21/2007 1:31:42 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Everyone I know seems to be reading the Bible these days in search of answers. That is usually a good thing but not always. In fact, too many of the Biblical discussions I get into with friends and family members relate to the “End Times” and whether they are upon us. That is a shame because reading the Bible can enrich one’s daily life provided one is not obsessed with using it as a device to decipher the future.
Because of one relatively simple error in dating one book of the New Testament, author Tim LaHaye has misled tens of millions of people into thinking that a great time of tribulation is near. He has Christians everywhere looking for signs of an emerging anti-Christ and, ultimately, in a cowardly fashion, looking forward to a time when Christ will rapture his church away from earthly troubles.
If Christians would simply study the New Testament themselves – instead of relying upon 21st Century “prophets” writing fictional books for 21st Century profits – they would arrive at a few very simple conclusions:
1. The Revelation to John was written around 65 AD, not 95 AD.
2. The anti-Christ was Nero, not some world figure yet to emerge in the 21st Century.
3. The tribulation occurred in the First Century around the time of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.
4. The “rapture” never happened and it never will.
5. The words of Jesus in Matthew 24 plainly reveal that most of the discourse in The Revelation to John is based on events in the First Century.
Once an individual realizes he is stuck here on earth and will not be raptured away from all of his troubles, he can begin to read the Bible the way it was intended to be read. I have a word of advice for those who have never really thought about reading the Bible as an end in itself rather than as a means to some goal such as predicting the future. My advice is actually borrowed from a friend who received a moving card from his wife just a few months ago.
After receiving the cherished card from his wife, my friend would sneak into their bedroom late at night (she always fell asleep while he was finishing his last TV show). After giving her a kiss while she was sleeping, he would take the card off his dresser and go into the spare room to read it by the light of a small lamp.
There were certain lines he would read three and four times over: “It is a privilege to know you, to share myself with you,” “I never knew such a person could exist until I met you,” and “You lift my spirits to places where my troubles seem so much farther away.”
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It was wonderful to hear that a dear friend had found his “soul mate” and all of the joy that comes from lifelong companionship. But, at the same time, I could not listen to his story without thinking of all the other friends I know who have suffered through a painful divorce or, in some cases, never even met someone with whom they share a special bond of love. And some are growing older and lonelier by the day.
But, recently, I received a new insight into what seems to be an unfair distribution of soul mates among God’s children. It came as I was listening to a pastor named “Mike” whose last name I do not even know. His message was broadcast from Port City Church in Wilmington to a theater rented out to handle the overflow of his growing congregation.
He urged each member of his church to read the First Letter of John during the coming week. He also urged them to read it as if it were written just for them by someone who is madly in love with them.
I was so intrigued by this take on the proper approach to reading the New Testament epistle that I immediately bought a copy of the English Standard Version – a version I’ve been meaning to read for quite some time. Later that night I opened it and started reading by the light of a small lamp:
“…Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling… I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake … Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure… We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him…”
After reading those lines, it occurred to me that I had only been skimming through this great epistle on my last several runs through the New Testament. My zeal to get to The Revelation to John has been such that I have hardly noticed those great words in the years following the attacks of 911.
We all need to learn to read the Word as if it were written for us personally by someone who could not love us more. When we cannot get enough of it in the here and now, the future seems so much less important. And a little uncertainty is hardly the end of the world.
Amen!
There are many errors in his text but I don’t have the time now to go into them. Suffice to say his interpretation of the scriptures he mentioned are completely wrong.
Very likely the King James will be and only the 'modern, non-offensive, ecumenical 'bible' will be allowed.
It's a series task for the historian to interpret his evidence in the context of the times not in the modern context.
It would be difficult to completely rewrite the Bible to the point where Revelation was washed away. It would be easier to just ban it.
"Out-dated" dreams? That sounds like the hope of a Millenial Kingdom was around way before Augustine. . . which also means it was around way before 1850.
Just sayin'.
(btw, nice to see you again Matchett. ;^) )
Amen to your post.
Those who will be left behind will be professing Christians, who had not received Christ as their personal saviour but belong to a Christian 'church'.
The Great Tribulation is not a time for Christian trouble, but of Jacobs (the Jew's) trouble (Jer.30:7)
Well look man, I’m sure you are being sincere in what you are saying, and I’m sure you pray to the Holy Spirit for your guidance. Thats grand. But lots of people pray for guidance before they read scripture and equally obviously they dont all come to believe exactly the same thing! We are all of us influenced by sin, and by our environment and by peer pressure and all these other things, and it does make an impact on your thinking. More than we realise.
This is not an unexpected thing. Our spiritual lives increase and improve as we study. I am constantly amazed by the Bible, and I expect I always will be. It’s not even neccesarily a bad thing. Scripture is, after all, the LIVING word. Let me put it like this. I read a passage from Ecclesiastes last week. I’ve read Ecclesiastes many times, done several bible studies on it, and read many many commentaries on it. And yet, I learned new things from that reading last week. Things I had never thought of before! Now, how is that possible? God hasn’t changed. The words on the page haven’t changed. The answer is that I have changed.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t lead you down a path of deception, but the Holy Spirit may withold things from you because you are not ready for them yet. And you, of course, because you are not perfect, may lead yourself astray.
Your relationship with God is your very own. It’s not for anyone else to tell you what to believe, but it IS their right, and indeed their responsibility, to advise, to question, to encourage, even to chastise perhaps. After all, the Holy Spirit does frequently work through other Christians.
There’s a lot to be said for a simplicity of faith. And certainly there are plenty of folk who go way too far in analysing and reanalysing scripture until it almost seems to mean the very opposite of what a “face-value” reading says. At the same time, with more knowledge comes more understanding.
It is possible that the Christians will not simply disappear without them have prior notice of it, as we find in the case of Elijah.(2Ki.2).
Excellent point. I do not believe that Christians understand how Jesus is now being preached throughout the world. There are so very few places where someone cannot tune into some media and hear God's word being preached. Shortwave radio in particular makes this so. They have radios in third world countries that do not even require batteries, just crank them and they play for a while.
bump for later reading...
No less a man than Martin Luthor himself put Revelations (and Hebrews I believe) in an appendix!
Actually, they are rewriting the bible as we speak, little by little, with each modern version it changes more and more.
As for the Book of Revelation, you are correct, they will probably just replace it with the Shepherd of Hermes, which states that one ought to take the mark of the beast and those who don't are the wicked ones.
Yes, I’d say amen to that too. This entire thread is proof positive of what a thorough waste of time all this end-times speculation is.
“After receiving the cherished card from his wife, my friend would sneak into their bedroom late at night (she always fell asleep while he was finishing his last TV show). After giving her a kiss while she was sleeping, he would take the card off his dresser and go into the spare room to read it by the light of a small lamp.”
Here’s a guy who stays up every night until his wife is asleep in bed, which says all sorts of things about their love life. Then he kisses her when it’s pretty sure she won’t respond and engage him in anything. Then he sneaks off to a spare room to read a card from her.
Sorry, but the lesson I draw from this has nothing to do with finding a soul mate, but rather the opportunities we throw away to tell those we love that we love them.
One night, he’s going to go into their bedroom and find she died while he was watching TV. Oh well, he can go read the note again, I guess.
“The Great Tribulation is not a time for Christian trouble, but of Jacobs (the Jew’s) trouble (Jer.30:7)”
Agreed, and it wont be the USA who protects them from destruction but God Himself, as which point they will return to Him as prophesied.
I understand what you are saying... that my understanding of the scriptures may not necessarily be yours. But I also have to believe that when I pray to the Lord to NOT be decieved...that He will protect me from deception. I have prayed this prayer since I came to know Christ as my Savior. And I do realise that God has put in my path people who will help me along on this Christian walk, who correct me when I am heading in the wrong direction...
From what I understand, the Gospel was written by people with first hand accounts of what occurred in the time of Jesus. The best these other historians and Biblical scholars can do is rehash what is already plainly written, to give their own opinions on Biblical texts. The Bible itself was written under Divine inspiration...that cannot be said of the people who, centuries later, wrote their own commentaries on the scriptures. While interesting to get their spin on things..the best evidence is still scripture itself.
God answers the prayers of those he calls His own, who pray according to His will, I have asked not to be decieved and to know the truth, I believe he will keep me on the right path.
“Ive read some Lehaye and Lindsey.”
You proved my point. Where is your assertion that you have read any of the authors of preterist literature? It would be absurd to say that since the preterists don’t believe in the Lindesy/LaHaye interpretation of eschatology, then they are heretics and you won’t read them.
“because it must be stressful thinking you will have to suffer through the tribulation with the unsaved”
So, anyone who agrees with the Lindsey/LaHaye interpretation automatically skips the Tribulation but those who don’t have to suffer through it? Wow, you are really out on a limb here. No, the only Tribulation specifically mentioned in the NT (aside from the normal everyday trials of life) was the one that the Christians were saved from when Jerusalem fell, because they had fled to the mountains as instructed. As far as them being spared from God’s wrath, I agree with you on that point, they were spared.
“as if the suffering on the cross by Jesus wasnt enough to protect us from Gods wrath.”
We are redeemed from His wrath. Then and now, and not only with respect to eschatological events.
Left to right. Top to bottom has always worked well for me.
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