Interesting, thanks. That explained a lot.
You said that you believe that Christ is currently reigning. Do you mean this in the God is Sovereign way or do you mean in the Book of Revelation way? What I mean is, in Revelation, Christ doesn’t reign until after the resurrection, so do you believe that has already occurred? It also says he reigns for 1000 years. So do you believe this 1000 years is happening now? A lot of prophesies in Revelation have to happen before that. Like Wormwood, the creatures that sting like scorpions, the mountain that crashes into the sea, the four horseman, the two witnesses, etc. Do you believe these have already happened? If so, when and how?
I understand your Church and Israel position as you explained it well with the ‘expansion’ principle. I believe you said that this means that Israel has no future place in prophesy. But here you said that the Church does not replace Israel. If so, when Israel is mentioned in Revelation, do you not say “Church” in your mind?
I am curious how the 1000 years before the return of Christ works. When do those years start and what identifies their beginning?
That seems to be a claim that I’m failing to grasp from the Bible. Can you be more specific?
You said that you believe that Christ is currently reigning.
What do you think he's doing right now, playing pinball in the rec room?
A lot of prophesies in Revelation have to happen before that.
If and only if the Apocalypse is a linear narrative describing a seven year period immediately before the 2nd coming.
“BTW, Dr. Vern Poythress...”Who is *he* and why should *I* read him instead of... Just kidding.
Professor at Westminster Seminary, Philadephia. I picked his because he did put his book up on his web site.
BTW, what are preterists?
You got some reading to do. Preterism:
reterism is a variant of Christian eschatology which holds that some or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days or End Times refer to events which already happened in the first century after Christ's birth.
There are variants of it that fall outside Christian orthodoxy.
I am lead by your post to believe that what you are calling dispensationalism, what these churches are calling dispensationalism, and what my argument has been are two different things....
So God is still going to give what He promised to Israel? ..namely the land of Israel and the highest prosperity on Earth.. But He is going to do this by giving it to the Body of Christ? ..namely a group that as of right now does not contain even a fraction of the bloodline? If this is going to work without replacement, then the bloodline is going to have to go through a mass conversion to Christianity. This is actually prophesied in the Book of Revelation and it starts with a massive migration of the bloodline back to Israel... which is really happening now and has been in the news. These events are end times markers. And it is really all I have been saying. Israel is an end time marker. Remember the original comment I made that started the debate?
Sure the heck sounds like dispensationalism. All the markers are there.