Pastor's Blog (Page 2)
A variety of articles will be posted here. Civil comments and conversation from members and visitors are welcome. Coarse or profane posts will not be posted. Scroll down for the full listing of blog posts. But first, a series of posts.
Proven of interest to many, a series of various posts on the popular yet highly unsound theology of the rapture can be read here. In my early Christian faith, I had been immersed in this belief system. After getting to know the Bible deeply, I was able to look beyond what I had been told and realize it wasn’t taught in the Scriptures. Here are the six main posts that build upon each other, with four more that expand on related topics.
1. The Rapture: A Belief Forced Upon the Bible
2. The Rapture: Not Developed from Careful Bible Study
3. The Rapture: Not in the Favorite Thessalonian Proof Verses
4. The Rapture Belief: A Few More Passages to Consider
5. The Rapture: Left Behind? Good or Bad?
6. As Did Darby, So Do Rapture Believers
7. A Secular Peace Treaty in Daniel 9:27 – Really?
8. Problems with a 1000 Earthly Reign of Christ
10. About 360-Day Prophetic Years
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Yes. A Global Economic System May Be Predicted in Revelation
While churches with premillennial theology have serious contradictions with the Bible in their bold claims of knowing future events, they do have partial validity in predicting a global governance and economic system that will be antagonistic, even brutally reactive to the biblical Christian faith. Of course, this has long been a dream of politically aggressive leaders since ancient Assyria, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, Islam, and more recently, Nazi Germany, North Korea, and China, et. al. Ignoring the reality of greedy, power-hungry,…
Fascism: A Bit More about the actual philosophy
I noticed that my first post, which described a few basic dynamics of actual fascist philosophy and politics, quickly became the most read post. In response, I am adding a few more major concepts of fascism that may be helpful to know. Caution: Many Americans embrace fascist philosophies. While they may have no desire to exercise them by force, historically those who are willing to, will. As before, I suggest Dr. Gene Edward Veith’s book Modern Fascism: The Threat to…
Fascism: An Abused Word Better Explained
In our culture, academia, and media, the term “fascist” in various form is commonly used to attack one’s opponent without any substantive connection to what fascism actually entails. Often, it is flung toward very NON-fascist people and political ideas by those whose own philosophy and political leanings are clearly within the actual tenets of fascism. Following is a blog entry from Dr. Gene Edward Veith, an LC – MS scholar who, for the past few decades, has written quite a…
“New” Postmodernism is Rousseau’s Old Existentialism Progressed
As King Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun.” While many around us feel they are on the cutting edge of cultural change (usually called postmodernists), and while they would likely vociferously deny it, they are just farther down the road of the “old white men’s” philosophy of existentialism. Briefly, existentialism denies absolute truth, such as we could get only from a Creator God who speaks to us as He does in the Bible. It asserts that man…
The Book of Revelation – Linear Timeline?
Popular, especially evangelical views of Revelation interpret events in the book as a linear timeline. The seals, trumpets, and vials, plus other visionary portions are predicted to occur in short order, normally considered to be seven years. This very Western, modern, logically arranged chronology is at odds with Eastern (Oriental-Mideastern) thought and writing, and is specifically at odds with Hebrew literary style. You might have noticed that in many parts of the Bible and especially prominent in the Psalms, ideas…
50 Years Ago, We Hear About Today
On vacation, I took time to reread a couple of the more notable books in my collection. One of them was written by a Christian scientist from England. Dr. A E Wilder-Smith is one of few scientists who ever possessed three earned doctorates in the sciences. His accomplishments and service are stellar. In 1986, he and Dr Edgar Adams, both Creationists, publicly debated evolutionists Dr. Richard Dawkins and Dr. John Maynard Smith. Wilder-Smith and Adams devastated their opponents. This seems…
The Equality Act – An Orwellian Title and Law
I rarely comment on political activities, but in this case, I find need to make exception. (Note 3/20: So far, the bill has not been taken up in Senate. Hopefully, it will not continue process there. The next election will probably determine it’s future.] While we find some disconcerting aspects of Orwell’s 1984 dystopian novel in various American cultural and political arenas, the Equality Act seems more concordant with his other famous novel, Animal Farm. With the socialist leanings of…
As Did Darby, So Do Rapture Believers (6)
Years ago, when I took Bible college courses endorsing this subject and read many books by rather well-known Pre-millennialist teachers, I do not remember any one of them even once acknowledging their theological debt owed to Rev. John Nelson Darby, the man who brought the rapture belief into the visible church, widely taught it, and whose basic system of bible interpretation gives form to the many variations of rapture/tribulation theology we find today. Either they didn’t know, which for many…
The Rapture. Left Behind? Good or Bad? (5)
Being “Left Behind” – Is It Good or Bad? For many (mostly evangelical) Christians, the teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture of believers is a major component of a widely held system of prophetic interpretation. In brief, Jesus will come secretly and suddenly remove all “true” believers in a first of two (three?) resurrections. After the rapture, those “left behind” will enter and either die in, or a few survive the following 7-year time of terrible wars, plagues, disasters, and fierce…
Problems with a 1,000 Year Earthly Reign of Christ
Scriptural Challenges for Premillennialists and the general belief in a literal millennium rule of Christ Belief in a literal, post-2nd coming of Jesus (the parousia in the Greek Scriptures) 1,000 year earthy rule of Christ is not supported by careful reading and cross reference of relevant bible passages. While some early church and other historic theologians accepted a millennial rule of Jesus on this earth from Jerusalem prior to the final judgment and the New Heavens and Earth, it is…
The Rapture Belief (4) – A Few More Passages to Consider
In the next post on this subject, I will focus on the “left behind” verses that are so vital, and so misused in teaching a rapture. But first, a few other passages that are often associated with the rapture yet don’t actually teach it at all. In reminder, I reprint the following from my first post on this subject. I do not claim or suggest that someone who believes in the rapture is not saved. If one trusts in the…
The Rapture Belief (3) – Not in The Favorite Thessalonian “Proof Verses”
Prime question: Does the Bible teach an “invisible” coming of Christ and then a later “visible” return? The primary verses most often used to establish the rapture are 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and some portions of the context. First, verses 16-17 will be examined, then later, the context. Some background: “Rapture” is a derivative of the Latin word found in Jerome’s Vulgate (fourth century translation) of 1 Th. 4:17 usually rendered as “caught up”. [raptorare: to seize and carry off, to…