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12/31/4: -
American Prophecy and the Judeo-Christian crusade against evil - "Jerry
Falwell puts it into a political framework as well, “There’s
nothing that would bring the wrath of the Christian public in this
country down on this government like abandoning or opposing Israel in a
critical matter,” and further that “the Bible Belt in America is
Israel’s only safety belt right now.” Speaking even more forcefully,
more prophetically, Ed McAteer, the ‘Godfather of the Christian Right’
and founder of the Moral Majority, sees in Israel “prophecy unfold so
rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully and, without exaggerating,
makes me breathless.” As for Palestine, McAteer says, “every grain of
sand between the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and…the Mediterranean Sea
belongs to the Jews,” while the Palestinians themselves “could be
cleansed from their God-given real estate and moved to some Arab
country." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Characters and Events of Roman History: From
Caesar to Nero - Guglielmo Ferrero
(1906) "In this story St. Paul is exactly the antithesis of Nero. The
latter represents the atrocious selfishness of rich, peaceful, highly
civilised epochs; the former, the ardent moral idealism which tries to
react against the cardinal vices of power and wealth through universal
self-sacrifice and asceticism. Neither of these men is to be
comprehended without the other, because the moral doctrine of Paul is
partly a reaction against, the violent folly for which Nero stood the
symbol; but it certainly was not philosophical considerations of this
kind that led the Roman authorities to rage against the Christians. The
problem, I repeat, is insoluble. However this may be, the Christians
were declared responsible for the fire; a great number were taken into
custody, sentenced to death, executed in different ways, during the
festivals that Nero offered to the people to appease them. Possibly Paul
himself was one of the victims of this persecution."
"The armies of Gaul and Spain, for a long time irregularly paid, led by
their officers, revolted. This act of energy sufficed. On the 9th of
June, 68 A.D., abandoned by all the world, Nero was compelled to commit
suicide. So the family of Julius Caesar disappears from history. After
so much greatness, genius, and wisdom, the fall may seem petty and
almost laughable. It is absurd to lose the Empire for the pleasure of
singing in a theatre. And yet, bizarre as the end may seem, it was not
the result of the vices, the follies, and the crimes of Nero alone. In
his way, Nero himself was, like all members of his family, the victim of
the contradictory situation of his times."
12/30/4: -
Exposed: The Jesus Fakes From correspondents in
Jerusalem "The four men indicted were Tel
Aviv collector Oded Golan, owner of the James ossuary and the Yoash
tablet; Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert who teaches at Haifa
University; collector Shlomo Cohen; and antiquities dealer Faiz al-Amaleh." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Dr.
Francis Nigel Lee
-
The Olivet Discourse and the Destruction of
Jerusalem in prophecy
(2000)
"The beginning of that "abomination" refers to the desecration of the
city by the ensigns of the Romaneagles3089
(or unclean vultures)3090 which
surrounded Jerusalem in 66.5 A.D. So the Dordt Dutch
Bible, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke,
Albert Barnes, and Marcellus Kik. The
"desolation" itself would be
engineered three and a half years later at the destruction of Jerusalem
and its temple in 70 A.D." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Dr.
Francis Nigel Lee
-
John's Revelation Revealed
(1999)
"John does not say or mean (preteristically) that all those
things would soon finish coming to pass. Nor does he say or mean
(futuristically) that almost none of those things would even start to
occur until after an alleged and still-future 'rapture.' He says and
means (historicalistically) that first some and then all those things
would "shortly" start coming to pass. -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Dr.
Francis Nigel Lee
-
The Non-Preterist Historicalism of John Calvin and
the Calvinistic Standards (1993)
"Historicalists would agree with Preterists that
there is indeed a very important sense in
which Christ did come (invisibly) to Jerusalem, in punitive judgment,
during A.D. 70.. He would particularly come and comfort them in
the hour of those believers' deaths. Yet if they, the first-century A.D.
Congregations, would not repent of their backslidings ľ that same Jesus
would come even to chasten and to correct them. Indeed, He
certainly came invisibly yet powerfully
ľ to destroy the wicked
Jerusalem in 70 A.D." -
Wave hit Christians during church service - In Indonesia, where less
than 1 percent of the population is Christian, believers "have been very
badly affected," said a report from that nation. "At least 150
Christians have died and about 5,000 have been displaced," a contact
e-mailed to Barnabas Fund." "Luther noted that
Christ warned about false prophets coming from the desert (Matthew 24:
24 – 26) and this certainly included Muhammad."
12/29/4: -
Henry Hammond:
Hammond's Commentary Added to Southwestern's
Library - "Hammond
was a preterist, one who believes the events of the Apocalypse had
already come to pass. During a chapel service in November Driver read
from a review written by
Charles Spurgeon,
who had a mixed assessment of Hammond’s New Testament commentary.
“Though Hammond gives a great deal of dry criticism and is Arminian,
churchy, and peculiar, we greatly value his addition to our stores of
biblical information. Use the sieve and reject the chaff,” Spurgeon
wrote."
12/27/4: -
Press: Tidal Wave Tragedy Teaches Humility - UPI "The Book of
Revelation predicts a dramatic earthquake will shake the earth before
the Second Coming of Christ. Accordingly, Christian fundamentalist
groups have always been prone to see earthquakes as signs of divine
judgment or of the imminence of the return of Jesus.
And even with accounts of the death tolls and devastation still
incomplete, it teaches the sobering lesson that the wrath of Nature
can dwarf the worst excesses of Man." -
Pret Website:
Beyond the End Times Ministry
- Ron McRay "In the past fifteen years, I have reviewed my convictions
with the intent of testing them to see if they agree with the Bible,
rather than make the Bible fit what my ideas are."
12/26/4: -
Ralph
Woodrow:
Matthew 24 - The Great Tribulation: Future or
Fulfilled? "The
scholarly Christian translator of Josephus’ works mentions this in a
footnote: “That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Saviour’s
murderers, were to be the greatest that had ever been since the
beginning of the world, our Saviour had directly foretold (Mt. 24:21;
Mk. 13:19; Lk. 21:23,24) and that they proved to be such accordingly,
Josephus is here a most authentic witness.” (Preface, p.429)." -
Caiaphas' Bones
12/25/4: -
Symbols of Christmas - "Christmas is a later Christian festival,"
(Baptist Theologian Timothy) George said. "Early Christians didn't
observe Jesus' birth; they were concerned about his death, resurrection
and second coming." -
dEmEnTiA:
Enjoy the peace of Christmas - "Seems to me the longer Jesus waits
to come back for his second return, the more we experience the Biblical
account of "Sodom and Gomarrah." The Rev. Dr. Billy Graham said on one
occasion.. I do not believe we will experience this type of peace until
Christ's second coming."
12/24/4: -
Transition Texts:
Gary DeMar:
Randall Price and the Transition Texts of Matthew
23:38-39 "Toussaint and Price are
willing to dismiss repeated references to an impending judgment by
straining to find a single passage to bolster their argument that a pre-tribulational
rapture, a rebuilt temple, and the reinstitution of Old Covenant Judaism
during an earthly millennium remain to be fulfilled. " -
Levi and Sarah, or the Jewish Lovers (1821) "The last siege and
capture of Jerusalem will ever be memorable in the history of mankind. " -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Josephus
by Norman Bentwich (1914) "Josephus hardly merits a place on his own
account in a series of Jewish Worthies, since neither as man of action
nor as man of letters did he deserve particularly well of his nation."
12/23/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Douay-Rheims Version of the Holy Bible
(1586) William Allen, Richard Bristow, Thomas Worthington
"Zacharias Chapter 11 - The
destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. God's dealings with the Jews,
and their reprobation. 11:1. Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let fire
devour thy cedars. O Libanus. . .So Jerusalem, and more
particularly the temple, is called by the prophets, from its height, and
from its being built of the cedars of Libanus.--Ibid. Thy cedars. . .Thy
princes and chief men." "A fountain shall come forth of the house
of the Lord, etc. . .Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant,
and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or
valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground
brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns
of crosses and tribulations." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Ballad of the White Horse
(1911) -
G.K. Chesterton
"For the White Horse knew England When there was none to know; He saw
the first oar break or bend, He saw heaven fall and the world end, O
God, how long ago.
For the end of the world was
long ago,
And all we dwell to-day
As children of some second
birth,
Like a strange people left on earth
After a judgment day.
For the end of the world was
long ago,
When the ends of the world waxed free,
When Rome was
sunk in a waste of slaves,
And the sun drowned in the sea.
When Caesar's sun fell out
of the sky
And whoso hearkened right
Could only hear the plunging
Of the nations in the night.
When the ends of the earth came
marching in
To torch and cresset gleam.
And the roads of the world
that lead to Rome
Were filled with faces that moved like foam,
Like faces in a dream.
12/22/4: -
FP:
Eric Fuggett
-
The Birth of Jesus
"Is
it just a coincidence that when the one true High Priest comes into the
world, that for the first and only time, a temporary High Priest is
appointed to perform the important duties for the Day of Atonement? Not
if you believe, as I do, that the exact date for Jesus' birthday is the
Day of Atonement or September 11, 5 BCE. " -
Venerable Bede:
Added
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (the "Saxon Chronicle" contains the original
and authentic testimony of contemporary writers to the most important
transactions of our forefathers, both by sea and land, from their first
arrival in this country to the year 1154) "We
come now to a more cheering prospect; and behold a steady light
reflected on the "Saxon Chronicle" by the "Ecclesiastical History" of
Bede; a writer who, without the intervention of any legendary tale,
truly deserves the title of Venerable" -
"A.D. 71. This year Titus, son of Vespasian, slew in Jerusalem eleven
hundred thousand Jews." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Josephus:
The Antiquities of the Jews -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Ancient Man: The Beginning of Civilization by Hendrik Willem Van
Loon "The temple which served no practical purposes (as far as they
could see) was neglected until the days of Herod, who was King of the
Jews by the Grace of the Roman sword and whose vanity wished to renew
the ancient splendor of the bygone ages. In a half-hearted manner the
oppressed people set to work to obey the orders of a master who was not
of their own choosing. When the last stone had been placed in its proper
position another revolution broke out against the merciless Roman tax
gatherers. The temple was the first victim of this rioting. The soldiers
of the Emperor Titus promptly set fire to this center of the old Jewish
faith." -
When Will Jesus Return? - Joseph Farrah "In 1772, Edward Gibbons
published "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," in which he cites
early documents suggesting the Christian disciples of the first century
were taught that Jesus would return after 2,000 years. We'll soon find
out if they were right." -
Jesus and the development of afterlife beliefs - "The apocalyptic
end of the current world is also what Jesus is referring to in his
foretelling of destruction below: And as Jesus was coming out of the
Temple, one of his disciples said to him, 'Teacher, see what great
stones and what great buildings are here.' And Jesus said to him, 'Do
you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another
that will not be destroyed.' (Mark 13:2)" (Muslim WakeUp!)
12/21/4: -
J. Randall Price :
A Brief History of the Jewish Temple "Although newly restored, it was still subject to
the old terms of the covenantal contract, and with the Nation's
rejection of Jesus as Messiah the Temple was again doomed to desolation.
All of Jesus pronouncements of the Temple's destruction (Matt. 24:2/Mk.
13:2; Lk. 21:6, 20-24) must be viewed in this light, and not as a
rejection or replacement of the Temple as a legitimate institution. In
fact joined immediately to Jesus' own pronouncement of the Temple's
desolation (Matt. 21:38) is His promise (in the word "until") of Israel
(and the Temple's) restoration (Matt. 23:39). This and Jesus' positive
statements concerning the Temple elsewhere (Matt. 12: 4; 17:24-27;
23:16-21; Jn. 2:16-17) and especially in His Olivet Discourse (Matt.
24:15; Mk. 13:14) hold out the prophetic promise that the history of the
Temple would be continued in the future." (An
Overview of the Future Temples) -
J. Randall Price :
The Eschatology of the Dead Sea Scrolls "The history of mankind is traced from the
Creation (1QS 4:15-17) and leads up to the eschaton or the "latter
generation" or the "end-time," finally culminating in the
"Latter Days" (QpHab 4:1-2, 7-8, 10-14; cf. 2:5-7). This culminating
period also looks forward in its description of this age ending the era
of wickedness as "the decreed epoch of new things" (1QS 4:25; cf. Dan.
9:26-27; 11:35-36; Isa. 10:23; 28:22; 43:19)."
"The Messiah of the Dead Sea Scrolls is clearly eschatological. His
coming is at "the end of days," and is royal (Davidic), priestly (Aaronic),
and prophetic (Mosaic) in nature."
"In Dead Sea texts which depict this period of great spiritual
declension of Israel, the apostasy is said to be spearheaded by a figure
refer to as "Belial" and a "son of Belial." The term appears also in the
New Testament at 2 Cor. 6:15. In other texts, this figure is called
"son/man of sin" (cf. CD 6:15; 13:14; 1QS 9:16; 10:19). This expression
is quite similar to an expression found in the Pauline description of
the eschatological desecrator, the Antichrist, in 2 Thess. 2:3b. It is
complemented by another term "son of iniquity" in 1QS 3:21, which is
comparable to the phrase "the man of lawlessness" paired with "man of
sin" in 2 Thess. 2:3. Even the phrase "the mystery of lawlessness,"
found only at 2 Thess. 2:7, has an almost
identical expression at Qumran: "the mystery of iniquity"
12/20/4:
12/19/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Philip Schaff
-
History of the Christian Church
(1882)
(Chapter
6: The Great Tribulation - The Roman
Conflagration and Neronian Persecution) "The aforesaid Scribes and
Pharisees, therefore, placed
James upon the
pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him: "O thou just man, whom we
ought all to believe, since the people are led astray after Jesus that
was crucified, declare to us what is the door of Jesus that was
crucified." And he answered with a loud voice: "Why do ye ask me
respecting Jesus the Son of Man? He is
now sitting in the heavens, on the right hand of the great Power, and is
about to come on the clouds of heaven."
And as many were confirmed, and gloried in this testimony of James, and
said:, "Hosanna to the Son of David," these same priests and Pharisees
said to one another: "We have done badly in affording such testimony to
Jesus, but let us go up and cast him down, that they may dread to
believe in him." And they cried out: "Ho, ho, the Just himself is
deceived." And they fulfilled that which is written in Isaiah, "Let us
take away the Just, because he is offensive to us; wherefore they shall
eat the fruit of their doings." [Comp.
Is. 3:10.]"
-
This Will Take a Miracle -
Indianapolis Star - Bill Moyers: "Theology asserts propositions that
cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite
being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When
ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but
they are always blind." "After the last tree is
felled, Christ will come back," James Watt, Ronald Reagan's secretary of
the Interior, told Congress in the formative days of the Moral Majority.
Millions agree, just as millions agree with the general who went around
proclaiming that his God was mightier than the Muslims' God. As this
strain of religion vies with the other one for the helm of the state,
prophecies of a final battle may prove perfectly down-to-Earth. Happy
holidays." -
Smith Bicentennial Renewing Debate - "To loyal Mormons, Joseph Smith
Jr. was an American prophet whose creed is preparing for Christ's Second
Coming. To skeptics, he was a reprobate impostor, if a remarkably
successful one."
12/17/4: -
FP: Dan Delegrave:
Compilation of 2004 Articles From Fulfillment
Ministries -
Western Wall hill to be removed - "Jerusalem city engineers will
take down the hill jutting out from the Western Wall, replacing it with
a bridge. Archaeologists expect to find treasures, such as a tall gate
from the Second Temple." -
A Crack in the Theory "in scholarly circles, a storm is brewing,
raising questions about the spiritual past of the site and its
connection to some of the legends that have risen on its ashes. Did
Essenes live at and scribe the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran? No, says a
soon-to-be-released report."
12/16/4: -
An Exchange between Old School Baptists on Preterism -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS: Lands of the Bible - J.W. McGarvey "The
death of Agrippa occurred in the year 44 of our era, just ten years
after the death of Jesus, and twenty-six years before the destruction of
Jerusalem by Titus; consequently, this enlargement of the city to the
greatest dimensions which it ever attained occurred subsequent to the
solemn announcement of its doom which had been made by Jesus.
Though that doom was to befall it, according to the prediction, before
the generation then living should pass away,
when ten years had passed the city had started on a new career of growth
and apparent prosperity, yet the words of Jesus were not falsified by
the result." -
Press:
Why do End-Time Beliefs Endure? - The Economist "Christians
have kept faith with the idea that the world is just about to end since
the beginnings of their religion. Jesus Himself hinted more than once
that His second coming would happen during the lifetime of His
followers." -
Press: In Line for
the Rapture - Rick Perlstein, Village Voice "The Apostolic Congress,
a Christian Zionist movement, has some attentive ears in the White
House. How much influence do they wield on American policy in Israel?"
Affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church, the Apostolic Congress is
part of an important and disciplined political constituency courted by
recent Republican administrations. As a subset of the broader Christian
Zionist movement, it has a lengthy history of opposition to any proposal
that will not result in what it calls a "one-state solution" in Israel."
-
Jerusalem History:
Images of the Temple
-
Catholic Gonzalo Rojas Flores :
The Book of Revelation and the First Years of Nero's Reign -
"According to ecclesiastical tradition,
the Book of Revelation was written by the apostle John, the son
of Zebedee, about the year 95, during his exile in Patmos, shortly
before writing the fourth gospel in Ephesus. Most scholars support this
late dating (last days of Domitian’s reign), but the early dating
(between the years 64 and 70) has the support of many important authors1.
In this article I will try to demonstrate that (a) the external evidence
is not conclusive in favor of a late dating, because there is an
important patristic tradition in favor of Nero’s reign; and (b) the
internal evidence provides important arguments affirming that the
definitive version of Revelation was redacted after Nero’s
ascension to power in the year 54 and before the earthquake of Laodicea
in the year 60."
12/14/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Second Coming of Christ and the Destruction of
the World - Benjamin Franklin
(1869) "But there is another class of scoffers that this discourse has
to do with. They say the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ has long since
occurred--that he came the second time at the destruction of Jerusalem;
that he there judged the world; separated the righteous from the wicked,
and, consequently, argue that the coming of Christ, the judgment, and
punishment of the wicked are all long since gone by. This fallacy must
now be refuted. It must be shown that the coming of the Lord is yet
future." (The Gospel Preacher, Ch. 18) -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Evidences of Christianity: A Debate - Alexander Campbell and
Robert Owen (1829) "beside the predictions uttered by the Savior
concerning his own demise, and all the circumstances attendant upon it,
he foretold one event of such notoriety and importance as to confirm the
faith of one generation and to produce faith in all subsequent
generations." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Illustrated New Testament - Abbott and Abbott (1878) On Acts 2:19-20
"These, also, are figurative expressions, referring to the portentous
events which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem." -
The Lord's Supper: Its Use and Abuse - W.K. Pendelton (1902) "No one
can pretend to deny that Paul teaches the fitness of observing the
supper till the time the Lord shall come; but it is by some contended
that the coming of the Lord, referred to by him, took place at the
destruction of Jerusalem, and that since that time, therefore,
Christians are under no obligation to show forth his death
farther;--that the observance of the supper should have ceased with the
destruction of Jerusalem." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Essays on the Work of the Holy Spirit - Alexander Campbell
(1824) "we shall proceed to notice a prophecy of great utility, which
respected an event about forty years distant. This prediction was
designed for public conviction, and was perfectly adapted to this end.
It was of that character of events which must necessarily be notorious
and eminently conspicuous. Let us attend to it." -
The Second Coming of Christ a Past Event? - T. Orr, Launceston,
Tasmania. (1961) "To the Bible student who is not trammelled by a theory
that he must needs uphold at all cost, I commend what I have written as
being worthy of careful study, for it accepts the plain statements of
the New Testament writers, and requires no evading of the passages in
Matt. 10:23, 16:28, and 24:34 which contain a time-limit set by Jesus
for His Second Advent." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Philip Mauro:
Looking for the Savior
(1913) -
Open Source Theology: NT Imminence of Parousia
12/13/4:
12/11/4: -
Listening And Talking To God About Invading Other Countries -
"The Israeli government, however, has submerged humor and forged close
alliances with fundamentalist Christians. In return, evangelicals
contribute big bucks to
Israel and lobby for pro-Israeli
policies. So, Israeli officials turn blind eyes to Reverend Falwell’s
verbal transgressions As recently as January 14, 1999 Jerry Falwell speculated on “the
Anti-Christ.”
-
The A.D.70 Doctrine - George E. Jensen
-
Preterism, the Millennium, and Historical Contingencies - Larry
Gwaltny "Essentially, Jesus did
come “soon” in his initial judgment of AD 70, but this does not preclude
his coming again in the future, this time in full force, with full
recompense, both good and bad"
-
The Olivet Discourse in the History of Dispensationalist Thought
(With a Comparison of the Preterist View) J.H. Hixon
12/10/4: -
Book Store: Continuity
of Religion (1670) By
Bishop Jacques Bénigne Bossuet -
Chapter 21 Completed
"He had foretold the manner in
which the ungrateful city would be besieged, and the dreadful
circumvallation that was to encompass it. He had warned the Jews
that the time of their calamity was at hand; He had laid open to them
the long series of crimes which were to draw such punishments upon them.
In a word, He had traced the whole history of the siege and of the
desolation of Jerusalem." -
Don't Be Left Behind - "As a born again Christian, does the
President support efforts to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount?"
Hearing this question, all of a sudden, Scott was in a hurry. He mumbled
something like, "I will be glad to take your question, and if there
is more, I will get back to you on that," ended the press
conference, and left the room.
12/8/4: -
Bob Dylan's Unshakable Monotheism: Part IV - "Christ will set up his
kingdom in Jerusalem for a thousand years, where the lion will lie down
with the lamb. Have you heard that before? Have you heard that before?
I'm just curious to know, how many believe that? [mixed audience
response] Alright. This is called 'Slow Train Coming.' It's been coming
for a long time and it's picking up speed."
12/7/4:
12/6/4:
12/5/4: -
Book Store: Continuity
of Religion (1670) By
Bishop Jacques Bénigne Bossuet
"Titus, enlightened enough to know that Judea
perished by a manifest effect of the justice of God, knew not the crime
which God had willed to punish so terribly. It was the most
heinous of all crimes, a crime then unheard-of, namely, Deicide, which
therefore gave occasion to a vengeance such as the world had never seen.
But if we only open our eyes and consider the course of things, neither
that crime of the Jews nor its punishment can remain hidden from us."
12/4/4: -
Apologetics.com:
Discussion on Preterism - "I believe that Jesus Christ clearly
taught that he would return in his second coming (parousia) during the
lifetime of his disciples, and that he did in fact do just that. Is
anyone interested in having a friendly debate on the timing of the
second coming? I hold the position that the second coming was a past
event that has already taken place. Again, I stress "friendly debate."
No ad hominem attacks (name calling and the such). So calling each other
heretic is strictly forbidden. Let's just stick to clear argumentation
and exegesis."
12/3/4: -
Tim LaHaye:
LaHaye: "New End Times Thriller Teaches 'Ridiculous' Views" -
Tyndale Defends Choice to Publish Hanegraaff's Preterist Series -
"The pre-trib author says the new book by Hanegraaff erroneously teaches
that all of Revelation's prophecies have come to pass and the rapture
has already occurred. "Their idea that the Book of Revelation was
written in 64 or 66 A.D. means it's passed -- it was all fulfilled," he
notes. "Personally, I think it's an absolutely ridiculous view -- and
indefensible."
11/26/4: -
FP: Walt Hibbard:
Jesus' Promise of a First Century 'Parousia' --
Not Clear? (Comment by Reformed
scholar) "It
is far from ‘clear’ that Jesus promised that His parousia would
be in the first century. That is the point of disagreement. If it was
clear, then the Christian church would have believed it and so would I.”
He goes on to add the following: “Much of what you say here is based on
the belief that there can be no doubt on this matter. However, for
myself and the historic Christian church these claims are not clear and
so your conclusions do not follow.”
11/25/4:
11/24/4: -
Hank Hanegraaff:
Hank Hanegraaff Gave Tim LaHaye the People's
Elbow! "This story is too good to pass
up. LaHaye, alleged author of the Left Behind Series, and Hank
Hanegraaff, the man who refers to himself as the Bible Answer Man and
lives in a palace near San Diego where he suffers for Jesus, are having
a feud about the End Times. Sort of... What's truly sad about this story
is that most Christians won't recognize that Hanegraaff is far closer to
orthodoxy here than LaHaye." |
New Book Challenges 'Left Behind'
|
Blog: Irking LaHaye
|
Audio: Hank Hanegraaff the Preterist? Part 1
|
Part Two |
Last Disciple on Audio CD
|
BAM Archives -
Thomas Ice:
The Destructive View of Preterism "What’s happening is that
Preterism is challenging futurism. Idealism is not a factor out there
and Historicism is not a factor. Preterists are rising up, coming mainly
out of the Reconstructionist Movement, to do this. What is their theme
verse? Does anybody know? Let’s all say it together, "Truly I say to
you, this generation will not pass away until all these things be
fulfilled." So, when you talk to a Preterist, get ready to hear the
words, "this
generation" at least eight dozen times if you have an extended
conversation... You might be interested to know that in 1843, when the
journal Bibliotheca Sacra was first started, it taught Preterism.
You can go back and look at the early articles – Scholars such as Moses
Stewart and James Robinson wrote for the journal in those early years.
It was not until 1934, when Dallas Seminary took control of Bib
Sac, that it became a futurist organ." -
Oil. Water. Ice. The End. - Interesting collection
11/23/4:
11/22/4: -
Gary DeMar:
"Shreds
of Preterism" Among First-Century Writers
"Much of the debate over preterism comes down to when the document was
written. This is especially true for the book of Revelation.
If a document was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem which
occurred in A.D. 70, then any statement about future prophetic events
could be a reference to that event."
11/21/4:
11/20/4: -
Accept Evangelicals as Friends despite their Theology - Cleveland
Jewish News "Their
theology seems strange and bizarre to Jews. But, "the reality is that
this election was won by the galvanization of the evangelicals to vote,"
said Cook, professor of Judaeo-Christian studies at Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion. "This is not a time to isolate
ourselves. That will make us feel there is no hope of getting along with
these people."
11/19/4: -
The Judgment of Jerusalem
By William Patton (1877)
- NOW COMPLETE! "The singularly exact fulfilIment of the
prediction of the Saviour relative to the destruction of Jerusalem and
the temple by the Romans, as well as the possession of their land by the
Gentiles for eighteen hundred years, are fully chronicled in history.
But what has become of the people?"
11/18/4: -
CARM: "The Last Disciple" By Hank Hanegraaff Discussion - "I feel
the need to post a correction of an earlier post on the subject of
Hank's eschatological views. I had read where someone said he was a
preterist. I responded, basically, that I thought that I had heard him
say that he was a PARTIAL preterist (full preterism being unbiblical). I
was wrong. On his broadcast (which I listen to every day) today -3, Nov
2004- he said explicitly that he is NOT a partial preterist and that his
position will be laid out in his book on the subject which will be
released in a few months. In my attempt to defend a man from whom I've
learned so much, I misstated his position." -
Thomas Ice:
One Thousand Years, Literal or Figurative? "Hank Hanegraaff of Bible
Answer Man fame has recently delved into the field of eschatology (the
study of last things) with the release of a novel called The Last
Disciple,[1]
co-authored with Sigmund Broward. It appears that Hanegraaff has adopted
the preterist position in this first novel in a series that sees the
book of Revelation as having been fulfilled in the first century. "Hank
is a partial preterist who holds to a view on eschatology that is
similar to the position held by Gary DeMar," according to DeMar's
website"
11/17/4:
11/14/4:
11/13/4: -
Dialogue with (Anti-Preterist speaker) Scott Hoffstee who claims to be
one of the two witnesses of Revelation : "I can understand that Preterism is a joke, but since
Scott Hofstee claims to be one of the two witnesses, isn't that even
more ignorant?" Scott Hofstee: We are dead against preterism because its
a lie" -
World Journalists Condemn Vanunu Re-Arrest "Vanunu was detained by
police who raided the guesthouse at St. George's Cathedral in East
Jerusalem. After interrogation, he was taken before magistrates who
ordered him confined to house arrest for seven days and banned him from
contacting people connected to the investigation against him." -
The Case of the Disappearing Rabbis
"According to the story for which Barbara was the sole witness, the
Orthodox Rabbi informed her that he believed in Yeshua, and that there
were some 40 additional Rabbis, all supposedly Believers as well, who
were congregating together regularly in Jerusalem. In an effort
to investigate this phenomenon, I personally
asked over two dozen congregational leaders and elders about these
so-called secret believers. and only three (3) were able to verify that
there MAY be a "secret underground" movement amongst the Haridim, who
believe in Yeshua. The majority were skeptical or were just convinced
that so such community could exist and be counted amongst the household
of faith in any tangible way."
11/12/4: -
"Apocalyptic Feud" Picked up by Ft. Wayne, IN Sentinel "But the Rev.
Tim LaHaye, co-author of the "Left Behind" books, called the decision by
his publisher "stunning and disappointing" and said he felt betrayed.
"They are going to take the money we made for them and promote this
nonsense," he said." -
Christian Zionism, Premillennialism, Dispensationalism, Terrorism: Is
there a Cure? - Ward Fenley "I think the only hope of a prosperous
and safe U.S. is a complete pullout of Israel" -
Tommy Ice:
Revealing the Truth: Preterism Control Page - Articles "many of the
teachings within this heresy deny clearly taught doctrine essential to
the salvation of the believer." -
BOOK STORE: Before
Jerusalem Fell By Ken Gentry
"Furthermore, my preterism - which is generated out of my early date
analysis-is adamantly opposed to the heterodoxy associated with the
hyper-preterist movement, spawned by the republication of J. Stuart
Russell's
The Parousia.'
I am a fully orthodox, confessionally-based Presbyterian" -
The Fall of Jerusalem: An Oratorio By
Dominic Muldowney "We saw the flaming chariots in the sky - The
Sanctuary is no more. It is reviled. It is defiled.
The Sanctuary is no more" -
Arafat News |
Mid-level official to attend funeral for U.S |
'The Monster' |
Carter calls Arafat 'powerful human symbol'
- Just hours after Arafat was laid to rest in a stone-and-marble tomb,
President Bush said his death provided ``a great chance to establish a
Palestinian state,'' and pledged in his second term ``to spend the
capital of the United States on such a state.''
11/11/4: -
R.C. Sproul, Jr.:
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
"The Mormons, for one,
baptize in the Trinitarian formula, all while not being Trinitarian. And
Rome does the same, all while not being Christian. So, I presume, would
Full-Preterists, Campbellites, and assorted other damned institutions."
11/10/4: -
BOOK STORE; Outside Study Links
- Equip.org
-
Hank Hanegraaff's
Official Website. Purchase :
The Last Disciple
- Write a Review! (Apocalypse Novel Rivaling Left Behind,
but from Preteristic perspective) "Tyndale House, the publisher of the
Left Behind books, the megaselling Christian series about the end times,
now presents a new series with a very different interpretation of
biblical prophecy. Christian radio-show host Hanegraaff and bestselling
CBA novelist Brouwer take readers back to the time of Nero in the first
century. As the Roman Empire ruthlessly persecutes Christians, the
novel's warrior-hero, Vitas, tries to defend them. But even Vitas can't
prevent the destruction of the Jewish Temple—the historical event that
sits at the center of this novel. Hanegraaff and Brouwer posit that the
Book of Revelation, in code, predicted Roman persecution and the
Temple's fall; subsequent novels in the series presumably will walk
readers through the rest of Revelation, tying historical events to
biblical prophecy. This is, to be sure, middle-brow genre fiction, and
not an especially shining specimen thereof. The prose is plodding, with
far too many dramatic sentence fragments and a conventional plot. The
dialogue tends toward the unsubtly didactic (" 'Jesus, then, uses this
rich symbolism?' Darda nodded.... 'You said John was obviously educated.
Can you make any other guesses about him?' 'John verges on genius.' ")
Despite the series' many flaws, readers who are hungry for apocalyptic
fiction may embrace it, though it remains to be seen whether they'll
find a first-century apocalypse as gripping as Left Behind's
21st-century one. " -
Adam Clarke
on
Daniel 11:30 & Kittim:
"Verse 30. For
the ships of Chittim shall come against him. Chittim
is well known to mean the Roman empire. Antiochus,
being now in full march to besiege Alexandria, and within seven
miles that city, heard that ships were arrived there from Rome,
with legates from the senate. He went to salute them.
They delivered to him the letters of the senate, in which he was
commanded, on pain of the displeasure of the Roman people, to put an
end to the war against his nephews. Antiochus said he would go
and consult his friends; on which Popilius, one of the
legates, took his staff, and instantly drew a circle round Antiochus
on the sand where he stood and, commanded him not to pass that
circle till he had given a definitive answer. Antiochus,
intimidated, said, he would do whatever the senate enjoined;
and in a few days after began his march, and returned to Syria.
This confirmed by Polybius, Livy, Velleius, Paterculus, Valerius
Maximus, and Justin." (Adam Clarke's Commentary,
Dan. 11:30)
11/9/4: -
FP: Dan Delagrave -
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the End "The Scrolls reveal exactly what the New Testament
reveals about the imminent "end" - that It was a dominant belief at that
time based on the teaching of Jesus and the inspired Apostles.
Information was being stored away for future generations because the
Jews knew that the end was indeed very near. That end came in 70 A.D." -
House of God? "As a movement made up of people drawn from a range of
denominations, the religious right has co-opted the name of Christianity
in the service of an overarching doctrine of power known as dominion
theology."
11/8/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
DSS:
The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity By Robert C. Jones (1999)
"Second Temple Judaism can now be seen as a transition period in which
the sectarianism and apocalypticism of the period gradually gave away to
rabbinic Judaism, on the one hand, and Christianity, on the other.
Indeed, it is now clear that the Second Temple period was a
kind of sorting process.” -
Jewish Religious Parties: Essenes "Dupont-Sommer has the correct
interpretation of the Kittim being the Romans, Cf. Daniel 11:30 where
LXX renders the term correctly, and Vulgate: Romani. One particular
detail stands out which can only apply to the Romans and that is they
worshipped their military standards. On Hab 1,16 DSH says "Its
interpretation is that they offer sacrifices to their standards and
their weapons of war are their religion." This points only to the Romans
as the Roman worship of the signa, a practice not known among the
Greeks."
11/7/4: -
MP: Ralph Bass:
Introduction: Methods of Interpretation:
Back to the Future
"The
Preterists see the message to the seven churches as having contemporary
significance to the generation to which it was written. They understand
that the prophecies of the book were determined for the near future, and
were substantially fulfilled by the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. As one
author clarifies, ".the sustained attempt to root the fulfillment of the
divine prophecies of Revelation in the first century A.D. constitutes
the preterist 's distinctive approach." Preterists contend, therefore,
that because of its first century context, most of the prophecies of
Revelation have been fulfilled and are now, two thousand years later, in
our past. In other words, "Though the prophecies were in the future when
John wrote and when his original audience read them, they are now in our
past." In this camp you will find
Jay E. Adams,
R. C. Sproul,
Kenneth L. Gentry,
Greg L. Bahnsen,
Gary DeMar,
J. Marcellus Kik,..
David Chilton,
David S. Clark,
J. Stuart Russell,
Phillip S. Desprez,
Moses Stuart
and
Milton Terry."
11/6/4:
11/5/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
DSS: Pesher Habakkuk |
DSS Timeline |
Dead Sea Scrolls: Reference Materials "It has also been hypothesized
that the Qumran scrolls are the secreted library of a community, perhaps
Essene, that lived at
Qumran, and thus survived the destruction of the settlement in c.A.D.
68. Startling parallels in expression and thought between the Qumran
materials and the New Testament have led to speculation as to their
influence on early Christianity." (Kittim:
"Term appearing in the
Dead Sea Scrolls, used of the Romans. The Kittim are referred to as
warriors from the west, who capture Jerusalem." -
Kittim - Symbolic of Rome - 'Kittim'
as 'the Romans' may be earliest example of precise preterist
interpretation of Jewish Apocalyptics. This preterist
identification dates before Pompey in 63 B.C., as revealed in the DSS
"Habakkuk Commentary" -
BOOK STORE:
F.F. Bruce: New
Testament History (Kittim
is Rome) "They believed that the iniquities of the Wicked Priest and
his associates would bring the judgement of God upon them. As time
went on, they came to see clearly who would be the instruments of God's
judgement. God was raising up the 'Kittim' for this purpose, and
by the 'Kittim', as has been said above, they probably meant the Romans.
It was indeed the Romans who, by their occupation of Judaea in 63 B.C.,
put an end to Hasmonaean domination; but the Qumran community could see
the shape of things to come before that date. They also saw that
the Romans would exceed the terms of their commission and incur the
divine judgement themselves because of their impiety and rapacity." -
Matthew Henry: Habakkuk 1:4-6 It shall be a punishment in which
much of the hand of God shall appear; it shall be a work of his own
working, so that all who see it shall say, This is the Lord’s doing;
and it will be found a fearful thing to fall into his hands; woe to
those whom he takes to task! 5. It shall be such a punishment as will
typify the destruction to be brought upon the despisers of Christ and
his gospel, for to that these words are applied Acts 13:41, Behold,
you despisers, and wonder, and perish. The ruin of Jerusalem by the
Chaldeans for their idolatry was a figure of their ruin by the Romans
for rejecting Christ and his gospel, and it is a very marvellous thing,
and almost incredible. Is there not a strange punishment to the
workers of iniquity? II. The sentence itself is very dreadful and
particular (v. 6): Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans. There were those
that raised up a great deal of strife and contention among them, which
was their sin; and now God will raise up the Chaldeans against them, who
shall strive and contend with them, which shall be their punishment.
Note, When God’s professing people quarrel among themselves, snarl at,
and devour one another, it is just with God to bring the common enemy
upon them, that shall make peace by making a universal devastation. The
contending parties in Jerusalem were inveterate one against another,
when the Romans came and took away their place and nation." -
BOOKS:
Kittim and Rome Books The Untold Story of Qumran "The new leather
fragment now provided a first-century B.C.-A.D. testimony to the
accuracy of the text as it has been preserved - Kasidim was clearly in
the text used by the copyist. The next line, however, begins, "Its
interpretation concerns the Kittim...." The modern theory had already
been propounded by interpretation by the ancient community two thousand
years earlier!" -
Calvinism:
Golb: Excavations of Qumran support "Jerusalem Origin" instead of "Essene
Origin" Theory - "Ever since the scrolls were first discovered in
1947, the Qumran-Essene theory—or as Golb has called it, “the myth of
Qumran”—has taken on a life of its own and is still strongly defended by
many. Christian writers have been attracted to the mystique of the
Essenes because of the connections they can draw between Essenic
anti-materialistic beliefs and the teachings of Christianity, which
discourage an interest in worldly wealth. The Essenes also espoused
predestination, a belief adopted by Calvinists during the reformation in
support of a biblical interpretation that some people are chosen by God
for salvation, while others are not. Many Jewish scholars also have
supported the Qumran-Essene theory. This, as well as the large bulk of
evidence that has accumulated now—which, Golb emphasized, the early
researchers could not have foreseen—led him to infer that the scrolls
were gathered in caves for safekeeping by the Jews of Jerusalem just
prior to the Roman siege of 70 A.D. "
11/4/4:
11/3/4: -
BOOKS:
The Temple of Jerusalem: A Revelation "When the Temple was
destroyed, they say, the world fell into disorder and nothing has ever
gone right since." -
Dispensationalism:
Emasculating the Book of Revelation "In the dispensational
interpretation of Revelation the church mysteriously disappears from
view in Rev 3:22 (to be replaced by Israel) only to reappear in Rev 19,
thus making most of the book irrelevant to the church today. Hence it
weakens Revelation by cutting out (emasculating) a whole section which
is meant to speak to, and strengthen, the church."
11/2/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(Chapter
Nine)
-
Patton
(1877) "Eusebius
also says that Jerusalem "was ploughed-up by the Romans, and that he saw
it in ruins." Thus it was that the prediction of Micah, made more than
seven hundred years before Christ, found its fulfilment: "Therefore
shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall
become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the
forest." To this fatal end was Jerusalem reduced after a siege of
about five months, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, and
thirty-eight years after the crucifixion of our Lord. Such was the end
of this city and the Jewish polity. The sceptre had departed,-the daily
sacrifices had ceased,-the day of vengeance had come, and in its mighty
ruins it stands forth the monumental proof that "heaven and earth shall
pass away" before one jot or tittle of all that God hath spoken shall
fail." -
BOOKS:
When Shall These Things Be?
- A Reformed Response to Hyper-Preterism By Keith
Mathison (Search Inside This Book!) "Traditional
Christians "built a creedal fence to lock out heresy, but they didn't
realize they built their own prison walls" -
BOOKS:
Nobody Left Behind By David Vaughn Elliott - The Great Tribulation
of A.D.70 -
Added
Amazon Honor System Donation Page due to demand.
11/1/4:
10/31/4: -
FP:
Jim Gunter
-
"Heaven and Earth Must First Pass Away"
- Matthew 5:17,18 "I
am fully persuaded by these words of Jesus, that if "heaven and earth"
have indeed NOT "passed away," then we today would of necessity still be
held sway under the Old Covenant or Law of Moses. If in fact
"heaven and earth" have not "passed away," then it would mean that not
ONE "stroke or the smallest letter" found in the Law has passed away!" -
BOOKS: Paul L. Maier
-
Josephus: The Essential Works 1988
- Search within this "Full-color edition with updated text, charts and
maps" - Textbook Quality for Jewish History as Translated from
Josephus' Works -
Rexella Van Impe:
Animals in Heaven
10/28/4: -
Allen Beechick:
Where is the Promise of His Coming? (An
Answer to Preterism) Part One "Some
preterists attempt to solve the timeline issue by saying that a heavenly
temple was anointed in 70 AD upon the destruction of the earthly temple.
In this way, they make the goals and the weeks coterminous. Aside from
the fact that they stretch the 70th week (making it last
about 40 years) in order to make this happen, how do we know that the
heavenly temple was anointed in 70 AD?" -
Once Upon End Time - "Ever since the dawn of
Christianity, groups of believers have searched the scriptures for signs
of the End Time and the Second Coming. Today, most of the roughly 50
million right-wing fundamentalist Christians in the United States
believe in some form of End-Time theology." -
Israel votes to abandon Gaza - "After millennia of foreign conquest
and forced exile, Tuesday's decision marked the first time the leaders
of Israel had voluntarily relinquished control over land explicitly
promised them by the Almighty. The first five books of the Bible
outline God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which included
control over what is now Israel, the PA-controlled territories, western
Jordan, as well as much of Lebanon and Syria. The book of Joshua records
the deeding of the Gaza Strip to the Tribe of Judah."
10/26/4: -
What really happened in 605 B.C.?
By John S. Evans, 2004 (Author of
The Four Kingdoms of Daniel - A
Defense of the "Roman" Sequence with AD70 Fulfillment) "Although
liberals insist that Nebuchadnezzar could not have besieged Jerusalem in
605, it is historically documented that he conducted a military campaign
in that year that took him far from Babylon and must have brought him
into or near Judah."
10/23/4: -
FP:
Kurt M. Simmons
-
Revelation's Millennia and Greco-Roman Notions of
Hades
"The millennia of Revelation twenty have no Biblical source in the Old
or New Testament. Far from representing a purported “interim
reign” of Christ, they appear to be an appeal to Greco-Roman
associations concerning Hades. The book of Revelation was
addressed to Greek speaking residents of Asia minor who would have made
an immediate connection between John’s imagery and traditional
Greco-Roman belief about the underworld. The purpose in this was
to assist them in interpretation of the imagery and thus gain strength
against the coming crisis. " -
BOOKS:
King Jesus: A Novel - Robert Graves "I,
AGABUS the Decapolitan, began this work at Alexandria in the ninth year
of the Emperor Domitian and completed it in Rome in the thirteenth year
of the same.. Nobody can understand the story of Jesus except in
the light of this Jewish obsession of celestial patriarchy.." -
Ussher's Creation Theory toasted on "Earth's 6,000th Birthday"
"At six last night local time at the Geological Society of London,
scientists were to raise their glasses to James Ussher, Archbishop of
Armagh, who in 1650 used the chronology of the Bible to calculate the
precise date and moment of creation"
10/22/4: -
Bizarro Bush "Get ready for the Rapture, my friends, and make sure
you pull that lever and vote Republican – because if you don't, then
we'll be spared the fulfillment of all those dire Biblical prophecies,
and the Second Coming will be delayed. Yes, the Rapturists are crazed
enough to believe that human intervention can have an effect on the
timing." |
Apocalypse Now - "American evangelicals, according to former Israeli
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “are the Israelis’ best friend in the
whole world.” -
Messing with Texas - "Like many born-again Christians, DeLay
believes strongly in the end times. DeLay sees the West Bank as the
ancient kingdoms of Samaria and Judea, which must be reunited before the
second coming. He openly opposed Bush's "road map to peace" as too soft
on the Palestinians." -
Anti-Christian Hate Crimes in Israel "It has been Jerusalem's dirty
little secret for decades: Orthodox yeshiva students and other Jewish
residents vandalizing churches and spitting on Christian clergyman as
they walk along the narrow, ancient stone streets of the Old City...
Besides the Armenian rite, clergy of other Christian churches have been
targeted, Shirvanian said. "This is not happening only to Armenian
clergy, but also to the Catholics, Syrians, Romanians and Greek
Orthodox."...According to Shirvanian, church officials are frequently
subjected to spitting, from yeshiva students as well as from
ultra-Orthodox women and young children. He said ultra-Orthodox Jews
also throw garbage on church doorsteps and break windows at churches and
at Christian homes. Daniel Rossing, a former adviser on Christian
affairs at Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry, said there has been an
increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general
atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."
10/20/4: -
FP: Jim Gunter
-
"The Last Days"
"Beloved is there any wonder why Peter on Pentecost pleaded with them to
"Be saved from THIS PERVERSE GENERATION?" (Ax.2:40). Yes, folks, as an
inspired apostle, Peter knew what was about to befall THAT GENERATION."
10/17/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(Chapter
Eight)
-
Patton
(1877) "Titus now gave
orders to his soldiers to make a breach in the foundations of Antonia,
except such portions as were needed for the garrison, and to make a
ready passage for his army to come up. While these orders were being
executed, he learned that on the seventeenth day of the month Panemus
the daily sacrifice had failed to be offered to God for want of men to
offer it, and that the people were grievously troubled at it. Seizing
upon this incident, he determined to make still another effort to end
the war." -
BOOKS:
The Four Kingdoms of Daniel
- A Defense of the "Roman" Sequence with AD70 Fulfillment By John S.
Evans, 2004 -
Vanunu makes appeal to European Social Union - "This is a message
for the 21st century," he told the European Social Forum, which has
attracted 19,000 activists to the British capital this weekend.
"Military budgets must be reduced everywhere".
10/15/4: -
Fulfilledeschatology.com
- Preterist Discussion Forum Gateway -
Apparent Allies Might Not Be Our Friends "Are Jews or Israel really
well-served, as James Besser asked in these pages this month, by joining
forces with the likes of the Rev. Pat Robertson, who not only called
disengagement from the occupied territories “Satan’s plan” but had the
audacity to urge Jews to accept Jesus as their messiah on his recent
trip to Jerusalem?"
10/12/4: -
FP: Jim Gunter:
The Apostle That Remained: John 21:23
"From a careful study of the Word, one would also have to
conclude that if His "coming or presence" has already occurred, then it
would have been accompanied by "The Resurrection and The Judgment,"
seeing that all of these events all are inextricably linked together.
The following are just a very few of the passages that, when all
considered, are so persuasive to me that John did indeed "remain till
the coming or Parousia of Jesus"
10/11/4:
10/10/4:
10/9/4: -
A Backwards Look to Find the Truth - Lowell Porter "Although the
whore is destroyed by the beast and his ten kings, the beast and his
army are destroyed at Armageddon, not the whore. The time frame for all
the events appears to be at the end of the age we are living in.
Although I am willing to be persuaded by the great effort by many people
to fit this into the time frame of AD 70, I find that it just
does not fit with history or
what the bible says. We must go by
the bible, everybody has a right to study scripture, but sooner or later
we will find we need to get back to what the book says. " -
Should Jews Oppose Evangelical Help? - "In Israel this week,
televangelist Pat Robertson inveighed against giving territory to the
Palestinians, claiming that the goal of Islam is to “destroy Israel and
take the land from the Jews and give East Jerusalem to Yasser Arafat. I
see that as Satan’s plan to prevent the return of Jesus Christ the
Lord.” -
FREE
ONLINE BOOKS: Unsealing the End of Days: The Visions of Zechariah - Douglas
Krieger "The preterist's interpretations, especially the
Book of Revelation, closely adhere to the allegorical approach; however,
it is truncated regarding nonliteral interpretation. Here we witness the
early church’s symbolic struggles in the Revelation and, ipso facto,
a "symbolic history" of the church in her early days is at variance with
any prophetic revelation consigned to the future. Preterists blend their
hermeneutic with sundry allegorical applications which are nonliteral in
nature. Somehow their convolutions provide them a system (in their own
eyes) void of contradiction and hyper-allegorization of the Revelation." -
Bibliography:
Gary DeMar
-
Myths, Lies & Half Truths
"Exploring
in detail the 15 most deadly lies accepted by far too many Christians
and Christian leaders. Why does this happen? Because we misread the
Bible in many ways. " -
Bibliography:
Heaven on Earth - Thomas Brooks (1659) "All saints shall enjoy a
heaven when they leave this earth; some saints enjoy a heaven while they
are here on earth."
10/6/4: -
Christian Zionism and
the roadmap to a Palestinian State
- "Recently one of the Christian
Zionists – a mid-level operative working as an analyst for the Pentagon
– is investigated on an espionage charge. The FBI has evidence that
Larry Franklin passed classified presidential directives on Iran to the
AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee - the most influential
advocate group for Israel in America), which then passed it to the
Israelis." -
The War Against the People of the Book - IsraeliInsider "The
festival of Sukkot begins with the reading of the last chapter of the
prophet Zachariah 14, which explicit predicts the war of Gog and Magog,
which climaxes with a vision of the conquest and destruction of
Jerusalem"
10/4/4:
10/3/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(Chapters
6,7)
-
Patton
(1877) "From
the days of Moses, through all the wars in which the Jews were engaged,
for a period of more than fifteen hundred years, no nation ever came to
attack them at any of their religious festivals. Through all these
centuries the promise of the Lord was made sure: "Neither shall any man
desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God
thrice in the year."1
But when this nation, for which He had
wrought such wonders and deliverances, and over whom the shield of His
protection had been spread, apostatised and rejected Jesus, the true
Messiah, and declared to be the Son of God by miracles on earth and
answering voices from heaven, then the protective power of every promise
is withheld, then all restraints are taken off, and then the harpy
nation rushes upon them, and at the very time of their solemnities are
erecting a strong wall, and shuts them up to miseries unparalleled, and
to deaths the most fearful. What awful preparation is here for the
fulfilment of the remaining predictions, loaded as they are with
vengeance and terror! The abomination of desolation is now firmly
planted on holy ground. The Roman standards wave insultingly to the
breeze."
10/1/4: -
THE LAST DISCIPLE: A Novel
- Hank Hanegraaff & Sigmund Brouwer, 2004 "A Preterist
equivalent to the Left Behind Series! What if the Antichrist has already
been revealed? The first book in a gripping new series by best-selling
authors Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanegraaff explores the lives of
Christians who struggle to survive and spread the Gospel during the
climactic turbulence of “the last days.” With the enemy seeking to
decipher the code of John's letter, Revelation, and destroy the church,
believers must cling to the hope Revelation provides as they face the
greatest of all persecutions. A spellbinding story of faith and
fulfillment of prophecy. Discover the "code" of Revelation as you begin
to see it through the eyes of the persecuted believers to whom it was
written."
9/30/4: -
Are Mainline Churches Anti-Semitic? - WND "We are forced to ask: Is
there an anti-Jewish animus, conscious or unconscious, that drives this
drumbeat of criticism against the world's only Jewish state?" -
Israel lobbying for sub sale - "Israel has been quietly lobbying for
the launch of a U.S. project to provide advanced conventional submarines
to Taiwan. Israel has already examined the prospect of using U.S.
Foreign Military Financing for the Dolphin sale, officials said."
9/29/4:
9/27/4: -
Bibliography:
Back to the Future: a Study in the Book of
Revelation - By Ralph E. Bass, Jr. 2004. "There is an
orthodox Preterist position that sees most all of Revelation in
Preterist terms. They do recognize the end time teachings of
Revelation 20, but they see that section as a parenthetic section, and
when that is complete, the book returns from a Preterist focus to a
Preterist/Futurist focus. Now there are non-orthodox Preterist
theologies that deny the future second coming of Christ, the bodily
resurrection of the saved and the lost, the damnation of the lost and
the eternal heavenly reward of the saved. Chapter 20 of Revelation
and the overwhelming instructions of the Bible as a whole teach to the
contrary and we therefore refer to this position as non-orthodox, or
simply unscriptural."
9/23/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Max Weremchuk
(Deutsche)
Weil ihr aber Söhne seid. . . "
|
Part Two.pdf ("But because ye are
sons" Gal. 4:6) "I tackle the problem of Israel and the Church and go
into the important concept of being "in Christ" and what that implies.
In a nutshell my effort is show from Scripture that the Church has not
replaced Israel, or that the Church is a parenthesis, but rather that
the Church is Israel "grown up" -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Romance of Bible Chronology, Chps. 1-5
(.PDF File) -
FP: J.E. Gautier Jr. - Will The Real Biblical Preterist Please Stand Up?
"EVERY verse
that used-to support a physical, literal Return of Christ - EVERY
verse that actually says that He would be "seen" - EVERY verse that
almost all of your popular reference Bibles will refer you to
Acts 1:11 as a coinciding proof of this physical, literal Return of
Christ where He would be "seen" - EVERY ONE of those verses partial
preterists now say happened at AD 70!"
9/22/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
A Voice in the Wind -
Francine Rivers (1998) "The city was silently bloating in the hot
sun, rotting like the thousands of bodies that lay where they had fallen
in street battles."
-
Theophilus: A Proposal - Luke/Acts Addressed to High Priest "'This
generation'(65)
refers to those who heard and saw Jesus as witnesses and who are now
(the first generation) listening and/or reading Luke. All of the
explicit references to the destruction of the city are to be found in
the special material of the Gospel of Luke. Those most interested in the
fate of Jerusalem were not Gentiles but were Jewish residents of the
city. If Luke wrote to the Gentiles post A.D. 70, the most impressive
statement he could make would be: 'Jesus predicted the destruction of
the Temple and of Jerusalem and this prophecy was fulfilled.' If Luke
were writing after A.D. 70 he would have noted the separate fates of the
city and temple. Although Luke on numerous occasions emphasized the
fulfillment of prophecy, no where does he indicate that the prophecy
regarding the fate of the city has been fulfilled. " -
What Theology Has Been "Left Behind" in Novel Series? - "The
worldview of dispensationalism has had all sorts of political and social
consequences. Many evangelicals are suspicious of peace talks,
especially in the Middle East. In 1981, James Watt, secretary of the
interior under Ronald Reagan, told Congress there was little point in
protecting the environment, since the Second Coming could be just around
the corner." -
Fall of Jerusalem in AD70 -
"Thus, Jerusalem was totally destroyed and as Jesus had predicted, and
not one stone was left upon another. When the Temple was set on fire the
Roman soldiers tore apart the stone to get the melted gold. The Menorah
and vessels were carried to Rome and the treasury was robbed. But
perhaps the most astonishing prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem
by Rome is that it happened just as Daniel had predicted, in that the
Temple was destroyed only after the Messiah had come, and not
before he had presented himself to Israel! (Daniel 9:26) (Luke
19:41-45)"
9/21/4: -
The Sky is Always Falling - New York Press "WHAT
IF FORECASTS of imminent doom are, as
techno-paranoids call them, "psy-ops"? That is, psychological operations
designed to redirect popular thinking in certain ways? What if we are
being conditioned to live in fear of some world-ending
super-menace—from outer space or wherever—that could be simulated and
then seemingly averted at the last moment by a "miraculous" rescue?"
9/20/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(Chapter
V)
-
Patton
(1877)
"Nation
shall rise up against nation."1-
This, says Grotius, means "that the Jews and the people of other
nations, dwelling in the same cities, should kill one another." This was
fulfilled at Caesarea, where the Jews and Syrians contended about the
right of the city, and more than 20,000 Jews were slain, and the city
entirely cleared of them." -
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Pre-Trib Research Center "Full Preterists
John Anderson and Don Preston regularly have scare programs on the
dangers of dispensationalism on their daily radio program that can be
heard on the Internet at the following: Listen to John Anderson's "Voice
of Reason" program.. for this kind of rhetoric."
9/15/4: -
Outside Links: MP:
Preterist Japan - Pastor Akinori Taniguchi, Youth Harvest
Church/Japan Baptist Convention -
Jewish celebration Rosh Hashana begins tonight - "Less
numerous than rabbis and lesser known among the public at large,
cantors’ roots go back nearly 2,000 years. After the Romans’ destruction
of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, scattered Jews, unordained men who had
memorized Hebrew and Jewish prayers, stepped up to lead worship
services."
9/14/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Jesus for a No-God World - By Neil Hamilton, 1969 "We may
conclude then that, shortly before the rebellion against Rome, the
Jerusalem church was an integral part of Judaism. The next notice
of the activity of the Jerusalem church was intended by its author to
indicate that separation had begun. This event is the flight of the
Jerusalem church to Pella reported by
Eusebius in connection with the rebellion against Rome that
began in AD. 66. This is obviously a climactic moment in
Eusebius’ historiography of vengeance. As such it assumes the complete
separation of Christians from Jews. In Eusebius’ mind, the providential
function of the action of the Roman forces was to blot out all
the non-Christian Jews of Judea, and, since Roman soldiers could not be
expected to know the difference, Christian Jews had logically to be
separated before the Romans came. There was precedent for Eusebius in
Josephus’ account of an oracular warning to Jews of the coming
destruction. A certain Jesus, the son of Ananias, had predicted the
destruction of the city throughout the four years preceding it." -
Religion-Online.com Books List -
Outside Links:
Kingdom Living Links
9/13/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Life of Jesus Critically Examined
- By David Freidrich Strauss, 1835 "Thus in these
discourses Jesus announces that shortly
(euqewV,
XXIV. 29), after that calamity, which (especially according to
the representation in Luke’s gospel) we must identify with the
destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and within the term of the
cotemporary generation (h genea auth, V. 34), he would visibly
make his second advent in the clouds, and terminate the existing
dispensation. " -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Quest for the Historical Jesus - By Albert Schweitzer, 1906 "The
apocalyptic discourses in Mark xiii., Matt. xxiv., and Luke xxi. are
interpolated. A Jewish-Christian apocalypse of the first century,
probably composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, has been
interwoven with a short exhortation which Jesus gave on the occasion
when He predicted the destruction of the temple.. His construction
rests upon two main points of support; upon his view of the sources and
his conception of the eschatology of the time of Jesus. In his view the
sole source for the Life of Jesus is the Gospel of Mark, which was
"probably written exactly in the year 73," five years after the
Johannine apocalypse."
9/12/4: -
Bibliography:
Pret-Idealism:
Redirectionalism: Absolute Orthodoxy and the Revelation of Jesus Christ
- Donald James Perry, $18.75 "What is Redirectionalism? Whenever
we come to trust in the Messiah, we are redirected into His presence.
Redirectionalism crystallizes Futurism into a workable system
understanding the Preterist dilemma after A.D. 70. Redirectionalism
demonstrates to the Preterist what he has wrongly abandoned in Futurism.
Redirectionalism shows the right door to enter into the future, the Way
set forth for all time in Jesus Christ and His apostles forever."
9/11/4:
9/10/4:
9/9/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(Chapter
IV)
-
Patton
(1877)
"The
besieging of Jerusalem by these armies is called the "standing where it
ought not," and "standing in the holy place." The entire city, and all
the land for several furlongs around it, was regarded as holy. The
Saviour here particularly refers to the surrounding of the city by the
armies of Cestius Gallus." -
Muslim American Society: Apocalypse Bush! "The
End Times provide the ultimate meaning, the final straw, the only thing
worth caring about, because it defines the BushCo worldview like nothing
else except maybe embarrassing grammar and crushing deficits and a
secret craving for gin."
9/8/4: -
FP: New Yahoo Group: Jesus Returned
- "This group is for anyone that wants to join and learn more about the
Lords return.The personal belief of the owner is Christ returned in
A.D.70,also check out the cool pics on the site.Also the image of human
beings on this site does not always reflect the same belief as the
owner,the pics are friends and not all believe in the a.d.70 coming of
christ,but we fellowship any how." (dead link) -
Vanunu asks for Palestinian citizenship - "I approached also the
Palestinian Authority through TV ... anyway, I'm ready to accept any
state who will give me citizenship or passport or asylum," Vanunu said
in an interview with The Associated Press in the courtyard of St.
George's Cathedral in Jerusalem."
9/4/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Master and Margarita (Amazon
Searchable) Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (1936) - "The
meeting of the master and his hero Pilate in the "present" completes the
link between past and present. The two concurrent story lines (Jerusalem
and Moscow), which run parallel for nearly all of The Master and
Margarita, finally intersect. The master is allowed to free Pilate from
his eternal torment." (Heavily Censored and Suppressed Russian Work) (Help
Site "The voice that answered seemed to strike Pilate on the
forehead, causing him inexpressible torture and it said: 'I spoke,
hegemon, of how the temple of the old beliefs would fall down and the
new temple of truth would be built up. I used those words to make my
meaning easier to understand.' -- Considered by many as a
"masterpiece of the 20th Century" (Hidden
content? Literary Theory "Mikhail Bulgakov might have been executed
should the true content of his novel The Master and Margarita be
revealed in the thirties -
Google: Bulgakov Master Margarita)
-
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Christs Teares over Jerusalem
- Thomas Nashe (1593) - A prose work warning Londoners that unless they
reformed, London would suffer the fate of Jerusalem. -
Pompeii Virtual Tour
- "There was enormous disaster relief funding provided by the Roman
Senate for the area surrounding Vesuvius. This natural disaster proved
to be a financial catastrophe for Titus, who succeeded his father
Vespasian to become Emperor only 3 months earlier. Many Jews in the
Empire claimed the eruption was God's punishment for Titus having
destroyed Jerusalem nine years earlier." -
The Month of Av: Tiger at the Gates. "He
understood that Hashem was using Rome as a tool with which to punish His
People, Israel, but that in the end, He was still on the side of the
Jews, and would take drastic measures against Rome."
9/3/4:
In second coming, Spirit will approach everyone repeatedly
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel "The second coming occurs in consciousness,
not in physicality. When we rise to the state of mind and heart in which
we are absolutely certain of the presence of God within us, we
experience the second coming. " -
Wedjat eye displayed in "Eternal Egypt" exhibit
- "This symbol, also known as the eye of Horus, was intended to bring
health - in the case of this bracelet, to the mummy of Sheshonk II
(circa 890 BCE). Part of a pair, the bracelet is made of gold in which
bars appear next to inlays of lapis lazuli, with added pieces of
carnelian and glass. The bracelets also belonged to Sheshonk I (945-94
BCE), who the catalog refers to as the Shishak of the Old Testament
story of the destruction of Jerusalem." ("And thus was Jerusalem
taken, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day
of the month Gorpeius (Elul). It had been taken five times before,
though this was the second time of its desolation, for Shishak, the king
of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after them
Sosius and Herod, took the city, but still preserved it; but before all
these the king of Babylon conquered it and made it desolate, one
thousand four hundred and sixty-eight years and six months after it was
built. - Josephus)
9/2/4:
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(Chapter
Three) -
Rev. William W. Patton
"With a perfect knowledge of all the
prophetic warnings, with an unerring estimate of the moral character of
the nation, and with a full knowledge of the massiveness of the temple,
as well as the number and strength of the walls encircling the city, our
Lord boldly uttered His most wonderful prediction. He seizes upon the
destiny of a proud people, and fearlessly tells them of their certain
and speedy overthrow. Although everything in the then political
condition of the Jews, as well as in the structure of the temple and the
city, forbad almost the possibility of the speedy fulfilment of this
prophecy, still He fixed the time for its fulfilment as not distant, but
near at hand, before that generation should pass."
FP: Daniel Thompson -
Romans 11:11-32 - A Commentary "we have no hint of such a
blindness followed by an “apocalyptic” doctrine of national conversion
in the whole of Paul's argument to this point in Romans 11. Even Paul's
“how much more their (Jews) fullness” in verse 12 is stated to secure
the truth that assuredly if Gentiles who turn in faith are saved
through Jewish unbelief “how much more” sure is Jewish acceptance
guaranteed if they turn in faith."
Christian Zionism:
Christian ZIonism and the Palestinian State "America is slowly
realizing that it is the American Zionists – Christians and Jewish –
that actually prefer Israel to America. They conspired to conscript the
U.S. government on behalf of a foreign power. They lied, deceived and
planned to take America into a spiral war - the Iraqi invasion being the
first of that long list of yet-to-take dirty wars - to apparently secure
and strengthen the rogue state of Israel."
Google News: "Israel spy" - Laurence Franklin,
et al
9/1/4:
8/31/4: 8/30/4:
8/29/4: -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The
Gospel of Thomas - His disciples said to him, "When will the rest
for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to
them, "What you are looking forward to has come, but you don't know it."
(51) "Another proof of the earlier dating of the Thomas Gospel,
according to Barnstone: He says it doesn't mention the destruction of
Jerusalem at all, which happened in 70 A.D. Had the Thomas Gospel been
written after the destruction of Jerusalem, he believes it would have
recounted the cataclysmic event. Barnstone thinks the Thomas Gospel was
written about 55 A.D." (Best seller draws Christian ire) |
The Way into the Holiest (1951) - "And the climax of all came in
the fearful siege of Jerusalem, when, once and forever, the Jewish
system was shattered, the Temple burned, the remaining vessels sunk in
the Tiber, and the Jews were driven from the city which was absolutely
essential for the performance of their religious rites. The whole New
Testament is witness to the throes of one of the mightiest spiritual
revolutions that ever happened" -
Jerry Jenkins more than the Apocalypse
- “If we believe that the prophecy in the Old Testament of the coming of
Christ was fulfilled literally, why shouldn’t we believe other
prophecies about his return shouldn’t be taken literally?” Jenkins says.
But even Jenkins points out there are limits to Biblical literalism.
“The Bible says Jesus is going to slay his enemies with a sword that
comes out of his mouth,” he says. “We don’t believe there’s an actual
sword in his mouth. That’s clearly a reference to his word.” -
Scrolls' origins at issue -
WashTimes "The scrolls, they believe, were written mainly by priests of
Jerusalem's Second Hebrew Temple and brought to the cliffside caves of
Qumran to be concealed from invading Roman legions. Their theory, which
will be presented at an academic forum in the United States next month,
places the two archaeologists at the center of one of the fiercest
debates in Middle East archaeology."
-
Jordan asks IAEA to inspect -
"Jordan is conferring with experts from the International Atomic Energy
Agency about the possibility of sending nuclear experts to Jordan to
check whether Israel's nuclear site in Dimona is emitting nuclear
radiation to Jordanian territory bordering Israel, the Jordanian daily
al-Rai reported Sunday. "
8/28/4: -
Antisemitism:
Symposium: Feminist Anti-Semitism "radical feminists today side --
ferociously -- with the Palestinians, whose society practices a ruthless
form of gender apartheid. Why?" -
US/Israeli Joint Military Test Fails
- "The Arrow anti-ballistic missile system being developed by Israel and
the United States yesterday failed a test to destroy a target missile
simulating an Iranian Shihab-3 and a Scud-D of the type Syria
possesses."
8/26/4:
Bible Prophecy for Dummies -
David Dykes, Green Acre Baptist Church - "But
the Kingdom of God has a dual meaning. In addition to being an invisible
kingdom in your heart, the Bible also reveals the Kingdom of God has
a future aspect. There will be a literal, visible kingdom of God
in the future. Sometime in the future Jesus will literally"
On the Road to Armageddon - Bushcountry.org "Weber said that while there
is some proof to the charge made by some that the sort of theology
presented in "Left Behind" is a so-called "escape hatch" theology that
discourages believers from effectively impacting issues in today's
world, there is really more to the issue than that."
8/25/4: 8/24/4:
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
The Judgment of Jerusalem
(CHAPTER ONE) -
Rev. William W. Patton
"As the subject of the Lord's
discourse was the destruction of the city and the temple, with the
dissolution of the civil nationality of the Jews, and as all the other
circumstances of the prophecy refer to these events, it is in keeping
with unity to apply this prediction (coming in the clouds) to the same."
(2 years before
The Parousia.
Influential on
Russell?)
8/21/4:
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Stanley J. Grenz,
The Millennial Maze, Sorting out Evangelical
Options "Apologists declare that they
constitute the contemporary expression of the premillennial heritage
that dates at least to the second century. A comparison of the view
espoused today with that of Irenaeus and Justin, however, indicates that
contemporary premillennialism is quite different from the ancient
variety. In fact, as sympathetic a historian as D.H. Kromminga concludes
that they constitute two distinct views of the end of the age. The
difference between the two viewpoints lies in their respective
interpretations of the book of Revelation. Justin and Irenaeus "saw the
antichristian power already manifest and at work in persecuting
Christians; to them it was the pagan Roman imperial rule." Hence, when
viewed from our perspective patristic premillennialism interpreted the
Apocalypse in a preterist fashion.." Lying historically between the
apparent preterism of the second century fathers and the futurism of
contemporary advocates is a third alternative -- the historicist
approach -- that predominated after the Reformation."
"The Mass as Heaven and Earth"
- Scott Hahn
8/20/4:
An Interview with Vanunu - "I'm very happy and glad that I revealed
the true face of Israel and let all the world and the Israeli people see
the true face of Israel who used to remind the world "holocaust,
holocaust" every hour, every day, but in fact Israel have a holocaust
factory." Militia leader pleads guilty to gun charges - "Militia leader George
Bilunka was getting ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ and the
end of the world, but now he'll have to wait for both from behind bars."
8/19/4:
Destruction of Jerusalem, Abridged from the
History of the Jewish Wars, by Josephus - together with Sketches of the
History of the Jews, since their dispersion
- American Sunday School Union, 1827 "On this occasion, however, through
the mercy of God, the Christians in Jerusalem found the means of their
preservation; for the great tribulation which was brought upon the
nation by the conduct of Cestius, in besieging the city, led those who
remembered the words of the Lord, "when ye shall see the abomination of
desolation," (or the Roman ensigns, on which were the idolatrous images
of the heathen,) spoken of by Daniel the prophet, "stand in the holy
place, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. For
there shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of
the world, no, nor ever shall be." The Christians in Jerusalem,
recalling this prediction, made their escape, upon the retreat of
Cestius, out of the city, and fled to Pella beyond Jordan, and to the
mountains of Perea. Or to use the words of Josephus, -- though he knew
not the cause of their flight,-- "After this calamity which had befallen
Cestius, many of the most eminent Jews swam away from the city, as from
a ship that was going to sink." Israel's role in McGreevey scandal still unclear - JewishNews.com
"Within weeks of his appointment in January 2002 as homeland security
adviser by the just-installed McGreevey administration, Cipel was dogged
by controversy. For one thing, federal homeland security officials would
not grant the Israeli national the clearance necessary to read the
material that was critical to carrying out the job."
8/18/4:
8/17/4:
8/16/4:
Programs:
PreteristVision.com Music Page - "Listen to our MP3s and download
lyrics for your own personal use and enjoyment. The following songs are
currently available in demo versions only:"
Aki's War Against the Jews - "Unfortunately, we Jews have earned this
unenviable reputation of being easily misdirected a ways from the
subject of survival. Even the Romans understood this weakness - as
described by Josephus in "The War of the Jews". As the Romans crept up,
with sword in hand to cut our throats, the Jews paid no attention
because they were consumed with arguing amongst themselves. So, dear
Jews of Gush Katif, Judea, Samaria, Golan, Jordan Valley, Jerusalem, the
Likud, and the political Right in the coastal cities - Get it right this
time!"
8/15/4: -
The Preterist List
- 100% Certified Heresy Free (preteirstlist.com) "I refuse to own or use with regularity the
term "partial preterist" while letting those whose doctrines place them
outside the faith abscond with the historical term of "preterist" or
flatter themselves with "full preterist" (pity you poor half-full guys,
you sound so darned empty and incomplete) or "consistent preterist" (
which makes their opponents wrong by definition)." -
Open Source Theology: The Coming of the Son of Man "Jesus’
‘prophecy’ about the ‘coming of the Son of man’ is less a prediction
about what will happen, a description of future events, than a statement
from within the purview of Jewish apocalypticism about the fulfilment of
Daniel’s vision."
8/14/4:
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
FP: James B. Hartline -
After the Great Tribulation "The A.D. 70 desolation
of Jerusalem and the temple is the only
"great tribulation" prophesied in the Bible, so if there is to
be another, you have to get it from some other than Biblical source. "
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Destruction of Jerusalem, Abridged from the
History of the Jewish Wars, by Josephus - together with Sketches of the
History of the Jews, since their dispersion
- American Sunday School Union, 1827
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
VIEW OF THE HEBREWS: OR THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL IN
AMERICA. EXHIBITING 1. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
- Ethan Smith (1825) Mormon Partial Preterism "A line of prophecies is
found in the sacred oracles, which relate to a signal temporal
destruction of the most notorious enemies of the kingdom of Jesus
Christ. Those were to have a two fold accomplishment; first upon the
Jews; and secondly upon the great Antichrist of the last days, typified
by the infidel Jews. Accordingly those prophecies in the Old Testament
are ever found in close connexion with the Millenium. The predictions of
our Saviour, in Matt. xxiv. Mark xii. and Luke xxi. are but a new
edition of these sacred prophecies. This has been noted as "the
destruction of the city and temple foretold."" -
OUTSIDE LINKS: Modified
Preterism: Second Coming in AD70 - New Pret Site -
STUDY: Cleveland Bible Commentary: Malachi 4 - "THE GREAT AND
DREADFUL DAY OF THE LORD = This phrase is mentioned twice in Scripture:
Joel 2:31 and Malachi 4:5. It is highly likely, therefore, that these
two texts are speaking about the same thing: God's judgment on the Jews
in 70 A.D. by destroying their nation and capitol city, Jerusalem. See
notes on Joel 2:31-32".
8/13/4:
FP: Walt Hibbard:
The Resurrected Body of Jesus Christ "I am not denying that Christ has a body. I am
affirming that it is a “body of glory” that He did not possess before
His crucifixion and ascension. Neither am I affirming that our
resurrection will be bodiless! I believe that the resurrection does
indeed involve the saints receiving new bodies (1 Cor. 15:37-38) – new,
immortal, imperishable, spiritual bodies (vs. 42-49) – changed in
nature from the bodies we now have." -
Challenging Christian Zionism
-
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Christian Theology Books Online
8/12/4: -
CRITICAL:
Climbing the unstable doctrine of Preterism: Examining a False Teaching
- Irvin Baxter (From Indiana Bible College's Perspectives Magazine -
Perspectives Magazine) "The teaching of preterism destroys this stated
plan of God for the times in which we now live by teaching that the
Bible’s prophecies have nothing to do with us today. Consequently,
preterism runs counter to God’s expressed intention for endtime revival.
Therefore, it should not be believed or taught." -
Hyper-Preterism Renounced
- Brandan Kraft "For the last couple of years, I have struggled with the
doctrines of hyper preterism. The doctrines also known as “realized
eschatology” or “covenant eschatology” or “full preterism” teaches that
the eschatological events of Scripture were entirely fulfilled in 70 AD
with the destruction of Jerusalem. Conservative preterists or “partial
preterists” like me have no doubt that many of the eschatological
prophecies of Scripture were fulfilled in 70 AD. However, we still hold
to the belief that there remains a future coming of Christ, along with a
future physical resurrection of the dead."
8/9/4: -
FP: Eric Fuggett -
The Seven Heads and Ten Horns "David
Chilton makes a case for the number
"eight" being the number that represents resurrection in his book, Days
of Vengeance (pp. 434-437). He sites the eight survivors of the flood,
and Jesus’ resurrection on the eighth day (since it was a Sunday) as his
reasoning. Therefore, since Rome had struggled through the reigns of
Galba, Otho, and Vitellus, Vespasian’s reign represented a resurrection
of the Roman Empire’s power. Vespasian defeated most of Judea and sent
his son Titus to destroy Jerusalem. Titus is the prince (NKJV) who was
prophesied to come and destroy the city and the sanctuary in Daniel
9:26."
Discontent with the inept rule of the Procurators eventually led to open
rebellion in Judaea in AD66. The Romans, distracted by the Civil Wars
following the death of Nero, were unable to put a speedy end to the Revolt.
But in AD 70. Titus, son of the new Emperor Vespasian, captured and sacked
Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.
8/6/4:
8/2/4: -
FP: Walt
Hibbard -
The Bridge from Futurism to Preterism
- Walt Hibbard "Perhaps the logic of it all ought to be turned
back upon the opponents of preterism. How can they dare to suggest that
Jesus really did not fulfill His promises that He said He
would and in the way that He said He would? If it is scary to 21st
century ears that the second coming has already happened, how much more
scary should it be to suggest that the second coming has not
yet taken place?"
6/15/4:
5/28/4: -
Dr. Charles
Roberts:
Audio Sermon: The Bible vs. Left Behind "In
this sermon the wildly popular Rapture myth is refuted from the pages of
God's Word and the true, positive, optimistic view of the Bible is set
forth. The "end times" writings of Scripture (eschatology) are filled
with interpretative difficulties and in this message, Dr Roberts
proposes one of several possible explanations of how the "Rapture" is to
be understood. You will also find out why the Rapture myth has been so
damaging to the overall mission of the Church of our Lord."
5/25/4: -
FP:
Dan
Delagrave:
Truth in All the Views?
"Time and time again, Jennings and his liberal theologians drove home
the point that Jesus and Paul went everywhere preaching that the end of
the world was near, but that it never happened when they said it would,
namely within the lifetime, or generation, of the disciples. Despite
this, the Christians "just kept believing", as Jennings repeatedly said" -
Forgotten Christians: Not all Palestinians are Muslims
5/17/4: -
FP: Sam Frost -
A Critical Response to Kurt Simmons'
Bi-Millennialism "The
question is, when were these given authority to judge? It
must be when they came to life (both are aorist aspects). Thus,
when they came to life, they were given thrones and authority to judge,
being that they were ‘with Christ.’ This is closely akin to ‘being
seated with Him in heavenly places.’ It is this that
John is picturing here. When did any ‘come to life’ in Christ? "
5/13/4: -
FP:
Kurt M. Simmons -
Transmillennialism™ A Critical Review of "The
Millennium" of Max King
"The
vicarious redemption of the Old Testament saints is not limited baptism,
vicarious suffering is also taught. “The suffering of the
first-fruits (New Testament saints) is overcoming that present world
(age) led, not only to their own perfection, but also to the perfection
of all true spiritual Israel.” Thus, according to
Max King, Old
Testament saints could approach Jesus only indirectly through the
suffering and obedience of others! " -
Israel's Fall - Martin S. Ran "When Israel rejected the Holy Ghost
that was it for her, but instead of God pouring out His wrath, in His
kindness, He began to usher in the Dispensation of the Grace of God
through the Apostle Paul. He , at this point, suspended the Kingdom
program; which will pick back up after the Rapture of the Church. These
are the facts as I see them from scripture. Like I said earlier, I am
open to debate these things and anyone who wishes to write about Israels
fall will be welcomed on this sight. " -
Terrorists, Tea and Hatred - Palestinian Chronicle "It is my turn:
“You claim the Ismaili Assassins are the precursors of modern
Palestinian suicide bombers. I wanted to ask about Masada—“Lewis jumps,
as though poked with a pin. “Masada!” he says emphatically. “I meant to
say something about that.” I nod. “I wonder whether this tradition
actually started much earlier in Palestine with the Jewish tradition of
the Sicarii.”
5/11/4: -
To Larry Hall: Are Preterists Saved? "
Larry, are you guilty of adding non-essentials to the gospel of Jesus
Christ? In your newsletter, you are not just answering the claims of
preterists. You are setting yourself up as a judge of how wide or
narrow our disagreements can be before one is rejected by God and the
church. If you are not affirming this most basic principle of the
gospel – that sinners are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Christ alone, to the glory of God alone – how can you call yourself an
apologist, a defender of the faith? " |
To Larry Hall: Preterists and the Creeds - "
If preterists really do hate and mock the creeds, and if, as you say, “.
. . preterists view the vast history of Christian knowledge handed down
to us by godly men to be useless and wrong,” why do you not include in
your article one single quote backing your assertion of preterist
hatred, mockery and fear of the creeds?
You obviously went to the
Preterist Archive
web site. There you could have found several articles from preterists
on the creeds. Why did you not cite just one example of hatred, mockery
and fear from the preterists? Because if you had read them, you would
have found some things contradictory to your contentions.
" -
Silence of Spirit - "Who is answering God's call to repentance
today, our pastors, leaders, loved ones, friends? Do they hear
when God "speaks"? Or does the evil continue in God's sight despite the
warnings. Aren't the bars still full on the weekends, the parties
continue, the sexual immorality, lust, love of money, baby killing,
sodomy, pride, selfishness, cheating, lying, stealing, hatred,
killing. I'd call this a real "preterist"
world in 'spiritual' peace! Wouldn't you?" Who do we believe, the
preterist cult or Jesus Christ, the Lord?" -
Open Source Theology: Transmillennialism™ -
Babylon the Great - Otto Nordgreen "I use the term ‘preterist’ in a
fairly neutral, non-confessional manner for a certain mode of
interpretation (‘preterism’) indicating that the historical (but not
necessarily ‘supra-historical’) events are, from our perspective,
already fulfilled and, therefore, part of the history (or, at least,
were intended to be so by the author) – cf. Fiorenza (1985:37ff.) and
Beale (1999:44ff.).
5/10/4: -
This is a Religious War - NYT Mag "this surely is a religious war --
but not of Islam versus Christianity and Judaism. Rather, it is a war of
fundamentalism against faiths of all kinds that are at peace with
freedom and modernity. This war even has far gentler echoes in America's
own religious conflicts -- between newer, more virulent strands of
Christian fundamentalism and mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism." -
Ancient Maps of Jerusalem -
Jerusalem History in Images -
Biography: Charles Kasiel Bliss B.Sc., A.M.
1897 - 1985 A Great Australian: The Inventor of Semantography (Blissymbolics)
"Early life was hard for Charles. In winter, from the steppes of Russia,
blizzards would blow, covering the town waist-deep in snow, and with
poor clothing he would wade to school shivering and freezing. Poverty,
hunger and cold were not the only hardships. He says that words were
hurled at him for no other reason than to hurt. Children cried after him
‘Hep, hep!’ Hep are the first letters in the Latin words ‘Hierosolima
est perdita’ – Jerusalem is perished. For nearly 2000 years, since Titus
destroyed Jerusalem, the cry of ‘Hep, hep’ was accompanied by bloodshed
and murder."
5/6/4: -
By Endorsing Sharon's Plan, Bush Has Legitimized Terrorism - Robert
Fisk "What Bush has actually done is give way to the crazed world of
Christian Zionism. The fundamentalist Christians who support Israel's
theft of the West Bank on the grounds that the state of Israel must
exist there according to God's law until the second coming, believe that
Jesus will return to earth and the Israelis-for this is the Bush
"Christian Sundie" belief-will then have to convert to Christianity or
die in the battle of Armageddon. I kid thee not. This is the Christian
fundamentalist belief, which even the Israeli embassy in Washington goes
along with-without comment, of course-in their weekly Christian Zionist
prayer meetings. Every claim by Osama bin Laden, every statement that
the United States represents Zionism and supports the theft of Arab
lands will now have been proved true to millions of Arabs, even those
who had no time for Bin Laden." -
Jewish Historian questions legitimacy of the State of Israel in new book
" The Jewish writer believes that his
book will help curb anti-Semitism by drawing a clear line between
Zionism and Judaism. "The book traces back the Jewish rejection of
Zionism by highlighting the viewpoints of rabbis and abiding Jews, who
distanced themselves from Zionism since the beginning of the 19th
century," said Rabkin. "Those Jews can by no means be accused of being
anti-Semitic." Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss had told IOL
last August that there
can be no true peace "as long as Zionism and the state of Israel
exist". -
"When Jerusalem Burned"
"In the year 66, Florus, the last
Roman procurator, stole vast quantities of silver from the Temple. The
outraged Jewish masses rioted and wiped out the small Roman garrison
stationed in Jerusalem. Cestius Gallus, the Roman ruler in neighboring
Syria, sent in a larger force of soldiers. But the Jewish insurgents
routed them as well. This was a heartening victory that had a terrible
consequence: Many Jews suddenly became convinced that they could defeat
Rome, and the Zealots' ranks grew geometrically. " (Olam4Israel.com) -
Redins Antikvariat - Judaica - Sweden Used Book Store -
MP:
Gary DeMar:
The Ascension of our Hope
-
"Pastor Dean Turbeville - "When Jerusalem burned, and the temple was
destroyed, it was infinitely more than the mere destruction of one city:
it was the close of a spiritual age,
and the opening of another one, the age of the New Covenant in Christ"
5/4/4: -
FREE BOOK:
The Second Coming of Jesus - G.F. Taylor (1912) "Others think that
all the Scriptures about the coming of the Lord refer to the destruction
of Jerusalem under Titus in A. D. 70. Such teachers substitute
Titus for the Lord. However, if this is probable, what shall we do
with Rev. 22: 12: “Behold, I come quickly”? Jesus spoke these
words twenty-six years after the destruction of Jerusalem. So we
are driven to look elsewhere for the coming of the Lord." |
The Jerusalem Tribulation not the Great One -
Dr. John Gill:
Of the Abrogation of the Old Covenant
(1769) "But still the carnal Jews continued them, and even sacrifices,
until the destruction of Jerusalem, which put an end to them; for
according to the law of God, no sacrifice might be offered but at
Jerusalem, and upon the altar there; so that when the city, temple, and
altar were destroyed, they ceased to offer any sacrifice, and never have
offered any since; whereby that prophecy is remarkably fulfilled; "the
children of Israel shall abide many days without a sacrifice" (Hosea
3:4).. not even a passover lamb is slain by them, as well as no
other sacrifice offered; which yet they would gladly offer, in defiance
of Christ, the great Sacrifice, were it not for the above law, which
stands in their way, and by which they are awed; and which is no small
instance of the wisdom and goodness of God in providence. Now it was a
little before the destruction of Jerusalem the apostle wrote the epistle
to the Hebrews, and therefore, with great propriety, he says of the old
covenant, that it was not only decayed, and waxen old, but was "ready to
vanish away" (Heb. 8:13)." -
End of the World Predictions: Sacred and Secular -
Jay Gary - Of Caterpillars and Butterflies (PMI)
"Preterism is history. It must die.. It failed with Sproul
to lead the church into a new day, because it could only lead from the
past. It failed with the Evangelical Theological Society to influence
academic scholars. It authors failed to break into mainstream Christian
publishing, because of their caustic tone. Either it finds a way to
cocoon itself and be transformed into a butterfly, or it will die
crawling on the ground, just like it did a hundred years ago.” -
Moving Beyond Preterism
- Kevin Beck - Added to
CHPA
The Divine Calm of GWB - "It has been a topic of some confusion, the
meaning of George Bush's religious beliefs. Some commentators trumpet
the president's ties to Howard Ahmanson, a fantastically wealthy
Californian who is an acolyte of the "Christian Reconstructionist"
movement—which aims to place the United States under Biblical law
(though Ahmanson proclaims himself personally against, say, the stoning
of homosexuals). Others point up his connections to apocalyptic
millennialists like Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind
novels. The problem is that, theologically, Bush can't serve both these
masters at once."
5/3/4: -
FP:
Richard McPherson: A Response to "Reconsidering the Scriptures": Part
One - "If
you believe that the "Heavens and Earth" has not pass away and it is
still in the future, by using scripture alone, we are STILL under the
law. You are correct, we need to "Reconsider Scripture" and put it
into context without twisting in any form or faction. Also, without
using creeds and by using SCRIPTURE ALONE."
-
Reconsidering the Scriptures - Steve Lehrer
4/30/4: -
First Preterist Forum in French "Babylone la
Grande prostitué(la ville adultčre) a été la ville de Jérusalem jugé,
condamné et détruite par Dieu en l'an 70. Plus précisément de 66 et demi
ŕ 70. Soit 3 années et demie tel que prophétisé par Daniel et l'apo..." -
Vanunu in Jerusalem's Anglican cathedral for safety "He has no
protection from the authorities. The Justice Minister, Mr [Yosef] Lapid,
said publicly that 'He's with all these radicals. Let them protect him.'
Mr Vanunu's supporters had hoped that he would be allowed to leave
Israel, but the country's security establishment has placed tight
restrictions on his movements and contacts, including a ban on leaving
the country for a year." -
A forgotten hero emerges "(upon release) He immediately renewed his
call for Israel to come clean regarding its nuclear arsenal, reportedly
the fifth largest in the world, and open the Dimona reactor to
international scrutiny. Indeed, Israel is the only country in the Middle
East to be a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and
has refused inspection of its facilities by the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA)." -
An Analysis of Anti-Islamic Polemics "Mr. Bush’s support for war and
Israel comes mostly from 60 million strong Christian fundamentalists who
identify themselves with the neo-Crusading Religious Right movement.
They now represent the single most powerful voting block in U.S.
history. It is a twist of fate that brought these fanatics of Christian
Right and the so-called neo-conservatives together in the U.S. to find a
common platform under Bush presidency, thanks to Karl Rove, to push the
country towards American unilateralism, redrawing the map of the
Middle-East, and unquestioning support of the Jewish state of Israel.
Many of these neocons are Jewish, who have long-awaited the backing from
the Christian Right – many of them Southern Baptists – who believe that
Jews of the world must be assembled in Israel a priori to facilitate the
second coming of their Messiah (Jesus); those Jews who convert to
Christianity will be salvaged, the rest slaughtered. Many of these
Christian fanatics are, therefore, proud of their new identity as
‘Christian Zionists.’
4/29/4: -
FP:
Tim King:
Added Interview with Tim King
"Some “leaders” in the preterist camp have been asserting that you are a
universalist, because of some of the aspects of Comprehensive Grace.
Well, I should ask you plainly, are you a universalist? Do you subscribe
to “some form” of universalism and do you believe that everyone will go
to heaven after his or her physical death?"
4/28/4: -
U.N. Nuclear Chief Inspector to visit Israel "In the wake of the
‘nuclear spy’ Mordechai Vanunu affair, Israel expects to soon host
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
According to Gabriella Gafni, Israeli representative at the agency,
ElBaradei’s trip will be a routine visit that was planned several months
ago. The chief inspector last visited Israel in 1998. " -
Acharei Mot - Kedoshim - "Rav Hai Gaon maintains that Rabbi Akiba's
24,000 students were killed not in a plague but rather in the Bar Kochba
Rebellion. Approximately 65 years after the destruction of the Second
Temple at the hands of the Roman government, Rabbi Akiba accepted the
possibility that Shimon bar Kochba was the long-awaited Messiah-King of
Jewish redemption, and urged the Judeans to wage a war of independence
against Rome." -
Sec. Powell: Criticizing Israel not always Anti-Semitism - "It is
not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel but
the line is crossed when Israel or its leaders are demonized or
villainised for example by the use of Nazi symbols and racist
caricatures," Powell told the Organization for Cooperation and
Development in Europe meeting. German President Johannes Rau said
racists had seized on the Middle East conflict and the policies of the
Israeli government. "Everyone knows that massive anti-Semitism is behind
some of the criticism of the Israeli government's politics in the last
decades," he said. -
Google to keep Anti-Semitic websites in search engine "It's the
search results for the word "Jew" that are causing all the problems for
the online giant – the site that ranks first is anti-Semitic
Jewwatch.com, which links to other anti-Jewish sites and lists various
supposed Jewish conspiracies. Although Google says it has no plans to
take down the site, anti-Jewwatch websites and petitions have been
created, calling for the site's removal and demonstrating the strength
of feeling surrounding the issue. The email forwards that have been
circulating on the internet this week have been requesting 50,000
signatures to force Google to change its mind. That target was beaten
yesterday." |
Google: "Anti-Semitic Website" Added to
Jesus=Israel -
Can You Possibly Deny that Preterism is Anti-Semitic? - Green's
Question 11
4/27/4: -
FP: Mike
Sullivan -
Interaction with David Chilton & Thoughts on
Reformed Moderate Preterist Statements about Hyper-Preterism "Chilton pointed
out that he no longer needed the Holy Spirit because he now had me (he
had a great sense of humor). But amidst his very good use of
sarcasm he avoided the Scriptures and told me that I was basically going
to hell for being a preterist.. After David had recovered
from his initial heart attack we went out to lunch with him and he
apologized to me for calling me a heretic and that he was now a
preterist." -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
For the Temple |
Introduction
-
G.A. Henty -
This all-time great Fulfilled Eschatology novel was written for all
ages, using the events of the Roman-Jewish war as a backdrop for our
hero John of Gamala's coming of age. -
Christian Zionism Challenged in Jerusalem - Over 600 scholars
gathered as part of "Challenging Christian Zionism: Theology, Politics
and the Middle East Conflict" |
Christian Scholars gather to study dangers of Zionism |
Sabeel Conference "Sabeel Jerusalem director, Rev. Canon Naim Ateek,
said Christian Zionism "is a worldview where the Gospel is identified
with the ideology of empire, colonialism, and militarism." -
Conferences: Added
Don Preston / James Jordan debate announcement -
American announces hunt for Noah's Ark meant to spark revival - "The
object on the satellite image is at least 50 feet by 70 feet, he said.
There is some speculation that the object, if it is the biblical ark,
has broken into three pieces. The account of the ark, which is in
Genesis 6:9, places its construction about 6,000 years ago. "
4/26/4:
4/25/4:
4/24/4:
4/23/4:
4/22/4:
FP: Larry Siegle:
On the Resurrection "The IBD view steps backwards and seeks to find a
physical application to that which God intended to be spiritual in
nature."
The Passion and its enemies - Pat Buchanan "To Safire, Catholicism
leads straight to the Holocaust. The line from Matthew, “Let his blood
be upon us and our children,” he writes, has led to “millenniums of
persecution, scapegoating and ultimately mass murder that flowed partly
from its malign repetition.” This was “finally addressed by the Catholic
Church after the defeat of Nazism.”
4/21/4: -
Refuting Full Preterism - Louis Ruggiero "Like any other cult
such as the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, Full Preterists feed on
those who are unlearned and untaught. Indoctrination can be a terrible
thing, and when one becomes indoctrinated into the precept of men,
escaping its bondage can become unbearably difficult. " "Full Preterism
is an empty doctrine, which offers no hope of a better life and a better
future. It tears away at God's promise to the world of everlasting peace
and tranquility that will be accomplished at Jesus' Second Coming. If
Jesus came in 70 AD as the Full Preterists claim, He didn't do a very
good job establishing world peace" -
A Change in religious thinking - Pulse of Twin Cities - Ralph
Barker "As people are slowly but surely leaving Tim's view, they are
gravitating toward the preterist view, one of the historic views of the
Church. This view says, in simple form, that the Scriptures that most
assume to be futuristic are in fact already fulfilled, mostly in and
right before AD 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem." -
Symbols and Numbers Clarified - Ben Winter "I think this is the best
book I've ever read and answered many of my questions I've been looking
for. I must say it is a difficult book to read but it is worth it, like
a gold mine." DH
4/20/4: -
The Spy who Blew the Whistle - Village Voice "Mordechai
Vanunu spilled Israel's nuclear secrets and was jailed for 18 years. Get
ready for the fallout." -
Orthodox Jews responding to the assassination of Sheik Yassin
"As we gather our thoughts and attempt to again stand up to the evils of
Zionism and the State of "Israel", the words of our leaders, the Rabbis
of the generation past, stand before us. How they warned us that Zionism
and all the evils emanating from it, will cause endless bloodshed, of
coarse the misnomer and tragedy of equating Judaism with Zionism is of
the major contributing factors to this endless stream of blood. And so
we are reminded of one of the exceptional attributes of Sheikh Ahmad
Yassin. How he constantly drew a clear distinction between true Judaism
and Zionism and between the practitioners of Judaism and Zionist
perpetrators."
4/19/4: -
A whistle blower mightier than Israel - ABS-CBN "Vanunu’s only crime
was to warn the world of the madness that had caused the leadership of
his country, Israel, to stockpile up to 200 nuclear weapons. An act of
conscience for which Vanunu would be kidnapped and drugged--five days
after the Sunday Times published his interview--and shipped to
Israel to be sentenced in a secret trial to 18 years’ imprisonment"
4/17/4: -
FP:
Kevin Craig - Reconsidering the Scriptures: A Biblical Response Designed
for Partial Preterists "Wavering Partial-Preterist, toes in the shallow
end, unable to jump all the way into Full Preterism." - "I find
most arguments against Full Preterism to be weak at best, and
hypocritically arrogant and dangerous at worst. As one who hasn't yet
been able to bite the bullet and join the Full Preterist camp, I am
particularly sensitive to bad arguments from partial preterists." -
Rethinking the Rapture - Kansas City Star "She and other scholars
worry about the theology behind the Left Behind series because,
she says, it can “encourage people to try to hasten the scripted
apocalyptic events themselves, with deadly consequences for our world.” -
Vanunu to be released after 18 years in jail - Australian News
4/15/4: -
RUSSIAN INVASION OF ISRAEL? The Modern and Erroneous
Interpretation of Ezekiel 38-39 - Jay Rogers "While futurists have
interpreted the vivid apocalyptic imagery in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as
foretelling a war between the Soviet Union and the restored nation of
Israel just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, most preterists
have understood this vision as a prophecy which was fulfilled in the 2nd
century B.C. at the defeat of the Assyrian invaders of Palestine by
Judas Maccabeus. "
4/14/4: -
Ariel Sharon's Master Move "America is seen as the country's
umbilical cord.. Ariel Sharon scored a home run in
Washington yesterday, and if that doesn't defang his critics in Israel,
the Jewish state ain't what it used to be." -
Osama Bin Laden offers truce ""I offer a truce to them (Europe) with
a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop
attacking Muslims or interfere in their affairs," the voice said. "The
announcement of the truce starts with the withdrawal of the last soldier
from our land and the door is open for three months from the date of the
announcement of this statement." - Not sure where to archive...
under consideration .. "President (George W.) Bush and leaders in
his sphere, big media institutions and the United Nations...all of them
are a fatal danger to the world, and the Zionist lobby is their most
dangerous and difficult member, and we insist, God willing, on
continuing to fight them," the man on the tape said. -
Irwin Schiff, Jewish-American Tax Protester, has his day in court -
Not sure how this relates.. "Schiff told U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy
Leen that he would plead guilty if federal prosecutors could show a tax
requirement exists." It was a farce," Schiff said. "(The judge) did not
let me raise objections to the indictment. ... There is no law that
requires me to pay income taxes." Schiff has been a regular visitor in
federal court since the IRS raided Freedom Books in February 2003. He is
involved in a handful of civil proceedings involving the Justice
Department's Tax Division. Among them, government lawyers are seeking an
injunction that would bar him from selling his book and from holding tax
seminars. " |
GOOGLE
4/11/4: -
Replacement Theology, Truth or Antisemitism - "It is only fair to
mention that from the days of Paul onward, there was considerable
anti-Christian hostility from among the orthodox Jews because of the
claims of Christianity. Because the rapidly growing Church was becoming
a real threat to Judaism, fear and hatred of Christianity would not be
surprising. It is quite possible that the Jews may have aided and even
instigated the early Roman persecution of the Christians in the first
few centuries." -
Why Gibson's next project has to be The End "Because Mel's
Catholicism is different from the standard brew—he and his dad, Hutton
Gibson, are widely reported to be "sedevacantists," which means they
reject the reforms of Vatican II and the authority of all popes
installed since then—I wondered if there might be some juicy, End
Times-related conspiracy theory hiding in the shadows.
There is conspiracy theory, but it's not relevant to the apocalypse. The
most extreme sedevacantists believe that the various false popes since
Vatican II were installed by a Jewish cabal designed to destroy true
Catholicism and, eventually, usher in a period of secret global control.
That sounds like the sort of thing a pesky Antichrist would do just
before the Tribulation, but it isn't ... quite. It's more like a really
bad historical event whose final meaning remains unclear."
4/10/4: -
Reconsidering the Scriptures: A Biblical Study
Designed for Full Preterists -
Steve Lehrer "A short readable study I designed for Full Preterists - It
is meant to aid the Full Preterist in critical thinking about some of
the key passages and to lead him away from that doctrinal point of view.
" -
Why Jewish Groups passionately hate Gibson - "How revealing it was
last November, when one such Jewish organization saw fit to publicly
applaud the Massachusetts Supreme Court on their ruling in favor of
homosexual marriage. In choosing between courageously defending
Judaism's unequivocal opposition to homosexual marriage and obsequious
obeisance to the doctrines of secular fundamentalism, this "Jewish"
organization made its choice and in so doing, proved my point.
Paradoxically, these so-called Jewish organizations are virulent
secularists because of belief – the belief that religion poisons the
world and that we would all be better off living in an eternal utopia of
secular democracy."
4/8/4:
4/7/4: -
After 18 Years in Prison, Mordechai Vanunu’s Day of Freedom Nears -
"AFTER SERVING nearly 18 years in an Israeli prison—1112 of them in
solitary confinement—Mordechai Vanunu should be a free man on April 21.
Now 49 years old, he has spent the prime of his life locked in a 6-foot
by 9-foot cell in Ashkelon prison for blowing the whistle on Israel’s
secret nuclear arsenal."
4/6/4: -
Ancient Jewish man’s remains give clues on crucifixion "thousands
of captured Jewish rebels were crucified by the Romans around Jerusalem
during the first century, when Jesus lived. Crosses dotted the
landscape around the city. Zias said that between AD 66 and 702, the
Romans at times crucified as many as 500 Jews a day until they quashed
what became known as the first Jewish revolt and destroyed the Second
Temple"
4/5/4: -
Jesus is Israel:
The Passion a Hit in Arab Countries |
Breaks United Arab Emirates Record - "Hanan Nsour, a veiled,
21-year-old Muslim in Jordan, came out of "The Passion of the Christ" in
tears and pronounced her verdict: Mel Gibson's crucifixion epic
"unmasked the Jews' lies and I hope that everybody, everywhere, turns
against the Jews." The Quran, though, says Jesus's crucifixion never
happened. Such are the contradictions that are welling up as the Arab
world deals with "The Passion," even as the film draws large audiences
in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab countries that have approved it
for screening." |
Now Playing Globally "Given the damage he's done to
Christian-Jewish relations, I wouldn't want to be Mel Gibson on
Judgment Day," wrote Yossi Klein Halevi in the Jerusalem Post. |
Apocalyptic President? - "According to an
article in Salon.com by Max
Blumenthal, California multimillionaire and Christian
Reconstructionist Howard Ahmanson Jr., a strong supporter of the
president, "has played a subtle but crucial role in driving Bush's
domestic agenda" on such issues as abortion, gay marriage, and welfare..
It is precisely because they don't believe in an imminent Second
Coming that Reconstructionists are so determined to use Biblical law as
the foundation for civilization." -
Nero, the Beast:
Quo Vadis, Sir Peter!
The Hindu - "That bloke had real power," Ustinov recollected as he sat
down for a chat. "It was a good role, I could pop into my mouth as many
grapes I wanted but had to leave charming Deborah Kerr alone because she
had been claimed by one of Nero's warriors played by Robert Taylor."
When asked what type of advice he'd received from director Mervyn Le Roy
to play Nero, he lowered his voice, winked, leaned closer and whispered,
"Le Roy told me that Nero was the kind of guy who played with himself
every night."
|
Pope John Paul II "In the Christian world, erroneous and unjust
interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and
their alleged culpability [for the Crucifixion] have circulated for
too long, engendering feelings of hostility towards this people." "It is as it was" |
Discontent with the inept rule of the Procurators eventually led to open
rebellion in Judaea in AD66. The Romans, distracted by the Civil Wars
following the death of Nero, were unable to put a speedy end to the Revolt.
But in AD 70. Titus, son of the new Emperor Vespasian, captured and sacked
Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.
4/4/4:
FP:
Dr. Kelly Nelson Birks
-
Answering Mathison's Questions
- Critiquing the "Brief Critique
of Full Preterism." - All references to the Heavens and the Earth are
Hebraic phrases for the religio-political government of a people group,
including the idea of the expression for the Old Covenantal system of
the Temple sacrificial system |
A Brief Reponse to the Full Preterist Criticisms of Dr. Kelly Nelson
Birks
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Apocryphal Baruch - Written in A.D.70? - "Kneucker,
Marshall, and several other recent critics, however, place its
composition after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, holding that the
"strange nation" of iv. 3 ("give not thine honor . . . to a strange
nation") refers to the Christians, and relates to a time when the
antagonism between Judaism and Christianity had become pronounced." (Baruch)
|
Revised Standard Version of Baruch |
New American Bible of Baruch |
Apocrypha Index |
Harper's Bible Dictionary |
Jewish Encyclopedia: Book of Baruch |
Catholic Encyclopedia: Baruch |
The Legends of the Jews |
II Baruch | III
Baruch |
IV Baruch
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Aphraates, The Persian Sage - “The theology and writings of
Aphrahat draw extensively on the Old Testament reflecting a religious
milieu of 4th century Mesopotamia in which Christianity was seeking to
define itself as separate from Judaism. (Aphrahat) praises Jesus Christ
as the divine conqueror of death and fulfillment of all types and
prophecies of the Old Law.” (ODB Vol. 1, p. 128) |
Full Text of Select Demonstations |
Catholic Encyclopedia |
CCEL Syrians |
Introductory Dissertation on the Syrian Church |
Church of the East Timeline |
Chronicle -
John Kerry: Keeping the Faith With Israel Kerry has meandered in his
choice for U.S. peace (process) delegates. At one point he upset Israel
supporters by suggesting James A. Baker III, the former secretary of
state, and former President Jimmy Carter -- two men thought by some Jews
to be biased against Israel."
4/3/4: -
Reaching to the Choir - "The fundamentalist Christian Zionist
movement is especially vexing to (President Jimmy) Carter. Conservative
evangelicals like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay offer unilateral
support to Israel based on the New Testament prophecy that the
reconstruction of the ancient kingdom of David will usher in the "end
times" and the Second Coming of Christ. Carter summarily dismissed this
cause, tersely calling it "a completely foolish and erroneous
interpretation of the Scriptures." "And," he went on, "it has
resulted in these last few years with a terrible, very costly, and
bloody deterioration in the relationship between Israel and its
neighbor. ... [T]his administration, maybe strongly influenced by
ill-advised theologians of the extreme religious right, has pretty
well abandoned any real effort that could lead to a resolution of the
problems between Israel and the Palestinians." -
Early History of the Millennium Teaching -
"The idea of a Millennial reign proceeded from Judaism; for among the
Jews the representation was current that the Messiah would reign a
thousand years upon earth. . . . Such products of Jewish imagination
passed over into Christianity." -
Introduction to Death of the Church Victorious -
Ovid Need, Jr. -
Review of LaHaye's Glorious Appearing -
2004 Site Updates - Archive of 2004 Updates -
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Clavis Apocalypticae (1627) Keys to the Apocalypse
4/2/4: -
Odes of Solomon - Expanded
and Updates -
Interview with Translator - "Well, Nero
according to Hebrew -- when you put it into Hebrew letters -- now Hebrew
letters have numerical value. When you put it into Hebrew, it's six
hundred sixteen. But we have a text among the Dead Sea Scrolls that
writes -- spells -- the name Nero a little differently, so that the full
numeration would be six hundred and sixty-six. So I am convinced anyway
that the wicked beast is Nero. That's our best explanation." -
James Charlesworth |
Jerusalem's Essene Gateway -
Revelation: The Gospel According to the Prophet John
- "What form of Christianity is represented by Revelation? The book
inhabits the fevered world of Jewish apocalyptic. John owes a huge debt
to the Old Testament Book of Daniel, whose fantastic visions of the
End-time he has borrowed and enlarged upon, reaching new horrific and
punitive heights. John has also taken the famous figure from the vision
of Daniel 7, the "one like a son of man," and if Revelation was written
in 68 or 69 CE, as some suggest, this would be the earliest known
adaptation of the Danielic figure in either Jewish or Christian writings
(outside of the reconstructed Q, if the Q2 stratum of prophetic sayings
were to be dated earlier). " -
New Yahoo
Groups: The
Preterist Hangout |
Preterist Employment
4/1/4: -
Why I am Not a Preterist - John
Stevenson "A preterist interpretation calls for this to be a reference
to the "tribes of the land" of Israel, even though Israel was never
described in such a way elsewhere in the Bible. But such an
interpretation would demand that the Jews who suffered through the A.D.
70 event would have recognized that their sufferings were a punishment
for their treatment of Jesus since the prophecy is not merely that they
would mourn, but that they would mourn "over Him."
Matthew 24:34: Fulfilled or Not? |
1 Peter 4:7 -
Brady Gospel Church
- "The Brady Gospel Church is a congregation of preterists in Brady,
Texas devoted to spreading the Gospel (Good News) that Jesus has come
and the Kingdom is here and we (believers) are the born again sons of
God. We (Christians) are living below our inheritance; the creator of
the universe died a death he did not deserve so that we could be free to
live in peace, love and joy." -
Chalcedon's OPEN LETTER TO LIGONIER MINISTRIES
- Part II - A Dialogue between Abshire, Sandlin, Craig -
Follow the Rabbi: Content related to Matthew 24 -
Jewish-Christian Relations -
Articles, Book Reviews, Current Events from ecumenical view -
Ebay Item:
Lloyd Gaston. No Stone on Another: Studes in the Significance of the
Fall of Jerusalem in the Synoptic Gospels. Supplements to Novum
Testamentum XXIII. Leiden E.J. Brill 1970. -
Eastern Temple Mount Wall / Gate May Collapse
- JPOST "The eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is in danger of
immediate collapse because of damage caused by the February 11
earthquake, a classified government report issued this week concludes."
|
Islamic Awkaf retorts "It
noted that all Zionist tunnels were dug under the Marwani Mosque with
the aim of shaking the foundations of the holy Mosque leading to its
complete collapse and building the alleged temple in its place." -
MK
Ilan Shalgi called the event a "voodoo ceremony." He said, "This puts
the IDF in line with the Zulu and Tutsi armies in Africa. Primitive
tribes hold such official witchcraft rituals and I suggest that the IDF
appoint a senior witchcraft officer instead of its chief rabbi." -
On tour with the harbingers of doom - GUK "Americans don't just have
to rely on the Bible anymore," says Sarah Golightly, one of the few
African-Americans who came to the launch. "God is showing himself in
many ways through movies, books and audio." Ms Golightly, who has read
only the first three of the Left Behind series, found Gibson's film hard
going but rewarding: "It was two hours of rough beating. But it was
good." -
Pope JPII - Historicist or Futurist?
- "That scroll contains the whole series of divine decrees that must be
carried out in human history to make perfect justice reign," the Holy
Father continued. "If the scroll remains sealed, these decrees can
neither be known nor acted upon, and wickedness will continue to
propagate itself and to oppress believers." "The "slain and risen Lamb"
will "be able 'to receive the scroll and to break open its seals,'" the
Pope explained, following the account in the Book of Revelation, also
known as Apocalypse.
3/31/4: -
FP: Jim Gunter -
"And Thus, All Israel Will Be Saved" Romans 11:26
"In its simplest terms, this verse is saying, "And in this manner (in
this way), all Israel will be saved." -
Preterism and a Sledge Hammer - Essh Geebor Mawkor "Preterists
say that this generation means that the generation he was talking
to must see all these signs. Preterist are weak in faith, thus forced
like atheists to come to odd conclusions...
Well here is the verse that SLAPS then right
UPSIDE their hard heads.
Eze
43:11 And if they be ashamed of all
that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the
fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in
thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances
thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof:
and write it in their sight, that they may
keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances
thereof, and do them. (The
Way of YHVH)
FREE ONLINE BOOKS:
Two Comings of Messiah - Essh
Geebor Mawkor "This book will open your eyes to
why there needs to be 2 comings of Messiah. It goes through TNK, of how
it speaks of two comings. Most importantly we go through the Talmud, and
the different discussions of Messiah the Rabbis have. The problems with
these discussions, and how it proves there must be two comings." -
Efraim Goldstein -
The Passion According to Isaiah "'Because of the
christological interpretation given to the chapter [Isaiah 53] by
Christians it is omitted from the series of prophetical lessons for the
Deuteronomy Sabbaths … the omission is deliberate and striking.'" -
Added to
Jewish Conversion -
Pat Robinson Attacks Judaism Through Mel Gibson’s "The
Passion" - “It is hard to believe that anyone
would be using a vast media empire to attack Judaism at a time when
Jewish communities are feeling intensely vulnerable. But, that’s
precisely what Robertson’s organization is doing,” says Rabbi Tovia
Singer, the New York-based radio show host of Israel National Radio who
was formally thrown off New York’s WMCA for being “too Jewish.” Singer
(who is involved with the operations of
.com) is also the founder Outreach Judaism, a
counter-missionary organization which fights against Christian
missionaries. -
Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi mulls "The Passion"
- "The chief Israeli rabbi for Sephardic Jews, Shlomo Amar, was not
available for comment." -
Rabbi Lau Asks for Definition of Jewish State
- "the Knesset has not, to this day, found the time to take five days
and discuss what exactly this Jewish State we have created is meant to
be. The words 'Jewish State' are mentioned 22 times in Israel's
Declaration of Independence - not "State of the Jews" but rather "Jewish
State" - and yet the Knesset has never found time to define just what
that means."
3/30/4:
Preterism and "Orthodoxy" - Dr. Gary
North vs. David Chilton
Compiled by Kevin Craig,
X-mas Conspiracy
- Gary North:
"I have spent about a million
dollars to publish books against apocalypticism" & (Chilton was)
"the hottest 'theological property' in the West" -
"He has now become self-damaged goods delivered on the doorstep of Max
King." -
Was Chilton
damned to hell
due to doctrine or dollar$?
Gary North
-
Peter Ustinov, R.I.P.
"I remember my first Ustinov movie:
Quo Vadis
(1951), in which he played Nero. I have seen few other big screen
performances to match it. The movie still holds up well, mainly because
of Ustinov.."
GunterCreek Prophetic Ministry -
On Earth As It Is In Heaven "We have false doctrines which they say, God did away
with Israel, some called Preterist and replacement theology, this is not
true, Romans 11 is still in your Bible, and the prophecies were not
fulfilled in 70 A.D. I don’t ever recall the apostles judging
the twelve tribes, as in Mathew 29:18 and I still pray “thy Kingdom
come."
Odes of Solomon - First
Century "Because
He is my Sun and His rays have lifted me up and His light hath dispelled
all darkness from my face. In Him I have acquired eyes and have seen His
holy day: The way of error I have left, and have walked towards
Him and have received salvation from Him, without grudging. I have put
on incorruption through His name: and have put off corruption by His
grace. 9 Death hath been destroyed before my face: and Sheol bath been
abolished by my word" |
English Translation from The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten
Books of Eden |
English Translation from The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten
Books of Eden |
English Translation from the Gnostic Society Library |
The Odes of Solomon and their Relationship with the Johannine Tradition
and the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Passion breaks United Kingdom release record
|
Blockbuster among Arabs, Christians, Muslims
3/29/4: -
FP: Eric Fugett
-
The Resurrection of the Dead
"1 Corinthians 15:52 tells us that the last trumpet will sound and the
dead will be raised. Seven Feasts of Trumpets passed from the time that
John was given The Revelation (September 11 63 CE (AD)), to the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE (AD). Remember that eight is the
number that represents resurrection. The eighth Feast of Trumpets
occurred on September 24, 70 CE (AD) shortly after the destruction of
Jerusalem. This was the day that the dead were resurrected." -
Jonathan M. Companik -
The Anti-Church Movement (Hyper-Preterism)
"It is every generation's job within the Church to seek to hasten the
coming of the Day of Christ." -
Critical Articles -
The Resurrection: What and When? - Marcus
Booker, PlanetPreterist Columnist "Because of this and the foregoing, I
believe that there is yet a resurrection and that it will be
general/universal event and physical. A.D. 70, I have come to believe,
was simply a foretaste of the judgment to come. I am now a futurist." -
FP: Dan Delagrave -
At All Silly Costs
"The Church has embraced ever-changing dispensational theories about the
term "this generation" for too long and AT ALL SILLY COSTS. It's time to
get this turned around. Let's deal the critics a consistent exegesis."
-
dEmEnTiA -
Israeli Secret Service at Center of Iraq WMD
Misinformation? "U.S.
officials declined comment on the findings. A spokesman for Sharon, who
oversees secret services, said the report "will be taken into
consideration." -
Call to indict Sharon sets off political firestorm in Israel -
Legal experts are divided over whether under law, Sharon would be forced
to resign if indicted. "Sharon must suspend himself -- it is
inconceivable for a prime minister to have an indictment against him,"
said Menachem Klein, a political analyst at Israeli's Bar Ilan
University. -
Apocalypse Now - Wired "All sides acknowledge that tensions on the
hill have the potential to start a war, but Hayutman believes he has
found a way to resolve the intractable conflict. "What most people see
is that if the Muslims are here, surely there is no temple," Hayutman
says. "They do not understand that technology has given us the tools to
realize the prophecy right now." He has two big ideas, two ways to
engineer the apocalypse. The first: a hovering holographic temple. "
3/28/4:
Jesus Christ was NOT Crucified on "Good Friday"
- MS Cheo., Singapore "Jesus
was right in saying that He would be in the grave for "3 days and 3
nights" and it was fulfilled accordingly. As such, what many believe
today, that He was in the grave for only one and a half day could only
be an invention and one of the many traditions of men."
 
FREE BOOKS:
The Book of The Apocalypse of Baruch the Son of Neriah
- Early Second
Century A.D.
"But also the heavens at that time were shaken from their place" -
Outside Study Links:
North Indianapolis Church of Christ - Reclassified to Fulfilled
Eschatology Web -
Bush campaign accuses Kerry of "exploitation of Scripture" Kerry
never mentioned Bush by name during his speech at New North Side Baptist
Church, but aimed his criticism at "our present national leadership."
Kerry cited Scripture in his appeal for the worshippers, including James
2:14, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but
has no deeds?" "The Scriptures say, what does it profit, my brother, if
someone says he has faith but does not have works?" Kerry said. "When we
look at what is happening in America today, where are the works of
compassion?" Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Kerry's
comment "was beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse and a sad
exploitation of Scripture for a political attack."
3/27/4: -
"The Passion" a hit in Beirut, Damascus
- "Certain sequences are in Aramaic,
the language that was dominant in the Holy Land at the time of Christ
and which can still be heard in certain towns in Syria, notably Maalula
and Saadnaya near Damascus. "Some members of the audience could not
conceal their astonishment on hearing some expressions -- such as Ya
Illah (My God) -- that are close to Arabic," said Wehbe. " "We submitted
'The Passion of the Christ' to the censorship committee, which had no
objection to its screening" in Qatar, said Abdul Rahman Mohsen, the
director general of a private Qatari cinema company. The committee
usually censors scenes or images depicting prophets from the holy books.
(To be released in UAE 31st.) -
MiraclesofthePassion.com |
Documentary to show lives changed by film
- Viewers of Gibson's
movie claim it has produced 'miracles'-
Backing Israel for different reasons
- WashPost (subscription) " Most evangelical Christians support the
state of Israel, but not always for the same reasons. The strongest
proponents, including religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), believe in premillennial
dispensationalism, a prophetic doctrine that is dramatized in the "Left
Behind" novels and includes such events as the Rapture, the Battle of
Armageddon, the Second Coming of Jesus and a mass conversion of Jews.
Most dispensationalists are also Zionists, believing that the return of
Jews to their homeland sets the stage for this end-time scenario.
Christian Zionists supported the 1948 establishment of Israel and oppose
peace proposals that would cede land to the Palestinians or call for the
withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the West Bank and Gaza.
Christian Zionists believe that modern-day Israel fulfills God's promise
to Jacob in Genesis 35: "The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also
give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."
They also believe the modern gathering of Jews has created the New
Israel and New Jerusalem foretold in the Prophets and in the Book of
Revelation. Other evangelicals reject that idea, saying that the
promise of the land was fulfilled in the days of Solomon and that the
church -- universal Christianity -- constitutes the New Israel.
Proponents of this position, called replacement theology, emphasize
God's covenant with humanity rather than the importance of the land.
Estimates of the U.S. evangelical population vary widely, from 50
million to more than 100 million, with the higher figures including
evangelicals in mainline Protestant and African American churches.
Evangelical leaders and scholars say there are far more believers in
replacement theology than there are Christian Zionists. [TDD: for
the record, it is not "replacement" if
the covenant PRE-DATES the Jewish nation - Galatians 3]
|
WHATSNEW
1996-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08
||
GUESTBOOK |
ARTCHIVE
Books |
Preterist Charts | Roman Empire |
Portraits |
Anathemas against Preterism
Jewish Encyclopedia |
Laaste Dae van Matteus 24 |
French Pret | Mountain
Retreat |
Prophecy Works |
TheologyWeb |
Hollywood Jesus |
Vengeance of Our Lord: Medieval Dramatizations of the Destruction of
Jerusalem |
Reconsidering the Scriptures - Lehrer
"True to its literary genre, [the] Ap[okalypse] offers consolation in a
crisis. The Christian community has just emerged from its encounter with
Jewry, bloody but victorious, as the walls of Jerusalem totter before the
might of Rome." - M. Hopkins, 1965 (“The Historical Perspective of
Apocalypse 1-11”, CBQ 27, pp. 42-47) 
This is a Religious War - NYT Mag
Gerard Israël and Jacques Lebar:
When Jerusalem Burned:
The Catastrophic Day when the Romans Destroyed the Great Temple and
Jerusalem Itself
(Fr., 1970) CONFERENCE:
Sparta, NC - May 13-15
See: Preston,
DeMar, Bell, Frost,
Need, Anderson;
INFO Anyone
need a ride to the Conference From Tennessee? Nancy has an RV with room!
615-948-0502
Jerome, Extracts from the Commentary on
the BibleOn Isaiah
2.12-17 [The Lord has a day in store for all
the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted. They will be humbled. [...]
For every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading ship [...]
will be be brought low.]: And those who ascribe this to the time
of Vespasian and Hadrian say that the writing here was completely fulfilled,
for no high tower, no most fortified wall, no mightiest navy and not the
most diligent commerce, could overcome the might of the Roman army; and the
citizens of Judaea came to such distress that they, together with their
wives, their children, their gold and their silver, in which they trusted,
remained in underground tunnels and deepest caves.
On Matthew 24.15 [So when you
see the standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation.]:
or to the statue of the mounted Hadrian, whoch stands to this very day on
the site of the Holy of Holies.
"Some of you may be thinking that the application of this
prophecy to the Messiah is a Christian contrivance. In fact, most modern
rabbis try to deny the messianic application of this prophecy. However, it
is well established that the ancient Jews believed that this prophecy
pinpointed the time of the Messiah's coming. In fact, many in the Qumran
community (the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls) believed that they were
living in the very generation to which this prophecy pointed! (Biblical
Archaeology Review, Nov/Dec 1992, p.58)
ARMAGEDDON BOOKS
PROPHECY POLL:
Is the Left Behind Series Scriptural?
No, not at all. 42%
Yes,
very accurately. 27%
Yes, but loosely.
19%
No, but it's close. 6%
Don't know.
6%
John Humphrey Noyes and Hyper-Preterism - Keith Mathison "The
question, then, is simply this: Is it accurate to classify
John Humphrey Noyes as an early proponent of hyper-preterism? After
re-examining the evidence, I believe that the answer is yes, and I will seek
to defend that answer in what follows."
"In all history there is no drama of more terrible interest than that which
terminated with the total destruction of Jerusalem."
G.A. Henty
Destruction of Jerusalem
by the Romans led by Titus, A.D.70
1733 Copper Plate Engraving Published in Flavius Jospehus'
Antiquities of the Jews 
Engraver: Isaac Basire 1704-1768
Basire - English family of engravers. Isaac Basire (1704–68) worked as
an engraver in London. His son (John) James Basire (b ?London, 6
Oct 1730; d London, 6 Sept 1802) became known as an engraver of
architecture and was employed on the first volume of James Stuart’s and
Nicholas Revett’s The Antiquities of Athens (1762). |
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The Masada Coin from the First Jewish Revolt | Hebrew Inscription: "Year
Three"
"According to the Talmud (Pesachim 109a), since the destruction of the
Temple in Jerusalem, Jews need not eat meat to celebrate Jewish festivals."
Passover and Vegitarianism
Reformed Postmillennial Partial Preterist James B. Jordan will be
debating Don
Preston in Saint Petersburg Florida -- 1st Week, October 2004 
After 18 Years in Prison, Mordechai Vanunu’s Day of Freedom Nears
"AFTER SERVING nearly 18 years in an Israeli prison—1112 of them in solitary
confinement—Mordechai Vanunu should be a free man on April 21. Now 49 years
old, he has spent the prime of his life locked in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell in
Ashkelon prison for blowing the whistle on Israel’s secret nuclear arsenal."
Tim LaHaye -
Rapture - Theology Behind
"Glorious Appearing"
"They said 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah'
-- but they killed him not, nor crucified him. But so it was made to appear
to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts with no knowledge,
but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not."
(Quran, Sura 4, verse 157)
ARCHEOLOGY
The
Burnt House
Ezra Ben-Meir, History:
#252, December, 1984. A whitened
bone
Leans on the balustrade of history
With the Roman spear nearby.
Jars of ceramic, blackened by the fire
That tore up the Temple walls
And destroyed the hegemony of a people.
The start of a spiral dispersing
through the history books.
Pages leaf, scarlet and black thrust their
hands forward,
Mists shroud the missing stones,
Powdery dusts cover
footsteps long silent. We
remain awhile,
Peer through the beams of time.
Ghosts slip off our
clothes as we climb the stairs To daylight
"Do not look so sad. We shall meet soon again."
"Please, Aslan," said Lucy, "what do you call soon?" "I call all times
soon," said Aslan; and instantly he was vanished away - C.S. Lewis -
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
October, 21-22, 2004 - Sydney Australia /
Have You Been To The Land Down Under?
This is your invitation to Eschaton 2004 in Sydney Australia! Learn to say
“G’day Mate” as you chuck some prawns on the barbie, pet a kangaroo, hold a
koala, sing “Waltzing Matilda” and Oh yea, hear Don Preston live!
This will be Don’s first trip to the Land of the Southern Cross. We are
delighted to bring this world-class ministry to Sydney for our conference in
October. The dates in Sydney are October 21 and 22 this year.
To
learn more about Sydney go to: www.sydneyontheweb.com
Patrick Cassidy Email
- Calvinist/Full Preterist
(slydways@yahoo.com) "Would like to start a Preterist Association in Las
Vegas,NV...If interested please E-Mail"
Apocalypse Now - Wired
The future Temple which we are expecting, is built and perfected and will be
revealed and descend from heaven. - Talmudic scholar Rashi, 11th
century
Anti-Semitism?
Billy Graham -"A
lot of the Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are
friendly to me because they know that I'm friendly with Israel. But they
don't know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country."
(Nixon White House Tapes, 1972.)
When Shall These Things Be? A Reformed
Response to Hyper-Preterism:
C.J. Seraiah Footnote - Anyone who holds II Peter 3 as AD70 is a hyper-preterist
"Seraiah Hyper-Preterist" List
John
Owen, John
Brown, John Lightfoot, Gary DeMar,
Cornelius Vanderwaal, Roderick Campbell,
David Chilton in Days of Vengeance (A Book endorsed by C.J.
Seraiah!)
The Early Days of Christianity
-
F.W. Farrar
(1882) "John did not die till Christ had
returned, in that sense of the ‘close of the aeon’ to which His own words
and that of His Apostles often point." (Book project)
MEL GIBSON FOXNEWS INTERVIEW
O'REILLY: Do you
believe there's a physical presence of Satan in the world? Did that
reflect your view?
GIBSON: Hmm. A physical presence? I
think that evil pervades certain areas and comes to each of us in an
individual way, in a way that it's going to best ensnare us. Firstly,
it wants to make you believe that it doesn't exist. And secondly, I
think when it does come, it's going to come in a magnetic form. I
mean, it's not going to be holding a neon sign with steam coming out
its nostrils.
O'REILLY: Yes, what temptation is?
GIBSON:
Yes, sure. Yes.
"As far as I can remember, I said very shortly what I hold to
be the 'Lord's coming' in my little book on the Historic Faith. I hold very
strongly that the Fall of Jerusalem was the coming which first fulfilled the
Lord's words; and, as there have been other comings, I cannot doubt that He
is 'coming' to us now." - Westcott, Arthur, Life and Letters of Brooke
Foss Westcott. (New York, 1903), Volume II, p. 308. )
"Back in 1837 there broke out in New England and spread west as far as Ohio
a wave of religious frenzy that threw the land into a furor of excitement
and swept people into its maelstrom of insane force like leaves in an autumn
gale. It originated in a single bit ...of calculation based on a literal
interpretation of figures in the Bible by a young Vermont schoolteacher and
local lay preacher named Miller. He took some numbers given in Daniel,
Ezekiel and Revelation and with a little ... anipulation, deduced that the
date of April 17th, 1843, six years ahead, was the day `set' by Biblical
prophecy as the `Day of the Lord,' that dreadful day on which the crack of
doom would shatter the heavens and all the world would be dissolved with
fervent heat at twelve o'clock midnight." - Alvin Boyd Kuhn
I’ve never seen a President – I don’t care who he is – stand up to them [the
Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The
Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I
wasn’t writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip
those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our
citizens certainly don’t have any idea what goes on.” - Admiral Thomas
Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"Israeli intelligence knew beforehand that Iraq had no weapons stockpiles
and misled US President George W Bush.”
Yossi Sarid, a member of the Israel’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Radio Debate Coming Up February 22 -
John Anderson of Lighthouse World Ministry has just confirmed
that a major radio debate will take place on February 22, 7-8 PM central
time. The debate will feature Bible scholar, prof. Harold Hoehner, of Dallas
Theological Seminary, and Don K. Preston. Professor Hoehner is well known to
most serious Bible students across all denominational borders. The topic of
the debate between Hoehner and Preston will be whether we today are in the
last days foretold by the Bible, or whether the last days were in the first
century. You can listen live on Anderson's website, posted on
this board, or, if you miss the live debate, you can listen on the archives
later. -
Don K. Preston
Edgar Allen Poe (1850)
"No more," responded Abel-Phittim,–"no more shall we feast
upon the fat of the land–no longer shall our beards be odorous with
frankincense–our loins girded up with fine linen from the Temple." (Tale
for Jerusalem)
WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? A Reformed Response To Hyper-Preterism By Keith
A. Mathison, Editor 416 pages
paperback Description:
Multi-authored critique of the Preterist view. There are six other
contributing authors besides Mathison, seven total. Here's the list of
authors and their topics:
1. Kenneth Gentry (creedal problems of
hyper-preterism)
2. Charles (Chuck) Hill (arguments from church history)
3. Richard Pratt (unfolding of biblical eschatology)
4. Keith Mathison
(interpreting the time texts)
5. Simon Kistemaker (book of Revelation)
6. Douglas Wilson (sola scriptura, creeds, eccles. authority)
7. Robert
Strimple (resurrection of the body)
"Advocates of hyperpreterism have
been active, even in academic settings, and have succeeded in persuading
many of their eschatological views. "This volume," writes editor Keith A.
Mathison, "is intended to offer an introductory critique of certain aspects
of hyper-preterism." Answering such hyper-preterists as Max King, Timothy
King, Ed Stevens, and John Noe. Hyper-preterists contend that "all biblical
prophecy was fulfilled in the first century." The contributors to this
critique all confess that the second coming of Christ, the general
resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment are future. These scholars
introduce the basic issues and provide students with a tool to help them
when they encounter hyper-preterism.
Keith A. Mathison (Ph.D.,
Whitefield Theological Seminary) is director of curriculum development for
Ligonier Ministries and the author of several books. [He is also associate
editor of TableTalk magazine.]
INDIANAPOLIS DEBATE COMING
The second
of two scheduled debates between Thomas Thrasher of Alabama, and Don K.
Preston will be held in Indianapolis March 13. Times are 10 a.m. - 4
p.m. The debate will be at Embassy Suites North, 3912 Vincennes Road, Tel:
317.872.7700.
The first debate, held in September 2003, in Alabama
was a wonderful event. The professional sound man, who has been taping such
events for over 50 years, stated at the conclusion of the debate that it was
the most cordial debate he had ever witnessed or taped. Both disputants
conducted themselves on the highest level of dignity and decorum. Purchases
of the audio tapes of the debate have continued strong as well, as the word
of the debate has continued to spread.
Resolved: The Bible
teaches that the resurrection of the dead occurred at the time of the fall
of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Don K. Preston affirms
Thomas N. Thrasher
denies
Resolved: The Bible teaches that all the dead will be
raised to life at the end of the current Christian Age.
Thomas N.
Thrasher affirms
Don K. Preston denies
"But there is further reason, and a pressing one today, why
we should write upon our present subject, and that is to expose the modern
and pernicious error of Dispensationalism. This is a device of the Enemy,
designed to rob the children of no small part of that bread which their
heavenly Father has provided for their souls; a device wherein the wily
serpent appears as an angel of light, feigning to "make the Bible a new
book" by simplifying much in it which perplexes the spiritually unlearned.
It is sad to see how widely successful the devil has been by means of this
subtle innovation."
Arthur Pink,
The Application of the Scriptures: A Biblical Refutation of
Dispensationalism
Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it
for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
"All who are in awe of G-d
should feel pain and the anxiety over the destruction of the Temple." (OC
1:3)
"34Truly I tell
you, this generation ([15]
the whole multitude of people living at the same time, [16]
in a definite, [17] given
period) will not pass away till all these things [18]
taken together take place." (Amplified Bible,
Matthew 24:34)
"1[THIS IS] the
revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries]. God gave
it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain things
which must shortly and speedily come to pass [1]
in their entirety." (Amplified Bible, Revelation 1:1)
"When Paul finally was enabled to understand and develop the
whole truth on this subject, no doubt the opinions and prejudices of the
more liberal class of Jewish disciples yielded to his clear and conclusive
[260] arguments. But, doubtless, some still clung to the obsolete and
unlawful service of the temple, assisting the unbelieving Jews to perpetuate
it. Then came in the necessity for the destruction of their temple and city,
so that it should be impossible for them to longer offer sacrifices which
had been superseded. The destruction of the temple was not the legal
termination of the Mosaic ritual; for it ceased to be legal with the death
of Christ; but this brought to an end its illegal continuance." J.W.
McGarvey,
Acts 21
Trčs-Saint-Rédempteur
"The last window has the sack of Jerusalem as its theme. The Prophet Isaiah
is in the foreground with arms uplifted facing the scene. Below, Cyrus (King
of Babylonia 539-530 BC), mounted on a white horse, liberates the Jews from
Captivity and allows them to rebuild the Temple. The Roman invader Titus,
who will destroy the Temple in 70 AD, is shown in the upper part of the
window. " 
JOOST VAN DEN VONDEL
"Jerusalem laid desolate"
Hierusalem
Verwoest
1620
1737 Print: Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar
John MacArthur -
"But it is
true that after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, which was a
judgment on the apostasy of Israel and their re- jection and execution of
the Messiah, this actual prophecy was fulfilled. " (Study Bible, Deut.
28:68) 
Eusebius
De evangelica praeparatione.
Venice: Nicolaus
Jenson, 1470.
Gift of Howard Lehman Goodhart.
"We must not let them get away with calling themselves
“preterists” or “consistent preterists,” or believers in “fulfilled
eschatology.” The word “preterist” is a good word, the disciples of
Hymenaeus are not preterists; their “dispensable eschatology” makes them
heretics. The HP movement is simply another group seeking a name that is not
their birthright." - Dennis Swanson
On February 21, 2003, the Miami Valley Church and Planet Preterist will host
a preterist fellowship afternoon in Xenia, Ohio. Between 1:00 and
4:00 PM in Dayton
Copper engraving of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. 1729 
One Worlders Promote Televangelists, "Last Days," "Rapture" to Lay
Foundation of Global Government - "Powerful globalist forces are
promoting high-powered television evangelists and religious publishers who
teach “end times” and “last days” religious dispensationalism talking of an
ultimate “rapture” in order to help lay the groundwork for one world
government." "In A.D. 70, the
Romans, finally exasperated by the rebellious intransigence of the Jews,
gave up all attempt at pacification and turned to destruction, and Jerusalem
and the Temple were laid waste so that Jesus' prophecy literally came true."
-- The Daily Study Bible Series, by Barclay, Matthew, vol. 2, page 305.
"Though Titus, when he took the city, did all he could to preserve the
temple, yet he could not restrain the enraged soldiers from destroying it
utterly; and it was done to that degree, that Turnus Rufus ploughed up the
ground on which it (the temple) had stood." -- The Matthew Henry Commentary,
Matthew 24:2, page 1325.
"Caesar gave orders that they should now
demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers
standing as were of the greatest eminency; that is Phasnaelus, and Hippicus,
and Mariamme, and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side.
This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in
garrison; as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to
posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman
valour had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly
laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that
there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever
been inhabited." -- Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vii, chapter 1.1, page
589
"Fulfilled literally in A.D. 70, when the Romans under Titus
completely destroyed Jerusalem and the temple buildings. Stones were even
pried apart to collect the gold leaf that melted from the roof when the
temple was set on fire. ... Excavations in 1968 uncovered large numbers of
these stones, toppled from the walls by the invaders." -- The NIV Study
Bible, note on Matthew 24:2.
"Jesus ... spoke fully of that terrible
contrast between the present and the near future, when, as fulfilled with
almost incredible literality, not one stone would be left upon another that
was not upturned. ... According to Josephus (War vii. 1.1) the city was so
upheaved and dug up, that it was difficult to believe it had ever been
inhabited. At a later period Turnus Rufus had the ploughshare drawn over it.
And in regard to the Temple walls, notwithstanding the massiveness of the
stones, ... 'there is, certainly, nothing now in situ (in the original
position)' (Capt. Wilson in the 'Ordnance Survey')." -- The Life and Times
of Jesus the Messiah, by Edersheim, Book V, p. 432, (1883).
"Jesus'
prophecy of 'not one stone left on another' was to be literally fulfilled;
all that survived the Roman assault was part of the platform on which they
were built (a small portion of the retaining wall now called the 'Wailing
Wall')." -- The New Bible Commentary, 21st Century Edition, edited by
Wenham, Motyer, Carson, and France, (1994), page 935.
"The birth pains of
the Messiah, i.e. the sufferings that would preceded the setting up of the
Messianic kingdom. It was a technical term at the time." -- The
International Bible Commentary, F. F. Bruce, editor, Matthew 24:8, page
1146.
"'Birth pains' is a frequent figure of speech to depict the
time of Israel's tribulation, which is the initial phase of 'the day of the
Lord' in Scripture (see Isaiah 13:8; 26:17-19; 66:7-9; Jeremiah 30:7-8;
Micah 4:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). (Some believe) this period of growing
human agony will be climaxed by Messiah's second coming to earth." -- The
NIV Harmony of the Gospels, by R. L. Thomas and S. N. Gundry, page 188.
"As a pregnant woman's birth pains indicate that her child will soon be
born, so these ... conflicts and catastrophes will mean the end of this ...
age is near." -- The Bible Knowledge Commentary, by Walvoord & Zook, Matthew
24:8.
"In the period before A.D. 70 the Gospel was in fact preached
around much of the Mediterranean area (which is what most Greek-speakers
would have understood by "the whole world" at that time). (See Romans 15:19,
written in A.D. 57.) Before the temple was destroyed the Christian church
had already become a truly international community." -- New Bible
Commentary, 21st Century Edition, edited by Wenham, Motyer, Carson, France,
(1994), page 936.
"The entire religion of the Roman camp almost consisted
in worshiping the ensigns, in swearing by the ensigns, and in preferring the
ensigns before all the (other) gods." -- Havercamp, quoted in Josephus, page
583.
"And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the
city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the
buildings lying round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set
them over against the eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to
them ..." - Josephus, Wars of the Jews, book vi., chapter vi.1, page 583.
Modern Christians who believe this verse should be applied to Christ's
second coming have overlooked its primary significance:
"Some may
allow themselves a double reference here both to A.D. 70 and the Antichrist.
It is often forgotten that this (supposed reference to the Antichrist) is
bound up with a questionable interpretation of a number of Old Testament
prophecies. Furthermore, if this double interpretation was intended, it is
hard to see why Jesus did not give some hint of the fact." -- The
International Bible Commentary, F. F. Bruce, editor, (Zondervan, 1986),
Matthew 24:15, page 1146.
"Christ's use of the words 'immediately after' does not leave room for a
long delay (2,000 years or more before his literal second coming occurs,
neither) does the explicit time-scale given in
Matthew 24:34. The word 'parousia' does not occur in this section
but is prominently reintroduced in the new paragraph which begins at Matthew
24:36, where its unknown time is contrasted with the clear statement that
the events of this paragraph will take place within 'this generation"
(Matthew 24:36). This section is therefore in direct continuity with what
has gone before, the account of the siege of Jerusalem. Here we reach its
climax." --New Bible Commentary, 21st Edition, edited by Wenham, Motyer,
Carson, France, (c) 1994, page 936.
"The language ... is drawn from Daniel 7:13-14, which points
to the vindication and enthronement of Jesus (rather than his second coming
['parousia']). ... In this context, therefore, this poetic language
appropriately refers to the great changes which were about to take place in
the world, when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed. It speaks of the
'Son of Man' entering into his kingship, and 'his angels' gathering in his
new people from all the earth. The fall of the temple is thus presented, in
highly allusive language, as the end of the old order, to be replaced by the
new regime of Jesus, the Son of Man, and the international growth of his
church, the new people of God." -- New Bible Commentary, 21st Edition,
edited by Wenham, Motyer, Carson, France, (c) 1994, page 937.
"The NIV margin offers 'race' as an alternative to
'generation.' This suggestion is prompted more by embarrassment on the part
of those who think Matthew 24:30 refers to the 'parousia' (second coming)
rather than by any natural sense of the word 'genea'!" -- New Bible
Commentary, 21st Edition, edited by Wenham, Motyer, Carson, France, (c)
1994, page 937.
"Titus destroys Jerusalem, Saturday, Sept. 8.
... The general was desirous to preserve the temple, a most magnificent
structure; but as this building was well fortified, and served as a citadel,
the soldiers set it on fire, nor was it found possible to stop the
conflagration, and the temple was burned to the ground, and the prediction
of the Saviour, that not 'one stone should be left upon another,' was
literally fulfilled: a most improbable event when it was uttered." -- A
Chronological View of the World, by Daniel Haskel, published by J. H.
Colton, 1846, page 65.
"Whether Jesus was talking about Titus the Roman general and his troops
sacking the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70, or the actual end of the world,
it is hard to say." (Pat Robertson, Bring it On, p. 295)
"The ceremonial and legal precepts have been
abolished. The sack of Jerusalem by Titus marked the end. The old cult was a
pattern that ... usefulness when the new cult was instituted. Jerusalem and
its temple, the pattern, were destroyed so that nothing should detract from
what they prefigured, the Church. 39- Pasch.3.27-30. 40. Prin. 1.6.4" (Henri
Crouzel, Origen, p. 107)
After the A.D.70 destruction of the temple in
Jerusalem, all Jews in the Empire were required to pay Rome and extra poll
tax of two denarii each year, equivalent to the half-shekel temple tax.
This was used to maintain the temple of Jupiter built on the former site of
Herod's temple." (James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New
Testament: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity,
p. 144) "I would consider myself
a moderate preterist, believing that much of what is recorded in Revelation
has taken place, not including the final judgment or final resurrection of
believers." (What's In The Bible The
Story Of God Through Time And Eternity by R. C. Sproul, p. 386)
"Enraged by the events at Daphne, Julian
authorised pagans to enter Christian churches and do what they wanted, which
led to a number of desecrations. He also commanded Alypius to begin
rebuilding Herod's Temple in Jerusalem to disprove the Christian prophecy of
its permanent ruin." (From Constantine to Julian: Pagan and Byzantine
Views: A Source History by Samuel N. C. Lieu p. 220)
"They will not leave in you one stone upon
another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation (Luke
20:43,44). This prophecy was fulfilled literally in A.D. 70 when the Romans
decimated Jerusalem. Nothing was left of the Temple except its foundation."
(Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, p. 85)
"Rome ruled Palestine with an iron fist during
the time of Christ and afterward. In A.D. 70, the Roman general Vespasian
ordered his son, Titus, to destroy Jerusalem. The temple was demolished,
just as Jesus had predicted it would be." (John Hagee, From Daniel to
Doomsday., p. 26)
"If I favor one perspective over the others, it is the preterist." (Scott
Hahn, The Lamb's Supper, p. 73)
"Jan. 01 - Israel's population at the start of
2004 stands at some 6,750,000 people. According to the Central Bureau of
Statistics, 81 percent of the population - 5,450,000 people - are Jews. This
includes 290,000 new immigrants who are not recognized by the Interior
Ministry as Jews. The remaining 19 percent of the population are Arabs.
The year 2003 saw the smallest growth in population in 13 years - 116,000
people, or 1.7 percent. This is attributed for the most part to the slowdown
in immigration, which in the past year constituted only 9 percent of the
population increase, as opposed to 38 percent in 2000. Only 23,000 new
immigrants came to Israel in 2003 as opposed to 34,000 in 2002."
Copper engraving of the robbery, by Antiochus Epiphanes, of Jerusalem.
1690
Tim Lahaye "When Jesus comes, He is going to be King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. Could anyone even suggest that for these last 1,900 years
Jesus has been Lord and King over the kings of this earth – kings who have
persecuted Christians by the millions (an estimated 50 million martyrs have
been slaughtered for their faith)? To say that Christ is ruler now is a
statement that reaches almost blasphemous proportions.” (End Times
Controversy: 2nd Coming Under Attack, pg. 11)
 
"Legend of Wandering Jew"
Is December 25th the correct date? - "Most
scholars agree that Jesus was 33.5 years old when he died at Passover (Abib).
He therefore had a birthday six months earlier in the month of Tishri
(Sept./Oct.), the month of The Feast of Tabernacles. Thus, Tabernacles is
Jesus' Birthday Celebration!"
"It is now generally conceded that the apostles and the Church of the first
century expected the parousia, or coming and kingdom of Christ, in that
generation. ...Unless
Jesus were himself in error there was no mistake about the TIME of his
coming again."
(p. 478;Milton Terry) 
David
Roberts' "Siege of Jerusalem"
"Remember that all these things
will happen before the people now living have all died.
Matthew 24:34" - Good News Bible
Debate between a Dispensationalist Pre Trib Apostolic
Pentecostal, and a Full Preterist
Apostolic Pentecostal in July
2004 at the Mitchell High School in Mitchell Indiana. This will be the first
Full Preterist Apostolic Pentecostal, and a Apostolic Pre-trib Pentecostal
debate to my knowledge. Pastor M. Palevo from Davie Florida (Full Preterist)
and Pastor S. Epley from Mitchell Indiana (Pre-trib) 
Daniel 9:24-27
J.P. Green Interlinear
"The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70, only five years after our epistle,
was the greatest single event of a thousand years, and religiously
significant beyond anything else that ever occurred in human history."
(James Burton Coffman, Commentary on James, 1 & 2 Peter, p. 231)
"The book of Hebrews emphatically establishes that the new covenant has a
better mediator (1:4), a better hope (7:19), better sacrifice (9:23), better
blessings (substances, 10:34), a better land (11:16), a better resurrection,
(11:35) - all by virtue of the better sacrifice/blood, Christ (12:24)."
Daniel Thompson (A Look at Israel in Romans 11)
The Electronic Telegraph
Friday 15 June 2001
Colosseum 'built with loot from
sack of Jerusalem temple' By Bruce Johnston in Rome
THE Colosseum, the huge Roman amphitheatre used for animal shows and
gladiatorial combat, was built with the spoils of the sack of the
Jewish temple in Jerusalem, a new archaeological find suggests.
A
recently deciphered inscription was made public yesterday as organisers
prepared for an exhibition on the monument, opening next week. A feature of
the show is a large, altar-like stone with a chiselled Latin
inscription, which tells how a senator, Lampaudius, had the Colosseum
restored in AD 443.
But holes still visible in the surface clearly
corresponded to different lettering, this time in bronze, which had been
previously
fitted into the stone. After a long study, Prof Geza Alfoldy
of Heidelberg University, working with Italian archaeologists, deciphered
the puzzle. He concluding that the original inscription read: "Imp. T.
Caes.
Vespasianus Aug. Amphitheatrum Novum Ex Manubis Fieri Iussit."
The
translation is: "The Emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus had this new
amphitheatre erected with the spoils of war. There is no doubt what war
this was, the sack of Jerusalem," said Cinzia Conti, the
director of
surface restoration at the Colosseum, yesterday.
Ms Conti said the
Emperor Titus inaugurated the Colosseum in AD 80 with 100 days of
festivities, but his father, Vespasian, had first opened it in AD 79,
shortly before he died, when it was still unfinished. The original bronze
lettering on the stone altar would have been made for the original opening.
The sack of Jerusalem occurred in Vespasian's reign in AD 70, when a
revolt by the Jews was crushed and Jerusalem was captured by Titus.
The temple was destroyed and a million people were said to have died in the
siege. The Arch of Titus, at the end of the Roman Forum nearest to the
Colosseum, commemorates the victory, and bas-reliefs show Roman soldiers
making off with booty from the temple.
Two years after the sack of
Jerusalem, in AD 72, work on the Colosseum, officially known as the Flavian
Amphitheatre, began. 
Peter Ustinov as "Nero"
Nero is Called "The Antichrist" in the movie
"Quo Vadis"
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus
Germanicus, also called AD 50–54) Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus,
original name Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus
REIGN OVER ROMAN EMPIRE
October 16, 54 -
June 9, 68
FINAL EMPEROR OF ROME
(Last Caesar in
Claudio/Julian Line)
Apocalypse Now - Wired
The future Temple which we are expecting, is built and
perfected and will be revealed and descend from heaven.
- Talmudic scholar Rashi, 11th century
"But there is further reason, and a pressing one today, why
we should write upon our present subject, and that is to expose the modern
and pernicious error of Dispensationalism. This is a device of the Enemy,
designed to rob the children of no small part of that bread which their
heavenly Father has provided for their souls; a device wherein the wily
serpent appears as an angel of light, feigning to "make the Bible a new
book" by simplifying much in it which perplexes the spiritually unlearned.
It is sad to see how widely successful the devil has been by means of this
subtle innovation."
Arthur Pink,
The Application of the Scriptures: A Biblical Refutation of
Dispensationalism
"Beyond the End Times" can be heard every Wed. from 6-7 PM
Pacific time) by clicking the link on our website, and on WINB International
Shortwave (12160 kHz) every Sunday from 9:30-10:00 AM (Pacific time).
Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to
what end [is] it for you? the day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
"All who are in awe of G-d should feel pain and the anxiety
over the destruction of the Temple." (OC 1:3)
"34Truly I tell you, this generation ([15]
the whole multitude of people living at the same time, [16]
in a definite, [17] given
period) will not pass away till all these things [18]
taken together take place." (Amplified Bible,
Matthew 24:34) "1[THIS
IS] the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries].
God gave it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain
things which must shortly and speedily come to pass [1]
in their entirety." (Amplified Bible, Revelation 1:1)
"When Paul finally was enabled to understand and develop the
whole truth on this subject, no doubt the opinions and prejudices of the
more liberal class of Jewish disciples yielded to his clear and conclusive
[260] arguments. But, doubtless, some still clung to the obsolete and
unlawful service of the temple, assisting the unbelieving Jews to perpetuate
it. Then came in the necessity for the destruction of their temple and city,
so that it should be impossible for them to longer offer sacrifices which
had been superseded. The destruction of the temple was not the legal
termination of the Mosaic ritual; for it ceased to be legal with the death
of Christ; but this brought to an end its illegal continuance." J.W.
McGarvey,
Acts 21
"We must not let them get away with calling themselves
“preterists” or “consistent preterists,” or believers in “fulfilled
eschatology.” The word “preterist” is a good word, the disciples of
Hymenaeus are not preterists; their “dispensable eschatology” makes them
heretics. The HP movement is simply another group seeking a name that is not
their birthright." - Dennis Swanson
On February 21, 2003, the Miami Valley Church and Planet
Preterist will host a preterist fellowship afternoon in Xenia, Ohio.
Between 1:00 and 4:00 PM in Dayton
"And in those days a king from the east shall come against them and his
cavalry shall cover their land. And he shall burn their colony with fire
together with the holy temple of the Lord, and he shall carry away all the
holy vessels." -
Assumption of Moses, "written by a Pharisee"
MELITO, BISHOP OF SARDIS
Peri Pascha
For this reason a preliminary sketch is made of the future thing out of
wax or clay or of wood, in order that what will soon arise taller in
height, and stronger in power and beautiful in form, and rich in its
construction, may be seen through a small perishable sketch.
But when that which is the model arises, that which once bore the image
of the future thing is itself destroyed as growing useless having
yielded to what is truly the real image of it; and what was once
precious becomes worthless
when what is truly precious has been
revealed. (ll 224-44)
You did not turn out to be 'Israel'; you did not 'see
God,'
you did not recognize the Lord,
You did not know, Israel,
that he is the first born of God.
(588-592)
II Corinthians 5:4
"Yes, we
who are in this tent certainly do sigh under our burdens, for we do not wish
to lay aside that with which we are now clothed, but to put on more, so that
our mortality may be absorbed in Life."
(Weymouth)
"Up to the tenth year of Nero's reign the Christians had many
reasons to be grateful to the power of the Roman Empire. St. Paul, when he
wrote from Corinth to the Thessalonians, had indeed seen in the fabric of
Roman polity, and in Claudius, its reigning representative, the 'check' and
the 'checker' which must be removed before the coming of the Lord."
F.W. Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity (1891, Columbian Publishing Co,
NY), p. 13.
Chronology of Early Christian Documents |
Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha and Sacred Writings |
Authorship and Early Date of NT Writings |
Non-Canonical
"Preterism has helped answer many questions that was keeping me from fully
accepting Jesus as the Messiah. My main reasons were what seemed to be the
unfulfillment of prophecy on his part according to futurist belief systems
which I grew up with."
David Strauss
Life of Jesus Critically Examined
"Not only did Jesus, according to the evangelical accounts, predict that he
should return to life three days after his death; but also that at a later
period, in the midst of the calamities which would issue in the destruction
of the temple in Jerusalem, he should come in the clouds of heaven, to close
the present period of the world, and by a general judgment, open the future
age (Matt. xxiv. and xxv. ; Mark. xiii. ; Luke xvii. 22-37, xxi. 5-36). A
nearer presage of this catastrophe would be the fulfilment of the oracle of
Daniel (ix 27), the standing of the abomination of desolation in the
holy place (according to Luke xxi 20, the encompassing of Jerusalem
with armies) When this should take place, it would be high time for the most
precipitate flight (according to Luke, because the devastation of Jerusalem
would be at hand, an event which he more nearly particularizes in the
address of Jesus to the city, xix. 43 1.: thine enemies shall cast a
trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and
they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another)."
FULL QUOTE
William Blake
Jerusalem "I also
hope the reader will be with me Wholly One in Jesus our Lord, who is the God
and Lord to whom the Ancients look'd and saw his day afar off with trembling
and amazement." - Jerusalem (1804)
"The Negation is the Spectre, the Reasoning Power in Man: This is a false
Body, an Incrustation over my Immortal Spirit, a Selfhood which must be put
off and annihilated alway. To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by
self-examination, To bathe in the waters of Life, to wash off the Not Human,
I come in Self-annihilation and the grandeur of Inspiration; To cast off
Rational Demonstration by Faith in the Saviour, To cast off the rotten rags
of Memory by Inspiration, To cast off Bacon, Locke, and Newton from Albion's
covering, To take off his filthy garments and clothe him with Imagination;
To cast aside from Poetry all that is not Inspiration, That it no longer
shall dare to mock with the aspersion of Madness
Cast on the Inspirčd by
the tame high finisher of paltry Blots Indefinite or paltry Rhymes, or
paltry Harmonies, Who creeps into State Government like a caterpillar to
destroy; To cast off the idiot Questioner, who is always questioning, But
never capable of answering; who sits with a sly grin Silent plotting when to
question, like a thief in a cave; Who publishes Doubt and calls it
Knowledge; whose Science is Despair, Whose pretence to knowledge is Envy,
whose whole Science is To destroy the wisdom of ages, to gratify ravenous
Envy That rages round him like a Wolf, day and night, without rest. He
smiles with condescension; he talks of Benevolence and Virtue, And those who
act with Benevolence and Virtue they murder time on time. These are the
destroyers of Jerusalem! these are the murderers Of Jesus! who deny the
Faith and mock at Eternal Life, Who pretend to Poetry that they may destroy
Imagination By imitation of Nature's Images drawn from Remembrance. These
are the Sexual Garments, the Abomination of Desolation,
Hiding the Human
Lineaments, as with an Ark and Curtains Which Jesus rent, and now shall
wholly purge away with Fire, Till Generation is swallow'd up in
Regeneration."
Arch of Titus
Rome, Italy
National Memorial Arch
Valley Forge, PA
FREE ONLINE BOOKS PROJECT Current Book
Being Added:
THE JUDGMENT OF JERUSALEM
Predicted in Scripture,
Fulfilled in History 
Abolitionist Wm. Patton (1877)
"With a perfect knowledge of all the prophetic warnings, with an unerring
estimate of the moral character of the nation, and with a full knowledge of
the massiveness of the temple, as well as the number and strength of the
walls encircling the city, our Lord boldly uttered His most wonderful
prediction. He seizes upon the destiny of a proud people, and fearlessly
tells them of their certain and speedy overthrow. Although everything in the
then political condition of the Jews, as well as in the structure of the
temple and the city, forbad almost the possibility of the speedy fulfilment
of this prophecy, still He fixed the time for its fulfilment as not distant,
but near at hand, before that generation should pass." 
DESTRUCTION
OF
JERUSALEM ABRIDGED
FROM THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH WARS, BY JOSEPHUS 
"(Josephus') history is so perfect a delineation of certain passages of the
Bible, and particularly those two verses in the twenty-fourth chapter of St.
Matthew.., that they are not only the exact counterparts of each other, but
seem almost as if they had been written by the same person."
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov
(Explanation of phrase) "entire Lightning Legion at the city
walls"--Pilate is here effectively predicting the
results of the Jewish War. In 66-70 Judea revolted against the Romans,
provoked by misgovernment by procurators like Pilate. Jerusalem was besieged
by four legions, including the 12th Fulminata (lightning) and many Arabs.
The city fell in 70, the temple was destroyed, and the sanhedrin (sinedrion)
and office of high priest abolished. The details of Pilate's threat come
from Ernest Renan's
Antichrist (1866), which tells of the destruction of Jerusalem by
the future Roman Emperor Titus in 70 AD. Bulgakov's archive contains his
notes on the legions that took part in the siege: "the 5th Macedonica, the
10th Fretensis, the 12th Fulminata, the 15th Apollinaris, as well as Syrian
troops and many arabs who came for the pillage." (S 224)
"The Passion of the Christ" sold 4.1 Million DVD/VHS Copies in One Day
Tim LaHaye on Preterism
"The preterist
view - that Revelation was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem
in A.D. 70 - cannot be supported either externally (historically) or
internally (scripturally). The truth is the preterists advocate this
theory because they need it to support their allegorizing or
spiritualizing system for interpreting prophecy. They would have us
believe the whole book was fulfilled prior to the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 A.D.... we have already seen that preterists try
desperately to find some internal bible evidence to establish the date
of Revelation during the reign of Nero (A.D.64) in an attempt to prove
the book was written before the fall of Jerusalem. This helps them avoid
facing the fact that the prophecies of Revelation are yet future."
(Revelation Unveiled, p.27,182) |
"An Athens court on Monday slapped a 3,000-euro (US$3,700)
fine on the Irish-born former priest who disrupted the Olympic men's
marathon by pushing the race leader into the crowd. The flagrant crimes
court convening in Athens also barred
Cornelius Horan, 57, from attending any sport events in Greece for three
months. A 12-month prison sentence against Horan was suspended for three
years. He paid the fine and was released. Horan told the court he wanted to
announce the Second Coming of Jesus and did not intend to obstruct the
marathon's Brazilian race leader Vanderlei de Lima. The Irishman, who now
lives in London and has staged a number of demonstrations at high profile
events, apologized for the incident and said he would not repeat it again.
Horan was wearing a red kilt and green waistcoat when he bundled into de
Lima. He carried a placard saying "The Grand Prix Priest. Israel Fulfilment
of Prophecy Says The Bible. The Second Coming is Near." Describing
himself as "a Catholic priest on sabbatical," Horan was jailed for two
months last year for a dangerous protest at the British Grand Prix when he
ran out on the track and forced Formula One drivers to swerve to avoid him."
Jerusalem as Besieged by Titus
"Why, for example, should believers be raised from the dead
to live on an earth which is not yet glorified and which is still groaning
because of the presence of sin, rebellion and death (see Rom. 8:19-22)? Why
should the glorified Christ have to come back to earth to rule over his
enemies with a rod of iron and thus still have to endure opposition to his
sovereignty? Was not this phase of his work completed during his state of
humiliation? Is Christ not coming back in the fulness of glory to usher in,
not an interim period of qualified peace and blessing, but the final state
of unqualified perfect on?" - Anthony Hoeckema
Canadian Bible Study Starting:
hill_552000@yahoo.ca - "OUR CHURCH ABANDONED THE DISPENSATIONALIST
BELIEF ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO AND MOVED TOWARDS THE PARTIAL PRET. PATH......BUT I
KNOW THERE IS MUCH MORE INVOLVED. IT IS A MATTER OF SLOWLY BRINGING THE
PEOPLE TO A MORE PROPER AND SYSTEMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD, BUT I
DESIRE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FULL PRETERISM AS I TRULY BELIEVE IT IS THE ONLY
PROPER HERMENEUTICAL COURSE OF ACTION."
Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis
"In this essay it is argued that the principal reference of
'heaven and earth' is the temple-centered cosmology of second-temple Judaism
which included the belief that the temple is heaven and earth in microcosm.
Mark 13 and Matthew 5:18 refer, then, to the destruction of the temple as a
passing away of an old cosmology and also, in the latter case, to the
establishment during Jesus' ministry and at His death and resurrection of a
new temple cosmology -- a new heaven and earth."
Eschatology in Bible & Theology
InterVarsity Press, 1997, p. 145
J.N. Darby - On Matthew 24:
26-36. "People apply this to the destruction of Jerusalem, but this is
spoken of in verses 20, 21 of this chapter: "Then let them which are in
Jerusalem flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it
depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto." But
then, after that, Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles till the time of
the Gentiles be fulfilled (the time running on now till the last beast's
wickedness is filled up). Then come the signs and the Son of man is
revealed." ("The Second Coming", Lecture One)
Jonathan Edwards -
On the Sabbath "A further argument for the perpetuity of the sabbath, we
have in Matt. xxiv. 20. "Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,
neither on the sabbath-day." Christ is here speaking of the flight of the
apostles and other Christians out of Jerusalem and Judea, just before their
final destruction, as is manifest by the whole context, and especially by
the 16th verse: "Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains."
But this final destruction of Jerusalem was after the dissolution of the
Jewish constitution, and after the Christian dispensation was fully set up.
Yet, it is plainly implied in these words of our Lord, that even then
Christians were bound to a strict observation of the sabbath."
HUGO MCCORD
"People were wrong who thought that Jesus' second visible
coming would be in the first century. I, too, get that impression from
Jesus' words that "immediately after the tribulation (Jerusalem' destruction
in 70 A.D.) . . . they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:29-30).
Jesus' use of the word "immediately" [eutheos, Matthew 24:29]
poses a problem for my finite mind, but the Scriptures remind me that I
should "forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as
a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," and that "The Lord is
not slack concerning is promises, as men count slackness" (2 Peter 3:8-9).
In more than one way, I learn that the Lord sees "not as man sees" (1 Samuel
16:7). Finite minds, reading what Peter wrote in
the first century, have trouble with his saying that "the end of all things
is at hand" (1 Peter 4:7). Likewise, they have difficulty with a first
century writer saying that "it is the last hour" (1 John 2:18). Similarly,
as men count time, a first century announcement that "the coming of the Lord
is at hand" could not be true (James 5:8)."
HEGESIPPUS
Concerning the martyrdom of James, the brother of the
Lord, from Book V. James, the Lord's
brother, succeeds to the government of the Church, in conjunction with the
apostles. He has been universally called the Just, from the days of
the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of James; but this
one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank no wine or other
intoxicating liquor,2
nor did he eat flesh; no razor came upon his head; he did not anoint himself
with oil, nor make use of the bath. He alone was permitted to enter the holy
place:3
for he did not wear any woollen garment, but fine linen only. He
alone, I say, was wont to go into the temple: and he used to be found
kneeling on his knees, begging forgiveness for the people-so that the skin
of his knees became horny like that of a camel's, by reason of his
constantly bending the knee in adoration to God, and begging forgiveness for
the people. Therefore, in consequence of his pre-eminent justice, he was
called the Just, and Oblias,4
which signifies in Greek Defence of the People, and Justice,
in accordance with what the prophets declare concerning him.
Now some persons belonging to the seven sects existing among
the people, which have been before described by me in the Notes, asked him:
"What is the door of Jesus? " And he replied that He was the Saviour. In
Consequence of this answer, some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the
sects before mentioned did not believe, either in a resurrection or in the
coming of One to requite every man according to his works; but those who did
believe, believed because of James. So, when many even of the ruling class
believed, there was a commotion among the Jews, and scribes, and Pharisees,
who said: "A little more, and we shall have all the people looking for Jesus
as the Christ. They came,
therefore, in a body to James, and said: "We entreat thee, restrain the
people: for they are gone astray in their opinions about Jesus, as if he
were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all who have come hither for
the day of the passover, concerning Jesus. For we all listen to thy
persuasion; since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that
thou art just, and showest partiality to none. Do thou, therefore, persuade
the people not to entertain erroneous opinions concerning Jesus: for all the
people, and we also, listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand, then, upon
the summit5
of the temple, that from that elevated spot thou mayest be clearly seen, and
thy words may be plainly audible to all the people. For, in order to attend
the passover, all the tribes have congregated hither, and some of the
Gentiles also." The aforesaid
scribes and Pharisees accordingly set James on the summit of the temple, and
cried aloud to him, and said: "O just one, whom we are all bound to obey,
forasmuch as the people is in error, and follows Jesus the crucified, do
thou tell us what is the door of Jesus, the crucified." And he answered with
a loud voice: "Why ask ye me concerning Jesus the Son of man? He Himself
sitteth in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on
the clouds of heaven." And, when
many were fully convinced by these words, and offered praise for the
testimony of James, and said, "Hosanna to the son of David," then again the
said Pharisees and scribes said to one another, "We have not done well in
procuring this testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, that
they may be afraid, and not believe him." And they cried aloud, and said:
"Oh! oh! the just man himself is in error." Thus they fulfilled the
Scripture written in Isaiah: "Let us away with the just man, because he is
troublesome to us: therefore shall they eat the fruit of their doings." So
they went up and threw down the just man, and said to one another: "Let us
stone James the Just." And they began to stone him: for he was not killed by
the fall; but he turned, and kneeled down, and said: "I beseech Thee, Lord
God our Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
And, while they were thus stoning him to death, one of the
priests, the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, to whom testimony is borne
by Jeremiah the prophet, began to cry aloud, saying: "Cease, what do ye? The
just man is praying for us." But one among them, one of the fullers, took
the staff with which he was accustomed to wring out the garments he dyed,
and hurled it at the head of the just man.
And so he suffered martyrdom; and they buried him on the
spot, and the pillar erected to his memory still remains, close by the
temple. This man was a true witness to both Jews and Greeks that Jesus is
the Christ. And shortly after
Vespasian besieged Judaea, taking them captive."
Anathemas against Preterism
"They said 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the
Messenger of Allah' -- but they killed him not, nor crucified him. But so it
was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts
with no knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they
killed him not." (Quran, Sura 4, verse 157) |
