Re>> I guess I'm really not agreeing to disagree after all<<
Good for you there Scott.
The Bible does not teach many things to many people.
It teaches one truth but few there be that find it :-)
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Concerning your note to James....
James has said a lot of things about Billy Graham.
I think he is right for the most part - as I do not believe that Billy Graham actually preached the Gospel but a humanized perversion of it.
However I also think that the Roman Catholic Church is the biggest CULT the world will ever see...
BUT that does not mean that they do not do good things or believe some things correctly.
I think James was pointing out something he felt that Billy said that was good - but that does not make him a hypocrite in my book because he has disagreed with other approaches or statements.
As far as you calling him on it...
I think you did well.
You were polite - a tad humorous - and showed forth a good Christian attitude - and disagreed with James using Billy at one point and condemning him at another - an opinion you are well entitled to hold.
As far as Preterism - It is the only view that does not utterly violate the principles of biblical interpretation.
All futurist views butcher plain and simple statements made by Christ and the apostles concerning the "soon" return. They claim that when Jesus and the apostles said soon - they meant it in a figurative way and that it really meant long - however when they now say "soon" it really means soon :-)
They will sometimes, when the shere wiegh of the numerous verses causes them to admit that Jesus and the Apostles taught Christ would return within a generation, resort to saying that Jesus and the Apostles who wrote the bible were wrong. Something that gravely disturbs me. If the Apostles were wrong about a subject as huge as this then why accept their writings as being of God at all? Suddenly we have no bible - but some will wrest the truth even to this length.
That is about as lame as it gets :-)
Scripture is not 'vague' on this subject of timing.
I will give you just one example.....
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Hebrew 11 is called the "faith chapter" because it speaks of those who died and yet never received the 'gift' that God promised those who trusted in Him and yet they did wondrous works in the earth. If you look you can easily "date" when some of the people being spoken of lived.
"Sarah herself received power to conceive seed" = 1867 BC
"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months " = 1543 BC
"time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David" David = 1000BC
"wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions," Daniel = 500BC
When you read Hebrews 11 you will see that it speaks of all those from Moses to Daniel as "seeing the promises 'AFAR OFF' and having died not receiving them.
If you remember there is a 400 year silence where God sent no word or prophet or miracle workers to be recorded within scripture while the awaiting of the arrival of the "TRUE MOSES" Jesus the Christ. This pattern of 400 years of silence corresponds with the 400 years of silence when the Jews were in Egypt.
IN summary what I am saying is that the bible clearly says that all of them even Daniel who lived up until less than 500 year prior to Christ are termed as having seen and embraced these promises that were "AFAR OFF" meaning in TIME not Geological distance :-)
In the same book another "time" statement appears:
Hebrews 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Concerning the second coming of Christ you have the term in the chapter just prior "yet a little while"
Now this is very interesting because if you check the Geneva 1604 edition the word VERY appears prior to the words "little while" I am not sure if it was the King James boys themselves who 'conveniently' dropped that word.
The word appears in the newer editions as it is in the Greek texts.
American Standard Version:
Hebrews 10:37 For yet a very little while,
He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.
Darby Version:
Hebrews 10:37 For yet a very little while
he that comes will come, and will not delay.
New Kings James - still missing - so much for improvement and checking the Greek:
Hebrews 10:37 "For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
Rotherham:
Hebrews 10:37 For, yet a little while, how short! how short!
The Coming One will be here, and will not tarry;
Weymouth:
Hebrews 10:37 For there is still but a short time
and then "The coming One" will come and will not delay.
Youngs Literal translation:
Hebrews 10:37 for yet a very very little,
He who is coming will come, and will not tarry;
Young added 2 "very" because the Greek word "hosos' is repeated following the word "mikron". This greek word is omitted by the Futurists who translated the King James and dropped the word did so likely to hide it because it can be made no shorter in Greek.
"Mikron" from which we get in English "micro" as in a micro-second or microscope etc. refers to a very small division of time or very small thing as in a "microwave" used in our new ovens. Very very small waves used to heat food.
This term was already the smallest term available in the Greek but then the author of Hebrews added a qualifier to make it even smaller...
"Hosos" is used twice...
3745 osov hosos hos’-os
by reduplication from 3739; ; pron
AV-as many as 24, whatsoever 9, that 9, whatsoever things 8, whatsoever + 302 7 as long as 5, how great things 5, what 4, misc 37; 115
1) as great as, as far as, how much, how many, whoever
These Greek explanations are from Strong's work.
So it reads in Greek For yet "Mikron Hosos Hosos"
Or "Micro - how great - how great"
Or if you put the qualifying term in front as we do with adverbs you get
"How great How great the smallness"
In plain English - it could not have been stated to have been smaller in Greek concerning the "time" before Christ would return. Yet the same author of Hebrews called between 2000 and 500 years "afar off" concerning "time"
Most futurist try to tell us that "time" statements are not to be taken seriously as they are likely all figurative?
They quote 2 Peter 3:8 and negate all "time" statement to hide the foolishness of adjusting "soon" to mean over 2000 years and counting while 500 years is stated as being a long time.
My complaint with Billy Graham would be more focused on the fact that He teaches false doctrine concerning salvation rather than his errors concerning the second coming.
Billy Graham teaches what is called "Arminian Doctrine"
If you want to know about that I can tell you but I will not spend more time typing now if you are not interested in reading about it.
God's Best to you - Brian |
