Posted on 11/29/2004 6:48:09 AM PST by Lindykim
HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT? John H. Stoll, Ph.D. Executive Director, ASK, Inc.
Dr. John H. Stoll is Executive Director of A.S.K., Inc., a professional counseling and Bible teaching organization. Over the past 45 years he has been a professor in five Christian Colleges/Seminaries, as both a Theologian and Marriage and Family Therapist. For the past 18 years he has been the Director of a Christian Psychological Clinic in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. A complete resume is available.
Regardless of whether a person is a Christian or not, it seems as if the question of how much time is left in the world is on the mind. To the Christian the question is, when will Christ return to take Christians home to heaven? To the person of the world, there is the question of the world blowing up, and the annihilation of mankind. Which view is right, and what does the future portend?
Recently, there were two views stated in print that gave a time period of about five years. Chuck Colson, in one of his columns, noted that it seemed to him that Christians every where sense the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of all that is happening in the world. He was not setting any date for Christ's return, but felt that the church had about five years before our evangelizing may be over.
This could be because of Christ's coming, or it could be that the world will stop the church from carrying out its mandate from God. The other view came from the book, Megatrends, in which the author felt that the world had about five years left to straighten out its problems, or face a world wide catastrophe. He did not delineate what that might be, but warned people of an impending world wide cataclysm of sorts.
Though no one knows the future, for the Christian it is comforting to have the knowledge of what the Bible says concerning Christ's coming and the end of the world. Since the Old Testament stated over 330 prophecies concerning His first coming, all of which were perfectly fulfilled, we can with confidence trust what He had to say relative to His coming again. Christ has established His credibility with mankind.
In John 14:3, Christ stated that He would come again. Then in Mark 13:31,32 He noted that no one knows when God will send Christ back to earth. However, He did give indicators as to the times immediately preceding His return, to guide us in our anticipation, as well as a warning to get ready for His coming again.
Matthew 24 outlines to us God's program for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Disciples asked Him what the signs would be, He stated that there would be wars, earthquakes, famines, etc. immediately preceding His return. History has shown that mankind has experienced all these things, but Christ illustrated the immediacy by utilizing an analogy in saying that these would be the "birth pangs of sorrows". When a woman is about to give birth, she experiences birth pains, at various intervals, but when the pains are about a minute apart, she knows the birth is imminent. So, as we see the world reeling from one catastrophe to another constantly, it seems as if the pains of the world are about a minute apart. We live from disaster to disaster on a daily basis. In Luke 21:28 Christ pointed out that when these things begin to come to pass, the Christian should look for His coming again.
Another indicator of His return, has been the regathering of the people of Israel into a nation. It has been over forty years since that has become a reality, and Christ pointed out in Matt. 24:32-34 that the generation that witnesses all these indicators would not pass before God concludes all things in judgment and righteousness. Since a generation is approximately forty-fifty years, are we living at the end of time? Only God knows, but it behooves us to be ready and waiting His return. How much time is left, is according to God's program for His children and the world. He is in sovereign control.
© Copyright 1996-2004 by John H. Stoll.
Your heart and mind are frozen in your bias....Get ahold of a Strongs Exhaustive Concordance and you'll quickly learn that "Skeptics" simply have shut the door on biblical analysis.
I can refute every contention in your "skeptics" bible. Do your homework.
Its funny cause its true.
> Your heart and mind are frozen in your bias....
Blah, blah, blah. That line doesn't work when treehuggin' hippies use it on me; it doesn't work when Hari Krishnas use it on me; it doesn't work when Hillarycare pushers use it on me. What works on me are FACTS, not touchy-feely weirdness.
> I can refute every contention in your "skeptics" bible.
I don't have a skeptics bible. In fact, there is no such thing as a "skeptics bible."
PS: Apparetnly, Tyre is a reasonably nice tourist attraction, not a desolate wasteland. And did Solomons kingdom last forever? Has the Nile ever dried up? HAs Babylon remained an abandoned wastelend, with nary an Arabian pitching a tent there? What with all the satyrs and dragons in Babylon I wouldn't be surprised, but I would've expected an article or two in the National Geographic about those critters.
But oh, wait, lemme guess: those things that are clearly goofy are *parable*. Riiiight.
For the record, and as was the case of many ancient cities, there were two Tyres. The original Tyre stood on the mainland, and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. However, the inhabitants used the ships in port to escape the seige and move themselves and their treasures out to an island right off the coast. As a result, Nebuchadnezzar's armies didn't make enough booty to make the conquest worth it, so he moved on to conquer Egypt in order to pay his men (which is alluded to in Ezekiel 29:18-19).
A few centuries later, the inhabitants had rebuilt a new Tyre on that island. When Alexander the Great showed up, Tyre thought itself safe since he had no fleet, but he simply had his men use the bricks and stones of the ruins of old Tyre to build a causeway out to the island, which then fell to him easily. This fulfilled both Ezekiel's prophecy that Tyre would be destroyed "in the midst of the sea" (Ezk. 27:32--and bear in mind that when Ezekiel penned those words, Tyre was still on the mainland), as well that Tyre would become "like the top of a rock" (i.e. barren, flat) and "a place for spreading nets" (26:4-5 and 14)--today, the mainland Tyre is a completely bald rock and is a place where the fishermen of a nearby village named Sur come to spread out their nets to dry them. Subsequent attempts to rebuild the city to its former glory were done in by the Romans and Muslims, IIRC.
Now notice that in chapter 26, while certain acts are acribed to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies (vv. 7-12), the Lord says that He, not the king of Babylon, will ultimately make Tyre "like the top of a rock." Furthermore, He states how in v. 3: "Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up." In other words, not just Babylon, but a succession of invading nations would be responsible for demolishing Tyre--the imagery is that of a sand castle done in by repeated waves washing over it instead of just one.
Now regarding your other pat answers, if you're going to charge that the Bible's prophecies of Adam's death and Cain's banishment were false, you have to accept for the sake of argument that Adam and Cain existed. If you don't--hey, that's your problem. But to say that they never existed and therefore the prophecies about them are false is a nonsensical argument.
Not exactly. The village of Sur, which I mentioned in my previous post, likes to style itself "Tyre" as a way of attracting the tourists and making a living, but the actual locations of both Tyres are gone to this day.
> The original Tyre stood on the mainland, and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
Sources seem to disagree on that.
>if you're going to charge that the Bible's prophecies of Adam's death and Cain's banishment were false, you have to accept for the sake of argument that Adam and Cain existed.
Uh... no. If I make a prophesy that Xander Vlandenwhoopenstein will tomorrow be run down by a sex-crazed purple bull elephant in downtown Sioux City, Iowa... it's still a false prophesy if Xander Vlandenwhoopenstein doesn't exist. It's either true of false, and if it ain't true...
> to say that they never existed and therefore the prophecies about them are false is a nonsensical argument.
Your logic is 180 degrees off course.
I glanced at that listing and it's BS. I'll debunk the first few. Many of these have to do with the fact that the skeptics can't distinquish between promises made to an individual and his descendants.
1. God says that if Adam eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then the day that he does so, he will die. But later Adam eats the forbidden fruit (3:6) and yet lives for another 930 years (5:5). 2:17
They did die. Adam and Eve suffered immediate spiritual death. They also suffered physical death and all men with the exception of two have died within 1000 years. Before that they were immortal. The Bible says a day with the Lord is as a 1000 years. The oldest Methusaleh lived 969 years. If you want to press the case that God should have terminated you on day 1, good luck with that.
As a punishment for killing Abel, God says Cain will be "a fugitive and a vagabond." Yet in just a few verses (4:16-17) Cain will settle down, marry, have a son, and build a city. This is not the activity one would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond. 4:12
While Cain did established a city, it doesn't say that he was never a fugitive and a vagabond. Cain immediately appealed to the Lord to lessen his punishment because it was greater than Cain could bear.
God promises Abram and his descendants all of the land of Canaan. But both history and the bible (Acts 7:5 and Heb.11:13) show that God's promise to Abram was not fulfilled. 13:15, 15:18, 17:8, 28:13-14
It is clear that these prophesies were understood to be given to their decendants.
How long was the Egyptian captivity? This verse says 400 years, but Ex.12:40 and Gal.3:17 say 430 years. 15:13
The issue here is that they are nitpicking about 400 verses 430 years. It's clear that Abram's decendants were afflicted 400 years. It doesn't make the prophecy untrue if there was an extra 30 in there.
"In the fourth generation they [Abraham's descendants] shall come hither again." But, if we count Abraham, then their return occurred after seven generations: Abraham, Issac (Gen.21:1-3), Jacob (Gen.25:19-26), Levi (Gen.35:22-23), Kohath (Ex.6:16), Amramn (Ex.6:18), and Moses (Ex.6:20). 15:16
They didn't go into slavery in Abraham's generation. That didn't occur until Jacob.
God promises Abram's descendants the land of Canaan from the Nile to the Euphrates. But according to Acts 7:5 and Heb.11:13 God's promise to Abram was not fulfilled. 15:18
It's clear that the Lord did give Abraham's decendants the land of Canaan. But it is also clear from Leviticus that Israel was subject to exile if they didn't obey God. Israel's relatively recent rebirth is a testament to God continuing to fulfill that prophecy.
God promises to make Isaac's descendents as numerous as "the stars of heaven", which, of course, never happened. The Jews have always been, and will always be, a small minority. 26:4
The promise was made to Abraham not to Isaac. And Abraham in an act of little faith, slept with Sarah's servant and conceived Ishmael. Thus the promise was split. Ishmael became as numerous as the stars but the covenant was with Isaac.
Gen 16:10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. 11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
God renames Jacob twice (32:28, 35:10 ). God says that Jacob will henceforth be called Israel, but the Bible continues to call him Jacob anyway (47:28-29). And even God himself calls him Jacob in 46:2. 32:28, 35:10
And yet Jacob and his descendants are indeed known as Israel.
God calls Jacob Jacob, though he said in Gen.32:28 and 35:10 that he would no longer be called Jacob but Israel. 46:2
Repeat
The tribe of Judah will reign "until Shiloh," but Israel's first king (Saul) was from the tribe of Benjamin (Acts 13:21), and most of the time after this prophecy there was no king at all. 49:10 God promises to bring Jacob safely back from Egypt, but Jacob dies in Egypt (Gen.47:28-29) 46:3
The problem here is that the skeptic assumed Judahs reign began immediately and that it was Jacob himself and not the great nation that God would make Jacob into (46:2)that would be brought back safely. God did bring Israel (Jacob) back from Egypt and restore them to their land, and eventually Judah did reign, and while Judah's reigh was not entirely contiguous, it can still be said that the scepter did not depart from the house of Judah until Shiloh.
Contrary to the prophecy in 48:21, Joseph died in Egypt, not Israel. Gen.50:24
Go back to Gen 46:2-3 to see that the prophecy was about the nation Jacob would become not Jacob himself.
My guess is that all 175 are just like this. Incomplete Bible understanding. Either the skeptic misunderstood the prophecy or didn't realize that it was in fact fulfilled, or it's a prophecy that hasn't been fulfilled yet.
Fortunately the Lord isn't quick to execute wrath or I dare say that well deserved judgement would have already befallen both of us.
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
I present myself as Exhibit 1.
Did Cain ever exist? Evidence, please.
The only evidence left is that of the works of Moses who was confirmed by God to be a prophet in front of millions by huge miracles.
The city of Tyre does not exist anymore. ...."About 83 km south of Beirut, Tyre is the fourth largest city of Lebanon."
You left out Tyre, NY and Tyre, MI. My understanding is that modern Tyre in Lebanon is not built where the old city stood. The old location is still used to spread fishing nets.
You're an evoutionist but you don't know your 'creation story'?
If my past debates with evolutionists are an indicator, then either (a) you have no idea what it is, or (b) you do know but are too embarrassed to tell it {not that I blame you for that}.
So which is it? (A) or (B)?
>> Did Adam ever exist? Evidence, please
> I present myself as Exhibit 1.
You present a recent example of evolution as evidence of the existence of a mythological character???
> You're an evoutionist but you don't know your 'creation story'?
I've never asked my parents for details on my creation. They were, presumably, the only ones there at the time.
No doubt about it, HE is coming back soon. Many reasons make this true. A major one is Israel becoming a state. THAT is a definitive sign. Other signs mentioned in the Bible are making the headlines EVERY day.
> And where is Tyre today?
A place easily findable in Lebanon. Lots of pictures of old ruins on the net... clearly, it was not a place scraped down to the bedrock, as incorrecctly prophesied.
And is Babylon still the nuclear wasteland devoid of all life save satyrs and dragons that the Bible prophesied?
> Fortunately the Lord isn't quick to execute wrath
Well, not anymore. According to the Old Testament, anyone displaying any tendencies to think democratically would be wiped out lickety-split, along with a few tens of thousands of people nearby.
> Either the skeptic misunderstood the prophecy or didn't realize that it was in fact fulfilled, or it's a prophecy that hasn't been fulfilled yet.
Ah, yes, my favorite excuse of the prophet, soothsayer and doomsayers: "Well, it hasn't happened *yet.*"
NO, I present a direct descendant of Adam as evidence of Adam's existence.
There are some prophecies that deal with the end of this age and the next, that clearly haven't happened yet. I suspect that makes up some of the 175 in your list.
Had some of them happened such as the destruction of earth with fire and the final judgement, we wouldn't be here talking about them. You'd be hot-footing it across Hell, cursing yourself for not listening to DannyTN. And I'd probably be asking stupid questions like "Is there sex here in heaven, what happened to my dogs when they died, and is Orion really going to roast forever".
> NO, I present a direct descendant of Adam as evidence of Adam's existence.
And who's to say you're not presenting a direct descendant of Ask and Embla? Seems equally likely, and as equally valid a proof.
"How do I know that the universe was sneezed out the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure? Well, we're here, aren't we?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.