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To: P8riot; topcat54; P-Marlowe; blue-duncan
Conjecture: that is the key word. Conjecture is NOT date-setting.

Calvary Chapel tapes while I was overseas in the military as a young man in 1972 was the first Christian teaching I ever received after coming to Christ. Chuck Smith was line-by-line, clear, and convincing. He ably explained his model of eschatology, and I still consider it my favorite model.

The problem with conjecture is that those who disagree with your model and those who agree with your model can be your worst nightmares.

Those who disagree with you will not hear your use of modifiers like "might" or "maybe" or "possibly", and they will assert that you have taught that certain things WILL be, when you've really only said that they "might" be, as based on scripture.

Many of those who agree with your model also will not hear your "mights" and "maybes." They will then use your words to take them to outlandish biblical conclusions that you never would have supported.

The bottom line is that Christians must know and appreciate more than one model of biblical eschatology and keep track of them all. Future things have always involved a bit of interpretation.

8 posted on 08/04/2009 9:59:54 AM PDT by xzins (Chaplain Says: Jesus befriends all who ask Him for help.)
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To: xzins; P8riot; topcat54; P-Marlowe

“Conjecture is NOT date-setting”

The question of imminency has always been a problem in eschatology, starting with the prophets. Even the eminent Amillennial scholar, Oswald Allis, thought that Augustine had predicted the Second Coming taking place in 635 A.D. because of Augustine’s 7 millennium “dispensations”.


10 posted on 08/04/2009 10:20:21 AM PDT by blue-duncan
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To: xzins; P8riot; topcat54; Alex Murphy; Lee N. Field; 1000 silverlings; P-Marlowe
Eschatology is interesting and arguable, as you say. But the biggest error, imo, of dispensationalism is that it denies the church to be the new Israel. This upends the fact that the Gospel is the answer for ALL people, and has been since the world began.

"Neither Jew nor Greek...all one in Christ Jesus."

I'm a big backer of the idea that the counter Reformation never ended, but has continued to work its mayhem through the centuries.

Disrupt, divide and conquer.

11 posted on 08/04/2009 10:27:55 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: xzins; topcat54; Alex Murphy
Future things have always involved a bit of interpretation

The only "future thing" we are to be concerned with is our heavenly destination while today we "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" as a good watchman. Today is our duty to serve God through worship and the preaching of the Gospel which will transform lives and nations.

But the time of Christ's return is not for us to know or even debate. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10)

Larger Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith - Question 45:

How doth Christ execute the office of a king?

The answer is Christ executeth the office of a king, in calling out of the world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws, and censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving grace on his elect, rewarding them for their obedience, and correcting them for their sins; preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good; and also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God, and obey not the gospel."

That's today, even if it's not always so obvious.

16 posted on 08/04/2009 11:27:27 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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