Thread: Does anyone think different ?

Originally Posted by Kate

Sorry, but more informed theology says that you are unequivocally barking up the wrong tree on this one.

The interpetation of Revelation as describing events of the end times is actually a recent interpretation of this book dating from the mid-1800s, and promoted by John Darby. This interpretation is not held by many Christians, but is common among evangelical Christians.

Um, no, that's not accurate. It was always taken as an end-times prophecy, but each time that a new "end-time" was expected, the idea as such waned after the passing of the expected date before being again revived. The concept in the first and second centuries was that the described events were imminent. Later in Roman times they were thought to have already occurred, having been prophecies of Nero or another emperor. As the end of the first millennium approached, the idea of the Revelation as end-time prophecy was revived and there was a very real expectation by many believers that the end was at hand and that John's prophecies were about to play out. when the end did not come, the concept again lost currency.

There were in fact numerous revivals of the idea that the events of the Revelation were at hand. The Black Plague and the suppression of the Templars was another such period. Opponents of the power of the Vatican believed that the Inquisition was a sign of John's end times.

So, put correctly, the modern interpretation and the growing mythology of "the Antichrist" was a 19th century event. However, it should be noted that many theologians and clergy had preached that Napoleon was the antiChrist just a generation before that. What I'm saying is that your view is scarcely based on a comprehensive history of the view of the Revelation in Christendom.

Preaching to the choir, I don't think Chavez is brave. He knows he literally has us over a barrel, an oil barrel. I think Bush is a disaster but we elected him 2 times he should not be scorned in his own country by a potato headed 3rd world bumpkin. Hope, I like your Janis Joplin quote. It didn't work out too well for her but information like that is hidden in newspapers. Just kidding, I don't read them either.

What I'm saying is that your view is scarcely based on a comprehensive history of the view of the Revelation in Christendom.

Sorry, I did not clearly articulate my point, which was that many biblical scholars and Christians do not take the signs and symbols of Revelation literally as a description of the sequence of events surrounding the end time, but rather believe the book is allegorical and was originally written to its audience to inspire hope during a time of great persecution.

Wow , the CrocketsGhost is a very intelligent Crocket - thank you for the detailed evaluation of the article - it would be very sad to accept this as truth

Andyt
on Janice Joplin - this poor girl died of heroin OD at age 27
I think since she is from Texas , the Mexican drug smugglers contributed to the premature death - that is why I do not hesitate using the quote even if she did not live up to it
With the newspapers and TV - I like using the Internet for info and I am trying to be selective - usually too much garbage is being poured out of TV box for me to digest - so I think all of us should be a little selective - too much negativity is not good for health
It is just yesterday within literally 5 min they released a murderer Jose Luis , Chavez , child pornography and the kiling of a baby girl , coming war in Iran and a couple of more things - together with Mr.Bush coming to my town in a.m.
If you can digest easily this amount of garbage - you have a strong stomach - I' prefer not to hear something like this at all
Is there anything nice to tell about our whole world ?
I will be happy watching the news every day if we can make one positive channel out of 900 negative / food , HGTV and a couple more I can watch on occasion /
BTW - in America people watch TV way too much - passive entertainment - is it healthy ?

hope2006 - I like your Janice Joplin quote. I was not a fan when she was alive, but I appreciated her music much later as I got older and understood what she was talking about.

I think she is from Oklahoma. Because she died of a drug overdose she was shunned by her home town. Sad, isn't it?

I'm going to think really hard over the next few minutes and I am positive that with a fresh cup of coffee, I can find something really good happening in our world.

I'll be back. I'll also confirm hometown of Janice Joplin.

Hope's

Is there anything nice to tell about our whole world ?

That's a nice idea, but we better be careful about what we wish for.

That's part of what got us in this predicament....not being told the truth !!
But I like the thought.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/onl ... fjo69.html

hope2006--YOU ARE RIGHT!! Janice Joplin is from Port Arthur, Texas. Don't know why I thought it was Oklahoma.

Still working on the "something good in the world"...I'm sure it's there..we've just got to find it.

The nice thing is that we , different people , can get together and help the country and preserve our values , hearts and have our spirits high despite a lot of turmoil and confusion around - this is a very difficult challenge - because many greedy , angry people are testing our integrity every single day .
But when we get together , the positive spirit wins .

I believe in keeping the spirits high whatever happens / sometimes it is very very difficult /.

I believe that this is the real meaning of life - preserve our integrity , values and high spirits whatever challenge is being faced .
This is a very very nice thing - to get together and to combine all our energy into one laser -beam which can burn through any obstacle .
To me this is the most amazing thing out of my experience with Alipac - this laser-beam experience

Originally Posted by Kate

What I'm saying is that your view is scarcely based on a comprehensive history of the view of the Revelation in Christendom.

Sorry, I did not clearly articulate my point, which was that many biblical scholars and Christians do not take the signs and symbols of Revelation literally as a description of the sequence of events surrounding the end time, but rather believe the book is allegorical and was originally written to its audience to inspire hope during a time of great persecution.

Ah, well that is a quite modern interpretation. Throughout most of Christian history, John's Revelation was taken to be a prophecy that either was to happen or had already been fulfilled.

There are many Christians and theologians these days that espouse all sorts of stuff. A devout Catholic acquaintance of mine is convinced that the God of the Bible is an alien of the flying saucer sort. There are supposedly serious theologians claiming that Christ was black. There are people passing themselves off as theologians who believe (without any proof and by torturing the meager available evidence) that Christ begat children through Mary Magdalene. Then again, countless theologians insist on referring to the Magdalene as a prostitute, though there exists no scripture that describes her as such (she is described as one of several women who had been possessed and was exorcised). Many theologians have Abraham coming from Ur in Sumer, when the text is quite clear that he came from the Ur of the Chaldees, which was the northern hilly region of Akkad/Assyria/Hatti, not the plains of Sumer where the other Ur existed(which is scarcely surprising given that we are told quite plainly that Abraham was of Semitic descent as were the Akkadians and Assyrians, not Hamitic descent as were the Sumerians.) I have heard "theologians" speculate on one or another post-deluvian person or group carrying the "mark of Cain," which is absurd given that scripture tells us that only Noah's immediate family survived the flood, which would mean that Cain's bloodline was eliminated at that point.

My point is that it is generally unwise to quote theologians and their theories because there is so much error out there which is clearly contradicted by the actual scripture as to indicate willful intent to deceive. Any serious Christian should first thoroughly ground himself in scripture by learning it backward and forward, studying it in its original languages, studying the surrounding world history, and THEN delving into men's theories surrounding scripture and the events it describes.

CrocketsGhost ,
I talked today to a friend of mine - he knows the Bible very well .
So he said that Bush cannot be an Anti-Christ
He said that an A.C. should be from the Middle East , not Christian and he should present like a god and to be loved by his people .
So , Osama is the closest matching candidate ........He is also loved in the Middle East as we know
I was very happy that Bush is not meeting any of these criteria
I just wanted to share it with you .
It looks like we are still safe - lol