Month: October 2014

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Left Behind Hoax

Left-Behind-posterThey now have a new movie out based on the fantasy book “Left Behind” by Timothy LaHaye

Left Behind in US theaters October 3, 2014 starring Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, Cassi Thomson, Nicky Whelan. Follows Rayford Steele (Nicolas Cage) who is piloting a commercial airliner just hours after the Rapture when millions of people around the world . . .   from movieinsider.com/m10845/left-behind/

With so many people in the Christian world having been deceived by this false teaching we’re sure that the movie will do well at the box office. (Guess not)

However there are some real problems with this entirely false teaching on how the prophecies should be interpreted. The rules for interpretation are called Hermeneutics. This view of prophecy i.e. The Futurist View has often been thoughtlessly taught and thoughtlessly received with little or no searching of Scripture. We have never figured out why this fantasy is so appealing to the masses of Christians, it does however demonstrate how few Christians actually read their Bibles, and even fewer have the courage after having read the Bible to stand up to these false teachers and call them out.

The Futurists have been teaching this “soon” Rapture since 1830, and like evolutionist they have no facts to show that their preposterous scenario has any possibility of being true. Once the mind firmly holds to this belief it becomes a mental habit, a habit that is constantly reinforced by books of fantasy, teachings from the pipit, or so called Christian TV. It cannot however be reinforced by sound reading of the Bible. That which is heard is supposed to be true, and assumes an authority of transcendent truth in the unsuspicious person’s mind. Then when different ideas are presented, no matter how logical or Biblically based they are, these are met with hate and prejudice. The mind has been so well trained to hate all other possibilities, that honest intellectual debate is obstructed. These Futurists accept less of the truth, because of their own agenda. That agenda is one of fear. Not being able see in their own Bibles what is being taught frightens many people.  The more they distrust their own judgment, the more they rely on the teachers. The more they rely on the teachers, the more money they put in the collection plate, hoping to somehow placate or bribe a God they now view as angry and despotic enough to plan a seven year tribulation.

We must return to what the Bible actually says.

The oldest rule of hermeneutics is—

“Quod non est Biblicum, non est Theologicum.” 

In other words, “If is ain’t in the Bible, it ain’t Theology.”

There is nothing in the Left Behind series that comes from the Bible. The Bible has no Rapture, no seven year Tribulation, and no political Antichrist.

The second oldest rule of hermeneutics is—

“The Bible is its own best commentary”

or “God is His own Interpreter”

This means that if one doesn’t understand a passage, instead of speculating, one should look up a similar passage and see if there is not some obvious answer to how it should be interpreted. So when it comes to prophecy one should look at fulfilled prophecies to see how they were worded and then look at the history to see what actually happened, another part of the exercise is to look and see what the people living between the prophecy and the fulfillment thought, as a kind of way to avoid the mistakes that they made. Because the prophecies are rarely completely understood until they are fulfilled. Then we can see that locust are armies, the heavenly bodies are political forces, and waters are people, nations, and tongues. (See Also: Known to be Fulfilled and Symbolism)

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Psalm 22:11-13

second-coming2Be not far from me, 

for trouble is near and there is none to help. 

12 Many bulls encompass me, 

strong bulls of Bashan surround me; 

13 they open wide their mouths at me, 

like a ravening and roaring lion. 

Trouble was not far from Messiah, and there was none to help Him

Even those of you who are “city people” probably understand that being surrounded by bulls is a bad situation. Bulls are unpredictable at the best of times, but when there is a herd of just the bulls, things are fairly uncontrollable. This is why cattlemen routinely castrate them, then they are steers, which is a much easier animal to control.

140915112354-cnnx-golan-heights-map-story-topNowadays, Bashan is called the Golan Heights, a large plateau on top of a steep cliff overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The area  belonged to the Amorites before the territory was possessed by the tribes of Dan and Manasseh. [Deut. 33:22; Josh. 20:8; 1Kings 4:13 ] On this plateau, the town of Golan became a city of refuge. [Josh. 21:27]

The tribe of Manasseh had large herds and asked Moses for land that was good for their herds. So we can speculate that at the time the Psalm was written, this area was known for its large herds of cattle.[Num. 32:33]

David compares the enemies of Messiah to these bulls. The enemies were the religious leaders of the temple, They were powerful and dangerous men to confront. Yet, Messiah boldly confronted them, over and over. We know that they plotted against Him at every opportunity. They knew He was teaching the people that they would no longer need them or their temple.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. John 4:23 

The religious leaders of that day were sure that the Messiah they envisioned and manufactured out of the Old Testament prophecies, would never have done away with the sacrificial system. Yet, here was this Man telling everyone that everything was going to change. He  taught that the kingdom had come and it wasn’t Jewish. So they roared at Him, with a roar not entirely of their own making.

Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. 1 Pet. 5:8

One wonders what His return will really look like. When He comes with no rapture, seven year tribulation, or political antichrist, will today’s religious leaders know Him?