Bible

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Musings on H. Grattan Guinness’ Round Chart called “The Year of Messianic Cycles.”

hgguinness4Nearly everyone in the Historicist world is familiar with this Round Chart. If you have not seen the chart, we have provided it and the chapter it came from.

Initially this chart made little since to me it was just a bunch of boxes in a circle. However several years ago I began to play with this chart and started to see things that I am not sure Mr. Guinness understood.

One of the problems I had with the chart is that I just don’t identify the Hebrew months by their numbers. As a Messianic I am used to using their names, Nissan, Iyar, Sivan , etc. So I made a photo copy I could write on and wrote the names of the months in. Then I saw the first WOW. The crucifixion was early in Av on this scale. If you are not Jewish or Messianic /Hebrew Roots you probably have never heard of Av, or the Ninth of Av.

Tisha B’Av i.e. the ninth of Av (July or August on the Gregorian calendar). Is one of the most solemn days on the calendar. It is a fast. According to the Mishnah [Taanit 4:6] there are five great calamities have all fallen on this day.

1. The return of the 12 spies, [Num 13–14]

2. The destruction of Solomon’s Temple, [2 Kings 25:8 -12]

3. The destruction of Herod’s temple, in 69 A.D. [Matt 24]

4. The razing of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D.

5. The failure of The Second Jewish revolt, or The Bar Kochba Rebellion.

So on the scale of this round chart Messiah went to the cross around Tisha B’Av. The same day that both Nebuchadnezzar and Titus destroyed the temple.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19

Dates

The first thing everybody notices is that Mr. Guinness thought was that the Return of the Lord would be in 1920, where Rosh Hashana i.e. Feast of Trumpets appears on the chart. We now know the event that happened was the Allied forces under British general Allenby liberated Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks in Dec 9, 1919. (Three weeks early is not a real problem on a chart of this length.)

This naturally made me look at the other holy days and special days of the Hebrew calendar on this scale.

Passover would have been about the time of Noah.

Pentecost/Shavuot would have been about the time of Abraham.

We already mentioned Tisha B’Av.

So the next Holy Day is Yom Kippur and that should be the year 2256.

Tabernacle/Sukkot in 2391

Simchat Torah in 2655

Do I have a point? No, not really, I just thought that it was interesting that all the past holy days can be placed on the chart, at significant points. So the ones that are still future probably have an event as well.

 

See Also: The Cycle of Levitical Feasts

Hebrew Calendar

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Captivity captive

Assyrians_blinding_captivesThis is a really odd verse in the KJV. Other translations have since made the verse more readable. However, in doing so people no longer notice the weird verse and no longer ask why or what is this verse about. So, only the Greek readers notice the language.

Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Eph. 4:8KJV

Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” Eph. 4:8 RSV

Once noticed, it is easy to recognize that it is a quote from Psalms 68. All the goofy ideas disappear, as one realizes the context is a resurrection/restoration passage.

Thou didst ascend the high mount, leading captives in thy train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there. Psa. 68:18

Captivity captive, or Shevut shevu, is a phrase that is frequent in both the Hebrew Old Testament. In the Greek New Testament it is echmaloteusen, aichmalosian. It is like a double negative in English, where the result is a positive. The captives will be re-captives back to where they came from.

The ancient custom of taking your enemies captive seems a little strange to us. The United State of America hasn’t done it since WW2. We interned people of Japanese descent, and of course we still have Native-American reservations. But, this was common throughout history, as relocated people are less violent. Shortly after captivity, they exhibit what we now call Stockholm Syndrome, where captives identify with their captors more than their own people.

“If they sin against thee — for there is no man who does not sin — and thou art angry with them, and dost give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; yet if they lay it to heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to thee in the land of their captors, saying,  ‘We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly’; 1Kings 8:46-47

For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah, and carried away captives. 2 Chr. 28:17

“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abino-am. Judg. 5:12 

The Lord said that captivity would be their punishment if the people did not keep their promise to follow God, and only God [Lev 26]. But, even there the captivity is stated to last for only 2520 years, a.k.a. the Full Times of the Gentiles, The Seven Times Captivity. After this time, the Lord would restore, i.e. take captivity, captive.

However, when the Jews came out of captivity in the Exodus they chose to return to it through their own rebellion. The Gentiles had always been in captivity. They never understood, nor will, of the liberty of faith in the One True God. Their pagan holidays and festivals were evil sexual extravaganzas that sometimes even included human sacrifices. In their superstition the common people were at the mercy of the pagan priests and priestesses who reported (made up) what the gods had said.

God, through Moses and Aaron, told Pharaoh to let His people go free so that they could come out of Egypt to worship Him.

In the same way Gentiles were to come out of their paganism to worship God, just as the children of Israel had come out of Egypt. Messiah did not come to the Gentiles as whole nations. One by one, Messiah comes and takes us “captivity captive.” We are returned even though we never knew we were lost. We never knew we belonged.

“Wherefore he saith, “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men”. Eph. 4:8KJV

 

The Effects of Futurism
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The Effects of Futurism

Recently, we acquired some old books on prophecy from the internet. They are listed and linked to in the Bibliography.

book divider

One of them had a very interesting statement on the effect that Futurism would have on the church.

Now, if the theories of these writers are entirely groundless, the effects of their error may prove extremely fatal to the Church. The strongest bulwark against the revived zeal of the Romish Church will have been taken away when it is most needed; and the danger of a renewed apostasy will have been fearfully increased, at the time when its guilt would be most aggravated, and its punishment most speedy and sure. A spirit of feverish and skeptical doubt, the most fatal to real progress in divine truth, will have been injected, without warrant, into the  minds of thousands; the light which the word of God has thrown, for the benefit of the Church, on behalf of the whole period of her history will have been quenched in darkness; and her hopes for the future, by a perplexed and fallacious application of irrelevant prophecies, be involved in a chaos of fanciful conjecture and inextricable confusion.  First Elements of Sacred Prophecy by Rev T.R. Birks, page 2, London 1853

He seems to have had the foresight on our present church worldview quite accurately. We have gone from the crazy notion of a rapture, which is what they were teaching in Birks’ day, to the hoax of Blood Moons. Once you deconstruct what prophecy means into what one imagines it means, all the extravagantly concocted spurious errors become doctrine. This lunacy of errors has blinded many a believer into staying babies, continually feeding on the “milk” of the Word. They have been convinced that they cannot read the Bible for themselves. For they do not test what their spiritual leaders claim is in the Text. If they did, they would be throwing many spiritual leaders out. They come to the erroneous conclusion that it is they who cannot understand prophecy and they are stupid.

We are here to tell the congregation of the Lord. YOU ARE NOT STUPID! These things are not in Scripture. There is no rapture, seven-year tribulation, or political antichrist in the Bible.

Whether they are misinformed on their own, or they are following some other teacher they have not checked out. They are making it up. The story they tell is a scary one, and because scared people put more money in the collection plate there is no reason for them to stop. They are seeking followers and financial gain over the sure word of prophecy.

See Also: The Messianic/Hebrew Roots movement and Dispensationalism (part 1)

See Also: Faith without Dispensationalism

See Also: Futurism – What it does to your Faith

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The Promise of the Third Temple?

The Prophecy from Amos.

x1611 “In that day I will raise up 

the booth of David that is fallen 

and repair its breaches, 

and raise up its ruins, 

and rebuild it as in the days of old; 

12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom 

and all the nations who are called by my name,” 

says the LORD who does this. Amos 9:11-12 

The same promise is also in Isaiah.

5 then a throne will be established in steadfast love 

and on it will sit in faithfulness 

in the tent of David 

one who judges and seeks justice 

and is swift to do righteousness.” Is. 16:5 Continue reading →

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The Nephilim Deception

2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. Gen. 6:2

nephilim2

It used to be only a few people had ever heard of this cabalistic teaching. We rarely had to deal with the absurd idea that there were or are hybrid people out there. This belief that somehow fallen angels had sex with human women and produced giants. However now almost everyone asks us about this. It seems many of the prophecy mongers are now getting on the “Ancient Aliens” bandwagon. If you have not seen the TV show, their whole premise is that a bunch of guys who have never read anything about comparative religion or art appreciation has taken a look at some old piece of art that they don’t understand and conclude “aliens”.  This is not how one determines what the Bible means or for that matter what the art is about.

Continue reading →

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The Blood Moons HOAX

Belief that the blood moons signify something extraordinary is like believing that animal migrations signify something extraordinary.  They are just too regular and predictable.

We are not sure how many or how far this teaching has spread.  Google turned up Pastor John Hagee first, so we will go with what we found on his website.  The Dispensationalists have taught that the eclipses of the moon are portents of the Second Coming, or the beginning of an apocalyptic tribulation event.  Supposedly, four such blood moons are coming.  While this is made to sound rather ominous and warlike, these blood moons are actually a known periodic celestial appearance.

What Hagee and others are teaching:

banner291“THE COMING FOUR FULL BLOOD MOONS” Continue reading →

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The Day of the LORD

john-martin-1789-1854-great-day-of-the-lordThe day of the Lord is said to be an event at the end of time. The dispensationalist will take you to the verses that say it is “near” and explain that the writer really meant futuristically.  It is all very convoluted and confusing, and it contradicts one of the preeminent rules of hermeneutics, in that, the plain reading of the text is to be preferred above all others.  Look methodically at the passages in question and figure out where and when this “Day” is or was to happen.

Be careful because there is also that nagging problem of those pesky translators, who are often inconsistent with their translations, so that the non Hebrew reader thinks something special or different is being said, when nothing of the kind is even being inferred.   The first three verses in the Bible with this phrase   “The day of the Lord” or “Yom YHWH”, are a prime example.  They translated “today” instead of “the day” where in the Hebrew it is “the day”. Continue reading →

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The LORD of Hosts

holy-angelic-hostsThe title LORD of Hosts in English invokes the idea of a Being that commands both the cosmos and spiritual beings.  All creation is ordered and marshaled by Him.  It is a title of the LORD which indicates His supreme creative omnipotence.

In Hebrew YHWH Seva’ot, is always plural, which in Hebrew does not necessarily mean more than two, but can indicate great, large or important.

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory”.  Isa 6:3

 Common misunderstanding

There are some people who think and/or teach that the hosts of God are angelic forces.  They use Rev 12 as their proof text.

His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; Rev. 12:4

Continue reading →