Jeff - I am in awe of how you keep up with everything going on in the world. Your skill is truly amazing! Thank you for being one of my top daily TRUSTED news sources. You are the best! Please thank Michelle for all she does behind the scenes. You two make a great team! πͺπ
Jeff - I am in awe of how you keep up with everything going on in the world. Your skill is truly amazing! Thank you for being one of my top daily TRUSTED news sources. You are the best! Please thank Michelle for all she does behind the scenes. You two make a great team! πͺπ
This account (which I follow) is a physician who was against the covid vaccine.
Look at what Gates is going to do to Microsoft computers that spread 'misinformation ' from non mainstream sources before the election! (Instagram)What do you think? Can this be
Sounds like it's time to get a de-Googled computer, like a Linux, and a de-Googled phone, like Tera-Cube. A Linux has a learning curve but I persevere.
I've tried Pops_OS!, Fedora, Manjaro, LinuxMX, Debian ... and quite a few others. I always return to Mint (Cinnamon Desktop). The installer is easy. Customization a chinch. The Software Store is now top drawer. And there are plenty of helps in Search and YouTube.
Before switching to a Linux OS, make sure that your (reader's) computer will safely load a Linux distribution. (DeWife tried a Chromebook once. We knew that it would not load Linux without a risk of breaking the BIOS.) Also, an integrated graphics central processor chip is perfect for Linux. I've had trouble with Nividia graphics. Fortunately, the troubles disappear as Linux editions evolve. And by the way, most people have either Intel or AMD computer central processor units (CPU) which have integrated graphics.
Austin: I had two machines that came with Windows 8 which I detested as an abomination ... and reinstalled Windows 7 which was good. Recently I tried Windows 11 and found it surprisingly smooth. However, I love the freedom of open source ... and having nothing to do with Microsoft. So for me, it's Linux Forever!
Bought a bare bones box about 10 years ago for less than $500. Been running Ubuntu ever since but have been looking into Arch. Thanks for the note about Mint
Nice to hear from you. I used PCLinuxOS in the beginning because it was the only thing which ran my machine. Later on I used Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is decent and a lot of people still use it. Good luck with Arch which may be beyond me, but will look again and see. I am low level use, just video, LibreOffice, browser ... and so I go the really simple route. I know enough to install, use BIOS settings, etc. Mint has it all for me.
I paid as high as $3,200 for a high end machine from System76 once just to see if I could see a difference. Nope. I could have gotten something from System76 for around $1300 with two storage bays and with an i5 or i7 Intel chip and never know the difference. And so, you are wise to be economical. Shooting for the moon in terms of the latest, latest is invariously a fool's mission. (Oops! Did I just let something out of the bag?)
I've never have done it because I never owned a Mac. But my friend has run Mint, Debian, Fedora on several old Macs he's owned. And there is plenty on the subject ... both search engine and on YouTube videos. And also, my friend just texted me and says he is now running Fedora 38 on his Mac and may add Mint.
I just watched a geeky guy who put a newer version of Mint (20 or 21 something) onto a 2013 year old Mac. It was a torture to geeky watch, but ... here's a point he made. Older versions of Mac OS are no longer supported. And so, put on a new supported up to date Linux Mint OS, or something else. And you are not apt to be a target. Nope! Windows users are the prime rich hanging fruit of hacker targeting. I've been using Linux for almost ten years now, and never had a security problem.
Most videos are a torture, but I just found Veronica. And I like Veronica. Just started it and it hold promise as Veronica seems very sensible and direct, and well put together in logical trains of conversation.
Again, there seems to be plenty of info on line both YouTube and Search. And Mint is a good choice because it is a well supported OS with plenty of 'helps' available. And by the way, the Linux Mint installer is one of the easiest there is to use. Very easy these days.
Ah don't worry about ol Sluefoot. He HAS permanentely wholly and totally been defeated. On he may squall and fuss and gyrate and threaten.. ut he's tooth;ess and had all his teeth poked out. All he can do is bluster and lie and fuss and stomp.
Best to ignore him. He has NO power other than that which YOU ceded to him. So just don't......
HOW do I know this? Easy. Jesus, by His birth, ife death, resurrection, and ascension has put ALL THINGS under is feet. And that list of "all things" certainly includes that old burnt out weary toothless dragon. His next sop is the Lake of Fire.
My wife has always been a Mac first, , last and always person. She was the very last person at the Fortune 10 company we worked for to be allowed to keep her Mac at work. Finally told it's time.
There is no need to change computers, just software.
Since a new version of Linux comes out every April and October, the learning curves begins anew in those months. Linux produces as may updates as Microsoft does and Google's Chrome is a Linux distro with a proprietary kernel.
Not quite accurate. History records that Nero Caesar (the Beast of Revalation, by ame and number) was forced to suicide himself after he brutally murdered is Wife... kicked her to death, then assured the child growing in her womb was also dead. (he had earlier murdered his only son to be born, thus assuring he would be the last in the Julian line of Roman Emperors). Some of his guards presented Nero with his short sword, then demanded he use it to slit his own throat. He was immediately and quietly secreted away, and this seems to have goven rise to the rumour or theory that he was not dead, only wounded, and also later rumours that he had survived the head/neck wound and would again rise to power. Thanfully this was not the case... John's description of Rome suffering a would and recovering s more ccurately interpreted as cincerning the time period immediately folliwng Nero's death, when three new emprerors succeded wach other over a period of less than a year and a half, and it appeared for a time that the Roman Empire was dead.... the result of the post-Nero chaos in the now rulerless empire. The general, Vespasian, whom Nero had ordered to Jeusalem to "tame those rebellious Jews" did so, together with his son Titus Imperator (the one whose army ultimately destroyed the Temple and all of Jerusalem, then chased all the remaining Zealots out into the Plain of Megiddo... "har megiddo" in Hebrew, Armegeddon in greek) where they were utterly destroyed to the last man) After all that dust settled Vespasian assumed the role of Empoeror over the entire Roman Empira and ruled over a world with no discernible entity fitting the descrition of "the Jews". as Jesus had predicted, the entire Jewish state, society, government, nation, and georgaphic centre was utterly destroyed. And ALL THIS hapened before this present generation wasses away",, agai preciesley as He had clearly predicted. (Matthew 23, 40m thereabous.. make sure you read His response to the question the Twelve out to him: Lord, when will these things be?"
Tio, it would seem that you follow the preterist perspective of the End Times, in which the prophecies of Revelation all came to pass with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Several things to point out . . . har in Hebrew means mountain, so Armageddon will not take place in the Jezreel Valley where the archaeological tell of Megiddo exists. No mountains exist there. Irenaeus was the first to propose gematria (using numbers associated with each letter) to try to identify the beast of Revelation, and he suggested the Greek word for titan, not Nero. Plus, that wasn't even until the second century AD. Gematria is far too complex for it to be workable. Besides, the beast of Revelation had seven heads, with only one being wounded. Nero simply can't qualify for that role. Finally, it was Domitian who exiled John to Patmos and that wasn't until 90+ AD, so his prophecies couldn't be about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. They would have been no more than history if that was the case.
John said that all who read, who hear, and who keep to the words of his prophecies would be blessed. If most, or all, of Revelation has already been fulfilled (except His Second Coming), how does that ancient history bless us today? Let me propose a different perspective. What if the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD was but one of many foreshadows of things to come in the End Times? And what if we're now in those End Times?
Numbers in the Bible all have symbolic meaning. Seven has numerous meanings, not just as the number symbolic of Christ. It's also the number of completion and can represent the completed cosmos and the earth (seven seas, seven continents). Ten represents government and law (Ten Commandments). So the beast from the sea in Revelation with seven heads and ten horns represents global government. In today's world, that would be the Deep State, as we call it. Only one head was wounded. Here's a wild thought . . . What if Trump caused that wound? The Deep State thought they had their plans all locked in with the election of Hillary Clinton, and then Trump was elected, setting them back 4 years. The Deep State's theft of the election in 2020 healed that wound. There's more to this story, and you might simply shake your head and say 'no way.' But just ponder it for a while.
a numbe of things.. I don't knew what HATTTT??!!??
The description of the woman on the scarlet beast tells... she had seven heads, which were specifically defined as "kings, then it says "five are not".. now dead, but wre kings), one is (the present king in that lineup of seven), and the one who is to come (the one to replace the present one) wn't be there for long. Go and read your Romn history... five caesars stating with Julius, who brought the last three provinces into the Roman Empire during his reign, then Augustus, then Tiberias (the one reigning when Jesus was executed), then Galba, I believe number five was Caligula (might have a couple swapped.. pretty tired right now), and Nero was mosst certinly umber six.. and HE did suffer the self-inflicted head/neck would John describes. After that was the succession of the three whose total reigns spanned less than a year and a half. Vespasian was next.
John does ideed use the numberology correctly. He sed the HEBREW form of Nero's name,, which would be well known to all believers at that time/place. NOT the roman nor greek. Once youunderstanc that each language/ulture has its own set of rules for the numeroloty in THAT language/culture you will then have to learn what THAT language had for rules. I've seen numerous workups usig he HEBRE form of Nero Caesar and it does ibdeed come out to six hndred three score and six. Amusing side note... some, taking Jonh's word at the fct it was Nero Caesar, used the Greek form of Nero Caesar and that comes up with six hundred TEN and six.... 616 in figures. Tha was a not-infrequant rendering of the numbere of the beast.
You pu some sort of label on me.. I do not accept those. I know history, I know the biblica texts, and simply take them at face value.
I told you to go and read the Olivet Discourse as written in Mathew' s gospel, and pay particular attention to the response of Jesus when his guys asked "well, WHEN will these things happen?" Go right now and find His answer.
Now come back and either tell me Jesus was lying or that things did NOT pan out as He predicted. I am trapped betwen ONLY those two possible possibilities.
One more thing.... bout that hebrew word "har". Yes it can mean mountay, but can also mean a plain.. morelike a specific geological place. The plain where the tens of thousands of zealots went to escape the Romans once they had trashed the city. They knew the Romans were deterimined to effect a wholesale slaughter. This is also predicted in Jphn's book. It was the large plain below Mt. Megiddo.
As to who sent John to Patmos... Roman and Jewish records both recored it was Nero who sent him there. Nero was angry with him because of the success of his work buildong the chiurch in Ephesus. He sent and had John arrested and transported in chains back to Rme, where he was tried and convicted. His sentence was work slavery on Patmos, under guard. Clement of Alexantria, and early church elder or bishop reports this in his own writongs. It was not Diometian who sentenced him. By that time he was far too old to be a useful hard-rock sort of slave. They'd have simply executed him instead of wasting resources feeding an incapable rock crusher. Slaves had to earn their biscuits or were offed.
Do some studying in the Roman and Jesish records. These are all still around, most have been well ranslated into english and are able to be found online. Funny how those ancient records are far more accurate in agreing with both Jesus and John and their predictions of "things soon to come to pass" (that greek word ranslated as "soon" means more like he's walking down the road right now and will be here in a very short time, get supper on he'll be here soon" and not "two thousand years down the road someday somewhere somehow. these things were spoken and recorded by Jesus, john, and others, to be a warning and a comfort and instructions for surviving the coming troubles.
You might recall Jesus stating to His guys.. when you see tha lawless onem the man of sin, committing the bomination that leads to desolation in the Temple, know the time is NOW.. don't even take the time to head downstairs and fetch your coat. Leave Jerusalem NOW. He even told them which direction to head i=off into.... Jewish records show hundreds of thousands of residents of Jerusalem witnessing the "abomination of desolation (who did it and the date are recorded) " remembering the insrructions of esus, and DOING IT RIGHT NOW. They all left toward the northeast, thus dodging the army coming in frm the Euhprates River valley to helo Titus as he conquered and destroyed Jerusalem.... precisely as Jesus jad foretold, including when and how.
Tio, sorry, I didn't mean my comment to upset you, only to provide food for thought about other possibilities. After all, if Revelation is to apply to and bless us today, we have to look at it through the lens of current events. Much of what you mention foreshadows what's to happen just prior to Christ's return. I've studied Revelation and the End Times for over 25 years, and I've looked at pretty much everything you've mentioned at one time or another.
With respect to the woman on the scarlet beast, chapter 17 of Revelation occurs just prior to His return, at the end of the age, not 2000 years ago. It shows the fall of a broken, sinful culture with all of its sexual immorality, etc. It's not about five emperors of the past at John's time. In fact, each of that beast's ten horns also represent kings, making it a total of 13 kings to consider. It's more likely that these will be 13 Islamic nations that come against Jerusalem in the final battle. (mem βayin daleth, which translates to har mΕ β ed -- the Mount of Assembly - the 'ayin has a hard G sound as in Gomorrah, so it sounds a lot like megiddo). As for Nero's "neck wound," Nero was too chicken to kill himself and forced his private secretary, Epaphroditus, to kill him. It was fatal, but the head wound of the beast from the sea wasn't fatal. The beast recovers from the wound.
I've studied the Olivet Discourse quite a bit as well. I agree that when Jesus spoke of the abomination of desolation, He was likely referring to the Roman destruction to come. However, there is much in His discourse that applies to the latter days as well. Much of the discourse is very similar to the seven Seal Judgments in Revelation. Every reference to the sun being darkened and moon not giving light in the Old Testament, as well as Matthew 24, speaks to the day of His return. And much of the discourse has been interpreted to mean the exact opposite of what the Greek says. When two men are in the field and two women are at the wheel and one is taken up, the Greek says they're taken away to judgment. It's the righteous who remain behind. The parable of the wheat and tares says the same thing.
I understand that many say it was Nero who sent John to Patmos. There are an equal number, or more, who say it was Domitian. I've never seen anything that says John was sent into slavery as a "rock crusher," only that he was sent into exile. However, I'll concede that this is still a big point of contention between different viewpoints on the End Times. The preterist viewpoint totally falls apart if John was in exile AFTER 70 AD. The main thing we should take home is that the events of 70 AD also foreshadow what's possibly going to happen shortly before His return. So, we need to be prepared.
You're correct that Christians left Jerusalem in droves before Vespasian first encircled the city, leaving it to his son, Titus, to finish off. Those records you mention tell of the Christians going to Pella, a town along the Jordan River. Curiously, archaeological digs there have found nothing to suggest an early Christian presence there. Perhaps it was just a short stopping off point.
Again, sorry if I upset you. I only wish to get believers thinking outside the box of what they've likely been taught for years. The partial preterist viewpoint is that everything in Matthew 24 and Revelation, except Christ's return, was fulfilled in 70 AD. But that was 1,946 years ago. How does that apply to us today? Is is just Bible trivia that's fun to know? If that's the case, how does that bless us today? No, while it's clear that some of it came to pass in 70 AD, I see all of it pointing to the end of time prior to the Second Coming. He's coming like a thief in the night, and that time will be like the times of Noah and of Lot with people eating and drinking, marrying and be given in marriage, and buying and selling--normal life. There are no seven years of tribulation, no rapture, and no despotic Antichrist--each of those would be like setting off an alarm preceding the thief's entry. No, folks won't see Him coming. But as believers, we're to understand the season (parable of the fig tree) and God has given us all the clues in His Word. Again, I encourage you to think outside the box, and that can be done without compromising the scriptures.
You are mistaken to think I am upset..... I am most decidedly NOT.
I will come back to the one thing I cannot get past.. that Jesus Himself clearly stated that "all these things" (in the Olivet discourse) SHALL come to pass before THIS PRESENT generation passes away. And that word "generation" is exactly the same word Matthew uses when he writes "these are the generations of Jesus the Christ" and then goes through the family lineage of Jesus one generation at a time.. this one begat that one, who begat his next ine who.... same meaning we have when we talk of our father, grandfather great grandfather etc. on back, one "generation" at a time. . Either it all did, just as He said, or He is a liar. And you know where MY nickel is placed.
EVERY little detail He spoke of and more, and everything John wrote about in his revelation, can be accounted for without any "help" in studying the secular history of the time it all happened.. and no way can anyone ever convince me that the secular history was written deliberately/falsely to support this position. Flavius Josephus was a fly on the wall who lived his whole life in and around Jerusalem, writing bout what he saw and heard. Go and find/read his Jewish Wars series,, books 2, 3, and 4 are the pertinent ones. He was there he saw, heard, experienced, and simply wrote down what he saw. Same with the roman historian Tertullian. Neither had any reason to uphold the christian position, nor the words of Jesus or John. The earlu church fathers are also excellent resources, as they rote to document their own present situations and happenings during their own lifetimes. No intent to "et the stage" a thousand or two years further on.
I have studied, in an academic setting the latin language and history, total if six years. Havong read about "how things worked" on a day to day bais in civic and military settigs, the "oine taken ine left behind" busies sis simple.. whever a Roman army overtook a people, once the hahd to hand and artillery fighting was behind them the romans occupying had certain "rights" they exercised, among those was the taking if any good or person to which they took a fancy. Two women could be happened upon by a soldier, he might, at his free choice, take one or the other or both or neither. On any basis if his choosing. Same choice with the two men working in a field... one might become that soldier's cook, slave, amrourbearer, brought back home to work his farm. Or left behind for the next soldier to take. Or kill.
I hve sen the tale of Domitian having imprisoned John, but this cannot be verified. The early church father Irenaeus from Ephesus wrote about "he revelation that was sen" in the year 92. Funny thing..his early writings were in greek, his native tingue.Later s things devolved toward ROme as the centre of the curch, he had to become fluent in latin, and his early writings were thus ranslated intolatin. After some time, the ealrly greek texts vanished.... Not that long ago some old latun txts of tha era surfaced.. and smongst them were some of Iernaues' wirtings. The very passage where he is alledged to have "seen the revelation" on 92 was part if what was found. In the original greek. Even more amusing is, when it was carefully analised and the correct subject-vergb agreements sorted out, the passage, which was supposedly saying that th vision was sen in 92, actually read that the ONE WHO SAW the vision, that is John the Apostle, was sen in 92. Guite a difference. Somehow the early mistranslated version is the one prevailing now, despite the correction now the original greek has been unearthed. So Joh did NOT "see the vision" in 92, but John who DID see the vision back in about 66 or so is what was seen in 92. Having studied latin for six years, I can see how the subject-verb agreement could be confused in a hasty translation from greek into latin done in a copy room might have scrambled such a sensitive detail. Many of those translators were poorly paid by the letter translated,and it was just a job, ,much like the grocery store boxboy of old was just a job.
suggestion for yu.. instead of scratching your head and trying to "figure out" how this piece fits with that, and how this other thing needs a place to land on the timeline, why not just take the plain meaning of the various texts and let THEM carry the story? Jesus tolkd His guys "when you see the abomination of desolation....." take warning and git outta Dodge, NOW. Because the END IS UPON YOU. d He said this too would surely takeplace before THIS PRESENT generation would pass. And it did. Josephus writes that about 860 thousand people fled Jerusalem in the two weeks it took for Titus to leave the temple after he desecrated it (carefully calculated to horrify and anger the Jews) because he KNEW that would be a mortal blow to their sensitivities.. after all that temple was the centre of all Jewish culture, religion, spiritualactivy, government, every aspect of what it meant to be jewish.... he left the temple and Jerusalem, went out to the Euphrates Valley where he met up with another Roman general and his army, and they marched post haste back to Jerusalem to ear the place apart, starting with the sacred centre of everything jewish, the temple. That gave those who had heard or heard of the warning of Jesus the cue to git outta Dodge, NOW. Josephus records that about 860,000 mostly christians left by the very route Jesus had told them to take. Thus almost no christians were still in Jerusalem as Rome trashed the place. Now about the only ones left in Jerusalem were the zealots and the Jews who had refused Jesus' offer of salvation. About half of those remained when Titus went to work with his destruction. So of the aproximately three million residents of Jerusalem at the start of 70 AD, about a third fled per Jesus' advise, about a third were killed in the horrific campaign of Titus and his buddy from the Euphrates Valley, and almost ll of the reaining fled as the destruction neared saturation and were chased down and slaughtered in that plain whatever you want to call it, where, just as predicted, the birds and beasts feasted on the dead for a couple weeks. Over the next two years Titus remained and continued to destroy every venstige of life and civilisation anywhere near Jerusalem.. and it lay utterly desolate for at least three centuries. At that pint every jot and tittle of all the prophesies and predictions that had been made were completely fulfilled.
I've had the "this generation" discussion before with someone who knows Greek much, much better than me. He, too, was of like mind as you. So, just as I asked him, I'll ask you.
What was the question asked by the disciples in Matt 24? They asked what would be the signs of His return and the end of the age. Later in the discourse, Jesus says that the gospel would be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations. Further on He said the sun would be darkened (probably not an eclipse) and the moon will not give its light, that He would be returning on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and the people would mourn, and that His angels would gather His elect from the four winds. Then, after the parable of the fig tree, He makes the statement about "this generation" not passing away until all of these things take place--all of the things I just mentioned (plus more). The very next verse says the earth and heaven will pass away.
So, in 70 AD, had the gospel been preached to China, the Americas, Africa, etc? Has history recorded the sun and moon not giving their light? Where is Christ, if He's already returned in great glory? Why is His body--we who believe--still dispersed across the globe? Why are heaven and earth still here?
Let me throw one more wrench into this. A biblical generation is accepted to be 40 years. Most scholars accept that Jesus was born between 6 and 2 BC. (My vote is in 3 BC.) That means if Jesus was crucified at age 30, that was no later than 28 AD in the Julian calendar. Add 40 years and "this" generation passed away at least two years before the fall of Jerusalem.
So, did Jesus lie? Absolutely not. He as talking about the end of the age, which is where we are now. I think it's our understanding of the Greek for "this generation" that is in error.
As I've stated before, the events of 70 AD can be seen as foreshadowing of events preceding His return. It's not an 'either/or' situation. It's a 'both' situation. What happened historically can be educational, although few learn from it, but we need to be prepared for what's coming now. He's coming soon, and we need to have oil in our lamps and the wicks trimmed.
This whole conversation is exhilarating and I applaud you both (and also the reader who shared her frustration with the destructive, machinated dispensationalist system capturing so many Bible-believers.)
I agree with your assessment, Dr DeGarmo, and also much appreciate the fleshed-out first-cycle/ forshadowing narrative of Tio Nico.
It is indeed both.
Iβll be saving this discussion to my notes and be giving it careful review and study. (Is it a βpartial-preteristβ view?)
β¦.
One of my overarching themes βa window or lens through which I look at the question β is this:
βTherefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.β (Deut 7)
My thinking is that, whether a literal thousand or simply denoting a great many, itβs a very long time and we are less than a hundred generations from Mosesβ time. it cannot be the end for us. It is, rather, the end for *them*.
Of that I am certain.
Granted, like Pooh, I am a bear of very little brain, but that does help to frame the big picture for me.
Thank you for your masterful photograph of that landscape found in Godβs Word β what He has said, what He has done and, in His perfect time and way, what He will do.
These kinds of discussions are so valuable. We do, after all, as yet see as through a glass, darkly.
I can see you take this subject very seriously. If you haven't seen it, may I suggest you read a fairly short book by Chilton, "The Great Tribulation" available free here in PDF.
He also has a full exposition of Revelation available on that site and also on Amazon which I recommend called, The Days of Vengeance. A real book is so much better.
I know what you are thinking. I don't have time to read something that I have already figured out. You've been in the dispensational box now for how long, a couple of decades? I challenge you to step outside of your box and consider something that may be enlightening to you.
I commend you on your effort. It is exhausting trying to debunk this perspective over and over again only to see that it falls on deaf ears. I have previously posted extensively on this debate myself and cannot bring myself to recreate the rebuttal. (sigh)
They always finish with "we need to have oil in our lamps and the wicks trimmed because Jesus is coming soon." Their stumbling block is that they are always conflating the end of the age or the coming of the Son of Man with the end of the world and they will not recognize this. I'm going to post one more reply to him.
To follow up my first comment, the very nature of salvation has been twisted... The dispensationalist/premil do not understand how they have diluted THE most important event in all of history: the resurrection and ascension of the incarnate Son of God. This surpasses the creation itself. I think the problem is a lack of understanding of God's covenant. Without the lens of covenant theology, the significance of the events between Christ's sacrifice and 70 AD are lost even though much of the NT is concerned with those events leading up to 70 AD beginning with His death and ascension. The Covenant between God and man was originally broken by Adam and was provisionally restored by God in the sacrificial system until the Second Adam's sacrifice. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, took upon Himself as the Son of God the penalty for all of man's sin and restored the creation's relationship to the Creator. The penalty for man's sin was poured out upon Jesus on the Cross and ALL those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah are covered by His spilled blood for their sins. These are the true covenanted children of God who by faith are now adopted sons of God. As Jesus said, "these are my brothers and sisters and mother." As such ALL of Israel HAVE been saved by Christ's sacrifice.
When the Old Covenant was closed out with Christ's death and the New Covenant in His blood was established, ALL of the judgement of the Old Covenant was poured out. Christ paid the penalty for all who accepted Him through faith. Those who did not accept Him as the Messiah, suffered the full weight of God's judgement (the same as Jesus suffered on our behalf) culminating in the great tribulation of 70 AD when the sacrificial Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was ransacked killing those found inside.
God's covenant always was a covenant of faith. His covenant was never based on race. The people of Israel were assigned to function as priests to the nations, provisionally staying God's judgement until the Final Sacrifice. But salvation always was based on faith in God's Word. The closing out of the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant literally reordered all of creation. The dispensational/premil interpretation of God's Word sadly deemphasizes the central importance of the events of "this" generation (which fulfilled all of God's Word) and reduces the change in the covenants to an event that is only important in terms of individual, personal salvation and projects Christ's reign as King out into an unknowable future. Truly sad, as Christ has already ascended to the throne at the right hand of God and is now ruling through His Body on earth through the power of God, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the militant church. Today's premil misses all of that.
In Matt 24 verse 3, the disciples asked Him: What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? They understood what was foretold by the prophets about the end of the Old Covenant or the end of the age when the Messiah would come in judgement.
In answer to their question, Jesus proceeds to describe the great tribulation to come upon Jerusalem and the signs to watch for which He also described in Luke as the Days of Vengeance:
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,
then know that her desolation is at hand. Then let those
who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who
are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are
in the country enter the city; because these are the Days of
Vengeance, in order that all things which are written may
be fulfilled." Luke 21:20-22
Jesus concludes in verse 35, "Heaven and earth WILL pass away, but My words will by no means pass away" and then, referring to heaven and earth passing away, says in v 36: "But of THAT day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven but My Father ONLY."
"End times" preaching is always conflating these two separate events, the end of the world and the end of the age, as if they were the same when clearly they are not. "The coming of the Son of Man" refers to the the Lord coming in judgement upon apostate Jerusalem as described by the Lord in the Gospels and in John's vision recorded in Revelation and foretold by the prophets. This is not the end of the world or the passing away of heaven and earth. Jesus clearly stated that there are no signs for the passing away of heaven and earth because even He did not know that, only His Father.
The end of the age is the end or closing out of the Old Covenant with all it's blessing and judgement and now the Good News of God's salvation is preached to the whole world, not just the Jews.
I just got to reading these comments and didn't intend to post but I can't resist. You say:
"After all, if Revelation is to apply to and bless us today, we have to look at it through the lens of current events...
"But that was 1,946 years ago. How does that apply to us today? Is is just Bible trivia that's fun to know? If that's the case, how does that bless us today?"
You state these as the frame of reference for your entire argument. What kind of logic is this? You are saying that this HAS to be the reason for what was written or said. So Scripture is forced to fit current events? That's the main fallacy right there and the never ending problem with dispensationalism, using current events to interpret Scripture. This same logic could have been used a thousand years ago or in the Dark Ages or during the Black Death or during WWII or a thousand years in the future. This is not Biblical exegesis. Quite simply, dispensationalists use this logic to force THEIR DAY as the end times over and over ad nauseam.
what astounds me no end about these guys is that they absolutely NEVER will even look at that one sentence Jesus spoke, recorded on Mathew's gospel. He had just been describing a whole list if events that will be coming upn His followers (and everyone else as well).nThe dispies have had a field day "interpreting" those things, no two of them agreeing on even most of it, what it "means" and how it will come down and when.... After describing a falling away, persecution, tribulation, destruction of the /SAY CRED temple (emmpossssssibull), one taken the other left behind, the desecration of that temple by a MAN (not some ghost with agency they love to call wrongly "antichrist") the warning f what to do after the desecraion (get outta Dodge, NOW, head out to the north and don't plan on coming back) He tells them plainly "ALL these things SHALL come to pass before THIS generation passes away"
Funny these guys believe Jesus spoke accurately when He predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem now we can all look BACK and agree that DID happen despite not being recorded in the bible.) But they refuse to take Jesus at His word that the :all these things: he spokeabout with His Twelve alsocame to pass exactly as He had said they would.
FUnny, but in all the questioning and research did over a few years regaring "end times" stuff, it was not till about three years ago I happened to be reading and came upon that declaration..... and the import of that sentence cae crashing down upin my skull like the large blocks in the temple came crashing down..... WHY did I not see that and comprehend its meaning for all those years? HE SAID It and that means IT HAPPENED JUST AS HE SAID.
I was then forced to choose betwen two opetions: either Jesus was correct and it all DID haopen exactly as He said it would, or He is a liar. That selection took about two tenths of a nanosecond to make.
Yeah, I came to the exact same conclusion as you did. Our brains are so use te hearing the popular explanation that we no longer actually think about what the words mean. And when we do, it's like "Light Bulb". Now I always ask myself, what would these words mean to the people who were actually sitting there listening to Him.
Political Phil and Tio, I guess I haven't gotten my points across very well. First off, I am by no means a dispensationalist. I do not agree with the concepts of a seven-year tribulation, or an individual to be known as the Antichrist, or a 1,000 year imprisonment of Satan and similar year reign of Christ. I don't see seven dispensations of the church throughout history. Scripture simply doesn't support these things and that theology is barely 225 years old. I'm amillennial in the sense that we have the latter days (which we are in) and then comes the end of the age when Christ returns in judgment. BTW, our church believes in and teaches covenant theology, so I'm not a stranger to that theology.
I also am not saying the we need to make scripture fit current events. Just the opposite, how do current events fit scripture? What would you say if I showed you data that reveals a third of the world's forests had burned between 2000 and 2006? And clearly, the wildfires continue. What if I showed you a timetable in which precisely 42 months occur between two major Jewish holidays? I can, as well as a number of other examples of how current events fit what John saw in his visions.
Sure, certain logic could have been used in the Dark Ages, during the Black Death, or even during WWII, but in those days numerous prophecies had not been fulfilled. Specifically, Israel did not even exist as a nation in those days and had not returned to the land. And yes, many of the words of Jesus came to pass in 70 AD. No argument there. But many won't come to pass until He returns--such as His returning on the clouds of heaven. And yet that verse precedes the verse about "THIS generation." He hasn't yet returned on the clouds of heaven and yet, that generation has passed. No, Jesus didn't lie. Our modern understanding of that Greek is likely at fault. As I said several times, it's not either/or. It's both--70 AD and the end of the age.
I recognize that every generation has had those who said Christ is returning in their generation. I have no "thus saith the Lord" as to when He's coming, but from what I'm seeing in current events, it might not be far off. He told us we're to know when summer is near and to be prepared. So, yes, we must have oil in our lamps and the wicks trimmed. I don't take that teaching glibly.
The good news is that no matter how much we might quibble over scripture and eschatology, as believers we will be there with Him. I might be wrong or you might be wrong or we all might be way off base. He's still coming for all of us who believe.
Thank you thank you, thank you for writing that! I get so frustrated with a lot of the end times eschatology these days. You have written exactly what the Church believed for hundreds of years (until the Schofield Bible reinterpretation, Hal Lindsayβs book, etc)!
I too often grieve when I hear and see my Bretheren all focussed on Jesus coming back to beat up the bad guys and take us all home before or after this or that fantastical supposition on what'd ginna happen.. when it already HAS happened. Just as HE DAID,, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL take place BEFORE this present generation passes on. That generation being precisely the one that murdered Him. "Vengenace is MINE, says the Lord I WILL repay". And He surely did. And so He arranged for John to write his "little book" giving a road map and timetable for what was coming... and good information on how to overcome and triumph in the middle of all the "goings on".
Scofield was not the first to make this left turn.. that was John Darby, around 1830. Scofield cme about sixty years later, and wrote his "study bible". I know folks who live by that thing.. very verse always and only leads to another specific one, like a rat larning the maze into which he has been dropped.Sad....
Hal Lindsay. intersting how God used his Late Great book. A friend of mine gave me a copy of it, and I read it..as I was looking for answrs, and honestly seeking truth. Er, I meant Truth. I grew up in a pretty dead denominational organisation (which one matters naught at this point) I had aken away only one sound irrefutable fact from all those years of dead prectice and indoctrination. That thing was this" God is real, and He does expect SOMETHING of us in SOME kind of relationship." The rest was a thick of fog. From Lindsay's book I took away only one thing (the precise number of US military Cobra helicopters what would come down from the Euphrates Valley and go to somewhere and thump on someone were amusing. but insignificant Flash Gordon stuff. Entertainng but not helpful. The thing I DID take way was this: there IS a war, a worldwide one. God is one side, some other nsty guy the other. I was NOT on the right side. SO.. thanks Hel, all your otherwise wasted words DID identify the root problem for me, but provided no solutiojn.
He has twice since then proven himself a false prophet,and tus worthy or sound rejection. I guess some folks still read his printed fairy tales. Sad.... but God did use his book as a major waypoint on my own journey.
As someone who has, in the past 3 years, journeyed back to Christ, I so appreciate your comments, and, will study them more intensely. Would you be so kind as to share what your preferred version of the Bible is?
my favourite is the Geneva Bible, a great literal translation done in 1599, predating the King James.They sourced to the oldest and most reliable greek and hebrew manuscripts . King James is good but not as good.. two reasons... it was a project funded and somewhat directed by the king. He had his biases and conditions. All the translators were beholden to him. Not directly to God. Further, thay referenced extensively the Latin Vulgate version, a translation done, and not all that well, from the greek into latim by the Roman church. Not all that accurate, just mostly.
The folks at Canon Press, Moscow Idaho, have completed a new updating and modernisation of the New Testament of the Geneva Bible, I have it, and it is very good. Does away with the cranky "olde englishe" of the original Geneva (which I actually enjoy.. and I know i"m weird but don't care), yet retains the depth and linguistic and poetic beauty of the original. They are working on the Old Testament I think to be completed later this year. The NT is only available as a set of booklets each one containing one book, with a few booklets combining a few smaller books. Makes i hard to carry the whole NT, but for studying or reading one book it is fine. When the OT is done they will issue a ful bible all in one volume.
I strongly advise staying away from the "dynamic equivalent" translations, as they tend to be weak, and are more for casual reading in private than studying or teaching. Many tend to promote some group's particular bias. New Living, the Jerusalem, Good News for Modern Man, etc.
I also recommend avoiding the "study" bibles, as they will give a reference to a place THEY want you to turn next, which is in sync with their particular bias or agenda. I find it much safer and stronger to read it, and when I want more use a concordance to learn the meaning of this/that word. The reference bibles want to prove their partuicular biasand will only lead you to verses that support THEIR agenda. The Scofield, Thimpson Chain,mand Ryrie all do that.
a few things to consider........ I firmly believe the bible is God's letter to us, and each of us, wherein He tells us what we NEED to know to walk strongly with HIM and each other. The pure unadulterated Scripture contains ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness. What else to we need?
Thank you ever-so-much for your reply. At 63yo, my intent is to become fully immersed in God's Holy Word. It has been confusing to know which translation is best. I am deeply grateful for your informative response.
So glad my husband doesnβt work for Microsoft anymoreβ¦.they laid him off because he would rather spend time with his family than climb their corporate ladder.
I evicted Gates and Google from my homesead back whenWindows 98 was first being trotted out. swotched to Mac, use Firefox, evict the goog everytime it raears its ugly head playing sweet puppy dog please let me in and scratch my ears and I'll be a good little doggie for you. NO GO AWAY. Even the goog invites to sign up, join, insert password here, all get rejected. Turned off geolocating on my eye fone.
IMHO, it seems unlikely that Microsoft would do something so egregious - shareholders would not be happy. It would also be difficult to pull this off from a legal standpoint β the legal risk being violation of privacy laws and potentially a EULA breach of contract. It certainly wouldnβt go over well in the EU, or even California, for that matter.
Technically, MSFT could easily track your queries, but only for content processed using the MSFT search engine Bing. Any queries you send to Bing *can* be warehoused by MSFT. Even then, the only thing MSFT could do to βdisableβ your computer would likely amount to revoking your Windows license, and unless the EULA states this is OK, they canβt revoke your license. And they certainly cannot delete your data.
That said, if you use a non-Edge browser and a different search engine, you would be bound by their manufacturer EULAs, and Microsoft wouldnβt have access to regular browser data you send over HTTPS that isnβt destined for a Microsoft owned domain like microsoft.com.
Personally, I use a Mac with Brave browser and DuckDuckGo search engine. I also use a VPN on my computer as an extra layer of protection. π
π Iβm watching this Tucker-Benz interview right now and it is worth watching! The amount of power that governments can glean by controlled the narrative on social media is staggering.
Tucker needs to do a follow-up on his Putin interview --and mention others like him who death-deal their critics and opponents, Bill O'Reilly can contribute with all his Killing _______________ series of books. Did Putin really have Russian apartments blown up as pretext for 1999 war or was it truly Islamicist terror attack?
I fed your question into ChatGPT and learned about the 1999 bombings - they killed 300 and injured 1,000. There is no viable evidence either way, which to me suggests it was FSB. Terrorists tend to lay claim to their massacres, although these guys would have been Chechen separatists, so itβs hard to say.
it maybe was Russia's 9-11; infiltrate, incite, aid abet train fund, contain and control, inflame emotion media mastery, and kill off the patsies. And a nice memorial or 3 afterword to never forget (the narrative which is backed up with an "investigation".
βNotably, the EULA focuses on the legal use of the software, compliance with licensing terms, and protection of intellectual property. It does not specifically mention revoking licenses due to spreading misinformation or disinformation online. The license can be revoked or the software can be disabled primarily for reasons related to unauthorized use, failure to comply with the licensing terms, or attempting to circumvent the softwareβs technical protections. This summary addresses the main points of the EULA, but itβs always best to consult the full document for comprehensive details.β
Microsoft cannot technically or legally disable your computer; that in itself is a red flag. The closest they can get is OS license revocation, which only bars the user from running that particular licensed copy of Windows on that computer. The computer still boots and works. You just replace the OS and you are good to go.
Think about the legal ramifications of a large international corporation doing this. That, too, is a red flag. A bigger red flag is that Bill Gates is no longer running the company, as inferred in the allegedly fake post. I suspect that the fabrication is just another scare tactic, similar to pro-vax pandemic posts about killing grandma, etc. π
I'd like to know more about this Gates thing of shutting off mircosoft computers at will. . I'm not on Instagram so can't access that. Do you have other ways to attach the info? Thank you.
Not giving up our one flip phone we share. Read a few weeks ago a survey showed the average zombie pulled out their phone 100 X per day, while some did it 400 X Day. Get a life, zombies.
my cheapo I Phone frm 2015 still does way more than I will ever want to do on a tiny handheld toy. I have turned off almost everything it can do. Reliable cheap, does not owe me a thing, and does far more than I will ever want it to.
Jeff - I am in awe of how you keep up with everything going on in the world. Your skill is truly amazing! Thank you for being one of my top daily TRUSTED news sources. You are the best! Please thank Michelle for all she does behind the scenes. You two make a great team! πͺπ
Preach.
Totally!!
Second thatβΌοΈ
I agreeβ¦
Well said, I completely agree!!
Jeff = PATRIOT = Indefatigable! AMAZING!!!!! πΊπΈπΊπΈπΊπΈππ»ππ»ππ»πͺπ»πͺπ»πͺπ»
Yes a huge thank you to Michelle too!
Alert!!!
This account (which I follow) is a physician who was against the covid vaccine.
Look at what Gates is going to do to Microsoft computers that spread 'misinformation ' from non mainstream sources before the election! (Instagram)What do you think? Can this be
done?!?
https://www.instagram.com/p/C3c5icTu-Oi/?igsh=MTl0ZzZrM3B3dWJ4aQ==
Sounds like it's time to get a de-Googled computer, like a Linux, and a de-Googled phone, like Tera-Cube. A Linux has a learning curve but I persevere.
The Lord WILL prevail!
I've tried Pops_OS!, Fedora, Manjaro, LinuxMX, Debian ... and quite a few others. I always return to Mint (Cinnamon Desktop). The installer is easy. Customization a chinch. The Software Store is now top drawer. And there are plenty of helps in Search and YouTube.
Before switching to a Linux OS, make sure that your (reader's) computer will safely load a Linux distribution. (DeWife tried a Chromebook once. We knew that it would not load Linux without a risk of breaking the BIOS.) Also, an integrated graphics central processor chip is perfect for Linux. I've had trouble with Nividia graphics. Fortunately, the troubles disappear as Linux editions evolve. And by the way, most people have either Intel or AMD computer central processor units (CPU) which have integrated graphics.
Austin: I had two machines that came with Windows 8 which I detested as an abomination ... and reinstalled Windows 7 which was good. Recently I tried Windows 11 and found it surprisingly smooth. However, I love the freedom of open source ... and having nothing to do with Microsoft. So for me, it's Linux Forever!
Bought a bare bones box about 10 years ago for less than $500. Been running Ubuntu ever since but have been looking into Arch. Thanks for the note about Mint
Nice to hear from you. I used PCLinuxOS in the beginning because it was the only thing which ran my machine. Later on I used Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is decent and a lot of people still use it. Good luck with Arch which may be beyond me, but will look again and see. I am low level use, just video, LibreOffice, browser ... and so I go the really simple route. I know enough to install, use BIOS settings, etc. Mint has it all for me.
I paid as high as $3,200 for a high end machine from System76 once just to see if I could see a difference. Nope. I could have gotten something from System76 for around $1300 with two storage bays and with an i5 or i7 Intel chip and never know the difference. And so, you are wise to be economical. Shooting for the moon in terms of the latest, latest is invariously a fool's mission. (Oops! Did I just let something out of the bag?)
Thanks for writing. And with best wishes forward.
Curious if Mint works on Mac? Ta.
I've never have done it because I never owned a Mac. But my friend has run Mint, Debian, Fedora on several old Macs he's owned. And there is plenty on the subject ... both search engine and on YouTube videos. And also, my friend just texted me and says he is now running Fedora 38 on his Mac and may add Mint.
I just watched a geeky guy who put a newer version of Mint (20 or 21 something) onto a 2013 year old Mac. It was a torture to geeky watch, but ... here's a point he made. Older versions of Mac OS are no longer supported. And so, put on a new supported up to date Linux Mint OS, or something else. And you are not apt to be a target. Nope! Windows users are the prime rich hanging fruit of hacker targeting. I've been using Linux for almost ten years now, and never had a security problem.
Most videos are a torture, but I just found Veronica. And I like Veronica. Just started it and it hold promise as Veronica seems very sensible and direct, and well put together in logical trains of conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7wOcIvWdxc
Again, there seems to be plenty of info on line both YouTube and Search. And Mint is a good choice because it is a well supported OS with plenty of 'helps' available. And by the way, the Linux Mint installer is one of the easiest there is to use. Very easy these days.
Hope this helps!
In the meantime Satan and his minions are running rampant creating a high level.deception and division .
Ah don't worry about ol Sluefoot. He HAS permanentely wholly and totally been defeated. On he may squall and fuss and gyrate and threaten.. ut he's tooth;ess and had all his teeth poked out. All he can do is bluster and lie and fuss and stomp.
Best to ignore him. He has NO power other than that which YOU ceded to him. So just don't......
HOW do I know this? Easy. Jesus, by His birth, ife death, resurrection, and ascension has put ALL THINGS under is feet. And that list of "all things" certainly includes that old burnt out weary toothless dragon. His next sop is the Lake of Fire.
β€οΈβ€οΈβ€οΈβ€οΈ I love the way you put it.
Come what may, the victory is in Christ β€οΈ
Yup. HE has already WON. And since WE are in Him, we have too.
ππΌππΌππΌππΌππΌ
THIS
βπΌβοΈππ
Yea but we the choir dont need to change, the masses will be brainwashed more than they are now.
My wife has always been a Mac first, , last and always person. She was the very last person at the Fortune 10 company we worked for to be allowed to keep her Mac at work. Finally told it's time.
I love my Macs!!! Loyal since1983!
There is no need to change computers, just software.
Since a new version of Linux comes out every April and October, the learning curves begins anew in those months. Linux produces as may updates as Microsoft does and Google's Chrome is a Linux distro with a proprietary kernel.
Iβm not counting on the Lord. I think heβs counting on us.
These are not mutually exclusive.
The Sovereign God is omniscient, and omnipotent.
Micah 6.8
βHe has shown you, O man, what is good;β¨And what does the Lord require of youβ¨
But to do justly,β¨
To love mercy,β¨
And to walk humbly with your God?β
Gates sees himself as some sort of Caesar. We all know what happens to Caesar...
An Aussie actor stabs him in the throat!
That was the Julius Caesar - I don't "see" Billy Boy in that light...he's more like a schizo Alfred E. Newman character!!
LOL... Good one!
Happy I made your 'frown' go UPSIDE DOWN, Shayne!! That's one of my 'missions' in life--to 'lighten the load' whenever I can!!
Not quite accurate. History records that Nero Caesar (the Beast of Revalation, by ame and number) was forced to suicide himself after he brutally murdered is Wife... kicked her to death, then assured the child growing in her womb was also dead. (he had earlier murdered his only son to be born, thus assuring he would be the last in the Julian line of Roman Emperors). Some of his guards presented Nero with his short sword, then demanded he use it to slit his own throat. He was immediately and quietly secreted away, and this seems to have goven rise to the rumour or theory that he was not dead, only wounded, and also later rumours that he had survived the head/neck wound and would again rise to power. Thanfully this was not the case... John's description of Rome suffering a would and recovering s more ccurately interpreted as cincerning the time period immediately folliwng Nero's death, when three new emprerors succeded wach other over a period of less than a year and a half, and it appeared for a time that the Roman Empire was dead.... the result of the post-Nero chaos in the now rulerless empire. The general, Vespasian, whom Nero had ordered to Jeusalem to "tame those rebellious Jews" did so, together with his son Titus Imperator (the one whose army ultimately destroyed the Temple and all of Jerusalem, then chased all the remaining Zealots out into the Plain of Megiddo... "har megiddo" in Hebrew, Armegeddon in greek) where they were utterly destroyed to the last man) After all that dust settled Vespasian assumed the role of Empoeror over the entire Roman Empira and ruled over a world with no discernible entity fitting the descrition of "the Jews". as Jesus had predicted, the entire Jewish state, society, government, nation, and georgaphic centre was utterly destroyed. And ALL THIS hapened before this present generation wasses away",, agai preciesley as He had clearly predicted. (Matthew 23, 40m thereabous.. make sure you read His response to the question the Twelve out to him: Lord, when will these things be?"
Tio, it would seem that you follow the preterist perspective of the End Times, in which the prophecies of Revelation all came to pass with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Several things to point out . . . har in Hebrew means mountain, so Armageddon will not take place in the Jezreel Valley where the archaeological tell of Megiddo exists. No mountains exist there. Irenaeus was the first to propose gematria (using numbers associated with each letter) to try to identify the beast of Revelation, and he suggested the Greek word for titan, not Nero. Plus, that wasn't even until the second century AD. Gematria is far too complex for it to be workable. Besides, the beast of Revelation had seven heads, with only one being wounded. Nero simply can't qualify for that role. Finally, it was Domitian who exiled John to Patmos and that wasn't until 90+ AD, so his prophecies couldn't be about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. They would have been no more than history if that was the case.
John said that all who read, who hear, and who keep to the words of his prophecies would be blessed. If most, or all, of Revelation has already been fulfilled (except His Second Coming), how does that ancient history bless us today? Let me propose a different perspective. What if the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD was but one of many foreshadows of things to come in the End Times? And what if we're now in those End Times?
Numbers in the Bible all have symbolic meaning. Seven has numerous meanings, not just as the number symbolic of Christ. It's also the number of completion and can represent the completed cosmos and the earth (seven seas, seven continents). Ten represents government and law (Ten Commandments). So the beast from the sea in Revelation with seven heads and ten horns represents global government. In today's world, that would be the Deep State, as we call it. Only one head was wounded. Here's a wild thought . . . What if Trump caused that wound? The Deep State thought they had their plans all locked in with the election of Hillary Clinton, and then Trump was elected, setting them back 4 years. The Deep State's theft of the election in 2020 healed that wound. There's more to this story, and you might simply shake your head and say 'no way.' But just ponder it for a while.
a numbe of things.. I don't knew what HATTTT??!!??
The description of the woman on the scarlet beast tells... she had seven heads, which were specifically defined as "kings, then it says "five are not".. now dead, but wre kings), one is (the present king in that lineup of seven), and the one who is to come (the one to replace the present one) wn't be there for long. Go and read your Romn history... five caesars stating with Julius, who brought the last three provinces into the Roman Empire during his reign, then Augustus, then Tiberias (the one reigning when Jesus was executed), then Galba, I believe number five was Caligula (might have a couple swapped.. pretty tired right now), and Nero was mosst certinly umber six.. and HE did suffer the self-inflicted head/neck would John describes. After that was the succession of the three whose total reigns spanned less than a year and a half. Vespasian was next.
John does ideed use the numberology correctly. He sed the HEBREW form of Nero's name,, which would be well known to all believers at that time/place. NOT the roman nor greek. Once youunderstanc that each language/ulture has its own set of rules for the numeroloty in THAT language/culture you will then have to learn what THAT language had for rules. I've seen numerous workups usig he HEBRE form of Nero Caesar and it does ibdeed come out to six hndred three score and six. Amusing side note... some, taking Jonh's word at the fct it was Nero Caesar, used the Greek form of Nero Caesar and that comes up with six hundred TEN and six.... 616 in figures. Tha was a not-infrequant rendering of the numbere of the beast.
You pu some sort of label on me.. I do not accept those. I know history, I know the biblica texts, and simply take them at face value.
I told you to go and read the Olivet Discourse as written in Mathew' s gospel, and pay particular attention to the response of Jesus when his guys asked "well, WHEN will these things happen?" Go right now and find His answer.
Now come back and either tell me Jesus was lying or that things did NOT pan out as He predicted. I am trapped betwen ONLY those two possible possibilities.
One more thing.... bout that hebrew word "har". Yes it can mean mountay, but can also mean a plain.. morelike a specific geological place. The plain where the tens of thousands of zealots went to escape the Romans once they had trashed the city. They knew the Romans were deterimined to effect a wholesale slaughter. This is also predicted in Jphn's book. It was the large plain below Mt. Megiddo.
As to who sent John to Patmos... Roman and Jewish records both recored it was Nero who sent him there. Nero was angry with him because of the success of his work buildong the chiurch in Ephesus. He sent and had John arrested and transported in chains back to Rme, where he was tried and convicted. His sentence was work slavery on Patmos, under guard. Clement of Alexantria, and early church elder or bishop reports this in his own writongs. It was not Diometian who sentenced him. By that time he was far too old to be a useful hard-rock sort of slave. They'd have simply executed him instead of wasting resources feeding an incapable rock crusher. Slaves had to earn their biscuits or were offed.
Do some studying in the Roman and Jesish records. These are all still around, most have been well ranslated into english and are able to be found online. Funny how those ancient records are far more accurate in agreing with both Jesus and John and their predictions of "things soon to come to pass" (that greek word ranslated as "soon" means more like he's walking down the road right now and will be here in a very short time, get supper on he'll be here soon" and not "two thousand years down the road someday somewhere somehow. these things were spoken and recorded by Jesus, john, and others, to be a warning and a comfort and instructions for surviving the coming troubles.
You might recall Jesus stating to His guys.. when you see tha lawless onem the man of sin, committing the bomination that leads to desolation in the Temple, know the time is NOW.. don't even take the time to head downstairs and fetch your coat. Leave Jerusalem NOW. He even told them which direction to head i=off into.... Jewish records show hundreds of thousands of residents of Jerusalem witnessing the "abomination of desolation (who did it and the date are recorded) " remembering the insrructions of esus, and DOING IT RIGHT NOW. They all left toward the northeast, thus dodging the army coming in frm the Euhprates River valley to helo Titus as he conquered and destroyed Jerusalem.... precisely as Jesus jad foretold, including when and how.
Tio, sorry, I didn't mean my comment to upset you, only to provide food for thought about other possibilities. After all, if Revelation is to apply to and bless us today, we have to look at it through the lens of current events. Much of what you mention foreshadows what's to happen just prior to Christ's return. I've studied Revelation and the End Times for over 25 years, and I've looked at pretty much everything you've mentioned at one time or another.
With respect to the woman on the scarlet beast, chapter 17 of Revelation occurs just prior to His return, at the end of the age, not 2000 years ago. It shows the fall of a broken, sinful culture with all of its sexual immorality, etc. It's not about five emperors of the past at John's time. In fact, each of that beast's ten horns also represent kings, making it a total of 13 kings to consider. It's more likely that these will be 13 Islamic nations that come against Jerusalem in the final battle. (mem βayin daleth, which translates to har mΕ β ed -- the Mount of Assembly - the 'ayin has a hard G sound as in Gomorrah, so it sounds a lot like megiddo). As for Nero's "neck wound," Nero was too chicken to kill himself and forced his private secretary, Epaphroditus, to kill him. It was fatal, but the head wound of the beast from the sea wasn't fatal. The beast recovers from the wound.
I've studied the Olivet Discourse quite a bit as well. I agree that when Jesus spoke of the abomination of desolation, He was likely referring to the Roman destruction to come. However, there is much in His discourse that applies to the latter days as well. Much of the discourse is very similar to the seven Seal Judgments in Revelation. Every reference to the sun being darkened and moon not giving light in the Old Testament, as well as Matthew 24, speaks to the day of His return. And much of the discourse has been interpreted to mean the exact opposite of what the Greek says. When two men are in the field and two women are at the wheel and one is taken up, the Greek says they're taken away to judgment. It's the righteous who remain behind. The parable of the wheat and tares says the same thing.
I understand that many say it was Nero who sent John to Patmos. There are an equal number, or more, who say it was Domitian. I've never seen anything that says John was sent into slavery as a "rock crusher," only that he was sent into exile. However, I'll concede that this is still a big point of contention between different viewpoints on the End Times. The preterist viewpoint totally falls apart if John was in exile AFTER 70 AD. The main thing we should take home is that the events of 70 AD also foreshadow what's possibly going to happen shortly before His return. So, we need to be prepared.
You're correct that Christians left Jerusalem in droves before Vespasian first encircled the city, leaving it to his son, Titus, to finish off. Those records you mention tell of the Christians going to Pella, a town along the Jordan River. Curiously, archaeological digs there have found nothing to suggest an early Christian presence there. Perhaps it was just a short stopping off point.
Again, sorry if I upset you. I only wish to get believers thinking outside the box of what they've likely been taught for years. The partial preterist viewpoint is that everything in Matthew 24 and Revelation, except Christ's return, was fulfilled in 70 AD. But that was 1,946 years ago. How does that apply to us today? Is is just Bible trivia that's fun to know? If that's the case, how does that bless us today? No, while it's clear that some of it came to pass in 70 AD, I see all of it pointing to the end of time prior to the Second Coming. He's coming like a thief in the night, and that time will be like the times of Noah and of Lot with people eating and drinking, marrying and be given in marriage, and buying and selling--normal life. There are no seven years of tribulation, no rapture, and no despotic Antichrist--each of those would be like setting off an alarm preceding the thief's entry. No, folks won't see Him coming. But as believers, we're to understand the season (parable of the fig tree) and God has given us all the clues in His Word. Again, I encourage you to think outside the box, and that can be done without compromising the scriptures.
You are mistaken to think I am upset..... I am most decidedly NOT.
I will come back to the one thing I cannot get past.. that Jesus Himself clearly stated that "all these things" (in the Olivet discourse) SHALL come to pass before THIS PRESENT generation passes away. And that word "generation" is exactly the same word Matthew uses when he writes "these are the generations of Jesus the Christ" and then goes through the family lineage of Jesus one generation at a time.. this one begat that one, who begat his next ine who.... same meaning we have when we talk of our father, grandfather great grandfather etc. on back, one "generation" at a time. . Either it all did, just as He said, or He is a liar. And you know where MY nickel is placed.
EVERY little detail He spoke of and more, and everything John wrote about in his revelation, can be accounted for without any "help" in studying the secular history of the time it all happened.. and no way can anyone ever convince me that the secular history was written deliberately/falsely to support this position. Flavius Josephus was a fly on the wall who lived his whole life in and around Jerusalem, writing bout what he saw and heard. Go and find/read his Jewish Wars series,, books 2, 3, and 4 are the pertinent ones. He was there he saw, heard, experienced, and simply wrote down what he saw. Same with the roman historian Tertullian. Neither had any reason to uphold the christian position, nor the words of Jesus or John. The earlu church fathers are also excellent resources, as they rote to document their own present situations and happenings during their own lifetimes. No intent to "et the stage" a thousand or two years further on.
I have studied, in an academic setting the latin language and history, total if six years. Havong read about "how things worked" on a day to day bais in civic and military settigs, the "oine taken ine left behind" busies sis simple.. whever a Roman army overtook a people, once the hahd to hand and artillery fighting was behind them the romans occupying had certain "rights" they exercised, among those was the taking if any good or person to which they took a fancy. Two women could be happened upon by a soldier, he might, at his free choice, take one or the other or both or neither. On any basis if his choosing. Same choice with the two men working in a field... one might become that soldier's cook, slave, amrourbearer, brought back home to work his farm. Or left behind for the next soldier to take. Or kill.
I hve sen the tale of Domitian having imprisoned John, but this cannot be verified. The early church father Irenaeus from Ephesus wrote about "he revelation that was sen" in the year 92. Funny thing..his early writings were in greek, his native tingue.Later s things devolved toward ROme as the centre of the curch, he had to become fluent in latin, and his early writings were thus ranslated intolatin. After some time, the ealrly greek texts vanished.... Not that long ago some old latun txts of tha era surfaced.. and smongst them were some of Iernaues' wirtings. The very passage where he is alledged to have "seen the revelation" on 92 was part if what was found. In the original greek. Even more amusing is, when it was carefully analised and the correct subject-vergb agreements sorted out, the passage, which was supposedly saying that th vision was sen in 92, actually read that the ONE WHO SAW the vision, that is John the Apostle, was sen in 92. Guite a difference. Somehow the early mistranslated version is the one prevailing now, despite the correction now the original greek has been unearthed. So Joh did NOT "see the vision" in 92, but John who DID see the vision back in about 66 or so is what was seen in 92. Having studied latin for six years, I can see how the subject-verb agreement could be confused in a hasty translation from greek into latin done in a copy room might have scrambled such a sensitive detail. Many of those translators were poorly paid by the letter translated,and it was just a job, ,much like the grocery store boxboy of old was just a job.
suggestion for yu.. instead of scratching your head and trying to "figure out" how this piece fits with that, and how this other thing needs a place to land on the timeline, why not just take the plain meaning of the various texts and let THEM carry the story? Jesus tolkd His guys "when you see the abomination of desolation....." take warning and git outta Dodge, NOW. Because the END IS UPON YOU. d He said this too would surely takeplace before THIS PRESENT generation would pass. And it did. Josephus writes that about 860 thousand people fled Jerusalem in the two weeks it took for Titus to leave the temple after he desecrated it (carefully calculated to horrify and anger the Jews) because he KNEW that would be a mortal blow to their sensitivities.. after all that temple was the centre of all Jewish culture, religion, spiritualactivy, government, every aspect of what it meant to be jewish.... he left the temple and Jerusalem, went out to the Euphrates Valley where he met up with another Roman general and his army, and they marched post haste back to Jerusalem to ear the place apart, starting with the sacred centre of everything jewish, the temple. That gave those who had heard or heard of the warning of Jesus the cue to git outta Dodge, NOW. Josephus records that about 860,000 mostly christians left by the very route Jesus had told them to take. Thus almost no christians were still in Jerusalem as Rome trashed the place. Now about the only ones left in Jerusalem were the zealots and the Jews who had refused Jesus' offer of salvation. About half of those remained when Titus went to work with his destruction. So of the aproximately three million residents of Jerusalem at the start of 70 AD, about a third fled per Jesus' advise, about a third were killed in the horrific campaign of Titus and his buddy from the Euphrates Valley, and almost ll of the reaining fled as the destruction neared saturation and were chased down and slaughtered in that plain whatever you want to call it, where, just as predicted, the birds and beasts feasted on the dead for a couple weeks. Over the next two years Titus remained and continued to destroy every venstige of life and civilisation anywhere near Jerusalem.. and it lay utterly desolate for at least three centuries. At that pint every jot and tittle of all the prophesies and predictions that had been made were completely fulfilled.
HI, Tio. Glad to hear I didn't upset you.
I've had the "this generation" discussion before with someone who knows Greek much, much better than me. He, too, was of like mind as you. So, just as I asked him, I'll ask you.
What was the question asked by the disciples in Matt 24? They asked what would be the signs of His return and the end of the age. Later in the discourse, Jesus says that the gospel would be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations. Further on He said the sun would be darkened (probably not an eclipse) and the moon will not give its light, that He would be returning on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and the people would mourn, and that His angels would gather His elect from the four winds. Then, after the parable of the fig tree, He makes the statement about "this generation" not passing away until all of these things take place--all of the things I just mentioned (plus more). The very next verse says the earth and heaven will pass away.
So, in 70 AD, had the gospel been preached to China, the Americas, Africa, etc? Has history recorded the sun and moon not giving their light? Where is Christ, if He's already returned in great glory? Why is His body--we who believe--still dispersed across the globe? Why are heaven and earth still here?
Let me throw one more wrench into this. A biblical generation is accepted to be 40 years. Most scholars accept that Jesus was born between 6 and 2 BC. (My vote is in 3 BC.) That means if Jesus was crucified at age 30, that was no later than 28 AD in the Julian calendar. Add 40 years and "this" generation passed away at least two years before the fall of Jerusalem.
So, did Jesus lie? Absolutely not. He as talking about the end of the age, which is where we are now. I think it's our understanding of the Greek for "this generation" that is in error.
As I've stated before, the events of 70 AD can be seen as foreshadowing of events preceding His return. It's not an 'either/or' situation. It's a 'both' situation. What happened historically can be educational, although few learn from it, but we need to be prepared for what's coming now. He's coming soon, and we need to have oil in our lamps and the wicks trimmed.
This whole conversation is exhilarating and I applaud you both (and also the reader who shared her frustration with the destructive, machinated dispensationalist system capturing so many Bible-believers.)
I agree with your assessment, Dr DeGarmo, and also much appreciate the fleshed-out first-cycle/ forshadowing narrative of Tio Nico.
It is indeed both.
Iβll be saving this discussion to my notes and be giving it careful review and study. (Is it a βpartial-preteristβ view?)
β¦.
One of my overarching themes βa window or lens through which I look at the question β is this:
βTherefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.β (Deut 7)
My thinking is that, whether a literal thousand or simply denoting a great many, itβs a very long time and we are less than a hundred generations from Mosesβ time. it cannot be the end for us. It is, rather, the end for *them*.
Of that I am certain.
Granted, like Pooh, I am a bear of very little brain, but that does help to frame the big picture for me.
Thank you for your masterful photograph of that landscape found in Godβs Word β what He has said, what He has done and, in His perfect time and way, what He will do.
These kinds of discussions are so valuable. We do, after all, as yet see as through a glass, darkly.
A great squeegee job though!
Deep thanks and multo Blessings.
Soli Deo Gloria
I can see you take this subject very seriously. If you haven't seen it, may I suggest you read a fairly short book by Chilton, "The Great Tribulation" available free here in PDF.
https://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/docs/pdf/the_great_tribulation.pdf
He also has a full exposition of Revelation available on that site and also on Amazon which I recommend called, The Days of Vengeance. A real book is so much better.
https://www.garynorth.com/freebooks/sidefrm2.htm
https://www.amazon.com/Days-Vengeance-Exposition-Book-Revelation/dp/0930462092/ref=sims_dp_d_dex_popular_subs_t1_v1_d_sccl_1_1/145-5062897-1608564
I know what you are thinking. I don't have time to read something that I have already figured out. You've been in the dispensational box now for how long, a couple of decades? I challenge you to step outside of your box and consider something that may be enlightening to you.
I commend you on your effort. It is exhausting trying to debunk this perspective over and over again only to see that it falls on deaf ears. I have previously posted extensively on this debate myself and cannot bring myself to recreate the rebuttal. (sigh)
They always finish with "we need to have oil in our lamps and the wicks trimmed because Jesus is coming soon." Their stumbling block is that they are always conflating the end of the age or the coming of the Son of Man with the end of the world and they will not recognize this. I'm going to post one more reply to him.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/privileges-saturday-february-17-2024?r=u78oh&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=50205839
To follow up my first comment, the very nature of salvation has been twisted... The dispensationalist/premil do not understand how they have diluted THE most important event in all of history: the resurrection and ascension of the incarnate Son of God. This surpasses the creation itself. I think the problem is a lack of understanding of God's covenant. Without the lens of covenant theology, the significance of the events between Christ's sacrifice and 70 AD are lost even though much of the NT is concerned with those events leading up to 70 AD beginning with His death and ascension. The Covenant between God and man was originally broken by Adam and was provisionally restored by God in the sacrificial system until the Second Adam's sacrifice. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, took upon Himself as the Son of God the penalty for all of man's sin and restored the creation's relationship to the Creator. The penalty for man's sin was poured out upon Jesus on the Cross and ALL those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah are covered by His spilled blood for their sins. These are the true covenanted children of God who by faith are now adopted sons of God. As Jesus said, "these are my brothers and sisters and mother." As such ALL of Israel HAVE been saved by Christ's sacrifice.
When the Old Covenant was closed out with Christ's death and the New Covenant in His blood was established, ALL of the judgement of the Old Covenant was poured out. Christ paid the penalty for all who accepted Him through faith. Those who did not accept Him as the Messiah, suffered the full weight of God's judgement (the same as Jesus suffered on our behalf) culminating in the great tribulation of 70 AD when the sacrificial Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was ransacked killing those found inside.
God's covenant always was a covenant of faith. His covenant was never based on race. The people of Israel were assigned to function as priests to the nations, provisionally staying God's judgement until the Final Sacrifice. But salvation always was based on faith in God's Word. The closing out of the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New Covenant literally reordered all of creation. The dispensational/premil interpretation of God's Word sadly deemphasizes the central importance of the events of "this" generation (which fulfilled all of God's Word) and reduces the change in the covenants to an event that is only important in terms of individual, personal salvation and projects Christ's reign as King out into an unknowable future. Truly sad, as Christ has already ascended to the throne at the right hand of God and is now ruling through His Body on earth through the power of God, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the militant church. Today's premil misses all of that.
In Matt 24 verse 3, the disciples asked Him: What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? They understood what was foretold by the prophets about the end of the Old Covenant or the end of the age when the Messiah would come in judgement.
In answer to their question, Jesus proceeds to describe the great tribulation to come upon Jerusalem and the signs to watch for which He also described in Luke as the Days of Vengeance:
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,
then know that her desolation is at hand. Then let those
who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who
are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are
in the country enter the city; because these are the Days of
Vengeance, in order that all things which are written may
be fulfilled." Luke 21:20-22
Jesus concludes in verse 35, "Heaven and earth WILL pass away, but My words will by no means pass away" and then, referring to heaven and earth passing away, says in v 36: "But of THAT day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven but My Father ONLY."
"End times" preaching is always conflating these two separate events, the end of the world and the end of the age, as if they were the same when clearly they are not. "The coming of the Son of Man" refers to the the Lord coming in judgement upon apostate Jerusalem as described by the Lord in the Gospels and in John's vision recorded in Revelation and foretold by the prophets. This is not the end of the world or the passing away of heaven and earth. Jesus clearly stated that there are no signs for the passing away of heaven and earth because even He did not know that, only His Father.
The end of the age is the end or closing out of the Old Covenant with all it's blessing and judgement and now the Good News of God's salvation is preached to the whole world, not just the Jews.
I just got to reading these comments and didn't intend to post but I can't resist. You say:
"After all, if Revelation is to apply to and bless us today, we have to look at it through the lens of current events...
"But that was 1,946 years ago. How does that apply to us today? Is is just Bible trivia that's fun to know? If that's the case, how does that bless us today?"
You state these as the frame of reference for your entire argument. What kind of logic is this? You are saying that this HAS to be the reason for what was written or said. So Scripture is forced to fit current events? That's the main fallacy right there and the never ending problem with dispensationalism, using current events to interpret Scripture. This same logic could have been used a thousand years ago or in the Dark Ages or during the Black Death or during WWII or a thousand years in the future. This is not Biblical exegesis. Quite simply, dispensationalists use this logic to force THEIR DAY as the end times over and over ad nauseam.
what astounds me no end about these guys is that they absolutely NEVER will even look at that one sentence Jesus spoke, recorded on Mathew's gospel. He had just been describing a whole list if events that will be coming upn His followers (and everyone else as well).nThe dispies have had a field day "interpreting" those things, no two of them agreeing on even most of it, what it "means" and how it will come down and when.... After describing a falling away, persecution, tribulation, destruction of the /SAY CRED temple (emmpossssssibull), one taken the other left behind, the desecration of that temple by a MAN (not some ghost with agency they love to call wrongly "antichrist") the warning f what to do after the desecraion (get outta Dodge, NOW, head out to the north and don't plan on coming back) He tells them plainly "ALL these things SHALL come to pass before THIS generation passes away"
Funny these guys believe Jesus spoke accurately when He predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem now we can all look BACK and agree that DID happen despite not being recorded in the bible.) But they refuse to take Jesus at His word that the :all these things: he spokeabout with His Twelve alsocame to pass exactly as He had said they would.
FUnny, but in all the questioning and research did over a few years regaring "end times" stuff, it was not till about three years ago I happened to be reading and came upon that declaration..... and the import of that sentence cae crashing down upin my skull like the large blocks in the temple came crashing down..... WHY did I not see that and comprehend its meaning for all those years? HE SAID It and that means IT HAPPENED JUST AS HE SAID.
I was then forced to choose betwen two opetions: either Jesus was correct and it all DID haopen exactly as He said it would, or He is a liar. That selection took about two tenths of a nanosecond to make.
Settled.
Yeah, I came to the exact same conclusion as you did. Our brains are so use te hearing the popular explanation that we no longer actually think about what the words mean. And when we do, it's like "Light Bulb". Now I always ask myself, what would these words mean to the people who were actually sitting there listening to Him.
Political Phil and Tio, I guess I haven't gotten my points across very well. First off, I am by no means a dispensationalist. I do not agree with the concepts of a seven-year tribulation, or an individual to be known as the Antichrist, or a 1,000 year imprisonment of Satan and similar year reign of Christ. I don't see seven dispensations of the church throughout history. Scripture simply doesn't support these things and that theology is barely 225 years old. I'm amillennial in the sense that we have the latter days (which we are in) and then comes the end of the age when Christ returns in judgment. BTW, our church believes in and teaches covenant theology, so I'm not a stranger to that theology.
I also am not saying the we need to make scripture fit current events. Just the opposite, how do current events fit scripture? What would you say if I showed you data that reveals a third of the world's forests had burned between 2000 and 2006? And clearly, the wildfires continue. What if I showed you a timetable in which precisely 42 months occur between two major Jewish holidays? I can, as well as a number of other examples of how current events fit what John saw in his visions.
Sure, certain logic could have been used in the Dark Ages, during the Black Death, or even during WWII, but in those days numerous prophecies had not been fulfilled. Specifically, Israel did not even exist as a nation in those days and had not returned to the land. And yes, many of the words of Jesus came to pass in 70 AD. No argument there. But many won't come to pass until He returns--such as His returning on the clouds of heaven. And yet that verse precedes the verse about "THIS generation." He hasn't yet returned on the clouds of heaven and yet, that generation has passed. No, Jesus didn't lie. Our modern understanding of that Greek is likely at fault. As I said several times, it's not either/or. It's both--70 AD and the end of the age.
I recognize that every generation has had those who said Christ is returning in their generation. I have no "thus saith the Lord" as to when He's coming, but from what I'm seeing in current events, it might not be far off. He told us we're to know when summer is near and to be prepared. So, yes, we must have oil in our lamps and the wicks trimmed. I don't take that teaching glibly.
The good news is that no matter how much we might quibble over scripture and eschatology, as believers we will be there with Him. I might be wrong or you might be wrong or we all might be way off base. He's still coming for all of us who believe.
Thank you thank you, thank you for writing that! I get so frustrated with a lot of the end times eschatology these days. You have written exactly what the Church believed for hundreds of years (until the Schofield Bible reinterpretation, Hal Lindsayβs book, etc)!
I too often grieve when I hear and see my Bretheren all focussed on Jesus coming back to beat up the bad guys and take us all home before or after this or that fantastical supposition on what'd ginna happen.. when it already HAS happened. Just as HE DAID,, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL take place BEFORE this present generation passes on. That generation being precisely the one that murdered Him. "Vengenace is MINE, says the Lord I WILL repay". And He surely did. And so He arranged for John to write his "little book" giving a road map and timetable for what was coming... and good information on how to overcome and triumph in the middle of all the "goings on".
Scofield was not the first to make this left turn.. that was John Darby, around 1830. Scofield cme about sixty years later, and wrote his "study bible". I know folks who live by that thing.. very verse always and only leads to another specific one, like a rat larning the maze into which he has been dropped.Sad....
Hal Lindsay. intersting how God used his Late Great book. A friend of mine gave me a copy of it, and I read it..as I was looking for answrs, and honestly seeking truth. Er, I meant Truth. I grew up in a pretty dead denominational organisation (which one matters naught at this point) I had aken away only one sound irrefutable fact from all those years of dead prectice and indoctrination. That thing was this" God is real, and He does expect SOMETHING of us in SOME kind of relationship." The rest was a thick of fog. From Lindsay's book I took away only one thing (the precise number of US military Cobra helicopters what would come down from the Euphrates Valley and go to somewhere and thump on someone were amusing. but insignificant Flash Gordon stuff. Entertainng but not helpful. The thing I DID take way was this: there IS a war, a worldwide one. God is one side, some other nsty guy the other. I was NOT on the right side. SO.. thanks Hel, all your otherwise wasted words DID identify the root problem for me, but provided no solutiojn.
He has twice since then proven himself a false prophet,and tus worthy or sound rejection. I guess some folks still read his printed fairy tales. Sad.... but God did use his book as a major waypoint on my own journey.
That is super interesting how God used Hal Lindsay in your life! He can use anything!
As someone who has, in the past 3 years, journeyed back to Christ, I so appreciate your comments, and, will study them more intensely. Would you be so kind as to share what your preferred version of the Bible is?
First, welcome back to the fold!!!
you asked about bibles...
my favourite is the Geneva Bible, a great literal translation done in 1599, predating the King James.They sourced to the oldest and most reliable greek and hebrew manuscripts . King James is good but not as good.. two reasons... it was a project funded and somewhat directed by the king. He had his biases and conditions. All the translators were beholden to him. Not directly to God. Further, thay referenced extensively the Latin Vulgate version, a translation done, and not all that well, from the greek into latim by the Roman church. Not all that accurate, just mostly.
The folks at Canon Press, Moscow Idaho, have completed a new updating and modernisation of the New Testament of the Geneva Bible, I have it, and it is very good. Does away with the cranky "olde englishe" of the original Geneva (which I actually enjoy.. and I know i"m weird but don't care), yet retains the depth and linguistic and poetic beauty of the original. They are working on the Old Testament I think to be completed later this year. The NT is only available as a set of booklets each one containing one book, with a few booklets combining a few smaller books. Makes i hard to carry the whole NT, but for studying or reading one book it is fine. When the OT is done they will issue a ful bible all in one volume.
I strongly advise staying away from the "dynamic equivalent" translations, as they tend to be weak, and are more for casual reading in private than studying or teaching. Many tend to promote some group's particular bias. New Living, the Jerusalem, Good News for Modern Man, etc.
I also recommend avoiding the "study" bibles, as they will give a reference to a place THEY want you to turn next, which is in sync with their particular bias or agenda. I find it much safer and stronger to read it, and when I want more use a concordance to learn the meaning of this/that word. The reference bibles want to prove their partuicular biasand will only lead you to verses that support THEIR agenda. The Scofield, Thimpson Chain,mand Ryrie all do that.
a few things to consider........ I firmly believe the bible is God's letter to us, and each of us, wherein He tells us what we NEED to know to walk strongly with HIM and each other. The pure unadulterated Scripture contains ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness. What else to we need?
Thank you ever-so-much for your reply. At 63yo, my intent is to become fully immersed in God's Holy Word. It has been confusing to know which translation is best. I am deeply grateful for your informative response.
Clearly my humor didn't hit the mark for you LOL
I did some searching and apparently key strokes are recorded (not Orwellian AT ALL) to "....improve your web experience...."
They can be turned off by following the instructions here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/privacy-whitepaper/
So glad my husband doesnβt work for Microsoft anymoreβ¦.they laid him off because he would rather spend time with his family than climb their corporate ladder.
Annie Marie ... such a nice pic, and good for you! Nice to see happy looking folks, especially in these times. God bless and preserve!
Celebrating our 29 anniversary in a few weeks and living the dream in Montana. Got the heck out of Washington state.
Annie Marie. So happy for you! Thanks much, means much ... for writing!
Good for you! Native Montanan and wished we could move back after moving to WA state 30 years ago. Enjoy Big Sky Country!!!!
Thanks.
So if we do this they canβt spy on us and disable our computers?
Too much data
You echo Obama. Careful there, buddyroe.
LOL
I evicted Gates and Google from my homesead back whenWindows 98 was first being trotted out. swotched to Mac, use Firefox, evict the goog everytime it raears its ugly head playing sweet puppy dog please let me in and scratch my ears and I'll be a good little doggie for you. NO GO AWAY. Even the goog invites to sign up, join, insert password here, all get rejected. Turned off geolocating on my eye fone.
Hi Angela! Here is an AP article stating this is a fabrication: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-microsoft-disable-computers-non-mainstream-264451828591.
IMHO, it seems unlikely that Microsoft would do something so egregious - shareholders would not be happy. It would also be difficult to pull this off from a legal standpoint β the legal risk being violation of privacy laws and potentially a EULA breach of contract. It certainly wouldnβt go over well in the EU, or even California, for that matter.
Technically, MSFT could easily track your queries, but only for content processed using the MSFT search engine Bing. Any queries you send to Bing *can* be warehoused by MSFT. Even then, the only thing MSFT could do to βdisableβ your computer would likely amount to revoking your Windows license, and unless the EULA states this is OK, they canβt revoke your license. And they certainly cannot delete your data.
That said, if you use a non-Edge browser and a different search engine, you would be bound by their manufacturer EULAs, and Microsoft wouldnβt have access to regular browser data you send over HTTPS that isnβt destined for a Microsoft owned domain like microsoft.com.
Personally, I use a Mac with Brave browser and DuckDuckGo search engine. I also use a VPN on my computer as an extra layer of protection. π
So more fake news?
π Iβm watching this Tucker-Benz interview right now and it is worth watching! The amount of power that governments can glean by controlled the narrative on social media is staggering.
Tucker needs to do a follow-up on his Putin interview --and mention others like him who death-deal their critics and opponents, Bill O'Reilly can contribute with all his Killing _______________ series of books. Did Putin really have Russian apartments blown up as pretext for 1999 war or was it truly Islamicist terror attack?
I fed your question into ChatGPT and learned about the 1999 bombings - they killed 300 and injured 1,000. There is no viable evidence either way, which to me suggests it was FSB. Terrorists tend to lay claim to their massacres, although these guys would have been Chechen separatists, so itβs hard to say.
SPECTRE is in control per Mike Benz...Maybe Tuck won't be quite so Populist-phobic now
it maybe was Russia's 9-11; infiltrate, incite, aid abet train fund, contain and control, inflame emotion media mastery, and kill off the patsies. And a nice memorial or 3 afterword to never forget (the narrative which is backed up with an "investigation".
I hope your right
Hi Nikki! For fun, I copied the Windows 10 EULA from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Windows/10/UseTerms_Retail_Windows_10_English.htm and fed it into ChatGPT, which provided a concise bullet list of key clauses followed by this answer to my question:
βNotably, the EULA focuses on the legal use of the software, compliance with licensing terms, and protection of intellectual property. It does not specifically mention revoking licenses due to spreading misinformation or disinformation online. The license can be revoked or the software can be disabled primarily for reasons related to unauthorized use, failure to comply with the licensing terms, or attempting to circumvent the softwareβs technical protections. This summary addresses the main points of the EULA, but itβs always best to consult the full document for comprehensive details.β
Microsoft cannot technically or legally disable your computer; that in itself is a red flag. The closest they can get is OS license revocation, which only bars the user from running that particular licensed copy of Windows on that computer. The computer still boots and works. You just replace the OS and you are good to go.
Think about the legal ramifications of a large international corporation doing this. That, too, is a red flag. A bigger red flag is that Bill Gates is no longer running the company, as inferred in the allegedly fake post. I suspect that the fabrication is just another scare tactic, similar to pro-vax pandemic posts about killing grandma, etc. π
Thoughts?
APπ€£ DuckDuckGoππ
This only applies if you use Microsoftβs Edge browser. Try a privacy-focused browser such as Brave instead
Itβs been fact checked as false, but by the usual suspect fact liars so who knows.
Fact checkers are liberal liars so who knows? I messaged the poster to see if he can provide a link.
https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/microsoft-to-disable-computers-of-users-who-share-non-mainstream-content-online/
I'd like to know more about this Gates thing of shutting off mircosoft computers at will. . I'm not on Instagram so can't access that. Do you have other ways to attach the info? Thank you.
https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/microsoft-to-disable-computers-of-users-who-share-non-mainstream-content-online/
These people are evil.
Would sticking with my old 2019 IPhone rather than upgrading make sense?
Not giving up our one flip phone we share. Read a few weeks ago a survey showed the average zombie pulled out their phone 100 X per day, while some did it 400 X Day. Get a life, zombies.
Smart phones are addicting.
my cheapo I Phone frm 2015 still does way more than I will ever want to do on a tiny handheld toy. I have turned off almost everything it can do. Reliable cheap, does not owe me a thing, and does far more than I will ever want it to.