Monday, February 14, 2011

The Prophetic Challenge

Whenever anything new comes across the theological landscape it is inevitable that it be looked upon with suspicion. I suppose that is unavoidable.

On the other hand, where the true lover of Jesus Christ and lover of the truth has pledged in his heart as a lifetime principle to embrace the truth wherever he finds it, just because something is suspicious doesn't automatically constitute it untrue, only rather that it be tested and researched more carefully, perhaps as did the Bereans of Acts 17 when Paul argued from the scriptures (the Old Testament scriptures) that Jesus was indeed the Messiah of prophecy.

Ah! The golden word! And it is likely, in my opinion, that the corroboration that the Bereans of his day arrived at with regard to Paul's assertions will not likely be different than what I maintain to my readers will be found in our day as a result of a close inspection of the events of the past when compared to those marvelously mysterious prophecies of Revelation. The book will come alive!

It is written somewhere in the book of Proverbs that in the multitude of councilors there is wisdom, and as I have stated earlier that which separates from so many others the book from which I will be drawing the great majority of my information is that it is not--I repeat for emphasis- is NOT--the fanciful new (or old) ideas of one man, be he ever so well educated and well read, as to the interpretation of these prophecies.

No, no, no!

It is rather the recorded beliefs, understandings, observations--some of them by hindsight manifestly inaccurate--of a whole host of serious Bible students and expositors from the entire span of seventeen long centuries, from the 19th century (the author published the book in 1905) all the way back to the third century at least, and possibly to the second. The only thing--I think I can say safely--that united them was that they unswervingly believed that that mysterious Book before them was speaking of things that were occurring in their own day, not things that were in the yet to be begun future.

Perhaps one notable illustration of this is to be found in the cataclysmic events that occurred in the fourth century when Constantine became victorious, and established Christianity as the religion of the whole empire. Any person who is knowledgeable of the character of the Roman emperors before Constantine will know that for three long centuries they did their very best to exterminate the Christian religion. (Kindly for the moment forget the modern semantics about the faith of Jesus Christ not being a 'religion' and hear what I have to say.) Christians were put to death by the thousands, if not millions, by the Roman emperors, and then along comes Constantine and reverses everything almost in a day's time, and makes Christianity supreme.

They thought the millenium had come!!! and do you blame them?

Well, hindsight tells us that the millenium did not come, and indeed, as well described in Guinness' book and also in many others, not only did it not come, but the more long lasting effect of Constantine's actions weakened the church, not strengthen it.

The point here is, the believers at that time didn't know that; they were dancing in the streets!

The entire above illustration, to keep our focus, is to show that they ALL believed that Revelation was speaking to events of their own day, even thought they missed it as regard the particulars.

Going back to where I started, let me emphasize once again that in bringing forth these long forgotten facts of history we begin to acquire the very sobering understanding of two things: one is the horrendous sufferings of our brothers and sisters of earlier centuries, and two, that the Lord of glory spoke, albeit in disguised language, well ahead of their sufferings, and thus gave them hope.

Moving into particulars (at least soon) Guinness' book is divided into several sections, two of which we have already touched on here, namely the Pre-Constantine stage, and the Post-Constantine stage, both in them in specific reference to how the fathers of their day interpreted Revelation. As the centuries progressed, however, so also did their understandings of how the prophecies were being fulfilled.

We will pursue that soon, as the Lord leads.


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