Study of "End Times"

[Doctor Strangelove]

I totally understand your feelings about eschatology. If you're like me, you were raised believing in the premil pretrib dispensational view and didn't know there was anything else at first. That's how it was for me. Then I read the Left Behind series and noticed so many inconsistencies with Scripture that it got me wondering... It was actually through discussions with people on CF that I finally began to get a concept of the other doctrinal stands on the issue (postmil, amil, preterist, etc.) and started investigating them. I still have a long way to go, but am glad for the journey. It can be overwhelming at times, but the Lord gave us teachings in Scripture (Revelation, Daniel, Matthew, etc.) for a reason, and it is very much for our edification to examine the Scriptures in this area. I encourage you to take your time and study when you can. It has taken me years to come to the view that I now hold, and I still have SO much to learn. But it's so important because eschatology is not a doctrine that is separated from all other doctrine. It is very intimately connected.

That was good you took the time to study the issue - it can be confusing. Two study Bibles that have an amil perspective are The Orthodox Study Bible and The Lutheran Study Bible (published by the LCMS). And the Catholics don't believe in dispensationalism, either. Yes, some people think that the only conservative view is the system put forth in the Scofield Bible, and if you believe differently, you don't believe in the Second Coming. I think dispensationalism seemed to go well with the Cold War geopolitics way back when, so many conservatives found it appealing. And I think dispensationalism creates a dangerous mindset among some people. You hear some radio preachers who talk as if the Bible is a tool of divination, and they have some sort of numerology system that tells them the "hidden meaning" of some verse, and of course God gives them a "special revelation" about future events. When something doesn't happen as predicted, the preacher will say, "I have a new revelation!" and he is off to the races again.

 

[rdclmn72]

The assumption is that MT 24 is that of the gentile church, the truth is that he was speaking to the hebrews left behind.
Otherwise the Apocalypse means nothing beyond the many contradictions associated with it.

 

[Prepper Pete]

I am writing this many years after the original post (OP), but I was definitely impacted by Hank Hanegraaff's book "The Bible Code". One thing that struck me about it was that I thought it no small matter that the system of worship (the end of all things if you were Jewish and had not become a follower of Jesus Christ) was over in 40 years after the death of Christ. 40 is not an insignificant number in biblical terms, as it is generally accepted as a "generation". Well if that generation was not to pass, than AD 70 and the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem was not an insignificant event.

We can debate about the timing of the writing of the Book of Revelation till Kingdom Come, but you can't ignore the fact that the Temple was cast down without one stone left standing on another, before a generation had passed... just as Jesus had told his disciples!

 

[notreligus]

I am writing this many years after the original post (OP), but I was definitely impacted by Hank Hanegraaff's book "The Bible Code". One thing that struck me about it was that I thought it no small matter that the system of worship (the end of all things if you were Jewish and had not become a follower of Jesus Christ) was over in 40 years after the death of Christ. 40 is not an insignificant number in biblical terms, as it is generally accepted as a "generation". Well if that generation was not to pass, than AD 70 and the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem was not an insignificant event.

We can debate about the timing of the writing of the Book of Revelation till Kingdom Come, but you can't ignore the fact that the Temple was cast down without one stone left standing on another, before a generation had passed... just as Jesus had told his disciples!

Temple worship had essentially ceased before Jesus began His ministry. Synagogues were located in every large city with Rabbinical Judaism having overtaken Temple worship and the priestly order. The oral teaching of Rabbis has been summarized in the Talmud (two main versions of that) plus individual Midrash (individual interpretation of the Scripture). The Pseudopigrapha was written between about 250 B.C. and 250 A.D. Exerpts from these writings predicted a political Messiah. Christ came as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, but the Jews believed that particular Scripture is about their nation, and many of them still do. I'm convinced that these apocryphal writings contributed to the attitude about Jesus and His rejection as the true Messiah.

60 years after that Jewish Revolt that ended with the 70 AD destruction of the Temple was followed by a second Jewish Revolt, called the bar Kochba Revolt. The Jews followed bar Kochba as their political Messiah that they had expected that God would send. So, the suffering of Israel did not end with the destruction of the Temple. We can name other times Israel/the Jews has suffered. Dispensationals teach that the Tribulation will be seven years of intense suffering for Israel.

Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple, but His teaching next shifted to cataclysmic events of the consummation. Peter addressed these things. Paul addressed these things.

A Jewish group called the Karaite Jews have returned to a focus on the Torah (the Law or the first five books of the Scripture) and they do not focus on the Talmud or Midrash. The Talmud (oral opinions of rabbis) became more authoritative to the Jews than the Torah.

 

[Prepper Pete]

It was the end of an age in which it was no longer physically on the table to atone for sin via sacrifice in the Temple.