This thread's about to drive me running and screaming into full preterism and away from anything Biblical. And I mean FULL preterism. Shutting down the thread's not the problem
on this one with all of the premillenialism and amillenialism about the devil is coming, the devil is coming, the devil is coming -- the red coats! -- gasp!! -- can't you see them!!! -- the devil is coming, the devil is coming, the devil is coming! Shut this one down and it's just going to spill over into some 666 thread or some false light abuse of Revelation 17 and 18.
Seems to me like some people were absolutely
molested with Hal Lindsey stuff when they were younger and never have found their way into a Bible, but keep running to the current events to get their spiritual fix on more heralding of AntiChrist. I guess I'm heading back into Book of Revelation studies that I was genuinely hoping to be on a Sabbatical from, 'cause I was on mental overload when I realized the allusion to the
ancient myth of Europa riding the beast, but it's between that and trashing my Bible tonight figuring that I'm way too positive about everything to have anything to do with such a pessimistically lost to the devil Christ Jesus whose scepter obviously rusted a long time ago in the grave along with his body. If in the next life only we have hope, then His conquest of death is a total sham!
I'm annoyed, but not in any kind of crisis of faith as the above might indicate. I'm genuinely hoping I'm not going to be perpetually jet lagged until my faith comes to harvest on something that God's lit a fire under my butt again this week about pressing through with Him about. I'm going to go and tithe for a few hours to snap myself out of this half exhausted, half wanting to choke something emotional sensitivity that I've got right now. The most insidious principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness at Satan's command are spirits of conspiracy that see a conspiracy behind every Bush. Chokes the Word absolutely every single time and the Word [helplessly] brings nothing to harvest. It's the most seductive thing that Satan has. It's more delicious to the carnal mind than money, and it's a blessing blocker 'cause it puts everything in your mouth that the Bible says you're absolutely never supposed to say. Upon a careful rereading of the context 75 to 100 times, the first 8 chapters of Isaiah call a spirit of conspiracy the spirit of rebellion: "You are not to say, 'It is a conspiracy!' In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy, And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it."
At first, it seems like he's describing apocalyptic events, but as you read carefully, he's talking about all of this mess of who's going to get who. One of those places where the chapter number and verse number designations really do us all a disservice. I guess it's sorta like reading through Job where with that book, it's when you come to the end and find God calling all of Job's friends total blasphemers teetering on Him torching 'em if it weren't for His faithful intercessor, Job, who has been transformed by God into the fulfillment of the very need he identified, and in doing so fulfilled the law of Christ and experienced his own new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwelt for the rest of his life in his own Garden of Eden. As James said in the New Testament, when you're looking at all of these world events, consider the perseverance of Job and the end intended by the Lord through his refusal to call conspiracy all that his friends were calling conspiracy.