Catching Up...
Haven't been blogging for quite a while since my eyes started hurting badly...turned out I'm having conjunctivitis. My sight is much better now. God willing, it'll clear up.
Anyway, I've pretty much nothing new at the moment to serve up...so, I guess you'll have some chilled dinner (typed up around three weeks ago).
***
It looks like we have been living in the "last days" for about two thousand years already. Strangely enough, it is only now, after the likes of so many terrorist attacks and natural disasters do the majority of Christians really believe that they are living in the last days.
I must confess I've been having a paradigm shift in my eschatological framework since I last wrote "A Bit On Eschatology". I was much more lenient towards the different end-time flavors. Unfortunately, I've been hardened a little bit- no thanks to a recent conference I attended on eschatology.
The speaker there was an Israeli ministering in Jerusalem (Though not a Jew; he's a Japanese-American) and I knew it was gonna be a bad day when:
1. He only had a M.Div (Okay, perhaps I'm a little too harsh on the qualifications since he is light-years ahead of Hal Lindsey already, but still, perhaps something more would make me a feel a little more secure listening to him)
2. Also, another pastor started the conference with a prayer. In the middle of it he said, "may he deliver the church from replacement theology...". Not that I have any problem with his comments on replacement theology, but I have a strong feeling people like him will throw fits everytime someone mentions "preterism". I also noticed they were selling "The End Times Controversy" by Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice. They sure are gonna throw fits now.
3. The guy with the M.Div ripped certain verses from their context and boldly said to a crowd of over a thousand Christians that "this verses predict the return of the Jews to Israel in 1947!" Ugh.
4. When we had to pay TWENTY BUCKS A PERSON to enter. The food wasn't even good.
After sitting through a whopping eight hours of "Israel is God's timepiece" chit chat (and those who think otherwise are anti-semites, by the way), it would be only proper for me to say that I'm not convinced; and that I am still none the wiser when it comes to serious, scholarly exegesis of eschatological texts. And to also say that we definitely have to get out of our theology more often- to expose ourselves to the differing views on prophecy. Most have only heard the dispensational side of the story, I'm sorry to say.
I'm pretty much fed up of countering hyper-charismaticisim and horrible spiritual warfare theology, and now, it looks like I might just have to start training up to jump into the realm of eschatology.
Lock and load, baby!
Anyway, I've pretty much nothing new at the moment to serve up...so, I guess you'll have some chilled dinner (typed up around three weeks ago).
***
It looks like we have been living in the "last days" for about two thousand years already. Strangely enough, it is only now, after the likes of so many terrorist attacks and natural disasters do the majority of Christians really believe that they are living in the last days.
I must confess I've been having a paradigm shift in my eschatological framework since I last wrote "A Bit On Eschatology". I was much more lenient towards the different end-time flavors. Unfortunately, I've been hardened a little bit- no thanks to a recent conference I attended on eschatology.
The speaker there was an Israeli ministering in Jerusalem (Though not a Jew; he's a Japanese-American) and I knew it was gonna be a bad day when:
1. He only had a M.Div (Okay, perhaps I'm a little too harsh on the qualifications since he is light-years ahead of Hal Lindsey already, but still, perhaps something more would make me a feel a little more secure listening to him)
2. Also, another pastor started the conference with a prayer. In the middle of it he said, "may he deliver the church from replacement theology...". Not that I have any problem with his comments on replacement theology, but I have a strong feeling people like him will throw fits everytime someone mentions "preterism". I also noticed they were selling "The End Times Controversy" by Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice. They sure are gonna throw fits now.
3. The guy with the M.Div ripped certain verses from their context and boldly said to a crowd of over a thousand Christians that "this verses predict the return of the Jews to Israel in 1947!" Ugh.
4. When we had to pay TWENTY BUCKS A PERSON to enter. The food wasn't even good.
After sitting through a whopping eight hours of "Israel is God's timepiece" chit chat (and those who think otherwise are anti-semites, by the way), it would be only proper for me to say that I'm not convinced; and that I am still none the wiser when it comes to serious, scholarly exegesis of eschatological texts. And to also say that we definitely have to get out of our theology more often- to expose ourselves to the differing views on prophecy. Most have only heard the dispensational side of the story, I'm sorry to say.
I'm pretty much fed up of countering hyper-charismaticisim and horrible spiritual warfare theology, and now, it looks like I might just have to start training up to jump into the realm of eschatology.
Lock and load, baby!
This entry was posted
on Sunday, September 18, 2005 at 7:43 PM.
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