Post by morningstar on Apr 1, 2014 19:16:02 GMT
Rapture Ready
Israel Watch
Jim Fletcher
Here Come the Scythians
Christians of a certain type like to identify with sola scriptura (Latin, “by scripture alone”), and I think such a view is foundational. We can err when we turn away from the Word of God. Yet today, extra-biblical sources are rampant in the American church.
For example, I recently noticed that a “Bible teacher” posted on Facebook that British scientists have cloned a baby dinosaur. This of course has “end-times” implications.
Somehow.
Let me cut to the chase: there is no baby dinosaur in England. The “news” source for this is bogus. Of course. It is painful just bringing it up.
But we fall for stuff.
Which makes a story in Haaretz—The large Israeli daily—all the more appealing. It seems that a rabbi has predicted that when the Russians take Crimea, Messiah will appear. All this talk led to the Haaretz article (which includes a bit about an Amsterdam museum housing precious Scythian artifacts; the museum curators are unsure whether to turn the traveling exhibit back to Crimea…or to the Russians).
The Scythians, in history, were a people in what is now southern Iran. A war-like civilization, feared because of their horse cavalry, the Scythians are thought to be the famous Magog contingent of Ezekiel 38-39. Their culture lasted from the seventh-century B.C. until the fourth century A.D.
This “thousand-year Reich” is fascinating, to be sure, but back to the Haaretz article.
The writer, Chemi Shalev, weaves a tale of Armageddon, the Messiah, and epic battle…mostly because a rabbi says that Vilna Gaon, an eighteenth century Talmud scholar from eastern Europe, predicted the end would come quickly, once a Russian leader claimed Crimea.
This is all very interesting—especially given that all-powerful Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to fit a “Gog” criteria—and certainly, geopolitically, none of us have seen before the seeming puzzle pieces being fit together like they appear to be now.
However.
One must say again that while Iran, Russia, and an increasingly hostile (is that even possible?!) pan-Arab nation threaten Israel directly…we can’t give in to the speculations of Enlightenment rabbis, shady websites, dangerous Facebook “prophets,” left-wing journalists, or even our own “feelings” about where we are in history.
The truth, of course, is that the Gog-Magog War could erupt tonight. Then again, it could be some years down the road. We simply don’t know.
I cannot emphasize enough how damaging the failed predictions of some prophecy teachers the last 40 years have been in terms of “crying wolf” to younger generations that no longer pay attention to our predictions, unless they are making fun of them.
We will know that Gog has roused Magog when it happens. If we are here.
In the meantime, Israel continues to be pressured by an increasingly hostile international community and as I often say, that is the single-biggest indication we are living in the very last of the last days. Netanyahu’s government is in peril if he carries out the latest Palestinian prisoner release. Hezbollah in the north is threatening again, this time with a vast stockpile of rockets. Control of Egypt is in play. Beyond that, the body of Europe is again sick with anti-Semitism, at alarming levels. The U.S. government now, in my opinion, has clearly abandoned Israel.
All this and much more tell us where we are.
(I also agree with the marvelous Jacob Prasch that the python of apostasy in the American church is a huge sign of the times.)
Until we see the very specific details of Ezekiel’s prophecy unfold (can’t you just imagine Matt Lauer scrambling to analyze such a development as research staffers hand him Bible passages?), though, let’s be sober-minded and teach people the basic outlines of predictive prophecy, so that when the end comes, they won’t be caught off-guard.
Link to source
Fair Use for Discussion Purposes
Israel Watch
Jim Fletcher
Here Come the Scythians
Christians of a certain type like to identify with sola scriptura (Latin, “by scripture alone”), and I think such a view is foundational. We can err when we turn away from the Word of God. Yet today, extra-biblical sources are rampant in the American church.
For example, I recently noticed that a “Bible teacher” posted on Facebook that British scientists have cloned a baby dinosaur. This of course has “end-times” implications.
Somehow.
Let me cut to the chase: there is no baby dinosaur in England. The “news” source for this is bogus. Of course. It is painful just bringing it up.
But we fall for stuff.
Which makes a story in Haaretz—The large Israeli daily—all the more appealing. It seems that a rabbi has predicted that when the Russians take Crimea, Messiah will appear. All this talk led to the Haaretz article (which includes a bit about an Amsterdam museum housing precious Scythian artifacts; the museum curators are unsure whether to turn the traveling exhibit back to Crimea…or to the Russians).
The Scythians, in history, were a people in what is now southern Iran. A war-like civilization, feared because of their horse cavalry, the Scythians are thought to be the famous Magog contingent of Ezekiel 38-39. Their culture lasted from the seventh-century B.C. until the fourth century A.D.
This “thousand-year Reich” is fascinating, to be sure, but back to the Haaretz article.
The writer, Chemi Shalev, weaves a tale of Armageddon, the Messiah, and epic battle…mostly because a rabbi says that Vilna Gaon, an eighteenth century Talmud scholar from eastern Europe, predicted the end would come quickly, once a Russian leader claimed Crimea.
This is all very interesting—especially given that all-powerful Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems to fit a “Gog” criteria—and certainly, geopolitically, none of us have seen before the seeming puzzle pieces being fit together like they appear to be now.
However.
One must say again that while Iran, Russia, and an increasingly hostile (is that even possible?!) pan-Arab nation threaten Israel directly…we can’t give in to the speculations of Enlightenment rabbis, shady websites, dangerous Facebook “prophets,” left-wing journalists, or even our own “feelings” about where we are in history.
The truth, of course, is that the Gog-Magog War could erupt tonight. Then again, it could be some years down the road. We simply don’t know.
I cannot emphasize enough how damaging the failed predictions of some prophecy teachers the last 40 years have been in terms of “crying wolf” to younger generations that no longer pay attention to our predictions, unless they are making fun of them.
We will know that Gog has roused Magog when it happens. If we are here.
In the meantime, Israel continues to be pressured by an increasingly hostile international community and as I often say, that is the single-biggest indication we are living in the very last of the last days. Netanyahu’s government is in peril if he carries out the latest Palestinian prisoner release. Hezbollah in the north is threatening again, this time with a vast stockpile of rockets. Control of Egypt is in play. Beyond that, the body of Europe is again sick with anti-Semitism, at alarming levels. The U.S. government now, in my opinion, has clearly abandoned Israel.
All this and much more tell us where we are.
(I also agree with the marvelous Jacob Prasch that the python of apostasy in the American church is a huge sign of the times.)
Until we see the very specific details of Ezekiel’s prophecy unfold (can’t you just imagine Matt Lauer scrambling to analyze such a development as research staffers hand him Bible passages?), though, let’s be sober-minded and teach people the basic outlines of predictive prophecy, so that when the end comes, they won’t be caught off-guard.
Link to source
Fair Use for Discussion Purposes
