In Reply to: my pleasure posted by George on November 15, 2002 at 11:12:21:
Sorry, I couldn't resist that. Halfway through your post your wrote, "(It's past my bedtime now, but I can discuss them another time)." Now the funny thing is you posted it today, Friday, at 11:00 AM, so I'm assuming you just got off a night job.
Yes, I definitely appreciated your quotes, and you're righ that disagreements over "endtime" Bible prophecy has been around for 2,000 years. About 200 AD, living at the same time, we have two outstanding Christians, Irenaeus in Lyons, France and Clement in Alexandria, Egypt, with very, very different interpretations. (Ha! Maybe it's good they lived 1,500 miles apart.) Well, actually I think that despite the fact that they disagreed so strongly on prophetic interpretations and would have had lively discussions, they respected each other.
I did follow your discussion on 'Bible Board' so am familiar with your position and the various reasoning on both sides. At this point I don't have a strong leaning one way or the other because I've burned out on Endtime Bible Prophecy. I think I still lean (slightly) toward a yet-coming antichrist and Tribulation, post-Tribulation rapture and Millennium, and am actually impressed that this was the view held by many of the very earliest Christians, shortly after Jesus, as evidenced in the "Didache."
However, after reading those books you recommended I've gained a lot more respect for the various interpretations, as well as the Christians who hold so many different opinions, and I've become even more cautious about insisting on detailed prophetic calendars and interpretations.
For example, the whole thing about thinking that Israel is the "fig tree" is just a guess and interpretation. And basing the nearness of the Endtime on the theory that one generation (40 years) after Israel became a nation in 1948, the end is supposed to come, is again only a theory and NOT solid fact. Well, 40 years passed and the end never happened in 1988, and despite Martin Luther's prediction that the world would end in 2,000, it never happened then either.
I do find the study of the history of Endtime prophecy to be fascinating, though. And since the urgency of living with the Great Tribulation about to happen and the AC "alive in the world today, plotting and scheming" was used as control tactic to keep people in the cult, this has real relevance to our experience.
In fact, if you think about it, that was what a lot of Berg's paranoia and ultra-security was based on: since the AC was supposedly alive and plotting behind the scenes with his ACs cohorts, of course WHO was the biggest enemy of the AC in the world besides Dave Berg? So lock all your doors and stay in the Family, folks! Sure, if you want to leave, feel free, there's the door, but if you leave you're heading into Babylon the Whore which is just about to institute the 666 mark of the Beast.