The following video is meant to primarily illustrate a bad hermeneutical practice that, unfortunately, too many Christians have gotten in the habit of: namely, reading the Bible with one hand and the newspaper with the other.
Check out the video HERE, and, if you're interested, there are noted below a few other points of dispute with regard to the views expressed in this video.
Points of historical and hermeneutical dispute:
1) Dispensationalists often like to argue that the establishment of the independent state of Israel in 1948 is significant because it is the first time since the Babylonian Exile (which began under the infamous King Nebuchadnezzar) that Jews have ruled the land called now known as the nation-state of "Israel." This is actually a simple historical fallacy. Protestants are oftentimes unfamiliar with the stories recorded in 1 & 2 Maccabees (because they are not found in our canon of Scripture), which tell about a Jewish Revolt against Greek occupiers that took place in the 2nd c. BC, and which brought about the creation of the Hasmonean Dynasty--an independent and autonomous Jewish state in the same location as the modern nation-state of Israel. (See HERE for a quick synopsis of the Hasmonean Dynasty.) Simply put, this is not the first time since the Babylonian Exile that Jews have ruled an autonomous, Jewish state in the land called "Palestine." This does not necessarily rule out the importance of the state's creation in 1948, but that importance cannot be derived from the idea that this is the first time since Exile that the Jews have occupied and ruled the land today called "Israel." Mr. Van Impe is simply badly informed historically.
2) I am perplexed by Christians today who attempt to use the predictions of Nostradamus to buttress their prophetic claims. Moreover, I am perplexed by Christians who attempt to use the Mayan cyclical calendar system (which is said to put the date of the end of the world [or of this age] at December 2012) to buttress these same claims. Since when did Christians start looking to Nostradamus and the pagan Mayans for their prophetic information? Even more appalling is the fact that several of those who have done this--including Mr. Van Impe, see HERE--are those who want to claim (as they hold the newspaper and Nostradmus' prophecy in one hand) that the Bible is their only basis for prophetic information. Too which we simply reply: bologna.
3) Another significant historical point: Mr. Van Impe often mentions the possible future rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. While the above videos did not discuss this at length, it is Mr. Van Impe's (and many others') opinion that the future rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem (which implies the [often violent and illegal] destruction of the Dome of the Rock, which sits in the same place), if this one day occurs, will almost assuredly usher in the last dispensation of history, the end of the world. It is interesting to note that this is not the first time this belief has been strongly held by those in the land called "Israel." When the Jews returned from the Exile, under the Edict of Cyrus in 538 BC, the Temple was rebuilt, under the leadership of the Jewish governor, Zerubbabel (it was later destroyed by the Romans in 70AD). During this time, the biblical texts evidence great religious fervor amongst the people of Israel, and a strong belief that Zerrubbabel might be the promised Messiah and the "Day of the Lord" (i.e. "end of the world") might be at hand (see the book of Haggai, Zechariah 1-9, Ezra, and Nehemiah for pertinent texts). The last time the Temple was rebuilt people believed that the end of the world was upon them--unfortunately (or fortunately for us!) it was not. I guess you could then summarize the dispensationalist, Israel-supporter's stance like this: "We'll get 'em next time boys!" I am being facetious, of course, but in a truly biblical way we must recognize what the New Testament Church recognized, and which Jesus himself declared: "One greater than the Temple is here."
Praise God that Christ has superseded the need for a Temple in Jerusalem (not too mention Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar), and has made his body, the Church, a Temple of His Own Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
No comments:
Post a Comment