Mt 24 watch, 126: The Muslim brotherhood rises to prominence in Egypt

Jihad Watch informs us, from Al-Masry Al-Youm, English -- The Egyptian Today:

Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail announced his intention to run in Egypt’s upcoming presidential elections.

He said that if elected he would implement Islamic sharia law and cancel the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Ismail was the Brotherhood’s candidate in 2005 parliamentary elections for Dokki in Giza.
The group announced earlier that it would not take part in the presidential elections and confirmed that it would compete for only half the seats in Parliament. But Ismail is the second Brotherhood member to have announced his intention to run for president in defiance of the group's leadership. The other Brotherhood candidate is Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh, a liberal-minded Islamist . . . .


Abu Ismail said that his platform revolves around Islam, while "Mohamed ElBaradei, Amr Moussa, and Hamdeen Sabahi, the liberal candidates, will be unable to present a clear vision” for the country.

“If I could apply sharia in Egypt, all people, including non-Muslims, would applaud me four years later,” said Abu Ismail.

The sheikh said that no current presidential candidate represents the Egyptian people.
“We seek to apply Islamic law, but those who don’t want it prefer cabarets, alcohol, dancers and prostitution, as the implementation of Islamic law will prohibit women to appear naked in movies and on beaches,” Abu Ismail added.

This immediately brings to the fore the cluster of trends, challenges and issues that lurk beneath the Arab Spring uprising:

1 -->  All across the Middle East, the peoples have struggled under more of less oppressive and corrupt regimes, but the yearning to be free of oppression does not necessarily translate into a yearning for what a Western person would identify as liberal democracy that is protective of the rights of minorities or women.

2 --> In part in reaction to the colonial experience of recent centuries when Western powers rose to prominence and re-imposed Western rule on the lands that Islam conquered from Byzantium and other powers in its first 100 years from 611 - 711, but also in light of the inner dynamic of Islam as remembered through the filter of cultural and religious memories of a time of greatness a thousand or more years ago, there is an idealisation of the Islamic golden age.

3 --> There is a strong desire to reinstate the settled law of those heady days, Sharia, which is built on the Quran and Hadiths, including in particular the applications made of these key texts from Sura 9 (which as second to last Sura, takes precedence in Islamic theology):

009.005
YUSUFALI: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. 

 009.029
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. 

  009.030
YUSUFALI: The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!

4 --> Thus, unfortunately, this foundational text in effect gives a global commission of conquest premised on dismissive slanders of Jews and Christians as accursed and deluded away from the truth of God. And, on successful conquest, Jews and Christians are subject to a servile status of Dhimmitude, i.e. protected person, on pain of marks of humiliation and subjugation under Allah's Law, Prophet and Warriors.

5 --> That already implies serious consequences for the Coptic Christians of Egypt, should full Sharia be re-imposed. For, inter alia, not only are they subject to a special, confiscatory poll tax, but they -- by theocratic law, i.e. the Sharia -- are deemed automatically untrustworthy and defective in character so that heir testimony in court is by direct ruling discounted relative to that of a Muslim and they are not to hold positions of authority over Muslims. Even, church repairs are to be undertaken only by permission.

6 --> Similarly, since the Jews of modern Israel are in the anomalous position of being Dhimmis who have taken control of land once under the power of Islam, this must be reversed. That is why Clause 7 of the Hamas Charter has that reference to the Gharqad tree Hadith that envisions a latter-day slaughter of Jews in Palestine, as they oppose the Mahdi.

7 --> Indeed, Hamas is in effect the Palestinian branch and derivative of the Muslim Brotherhood. So, it is reasonable to see the actions of Hamas as indicative of what is likely to happen should the Muslim Brotherhood begin t5o dominate the Egyptian political system.

8 --> But all of this is generic, what are we to make of this young man and his candidacy? 

9 --> Probably, he will not succeed, as he seems to be in defiance of the more patient strategy of his elders in the Brotherhood. However, his views are a few straws in the wind showing where things are blowing.

10 --> Here in the Caribbean we can do very little practically speaking about the developments in the Middle East, but they will continue to directly affect us through the instability in the price of oil. So, a very important step for us is, as far as possible, to move our economies out of dependence on oil, save for the inevitable requisites for transportation.

11 --> Where we have geothermal, wind or hydroelectric resources, we should seek to develop these. Elsewhere, we should look very seriously at new generation -- safer! -- nuclear technologies such as pebble bed reactors and molten salt Thorium reactors, as they come online over the next decade or so. (If that is to be, we must begin to build capacity now.)

12 --> Beyond that, we should begin to understand that we cannot passively rely on the international, regional and local news to give us the full story, or even the key parts of the well-warranted truth that we need. But, by now that should be quite obvious. (Let us learn to think critically for ourselves, and to carry out our own cross-checks to ascertain a prudently balanced view on important matters.)

_______________ 

And, most of all, let us pray and (where we have an opportunity) work for the genuine peace of not only the wider Middle East, but specifically for Jerusalem, for that is the lynch-pin to peace in our whole world. END

Matt 24 watch, 125c: The Camping case, 3 -- setting a new date while scrubbing the FR site

(NB: this post follows up from earlier ones (a) mainly on theology issues and (b) mainly on governance breakdown and media tactics,  Saturday and Sunday morning.)

In a saddening further development, it seems that Mr Camping has now scrubbed the index2 page of his site that formerly had the predictions and brochures on May 21, and has set a new date. 

According to a May 23rd WND article:

All warnings of the end of the world have apparently been "raptured" off the homepage of a doomsday preacher who wrongly predicted the return of Jesus over the weekend, and made a new prediction tonight that the end would now come on Oct. 21 of this year.

For many months, Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio and its main voice Harold Camping had been thundering warnings that Judgment Day was to take place May 21, 2011, and that it would be a certainty with "no Plan B.". . . . 


The 89-year-old gravel-voiced Camping took to the airwaves of Family Radio tonight to discuss the non-event, and said: "On May 21, this last weekend, this is where the spiritual aspect of it really comes through. God again brought judgment on the world. We didn't see any difference but God brought Judgment Day to bear upon the whole world. The whole world is under Judgment Day and it will continue right up until Oct. 21, 2011 and by that time the whole world will be destroyed."

"Are you ready to shoot yourself or go on a booze trip or whatever?"

Camping said. "I can tell you very candidly that when May 21 came and went, it was a very difficult time for me, a very difficult time. I was wondering, 'What is going on?'" he said.

"The Bible is a very spiritual book. There are a lot of things that are very factual, very factual, of course, but there are a lot of things that are very spiritual. How to know whether to look at it with a spiritual understanding or a factual understanding is hard to know," Camping said. "The fact is when we look at it more spiritually then we find that He did come."

Camping then predicted the world would be brought to an end on Oct. 21, 2011.

On May 21, "God brought Judgment Day to the whole world. The whole world is on Judgment Day. It will continue to Oct. 21, 2011 and at that time the whole world will be destroyed."

When pressed for an apology about being wrong on a May 21 Rapture, Camping responded: "If people want me to apologize then I can apologize, yes. I did not have all of that worked out as I wished I had it. But it doesn't bother me at all because I'm not a genius. When I make an error, I say, 'Yes, I was wrong.'"

He also said Family Radio has no intention of returning any money donated by people in recent months.

"No, that money is still going out. We're still in business. We still have another five months," he said.

"Why would we return it? It's been given to get the Gospel out. We're spending it as wisely as possible."

In short, Mr Camping is still unable or unwilling to accept that there is a fundamental fallacy in his methods of interpreting the Bible based on hop-scotching from one text isolated from context to a new text also isolated from context, then using "hidden" meanings read into the text to draw out a conclusion; instead of understanding each text in light of its context and natural literary sense given its genre. As this blog noted on Sunday morning in part (b):

. . . one should not go looking for esoteric “hidden” meanings in the text where the text has a plain and natural sense that makes good sense.

And yet, that is exactly what [Mr Camping] did, by coming up with some idiosyncratic date for Noah’s flood, then taking a text on how the eternal God is patient beyond human understanding (a day is like a 1,000 years in his sight . . . ) and taking a reference to seven days to go to the flood, plugging in the idea that 1 day –> 1,000 years, then voila, we arrive at May 21, 2011 . . .

Unsafe approaches to interpretation are dangerous, and the Apostle Peter -- speaking particularly about Paul's letters, but then broadening to the scriptures as a whole -- warns:

2 Pet 3:16b . . . There are some things in those [epistles of Paul] that are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist and misconstrue to their own ^[g]utter destruction, just as [they distort and misinterpret] the rest of the Scriptures.

In addition to the eschatological errors, Mr Camping sadly falls into the classic sectarian trap of claiming that his little group has cornered the market on Biblical truth. 

This can be seen from a clip taken out of his (now vanished) page on "no man knows," where -- having tried to take other texts out of context to blunt the force of the direct scriptural warning against date-setting and to make plausible a claim that "the true believers . . . know the time (the hour) and much about Judgment Day (the day),"  his site goes on to say:

In 1 Thessalonians 5:3 Christ tells us, “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” Because destruction comes upon them, we can know for certain that these people are not saved. Being unsaved, they are in spiritual darkness. They are in the night. Judgment Day is coming for them as a “thief in the night.” Yet they believe they are at peace with God and safely under His care. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

The language of this verse describes perfectly all of those in the world who on May 21, 2011 are still following any church. Because churches teach many things that are not true to the Bible, including a plan of salvation that is contrary to the Bible, and the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches, those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved . . .

We therefore must warn the world against this false teaching, and call on this man to repent of his errors, and to apologise for causing discredit to the gospel, scriptures and the church in the minds of many, making the work of bearing witness to the gospel just that much harder in our day.

Richard Myers and his abibleanswer.org group have a sounder word of counsel:

"Jesus is coming soon, but He is not coming on May 21. There are prophecies that have not been fulfilled. They are in the process of fulfillment, but will not be done by May 21. And, no man knoweth the day nor the hour when Jesus will return. The Bible is very clear in this matter and Harold Camping is acting contrary to Bible truth. This is not the first time he has made a false prophecy concerning the time of Jesus' return. In 1994 he did the same and was proved to be a false prophet. ... If Harold Camping does not sell Family Radio, why should you sell your home? If Harold Camping wants to retain his possessions, then you ought to do the same." 

 Indeed, as pointed out Saturday morning in the first post in this sub-series, all attempts at date-setting run headlong into Jesus' explicit warnings:

^{Mt 24:3}While He was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately and said, Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?     ⁴Jesus answered them, Be careful that no one misleads you [deceiving you and leading you into error].     ⁵For many will come in (on the strength of) My name [^[b]appropriating the name which belongs to Me], saying, I am the Christ (the Messiah), and they will lead many astray.     ⁶And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.     ⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in place after place;     ⁸All this is but the beginning [the early pains] of the ^[c]birth pangs [of the ^[d]intolerable anguish].     ⁹Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.     ¹⁰And then many will be offended and repelled and will ^[e]begin to distrust and desert [Him Whom they ought to trust and obey] and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred.     ¹¹And many false prophets will rise up and deceive and lead many into error.     ¹²And the love of ^[f]the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity,     ¹³But he who endures to the end will be saved.     ¹⁴And this good news of the kingdom (the Gospel) will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then will come the end . . . .

³⁶But of that [exact] day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father . . . .

⁴³But understand this: had the householder known in what [part of the night, whether in a ^[v]night or a morning] watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be ^[w]undermined and broken into.
    ⁴⁴You also must be ready therefore, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him. [AMP]
 Ac 1:⁶So when they were assembled, they asked Him, Lord, is this the time when You will reestablish the kingdom and restore it to Israel?     ⁷He said to them, It is not for you to become acquainted with and know ^[b]what time brings [the things and events of time and their definite periods] or fixed ^[c]years and seasons (their critical niche in time), which the Father has appointed (fixed and reserved) by His own choice and authority and personal power.     ⁸But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

It could not be plainer than that. 

Instead of speculating on the dates and details of the end of days, the apostle Paul showed us what we should emphasise instead, in his speech to the Athenian elites in 50 AD:

Ac 17:26And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes),
27So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.
28For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
29Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, [of the nature of] a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented.
30Such [former] ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent ([d]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins),
31Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead.(B) [AMP]

So, let us put first things first, and second things second. 

And, let us have done with unsound Bible study methods (a suggested one-pager on sound approaches is here) and a foolish fascination with forbidden date setting and speculations. END

Matt 24 watch, 125b: The Camping case, 2 -- Mr Camping's grave error, and the Media's graver yet error

It is Sunday morning, and as expected, yet another last days date-setting exercise has failed.

(Image modified from WND, under fair use)

We have some lessons to learn on the parallel needs:

(a) to fix governance in ever so many churches and parachurch ministries, and 

(b) just as urgent, to fix our radically secularised, anti-Christian and dangerously hostile global media culture. (And yes, the just linked actually has a balanced report card that can be used to fix media reporting, commentary and a lot more.)

I think the onward exchange with EZ over at UD is as good a way to learn them as any. 

So, pardon some more web clips:

_________________ 

EZ: >> Thanks! I’m resigned to paying some bills and doing the grocery shopping as usual. Sigh . . .  >>

GEM of TKI: >> As expected, it is Sunday and we are all here — save of course those who moved on as individuals overnight.

I find it astonishing (or, maybe, telling) that the same major media entities that spend so much time and effort repeating over and over that extremists like OBL are fringe relative to Islam, are so often willing to let the impression be created that a Mr Camping or the like, are typical of the Christian faith or of Christians who take the scriptures seriously.

Indeed, the sensationalised coverage over the past few days — I had never heard of this man before — sounds to me like a credibility kill attempt: set up someone, make him seem to be a leading figure, knock him over, spread guilt by invidious association. 

In fact, Mr Camping is demonstrably in error — easily known before the fact as I pointed out Friday afternoon above — and is a fringe figure. He seems to have a radio enterprise, and to have amassed a fortune to back it. He is also a long since retired civil engineer (he is 89 years of age, from what I see) essaying into theological waters and using principles of interpretation that are known to be unsound at even basic Bible Study level. E.g. when I wrote a basic Bible study guide 25 years ago, I cautioned that one should not go looking for esoteric “hidden” meanings in the text where the text has a plain and natural sense that makes good sense.

And yet, that is exactly what he did, by coming up with some idiosyncratic date for Noah’s flood, then taking a text on how the eternal God is patient beyond human understanding (a day is like a 1,000 years in his sight . . . ) and taking a reference to seven days to go to the flood, plugging in the idea that 1 day –> 1,000 years, then voila, we arrive at May 21, 2011. Patent folly based on clipping words out of their natural sense in context and imposing a read-in meaning.

Worse, he has done this before, some 15 years ago. He excuses himself as having made a mathematical error then. I do not know what he will say this time around, but he needs to apologise to his followers, like that zealous and self-sacrificing young man I saw Friday in front of our Hospital. he then needs to apologise to the church and the leaders who tried to correct him, who he would not listen to. Sadly, I gather he has dismissed and derides the church at large and has tried to in effect gather circles of listeners into informal groups; a classic sectarian blunder — and one that will give a bad name to groups that meet for Bible study, prayer and discussion in homes or schools or offices.

Then, he needs to go with the church leaders he has been reconciled with and sit before the world, apologising and allowing the leaders to present a more balanced view of the Christian faith’s core message and its view of the End of Days and Day of the Lord. 

After that, he needs to set up a proper board of governance for his ministry, with serious stakeholder representatives on it. And, he needs to attach to it a panel of expert advisors who have the right and responsibility to keep his ministry on track through sound counsel. For, this is in the end a major failure of governance of a corporate entity.

Idiosyncratic autocracy is dangerous, too dangerous today to be tolerated.

But it is not just Mr Camping who needs to reflect on what just happened and make amends.

What was troubling is that the coverage did not stress that here is a fringe person who has gone off the deep end and has been repeatedly corrected, but instead it sensationalised the error, as though this is a set up of a strawman.

The contrast with the very cautious treatment of Islam, tells me that this is likely to be a cynical agenda at work on the part of key media figures, and once such have big enough mikes, the rest will endlessly repeat and amplify the standard story-line.

That lemming-like media mentality is very dangerous, and the sort of cynicism that failed to be balanced in this case — even while being if anything overly cautious in dealing with the likes of radical Islam — is even more dangerous. There is a lot of painful and bloody history on what happens when movements of conscience are repeatedly strawmannised and slandered. Demonisation and dehumanisation are the first steps to unjust suppression. (And when I see cases like the John foster parenting case in the UK, where the UK Dept for Equality and Human Rights told a High Court that Bible-believing Christianity is an “infection,” and were not roundly rebuked, that is a grim portent. Our civilisation has been down that road before — too many times, and it is nowhere where any sane person wants to go.)

Frankly, it smells a lot like hypocrisy and hostility.

Anyway, let us return to focus for the thread . . .>>

__________________

Perhaps, such will be heeded. But if not, at least we can learn from the errors just highlighted, and make sure we don't fall victim to either unsound religious groups or to the increasingly blatant media manipulation and its hostility to the gospel. END

___________

UPDATE, 5:30 pm: It further turns out that Mr Camping is highly sectarian, even cultic in his attitude to the churches. 

This can be seen from a clip taken out of his page on "no man knows," where -- having tried to take other texts out of context to blunt the force of the direct scriptural warning against date-setting and to make plausible a claim that "the true believers . . . know the time (the hour) and much about Judgment Day (the day),"  his site goes on to say:

In 1 Thessalonians 5:3 Christ tells us, “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” Because destruction comes upon them, we can know for certain that these people are not saved. Being unsaved, they are in spiritual darkness. They are in the night. Judgment Day is coming for them as a “thief in the night.” Yet they believe they are at peace with God and safely under His care. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

The language of this verse describes perfectly all of those in the world who on May 21, 2011 are still following any church. Because churches teach many things that are not true to the Bible, including a plan of salvation that is contrary to the Bible, and the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches, those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved . . .

 This is classic sectarianism, the attempt to corner the market on gospel truth and enlightenment. On long observation, it is highly dangerous to those enmeshed in a system that so dismisses all outside the in-group, in a broad-brush fashion.

Matt 24 watch, 125: The Camping case -- is a strawman being set up?

I am astonished to see the amount of global media attention being paid to the ongoing Camping story of predicting the end of the world later today. 

Yesterday, as well, I ran into an emissary of Mr Camping by the rum shop in front of the local hospital, and tried to have a conversation with him. He seemed to be a man running with a message; according to his report, having toured several Caribbean islands in the past several weeks.

I fear however, that we are facing a media set-up for an attempted credibility kill.

I think so, since:

(i) the prediction is very likely indeed to be an error, and since  also

(ii) the highly secularised Western media are by and large hostile to biblical Christian faith, so I suspect 

(iii) that we are seeing a caricatured strawman being set up to be knocked over, thus 

(iv) ridiculing and further discrediting the gospel and associated Bible-believing Christian faith in the minds of many.  

Supporting this, I find that the immediate corrections to Mr Camping's key theological error by the better instructed are by no means being anywhere so headlined; at least at global level. And, even here, where panels of theological spokesmen were asked to comment or discuss, the resulting debates and talking points on particular schools of thought of eschatology were probably more apt to confuse rather than to clear up.  

Indeed, I note that as I spoke with a young man who stood by as I had tried to talk briefly with the representative, his complaint was that he believes in and reaches out to God but is confused over the complicated wranglings and debates in the various conflicting churches. Oh, how we need to repent of our divisiveness in light of Jesus' prayer in John 17, even as the betrayer from his inner circle was coming towards the Garden with those who would arrest our Lord:

  Jn 17: ²⁰Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching,
    ²¹That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.
    ²²I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:
    ²³I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and [definitely] recognize that You sent Me and that You have loved them [even] as You have loved Me. [AMP]

It is plainly worth pausing right away to highlight the key Bible-teaching blunder at work, based on two key texts of scripture, both from the mouth of our Lord, and both responding to eschatological speculation, in Matt 24 and Ac 1:

^{Mt 24:3}While He was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately and said, Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?
    ⁴Jesus answered them, Be careful that no one misleads you [deceiving you and leading you into error].
    ⁵For many will come in (on the strength of) My name [^[b]appropriating the name which belongs to Me], saying, I am the Christ (the Messiah), and they will lead many astray.
    ⁶And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
    ⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in place after place;
    ⁸All this is but the beginning [the early pains] of the ^[c]birth pangs [of the ^[d]intolerable anguish].
    ⁹Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.
    ¹⁰And then many will be offended and repelled and will ^[e]begin to distrust and desert [Him Whom they ought to trust and obey] and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred.
    ¹¹And many false prophets will rise up and deceive and lead many into error.
    ¹²And the love of ^[f]the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity,
    ¹³But he who endures to the end will be saved.
    ¹⁴And this good news of the kingdom (the Gospel) will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then will come the end . . . . 


³⁶But of that [exact] day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father . . . .


⁴³But understand this: had the householder known in what [part of the night, whether in a ^[v]night or a morning] watch the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be ^[w]undermined and broken into.
    ⁴⁴You also must be ready therefore, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him. [AMP]

 Ac 1:⁶So when they were assembled, they asked Him, Lord, is this the time when You will reestablish the kingdom and restore it to Israel?
    ⁷He said to them, It is not for you to become acquainted with and know ^[b]what time brings [the things and events of time and their definite periods] or fixed ^[c]years and seasons (their critical niche in time), which the Father has appointed (fixed and reserved) by His own choice and authority and personal power.
    ⁸But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

It could not be plainer than that. 

It is not given to us to know the exact time or date of the return of Christ as Lord and Judge at the end of history, but we do know that as history reaches culmination there will be an escalating contest of truth and rescue with deception and chaos driven by evil. But in the midst of this, the saving, transforming gospel goes forth in power to all nations, and that is our primary focus.

In addition, on a secondary debate, we should note the principle of partial fulfillment, where by the patterns of the prophetic dynamic will find fulfillment at various times and places, even though there is an ultimate fulfillment that is yet to come. In this case, the events of the 30's - 70's AD in C1 Judaea and Samaria plainly foreshadow and partly overlap with the trends of the culmination of the ages.  So, the disasters that happened as Israel chafed under Rome, and rose up in rebellion in 66 AD, leading to defeat, siege of Jerusalem and exile, point to what seems to be on our plate in our time. 

It is against that backdrop that I find it highly significant that the real message of the gospel that Jesus came, fulfilling the prophecies of the Scriptures, died as our Saviour, and rose as our Lord and Judge, is not at all being headlined. 

Similarly, it is highly significant that on the subject of the end of times, we are not hearing hear a clear report that the key teaching of the Christian faith is not that today is the last day, but instead that there is a day that has been set on which we will face judgement in light of righteousness -- a day attested to by God raising Jesus from the dead with 500 eyewitnesses and pouring out his Spirit in power that created and commissioned the church to carry the gospel in peaceful witness to all nations. 

Let me close off this post, therefore with an exchange I had yesterday at the Uncommon Descent blog, with an advocate of evolutionary materialism:

_______________

EZ: >> . . .  I hope you all have a good weekend, not interrupted by the Rapture as predicted by http://www.familyradio.com. I’d like to be able to continue conversing in the future. But if the Rapture really is coming I’m in for a pretty hideous time. >>

GEM of TKI: >>

You enjoy your weekend.

I actually ran into a young man today from the organisation promoting the date setting for the end of the world, next to the rum shop in front of the local hospital. Tried to ask him about date setting and the Bible’s prohibition on that.

He was not really listening, ran into a wound up spiel. Said he had been all over the Caribbean in the past several weeks, handing out booklets and books. He did look tired.

However, we can be pretty sure date setters are in error, per say Mt 24:36. But, it seems there is a temptation that some cannot resist.

What is far more serious is Paul’s statement in Ac 17, and remember this is eyewitness lifetime report (cf here on the minimal facts analysis):

Ac 17:26And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes),
27So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.
28For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
29Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, [of the nature of] a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented.
30Such [former] ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent ([d]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins),
31Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead.(B) [AMP]

Okay, all best.>>

________________

I believe that we need to set sensationalistic date setting in proper context, and return to a balanced view on the central issue, the gospel. For, we all will account before our Creator for our lives. Let us therefore heed the gospel, and find salvation and blessing. END

1 Chron 12:32 report, 71: A powerful video lecture on the da Vinci Code: fact or fiction?

A couple of days ago, I suffered a data loss event (I thought I was adding, and did not realise I was also inadvertently subtracting . . . thanks to those who have helped out with recovery and off site storage so this  does not happen again . . . ), and among other things, I had to try to recover the well researched George Oviatt video on Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.

While searching, I came across this 90 minute talk, slide show and Question-Answer session: The da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction?,  at the University of California, presented by professor Ward Gasque:

If we want a solid answer to Dan Brown-inspired talking points, and an explanation of why the sort of novel- as- claimed- "fact"- based- expose- of- imagined- conspiracies rhetorical strategy is so dangerous, we would have to look far to find something more solid than these two presentations. 

Historically, people have turned novels into movements of claimed truth before, and Gasque talks of people visiting churches etc with Dan Brown's book under arm, refusing to accept correction of errors -- it's part of the conspiracy, see. And when a survey of readers was done in Canada, 40% imagine that he novel is telling the real history, which is understandable given the following highly misleading claims, starting on page 1:

“FACT . . . . All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” [Page 1, emphases added]

"Constantine [the first “Christian” Roman Emperor] commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned." [Page 234] . . . .

"Fortunately for historians... some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s [note the wrong decade: the original discovery of the caves dates to 1947; also the materials are specifically Jewish and contain no Gospels, Gnostic or canonical] hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert." [Page 234] . . . .

"Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false." [Page 235]

(For a corrective to this sort of -- pardon, frank language is well warranted here -- willfully deceptive nonsense, kindly cf here, in the in-development draft Nicene Creed based Systematic Theology course for the proposes AA CCS.)

+++++++++

Well worth watching, for individuals, families, youth groups, churches, etc.

A lot better than renting some trashy DVD at the video rental shop, or whatever the equivalent is today.

I think this is an excellent example of how the Internet (properly used -- I am reminded of my shock when I recently discovered that apparently the roll-out of the Broadband net in the USA was paid for by people who bought it to watch porn . . . ) can replace idle TV viewing with serious and solid, even entertaining education.

Strongly recommended. 

Ammo for answering the Dan Brownista talking points on the street. END

______________

F/N: For a survey of street level issues and challenges to the church C1 - 21, cf the PDF of a multi-session slide show here.

Matt 24 watch, 124: On the Laminin Cross and the Hubble Cross -- signs to our times?

A correspondent recently brought the Laminin story to my attention, through this Evangelist Louie Giglio video which he linked in an email:

Laminins "are major proteins in the basal lamina (formerly improperly called "basement membrane"), a protein network foundation for most cells and organs. The laminins are an important and biologically active part of the basal lamina, influencing cell differentiation, migration, adhesion as well as phenotype and survival."

What's the excitement?

Pardon a spoiler, here is a diagram of the laminin molecule:

And (it's important . . . ), flipped on the side:

So, it looks like a cross and/or a sword, and/or the caduceus of Hermes (recently traditional, but erroneous, symbol of the healing art of Medicine): what's the big deal, and why is it that many are so busily debunking away? (And by the way, the proper sign of medicine is the rod of Asclepius, as shown. It seems that somebody made a boo-boo when symbols were made up for the US Military medical corps about a hundred years ago.)

Before we try to answer, let's pick up another "sign" this time in the heavens, courtesy the Hubble Space telescope, the Hubble Cross in the middle of M 51, a whirlpool galaxy some 23 mn light years away:

Wiki helps us understand:

A black hole, surrounded by a ring of dust, is thought to exist at the heart of the spiral. The dust ring stands almost perpendicular to the relatively flat spiral nebula. A secondary ring crosses the primary ring on a different axis, a phenomenon that is contrary to expectations . . . 

So, what is going on?

1 --> Louie Giglio is in effect appealing to this remark about Jesus the Crucified and Risen in Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, and applying it to a key molecule -- laminin -- that helps hold our cells and bodies together:

^{Col 1:15}[Now] He is the ^[o]exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.
    ¹⁶For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.
    ¹⁷And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together).^{(A)
    18}He also is the Head of [His] body, the church; seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place [stand first and be preeminent].
    ¹⁹For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him ^[p]permanently.
    ²⁰And God purposed that through (^[q]by the service, the intervention of) Him [the Son] all things should be completely reconciled ^[r]back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through Him, [the Father] made peace by means of the blood of His cross. [AMP]

2 --> This is immediately theologically legitimate, at the generic level, and should be no big thing in and of itself.

3 --> But, there is a rhetorical left hook: laminin, as we have seen, is shaped like the classic crux immissa, the type of Latin cross on which Jesus is usually held to have been crucified.

4 --> Similarly, in the heart of the very first identified spiral nebula, the Whirlpool, M 51, is: a cross; similarly a crux immissa.

6 --> In a visual age with many who are utterly hostile to the gospel, such striking images have high impact, and will attract heavy flak to shoot them down. Especially on the Internet.

7 --> So, Lesson 1: nothing is rhetorically "simple" anymore.

8 --> As a good example, we may excerpt Snopes.com: laminin existed long before the use of the cross, it is uncertain what shape the cross of Jesus was, cross shapes can occur easily (as they are "simple"), and so forth. (At least, they acknowledge that Christians recognise the teaching in Col 1, about how the cosmos holds together in Christ.)

9 --> Similarly, Answers in Genesis warns:

The main problem with this type of argument is that it appears that something outside of Scripture (in this case, laminin) is vital to know the truthfulness of a biblical truth. Laminin is used to prove a biblical truth. However, we should never use our fallible, finite understanding of the world to judge the infallible Word of God. What we observe in the world can certainly be used to confirm God’s Word (and it does), but our finite observations are not in a position to evaluate the infinite things of God. Only if we start with the Bible as our ultimate standard can we have a worldview that is rational and makes sense of the evidence . . . . many Christians before that time have trusted the truth presented in Colossians 1:17 because it is God’s Word. Would Colossians 1:17 be any less true if laminin were not in the shape of a cross?

10 --> Immediately, we note that the biblical teaching in Rev 13:8 is that Christ is the Lamb  "slain from the foundation of the world." That is, God anticipated and had the solution to sin before creation. (And BTW, that too triggers another loaded tangential debate, including on the problem of evil. [Cf. here for a response.])

11 --> Similarly, the side-issue on the shape of the actual cross can first be responded to by noting that in John 20:25,  Thomas, in objecting to the testimony of the other disciples, speaks of how he would not believe unless "I see in his hands the mark of the nails . . . " So, on the eyewitness lifetime records, the cross had to be one of the shapes: Y, X, T or t, and not the l that some (e.g. the Watchtower Society) have suggested.

12 --> Similarly, the gospels speak of how Jesus bore his cross, i.e. the cross-beam to be slotted across the upright. This means the cross was a T or a t.

13 --> Finally, Pilate had a sign affixed to the cross, and Luke 23:38 informs us that it was "an inscription over him," with Matt 27:37 saying similarly that it was "over his head."

14 --> This leaves the traditional t-shaped crux immissa as the most reasonable shape. A conclusion supported by recent discoveries of an early Christian tomb at the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, including a cross shaped headstone and this cross on the ossuary of Shapphira (a rare name only known from Acts 5):

15 --> It may seem overkill to spend several points on this, but one of the ways this type of "gotcha" rhetorical talking point works is by suggesting that those who accept the traditional imagery of the cross do not know what they are talking about, so (in the minds of such objectors) the commonly used image of the cross is cynically and triumphalistically taken as a "proof" of the ignorance and docile sheepish folly of Bible-believing, church-going Christians.

16 --> So, it is unfortunately necessary to point out and correct this sort of well-poisoning rhetorical tactic, if we want people to actually be able to listen to the gospel message.

17 --> Next, from the days of the rods of Moses and Aaron that turned into snakes, and of the bronze serpent on the pole that brought "life for a look," which last Jesus echoed in John 3:14- 15 when he said that "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life," God has in fact used signs and wonders -- not as proofs but to draw our attention to his word.

18 --> One of the most striking cases is in Daniel 5:

Dan 5:1 King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. 

 2 Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father1  had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3 Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4 They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 

 5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together . . . . 


13 Then Daniel was brought in before the king . . . .


18 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. 19 And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled.


20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. 21 He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.


22 And you his son,6  Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven.


And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.


24 “Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed.


25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. [That is, a riddle: two pounds, one shilling and sixpence, presumably as a weight of silver.]


26 This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered7  the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 TEKEL, you have been weighed8  in the balances and found wanting; 28 PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”9 [ESV]

19 --> Just so, it is fair comment to say that in our day of arrogant defiance of God, there are little signs that keep on cropping up in the heavens above, and on earth below that serve to gently remind us of the God, Lord, Saviour and Judge whom we are so often ever so busily defying, deriding and dismissing.

20 --> So, let us give the last word to the Apostle Peter at Pentecost, when the Spirit descended in wind and fire as in the days of Elijah:

Ac 2:14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.2  16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:


      17 ​​​​​​​​“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
        that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
        and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
        and your young men shall see visions,
        and your old men shall dream dreams;
      18 ​​​​​​​​even on my male servants3  and female servants
        in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
     
19 ​​​​​​​​And I will show wonders in the heavens above
        and signs on the earth below,
        blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
      20 ​​​​​​​​the sun shall be turned to darkness
        and the moon to blood,
        before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.


      21 ​​​​​​​​And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ [ESV]

So, the challenge goes out to us, just as it went from the Apostle's lips on that pivotal day:

"Save yourselves from this crooked generation." [Ac 2:40b.]

Will we observe and understand the signs of our times, then heed the call to repentance? END