Sounds like the same old tune to me.
Nice that you come along to misrepresent those with whom you disagree. What's the point of that?
So much nicer if you tell us about yourself than to tell false things about others.
And truth be told, unless you are still offering animal sacrifices, you too believe in and follow dispensational changes.
Much love!
Gee Mark, the main points about dispensationalism with regard to the topic of this thread (the rapture) was not handled incorrectly by me, was it? I'm pretty sure that what I said regarding their beliefs of the rapture, were correctly told in my words.
Now, if you do not like the parts about my viewing dispensationalism as error, and being quite complicated (something they themselves admit to!), I can understand your not liking my statement(s), but I was not (am not) trying to speak to people who have already made up their mind. I'm using the same wisdom Christ used:
For those who have ears to hear.
I'm not, and I'm sure if you hold to dispensationalism, you too do not wish to engage in a quarrel. So we may have peace and just acknowledge our views are not in agreement about the bible... I just wanted to let people who are still uncertain and wishing to learn, know that I can show them that the church must endure through the entire Great Tribulation in very simple terms, using only scripture.
And while I'm at it, I hope you and everybody will learn a piece of wisdom from what I'm about to share -- Whenever you are going to discuss the bible and especially when discussing the prophecies and interpretations, one should ALWAYS start by having everybody read this verse, namely the part I highlighted in
red:
1 Cor 4:6
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.
Do not go beyond what is written. Always establish this verse from the onset, and keep everybody true to it so that you do not fall into the following type of error, that I call "domino theory", which goes something like this:
People like to rationalize and invent all types of notions, and “read between the lines” things that are not written, and get into all types of error. What I like to call “domino theory”. For example, the sky is blue and blue is the color of my eyes, and eyes are used for seeing, therefore the sky is a metaphor for “seeing”. Stupid crap like that. So with that point laid down, I will now begin....
= = = = =
To Mark:
My name is Todd, got born again in 1981 a week after graduating high school, got water baptized 6 months after that, and then after reading about the gifts of the Spirit and hearing others talk about tongues and gifts, I sought earnestly from God that I might receive such, and it was in February of 1982 that I knelt at the side of my bed and told God I was frustrated and did not know how a person actually receives a gift. And so kneeling, I said, "Lord, I don't know how this is supposed to happen, but I hope you are in it", and I began to utter syllables and did so for about 5 minutes.
Then, I felt like I had made a mockery of God's gift and began repenting about having prayed in tongues.
Well... a few months later one night at a Denny's restaurant, I met a bunch of Christians that had come into the restaurant and the subject of tongues came up and I told them the account I just wrote, and they said to me, "No Todd! You really did pray in tongues, but it was the devil who heaped up condemnation and deception on you to try and get you to stop."
They then proceeded to give a very excellent outline from the scriptures covering the promise and the examples from Acts, and more, and I began praying in tongues fervently from then on.
But about a year later, summer of 1983, I was lying in bed around 10:30 p.m. having a most miserable night, wondering about and doubting God's existence, and the gift of tongues, and the devil was really taking me through the ringer, when my mom came to my bedroom and told me my friend (who was also a Christian and prayed in tongues) had called on the phone. [I can sense I'm about to cry as I recall this story and convey it to you.]
I got up and went to the kitchen and got on the phone and we began talking. I did not tell him how I was feeling, but my friend had done a lot of drugs when we were in grade and high school (both got saved about the same time after we graduated, even though we had lost contact during high school years), and this friend of mine would go by way of Chicago to tell me things, and switch subjects midstream. It was very trying because I would find myself always saying to him, "Would you please make your point!" lol
So that night on the phone, he's talking about, like, "y'see Todd, there's this coffee cup, y'know.. and it's blah blah blah," and then right in the middle of his sentence he says, "And you gotta remember Todd, that the devil will come along and try to tell you that God does not exist, and that even the gift of tongues is not real, and...." and I took the phone away from my ear and looked at it in front of my face while he was still speaking, and I began repenting in earnest as I knew that God was speaking to me right that moment through my friend, and my friend did not even realize it.
But from then on, I never doubted God or the gift ever again. :)