We are all weak men, pressing against the winds of this age for a fuller measure of God.

Grace to you,
BP

I am in fellowship with a group in Independence whose leader insists that the only intellectually-logical and sensible understanding of scripture entirely must conclude and uphold the views of fundamental preterism, with all the angles worked out in such detail over a period of years that without an equally lengthy study, no one can refute his ideas and/or theology. because every possible explanation has been carefully pursued and thought out in scholarly fashion.

All I can do is listen and hear his opinions that appeal to anyone’s ability to judge what is sensible or not for themselves… (which feels a little like maybe how the Greeks who prided themselves on their “reasoning abilities” would have thought back in the days of the Apostles) and it always leaves me feeling like I’m among a “club” of intellectuals who find safety and encouragement in their “agreeing together”, more than among a group of saints who rely on the influence of the Holy Spirit to guide and influence their gathering.

There aren’t any “signs following them that believe” in those meetings because there is no need of such spiritually enlightened things since “Satan” was already been thrown into the lake of fire back around 70AD,
according to the preterist view. This effectively puts up a “comfortable’ and exclusive barrier to believing in the power of the Holy Spirit, thus rendering the power of prayer to a meager mentioning of concerns and requests publicly together in a reverent bowing of heads in agreement.

This looks to me like the “power of the human intellect” has raised itself higher than the power of the Almighty God in their hearts. Gifts of the Spirit are non-existant in those meetings simply because there is a feeling as though there isn’t any good reason for them to be expressed now.

This is very frustrating and discouraging to me, being a musician who relies largely on the prophetic influence of the Holy Spirit to write or pick songs that best portray the heart of God and the feelings of Yeshua for His Bride… which, I might add, I do use and rely on in my ministry among them… but it’s almost like throwing pearls before swine because they aren’t able to receive the Spiritual blessing(s) possible and offered to them.

What a contrast between that group and Tent Of David.

Samuel,

Very crucial thoughts which few have considered.

May the knowledge of God Himself be restored to the Church.

Nice to see you the other day.

Blessings,
BP

A little while back I was reading a work on the origins of dispensationalism. Now, I know that is a bit of a broad brush, but if you go back to the origins and the core theology of original dispensationalism it is quite troubling. That being said, various degrees of dispensationalism seem to be accepted and taught as standard theology these days. I was thinking over the implications of this kind of theology and at the time read a little thing on the false dicotomy between the New Testament and Old Testament prophet by Katz.

Could it be that the framework of dispensationalism that we have adopted, whether it be a mild one or a more extreme one, is hindering us more than we know in understanding the realities you are describing? One of the lingering effects of dispensationalism is that we tend to divide God and His ways up. We end up with the “Old Testament” God. Then we have the “New Testament” God and then we have the God that will show Himself after the second coming, etc. I believe this has brought much confusion both to believers and to the lost. For example I was sharing with a lost individual the other day and he told me how he was comfortable with Jesus, but that Jesus was totally different from the God of the Old Testament. While I attempted to strike down that deception, the reality is that most Christians think that way even if they would not necessarily say it.

Likewise, this distinction is not really conscious, but more of an undercurrent that we have adopted from the religious system we have come up in. I am looking in my own heart to tear out such things so that rather than seeing various dispensations in Scripture, I might rather see the increasing revelation of God. I think transitioning from a dispensational view of God to a view that He is increasing His work and revelation to man throughout the periods in Scripture can have a massive impact on the way that we view God.

If we need any other evidence that our dispensational thinking is quite destructive, consider that the original dispensationalism separated the issue of Israel from the church either rendered Israel void via replacement theology or putting the church and Israel on two completely different tracks of destiny and salvation. Sadly, though most absorb the dispensationalism they are taught while still affirming Israel, all the while not knowing that the system of theology which has influenced them discards the ultimate issue of the church and Israel.

With that in mind, I believe the dispensational bent that we have tends to cause us to divide, not only God, but also the other elements of Scripture. Thus, we subconsciously do not correlate the New Testament prophet with the Old Testament one. Because we are unable to see the Scriptures as one, undivided book, we likewise are unable to see the prophet as an undivided individual. To avoid misunderstanding, in referring to the lack of a division in Scripture I am not minimizing Christ, because God clearly split history with Him and He brought us a more complete revelation of God and accomplished our salvation. I am just saying we should see God and His revelation as one complete revelation rather than two (or more) time periods of revelation that are necessarily at odds with each other.

Perhaps restoring our understanding of the prophet will require a more fundamental change in our understanding of the nature of God Himself. Maybe we are missing the prophet because we have missed the fundamental revelation of God Himself in Scripture, for when we miss the revelation of God we will necessarily miss the revelation of other, lesser things.

Of course, I feel like I’m rambling and I haven’t concluded my thoughts on this subject, so my thoughts here on the topic are not exhaustive or complete yet.

…that needs to be a chapter in a book. Devastating and uplifting at the same time.

Good, heavy stuff their Maynard!
mark jr.