Author: dscheer (page 9 of 33)

John 10 Verse 30

Ruth D – Does John 10:30 mean that Jesus is equal to God or just a person with the same purpose as God?

Dave – The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that it does not mean equality but rather purpose. Since they deny the deity of Christ, they have to say this. However, the following two verses indicate otherwise because the Jews wanted to stone Jesus because He was making Himself out to be God.

Feedback:
Nels – Right on Dave!

The Witnesses in Revelation

Ruth D – Skip Heitzig believes that God hid the body of Moses because he is one of the two witnesses in Revelation and that is why on the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared. I will be listening to Skip as we go through Revelation because he goes verse by verse.

Dave – I don’t see a connection with hiding Moses’ physical dead body from living humans to the fact that he appeared at the Transfiguration. I think the only reason Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus is that Moses represents the Law and Elijah the Prophets, thus Jesus is their fulfillment. Maybe if I heard Skip’s full explanation, something would then click.

Mr Heitzig is most likely a dispensationalist and I am not. If so, our interpretation of Revelation will be quite different. Dispensationalists will see verses literally even when Scripture’s context is symbolic. For example, those two witnesses in Revelation may not be two human beings as Skip automatically assumes. Dispensationalism dominates Western Christian circles today. Not so in the early church. Dispensational thinking started during the Counter Reformation via the Roman Catholic Church in the late 1500s. Jesuit priest Fransisco Ribera did not like what Luther and other “protesters against Catholicism” were saying about the seat or position of the papacy being Anti-Christ (in place of Christ) so he invented the theory that there will be only ONE MAN in the far future that will be THE Anti-Christ. Later in 1800s with John Darby, a kind of arrogant man that was quick to harshly judge leaders who did not subscribe to his thoughts, further promoted this idea.

Unfortunately, most Christians in the West have only been taught dispensational thought without realizing it. I was one. But when I was exposed to historicism, I found more concepts that made sense. Only in the last few years have Chrisitan bookstores included historicist books on their shelves, but dispensationalist books remain dominant. I guess the latest guess about who THE Anti-Christ is sells more books.  I strongly urge folks to read the following books:   Great Prophecies of the Bible by Ralph Woodrow,  Seventy Weeks and The Present Reign of Jesus Christ by Robert Caringola,  and two books by Philip Mauro – The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation and The Seventy Weeks.

I think a good case can be made that the two witnesses are the Old and New Testaments and the Word of God was spreading fast once the Roman Catholic Church (papacy) lost its world power and the Reformation got under way. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, however, France officially pronounced God was dead and that they were an atheistic nation. This was their response to the horrible satanic oppression of the Catholic Church over many generations. As part of their celebration, they tied and Old Testament and a New Testament onto a donkey’s tail and mocked the Word of God publicly. But as the Reformation continued, the Word of God made a nice comeback. This parallels Revelation Chapter 11 closely.

My main problem is that leaders do not treat these issues fairly as they allow only one point of view to come forth to their sheep, and the sheep do not even know about other approaches to interpreting End-Time Prophecy. This is not proper or fair. It is a lot like evolution today. It is pounded at people constantly with no other point of view expressed. That’s called brainwashing. And, as much as evolution has permeated our minds over the years, so has dispensationalism, and people do not realize it. The truth is that Revelation is difficult to understand and should be taught as such without making broad, emphatic statements and make them part of church doctrine. Beliefs about how to interpret Revelation usually have nothing to do with orthodox Christianity or salvation. So they should not divide the Church, but they do! I think believers should be exposed to all valid methods of interpretation allowing them to decide for themselves what they believe. This is not happening in today’s church. A book that does this fairly is Rose Guide to End-Time Prophecy by Dr. Timothy Jones, a Baptist. You can order it easily via Amazon.com.

For a more complete view of the “two witnesses,” click on my “Bible Commentary” and then “Revelation.” finally, go to Chapter 11 in Revelation.

Two Marys

Katelyn P – So recently the Lord has been speaking to me in the Word about Mary Magdalene, which has been great. But now I have a question that I never thought about before: Mary Magdalene and Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, are they the same person? I started to try to find the answer and then the thought came to me that I should ask if you knew more on this topic already. So, what do you think?

Dave – Thanks for your question. For some reason the Roman Catholic Church thought these two Marys were the same person, but sometime in the 1990s they realized this was not true. Protestant churches knew this long ago.

Mary Magdalene most likely came from the town of Magdala. She had 7 demons cast out of her and was among the women who took care of Jesus and His disciples as they traveled about (using their own money for food). Many have thought she was a prostitute but there is no certain Biblical evidence for this. She certainly stuck by Jesus. She was at His crucifixion and went to the empty tomb looking for His body when told He had risen.

Martha’s sister, Mary, was Lazarus’ sister and was from the town of Bethany which is not too far from Jerusalem. This Mary was the woman who sat at Jesus’ feet captivated by His words while her sister Martha was scrambling to serve food/drink to Him (and complained to Jesus that she wasn’t helping her). Hope this helps.

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