The birth of Jesus,
prophecy fulfilled.
******* Continuing
our prophecy study-- Please GO back
several days and read the study from the beginning to gain full understanding
of where we are, if you haven't been following this study daily. Thank you :)
God bless you! *******
We're going to jump
back a bit to study something a bit more in detail in our prophecy study. We
don't always get clear cut meanings explained to us. Some things are crouched
deeply in mysteries so they aren't unveiled until the time they are needed.
We can't ignore the
birth of Jesus, as being a prophecy fulfilled. Nor can we ignore the fact that
those who were given that sacred trust
completely overlooked it when it happened, why? Because they'd tried to interpret the
prophecies to fit the meaning they desired. The rulership of Israel was looking
for a conquering Messiah. The priesthood was waiting for their great
expectation of a liberating man of God. The people had been convinced that a
hero, a king was going to come to free them and they had their prime example in
Moses. They wanted another Moses only
this time they were expecting a liberator that would free them once and for
all, and put all others, all the gentiles under subjection to them. Do you know
this is what Israel still expects today. They've refused to look at the
prophecies in the light of history and watch how miraculously, and meticulously
the key points have been met. They refuse to believe prophecy has been
fulfilled and where does that leave them? Lost.
We dare not do the
same.
What do I mean? We
believe in Jesus so there is no chance of us not believing in His birth, death,
and resurrection, right? Right. There's no chance we'll ever dismiss Jesus as
the Son of God, our Messiah, our King, our Lord, and Savior. However it is very
possible that we will do the same with this Little Horn power. People do NOT want to believe things are
other than they've been taught to imagine.
People have grown up
on the belief that the Antichrist is just a single person.
Do you know where
this belief comes from?
Read this first--
'Many Protestant
reformers, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, and
Cotton Mather, identified the Roman Papacy as the Antichrist.[31] The
Centuriators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg headed by
Matthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volume "Magdeburg Centuries" to
discredit the papacy and identify the pope as the Antichrist.'
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist>
'The view of
Futurism, a product of the Counter-Reformation, was advanced beginning in the
16th century in response to the identification of the Papacy as Antichrist.
Francisco Ribera, a Jesuit priest, developed this theory in In Sacrum Beati
Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarij, his 1585
treatise on the Apocalypse of John. St. Bellarmine codified this view, giving
in full the Catholic theory set forth by the Greek and Latin Fathers, of a personal Antichrist to come just
before the end of the world and to be accepted by the Jews and enthroned in the
temple at Jerusalem — thus endeavoring to dispose of the exposition which saw
Antichrist in the pope.'
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist>
*
We need to discuss
Futurism, we need to discuss this personal Antichrist because SO many are
caught up in this they've failed to realize this was something the PAPACY
instigated to counter Biblical proofs from -
Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, and Cotton
Mather.
We've already
studied to reveal the Papacy as the Little Horn power which would exist until
our Savior returns. We've studied at great lengths and it adds up as NO other
adds up.
History has proven
this even beyond what those men of the reformation identified the Papacy as
being the Antichrist. The Papacy labeled those who believed this as heretics
and they had to come up with something to counter this and that something
was…futurism
* (Please take the
time to really read the following information, even go as far to look things up
for yourself because the internet is at your fingertips and studying all this
is a necessity.)
'Futurism' is the
idea of a future figure anti-Christ such as a Damien Thorn of the Omen movies'
, developed by Jesuits as a distraction from 'Historicism' of the anti-Christ
as the historical Roman Catholic Church
'At the
Council of Trent, the Jesuits were commissioned by the Pope to develop a new
interpretation of Scripture that would counteract the Protestant application of
the Bible’s Antichrist prophecies to the Roman Catholic Church. Francisco
Ribera (1537-1591), a brilliant Jesuit priest and doctor of theology from
Spain, basically said, “Here am I, send me.” Like Martin Luther, Francisco
Ribera also read by candlelight the prophecies about the Antichrist, the little
horn, that man of sin, and the Beast. But because of his dedication and
allegiance to the Pope, he came to conclusions vastly different from those of
the Protestants. “Why, these prophecies don’t apply to the Catholic Church at
all!” Ribera said. Then to whom do they apply? Ribera proclaimed, “To only one
sinister man who will rise up at the end of time!” “Fantastic!” was the reply
from Rome, and this viewpoint was quickly adopted as the official Roman
Catholic position on the Antichrist.
*
“In 1590, Ribera published a commentary on the Revelation
as a counter-interpretation to the prevailing view among Protestants which
identified the Papacy with the Antichrist. Ribera applied all of Revelation but
the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the Church.
Antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and
would rebuild Jerusalem.”5 “Ribera denied the Protestant Scriptural Antichrist (2
Thessalonians 2) as seated in the church of God—asserted by Augustine, Jerome,
Luther and many reformers. He set on an infidel Antichrist, outside the church
of God.”6 “The result of his work [Ribera’s] was a twisting and
maligning of prophetic truth.”7
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, who helped popularize and
propagate the futuristic interpretation of biblical prophecy.
Following close behind Francisco Ribera was another
brilliant Jesuit scholar, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) of Rome.
Between 1581 and 1593, Cardinal Bellarmine published his “Polemic Lectures
Concerning the Disputed Points of the Christian Belief Against the Heretics of
This Time.” In these lectures, he agreed with Ribera. “The futurist teachings
of Ribera were further popularized by an Italian cardinal and the most renowned
of all Jesuit controversialists. His writings claimed that Paul, Daniel, and
John had nothing whatsoever to say about the Papal power. The futurists’ school won
general acceptance among Catholics. They were taught that Antichrist was a
single individual who would not rule until the very end of time.”8 Through the work of these two tricky Jesuit scholars, we
might say that a brand new baby was born into the world. Protestant historians
have given this baby a name—Jesuit Futurism. In fact, Francisco Ribera has been
called the Father of Futurism.
Futurism in America
One of
the most important figures in this whole drama is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield
(1843-1921), a Kansas lawyer who was greatly influenced by the writings of
Darby. In 1909, Scofield published the first edition of his famous Scofield
Reference Bible. In the early 1900s, this Bible became so popular in American
Protestant Bible schools that it was necessary to print literally millions of
copies. Yet, in the much-respected footnotes of this very Bible, Scofield
injected large doses of the fluid of
Futurism also found in the writings of Darby, Todd, Maitland,
Bellarmine, and Ribera. Through the Scofield Bible, the Jesuit child reached
young adulthood. The doctrine of an
Antichrist still to come was becoming firmly established inside 20th-century
American Protestantism.
Cyrus Scofield, the famed publisher of the Scofield
Reference Bible, liberally interspersed the footnotes of his Bible with large
doses of Futurism. These footnotes are still widely accepted by many
theologians today.
The
Moody Bible Institute and the Dallas Theological Seminary have strongly
supported the teachings of John Nelson Darby, and this has continued to fuel
Futurism’s growth. Then in the 1970s, Pastor Hal Lindsey, a graduate of Dallas
Theological Seminary, released his blockbuster book The Late Great Planet
Earth. This 177-page, easy-to-read volume brought Futurism to the masses of
American Christianity, and beyond. The New York Times labeled it “The number
one best-seller of the decade.” Over 30 million copies have been sold, and it
has been translated into over 30 languages. Through The Late Great Planet
Earth, Jesuit Futurism took a strong hold over the Protestant Christian world.
Left Behind
Now we
have Left Behind. In the 1990s, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins took the future
one-man Antichrist idea of Hal Lindsey, Scofield, Darby, Irving, Newman, Todd,
Maitland, Bellarmine, and Ribera, and turned it into “The most successful
Christian-fiction series ever” (Publishers Weekly). Hal Lindsey’s book, The
Late Great Planet Earth, was largely theological, which limited its appeal,
while Left Behind is a sequence of highly imaginative novels, “overflowing with
suspense, action, and adventure,” a “Christian thriller,” with a “label its
creators could never have predicted: blockbuster success” (Entertainment
Weekly). The much-respected television ministries of Jack Van Impe, Peter and
Paul Lalonde, and Pastor John Hagee, have all worked together to produce LEFT
BEHIND: The Movie. The entire project has even caught the attention of the New
York Times and the Wall Street Journal, resulting in an interview of LaHaye and
Jenkins on Larry King Live. The Left Behind books have been made available on
displays at WalMart, Fry’s Electronics, and inside countless other stores.
Pasted
from <http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2008/12/jesuitical-futurism-left-behind.html>
*******
Francisco Ribera
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francisco
Ribera (1537–1591) was a Jesuit doctor of theology, born in Spain. He began
writing a lengthy (500 page) commentary in 1585 on the book of Revelation
(Apocalypse) titled In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae
Apocalypsin Commentarij, and published it about the year 1590. He died in 1591
at the age of fifty-four, so he was not able to expand on his work or write any
other commentaries on Revelation. In order to remove the Catholic Church from
consideration as the antichrist, Ribera proposed that the first few chapters of
the Apocalypse applied to ancient pagan Rome, and the rest he limited to a yet
future period of 3½ literal years, immediately prior to the second coming.
During that time, the Roman Catholic Church would have fallen away from the
pope into apostasy. Then, he proposed, the antichrist, a single individual,
would:
Persecute
and blaspheme the saints of God.
Rebuild
the temple in Jerusalem.
Abolish
the Christian religion.
Deny
Jesus Christ.
Be
received by the Jews.
Pretend
to be God.
Kill
the two witnesses of God.
Conquer
the world.
So,
according to Ribera, the 1260 days and 42 months and 3½ times of prophecy were
not 1260 years as based on the year-day principle (Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel
4:6), but a literal 3½ years. Therefore, none of the book of Revelation had any
application to the Middle Ages or the papacy, but to the future; to a period
immediately prior to the second coming, hence the name Futurism. If this
interpretation is correct, the reading and exposition of Revelation is
unnecessary; a position that is in direct opposition to the reason it was
written (Rev. 1:1-3).
The Futuristic
system of interpretation was instigated by the Council of Trent (1545–1563) as
a response to the Protestant reformation. Jesuit priests, Francisco Ribera and
Robert Bellarmine, over several decades, developed the proposition that
everything in Revelation from chapters 4-22 was to come to pass sometime in the
future, thereby removing all incriminating interpretations against the Papacy.
The Historicist method of interpretation had been building for 1500 years with
input, argument, and discussion from hundreds of scholars, scientists, and
theologians (most of which were Catholic). However, the Counter-Reformation
solution proposed by Ribera and Bellarmine was in direct conflict with Peter's
clear statement, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is
of any private interpretation." 2 Peter 1:20, according to Froom (1948,
Vols. 2, 3)
The first Protestant
to accept and espouse Futurism was Samuel Roffey Maitland (1792–1866) curate of
Christ Church, Gloucester, who wrote a 72 page pamphlet in 1826 denouncing the
year-day principle. Even though many defended the traditional historical positions,
Futurism became more and more popular with Protestants, especially after the
printing of the Scofield Reference Bible about 1900.
Pasted
from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Ribera>
*
The opposite of
Futurism is Preterism- Not future but
past, all the prophecy has been fulfilled in the past- something that
absolutely IS NOT supported by prophecy!
'Preterism is a
Christian eschatological view that interprets prophecies of the Bible,
especially Daniel and Revelation, as events which have already happened in the
first century A.D. Preterism holds that Ancient Israel finds its continuation
or fulfillment in the Christian church at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD
70. The term preterism comes from the Latin praeter, which is listed in
Webster's 1913 dictionary as a prefix denoting that something is
"past" or "beyond," signifying that either all or a
majority of Bible prophecy was fulfilled by AD 70. Adherents of Preterism are
commonly known as Preterists.'
*
If you've read all
this then you've had a lot to take in, a lot!
But mostly history and not Bible studying. The two go hand in hand with
prophecy as we've stated and will continue to state.
The history proves
that this isn't some NEW fad thought up by someone but rather these beliefs
began a long, long time ago and as time continued on the puzzle pieces
continued to be put into the puzzle and the picture has grown clearer and
clearer.
Our Savior would
have us WATCHING and PRAYING!
We are watching!
Luk 12:37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord
when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird
himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Found watching. Don't you want to be found watching? I want to be found watching!
Please Lord find us
watching for you! Find us watching as the prophecies You have given us are
fulfilled. Find us watching as you instruct us to watch. Lord we need You, we need Your guidance. We
need Your enlightenment. We need the Holy Spirit to touch our hearts and minds,
opening our understanding. Please Lord as we continue to study Your prophecies
help us, bless us!
By Your amazing
love! By Your grace! Only through YOU!
Amen.
