The modern controversy that exists between the various hermeneutical methods of prophetic interpretation, those being preterist, historicist, and futurist, goes deeper than simply being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ regards understanding prophecy. What we teach has far greater impact than we can possibly know. The Holy Spirit I believe has just revealed to me something that the futurist hermeneutic demands, something that distorts and confuses the truth of the war that is currently raging between the powers of darkness and Christ. This war is a fact of life for all who believe and all who reject Christ as Savior. We believers are intimately engaged in this war, through prayer, through the sharing of the gospel; we are not only at the front lines, but are also the ultimate prize to be claimed by the eventual victor, who we know of course to be Jesus.
So what is this tenet of futurism that distorts the truth of this spiritual warfare? It is the core belief among futurists that the nation of Israel is central to future prophetic fulfillment. And how does this teaching distort truth? By giving Christians a false sense of security. If Satan’s attention is focused
upon the Middle East, then the church must be free to go about its business unmolested right? For today’s Christian who believes the futurist propaganda, there is no real urgent need to guard against deception, after all, according to most, the church won’t even be around when Israel is taken over by the Antichrist. The church doesn’t need to worry about the mark of the beast, the deceptions of the last days, the plagues, the impersonation of Christ by Satan etc, we can just cruise along and let those who are left behind worry about all those things. Of course, this line of reasoning may be somewhat exaggerated, but I am convinced the principles of that argument are common, and for that reason the church I believe is in great danger of being totally deceived, if she hasn’t been already.
For 6000 years Satan, our adversary, and Jesus’ arch enemy, has waged relentless war against God’s people. When Jesus was here in person, Satan attacked Him viciously, constantly, unrelentingly, culminating at Calvary. When Jesus arose from the grave, much to Satan’s horror, he continued his attacks, but because Jesus was personally out of reach, Satan targeted his attacks against those who remained, Christ’s ambassadors or representatives, the church. The nation of Israel, for so long Satan’s prime focus because it was the nation, or more specifically the tribe of Judah and even more specifically the family of David, that was to be the vehicle for the birth of the Messiah. Throughout the OT we see Satan’s attempts to wipe out the root, that the fruit could not result. Particularly we see this in his targeting of the family of David, and his constant temptations to false worship, knowing that God’s wrath and discipline would result in their destruction. The story of Solomon’s idolatry, the dividing of the nation, and the ensuing war between Rehoboam and Jereboam, are a glowing example. Yet God in His mercy preserved a remnant. There has always been a remnant that has been the recipients and keepers of the truth. Israel though, after rejecting Christ, were themselves rejected as God’s “chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15.) Paul, among others, were now the chosen vessel. God’s people were no longer recognized as a nation, but as a church.
So take a look at history. Was Satan aware of this change in paradigm? Absolutely! He knew very well who his most dangerous foe now was. It was those who now knew the truth of God’s love as revealed in the gospels. His attacks were directed against first, God’s people, and second, against God’s word. The former religious elite of the nation of Israel were Satan’s first
agents in his attacks against the church. Then pagan Rome became his chief weapon, and after the failure of violence to quell the growth of the church, raised up a false Christian edifice, began to attack the scriptures and the peoples’ access to them, and introduced a raft of false doctrines, traditions, creeds, and superstitions that had a huge effect upon the church, and literally tens of thousands were seduced and beguiled by the sophistries of the Roman clergy that inherited the thrones of the Caesars.
The little horn that had grown from the head of the 4th beast (pagan Rome) of Daniel 7 was growing politically powerful and by the 4th and 5th centuries was demanding all churches and the nations remaining of the other ten horns everywhere to submit to papal authority.* Satan was at last finding far greater success with deception than he had with blatant persecution.
However, there were pockets of resistance. The Celtic church in Britain and Ireland; the churches of Africa, India, and Asia; and the Waldenses of the Piedmont on the papal doorstep retained the truth in Christ and taught the gospel as it was handed down to them from the apostles. They had the scriptures in an unadulterated form, not based on the Gnostic ramblings of Alexandria, and subsequently to the Latin Vulgate of Jerome, but upon the Syraic translations of Lucian of Antioch. These truth bearers were having a powerful impact on paganism wherever they went. In Europe however, where the papacy had far greater influence and where she had the ears of the kings and queens that had surrendered their authority and sovereignty to Rome, these agents of truth found bitter and violent opposition. Satan was not about to relinquish his hold on the minds and the hearts of his deceived subjects so readily. Violence was once again brought to bear, and terrible was the resulting horrors. The inquisitions, the crusades, and
various other wars and conflicts that ensued over the next 1000 years or
so in Europe claimed it is said at least 50 million lives of those who would not bow their knee to Baal.
1000 years of war, both of a spiritual nature and physical, dominated history throughout the European theatre. Those who clung to the truth, who trusted in Christ and refused to surrender to Roman authority, paid for their fidelity with their lives. Their blood now lies in the earth, but bears powerful witness to those who remained to testify to Rome’s wickedness, and to Rome’s true identity as the Antichrist. Every reformer and leader of the reformation from Wickliffe on, were unanimous in their condemning the papacy as the little horn, the man of sin. They, with courage that testified to God’s power within, exposed Rome’s errors, revealing to the world how the inheritor to the throne of the Roman pontifex maximus, had replaced Christ as sole mediator, had introduced a system that usurped the true gospel, and had become Satan’s chief agent in his war against Christ and His people. And the target? Truth, and those who would dare proclaim it.
The reformation became a powerful force, in fact so powerful that the council of Trent was primarily established to find a way to counter the tidal wave of truth that was even then, in the 16th century, threatening to engulf Rome. Another force was established to counter Protestantism at that time, and that was the Jesuits. Their sole purpose then, and remains so to this day, is to destroy Protestantism, or seduce such to submit once again to papal authority. How well is Francis doing this today. Thus it was that while Rome could not deny the scriptural truths that supported Protestant identification of the Roman Antichrist, she realized she must devise some way to defuse these powerful arguments in such a way that sound logical, reasonable, and be acceptable to those who had little or no Biblical understanding. It was two Jesuits, sworn to overturn Protestant truth, that found a way. One established preterism, another futurism.
You see, the Protestant Reformers knew for certain that in the prophetic flow of time, from Daniel 2 and 7, the lion (Babylon), the bear (Persia), the leopard (Greece), and the dragon (Rome) had already ruled the world. They also knew that Rome had been divided into ten kingdoms (horns) when the barbarians carved up the empire. They knew all too well that the predicted Antichrist (little horn) was to arise among these ten kingdoms of Western Europe. They saw clearly and distinctly that they were living in the time period of the little horn. The historicist hermeneutical method made it quite simple. A correct understanding of Bible prophecy gave them the unmistakable mandate to unmask this system which had usurped the prerogatives of Christ and adulterated the truth of God!!
In a letter to Spalatin on February 24, 1520, Luther wrote:
“I am practically cornered, and can hardly doubt any more, that the Pope is really the Antichrist, whom the world expects according to a general belief, because everything so exactly corresponds to the way of his life, action, words, and commandments.”
To be continued....
So what is this tenet of futurism that distorts the truth of this spiritual warfare? It is the core belief among futurists that the nation of Israel is central to future prophetic fulfillment. And how does this teaching distort truth? By giving Christians a false sense of security. If Satan’s attention is focused
For 6000 years Satan, our adversary, and Jesus’ arch enemy, has waged relentless war against God’s people. When Jesus was here in person, Satan attacked Him viciously, constantly, unrelentingly, culminating at Calvary. When Jesus arose from the grave, much to Satan’s horror, he continued his attacks, but because Jesus was personally out of reach, Satan targeted his attacks against those who remained, Christ’s ambassadors or representatives, the church. The nation of Israel, for so long Satan’s prime focus because it was the nation, or more specifically the tribe of Judah and even more specifically the family of David, that was to be the vehicle for the birth of the Messiah. Throughout the OT we see Satan’s attempts to wipe out the root, that the fruit could not result. Particularly we see this in his targeting of the family of David, and his constant temptations to false worship, knowing that God’s wrath and discipline would result in their destruction. The story of Solomon’s idolatry, the dividing of the nation, and the ensuing war between Rehoboam and Jereboam, are a glowing example. Yet God in His mercy preserved a remnant. There has always been a remnant that has been the recipients and keepers of the truth. Israel though, after rejecting Christ, were themselves rejected as God’s “chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15.) Paul, among others, were now the chosen vessel. God’s people were no longer recognized as a nation, but as a church.
So take a look at history. Was Satan aware of this change in paradigm? Absolutely! He knew very well who his most dangerous foe now was. It was those who now knew the truth of God’s love as revealed in the gospels. His attacks were directed against first, God’s people, and second, against God’s word. The former religious elite of the nation of Israel were Satan’s first
The little horn that had grown from the head of the 4th beast (pagan Rome) of Daniel 7 was growing politically powerful and by the 4th and 5th centuries was demanding all churches and the nations remaining of the other ten horns everywhere to submit to papal authority.* Satan was at last finding far greater success with deception than he had with blatant persecution.
However, there were pockets of resistance. The Celtic church in Britain and Ireland; the churches of Africa, India, and Asia; and the Waldenses of the Piedmont on the papal doorstep retained the truth in Christ and taught the gospel as it was handed down to them from the apostles. They had the scriptures in an unadulterated form, not based on the Gnostic ramblings of Alexandria, and subsequently to the Latin Vulgate of Jerome, but upon the Syraic translations of Lucian of Antioch. These truth bearers were having a powerful impact on paganism wherever they went. In Europe however, where the papacy had far greater influence and where she had the ears of the kings and queens that had surrendered their authority and sovereignty to Rome, these agents of truth found bitter and violent opposition. Satan was not about to relinquish his hold on the minds and the hearts of his deceived subjects so readily. Violence was once again brought to bear, and terrible was the resulting horrors. The inquisitions, the crusades, and
1000 years of war, both of a spiritual nature and physical, dominated history throughout the European theatre. Those who clung to the truth, who trusted in Christ and refused to surrender to Roman authority, paid for their fidelity with their lives. Their blood now lies in the earth, but bears powerful witness to those who remained to testify to Rome’s wickedness, and to Rome’s true identity as the Antichrist. Every reformer and leader of the reformation from Wickliffe on, were unanimous in their condemning the papacy as the little horn, the man of sin. They, with courage that testified to God’s power within, exposed Rome’s errors, revealing to the world how the inheritor to the throne of the Roman pontifex maximus, had replaced Christ as sole mediator, had introduced a system that usurped the true gospel, and had become Satan’s chief agent in his war against Christ and His people. And the target? Truth, and those who would dare proclaim it.
The reformation became a powerful force, in fact so powerful that the council of Trent was primarily established to find a way to counter the tidal wave of truth that was even then, in the 16th century, threatening to engulf Rome. Another force was established to counter Protestantism at that time, and that was the Jesuits. Their sole purpose then, and remains so to this day, is to destroy Protestantism, or seduce such to submit once again to papal authority. How well is Francis doing this today. Thus it was that while Rome could not deny the scriptural truths that supported Protestant identification of the Roman Antichrist, she realized she must devise some way to defuse these powerful arguments in such a way that sound logical, reasonable, and be acceptable to those who had little or no Biblical understanding. It was two Jesuits, sworn to overturn Protestant truth, that found a way. One established preterism, another futurism.
You see, the Protestant Reformers knew for certain that in the prophetic flow of time, from Daniel 2 and 7, the lion (Babylon), the bear (Persia), the leopard (Greece), and the dragon (Rome) had already ruled the world. They also knew that Rome had been divided into ten kingdoms (horns) when the barbarians carved up the empire. They knew all too well that the predicted Antichrist (little horn) was to arise among these ten kingdoms of Western Europe. They saw clearly and distinctly that they were living in the time period of the little horn. The historicist hermeneutical method made it quite simple. A correct understanding of Bible prophecy gave them the unmistakable mandate to unmask this system which had usurped the prerogatives of Christ and adulterated the truth of God!!
In a letter to Spalatin on February 24, 1520, Luther wrote:
“I am practically cornered, and can hardly doubt any more, that the Pope is really the Antichrist, whom the world expects according to a general belief, because everything so exactly corresponds to the way of his life, action, words, and commandments.”
To be continued....
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