(no subject)
Urgh. I feel sick. :(
I've had a sort of illness thing coming on since Saturday night and it keeps coming and going but right now it's just evil bad. I just feel really dizzy and tired and have a painful stomachache. ;_;
But, anyway...
My boss gave me a book and asked me to review it before I go back to the shop on Saturday. I think its some new title that she wants to put on offer in the shop but is unsure about its content. Its called 'Prophecies in Parallel' and is one of those 'end times' deals that seem to be popular these days, you know, the kind that try and scare people into becoming Christians. Most contemptible.
So, I've read most of it now and I find it difficult to write a 'review' as such. I am always tempted to go on a rant about where the author has 'gone wrong' in my opinion and where he has misunderstood verses. I suppose some of the leaps of logic he makes I can mention, because they make no sense. Here is an example:
The writer is trying to convince the reader that a prophecy found in Daniel 9: 25-7 referees to the end of days.
"24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish [d] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
Well, first of all, when these verses are read in their context this seems very unlikely, and second, he makes this leap:
"There is a gap before the final 'seven'"
I don't know where he got that idea. From a simple reading, it would appear to me to be merely a description of the then coming rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple and its later destruction by the Roman Empire. The word 'abomination' is often used to describe the Romans sacrificing a pig in the Temple and then they made the whole place 'decollate'.
Besides which, in the context of the whole chapter, why would the Angel begin to talk to him of things that would not take place for thousands of years? The destruction of the Temple took place a mere five or six generations later, which is in line with a lot of prophecy. Daniel was praying about the Temple and naturally, God gives him an answer: 'yes, the temple will be rebuilt. But it'll be destroyed again soon after.' Nothing about end times as far as I can see.
Moreover, the mathematics of the 'sevens' seems to work out to, I think, how long it was between Jesus death and the destruction of Jerusalem.
The writer then takes some words of Jesus:
"40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left."
The writer claims that this is referring to the 'rapture', a belief that one day all Christians will vanish from the earth. I am ashamed to admit that I fell for this for many years before I began to look a little under the surface. Well, when one takes a look into the word 'taken' one finds that it is more than often used by Hebrews to refer to death. Some famous sayings of Jesus' day state 'Some will be taken to Sheol, others will be left.'
This makes far more sense. People had seen this all the time, people having a heart attack or something and died suddenly, and their companion is left standing. Also, it ties in much more nicely with the Jewish idea of 'repairing the world' I.E. The world is broken and God asked his people to help him fix it. The idea includes the doctrine that God has not abandoned the world and that when he made it he called it 'good' not 'perfect'. 'Good' suggests change and moving forward. The 'Great and Glorious day of the Lord' as it is called in the TaNaKh, is about God coming here and putting it all back together, not everyone going somewhere else and laughing as the earth blows up.
Another quote that he and others use is this one:
"16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
Again the writer assumes it is a reference to this 'rapture' deal. Upon closer inspection one sees that it is in fact a reference to Jewish New year which includes the blowing of many trumpets (shofers) and on the blowing of the last trumpet there is a loud shout from one of the priests (I think). The Shofer is used to signify, among other things, the voice of God calling creation into being. The blowing is also used to 'gather people together'. The phrase 'to meet in the air' is a mistranslation and should be read 'in the open air' for at the feast of the Shofers, the people are gathered in an open space. Many writers at the time of Paul's letter had noted that when this happened a 'cloud' of dust would cover the people as they rushed to meet. The 'thus we shall always be with the Lord' line is a reference to the state of mind the people would be in at the time of the Shofer's blowing. I.e. focused on God and full of joy for the coming festivities.
I think it was probably mysticism that invaded Christianity that lead to such odd beliefs about magical disappearances and such.
I could go on about the writer’s far too literal interpretation of Revelation, but that would probably be too long and I don't have the strength... -_-
I've had a sort of illness thing coming on since Saturday night and it keeps coming and going but right now it's just evil bad. I just feel really dizzy and tired and have a painful stomachache. ;_;
But, anyway...
My boss gave me a book and asked me to review it before I go back to the shop on Saturday. I think its some new title that she wants to put on offer in the shop but is unsure about its content. Its called 'Prophecies in Parallel' and is one of those 'end times' deals that seem to be popular these days, you know, the kind that try and scare people into becoming Christians. Most contemptible.
So, I've read most of it now and I find it difficult to write a 'review' as such. I am always tempted to go on a rant about where the author has 'gone wrong' in my opinion and where he has misunderstood verses. I suppose some of the leaps of logic he makes I can mention, because they make no sense. Here is an example:
The writer is trying to convince the reader that a prophecy found in Daniel 9: 25-7 referees to the end of days.
"24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish [d] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."
Well, first of all, when these verses are read in their context this seems very unlikely, and second, he makes this leap:
"There is a gap before the final 'seven'"
I don't know where he got that idea. From a simple reading, it would appear to me to be merely a description of the then coming rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple and its later destruction by the Roman Empire. The word 'abomination' is often used to describe the Romans sacrificing a pig in the Temple and then they made the whole place 'decollate'.
Besides which, in the context of the whole chapter, why would the Angel begin to talk to him of things that would not take place for thousands of years? The destruction of the Temple took place a mere five or six generations later, which is in line with a lot of prophecy. Daniel was praying about the Temple and naturally, God gives him an answer: 'yes, the temple will be rebuilt. But it'll be destroyed again soon after.' Nothing about end times as far as I can see.
Moreover, the mathematics of the 'sevens' seems to work out to, I think, how long it was between Jesus death and the destruction of Jerusalem.
The writer then takes some words of Jesus:
"40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left."
The writer claims that this is referring to the 'rapture', a belief that one day all Christians will vanish from the earth. I am ashamed to admit that I fell for this for many years before I began to look a little under the surface. Well, when one takes a look into the word 'taken' one finds that it is more than often used by Hebrews to refer to death. Some famous sayings of Jesus' day state 'Some will be taken to Sheol, others will be left.'
This makes far more sense. People had seen this all the time, people having a heart attack or something and died suddenly, and their companion is left standing. Also, it ties in much more nicely with the Jewish idea of 'repairing the world' I.E. The world is broken and God asked his people to help him fix it. The idea includes the doctrine that God has not abandoned the world and that when he made it he called it 'good' not 'perfect'. 'Good' suggests change and moving forward. The 'Great and Glorious day of the Lord' as it is called in the TaNaKh, is about God coming here and putting it all back together, not everyone going somewhere else and laughing as the earth blows up.
Another quote that he and others use is this one:
"16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
Again the writer assumes it is a reference to this 'rapture' deal. Upon closer inspection one sees that it is in fact a reference to Jewish New year which includes the blowing of many trumpets (shofers) and on the blowing of the last trumpet there is a loud shout from one of the priests (I think). The Shofer is used to signify, among other things, the voice of God calling creation into being. The blowing is also used to 'gather people together'. The phrase 'to meet in the air' is a mistranslation and should be read 'in the open air' for at the feast of the Shofers, the people are gathered in an open space. Many writers at the time of Paul's letter had noted that when this happened a 'cloud' of dust would cover the people as they rushed to meet. The 'thus we shall always be with the Lord' line is a reference to the state of mind the people would be in at the time of the Shofer's blowing. I.e. focused on God and full of joy for the coming festivities.
I think it was probably mysticism that invaded Christianity that lead to such odd beliefs about magical disappearances and such.
I could go on about the writer’s far too literal interpretation of Revelation, but that would probably be too long and I don't have the strength... -_-