Post by watchmanjim on Jul 26, 2017 15:06:24 GMT -6
I'm writing an article for Gary about the subject of my current avatar. In case I ever change my avatar, here's the picture I'm talking about:
I started writing the article and realized after a few paragraphs that I really wasn't writing the main article yet, but simply a lengthy "preface." I thought about deleting it, but decided it would be better to share the preface with you here. I will submit the article to Gary after I finish it, and then you'll be able to read it.
Preface.
For those of us who are fairly certain that the church age is drawing to a close, it is difficult to keep up with the many current events and the corresponding Bible passages that seem to tie them all together with prophecies God gave us from the First Century AD on back to ancient times.
A currently stated ad hoc statistic making the rounds states that fully ¼ of the Bible is comprised of prophesy, but as we know, “90 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.” There are 18 books of the Bible generally considered to be prophetic in nature, but when you dig deeper, you find future-predicting prophecy in just about every single book of the Bible. Additionally, some passages and verses that do not particularly seem to be prophetic, yield some prophetic meaning upon closer examination.
Until a couple years ago, I gave little thought or importance to the value of numbers in the Bible. In fact, I poo-pooed the idea of any heightened meaning to numerical values. A pastor would say “Six is the number of man” or “Seven is the number of perfection” and I would say to myself, “Yeah, right, says who?”
But the Lord has taught me through an examination of His Word that there is meaning in every detail of the Scriptures. Now I’m ashamed at how I emulated Thomas and doubted anything I could not clearly observe. I had always pictured the Bible as literally true, and to assign significance to mundane imagery was to read into Scripture something that was not there. The Lord showed me, though, through overwhelming evidence, that the Bible is both literally true, and also replete with symbolic imagery that teaches us far more than the cold, hard facts of the text. I finally even recognized that even the chapter numbers—and sometimes the verses! —can have a symbolic or cross-referencing value that I never before would have acknowledged.
Rather than write an article specifically about numerology or symbology, though, I wish to share with you a series of current events I have found linked with Bible prophecy. And what frustrates me a little, is that I can tell there’s even more to this story than I have been able to figure out yet—more meaning to these Bible passages than I have been able to discern. So I’m going to ask the readers to pray and help determine what more there is.
I started writing the article and realized after a few paragraphs that I really wasn't writing the main article yet, but simply a lengthy "preface." I thought about deleting it, but decided it would be better to share the preface with you here. I will submit the article to Gary after I finish it, and then you'll be able to read it.
Preface.
For those of us who are fairly certain that the church age is drawing to a close, it is difficult to keep up with the many current events and the corresponding Bible passages that seem to tie them all together with prophecies God gave us from the First Century AD on back to ancient times.
A currently stated ad hoc statistic making the rounds states that fully ¼ of the Bible is comprised of prophesy, but as we know, “90 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.” There are 18 books of the Bible generally considered to be prophetic in nature, but when you dig deeper, you find future-predicting prophecy in just about every single book of the Bible. Additionally, some passages and verses that do not particularly seem to be prophetic, yield some prophetic meaning upon closer examination.
Until a couple years ago, I gave little thought or importance to the value of numbers in the Bible. In fact, I poo-pooed the idea of any heightened meaning to numerical values. A pastor would say “Six is the number of man” or “Seven is the number of perfection” and I would say to myself, “Yeah, right, says who?”
But the Lord has taught me through an examination of His Word that there is meaning in every detail of the Scriptures. Now I’m ashamed at how I emulated Thomas and doubted anything I could not clearly observe. I had always pictured the Bible as literally true, and to assign significance to mundane imagery was to read into Scripture something that was not there. The Lord showed me, though, through overwhelming evidence, that the Bible is both literally true, and also replete with symbolic imagery that teaches us far more than the cold, hard facts of the text. I finally even recognized that even the chapter numbers—and sometimes the verses! —can have a symbolic or cross-referencing value that I never before would have acknowledged.
Rather than write an article specifically about numerology or symbology, though, I wish to share with you a series of current events I have found linked with Bible prophecy. And what frustrates me a little, is that I can tell there’s even more to this story than I have been able to figure out yet—more meaning to these Bible passages than I have been able to discern. So I’m going to ask the readers to pray and help determine what more there is.
