Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Obsession With Bible Prophecy: The Devil Loves It

The NT is riddled with this information; but just off the top of my head I offer the gospel of Matthew chpt 23:

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,[a] and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi[b] by others. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.[c] 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.[d] 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell[e] as yourselves.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah,[f] whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

-ESV

Not to be snide nor disrespectful but I am unsure where you have gotten your biblical interpretative methods from. The things you come up with are completely indecipherable to me much of the time.

Be that as it may, the quote above shows Christ saying what Antlers paraphrased/condensed above.

It's more simple than you might believe:
There's madness in his method.

Wow, what we have here is a failure to communicate, well or decipher anyway.

I read this and of course I agree but then I asked myself "who is he talking about?" Himself?

One of you concerned souls sent me a PM regarding what I earlier posted about the "blessing" promised in Revelation. I'll share my reply........

"I told you that the revelation of Jesus as God and the fact that He was alive IS the promised blessing.

Christ's earthly teachings are remarkable in their clarity in contrast to the rest of John's writing in Revelations. In fact, John's Gospel is so concise and clear that it hardly seems possible that the same mind wrote Revelation."

Now..... THAT'S just how I dispense with the whole "prophecy portion" of Revelation, so that it causes me no concern.

Therefore, I'm under no obligation to defend the idea.

Genuine question here... what is the reason why you are always citing some Dr or somebody when you talk about what you believe?

What is the tradition from which you've gotten your biblical education?

This is a spot-on observation which is addressed nicely in the first chapter of John's letter:

Rev 1:9 [i]I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” -ESV

John recorded the dreams that the Spirit of God gave him. Quite different from recording historical events...




I agree with you. I don't find there to be much to argue about. A buddy of mine once asked me when we were talking about this stuff whether I read all sections of the newspaper the same... sports and weather reporting, editorial, comics, classified ads, etc, to which I replied obviously "no".

He asked me if that was because I had no respect for the paper and again I replied obviously "no". Why, then, he asked, should I think I can read apocalyptic writings (Revelation) the same as historical writings (Gospel of John)? He seemed to be suggesting to me that we adjust our reading style and expectation for clarity based upon literary styles all the time why should we not for the Bible?

Bottom line take-away for me from that section of the book; Jesus has beaten sin & death and is in heaven w/ the Father from whence he shall return to set things aright.

Halleluiah what a Savior..

Sounds like you and I see a lot of things similarly.[ Do you see the 270WBY as being the perfect all-around cartridge? ]

You know, we are all overjoyed that the late Justice Scalia looked for the principles behind the 2A and interpreted it in the context of the times and culture of it's adoption. If he hadn't, we would be stuck with muskets for self defense.

But a few members don't apply the same interpretive methodology when reading the bible which, after all, WAS written by men. The level of inspiration of the writers and - more importantly - the "selectors" in the 4th century was not consistent. To believe otherwise displays an ignorance of human nature.

BTW... we have very little knowledge of the mind of God, but we have a wealth of first hand information regarding human nature. That's probably why it is said that to know God we must first know ourselves.

It sure looks to me like some posters have not been properly introduced to themselves.

The writers of the Bible were just that: writers. Inspiration was no more required of them than perspiration. God and the Holy Spirit chose what went into that Book by verse, chapter, and book. The Bible is truly the most unique and perfect Book in existence. It can, and has given rise to incredible revelation and despicable cults. All by design. It is ever living, sharper and more powerful than any weapon known, so be careful how you use it and more careful how you misuse it. I can point to translation issues in a few areas due to scribes discomfort and confusion with the Truth and how that might impact their longevity, but as a whole and for purpose, it is intact as the dead sea scrolls prove. Humanity had little to do with the Bible, other than maligning it, and failing to benefit from it's infallibility. Those who don't believe God could, can, and will, preserve His Word, don't know the One I do.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

That's simply superb!

antlers,



In other words you made it up and double down on the personal attacks. At least you are consistent.

Well.... since we are all having a final say it appears, I'll just make the observation that He must have figured the Roman Catholics needed more information since their bible is bigger.

I just learned via PM that since I don't believe the bible to be inerrant, my Christianity has been revoked.

Now you tell me that I know a different God than you know. My concept of God has served me exceedingly well for many years so I know you will understand when I don't modify it to fit another man's concept.

I've seen the cave of the apocalypse on Patmos where revelations was written. Underwhelming to say the least.

Delphi was more inspiring and probably served more value to society on the whole.

Why not?

Not to JGR, but just in general, to those "astrophysicists, geologists, chemists, physicists, and expert anthropologists" by training here, in whose opinion carbon-14 has not had any role in determining what is taken for the age of the earth in the past: IT WASN'T EVEN an issue in any of my posts until our resident expert Antlers made it one.

Of course, to that point, his profile shows so much evidence of formal training in this particular area (not that that's always necessary mind you)--but be that as it may, he was/is, I'm so sure, always resolute in proffering how all things began, when, how, and probably even gave God advice as to what to write and when to do it too...and to what he deemed inspired to mean. Heck, I'm sure he was always available for consultation on everything.

Please do some more research--even read some--on the subject at hand and more importantly, be ready to read, and digest others' opinions without immediately, reflexively spouting some ridiculous inanity. You know, just to learn a little. I know some things are nearly impossible..but try. Ok? Ok Don't.

I'm finished with this post, thread, this topic, and some of the posters here whose feet are in those cement overshoes. Life is too short to deal with the obstreperous.

God told me I didn't have to believe it.

Good enough?

Danny, aka Antlers, is welcome in my camp anytime. I doubt you and I would have a pleasant visit.

Alternative conclusion: he felt that information was so obvious it needed no proof.

If you go back a page, however, you'll see a lengthy citation of scripture which perfectly illustrates what he condensed as Christ's teaching on the Pharisees.

No, it's not, but that's fine. I was genuinely interested why you believe that. One day God will sort it all out though.

I most certainly don't agree with your opinion of what antlers posted. I cold have posted the above as well as you did, but antlers told us what the Pharisees thought.

Curdog,don't worry about it so much.
Folks have been plagued with a thing called FREE WILL.

Some just can't or won't believe it.
It is in the book.