God wi;; seal and call out a faithful remant of saved jews in end times, and since the Antichrist will cause offerings to cease, and proclaim himself as messiah in a building, how can that be the Church?
umm... no.
2 Thess 2:1-4 NASB Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
You will notice that this man of lawlessness (Not called Antichrist anywhere. I know it's a semantics issue but it's still annoying) "takes his seat in the temple of God." As I said before, Paul is emphatic that the church (and the individual believer) is the temple of God. The best reading, without assuming too much and reading it into the text, is that this man arises from within the church. Thus the traditional protestant interpretation that the man is actually the office of the Pope.
Well, of course I know it is a much debated topic. Just not in my mind. :laugh:
The ostrich technique? :laugh:
Given the need to take the Bible as a whole as the literal word of God, it seems unlikely he would spend 65 books giving us literal and specific instructions and then tack on one at the end that is too vague to understand. It must be taken as literally as the rest of the Bible, which means that John's vision is indeed of a literal Tribulation and Day of Judgment, filtered through the eyes of a First Century man seeing a vision at least 2,000 years or so into the future.
Taking the Bible as the "literal word of God" does not mean that everything must be taken literally. I guarantee that you do not take every single thing in scripture 100% literally.
How can you possibly rationalize that a book of a series of visions, including a woman riding a multiheaded beast and locust like creatures with human heads and scorpion tails, should be taken "literally"?
There is and always has been a remnant in Israel. I know you don't believe that God still has a purpose for Israel, but it is obvious from the Bible that He does, indeed, and though the remnant will ultimately be saved in the same fashion as us, He has a different plan for them, as He promised Abram.
If it were obvious from the Bible I would believe it.
Any Jews who are saved are brought into the number of the church. There is no extra or different plan for them.
I guess I misunderstood what you wrote here, then ...
I guess so. When I said church I meant the body of believers. I almost never say church referring to a building. Sorry for not being clear.
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