First off, I want to make it clear I am not a "dispensationalist" like you are describing. Other than knowing his name I haven't clue who Darby is. I think you should open your mind up a bit and realize, as I stated before extremes are always dangerous but not all who agree that there a clear dispensations in the bible, some even called dispensations by the authors themselves (Paul), are "dispensationalists" associated with Darby or his teachings.
For instance, you are completely right about about Matthew 24 and how verse 34 is overlooked. What you don't realize is that all four gospels were dispensed to the Hebrews. Jesus even told them Himself that his gospel was for the Hebrews and not to spread it to the gentiles. I learned that from a dispensationalist. It in no way means the wisdom or the knowledge in Jesus' gospel is not for us to learn from as well it just wasn't directed to us gentiles. Assuming I'm speaking to one. The problem is not differentiating between prophecy and mystery. Jesus' gospel was born out of prophecy. His coming and suffering was long foretold. However, the mystery of Paul's gospel was mystery until Jesus revealed to Paul from heaven in the desert. The mystery of salvation by faith through grace. That bit of info was held close to God's chest until the time he determined was right to release it. If you read Paul's letters you will come across 8 mysteries in total. The rapture is one of them.
Matthew24 is not used to argue for a Pre-Trib rapture. It can't be because it is delivered to the Hebrews specifically. It is Jerusalem specific. Not to mention the fact that Paul speaks of the rapture as a mystery. Is Paul a liar? He would have to be to call it a mystery knowing that Jesus spoke of end times to the others. Paul is not speaking of the same events. This is just one instance of how you agree with dispensationalism. From the flow of our conversation you agree a lot more than you think. My sister was the same way until I held her hand through a few topics until the light came on. You have to ignore Darby and his supporters but recognize while they are wrong the tool they use is not evil or a detriment but quite the opposite.
So we agree on that. I want to encourage you to not throw the baby out with the bath water. Just like OJ gives a bad name to defense lawyers so does this Darby character to dispensationalism, an excellent tool used to rightly divide when wielded properly.
You lost me on your world gov opinions. Revelation is all prophecy. It will come to pass. It is nearly all Hebrew centric. Jacob's trouble, the great tribulation, and the 144,000. It is a time where the Hebrews along with all other non-believers up to that point. I say up to that point because Jacob's Trouble will be a public event for all the world to see. All will see the second advent of Christ. It has to be public because the only way Hebrews will wake up is through signs and wonders. It's funny because Jesus showed up with all the signs and wonders but because they were expecting a warrior to overthrow Rome they completely disregarded Him. He was all about faith, love and spirit. Hebrews were who were all about the law and the physical world could not comprehend.
This is another reason why the Pre-Trib rapture is a mystery as Paul says. It is a private event. Only Christians who believe will be raptured. Jesus will only appear in the clouds and gather the members of His body (The Church is the Body of Christ, another mystery). The world will not see this even other than a lot of the population disappearing or dying. Another mystery Paul speaks of is the transformation of our bodies. The dead will rise first and be renewed in their resurrections and the living believers will be transformed as well. Its not clear what condition our earthly bodies will be left in.
This is is all spoken of very clearly by Paul. No mixing words or their meanings. No spells in the spelling. 1600 KJV. Its all there. I wouldn't trust other translations for details. They will still guide you to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life but other translations will get fuzzy in detailed studies.
BTW, thanks for the Josephus reference. I am looking forward to checking that out. I always knew Matt24 had nothing to do with PreTrib but I hadn't heard how it correlates to the sacking of Jerusalem.
I'll leave you with a couple videos from the Pastors that opened my eyes to the usefulness of Dispensationalism and rightly dividing God's word. They are not "Hyper Dispensationalists". They are not "Darbyists". They use the tool of dispensationalism only to rightly divide God's word. Separating truth from truth to better understand the literal meaning of God's word.
First off, I want to make it clear I am not a "dispensationalist" like you are describing. Other than knowing his name I haven't clue who Darby is. I think you should open your mind up a bit and realize, as I stated before extremes are always dangerous but not all who agree that there a clear dispensations in the bible, some even called dispensations by the authors themselves (Paul), are "dispensationalists" associated with Darby or his teachings.
For instance, you are completely right about about Matthew 24 and how verse 34 is overlooked. What you don't realize is that all four gospels were dispensed to the Hebrews. Jesus even told them Himself that his gospel was for the Hebrews and not to spread it to the gentiles. I learned that from a dispensationalist. It in no way means the wisdom or the knowledge in Jesus' gospel is not for us to learn from as well it just wasn't directed to us gentiles. Assuming I'm speaking to one. The problem is not differentiating between prophecy and mystery. Jesus' gospel was born out of prophecy. His coming and suffering was long foretold. However, the mystery of Paul's gospel was mystery until Jesus revealed to Paul from heaven in the desert. The mystery of salvation by faith through grace. That bit of info was held close to God's chest until the time he determined was right to release it. If you read Paul's letters you will come across 8 mysteries in total. The rapture is one of them.
Matthew24 is not used to argue for a Pre-Trib rapture. It can't be because it is delivered to the Hebrews specifically. It is Jerusalem specific. Not to mention the fact that Paul speaks of the rapture as a mystery. Is Paul a liar? He would have to be to call it a mystery knowing that Jesus spoke of end times to the others. Paul is not speaking of the same events. This is just one instance of how you agree with dispensationalism. From the flow of our conversation you agree a lot more than you think. My sister was the same way until I held her hand through a few topics until the light came on. You have to ignore Darby and his supporters but recognize while they are wrong the tool they use is not evil or a detriment but quite the opposite.
So we agree on that. I want to encourage you to not throw the baby out with the bath water. Just like OJ gives a bad name to defense lawyers so does this Darby character to dispensationalism, an excellent tool used to rightly divide when wielded properly.
You lost me on your world gov opinions. Revelation is all prophecy. It will come to pass. It is nearly all Hebrew centric. Jacob's trouble, the great tribulation, and the 144,000. It is a time where the Hebrews along with all other non-believers up to that point. I say up to that point because Jacob's Trouble will be a public event for all the world to see. All will see the second advent of Christ. It has to be public because the only way Hebrews will wake up is through signs and wonders. It's funny because Jesus showed up with all the signs and wonders but because they were expecting a warrior to overthrow Rome they completely disregarded Him. He was all about faith, love and spirit. Hebrews were who were all about the law and the physical world could not comprehend.
This is another reason why the Pre-Trib rapture is a mystery as Paul says. It is a private event. Only Christians who believe will be raptured. Jesus will only appear in the clouds and gather the members of His body (The Church is the Body of Christ, another mystery). The world will not see this even other than a lot of the population disappearing or dying. Another mystery Paul speaks of is the transformation of our bodies. The dead will rise first and be renewed in their resurrections and the living believers will be transformed as well. Its not clear what condition our earthly bodies will be left in.
This is is all spoken of very clearly by Paul. No mixing words or their meanings. No spells in the spelling. 1600 KJV. Its all there. I wouldn't trust other translations for details. They will still guide you to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life but other translations will get fuzzy in detailed studies.
BTW, thanks for the Josephus reference. I am looking forward to checking that out. I always knew Matt24 had nothing to do with PreTrib but I hadn't heard how it correlates to the sacking of Jerusalem.
I'll leave you with a couple videos from the Pastors that opened my eyes to the usefulness of Dispensationalism and rightly dividing God's word. They are not "Hyper Dispensationalists". They are not "Darbyists". They use the tool of dispensationalism only to rightly divide God's word. Separating truth from truth to better understand the literal meaning of God's word.
What is a Dispensation? https://youtu.be/zqLhxo6F-Gs?si=tW4ytiEe8qD-OvPZ
The Basics of Rightly Dividing https://youtu.be/nboxWhqQd-8?si=7ExZJ3kSwaIMbmnk
Top #1 PreTribulation Video https://youtu.be/GbeuBHQD_HA?si=iJe2oe4WDQK5X5xW
Rightly Dividing Prophecy and Mystery https://youtu.be/mFedBSAHHpg?si=zLy7Gv8Z8pBQZXZA
God Bless brother!