Doing some digging on the history of modern day Israel and found these comments. The occurrence of the “6 Million” figure years before Hitler came to power, mentioned above, is utterly fascinating. Then I saw your comment. Very interested. Do you have any specific sauce I could look at regarding your claim?
Internet winner for the day!
The main tenants of Classical Dispensationalism existed long before Scofield.
While classical dispensationalism as formulated by theologians like C.I. Scofield and John Nelson Darby had its distinctive features, some of its main elements can be traced to earlier theological traditions and interpretations of the Bible. Here are a few examples:
1.Distinction Between Israel and the Church:
• Early Church Fathers like Justin Martyr (2nd century) and Irenaeus (2nd century) acknowledged distinctions between God’s dealings with Israel and the Church in their writings. They recognized that God had specific plans for both groups.
2.Futurist Interpretation of Prophecy:
•The belief in future prophetic events can be traced to various interpretations of the Book of Revelation in early Christian writings. Some early Church theologians, like Hippolytus (3rd century), held views that anticipated future fulfillment of certain prophecies.
3.Premillennialism:
• The concept of a future literal thousand-year reign of Christ has been present in different forms throughout Christian history. Papias (1st century) is often cited as an early proponent of premillennialism, and it has appeared in the writings of various Church Fathers.
4.Rapture:
• While the term “rapture” was not used in the same way as in classical dispensationalism, early Christian writers such as Ephraem the Syrian (4th century) and Jerome (4th-5th century) discussed the idea of believers being caught up to meet Christ in connection with 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
While classical dispensationalism combined these elements into a systematic theological framework and popularized them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it’s important to recognize that many of these ideas had antecedents in Christian thought and theology prior to the Scofield Study Bible.
Dispensationalism itself has evolved over time, with variations and modifications to its original form.
Reminds me of the Octopus Machines in the Matrix.
Thought it was Racine, Wisconsin??
@TrustTheTruth
ChatGPT's knowledge base stops at Sept 2020
Allow me to give you a simplified analogy of how textual critics reconstruct the originals with a very high degree of accuracy (99.5%) using the 25,000 plus manuscripts and copies and fragments we possess.
Imagine you have a handwritten letter from a friend, but there are a few smudged or unclear words. To understand what your friend meant, you might ask other friends if they have copies of the same letter. If many friends have copies, and most of them have the same words, you can be more confident about what your friend originally wrote.
Now, think about the Bible as a very old and important letter. Over thousands of years, people have made copies of it by hand, just like your friends with the letter. Some of these ancient copies have small mistakes or missing words due to human error, just like the smudged words in your letter.
The more copies (manuscripts) of the Bible we have from different times and places, the better we can compare them. If most of the copies have the same words, we can be more confident about what the original text said. We can even see where mistakes crept in because they won't match the majority of the copies.
Having lots of manuscripts allows scholars to carefully study the text, cross-reference them, and piece together the most accurate version. It's like having many friends with copies of the letter; the more you have, the better you can reconstruct the original message.
So, in the case of the Bible, having a wealth of manuscripts from various times and places (which we have) helps ensure that the text we have today is very close to what was originally written, despite the centuries of copying and potential errors. This makes it one of the most well-preserved and accurately reconstructed ancient texts in history.
and, fortunately, guesses about what any event will usher in, including "peace in Jerusalem" are just guesses even when the guesser asserts that their guess is a fact.
Never said it was a fact. Just, putting 2 and 2 together, like you, with what the Bible says about end times events as they relate to Israel.
Fortunately, NT Bible reader believers know Christ said "blessed are the peace makers". They also know that the bible repeatedly reminds them of Gods message to them, " fear not"
The Bible also says we are to "rightly divide the Word." Context is important when throwing verses out onto the discussion table. And no one is "fearing" over here. I'm comfy as can be, knowing Who holds the future.
Not all experts are liars or conniving. And I've provided quotes from experts across multiple belief systems - not just Christian experts.
If you want to believe that the version of Bible people are reading at their homes accurately describes the ancient teachings - thats your prerogative.
You see, this issue is not merely a matter of "believe whatever you want to believe." I, just like you, want my beliefs to be based in facts and not falsehoods.
One can say they don't believe what the Bible has to say in it's content; that's' an entirely reasonable statement to make. But one cannot say - with any factual basis - that the Bible we currently posses has been changed beyond any semblance of what the original authors wrote.
We haven't even discussed the fact the we can reconstruct almost the entire New Testament with simply the quotations from the early Church Fathers.
According to some sources, there are more than 36,000 quotations of the New Testament in the writings of the early church fathers who wrote before the council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
These quotations cover almost all of the New Testament books, except for a few verses. Some researchers have claimed that only eleven verses of the New Testament are not quoted by the early church fathers
If the New Testament did not have the enormous amount of manuscript evidence in its corner, it would still be possible to reconstruct most of it using only the quotations of the early church fathers.
#TheBibleIsReliable
In discussions about this topic, most are simply unaware of the massive amount of manuscripts and fragments the Bible has in its possession compared to other popular ancient writing (which no one questions).
Allow me to compare the manuscript evidence for the New Testament with some well-known ancient writings like Aristotle's works, Plato's works, and Homer's "Iliad":
- New Testament Manuscript Evidence:
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The New Testament has a remarkable abundance of manuscript evidence, as previously mentioned. With over 24,000 manuscripts in various languages, it stands as one of the most well-attested ancient texts.
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Some of the earliest fragments of the New Testament date back to the 2nd century (and some even to within 20 yrs of the original events - which is almost unheard of in ancient textual analysis), providing valuable early witnesses to the text.
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This wealth of manuscript evidence allows for rigorous textual criticism and cross-referencing, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament.
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Aristotle's Writings:
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Aristotle's works, which cover a wide range of topics from philosophy to natural sciences, have survived through a variety of manuscripts.
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While the manuscript tradition for Aristotle is significant, it doesn't approach the quantity or diversity of the New Testament. There are hundreds of extant manuscripts, but the earliest ones date to the 9th century or later.
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Plato's Writings:
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Plato's philosophical dialogues, including "The Republic" and "The Symposium," are key texts in Western philosophy.
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The manuscript tradition for Plato is better than Aristotle's, with over 200 manuscripts, but it is still fewer in number compared to the New Testament. The earliest copies date to the late Middle Ages.
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Homer's "Iliad":
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Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" is a foundational work in Western literature.
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The manuscript tradition for "The Iliad" is notable, with over 1,900 known manuscripts. Some fragments date back to the 3rd century BC, although complete manuscripts are generally later.
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In comparison, the New Testament surpasses these ancient writings in terms of the sheer quantity and diversity of manuscript evidence. While Aristotle, Plato, and Homer's works have valuable manuscript traditions, they are generally later in dating and smaller in number compared to the New Testament, which has one of the most extensive and earliest manuscript traditions among ancient texts.
This extensive manuscript evidence is a significant factor in establishing the historical reliability and textual accuracy of the New Testament.
Bubble, I can appreciate a healthy dose of hyper skepticism when it comes to modern scholarship, but I think that skepticism needs to be tampered down a bit when it comes into contact with legitimate, cold, hard facts.
Skepticism in scientific research is a healthy and important aspect of the scientific method. In the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, scholars and researchers have subjected these texts to rigorous analysis, and their authenticity and age have been confirmed through various methods, including paleography, radiocarbon dating, and linguistic analysis.
In other words, we’ve got multiple schools of evidence converging on the DSS to support their validation, and the scrolls’ historical value is independent of contemporary geopolitical events.
“The textual evidence for the New Testament is better than any other work from antiquity. No other document from the ancient world has as small a time gap between the composition of the document and the earliest extant manuscripts.”
- F.F. Bruce, British biblical scholar.
“The Old Testament is the best-preserved ancient text in the world.”
- Kenneth Kitchen, British Egyptologist and historian.
“The biblical texts have been transmitted with remarkable accuracy and consistency over the centuries.”
- Emanuel Tov, Israeli textual scholar.
“The stability of the text of the Hebrew Bible is a remarkable testimony to the scribal tradition and the reverence with which the text was transmitted.”
- Philip R. Davies, British biblical scholar.
There is much to learn in the area of textual criticism as it pertains to the Biblical texts.
#NotJoking
It appears you still have bubbles that need bursting. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid-20th century utterly destroys the “BUt dur bIBle hAs cHaNged” camp of critics, and is a significant testament to the accuracy and preservation of the Bible.
The DSS, which predate the oldest known copies of the Old Testament by a THOUSAND YEARS (with virtually NO variation), have provided invaluable insights into the biblical text’s consistency and reliability over the centuries.
And the meticulous work of scholars in comparing these scrolls with later manuscripts demonstrates the commitment to preserving the integrity of the Bible.
We can be 100% confident that the Bible we read today is what the original authors wrote down.
…and, interestingly, peace in Jerusalem ushers in the Great Trubulation. 🤔
Covid is called "In Silico" for a reason:
The sequence exists only in a computer.
"Mossad West"
KEK
He just on 20/20. The episode aired Oct 28th. The timing is impeccable. May need to watch that interview to see if there are any hints..
You can buy Mass gainers at any Vitamin shoppe or GNC. They’re powders just like protein mix where you add water or milk. 👌
Here’s the one I use. The protein to carb ratio matters.
Tastes great, too.
Gun-free zones kill people
My take away on this is that mind control through cell phones is a thing
Reminds me of the movie Manchurian Candidate. They used phones to activate their subjects with trigger words. The subject would then go kill the target.
They put the truth in the Movies, and the fiction in the News.
“Humanitarian aide”
I love the code talk.
“vote matters”
Lol…