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Featured Spiritual Interpretation....pt4

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Iconoclast, Apr 25, 2017.

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  1. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    In episode 3. We made only a little progress.
    We saw that God uses figures of speech,metaphors,hyperbolic statements, but we did not get to the interpretation itself. What do these figures and metaphors actually teach?
    When do these events take place?
    If you can back up your post with scripture.....post it....if you cannot, feel free to read but we do not care about random thoughts,tweets, and opinions unless given scriptural support.
     
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  2. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    An example could be useful; what does 'fire' symbolize in this context? (the metaphor is fairly consistent throughout scripture):

    7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
    8 Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance:
    9 and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
    10 And even now the axe lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
    11 I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire:
    12 whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. Mt 3
     
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  3. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    2_thessalonians/2-8
    When was the antichrist revealed in history, and when was he slain when Jesus had His second coming?
     
  4. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    This begs the question. You should be asking instead what a figure of speech is, and what is its function in a sentence. This is basic. You say we should back up our post with Scripture, but until you know what you are looking for you can't even consult Scripture.

    By the way, "figure of speech" is the general term. Metaphor and hyperbole are both figures of speech. Here is a definition of "figure of speech": an expression that uses words to mean something different from their ordinary meaning." (figure of speech Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary). No offense, but you still don't seem to understand whereof you write in your OP.

    So let me ask you. In normal human communication, what is the function of figures of speech?
     
  5. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    The most obvious meaning is the judgment of God.
    People,their works, and sins are judged.
    A word study.....a biblical theological study, checking OT./NT...is in order for starters...I will work on this checking for those times the word is used in reference to the many Day of the Lord's found in scripture.
    Lk16,1cor3,Zechariah 13:7-9
     
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  6. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Well professor John.....I am hungry as a horse right now...so I will get back to you in a while. After lunch, I will communicate with you again.
    How am I doing so far?
     
  7. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Good.....you have used a scripture that supports your point of view. This is a good thing.
    Did you notice that Paul says in verses 5,6.....Paul says that he had told them about this in the first century, and they knew about....and in verse 7 the mystery of iniquity was already at work?
     
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  8. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    Yes, and I tie that into John stating that even then there was the spirit of Antichrist loosed on the world, but that there will also be a final antichrist, Paul calls him the man of Sin, who Jesus slays at His second coming. When did that happen? Slays Him at His appearing?
     
  9. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Well, you're in the right ballpark for discussing the right thing--playing baseball instead of football, to use symbolic language. :)
     
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  10. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Where does it say...at His second COMING?
    This is not John...it is Paul....He said he already told them.
    WHY is it not Nero who already was in the Holy place? There is no earthly holy place now.
     
  11. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    John.....I am informed by Benjamin Keach that there are.types,metaphors,figures of speech, 4 kinds of Metonomy of the cause....efficient,material,formal,final...

    He tells me.....A Metonomy is a trope when a cause is put for the effect,or the effect for the cause,the Subject for the Adjunct,or the Adjunct for the subject.
    He also tells me an Irony is a trope whereby contrails or opposites are put one for another....
    This trope may more rightly called Antiphrasis,which uses words contrary to their proper meaning, or original or general sense.

    He also speaks about....of a synecdoche,a catachresis,hyperbole, paranoia, Aenigma,...etc.

    The problem is...no one out here in all the USA has ever asked me about any of these definitions.....I use this book as a reference tool, I have not forced all of it into my head...
    Now..... I do not make these terms my goal...but rather what do the scriptures teach?
     
  12. Martin Marprelate

    Martin Marprelate Well-Known Member
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    Yeah! I bought that book by Keach-- Preaching from the Types and Metaphors of the Bible-- thinking it would be really helpful. Way too complicated! :Frown
     
  13. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    There's a 'finality' to 'judgement' that really doesn't fit here, I think. I did a word search of "fire" NEAR "judgement" and come up with nothing.

    Yea, and GOD'S people too! (but not eternally)

    I did a couple other word searches::

    20 As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you.
    21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
    22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have poured out my wrath upon you. Ezek 22

    9 Thou wilt make them as a fiery furnace in the time of thine anger: Jehovah will swallow them up in his wrath, And the fire shall devour them. Ps 21

    5 How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
    6 Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name. Ps 79

    46 How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? How long shall thy wrath burn like fire? Ps 89

    4 Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Jer 4

    12 O house of David, thus saith Jehovah, Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Jer 21

    2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: He hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He hath brought them down to the ground; he hath profaned the kingdom and the princes thereof.
    3 He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: And he hath burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

    4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy, he hath stood with his right hand as an adversary, And hath slain all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he hath poured out his wrath like fire. Lam 2

    31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee; I will blow upon thee with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy. Ezek 21

    19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; Ezek 38

    6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him. Nahum 1

    21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities: And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
    22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And burneth unto the lowest Sheol, And devoureth the earth with its increase, And setteth on fire the foundations of the mountains. Dt 32

    1 And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of Jehovah: and when Jehovah heard it, his anger was kindled; and the fire of Jehovah burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp.
    2 And the people cried unto Moses; and Moses prayed unto Jehovah, and the fire abated.
    3 And the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of Jehovah burnt among them.
    10 And Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent: and the anger of Jehovah was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased.
    33 While the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great plague. Nu 11

    21 Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; And a fire was kindled against Jacob, And anger also went up against Israel; Ps 78

    27 Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire;

    30 And Jehovah will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones. Isa 30

    14 And I will make them to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you. Jer 15

    14 And I will make them to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you. Jer 17

    12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is brought upon me, Wherewith Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
    13 From on high hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them; He hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. Lam 1

    11 Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger; And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof. Lam 4

    10 he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: Rev 14
     
    #13 kyredneck, Apr 25, 2017
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2017
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  14. kyredneck

    kyredneck Well-Known Member
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    Consider this "Lord's Day":

    49 I came to cast fire upon the earth [THE LAND]; and what do I desire, if it is already kindled?
    50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
    51 Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth [THE LAND]? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:
    52 for there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
    53 They shall be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law. Lu 12

    Fulfillment:

    Excerpt from 'The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation' by Phillip Mauro:

    “SELF-INFLICTED SUFFERINGS

    In the light, therefore, of this comparison of scripture with scripture, we think it plain that the "great tribulation" of Matthew 24:14 was that unparalleled calamity, with its unspeakable sufferings, which befell the city and people in A.D. 70.

    In the history of "The Wars of the Jews" by Josephus we have a detailed account, written by an eye witness, of the almost unbelievable sufferings of the Jews during the siege of Jerusalem. To this account we will refer later on; but we wish to state at this point that the distresses of those who were hemmed in by the sudden appearance of the Roman armies were peculiar in this respect, namely, that what they endured was mainly self-inflicted. That is to say, they suffered far more from cruelties and tortures inflicted upon one another, than from the common enemy outside the walls. In this strange feature of the case it was surely "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time" (#Da 12:1).

    What went on within the distressed city calls to mind the words of Isaiah:

    "Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel (the food) of the fire. No man shall spare his brother. And he shall snatch on the right hand and shall be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand and not be satisfied; they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm. Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His wrath is poured out still" (#Isa 9:19-21).” Mauro, Chap 13, 70 Wks.

    This madness that set in on the people was foretold in other places:

    For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah; but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor`s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them. Zech 11:6

    And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from Jehovah shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. Zech 14:13

    I came to cast fire upon the earth [i.e. 'the land']; and what do I desire, if it is already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth [the land]? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: for there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. Lu 12:49-52

    But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not. Then he saith, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation. Mt 12:43-45

    Excerpts from Josephus, 'Wars of the Jews':

    “.....I Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].....”

    “WHEREAS the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations against nations; ..........” Preface; sec.1

    “.....Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am under, as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge some lamentations upon the miseries undergone by my own country. For that it was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they were the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple, Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, during the entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. But if any one makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak so passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail the misfortunes of our country, let him indulge my affections herein, though it be contrary to the rules for writing history; because it had so come to pass, that our city Jerusalem had arrived at a higher degree of felicity than any other city under the Roman government, and yet at last fell into the sorest of calamities again. Accordingly, it appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews (3) are not so considerable as they were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. This makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations. But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only.....” Preface, sec. 4
     
    #14 kyredneck, Apr 25, 2017
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2017
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  15. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Many great verses but if you use it in small sections you can get something out of it.
    to try to read through it it it fries your brain cells.
     
  16. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Good work kyred! Wrath against sin....God's Holiness seems at the center of it heb12:29
     
  17. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    I like to think of exploring the best thoughts of each view in an effort to leave no stone unturned. Your concern over what kind of language is used is a consideration. What is also a consideration is if we ignore what God might be saying by denying that symbolic language, types, figures of speech, metaphors
    hyperbole, can indeed be discovered by the consistent biblical usage.
    In the preface of David Chiltons Days of vengeance we read this;

    [QUOTE
    3. Revelation is a prophecy about imminent events – events that were about to break loose on the world of the first century.
    Revelation is not about nuclear warfare, space travel, or the end of the world. Again and again it specifically warns that “the time is near!” St.
    John wrote his book as a prophecy of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem in A.D.70, showing that Jesus Christ had brought the
    New Covenant and the New Creation. Revelation cannot be understood unless this fundamental fact is taken seriously.

    ][/QUOTE]
    This is not just another boring commentary on the
    Book of Revelation. Even if it were only that, it would
    be a major event, for the publication of any
    conservative, Bible-believing commentary on the Book
    of Revelation is a major event. W. Hendrikson’s
    amillennial commentary, More Than Conquerors, was
    published in 1940, and is less than half the size of this
    one, and not in the same league in terms of Biblical
    scholarship. John Walvoord’s The Revelation of Jesus
    Christ is now over two decades old, and it, too, is only
    half the size of Chilton’s. Despite all the fascination
    with Biblical prophecy in the twentieth century, fulllength
    commentaries on this most prophetic of Biblical
    books are rare.
    They always have been rare. Few commentators have
    dared to explain the book. John Calvin taught through
    all the books of the Bible, save one: Revelation. Martin
    Luther wrote something in the range of a hundred
    volumes of material – as much or more than Calvin –
    but he didn’t write a commentary on Revelation. Moses
    Stuart wrote a great one in the mid-nineteenth century,
    but it is forgotten today. The Book of Revelation has
    resisted almost all previous attempts to unlock its secret
    of secrets. Now David Chilton has discovered this
    secret, this long-lost key that unlocks the code.
    This long-ignored key is the Old Testament.
    The Old Testament Background
    “Very funny,” you may be saying to yourself. All right, I
    will admit it: it is funny – funny peculiar, not funny ha,
    ha. What Chilton does is to go back again and again to
    the Old Testament in order to make sense of the
    Apostle John’s frame of reference. This technique
    works. It is the only technique that does work!
     
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  18. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    The Days of Vengeance is especially concerned with the
    Revelation’s covenant structure and the historical focus
    of its judgment passages. If, as Chilton argues so
    brilliantly, these passages of imminent doom and gloom
    relate to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., then there is
    no legitimate way to build a case for a Great Tribulation
    ahead of us. It is long behind us. Thus, the Book of
    Revelation cannot legitimately be used to buttress the
    4. Ray R. Sutton, That You May Prosper: Dominion By Covenant (Tyler,
    Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987).
    5. Gary North, The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Ten Commandments
    (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1986).
    9
    PUBLISHER’S PREFACE
    case for eschatological pessimism. A lot of readers will
    reject his thesis at this point. The ones who are serious
    about the Bible will finish reading it before they reject
    his thesis.
    Pessimism
    The vast majority of Christians have believed that
    things will get progressively worse in almost every area
    of life until Jesus returns with His angels. Premillennialists
    believe that He will establish an earthly
    visible kingdom, with Christ in charge and bodily
    present. Amillennialists do not believe in any earthly
    visible kingdom prior to the final judgment. They
    believe that only the church and Christian schools and
    families will visibly represent the kingdom on earth,
    and the world will fall increasingly under the
    domination of Satan.7 Both eschatologies teach the
    earthly defeat of Christ’s church prior to His physical
    return in power.
    One problem with such an outlook is that when the
    predictable defeats in life come, Christians have a
    theological incentive to shrug their shoulders, and say
    to themselves, “That’s life. That’s the way God
    prophesied it would be. Things are getting worse.” They
    read the dreary headlines of the daily newspaper, and
    they think to themselves, “Jesus’ Second Coming is just
    around the corner.” The inner strength that people
    need to re-bound from life’s normal external defeats is
    sapped by a theology that preaches inevitable earthly
    defeat for the church of Jesus Christ. People think to
    themselves: “If even God’s holy church cannot
    triumph, then how can I expect to triumph?”
    Christians therefore become the psychological captives
    of newspaper-selling pessimistic headlines.
    They begin with a false assumption: the inevitable
    defeat in history of Christ’s church by Satan’s earthly
    forces, despite the fact that Satan was mortally
    wounded at Calvary. Satan is not “alive and well on
    Planet Earth.” He is alive, but he is not well. To argue
    otherwise is to argue for the historical impotence and
    cultural irrelevance of Christ’s work on Calvary.
    The Revival of Optimism
    While pessimistic eschatologies have been popular for a
    century, there has always been an alternative theology,
    a theology of dominion. It was the reigning faith of the
    Puritans in that first generation (1630-1660) when
    they began to subdue the wilderness of New England. It
    was also the shared faith in the era of the American
    Revolution. It began to fade under the onslaught of
    Darwinian evolutionary thought in the second half of
    the nineteenth century. It almost completely
    disappeared after World War I, but it is rapidly
    returning today. David Chilton’s books on eschatology
    are now the primary manifesto in this revival of
    theological optimism.
     
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  19. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Revelation, Ezekiel, and the Lectionary
    But there is at least one other factor that has greatly
    influenced the outline of the Revelation. It is
    constructed with strict adherence to one of the most
    famous Covenant Lawsuits of all time: the prophecy of
    Ezekiel. Revelation’s dependence upon the language
    and imagery of Ezekiel has long been recognized;43 one
    scholar has found in Revelation no less than 130
    separate references to Ezekiel.44 But St. John does more
    than merely make literary allusions to Ezekiel. He
    follows him, step by step – so much so that Philip
    Carrington could say, with only mild hyperbole: “The
    Revelation is a Christian rewriting of Ezekiel. Its
    fundamental structure is the same. Its interpretation
    depends upon Ezekiel. The first half of both books leads
    up to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem; in the
    second they describe a new and holy Jerusalem. There
    is one significant difference. Ezekiel’s lament over Tyre
    is transformed into a lament over Jerusalem, the reason
    being that St. John wishes to transfer to Jerusalem the
    note of irrevocable doom found in the lament over Tyre.
    Here lies the real difference in the messages of the two
    books. Jerusalem, like Tyre, is to go forever.”45 Consider
    the more obvious parallels:46
    1. The Throne-Vision (Rev. 4/Ezek. 1)
    2. The Book (Rev. 5/Ezek. 2-3)
    3. The Four Plagues (Rev. 6:1-8/Ezek. 5)
    4. The Slain under the Altar (Rev. 6:9-11/Ezek. 6)
    5. The Wrath of God (Rev. 6:12-17/Ezek. 7)
    6. The Seal on the Saint’s Foreheads (Rev. 7/Ezek. 9)
    7. The Coals from the Altar (Rev. 8/Ezek. 10)
    8. No More Delay (Rev. 10:1-7 /Ezek. 12)
    9. The Eating of the Book (Rev. 10:8 -11/Ezek. 2)
    10. The Measuring of the Temple
    (Rev. 11:1-2/Ezek. 40-43)
    11. Jerusalem and Sodom (Rev. 11:8/Ezek. 16)
    12. The Cup of Wrath (Rev. 14/Ezek. 23)
    13. The Vine of the Land (Rev. 14:18-20/Ezek. 15)
    14. The Great Harlot (Rev. 17-18 /Ezek. 16, 23)
    15. The Lament over the City (Rev. 18/Ezek. 27)
    16. The Scavengers’ Feast (Rev. 19/Ezek. 39)
    17. The First Resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6/Ezek. 37)
    18. The Battle with Gog and Magog
    (Rev. 20:7-9/Ezek. 38-39)
    19. The New Jerusalem (Rev. 21/Ezek. 40-48)
    20. The River of Life (Rev. 22/Ezek. 47)

    As M. D. Goulder points out, the closeness of the two
    books’ structure – the step-by-step “pegging” of
    Revelation with Ezekiel – implies something more than
    a merely literary relationship. “Level pegging is not
    usually a feature of literary borrowing: the Chronicler’s
    work, for example, is far from pegging level with
    Samuel-Kings, with his massive expansion of the
    Temple material, and his excision of the northern
    traditions. Level pegging is a feature rather of
    lectionary use, as when the Church sets (set) Genesis
    to be read alongside Romans, or Deuteronomy
    alongside Acts . . . Furthermore, it is plain that John
    expected his prophecies to be read aloud in worship, for
    he says, ‘Blessed is he who reads the words of the
    prophecy, and blessed are those who hear’ (1:3) – RSV
    correctly glosses ‘reads aloud.’ Indeed, the very fact that
    he repeatedly calls his book ‘the prophecy’ aligns it
    with the OT prophecies, which were familiar from their
    public reading in worship.”47 In other words, the Book
    of Revelation was intended from the beginning as a
    series of readings in worship throughout the Church
    Year, to be read in tandem with the prophecy of Ezekiel
    41. The figurative image of harlotry is consistently used for apostasy from the
    covenant. There are, in fact, only two cases in all of Scripture in which the
    term is applied to other nations. In both cases (Tyre, Isa. 23:15-17; and
    Nineveh, Nah. 3:4), they were nations that had been in covenant with God
    through Israel.
     
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  20. Martin Marprelate

    Martin Marprelate Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

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    Do you not think that this is going on today? Especially (but by no means exclusively) in Moslem lands, people coming to faith in Christ are ostracised by their own families. Or in North Korea or elsewhere, that children are betraying the parents to death (cf. Luke 21:16). And did not these things go on in the times of Domitian and Diocletian? And in the times of the Inquisition? There is nothing in these texts which is exclusive to the period around AD 70.
     
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