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"Allegorical" and "Spiritual" Hermeneutics

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by John of Japan, Dec 14, 2017.

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  1. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    I see all end times view as acceptable, except for full blown preterism!
     
  2. Martin Marprelate

    Martin Marprelate Well-Known Member
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    Wow! Is this a case of 'Great minds think alike' or 'small minds seldom differ'? I vote for the first one!
     
  3. Covenanter

    Covenanter Well-Known Member
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    THat proves the point that the first thousand years is indefinite, & the other definite thousands refer back to the indefinite thousand.
     
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  4. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Oh, come on, you're a better thinker than this. Of course it isn't, but it's quoting poetry. :rolleyes:
    Those would be different usages of the word, subject to different interpretations.

    But think about the Psalm and 2 Peter usages. Are you saying that 1000 years to God is not a literal 1000 years? And a day to God is not a literal day?
    Yeah, no offense, but to me that's kind of cheating to say that the singular is always hyperbole but the multiples are not. So the feeding of the 5000 is a literal 5000, but the 1000 years in Rev. is not? That doesn't track to me.
    I've made this very point before myself: apocalyptic literature is a different kind of prophecy, to be sure. It uses far more figures of speech than prophecy usually does. But that's exactly the point: even in apocalyptic literature, a figure of speech is a figure of speech and should be interpreted as such. But it should be a clear figure of speech, and the 1000 years is not.
    I'll be waiting for your apology as we both go up. :Cool
     
  5. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Um, no, that's not what it means at all. Remember the quote from my textbook: the first usage of "1000 years" emphasizes the characteristics of the years: they are 1000. The other usages point back to the first one.
     
  6. Martin Marprelate

    Martin Marprelate Well-Known Member
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    It's very kind of you to say so, but I'm not sure I am better than that. The Holy Spirit is obviously referencing Psalm 90, but the point remains: 1,ooo years is like a day to God; would 1,001 years be more?
    I think the teaching here is that God sits outside time and everything is a boundless present to Him.
    I think it does track. You might say to your son/grandson, "If I've told you once. I've told you a thousand times not to do that," which would (I hope!) be hyperbole, and in the same breath say to your wife, there were five thousand people in church/ at the ball game/at the shopping mall today, meaning a literal five thousand

    Time will tell. I'm quietly confident that any apology will be coming from the other direction :Wink
     
  7. Covenanter

    Covenanter Well-Known Member
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    It's not clear that Peter is quoting Psalm 90, though obviously the idea is related. And if he is quoting poetry it doesn't mean he is being poetic. When the Lord quoted Psalm 22 on the cross he wasn't singing a song. He was suffering the dreadful experience David could only hint at. The onlookers didn't join in the Psalm, they said: “Look, He is calling for Elijah!”

    Peter is very specifically dealing with the scoffers who will perish before this generation has passed. The day, the thousand years, will amount to 35-40 years. Then the Lord will come according to his warning in his Olivet prophecy. All the elements of the OC religion will be burnt up.

    And we've been in the last days since Pentecost.
     
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  8. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    So just to be clear, you don't think that 1000 earthly years to God is really 1000 years? If that be true, then the whole thought breaks down.
    That is exactly right. But 1000 years is still 1000 years in the verse. If you call it hyperbole (the only possible figure of speech here), then you actually decrease the number of years. How would it be to say, "Ten years with God is as one year"? That doesn't have the impact at all of a literal 1000 years being as a literal day to God.
    No, you are describing an English idiom with what you might say to your son/grandson. In order to make the Biblical reference analogous, you have to say the Biblical 1000 is an idiom, and there is no evidence for that. Once again, interpret allegorically/spritually if you wish, but learn more about figures of speech in order to interpret correctly and avoid falsely depicting the literal interpretation.
    We shall see, we shall see. :Coffee
     
  9. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Read what you just said. "The day, the thousand years, will amount to 35-40 years." That's just crazy. Say that to the average person on the street and he'll call for you to be locked up. (That's hyperbole.)

    Your problem with that is that various other authors will interpret the 1000 years quite differently from you with allegorical interpretation. For example, Amil A. T. Robertson says in his Word Pictures of the Greek NT about Rev. 20:2, "Here we confront the same problem found in the 1260 days. In this book of symbols how long is a thousand years? All sorts of theories are proposed, none of which fully satisfy one." But if you interpret literally it is quite plain: 1000 years is 1000 years!
    I agree, but it's irrelevant.
     
  10. agedman

    agedman Well-Known Member
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    Actually, by their referring back, they indeed support that verse 2 is a literal 1000 years. Not the opposite.
     
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  11. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Disagree.

    HankD
     
  12. prophecy70

    prophecy70 Active Member

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    I know what a figure of speech is.

    Clearly literal? So know one else knew Greek at all?

    I admitted to you formerly, that I and many others are of this opinion (temporal 1000 year reign), and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise." (Dialogue with Trypho, CHAPTER LXXX --Justin Martyr.
     
    #72 prophecy70, Dec 15, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2017
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  13. John of Japan

    John of Japan Well-Known Member
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    Huh? Don't know what you are trying to say, and I have to go soon, so I won't be back on until Monday. Have a good weekend.

    Concerning your Justin Martyr quote, I'm not at all convinced, looking at the context, that it was about the 1000 year reign of Christ. Some website is yanking your chain. Justin was a chiliast.
     
  14. prophecy70

    prophecy70 Active Member

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    I am saying if it was so clear why would anyone oppose it?
    He was, he defended his position after this but also said many thought otherwise in his dialog with Trypho.

    Have you read the dialog?
     
  15. Martin Marprelate

    Martin Marprelate Well-Known Member
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    My mother was an English and elocution teacher. I had anacolutha, litotes, onomatopoeia and whatnot pushed down my throat at an early age. :)
     
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  16. agedman

    agedman Well-Known Member
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    Would it not have been fair to have finished the quote?

    Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the arguments which have passed between us; in which I shall record myself as admitting the very same things which I admit to you. For I choose to follow not men or men's doctrines, but God and the doctrines[delivered] by Him. For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this[truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genist , Meristae,Gelilaeans, Hellenists, Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews(do not hear me impatiently when I tell you what I think), but are[only] called Jews and children of Abraham, worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far from Him. But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.”

    You only quoted what you thought would convince.

    In leaving out that which that which was not conformable, you presented you presented incomplete information.

    WHO were the ones Martyr said where not Christians?

    WHAT was it such taught?
     
  17. prophecy70

    prophecy70 Active Member

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    NO KIDDING.


    I stated he defended his position later.

    He is saying some reject the resurrection.
    Not about the 1000 year reign.

    Back to the original part, that actually is relevant to the topic.

    I admitted to you formerly, that I and many others are of this opinion , and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise.

     
    #77 prophecy70, Dec 15, 2017
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2017
  18. agedman

    agedman Well-Known Member
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    And, to whom did he account were such, and what did he consider their status as believers?

    Do you honestly see Justin Martyr sitting in fellowship with whom he calls heretics?
     
  19. agedman

    agedman Well-Known Member
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    “... But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.” (Attributed to Justin Martyr from:Saint Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho (Roberts-Donaldson)
     
  20. David Kent

    David Kent Well-Known Member
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    I would add pre tribulation rapturism.
     
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