Infoabsorption

Seems like intentional downsizing is occurring. Cutting the membership will lighten the workload and reduce some overhead. Free of taxation they have a nice chunk of change to party on.

I've completely abandoned the "Word Faith" theology. Took me a while but I finally got it out of my head several years ago. If Job was ultimately at fault for his problems then I guess we are supposed to believe that Peter & Paul were themselves at fault when they were executed by Nero during the mid-60s AD as well as all the Christian martyrs throughout history. It's along the lines of blaming the victim and a reason not to help people who are going through a tough time. "I'm not going to help you. You just need to believe dammit!"

Reminds me of a Yes song.

Thanks for the clarification DWBH. I knew it was the 80's but I forgot the exact year. Do you recall BG chiding TWI for doctrinal errors in 1982?

I vaguely remember hearing about B.G.L.'s visit to an R.O.A. years ago. Heard that BG was not treated very kindly there. Your comment about BG rebuking TWI about wrong teaching at the 1985 ROA is interesting. The erroneous teaching may have been just one of the reasons BG showed up there. Did BG intend to confront TWI for the doctrinal errors and also plagiarism? That page attached to BG's book has VPW written all over it. The Way was damned for a lot more than wrong teaching about gifts of the Spirit. Anybody who has more info on this please reply.

HAHA! Hey Grace! Too much Drambuie aye? LOL!

Dispensationalism is all f*d up and was/is one of the main problems with TWI. Paul's writings were distorted by dispensationalists such as J.N. Darby and E.W. Bullinger. There is no exegetical justification within Paul's writings to conclude that the dispensation of grace will end at the gathering together(rapture) which then triggers a re-establishment of the 'Law Administration" for 7 years. It's not there! Ephesians 3 describes exactly what changed in the dispensation of grace: that the Gentiles are included and joint heirs with Christ. All this other stuff is false doctrine. I agree with Twinky that this thread is turning into doctrinal so I'm done with it.

I don't know when you were involved, but when I was involved they frequently taught that we are currently "in the grace administration" which they taught will end with the "gathering together". They most certainly did align themselves with dispensationalism back in the day. TWI from 1990 onward I don't know much about. Maybe they don't teach much about dispensationalism these days. I have no clue. Maybe shiftthis or some recent escapees could shed some light on this.

shiftthis, TWI does NOT teach the rightly divided word of God. Among their most egregious errors is their ultra-dispensational teachings based upon E.W. Bullinger's writings.

The video below from a local Dayton news program confirms that Marcia King was involved with TWI back in 1981. The segment concerning Marcia begins at 5:26.

They didn't give a sh!!t about us. Used us for our labor & dollars and laughed all the way to the bank. We were suckers. Fed us full of b.s to keep us motivated to promote their organization...deceived us into believing it was our organization.

The more I study the Old Testament the more I realize that it is mostly allegory including Genesis. For years I assumed that the animals described in Isaiah 11 are literal animals until I realized that they are actually symbolic of 2 groups of people. Same thing with Genesis although Genesis is not my thing. In some Jewish circles the Tree of Life represents this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life_(Kabbalah) whatever that means.Alluding to Raf's statement about the literary point of view, here is an interesting article about Genesis as allegory:https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/genesis-as-allegory/ The author states that Genesis was never meant to be read literally or to be scientifically accurate etc.

and fleece the flock he certainly did. .... F**CK Em All!!!!!

Mark, Josephus was the non-Christian person I was referring to. He was a Jew who was originally apart of the Zealot rebellion that broke out in 66AD and was captured by Roman forces in 67AD. Israel instigated the war on Rome and Rome returned and destroyed Jerusalem & the Temple( sanctuary). This destruction was mentioned in Daniel 9: 26: And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Btw, Daniel 9:26 is a reference to the Roman general Titus who did exactly what the verse described. That occurred in 70AD. This is NOT a future Jerusalem where the "Anti-Christ" is supposed to destroy the city & a third temple. Josephus had no motivation to lie about the supernatural events that occurred in the skies above Jerusalem from 66-70AD that he described in his book Wars of the Jews. here is a link to Josephus book: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2850/2850-h/2850-h.htm

Mark, you completely missed the point I was trying to make. This historical record came from someone with no Christian bias who could be motivated to make up something that really didn't occur. Now it seems Christians are the one's who are insinuating that Josephus was making up stories.

It was that 1st century generation Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24 when all of the events he described would take place during the time leading up to the dissolution of the temple in 70AD. When Jesus mentioned the destruction of the temple in verse 2 the disciples immediately connected that destruction with his coming and the end of the age. Matthew 24:3: As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” I can't imagine Jesus telling the disciples about the destruction of the temple which was to occur about 40 years into the future and then ignored that event in the rest of the chapter by describing the signs of his coming which would be thousands of years into the future. The destruction of the 2nd temple mentioned by Christ was what triggered the question of "when will this happen?. If Christ was describing an event that was to occur in the distant future beyond 70AD, then Christ didn't answer the disciples original question of when that destruction of the 2nd temple would take place. That means he completely ignored the original question? I don't buy it. The signs mentioned by Christ in Matthew 24 occurred during that 40 year period leading up to the destruction of the temple and intensified when the Zealot rebellion against Rome broke out in 66AD. The first sign Christ warned the disciples would occur were the many false messiahs that would come onto the scene. “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. Did that happen in the first century? Yep. This segment comes from the Jewish Encyclopedia: From Josephus it appears that in the first century before the destruction of the Temple a number of Messiahs arose promising relief from the Roman yoke, and finding ready followers. Josephus speaks of them thus: "Another body of wicked men also sprung up, cleaner in their hands, but more wicked in their intentions, who destroyed the peace of the city no less than did these murderers [the Sicarii]. For they were deceivers and deluders of the people, and, under pretense of divine illumination, were for innovations and changes, and prevailed on the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them in the wilderness, pretending that God would there show them signs of liberty" (Josephus, "B. J." ii. 13,) Then Christ described wars and rumors of wars in verse 6. In 66 AD the Zealots stopped the daily sacrifice on behalf of Rome and the Emperor which triggered the Roman campaign to destroy Israel. The 1st Roman army divisions arrived in Jerusalem in the fall of 66AD. The Zealots had a stronger than expected defense and the Romans had to withdraw. Then in 68AD when Nero died Rome entered a period of civil war. A lot of wars and rumors of wars going on at that time. Then Christ said there will be famines & earthquakes in various places. In his book Antiquities Josephus recorded this about Queen Helena of Adiabene(50-56AD): Her arrival (Queen Helena of Adiabene) was very advantageous to the people of Jerusalem; for a famine oppressed them at that time, and many people died for want of money to procure food. Queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of grain, and others of them to Cyprus to bring back a cargo of dried figs. They quickly returned with the provisions, which she immediately distributed to those that need. She has thus left a most excellent memorial by the beneficence which she bestowed upon our nation. And when her son Izates was informed of this famine, he sent great sums of money to the principal men in Jerusalem. Were there also earthquakes during this time? In the writings of the first century historian Tacitus we read a description of the conditions in A.D. 51 in Rome: "This year witnessed many prodigies signs or omens... including repeated earthquakes." Josephus accounts that an earthquake in Judea was such a magnitude that "the constitution of the universe was confounded for the destruction of men." He also wrote wrote that earthquakes were "a common calamity", and indicated that God Himself had brought them about for a special purpose. Then there is the book of Acts that records "a great earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison house" (Acts 16:26). There were earthquakes in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, Campania, Rome, and Judea. Paul started churches at Colosse and Hierapolis. However, these two cities, along with Laodicea, suffered a great earthquake in approximately A.D. 61. Did earthquakes happen during the 40 year period leading up to the destruction of the temple in 70AD? Yep. In Matthew 24:9 Christ goes on to describe the persecution that Christians would suffer before 70AD. A parallel verse is Luke 21:12: But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. Are there any Jews today who are going to hand Christians over to synagogues and put us in prison? NO. There are no Jews anywhere in this day & time who would even think along these lines not even in Israel. These persecutions described were occurring in the 1st century and the New Testament is filled with those accounts. This next verse is supposed to be the preterist killer because it mentions that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. "World" in this verse comes from the Greek oikoumené which means the inhabited (Roman) world https://biblehub.com/greek/3625.htm In verse 15 Christ mentions the abomination of desolation. The Roman armies were always an abomination because they carried with them idolatrous images of the emperor, whom they worshiped. And those armies brought desolation because their commander Titus leveled the city and entered the holy of holies, defiling it similar to Antiochus Epiphanes in 168BC. These events all happened between 30-70AD!!!

Mark, there is a huge misconception among most Christians that the events described in Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 and Revelation are global in scale because of the erroneous translation of the Greek word "ge" as "earth". "Ge" is not the same as "kosmos". "Kosmos" is the Greek word that refers to the world at large. An example of kosmos is John 18:36: "My Kingdom is not of this world". You can see this in the Greek interlinear: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/18-36.htm . "Ge" refers to a particular region namely the land of Judea. "Earth" in Acts 1:8 comes from the Greek word "ges": https://biblehub.com/interlinear/acts/1-8.htm ( the earth, soil, land, region, country, inhabitants of a region ) It was to the ends of the Land of Judea that they were to be witnesses. This reminds me of Matthew 10:23: When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. This Greek word "ge" was also translated as "earth" in Matthew 24:30: Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth(ges) will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. It was the tribes of the Land of Judea that were mourning in Matthew 24:30 not the world at large. Matthew 23:36: Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. The Jewish generation when Christ was on the earth were the ones under judgement. Subsequent Jewish generations after 70AD were/are no longer under that judgement. The people living in the region of Judea from 66-70AD did see the supernatural phenomenon in the clouds but they were not described as angels or Christ in the eyewitness accounts. They were described as "incredible phenomenon." Here is an actual event that was recorded during this time period(66-70AD) from a non-Christian: War 6:297
 (6.5.3.297) a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it,
 War 6:298
 (6.5.3.298) and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for,
before sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen War 6:299
 (6.5.3.299)
 running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover
at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, War 6:300
 (6.5.3.300)
 and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence.”
 This coming of Christ to the Land of Judea from 66-70AD (on the clouds of Heaven) does get confused with his return to earth at the final judgement.

Oh Ok! I now see where you are coming from. I've been out of dispensationalism for so long that I don't even think in those terms anymore LOL. Christ is NOT physically on earth during his millennial reign. Christ is reigning from his heavenly throne during this time. In heaven, yes, there is no demonic activity or deception, hate, evil etc. The concept that Christ is here on earth on a throne in a physical new Jerusalem is a dispensational construct. Darby literlized the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and various passages in the Old Testament such as Isaiah 11 thinking that Isaiah 11 is showing that the natural order of the animal kingdom will be changed during the 1000 years. Isaiah 11 is not referring to literal wolves and literal lambs. Paul quoted Isaiah 11( Romans 15) to show that Isaiah 11 was fulfilled at the time Paul was sent to the gentiles. Romans 15:12: 12 And again, Isaiah says,“The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” At that time, there was some contention among some Jews concerning the Gentiles being grafted into the new covenant. Paul quoted Isaiah 11 to show both Jews & Gentiles that it was God's plan for the Gentiles to be included. The Gentiles are represented by "wolves" and the Jews represented by "lambs" in Isaiah 11: https://adammaarschalk.com/2012/01/29/romans-15-shows-that-isaiah-11-is-fulfilled/ Jesus was asked by the pharisees about his coming kingdom: Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst. Christ told the pharisees that when the kingdom arrives it will NOT be physically visible to the people on the earth.Dispensationalists have attempted to separate the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven but they are one & the same. If it is here on earth why did John the Baptist call it the kingdom of heaven? John the Baptist even stated: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” There is that nasty little Greek word ēngiken again. This "has drawn near" time statement that is supposed to mean thousands of years into the future. LOL.

Mark, these are very good questions. This subject is very complex and to try to explain this in a few paragraphs is difficult. I think the best way to explain this is by looking at the supernatural rulers portrayed in Daniel. In Daniel 10, the archangel Michael helped another angel (who was opposed by a demonic prince over the Persian kingdom) reach Daniel to give him a message from God. While the angel gave Daniel the message Daniel became stronger. Then in Daniel 10:20-21 He asked, “Do you know why I have come to you? Now I will return to fight the commander of Persia. When I go, the commander of Greece will come. 21 However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the true writings. No one will support me when I fight these commanders except your commander, Michael. So in Daniel 10 we get a look at the satanic dominion over Persia & Greece. I think that is why God portrayed these gentile kingdoms as beasts in his visions to Daniel. In Genesis 3:14 God told Lucifer: You are cursed more than all the wild or domestic animals.You will crawl on your belly.You will be the lowest of animals as long as you live. So the theory that the beasts of Daniel are ultimately demonic rulers comes into view. The 4th beast following the line of kingdoms chronologically being Rome. (Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome) The 4th beast being destroyed at the AD 70 coming of Christ would be the fallen angels over the Roman empire. The other 3 beasts(fallen angels) were allowed to live into the church age(millennium) Daniel 7:12: As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. Ok, so if the time statements are true about Christ's kingdom arriving within the lifetimes of the disciples(Matthew 16:27-28), then the beasts(fallen angels) over Rome were destroyed but it appears the other beasts over Babylon, Medo-Persia, & Greece were allowed to live beyond the time Christ's kingdom began. In other words the millennial reign of Christ. It doesn't appear that all evil is subdued on earth during Christs reign if the fallen angels over Babylon, Persia, & Greece are still around and not only that, the evil within men's hearts will be with us until the end of human history(Great White Throne). Satan being bound in 70AD means that he could no longer prevent the spread of God's word into the gentile regions of the world. Israel was destroyed at 70AD so the remnant of Christians left after the Jewish/Roman martyrdom were the light bearers and Christianity has spread worldwide since AD70 but at some point in the future Satan will be able to deceive the gentile nations again. This is just a theory but it seems Christianity right now is in decline. Even America is described in some circles as "post-Christian". At the same time, Christianity is increasing in Israel although very gradually. There is some speculation that Israel will come to Christ en-mass in the future at the very end of the millennium.

I once believed in the literal view that the millennium mentioned in Rev. is a literal 1000 years and that Christs reign won't begin until he comes down to earth for a literal 1000 years period of time in the new Jerusalem. (By the way, if the new Jerusalem is literal and here on earth the dimensions of it would reach into outer space.) An example of 1000 being used symbolically is Psalm 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.I see the symbolic 1000 years as in-progress. Christ is now reigning from his heavenly throne with the saints who took possession of the kingdom of heaven at the 70AD resurrection(Daniel 7:22). Everybody knows that Revelation is full of symbolic imagery but then to take certain verses literally(such as the 1000 years) will throw off the original meaning in my opinion. Satan being bound is probably not to be taken literally as well. I believe that it is referring to Satan's dominion over the gentile pagan nations. We get a picture of that dominion being transferred to Christ in Daniel 7:13-14. Israel in the old covenant days was set apart and a light to the deceived pagan gentile nations. After the 70AD destruction of Israel,(Daniel 9:26) the torch light so to speak was transferred to the gentiles in the new covenant. Not that there is no deception whatsoever in the world but Satan no longer holds reign over the gentile nations as he had pre-70AD. Looking at history, Christianity has spread worldwide since 70AD. That doesn't mean there will never be hiccups along the way. I do find it interesting that Israel is now a nation state again. This is speculation but I wonder if we are approaching the time when Satan is released to deceive the gentile nations again at the end of the millennium: http://www.lloyddale.com/papers/A%20Different%20Preterist%20Perspective.pdf My position seems odd to a lot of people but I think it is due to the ultra-literal view of scripture we've been taught since the 1830's. I no longer wrestle with certain scriptures with those nasty little time statements such as Matthew 16:27-28 & James 5:8. I don't have to change the meaning of Greek words such as genea (Matthew 24:34). Certain verses no longer get ignored.

Mark, I do believe another resurrection will take place in our future and I agree with you that nobody knows the timing of it. Revelation 20:5 states: " This is the first resurrection". If there is a first resurrection there must be a second. In light of Matthew 16 27-28, Matthew 24:34 states: this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. "Generation" in Matthew 24:34 comes from the Greek "genea". http://biblehub.com/greek/1074.htm If you scroll down to usage # 3, Thayers Greek Lexicon states: the whole multitude of men living at the same time . Scofield was one of the first to try to explain "genea' to mean "race" in his reference bible. Gary Demar's book Last days Madness goes into a great amount of detail explaining this starting on page 183: https://books.google.com/books?id=Tii3ulwqzW0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

If your theological position is weak, phrases like "replacement theology" are used to connote a very negative "feeling" toward an opposing viewpoint so this phrase "replacement theology" sounds anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic. It is your opinion that Amillennialism espouses replacement theology but it is not based on fact. The new covenant is not referring to a physical Israel. Even Paul said that there is " neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." I am actually pro Israel as a nation state, but they are no different than anybody else spiritually in the new covenant. "What resurrection do these folks think Hymenaeus and Philetus were talking about if not related to the end times?" The "end times" was the end of the Mosaic marriage covenant near 70AD, not the erroneous view that the end times is referring to the end of the church age in our future. Hebrews 1:1-2 states: God, who [a]at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son... When was Hebrews written? Paul and the other apostles were in the last days of the old covenant when they wrote the epistles and they knew it. That is why James made this comment in James 5:8: You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord [a]is at hand. The phrase "at hand" was used by the King James translators. "At hand" comes from the Greek word " ēngiken ". It literally means "has drawn near" . http://biblehub.com/greek/1448.htm No gray area there. Dispensaionalists have come up with very creative explanations for these time statements. Jesus Christ made a statement about the timing of his coming "in his kingdom" in Matthew 16: 27-28: For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” This statement could not be any clearer. Christ said that some of the disciples would still be living when he comes in his kingdom. Not only that, in verse 27 Christ mentions the "bema" rewards upon entry into heaven. Most Christians don't realize how spiritually significant the events of the end of the old covenant age were. Josephus wrote about a phenomena that occurred in the skies above Judea in 66AD: "O]n the twenty-first day of the month of Artemisius [Jyar], a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities" Josephus Wars 6.5.3 Hymenaeus and Philetus were making those statements about a resurrection sometime between 58-65 AD which was before the destruction of Jerusalem & the temple in 70AD. Daniel 12:2 mentions a resurrection. Daniel is told it would occur when the power of the holy people(Israel) is shattered(Daniel 12:7) That occurred in 70AD. This is NOT a future Israel. Many Christians have a hard time imagining that a resurrection has already occurred. 1 Corinthians 15:22-26 mentions that more than 1 resurrection will occur throughout human history " But each in turn:" The last one will occur in our future at the end of human history which is the great white throne mentioned in Revelation 20 after the millennium(not a literal 1000 years). The resurrection that occurred just before the millennium began near 70AD is when Christ came in his kingdom(some of the disciples were still living) Rev 20:4: And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They[a] had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Paul was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero. The insistence of futurists that the events in Revelation are global in scale disregard the meaning of the Greek word "ge". "Ge" is not the same as "kosmos". An example of a global scale from the Bible is Ephesians 1:4: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world(kosmou) http://biblehub.com/text/ephesians/1-4.htm The Greek word "ge" refers to a region. It also could be translated as "land" which would have been more appropriate than "earth" which is the word that is used in most of Revelation. An example of "ge" translated as "earth" is Revelation 13:11: Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth(ges), and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. The Greek interlinear of Revelation 13:11 http://biblehub.com/text/revelation/13-11.htm An example of past fulfillment from the Book of Revelation is Rev 6:6: Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds[a] of wheat for a day’s wages,[b] and six pounds[c] of barley for a day’s wages,[d] and do not damage the oil and the wine!” Rev 6:6 is just one example of the conditions within the city of Jerusalem during 70AD siege by the Roman army. This was recorded by Josephus in his book Wars of the Jews book 5, chapter 10 & verse 2: The indication they made use of whether they had any or not was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches; which, if they were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all of food; but if they were wasted away, they walked off without searching any further; nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, because they saw they would very soon die of themselves for want of food. Many there were indeed who sold what they had for one measure; it was of wheat, if they were of the richer sort; but of barley, if they were poorer. When these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmost rooms of their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did it without grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they were in, and others baked bread of it, according as necessity and fear dictated to them: a table was no where laid for a distinct meal, but they snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked, and ate it very hastily. I think it is amazing that both Josephus & John singled out these 2 food items that people had great difficulty obtaining in 70AD. The phrase "do not damage the oil & wine" appears to be a reference to a sacrilegious act by a Zealot faction leader of the revolt named John Levi of Giscala. Josephus records this event in Book 5, chapter 13, verse 6 of Wars: But as for John, when he could no longer plunder the people, he betook himself to sacrilege, and melted down many of the sacred utensils, which had been given to the temple; as also many of those vessels which were necessary for such as ministered about holy things, the caldrons, the dishes, and the tables; nay, he did not abstain from those pouring vessels that were sent them by Augustus and his wife; for the Roman emperors did ever both honor and adorn this temple; whereas this man, who was a Jew, seized upon what were the donations of foreigners, and said to those that were with him, that it was proper for them to use Divine things, while they were fighting for the Divinity, without fear, and that such whose warfare is for the temple should live of the temple; on which account he emptied the vessels of that sacred wine and oil, which the priests kept to be poured on the burnt-offerings, and which lay in the inner court of the temple, and distributed it among the multitude, who, in their anointing themselves and drinking, used [each of them] above an hin of them. And here I cannot but speak my mind, and what the concern I am under dictates to me, and it is this: I suppose, that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, that the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments; for by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed. So one of the creatures in John's vision said "do not harm the oil and wine" and Josephus writes about a Zealot leader who abused the sacred oil & wine used by the priests for their work in the temple.

According to this web site: http://christinprophecy.org/articles/end-time-viewpoints/ , Amillennialism is the "viewpoint that is held today by the vast majority of all those who profess to be Christians". I have a hard time believing that amillennialism is the most popular considering the feedback I receive on forums where eschatology is discussed.