Charity

I'll PM my reply.

I see what you mean as the definition of only is "no one or nothing more besides; solely or exclusively." My apologies for causing you a moment of discomfort - I hope you recovered quickly

I love the quote Rocky. So to manipulate how life should be lived going forward, one only needs to inaccurately rewrite history. But who would dare to do such a thing?

You’re right. I have sent revvel a post explaining my previous comment regarding his intentions regarding this thread. It’s an “in-my-opinion” post, and I will leave it at that. Your sentence highlighted above is a good one. The way vp talked about wanting to teach the word like it hadn’t been taught since the first century led me to believe everything was perfectly accurate and agreed upon back then. It was a real eye-opener to realize it was anything but and that the contents of the bible took centuries to be decided upon because of all the disagreements. And even then, it was anything close to being perfectly accurate and continues to be so disagreed upon today.

I realize now that I misread what you wrote about Christ knowing the mystery before the crucifixion. You specifically stated he did not (as shown above in blue font). How "God had hidden a mystery—in Scriptures given prior to the Crucifixion" (also highlighted in blue above) is what you are endeavouring to show through this thread. I conflated your two ideas into one.

revvel, concerning the last post I wrote before GSC went down (see above), I want to personally address my issues with this thread. I do not feel like you want a discussion as your replies to posts in general have often been minimal in content with a “wait and see what great thing I will share next – you’ll be amazed” tone of voice. I find that to be a bit presumptuous on your part - it sounds like something a salesman would say to get you to want to buy their product. And then sure enough, a post with scriptures and your commentaries would follow. Your specific approach to answering my questions have sounded condescending and/or patronizing as well. For example, “You continue to demonstrate the depth of your intellect. Yet another excellent question. Patience, Charity, Patience... we'll get there.” I was a teacher before I retired and learned it was best to let the students guide the lesson with their questions instead of giving them a pat on the head for asking them and then continue to follow an inflexible series of lesson I had planned. While I do like discussing scripture and am learning to be use the Socratic method when doing so, I found this thread personally frustrating. I will, however, answer the question you did ask me next.

I've got to say the offer sounds pretty interesting especially if you're "young in the word" and in the 18-25 age bracket. The problem is that it's most likely going to be twi's opportunity to push the benefits of signing up for more "service" such as the ambassador and corps program. Their goal is always a "life-time commitment" to them.

I don't know when or where he revealed his identity on GSC (a link would be helpful), so it was still a secret to me. I think it does matter because is he here for a discussion or simply to teach his doctrine found in his books and on his website? I began to feel in was the latter after reading more of his posts and replies, so I decided to look him up here which lead to his post with his website which led directly to William Ayles. I don't know what the GSC rules say about this matter, but for me personally, I feel like he is misrepresenting himself.

Thanks Raf - I wasn't thinking of the confidentiality that is behind the names we give ourselves on GSC). I will reword my question to Revvel.

On your thread The Torah to Revelation, you write, "The entire book can be read online on my website: www.thetimeline.org" Are you William Ayles who wrote "The Mystery of God?"

When YHWH appropriated Baal’s praise (6-minute video by Dan McClellan) Interesting research when one doesn't rely only on the biblical ancient history.

What evidence is there that Jesus knew about the mystery before his crucifixion?

"...draw your own conclusions." Well, I hope it will explain why both Jesus and Paul believed the end time would come within their lifetime and when it didn't, Peter had to give an explanation to keep the hope going - "But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Where is there any evidence of this being true in scripture other than Peter declaring it? My conclusion thus far is that the hope of Christ's return and all the great stuff that is promised to come afterwards is a pipe dream.

Thanks for the thread Raf. Concerning the above, what would you say about 1 Cor 11:23 where Paul makes a possible reference to Judas. He writes, "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread?" Why would Paul claim Jesus revealed a "last supper" with bread and wine to him but not any of the other things you mention above? Paul might have influenced by the Greek myth of Dionysus - it's not a one-one connection but the idea of drinking wine and eating raw meat was associated with him.

The "seventy weeks" have been used to try and calculate either the time of the rapture or Jesus' return to earth depending on one's belief. Have your studies of the seventy weeks given you an idea of how soon the above will take place?

Hi Revvel, you've met the sarcastic part of me already. I'll be serious now. What was I spared from and why was I spared?

I googled the St Andrews Community Church in UK and went with this website ST. ANDREWS COMMUNITY CHURCH. Thank you for correcting me and I apologize for misrepresenting you. I should have asked you directly after your previous post whether you believed in the rapture doctrine or not. I assumed you did not.

Trumpeter's post about vpw was so over the top that I really expected there to be a "gotcha" at the end. He only had 9 posts on GSC though. Trumpeter Rascal did try to reason with him though on page 5 of this thread.

In reference to my post above, William Brooks (aka OldSkool) has recently downloaded a new prophecy called A Segue for The Faithful in Christ, Then Sudden Destruction on Earth.. IOW, it's again about the rapture and the following tribulation that will soon happen. This time though, the article is to give comfort to those who are having doubts such as these two quotes show: "Why are you downcast, my loves? Why does your enthusiasm wane?" "Why is my bride long of face in sadness and disappointment, as if they have been jilted by an unfaithful bridegroom?" It also seems to be for those who are struggling with sin and therefore, I assume, are afraid of not being faithful enough to be included in the rapture. For anyone interested, I will share more later in the thread Spirit of Prophesy by William Brooks a.k.a. OldSkool.

After spending time in OldSkool's book of prophecies which repeatedly spoke of the benefit of a rapture (for the faithful) happening right before the tribulation begins, I'd mostly forgotten how scripture has been interpreted to teach such very different views concerning the key belief of the return of Christ. Your post, therefore, came as a bit of an eye-opener again for me. I'd heard that the rapture doctrine was accepted elsewhere in the world at first but then became less popular. I checked your church's website and the last belief listed is "The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven on earth." No mention of the rapture, tribulation or the millennium. Then I did a couple more searches and saw that Wikipedia says: The Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Reformed denominations have no tradition of a preliminary return of Christ. A pretribulational rapture view is most commonly found among American Fundamentalist Baptists, Bible churches, Brethren churches, certain Methodist denominations, Pentecostals, non-denominational evangelicals, and various other evangelical groups. I recognize the value of your last sentence as well as the secular enjoyments you list under your name.

There haven't been many points of view made on the specific topic itself considering the sub-forum it's on. If anyone who views this thread (195 so far) would like to discuss if there will be a rapture or not, please do. What I've seen asked on podcasts I've watched are these 3 questions. What do you believe? Why do you believe it? Do you care if it's true or not?

"a running joke" is pretty much name calling as well.

I agree.

If a political forum was to start on GSC, I would suggest the focus be on policies and not on politicians.