(1) "please consider Tim La Haye's excellent
book, Revelation Unveiled."
This response represents exactly what I have
been saying is wrong. I said yesterday that people have missed the real
timing clues in Scripture because they have been too pre-occupied trying to fit
the timing of everything into this 7 year box that tradition has told them over
and over again everything must fit in. They don't even realize that the
tradition they refuse to rethink is only a couple hundred years old
anyway. We need to examine what SCRIPTURE tells us about the timing of the
tribulation period, and then all of a sudden Scripture will make sense
when we stop trying to fit it into the boxes that the 19th century tradition
about a 7 year trib period tells us.
(2) "to say
that Israel must suffer 90 months or more borders on the
ridiculous, if not outright insanity"
I never said ISRAEL would suffer more than 7
years. This again represents what is wrong with how too many people have
not re-thought what they have been taught.
God will deal with Israel for the 7 years
discussed in Daniel 9:27. After that 7 year period is over with,
Israel will go into exile and cease to be a nation. Jerusalem will be
possessed by the Gentiles for the 42 months following that 7 year period
and after the 7 year period is over with, G-d will deal with the
Gentiles.
We're told in the writings of Paul that the
Gospel is to the Jew first, and then the Gentile. The same pattern will
occur in the End Times. G-d will deal with Israel during the 7 years of
Daniel 9:27. Then Israel will no longer exist and he will pour out His
wrath on the Gentiles for 3.5 years. He will also pour His wrath out on
the nations during parts of the 7 years He is dealing with Israel, but it will
turn at the end of the last "Seven" and be different, more accelerated,
etc.
The reason a lot of people have missed this
point is because they've let replacement theology cloud their thinking.
They think Israel doesn't matter to G-d anymore and everything Scripture says
about Israel applies to the Church now. Not true. G-d is not done
with Israel.
(3) "please, restrain
from making our loving God out to be a meanie!!"
Let me get this straight; I point out
how the 3 woes add up to at least 90 months, and that makes G-d a
"meanie"? One could use this argument to say hell doesn't exist and the
book of Revelation doesn't belong in the Bible. Suddenly we're being told
that in the tribulation period lasts 7 years or 84 months that is not mean, but
if it lasts 90 months, those extra 6 months make G-d a "meanie", thus those
extra 6 months can't be true.
What is harsher? To burn in hell
forever or put up with earthquakes, tornadoes, wars, etc., for 6 months in THIS
life? If punishing the guilty by burning them in hell forever does not
make G-d a "meanie", then how could an extra 6 months or an extra 3.5 years
added to the timeline of the trib period make G-d a "meanie"?
I would think that most of you by now have
learned not to judge doctrine by what makes G-d a "meanie" in your mind or
not. By that standard, hell, judgement, payment for sin, and any notion
that there will be a false messiah, even the existance of a "satan" would have
to be rejected. This is not sound decision making.
We need to examine the Scriptures and see
exactly what timing clues it gives us. There are holes, and I pointed that
out two days ago. But there's enough data filled in that we can
safely say the 3 woes last no less than 90 months.