Thursday, January 15, 2009

East vs. West – Who is Right - Wrong?


EAST vs. WEST - Who is Right and WrongBy Ray Gano

This is a SPECIAL PZ Insider Report - Fully open and completely downloadable here at the Prophezine website.

Folks, if you are reading this, you are probably a watchman on the wall.

I envision all of us standing upon that wall, our first and also last line of defense.

Every single one of us has a very important job to do.

That job is to sound the warning that Christ’s return is very soon.

We read in 1 Corinthians 13:12 “ For now we see through a glass, darkly;…”

All of us are in the service of the Lord. Some of us have more responsibility, and some have been given less. It does not discount that we are all on the wall, standing as the last defense, ready to sound the alarm.

We ALL see through the glass darkly.

None of us have the 100% answer of what lies ahead.

Yes we have scripture to guide us, but in the end, it is our faith that pushes us forward even when we do not know for sure what lies ahead.

When we as watchmen become overly confident in our position and become like the Pharisees of old, that is when a weakness in the wall develops. After that, the slippery slope is trod upon; pride, arrogance, ways of the flesh start to slowly consume. Then that part of the wall is no longer being defended and the enemy gains a foothold.

When this takes place, the watchmen start looking “IN” versus looking “OUT.” They forget to use critical thought, logic, and instead begin to lean upon their own understanding.

Folks, here at Prophezine I work hard to welcome all who stand upon the solid word of God. I feel that in these last days we must work together because our voice is dwindling. No longer is bible prophecy important to many churches today, let alone it being taught.

I strongly believe that we need to examine all plausible evidence, utilizing the proper rules of interpretation, critical thought and logic.

We must be good Bereans.

A couple of weeks ago Dr. David Reagan released his Jan / Feb issue of Lamplighter Magazine. In this he wrote a scathing article critiquing four books dealing with the eastern leg of the Roman Empire.

I found his article to be unfair and quite one sided. He leveled some serious personal attacks on several of the authors and gave little Scriptural support for his own views.

I believe Scripture should always be our final authority. In the Bible Prophecy world we must be humble enough to consider others view points as valid IF they can be supported scripturally.

I have read the books being critiqued and I know most of the authors being criticized, personally. I cannot more strongly disagree with what Dr. Dave Reagan has written. I can only hope that with prayer and time he will see how personally unkind his critique was.

I also consider Dr. Dave Reagan a friend and fellow watchman on the wall and if a similar unwarranted attack had been leveled against him; I would do the same thing I am doing for these authors. Many of my long time readers know this for fact, because I have done it before.

I am going to provide the authors a space to defend their position and also provide Reagan’s article in question. I ask that you as the reader be good Bereans and scripturally consider both sides of this argument. Most of you know where I stand on this issue.

A Response to Dr. David Reagan
By Joel Richardson

CHALLENGES
By Walid Shoebat

RESPONSE #1
From Lonny – a Watchman on the Wall

My Friend Walid Shoebat and his Message
By Ted Nienstedt

Debunking the European Antichrist
By Rodrigo Silva

RESPONSE #2
From Tomi – a Watchman on the Wall

The Antichrist Will he be a Muslim?
By Dr. David R. Reagan


PZ Insider Report
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE PDF VERSION HERE
http://www.prophezine.com/pdfs/PZ_Insider_Report_01-14-09.pdf

Sunday, January 11, 2009

If Scripture Fits, We Must Submit

By Ray Gano

With all that is going on in Israel and Gaza, I wrote an article last week titled “Israel Retaliates Against The Gaza

In this article I talk about applying proper hermeneutics and interpretation rules to scripture.

There has been much hubb bubb over a “NEW” theory which calls for Israel through the IDF to invade her surrounding enemies, win and rule the land. The author of the theories’ primary foundation is based upon Psalms 83.

The sad fact is that the author of the theory spins a great yarn, but I don’t see his theory as being plausible when one applies proper biblical hermeneutics or in common words, correct biblical interpretation.

The Rule of Authorial Intent

No reader has the right to impose his own ideas on the text. Scripture itself clearly teaches that the only meaning of a text is what the Holy Spirit intended when He inspired the human writer.

2 Peter1:20-21 (KJV) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

In other words, every text has only one correct interpretation. If two readers disagree on what it means, at least one of them is necessarily wrong. To go even further, we must consider that even both could be wrong.

But what is never wrong is the scripture itself.

How do we discover the one correct interpretation? We must consult the author Himself, that being the Holy Spirit. We must allow Him to teach us and not lean on our own understanding.

The sad thing is that we live in a time when the thinking of many people is “filtered” the idea that all truth is relative—that what is true for me may not be true for you and that there is no absolute truth.

So what happens is that if someone prefers to be doubtful of proper interpretation of Scripture, he or she will just go off and say "Everyone is entitled to his own interpretation," as if any interpretation is as good as another.

That is a major problem in today’s Christian world.

There is no absolute truth.

The only correct interpretation is the one faithful to the author, who is God and His intent.

Many mainline churches today are teaching that truth consists in the “experience” rather than in the facts.

The only truth that we have today is God’s Word. It is not what we experience, feel, think that matters.

All that matters is what God’s Word says and what His intent was when He said it.

Looking back at Christ’s time the teachers taught and quoted “THE LAW.” This consisted of both oral and written.

The written of course was scripture, God’s Holy Word.

The oral was the teachings of the rabbi’s down through the ages.

The problem is that more credence was given over the oral “law” vs. what God’s word says.

Why? There are many reasons, but one primary one is that many people did not have access to the written law, God’s Word. So the oral superseded the written many times.

In fact, we still see that today in Israel, many students don’t even know the written word, even though they have access to it. Instead they study the oral commentaries of the great rabbi’s like Rambam, Maimonides, Moshe Kordevero and others.

What is worse is that when they view the written law, it is through the lens of oral traditions vs. taking the scripture as the Word of God.

All that matters is the absolute truth found in God’s Written Word.

During the times of Christ, Jesus himself was very hard on the “teachers” who stood upon the “LAW” (the oral law… not written)

John 8:44-47 (KJV) Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

In this Christ is condemned the rabbis because they stood upon the words of men and not the words of God. They went so far that they no longer even have the means to understand God’s Word due to the false oral blinders they have imposed upon themselves.

Their minds became hardened against God’s Word.

Because of this, they did not recognize Christ as God and refused to believe in Him.

The outcome is as Christ stated is that they served THEIR FATHER the Devil.

Christ told them the truth because He was and IS the truth. We forget at times that Jesus Christ is The Word of God because He is God.

John 1:1-5 (KJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

What has happened is that the light of the scripture, bible prophecy clearly stated that Christ was and is God. That he would come to earth in the form of man born of a virgin in a town called Bethlehem. Scripture clearly teaches this and it is crystal clear to us when we read it.

The teachers of Christ’s time did not comprehend this because they have leaned upon their own understanding, the oral traditions, and Christ himself said that when they heard God’s Word and the truth, they did not “hear” and understand it because they were not of God.

Their pride within themselves and leaning upon their own understanding prevented them from seeing God the Son standing right before them.

We as Christians know for a fact that Christ did fulfill the prophecies given to the Prophets thought the written scripture.

Therefore we know and profess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God.

Fast forward to today and we have forgotten Paul’s words.

In Act 17:11 we read the following…

Act 17:11 (KJV) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

This is a well known praise in which Paul was praising the Bereans because they did not lean on the “oral traditions” of man and went to the true source of absolute truth, God’s Word.

Folks, I am deeply concerned. I fear that we have forgotten to be good bereans and because of that we are leaning upon our own understanding. We are becoming lazy and instead of being students of God’s Word, we are becoming students of teachers who are students of teachers.

I say all of this because we have been lazy as Christians and I lump myself into this pile as much as anyone else.

Like the days of old when Christ first came to man as a man, many did not see Him as God because they did not heed the written Word, but leaned upon the oral traditions.

We who are living now in the last days and are awaiting His second coming, and like the days of old, we are in the same situation.

My gift the Lord has given me is to be a watchman on the wall. To the warnings to what I see standing upon the wall and looking outwards.

I fear that many of us have leaned upon the oral traditions and are not taking the time to really dig into scripture to see what scripture actually says.

Instead we say “ Oh so-and-so’s book says this and he did all the research, so it must be true.”

But does it?

How good of a Berean are we?

Do we search the scripture daily or do we lean upon our own understanding, experience, feelings, and self centered thoughts.

Do we lean on the oral traditions?

Or something worse, do we lean upon the oral traditions and then call it God’s Word?

A good friend taught me a very valuable lesson and that is to always read what scripture says in and of itself.

Apply the proper Biblical rules of interpretation.

What was the author’s intent and what did God mean to say?

I leave you with the Golden Rule of Interpretation…

When the plain sense of Scripture males common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the fact of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.

Next week I hope to dig more into Psalms 83 and what it actually says. Many are asking and I feel a need to try to give a voice to the situation.

Get a jump on it now and read it as it is meant to be read and without the experience, emotions, feelings, and self centered thoughts.



About the Author:

Ray & Tracye Gano are the Executive Directors of Prophezine. Prophezine deals with Bible Prophecy and World Events from a Pre-trib, pre-millennial, dispensationalist stand point. They currently serve close to 70,000+ (and growing) people world wide with a weekly newsletters, daily news updates, community based website and Internet radio shows. Ray recently released his latest project “Escape The End Time Money Snare – The CD a multimedia CD co-authored with Wilfred Hahn focusing on how to escape the trappings of mammon and learning how to live simply in God’s abundance.

Please visit Prophezine by going to http://www.prophezine.com

visit their new daughter ministry Wisdom Farms at http://www.wisdomfarms.com

Israel Retaliates Against The Gaza

By Ray Gano

This morning I woke up to a plethora of news sitting on my desktop and 90% was about Israel and Gaza.

The latest news was that Gaza has launched over 70 Qassams Missiles and 2 Katyusha Rockets.

DEBKA Files report that military sources, after being knocked sideways by three days of massive Israeli air strikes, and more than 315 dead, Hamas appeared to have recovered its bearings sufficiently to pound Israel with more than 70 Qassam missiles and two Grad Katyusha rockets Monday, Dec. 29, on Day 3 of the operation.

Yep, it looks like things are escalating big time and in fact word is from a Foreign minister in Iran that the Iranian military is starting to ramp up with the anticipation of attacking Israel as well.

I have gotten several emails pointing to Bill Salus’ theory dealing with Psalms 83 and Ezekiel 37:10 in his book “Isralestine”; asking what I think.

In times like these is it easy to allow the news and information to cloud ones judgment and point to things saying “this is Bible Prophecy.”

Hey, I am willing to say that I have done it myself too.

But what I want everyone to remember is what Acts 17:11 states:

Act 17:11 (KJV) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

While I was in Dallas a few weeks ago I appeared on Dave Reagan’s Show, “Christ In Prophecy.”

Dave invited about 12 or so of us to come on and he gave us 10 questions to answer.
One of those questions was about Psalms 83.

Israel_attacks_gaza.jpgHere is what he asked…

What do you think of the new thesis that Psalm 83 prophesies a war that Israel will win against its Arab neighbors, resulting in true peace for Israel?

Good question.

As many of you know, I work hard to really examine scripture and apply proper hermeneutics.

One of the best definitions of proper hermeneutics is found in the introduction chapter of "In The Footsteps Of The Messiah: a Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events" by Dr. Arnold G.Fruchtenbaum.

Similar rules are also found by Dr. C.C. Ryrie’s well acclaimed book "Systematic Theology" as well as his book "The Premillennial Faith".

The basic rules are as follows…

• First rule is what is called The Golden Rule of Interpretation,
• The second rule of interpretation is The Law of double reference.
• The third rule of interpretation is The law of recurrence.
• The fourth and last rule A text apart from the context is a pretext

So how did I answer Dave Reagan?

I said I find many faults with this theory on many counts.

1. First and foremost, the theory is not based in proper Biblical hermeneutics.

2. It rejects the “Golden Rule of Interpretation.”

When the plain sense of Scripture males common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, unless the fact of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.

3. It rejects the rule of “a text apart from the context is a pretext.”

To explain further, the theory pulls scripture seriously out of context and is being presented as meaning something that it is not.

The primary leg on which the theory stands is taken from Ezekiel 37:10 where three words are pulled from the verse… “Exceedingly Great Army.” Clearly this is not speaking of a military force when viewed in context. It is talking about a large body of people.

4. It takes from the allegorical and applies it literally and takes from the literal and applies it allegorically.

We see this in Ezekiel 37:10 where the allegory “Exceedingly Great Army. “ is being made into a real army or the IDF as the theory proposes

It makes allegorical the IDF when in Psalms 83 it is God who is being addressed and petitioned. It is also God through Christ Jesus who executes the judgment upon the enemies of Israel in the Last Days, not the IDF.

5. The lens this theory uses is the lens of global events trying to prove scripture. Where proper interpretation is when one looks through the lens of scripture and reviews global events.

It is scripture which is the absolute truth, we do not need outside sources or events to prove what is already plain and true…God’s Word.

Now, although scripture is used to try to prop up this theory, it falls short regarding rule #1 and #4 of hermeneutics as I have pointed out.

6. Finally, and I have to say this is kind of stickler for me. If it is the IDF who wipes out the enemies of Israel as the Psalms 83 / Ezekiel 37:10 theory proposes. Why does Christ need to come back in victory saving Israel when Israel can do it herself?

That was the major contention I had with this theory, it has stolen Christ’s victory in saving the apple of His eye the people of Israel. It is Christ who is the victor as it states clearly in scripture, not the IDF.

I say all of this because often when things “outside” are taking place, we tend to lean upon our own understanding vs. what God’s Word REALLY SAYS.

Again, I have done this myself.

We so badly want to know the “secrets of the ages” and come up with “new things,” theories and ideas. But when one bends the rules or tosses them out completely like this theory has, you can basically use the bible to prove that grass is blue and the sky is green.

Now probably many of you read this book and think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But I challenge you to go back and look at it with proper hermeneutics in mind.

In regards to the show I did with David Reagan, I did not want my answer to come as a surprise to the author of the theory, so I sent him a copy of my notes.

His reply” I appreciate your honesty, but still respectfully disagree. - Bill

Today so many people are stepping away from solid Biblical hermeneutics because they “respectfully disagree.“

Hey, I didn’t write the rules, I just apply them trying to be a good Berean vs leaning upon my own understanding.

Personally I blame many of the seminaries who are teaching “feeling and emotion” over the written word of God, logic and critical thinking.

Because of a very loose view and lack of proper interpretation of scripture “new theories” like the Psalms 83 / Ezekiel 37:10 are rising to the surface.

Scripture tells us about “new things”…

Ecc 1:9 (KJV) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Because of what is taking place in the Middle East right now, it has given people the cause to jump on board this and other wild ideas.

People need to give pause for what is true and not run on emotions or stand on a world’s view.

People have forgotten about being a good Berean like we are called to be in Acts 17:11.

A world’s view has won out over having a Biblical view.