Apostasy is an important yet often neglected subject when attempting to comprehend what the Bible teaches about the end times. Thus, this series of articles is dedicated toward tracing ten general, biblical characteristics of apostasy. In the previous articles, apostasy was defined as a movement within Christ’s church representing a departure from known truth. It was also established that apostasy is the central sign revealed in Scripture signaling the near completion of the church’s earthly mission, that warnings against apostasy consume much of the New Testament, and that these New Testament warnings relate to virtually all of Christianity’s most cherished doctrines. Apostasy is also a phenomenon that occurs internally within the church, is led by individuals considered the least likely candidates to depart from truth, can happen quickly, and is ultimately satanically energized. This article will attempt to develop two more characteristics of apostasy: its destructive character and the deleterious impact it has upon those within the church who are attempting to remain faithful to God’s truth...
...Apostasy is also a phenomenon that occurs internally within the church, is led by individuals considered the least likely candidates to depart from truth, can happen quickly, and is ultimately satanically energized. Moreover, apostasy is destructive in character and also has a deleterious impact upon those within the church who are attempting to remain faithful to God’s truth. The last two articles in this series will discuss a final characteristic of apostasy: apostasy negatively impacts those who have not taken preventive measures against it. This final characteristic is perhaps the most important to discuss since it explains what believers can do to insulate themselves from apostasy’s pernicious influence...
...Apostasy also negatively impacts those who have not taken preventive measures against it. Our previous article demonstrated the need for aggressive action, or a lack of passivity, in order to counter apostasy’s negative influence. One such aggressive step involves the need to test all things through the grid of the measuring stick of the closed canon of Scripture. This article will focus on a final way to combat apostasy: by returning to the preeminence and authority of Scripture in our personal lives and local churches...
Passage: Revelation 17-18
Much controversy surrounds the identification of Babylon in Revelation 17-18. The reason for this controversy is that interpreters disagree over the hermeneutical approach to be employed in deciphering John’s Apocalypse. This disagreement over hermeneutics in turn results from disagreement regarding how Revelation’s genre should be classified. Should Revelation be classified as belonging to the prophetic genre or apocalyptic genre? The genre categorization selected by the interpreter effects his hermeneutic. Each of these genre categories is accompanied by a different set of hermeneutical principles.
Duration: 1 hr 18 mins 20 secs
On that first Independence Day, May 14th 1948 (the 5th Iyar 5708 in the Jewish calendar) at 3pm, in haste before the Sabbath started, David Ben Gurion presided over the ceremony to mark the founding of the State of Israel and to declare her Independence. Until the last moment it was not even known what the name of the fledgling state would be. All of Israel’s most important people were crowded into the bunker-like home of Meir Dizengoff; Jerusalem being under fire and there was a very real fear that they could all be wiped out simultaneously. The infant state had scarcely recovered from the Holocaust that had nearly decimated their national identity. It was only out of the ashes of Auschwitz, and a score of other death camps, that the promise of the dry bones began to be fulfilled. Yet all were aware that taking the step to statehood would move Israel from its refugee status coming out of the Holocaust to an Independent Nation capable of defending itself in the future. ...