Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Iraq - Prophecy fulfilled? Message-ID: Date: 3 Oct 90 07:12:49 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK. Lines: 30 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article gross@dg-rtp.dg.com (Gene Gross) writes: >Seeing things grow worse should motivate us to labor the more earnestly >in our Father's vineyard. We should find within the events of the day >more than ample reason to share the Gospel with others through word and >deed (our lifestyle). Now if this is bibliolatry, then I am guilty. >But I hardly see how ministering and witnessing can be called >bibliolatry. > Fine. What I object to is the drawing of elaborate parallels while ignoring more general principles. If you want to do this, stick to Nostradamus and leave the Bible to Christians. Every age has had a fair share of people who consider their own age to be the "last days" and see the events of that age as signs from God that the World is coming to an end. The real Christian message is that we should always live as if we were to be called to judgement tomorrow. That comes through time and time again in Christ's teachings. Detailed plans for the future do not. Matthew Huntbach [I'm not sure you disagree with Gene. My comment on this is that we should be able to get something out of Rev. even if we aren't the last generation. As I see it, Rev. was written to give Christians encouragement in difficult circumstances. Its original readers certainly weren't the last generation. It helped them put their trials into the long-term cosmic perspective. Surely we should be able to benefit from this as well, whether the Last Judgement comes tomorrow or not. --clh]