Playing the Numbers Game in Bible Prophecy

I have now read two articles at WND about this new blockbuster book about Bible prophecy.  It promises amazing discoveries and breakthroughs.  But there are a couple of “common sense” problems that I can see just from reading the synopsis articles about the book.  The book is called Temple at the Center of Time: Newton’s Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012 and you can see articles about it here and here.  But here are the specifics that have set off questions that call the premise into doubt.

Sir Isaac Newton was not only a great thinker in physics, the book explains, but had extensive knowledge of the Scriptures with a special interest in prophecy. Newton believed there was a hidden code, a type of time-encrypted language. He believed the key to deciphering this code was the Temple of Solomon. He wrote extensively on the length measurements of the Temple and suggested it intersected time and dimension, serving as a prophetic and supernatural structure.

Basically this sets up the premise of the book.  According to what I have read in these articles, the book indicates that the distance from the Temple location in Jerusalem to key points on the globe corresponds with important dates in Israel’s history and therefore its future as well.  Let me take a longer quote from the article to show you what I mean:

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth

There were a lot of things that happened in my life during the last few weeks, but one that keeps after me day to day is a nagging issue that really hit me during my illness.  I have plenty of issues with the “prosperity gospel” or the “health and wealth gospel”, but the one that bugs me most is the fact that those who preach it either haven’t read all of their Bible or are willfully ignoring parts of it.  I don’t truthfully know which is the case from one person to the next, but it troubles me greatly.  I know it is a serious charge to make, but I intend to back it up.  If there is anyone who reads this that would like to “set me straight”, you are certainly welcome to make your case.  I just ask that you do so from Scripture and not from personal experience or personal testimony.  I will make my case from Scripture as well as give you some of my story to illustrate.

This really hit me hard a few weeks ago.  As I have mentioned here, I was quite sick and really not doing anything productive for a while.  I was running high fever and had chills, bodyaches, ect.  Recently the doctor has told me that I likely had parvovirus B19, which certainly fits.  The reason I bring this up, is that I watched a lot of TV in my downtime.  I was sleeping in a recliner, because I couldn’t be comfortable laying down and the recliner is conveniently in front of the TV.  During this time, I elected to sample some of the religious programming on TV that I don’t normally sit and watch.  Based on my sampling of some of these programs, I learned some fascinating things about Christianity that I never knew before.  One preacher told me that if I were a Christian, I couldn’t be sick.  If I just had faith and did what God said, He wouldn’t let me be sick.  This was news to me as I lay there in the chair running a fever of 103 or so.  I mean; I have acknowledged Jesus as my Savior and Lord.  One of us must have missed something in the Bible, but who?  Let me see if I can clear it up a little bit.  How about John 11:1-6?

Summer is coming to a close

Summer must be winding down since school is starting this week. My mother was always fond of singing the line, “now it’s time to say goodbye to the summer!” this time of year. Ironically, we are getting some of our warmest weather this week, but it won’t last for long. And warm is a relative term since we still haven’t seen 90 degrees here this year, nor are we likely to see it. I am still playing the part of medical mystery. I had a CT scan this morning and a doctor’s appointment later today to hopefully get some answers from that scan, but I also have an appointment set up in Grand Forks next week with a specialist of some kind.
We had a good week last week with the mission team here. The house was full and crazy at times, but the kids handled it well and we really enjoyed all of the fellowship and encouragement and the work that they were able to do. We saw seven people make decisions for Jesus Christ last week as well. I have plenty to do in the way of follow up and that is a good thing. I am putting a few pictures with this post of the team at work.

Learning from the Todd Bentley Disaster

While I was sick and recuperating, there was a lot going on.  One of the saddest, if somewhat expected, was the thundering crash of the Lakeland revival led by Todd Bentley.  It was always a building built on the sand of unsound doctrine and bad theology instead of the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, so it isn’t a great surprise that the crash came, but it is still a saddening day for Christianity as this is the face that some took for the real deal.  There is a lot of disecting going on in the blogosphere as the fallout hits.  Much of it is very good.  There are voices from within the charismatic movement that are calling for discernment and wisdom and a returned focus on Jesus Christ in handling the fallout and preparing for future pretenders.  The news coming out keeps getting worse as the days go on and there are many who are wondering how so many could be deceived so completely.  The Fresh Fire board has issued an apology (I found it quoted at Northwest Musings but you can see it on their site) to those who have been affected and wounded by this betrayal.  Many have written critiques better than what I would put forward and I have tried to link to some of those here, but I want to echo the most important theme that I have seen in these posts.  The most important thing in Christianity is Jesus.  It is all about Jesus.  If we lose that perspective or focus, we lose our reason for living, ministering, serving, or doing anything at all.  The Jesus Paradigm makes this point much better and with great cautions about the things that can take us off the rails.

I am also finding that I really like Jared Wilson more and more.  I wrote about him and his church’s radical giving program a while back, but his take on this fits my feelings exactly so I wanted to quote him here:

This is not about piling on Bentley. This is about rebuking his staff, his friends, his fans, and his defenders. You got the hero you deserved. You traded the truth for a lie, you cashed in the all-surpassing worth of Jesus for an unrepentant lying adulterer and his lame magic show, and you didn’t flinch when the evangelical world warned you it was gonna be a disaster.

I’m saying “I told you so” as a plea to you to stop — for the love of God! — idolizing these charlatans and their witchcraft. I say that as a continuationist. This isn’t about the charismatic gifts.

It’s about truth. It’s about The Truth. And Jesus is The Truth.

What we need is a radical re-commitment to zeal for the Christian’s sole satisfaction in Christ and His work. Nothing else.
Those who drift into Jesus + ____________ have their reward.

Amen brother.  It’s all about Jesus and Him alone.  The next time some guy comes along talking about promoting angels because “everyone already believes in Jesus” or tries to elevate anything over knowing Jesus Christ crucified, run the other way with all speed.

They do refer to it as practicing medicing

As many of you know, I have been sick for a couple of weeks now. We still don’t have any complete answers to what is wrong, but I am feeling better. I have been living on Tylenol and Ibuprofen for a couple of weeks now to keep the fever under control so that I can function normally, but it is only suppressing the symptoms. I will see the doctor again tomorrow and probably next week and the week after and we will see what we find out then. In the meantime, please pray for my health and the doctors who are trying to figure out what it is that I have.

Unplanned absence and God’s Grace

I haven’t been able to do much for over two weeks.  I got very sick, very quick and was unable to function coherently for a while.  I am starting to recover to the point that I can get stuff done, but I have some school work to catch up on and many things going on at present.  We have a mission team at our church and home working on projects this week and we have many exciting things going on.  I have several things to write about and will get them posted in the near future.  God can really show you a thing or two when all the distractions get removed from the picture.