Prophecy The Books

Through a progression of historical anecdotes and logical demonstrations, this book leads the reader to unsettling conclusions. Do not read "Prophets and Frauds" if you cherish your complacency.

The central object of this book is to explain the Elijah message and mission in its three inter-related phases. 1) That of Elijah the Tishbite in 1 Kings; 2) John the Baptist; 3) God's ;ast day messengers to the world described in Revelation 14. The author shows how the message and mission of God's final Elijah (a movement and a people) is designed to awaken the world to prepare for Christ's second coming through the power of the everlasting gospel. His thesis is carefully worked out from Scripture and is theologically conservative, written in the tradition of the Protestant Reformers, but focusing on end-time concerns as developed in Revelation. At the end of each chapter are four questions for reflection and discussion. The 190 page book is in paperback and cost 11.99. Published by Pacific Press. ISBN 0-8163-1704-6.

As a Christian with a strong background in the Old Testament, I found this to be the most convincing booklet - packed with information. This is amazing. My sister, Bev, sent me a little book, which was printed years ago, called the Messiah in both Testaments. Not only does it give the most clear presentation of how Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilled 333 specific prophecies - all of which were recorded over 400 years before His birth, but it also clarifies the prophecy in Daniel, which gives us the precise time when He would enter Jerusalem, triumphant, followed by His sacrifice for mankind. I have to share this with you.

1. Daniel makes it very clear that the Messiah will come and be "cut off" (die) before the people of the prince (the Romans) shall come and destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the temple. (Daniel 9:26)

2. The Messiah must come 483 years after a specific date in Daniel's time, which was the date of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem - this was decreed by Artaxerxes in 444 B.C. (Daniel 9:25, 26) The date for the Messiah to make His triumphal entry into Jerusalem would be 70 x 7 or 490 years beyond the date of 444 B.C.

3. The following is an exact quote from the booklet as it refers to the mathematics of Sir Robert Anderson.

"He starts with March 14, 444 B. C., the date of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem; and he ends the period with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which he believes was the official presentation of the Messiah as "Prince" to Israel. After careful investigation and consultation with noted astronomers, he gives these startling findings: From 444 B.C. to 32 A.D. is 476 years; 476 x 365 = 173,740 days; from March 14 to April 6 (the day of Christ's triumphal entry) is 24 days; add 116 days for leap years, and you get a total of 173,880 days. Since the "prophetic year" of the Bible is always 360 days, the 69 sevens of this prophecy in Daniel (69 x 7 x 360) is 173,880 days! And so the time given by Daniel from the "commandment to restore and build Jerusalem" to "Messiah the Prince" comes out perfectly to the very day!"

4. Jesus of Nazareth fulfills ALL the specifications as to His lineage, His birthplace, and the time of His birth. Amazingly, within a generation of Christ's sufferings on the cross, the temple was destroyed (70 A.D.), the Jewish priesthood ceased to exist, the sacrifices were no longer offered, the Jews' genealogical records were destroyed, and the people of Israel were driven out of their land, sold into slavery, and dispersed to the four corners of the earth. Hence, it has been utterly impossible for a "Messiah" to come with proper credentials such as the Old Testament demands and such as Jesus of Nazareth presented.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel is an intellectual and prophetic hero of mine. Any one who would stand up to the pope and say 'I'd rather die than convert' (when trying to get the Roman Catholic Church to drop 'conversion of the Jews' as an official aim of the church) has the sort of integrity of belief and identity that I aspire to and most likely will never attain.

Heschel's book 'The Prophets' became an almost instant classic. Simply reading through the chapter titles and subtitles (a partial list of titles appears at the bottom of this review) will give a sense of the breadth and depth of this work.

Heschel sees an urgent need for prophets and prophecy in today's world. He said the things that horrified the prophets are even now daily occurrences all over the world. In examining the prophecies of Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nathan, &c, he discerns the common strands of the word of God in all that they said and did, and teaches the reader how to discern similar prophetic aspects in today's world. 'The prophet is human, yet he employs note one octave too high for our ears.'

The Bible says, let him who has ears to hear, listen. Alas, ordinarily we do not have the hearing range to be able to give adequate attention and comprehension to today's prophetic voices. Most often the voice of the prophet is one we do not want to hear (look at how the Israelites reacted to their prophets!). Prophets were often seen as doom-sayers and problematic people.

Indeed, every prediction of disaster is in itself an exhortation to repentance. The prophet is sent not only to upbraid, but to 'strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.'

Every prophetic utterance, according to Heschel, has to have within its core a message of hope. Without hope, without a promise to greater community and participation in the love of God, there is no true prophecy. The road may be hard and long, involving pain and even death, but in the end, the prophet's goal is greater life for all.

According to Heschel, 'To be a prophet is both a distinction and an affliction.' Being a prophet has never been a chosen profession. Indeed, like Jonah, we'll often go to extraordinary lengths to avoid even the smallest call to prophecy. Prophetic voices are inconvenient, not least of which to the person charged to be the speaker of that voice. Yet the prophet is much more than a mouthpiece.

Heschel also says the prophet claims to be far more than a messenger. He is a person who stands in the presence of God. The prophet becomes one with God in many ways, yet remains a human being. This creates a tension in the prophet, as Heschel writes about Isaiah: Indeed, two sympathies dwell in a prophet's soul: sympathy for God and sympathy for the people. Speaking to the people, he is emotionally at one with God; in the presence of God, beholding a vision, he is emotionally at one with the people.

Yet prophecy has its limits. Heschel states that a prophet can give man a new word, but not a new heart.... Prophecy is not God's only instrument. What prophecy fails to bring about, the new covenant will accomplish: the complete transformation of every individual.

It was the prophet who, long before ideas of political unity and divers peoples living together in community, first conceived of the idea of a unity that binds all human beings together.

Read and prepare to be enlightened, inspired, irritated, and educated.

Chapters include:
- What manner of man is the prophet?
- History
- Chastisement
- Justice
- The Theology of Pathos
- The Philosophy of Pathos
- Anthropopathy
- The Meaning and Mystery of Wrath
- Religion of Sympathy
- Prophecy and Ecstasy
- Prophecy and Poetic Inspiration
- Prophecy and Psychosis (there is a fine line between prophecy and madness, after all!)

Heschel sums up in a sense in this way: This, then, is the ultimate category of prophetic theology: involvement, attentiveness, concern. Prophetic religion may be defined, not as what man does with his ultimate concern, but rather what man does with God's concern.

The book is a splendid read and answers questions about what may happen in the future. It isn't merely opinions here, but arguments backed by fact, reason and the bible. Even people who are not into religion will find the arguments in this books riveting.

Let me say at the outset that I am reviewing this book not from a critical standpoint of what Neusner argues is the connection between the Rabbis, the Law, and the Prophets, but from the standpoint of the contrast between the Rabbinical interpretation of the Law as outlined by Neusner, and the Ten Principles of Freedom (the secular image of the Ten Commandments) postulated in my book Freedom v. A Tyranny of Rights.

Neusner argues that the Rabbis initiated a program of "Rabbinization of prophesy".

He says this: "The program calls for the demonstration of the unity of the commandments, with stress on their ethical and moral contents. The Rabbis wished to reduce the diverse components of the moral code to a single PRINCIPLE [my emphasis] capable of containing details and forming of them an encompassing generalization." [pages 8 - 9]

In short, Neusner argues that the Rabbis were looking for an "absolute postulate" [see page 89 of Freedom v A Tyranny of Rights], a sort of Scriptural version of the "basic principle of the moral" [page 138 of Freedom v A Tyranny of Rights] which would reduce the commandments, and thus the whole law, to a single basic principle.

That is the fascinating aspect of this book; because it is basically the thesis of Freedom v A Tyranny of Rights. Where I depart from the Rabbinical perspective, however, is that I argue that the Ten Commandments also can and do provide basic principles even if we do not believe in a God. That is what the Ten Principles of Freedom are.

According to Neusner, for the Rabbis "all exposition takes for granted that the one, unique God gave the Torah and that the Laws and theological convictions contained therein govern and sanctify Israel."[page 3]

Taking that proposition as given, Neusner says this: "The Rabbis inherited Scripture - God's words in God's own wording - and through logical analysis uncovered the governing principles that permitted extending revelation and the revealed rules to new cases." [page 9]

From there, says Neusner, "The power to know the truth derived from mastery of those principles and capacity to apply them to unknown situations." [page 16]

Thus "Prophesy is relegated to matters of Torah-study, and the Rabbi's power of Prophesy is realized in his power to reason." [page 16]

Neusner then goes on to examine each of the Prophets in turn to demonstrate how the Rabbis used them to support various Halakhic issues. As Neusner so eloquently demonstrates, the Rabbis referred to the Prophets primarily in support of Halakhic rulings, and often (or mostly) cited verses from the Prophets out of context. But the impressive aspect of the analysis is the application of logic and reason to issues relating to the Law.

Yet, the whole discourse proceeds from the standpoint that there is a God, and He gave the Torah.

By contrast, in constructing the Ten Principles of Freedom, I work the other way round. I start from the proposition that we can never know (as the Scriptures themselves warn - Eccl 3:18, 20 &21 for example) whether there is in FACT a God, but that we can determine that there are basic principles which reason dictates are the only principles that can secure our individual and collective freedom. But because absolute freedom can only lead to conflict, I argue that individuals would agree to modify that absolute freedom in order to protect it. But the only way that we could agree to what obligations should apply is if we can determine some discernable purpose of life.

Thus I argue for Principle 5 (reflected in the Fifth Commandment), and the other 5 Principles which emerge from that Principle (reflected in Commandments 6 to 10). And further, the obligations that we would agree to adopt as a result of Principle 5 thus become what we recognize as morality.

So whereas Neusner demonstrates that the Rabbis applied reason and logic to the principles already set out in the Torah to establish a canon of Rabbinical Law, I argue that the application of logic and reason leads to the Principles in the first place, even for those who deny any God-given principles. But I converge with Neusner's assessment of the Rabbis' claim that the "power to know the truth ..." is derived from "mastery of those principles ...", only I argue that the Principles can stand independent of a God if rooted in a discernable and unchallengeable purpose of life.

The book is certainly worth a read, even for those who know little about Judaism (like me). But as I have said, for me, the fascinating aspect is the search for and application of Principles in order to elaborate a system of Law - the argument I propose in Freedom v A Tyranny of Rights.

Joseph BH McMillan

I just got finished reading Sid Roth"s book "Race to Save the World". I give it 5 stars. I too long for the Church that was in the Book of Acts, the power,glory,ete,ete. Sid Roth does speak the truth in love, never out of condemnation. I would recommend his book to the Christian or Messianic Jew who longs for unity in the Body of Messiah (John 17). A must read as we approach our Lord Jesus Coming. Marantha!

At last, evangelical Christians are beginning to question this relatively new doctrine in church history, which has no foundation in the Word of God. Due to the meticulous research by the very capable author, this error has at last been exposed. God bless Dave MacPherson for shining the light of truth on this mythical doctrine.

The early church had Martin Luther, today we have Daniel Gansle. In a very dark world of doomsday theories, and spiritual end-times threats that lie around every corner, we desperately need a watchdog. "Rapture Redux" is a detailed description of all of the those hard-to-understand situations that Christians face today, in an easily-read language. Eschatological topics span from apostasia to the UFO phenomenon. "Rapture Redux" is a book that isn't only a must-read, but it's a book to be studied, learned, and shared. In times that pressing signs lead to a very violent, dooming end, Gansle proves through Scripture and research that we have a blessed hope, found only in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

-Travis Harmon

TC Smith's Reading the Signs: A Sensible Approach to Revelation and Other Apocalyptic Writings, is a must-read for anyone seeking clarification of the intended meaning of apocalyptic writings such as Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, among others.

The chapters are:

Preface
Intro: Reading the signs
Ch. 1: The setting for apocalyptic thought
Ch. 2 Origin of Apocalyptice Literature
Ch. 3 Teachings of Apocalyptic Literature
Ch. 4 Apocalyptic Elements in the gospels and Acts
Ch. 5 Apocalyptic Elements in the Epistles
Ch. 6 The Book of Revelation
Conclusion: The Future Was Then

Reading the Signs, by TC Smith, stays out in the open and I regularly pick it up and read from it, although it is becoming dog-eared with use and ill treatment. If you can find a copy, grab it!