Image of the Beast

[Godsdrummer]

This is so outlandish, how someone can refuse to admit what is plain before their eyes.

All bible prophecy was given to the intended generation it was spoken to not to any generation in the future. It is only when men/women attempt to make prophecy speak to future generations, that we get mixed up translations and twisted meanings, such as futurism, and dispensationism.

The primary reason, is that they refuse to understand the apocalyptic language of the writers, and instead try to force the language into literal meanings. Such as terms like the "sun and moon turning into blood". futurist want to force this to mean the sun and moon will literally turn to blood at some point in the future. Or the term the "stars falling from the sky", again they want this to mean the stars literally will fall from the sky. Or another term, "every eye shall see him" they say that when Christ returns that every eye will literally see him at the same exact time. Which is an physical impossibility. But that does not sway the futurist from believing such. Why do they believe this? Because they have been indoctrinated for years, they have never ever even heard any differing teachings, than what they have been told. And instead of trying to understand, instead they only study to refute something that differs from what they have been taught.

People like this have the same attitude the religious leaders of Christ day. in their belief that their Messiah was a political leader that they believed would set up a literal political kingdom that would set them free from Roman oppression, they completely missed what was right in front of them. That being that the kingdom of God was never to be a literal earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom within the hearts of those that accepted him.

I am reminded of a story, of a women that always cut the ends off of her ham before cooking it. Her husband ask her one day, "why do you cut the ends of the ham off. She replied, "I don't know, my mom always did it this way". After going all the way to her great grandmother, to find out why, she found out that her great grandmother did it because her pan was to small for the ham to fit and she cut off the ends so it would fit. It had become a tradition, passed down from mother to daughter for three generations, until some one ask why.

This is the same thing with futurism, no one questioned why we believe this way, and when someone did, they began to see the error of the teaching. For three hundred or four hundred years, this teaching has been passed down with little to none, of anyone questioning the validity of this tradition. Just like the daughter that cut off the ends of her ham because that is the way mom did it.