the rapture racket

8/7/2019 The Rapture Racket

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LEIGHIST & GRATEFUL PRESSLESS

PRESS

DAVID R. LEIGH

P.O. BOX 268FOX RIVER GROVE, IL 60021-0268

847-571-3011

[email protected]

2011 CopyrightDavid R. Leigh & Gilbert Bilezikian. All Rights

Reserved.


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Dedicated to all who seek the

kingdom of God.

By faith Abraham... was looking forward to the city

with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

- Hebrews 11:8,10

... admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on

earth..., they were longing for a better countrya

heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be

called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

- Hebrews 11:13,16


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Contents

Preface

1. Innocence

2. Conscience

3. Dominion

4. Promise

5. Law

6. Grace

7. Christ's Reign

Epilogue


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Preface to Working Draft

by Dave Leigh

It often happens for me in those twilighthours, in the undefined region between dreaming

and waking.

Call it a flash of insight or divine guidance,

an ah ha! moment, or a suddengestaltof ideasin a dream just before become fully aware of

where I am. It comes to me as a gift of clarity

where suddenly things just fit together.

The first time I can recall experiencing it

was the morning of my grandmother's funeral. Iwas a teenager and my family knew I'd

experienced a spiritual conversion. So they asked

me to prepare a prayer for the graveside. I

wrestled for days not knowing what to say. That

morning as I awoke, I heard someone praying. It

was my own voice, saying the prayer I needed to

share with my family for the sake of their

comfort. I did not need to write it down. It stayed


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with me until the moment arrived.

In my early adult years I served as a pastorin small churches. Often I would wrestle all

week long over my sermon preparation. Like

Jacob I'd refuse to let go of God without his

blessing. This often meant going to bed on a

Saturday night unsure that the sermon I'd

prepared would look the same in the morninglight. And sure enough there would be times

when I'd awake hearing myself giving a

message that trumped the one in my previous

day's notes.

This book project began from a similarexperience. I'd had the privilege of hearing my

friend Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian give a three-part

series of classes at Willow Creek, entitled Israel

101. The material dovetailed wonderfully with

conclusions I too had come to, thanks to hispublished writings and my own biblical studies.

One morning, a few days after attending his class

I found myself awaking from one of those

dreams.

In it, I saw myself working with Gilbert ona book covering the topics of his class, and

incorporating material from his books, like


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Christianity 101, Community 101, and some

unpublished materials he distributed to the class.

The dream was so vivid that I had to send

Gilbert an email. But the idea of working

alongside this scholar and man of God, whom I

so much admired, seemed presumptuous to me.

So, admittedly, I modified my telling of the

dream a bit. I simply told him I'd dreamt it washe who was writing that book, and asked him if it

might be the case or something he'd considered.

His answer astounded me! He emailed that

he had begun such a project but had abandoned it

after just a few pages. I even have a title for it,he wrote: The Rapture Racket. But I don't have

the time. What about you tackling it if you like

to write?

Before I could blink in disbelief, a second

email popped into my inbox with a file attached.

It was the pages he'd written. Gilbert explained

that his age (mid-80s) and the increasing

demands on his time for speaking engagements

and ministry commitments were working against

his availability to write books. Serious, if youwould enjoy putting it all together, all the

materials are yours. If it would help, you could


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even use my name as sponsor, co-author or

something.

It was as though Gilbert had spied on my

dream! The conversations that followed via

email and personal meetings at Gilbert's home

and favorite pubs further yielded a collaboration

that surpassed the vision I'd first been too shy to

admit to him.

The text that follows is that work in

progress. It attempts to present theological

perspectives and truths on a level we can all

relate toby use of story and fictionalized

dialogue.

We offer it here on Scribd.com/dleigh_1 to

elicit your feedback, ideas, and support. If you

have ideas, editorial suggestions, or questions,

please know that you will be helping this project

greatly by letting us know.

Nothing has posed a greater deterrent to

completing this book than the economic

challenges created by the time and commitment

it takes to write without interruption.

If you'd like to share with us your

feedback, ideas, or support, please email me at

[email protected] or send surface
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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mail to:

Dave LeighP.O. Box 268

Fox River Grove, IL 60021-0268

We look forward to hearing from you!

- Dave

April 2011


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Chapter 1: Innocence

The heat of the day caused a blurry layerof air to emanate from the land.

Abram sought shade in a grove of trees,known to the locals as the great trees of Mamre

the Amorite, in the Valley of Shaveh (the King's

Valley).

Even from here in the cooler shadows, the

world seemed a haze and the heat daunting tothis sagely nomad. As if it wasn't hard enough

for he and his family to find their way in this

landso unfamiliar and so unlike the distant

country they came from.

Was it the heat of the day that made himdrowsy or was it the wearying after-effects of a

long battle? Who could blame him if he sought a

plush area of sod where he could drift into a nap?


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His old body still ached from the bloody conflict

he'd endured in rescuing his nephew Lot from a

kidnapping band of indigenous war lords andmarauders.

How strange was this place and its peoples

in more ways than geography and miles! And

how wearying it all was!

But Abram was in Yahweh's grip. God had

told him to get up and leave the comfort of his

native soil and go to a place that he would show

Abram. Sure Abram had a choice. But did he

really? After all, this was Yahweh who

commanded him. And so Abram obeyed.

But when will this end? he often asked

himself. When will I reach that place I'll call

home?

Go from your country, your people andyour family's household to the land I will show

you, Yahweh said. I will make you into a great

nation and bless you. I will make your name

great, Abram! Yes, you will be a blessing. In fact,

I will bless those who bless you; anyone who

curses you I will curse. Abram, I will bless all

the peoples on earth throughyou.

That encounter with Yahweh still seemed


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unreal to Abramand yet nothing in his life was

or ever felt more real. So: Here I am, Lord.

At age 75, he obeyed and took his wife

Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions

they owned, left his native soil of Ur and set out

for the unknown land of Canaan.

Here I am, Lord, Abram whispered intothe dense air above him, as he lay in the shaded

sod and looked into the sky that shone through

the motionless branches sheltering him.

But where is here? Abram wondered.

And where will we finally end up?The Canaanites puzzled him. As with all

people, they were a mixture of good and bad.

Some Abram had to fight in bloodied battle, like

the one he'd just finished against the unreasoning

brutes who abducted Lot. Others, he could formalliances with, like those who assisted him in

Lot's rescue. But none of them did he fully trust.

All the while, as Abram traveled this fertile

wilderness and navigated both its physical and

political landscape, he kept hearing Yahweh'swords echo in his head: To your offspring I will

give this land.


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My offspring! Abram thought,I am an old

man. Sarai is an old woman. And it has been

years since Yahweh made those promises. Whatcould God have meant by my offspring?

* * *

Bryce looked nostalgically at the tatteredBible in his hands. His mind went back thirty

years to a day when he was 15 and, oddly

enough, expecting to go roller-skating.Isn't that what you are supposed to do at a

roller rink?

His classmate and friend, Sean, had invited

Bryce to a youth rally at a rink where youth

groups from all over the county would converge.Not being of Sean's faith, nothing could have

prepared Bryce for what happened at that rink

or the events that would unfold because of it.

Oh, there was roller-skating that wintry

night. But it could not have been for more than

45 minutes before the youth leaders called the

students to sit together in a large circle on the


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dusty floor. They introduced a special speaker

they called a youth evangelist and for Bryce

this is when the evening of roller-skating gaveway to one of emotional roller coasters that

would outlast the night.

The room darkened as the evangelist

invited the students to watch a short film clip.

Bryce watched the screen depict a

purportedly future moment in the life of a family

much like his own. Johnny, the teenager in the

family, could have been any one of Bryce's

friends.

SCENE 1: Sunday

Johnny's family, devoutly Christian,

prepares to go to church. But Johnny, the skeptic,

resists.

That place is so bogus, Johnny whines,

referring to the church.

A shouting match ensues and Johnny

prevails. His family piles into the car without

him and drives off in a huff.

SCENE 2: Monday

Johnny gets off the school bus with a


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backpack slung over his shoulder. As he starts

walking up his family's driveway, he looks back

to see the bus he was just on swerve off the roadand crash.

He drops his bag and darts to the crash

where he encounters bloodied classmates

climbing from the wreckage. The bus driver just

disappeared, they cry, and so did half the kidson the bus!

What do you mean disappeared? Johnny

asks.

They just vanishedliterally, comes theanswer amidst sobs and cries of horror.

That's insane! Johnny shouts.

Panicked, Johnny runs back across the

street, past his backpack, to his house to call for

help.

Mom! he yells, as he stomps through the

front door.

He sees her car is in the garage but she and

his siblings are strangely missing.

Where the heck are they?! he mutters.

But there's no time to think about it.


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Frantically, he dials the phone.

A buzzing sound blares from the phoneindicating the lines are jammed.

Air raid sirens moan in the distance.

He runs back outside looking desperately

for any adult who might help.

As he reaches the next-door neighbor's

yard, he sees a jetliner sweep over the rooftops

of his neighborhood. Trees swish its underbelly

and Johnny hears it crash in the distance. Smoke

and flames billow into the sky.

The screen dissolves.

SCENE 3: A series of horrific and

cataclysmic crashes cascade across the screen.

Police cars and emergency vehicles

crisscross at racing speeds with their sirens andlights at full kilt. Trains derail. Traffic jams

sprawl across all the major cities of the world.

Tanks explode and airplanes collide. But all this

is not the result of an alien invasion, Godzilla, or

a terrorist plot, the narrator explains. It is Thelong-awaited rapture of the church.

Bible verses that allege doom for humanity


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now fill the screen with scenes of suffering and

world domination in the backdrop. Passage after

passage, wrested from the original context, isstrung together with the next in such a way as to

predict seven years of horrific and unspeakable

eventsthe onset of the Great Tribulation and

the end of the world.

The screen dims. The evangelist, a gray-haired gentleman with a black Bible in his hand

now stands alone before the darkened screen.

He steps forward and takes up the story.

Two men will be walking up a hill, hesays, waving the old leather book. One will be

taken and the other will be left behind. A man

and wife will be sleeping in the same bed; she'll

hear a noise The evangelist drops the Bible

so that it slaps the floor and makes an echo

throughout the quieted rink of mesmerized

teenagers. She'll turn her head, he says in a

hushed tone, andhe's gone!

But don't fear for the missing, he warns.

They've been snatched up to meet the Lord Jesus

in the air! Fear rather for those who have been

left behind!

And fear is exactly what Bryce did! He


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listened in horror as the evangelist described the

rise of the Beast, also called the Antichrist,

along with the Great Tribulation and bloodypersecution for those who would not take 666 as

an emblem on their hands or foreheads. Bryce's

young heart shook as the old evangelist

described in his alarming manner yet another

return of Christ at the end of the seven years oftribulation.

Jesus will come in the sky for a bloody

coup that will topple the Antichrist and set up his

reign on earth for one thousand years, he

explained. In this Millennial Kingdom theliving, the raptured, and the resurrected dead will

live side by side, offering sacrifices in the rebuilt

Jerusalem Temple.

A look of wonder filled the old evangelist's

face as he described yet another return, a sinisterreturnnot of Christ but of the Devil afterthe

thousand-year reign of Christ.

Satan will be re-released by God himself

from the Abyss of Hell, he shouted. And what

does Satan do? He deceives and seduces largenumbers of these paradise dwellers at the end of

the Millennium, convincing them to rebel against


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their Lord and Savior, the Millennial King Jesus,

who has ruled them with grace and truth and

mercy for ten centuries!

Bryce's heart and mind reeled with an

admixture of terror and excitement as the speaker

went on to explain there will be yet more

resurrections, The Great White Throne

Judgment, souls thrown into The Lake ofFire, and finally a new heaven and new earth!

Although Bryce's parents raised him to

respect the Bible, he had no idea it might contain

such things. And it was out of his respect for the

Bible that fear gripped him that night. He felt acold sweat lick his back as the evangelist put out

his plea, punctuating it at every turning point

with: Don't be left behind! Don't be left behind!

Don't be left behind!

Bryce didn't remember standing up from

the dusty floor that night. But he remembers

finding himself walking forward with a mass of

other teenagers at the evangelist's exhortation.

That night Bryce did not fall in love with

Jesus Christ and choose to take up his cross to

follow him. He did not give away his life to

Christ. He stepped forward at the evangelist's


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altar call tosave his life, escape the Great

Tribulation, and not be left behind.

In the days and months that followed

Bryce's decision, Bryce became involved in

Sean's youth group and church, attended Bible

studies with Sean, and became so enthusiastic

about his new-found faith that Bryce's zeal even

made Sean uncomfortable at times. Bryce readbooks like the The Late Great Planet Earth and

attended End Times Prophecy seminars every

chance he could.

The people in Sean's church came to

admire Bryce. And Bryce loved them. They weregood people, devout and zealous. It's fair to say

they filled Bryce's high school years with a form

of camaraderie and community that was rich

with Christian values, fellowship, and friendship.

When it came time for college, their youth

pastor urged Bryce and Sean to enroll in a solid,

fundamental, dispensationalist Bible college.

But as zealous as Bryce had been, he'd not

managed to persuade his parents of his faith or

its implication for their souls when the rapturecomes. If anything, truth be told, they were

quite put off by what they hoped would be a


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passing fanaticism.

We'll support you if you go to a secularliberal arts college or university, they informed

him. But we will not hear of spending a penny

on a Bible college or any school associated with

thatchurch.

Bryce had no choice. He left for the stateuniversity.

His church friends encouraged him to make

the best of it and become involved in a campus

fellowship, which he didat first. Then came

the loaded schedule of classes, deadlines, and,well, other great things to do at school.

As his church friends feared might happen,

Bryce driftedjust a little, at first. Then, a little

more. Then, the time came when he had little

time for church even when he was home onbreak. To his parent's satisfaction, he had passed

through the phase they so wearily endured.

As graduation neared, Bryce met Kirsten, a

lovely English major, and they fell in love. They

married just weeks after graduating. But twodecades and a couple of kids later, that

relationship unraveled into an ugly divorce. Now

Bryce found himself alone, unpacking boxes,


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and searching within himself for answers.

Attempts at visiting churches over the yearshad left Bryce feeling out of place. Yet he felt the

need to have spiritual substance in his life. It had

been years since he'd picked up a Bible. In fact,

it dawned on him that he'd never really read it all

the way, straight through, even during his days of

zealotry.

In the quiet loneliness of his tiny

apartment, he'd plundered through the boxed-up

wreckage of his life and found this old leather-

bound book he used to tote around in his

backpack. It was the Bible Sean gave him whenit was crisp and new, shortly after that night at

the rink.

Now as Bryce sat here, it was a tattered

volume in his hands.

Where do I start? Bryce asked himself.

How about at the beginning? he thought

with a grin.

And so it was that he embarked on a

commitment to himself to read the Bible from

cover to ragged cover, not skipping around as he


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did in his church days under the tutelage of

eloquent and sensational teachers; not stringing

passages together from verses far and wide; butjust plodding through, page after page.

As Bryce did this, a strange world opened

up to him. Not the world he had expected. No, he

had expected to see the dispensations and

dispensational truths of that old evangelist laidout in all their splendor.

To the contrary. Everything looked

different now in its original context.

The more he read, the more disorientedBryce felt.

Maybe it's just that I haven't looked at this

stuff in so long, he told himself.It will get

clearer when I get to the New Testament.

But by the time he finished the Gospels,

Bryce found himself looking at Christ, and the

Kingdom that Christ proclaimed and taught

about, in ways he'd never considered before.

He read through the book of Acts and

listened to sermon after sermon by the

apostles, preaching to Jews and Gentiles alike

that all the promises of the Law and Prophets had


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been fulfilled in their day in the coming of Jesus

the Messiah. To Bryce's surprise, not once did

Peter or Paul or anyone in Acts warn people toaccept Christ in order to avoid being left

behind or to escape the Great Tribulation. In

fact, he couldn't find a single clear reference to a

seven-year period of persecution in any of Jesus

or the apostles' teachings. He found references topersecution and tribulation, yes.

But that was all to stuff going on back

then! And it never seemed to stop.

What's happened? he asked himself. He

looked at the cover and assured himself it wasthe same Bible he'd used in his youth. Where are

the seven dispensations I was taught? Where

are the frightening scenarios my pastors drilled

into my head week after week?

With the exception of Christ's Olivet

Discourse, little of it sounded familiar so far.

Yet, even that section didn't line up with his

recollection of how he was taught, when he took

it in its entirety and compared the parallel

accounts in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.From what Bryce recalled from his college

history classes, most of the predictions in that


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discourse could be identified with first-century

events.

Perhaps I should have bought the Bible

with the footnotes that some of my high school

friends had, he thought, with a puzzled look.No.

I want the straight scoop, he told himself,

without using someone else's lens.

Pressing on, Bryce pushed through the

epistles and letters. He found they connected

with the Old Testament story in ways he never

saw before. Occasionally, he did come across

statements and phrases reminiscent of the end-

times scenarios he recalled. But something aboutreading them now in context made them seem

oddly different.

Bryce grew confused. He looked at the box

of books that he'd left half-unpacked in the

corner upon fishing out this Bible.

Maybe I should just put this thing back in

that box and forget about it, he mumbled to

himself audibly, in frustration. But something

inside him kept drawing him on.I've come this

far. I can't quit now.

Then it hit him: Surely the book of

Revelation is all about the end times. It will have


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to fill it all in for me!

But by the time Bryce reached Revelation,he had a new perspective on the Bible's message

that would inform his reading of that book so as

to illuminate its every pageand fill him with

yet more questions.

You might think all this would energize andexcite Bryce. But in reality, it only served to

further disorient and disturb him. He needed to

talk to someone about it all, but he didn't know

where to turn.

One day would change all that.

He was at his office and noticed during his

lunch hour that Margaret, who worked in a

cubicle not far from his, was reading a Bible

while eating a sandwich.

Deep stuff, he said to her, breaking the

ice.

Margaret looked at him with brown soulful

eyes and paused as she pushed her long auburnhair behind her ears.

It doesn't get any deeper, she responded


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with a smile.

They began talking and he felt an instantconnection to Margaret.

In the days that followed, Bryce and

Margaret found themselves having lunches

together on a regular basis. And the Bible

became the theme of all their lunchtimeconversations.

Eventually, Bryce decided to confide in

Margaret about his background, the church he

experienced as a teenager, and the frustrations

and doubts caused by his reading project, as hecalled it.

She listened attentively and seemed to

understand exactly where Bryce was coming

from.

Sure, he told her, there are ways in

which parts of the Bible and Revelation sound

like some of the things I was taught. I certainly

came across words like 'tribulation,' a thousand-

year reign, and images of angels harvesting the

earth. Jesus definitely predicted his own returnand the destruction of Jerusalem. But as I read

each passage in its own contextand the book

of Revelation in the broader context of the rest of


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You need to talk to Professor Garabet,

she finally said, matter-of-factually.

* * *

Lizzette was not Jewish. But she'd alwayswanted to go to Israel someday.

When other children were dreaming about

the lands in story books of once-upon-a- time,

Lizzette yearned for a land she knew was real.

It's not that she didn't enjoy thinking about placeswith unicorns and My Little Ponies from time

to time, like other kids her age. But Lizzette was

always captivated by the stories she heard in

Sunday school and around the family table.

Little did young Lizzette realize that theinnocent mind between her pigtails was actually

romanticizing what that Holy Land would be

likeas much, if not more, than her playmates

had fantasized about their never-never-lands of

fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

Not until she was a teenager did she begin

to catch the hints that something was awry with


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her longed-for Promised Land.

This is how it happened:Lizzette loved Scripture. She particularly

loved the teachings of Jesus. And thanks to those

teachings, Lizzette found herself driven by a

compassionate heart for people. During her high

school days this translated into an academic trackthat she hoped would take her to college to

become a social worker.

But like many teenagers in her school and

church, she was more likely, on a Sunday

afternoon, to pick up the funny pages than thefront page of a newspaper or the world news

section of the Times. And, if the nightly news

was on the TV, it was certainly because one of

her parents had turned it on.

It was on one of those evenings that eventhe American-focused newscasters her parents

watched gave a report on events in the Middle

East.

Scud missiles pointed at Tel Aviv and

Jerusalem have local residents here scramblingfor gas masks and bomb shelters, the

newscaster reported, standing in front of a Patriot

anti-ballistic missile launcher.


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Jerusalem? she exclaimed.

Her ears caught that word and yanked herattention to TV screen.

She watched the footage of families

huddling in shelters and of soldiers distributing

food packs and equipment to the frightened

civilians.At a truck distributing gas masks, an unruly

crowd gathers and turns into a mob, as men with

long beards and wide brimmed hats snatch

hooded gas masks from the hands of anxious

pleading mothers before others could grab them.What are they doing? Lizzette asked.

The newscaster's voice-over narrated the

scene: Because hooded masks enable orthodox

men to avoid shaving their faces, these lifesaving

devices are at a premium. But they are also

desperately needed by families with small

children, whose heads are too small for the

standard-issue face masks made for soldiers!

What are they saying? young Lizzette

asked her father, with a look of shock.

Well, her father explained, These highly

religious men must choose between keeping their


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beards or taking a device that could save the life

of a child. They're trying to save their beards

instead.

Lizzette let out an aghast What! How can

they do that!!!

And so it began. It was the First Persian

Gulf War. As the world watched OperationDesert Shield give way to Operation Desert

Storm and campaigns of shock and awe,

Lizzette's shock and awe grew over the years.

How can this be happening in the Holy

Land? she wondered.In the following decades, Lizzette

marveled each time her ears caught the name of a

biblical town or location in the news. She'd

always loved thinking about going to Jerusalem,

Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee. But while thatdesire never left her, now she had to think of

visiting these places amidst tanks, bombs and

Israelis with machine guns, while rioting

residents and settlers threw rocks (or worse

things) at each other.

I find this so disturbing, she told her

parents one day at the dinner table during the 6

o'clock news.


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Look! she exclaimed, gesturing at the TV

set. That's Bethlehem! That's Jerusalem! Those

are Bible places and those people are buildingwalls and fences to keep each other out of entire

sections of town! Why, it's like Berlin all over

again!

Lizzette! her mother tsked.

Well it IS! Lizzette blurted out.

It's all just so disturbing! Lizzette said,

raising her hand as if it was about to fly off her

wrist, only to have it come slapping down on her

knee.Disturbing. This was a word she would

use often whenever she talked about the Middle

East.

There's just no better word for it! She

insisted.

These are supposed to be holy places

not the sites of bombings, Scud Missiles, or

skirmishes between Israelis and Palestinians!

In her younger days, she would try to makesense of all this by dismissing these reports as

bad people doing mean things in a foreign

land. Her parents sometimes spoke of these news


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stories as signs of the end times. So Lizzette

came to figure that this might even just be stuff

the Bible predicted would happen before Jesusreturned. These ugly events were exceptions, in

her mind, to what the Promised Land was all

about. The Holy Land she would visitif she

ever didwould be that land flowing with milk

and honey she learned about in her childhood.One day her high school Social Studies

class talked about current events in the Persian

Gulf.

Despite the daily barrage of catastrophic

news coverage there, Lizzette told the class, Istill want to visit Israel. I just don't think I want

to visit the one on the news!

Her classmates laughed and her teacher

gave her a knowing smile.

That's how it was. But since something

inside her told her it might be a long time before

Jesus really does return, she dared to hope that

maybe the political situation would change in her

lifetime.

Maybe the 'bad people' will just go away

or stop hurting each other for a while, she

thought.


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sinners Jesus died for us. And the God I love is

the God who would defend the widow and

orphan, the stranger, the foreigner, and thesojourner, against oppression and violence.

One question especially started to nag

Lizzette: What am I to make of violent acts that

seem terribly unjust but which are apparently

being committed by the government and militaryauthorities of God's beloved chosen people?

That questionthat very disturbing and

nagging questionbecame deeply rooted in her

conscience during her college years.

And it would not go away.


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Chapter 2: Conscience

Buzzing.

Flies buzzing.

Horse flies, buzzing.

Buzzards.

Buzzards swarming, circling.

Buzzards swooping.

Abram chased them all.

What a sight I must be! he thought.A crazy

old man waving his arms to play the scarecrow

to these ravenous bugs and birds. What an ironicand appropriate end to a tiresome day!

Yahweh had issued the order: Bring me a


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heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old,

along with a dove and a young pigeon. He

meant these for sacrifices. So Abram brought allthese and cut each offering in two, arranging the

halves opposite each other, as God had specified.

The birds, however, God did not want cut. (Who

can understand such things! Abram groused.)So

Abram left them intact.Abram could not help but wonder if the

comic aspects of this hectic day weren't in some

part due to God's famous sense of humor. After

all, the day began with Abram being so

presumptuous as to dare even argue withYahweh, the Most High!

Yahweh had blessed him with a vision,

perhaps the first vision from Yahweh any living

human ever had. And Yahweh had greeted

Abram with the sweetest of words: Don't beafraid, Abram. I am your shield and your greatest

of rewards.

How did Abram respond? By arguing!

Sovereign Yahweh, he heard himself saying,

what can you give me since I remain childlessand my only possible heir is Eliezer of

Damascus?


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Did I really say thatto Yahweh Most

High!? Abram asked himself. He felt a shiver

just to recall it. Oh, but I didn't stop there, did I?I outright accused him: You've given me no

children; so a servant in my household will

inherit all I have!

Yes, perhaps this day has been divine

justice, he thought, as he grabbed his staff andchased off three more very determined vultures.

But then he also recalled God's gracious

reply to his impudence: The slave will not be

your heir, Yahweh assured him in that precious

vision. A son who will come from your ownbody will be your heir. And then, as the vision

continued, the day turned to night, the sky filled

with stars, and Abram found himself standing in

a place that took his breath away. He was peering

into our Milky Way Galaxy.

Look up at the heavens, Yahweh

whispered, and count the starsif indeed you

can count them. Abram shuttered as Yahweh

added: So shall your seed be.

In that moment, Abram believed Yahweh

and for this reason Yahweh regarded him as

righteous.


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As if that was not enough, God added:

Abram, I am Yahweh. I brought you out of Ur

of the Chaldeans to give you this land you arestanding in. Together we will take possession of

it.

And that's where I figure I crossed the line,

Abram admitted.Had I stopped there, this day

could have been so different! But, no! I could notlet it rest. I had to keep my kvetching.

Sovereign Yahweh, I had to say, how can I

know that I will gain possession of it? Ugh!

How can I know! Really?! I had to ask that?!

Abram quieted his heart. He was, after all,truly grateful.I mean, Yahweh could have

squashed me like a bug, right there. But how

gracious he is! And how wonderful are his

plans!

Well, here you are Yahweh! I have done as

you've asked. I've done it with a glad and

grateful heartI mean I really am grateful! And

I've done it all exactly as you've asked. Now here

I am. I amhere, Lord. But so are these pesky

insects and troublesome birds!

Abram pushed aside his annoyance at the

persistent invaders. He dare not let them interfere


44/135

with the attitude of his heart or his love for the

one who just moments ago saw his faith and

reckoned it as his righteousness.

He bowed in worship. Quieting his soul, he

called upon the Name of Yahweh. In that

stillness, an Edenic contentment came over him.

As the sun set, Abram fell into the deepest, most

divine, slumber ever to come on a human sincethe day God drew Eve from Adam's side,

indicating that something significant was about

to happena new beginning with Abram as the

fountainhead of a new humanity.

But first, as Abram slept, a thick andterrifying darkness came over him and he heard

Yahweh saying horrible things that shot chills

through his soul:

Know most certainly that for four hundred

years your seed will be a foreigner in a land not

theirs. They will be slaves and terribly abused

there. But I will punish that nation where this

happens. After their slavery they will leave with

great plunder. Yet you, Abram, will go to your

ancestors in peace, buried at a good old age. Itwill be four generations before your seed returns

here. I will endure the Amorites until their sin


45/135

reaches its full measure before I evict them.

Abram wondered at this. He tried to speakbut could not. He saw the sun was setting and

darkness was just now falling.Am I awake or

asleep? he asked himself. He could not tell.

Just then, a smoking firepot and blazing

torch appeared, moving between the splitcarcasses he'd prepared.

What does this mean, Lord? he heard

himself ask.

It means that on this day I've made my

covenant with you, Yahweh answered. To yourseed I've reserved this land, from the Wadi of

Egypt to the great river Euphrates. Currently this

area has been occupied by rebellious and sinful

peoples. But once they demonstrate their total

depravity and unwillingness to repent, I will givethis land to your seed.

Buzzing.

A fly buzzing.

Circling Abram's sleeping eyelids and

landing on his nose.


46/135

Abram awoke to swipe the vexation from

his face.

My seed? he wondered.As numerous as

the stars? How will so many fill this land? he

mused. My slave will not be my heir. He sighed

with relief and then caught his breath:But my

heirs will be slaves?

And if God plans to judge and evict the

current occupants of this land, how much better

will my own offspring fare as tenants? What will

they have to do and be in order to stand before

Yahweh and keep hold of this holy place that

seems to be filled with visions, grace, and divinejudgment?

* * *

The lecture hall bustled at capacity andbuzzed with anticipation.

Bryce and Margaret sat as close as they

could to front and center, but so many had

arrived before them, to hear Dr. Garabet speak.

His topic: The Rapture Racket.


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Margaret intended a less formal setting for

introducing Bryce and Sarki (as Dr. Garabet

preferred his friends call him). But when shephoned to set up a meeting, she learned he would

be speaking that very evening on the same

subject troubling her new friend.

How amazing is that! she exclaimed.

Bryce agreed and was happy to see the man inaction whom Margaret so much admired.

I promise you, Sarki told her, your

friend will not be disappointed. And I will be

happy to meet with you both later.

Bryce came prepared with notepad and

pen. Margaret bristled with excitement over the

timing of it alland couldn't wait for her friends

to connect afterward.

The audience lights dimmed as the podiumarea brightened.

A tall, elegant woman takes the podium,

dressed in the kind of dark pants suit one might

expect of an attorney or banker.

Welcome to the third annual meeting of

Evangelicals United for Biblical Faith and

Compassion, she says. I have the privilege of


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introducing our evening speaker, and the first of

what promises to be an exciting line-up of

speakers this weekendalthough Dr. Sarkis J.Garabet needs little introduction for most of

you. (The audience applauds.)

Dr. Garabet is a distinguished Bible

scholar and the author of many books. Although

in recent years he has taken to calling hisactivities 'retirement,' I have it on good authority

that his speaking and writing demands keep him

busier than ever. (More applause and some

laughter.)

Although many of you will know him forhis significant contributions to a variety of

biblical and theological fields of study, in recent

yearshis, ahem, 'retirement' yearshe has

become quite prolific and focused on issues of

justice and compassion. In particular, he hasdeveloped a burden for how Evangelicals relate

to issues in the Middle East, and how popular

end-times theories, that he considers spurious,

have created trends he regards as disturbing.

The room quiets.

Well, to go on might turn into a lecture of

its own. And you did not come to hear me


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speak! (Laughter.) So without another moment

of delay, please join me in welcoming our

speaker, Dr. Sarkis Garabet!

The room bursts into applause as a trim,

gentle-mannered man in a tweed sports-jacket

takes the platform, carrying a notepad and a

Bible. He has a kind but rugged face, with a full

head of gray hair. His gray eyes seem to sparkleas he looks out over his reading glasses at the

welcoming audience.

Thank you for your gracious introduction,

Dr. Ouimet, he says, arranging his notes on the

podium, And thank you members of EUBFC,for inviting me here tonight. E-U-B-F-C, wow!

That's a mouthful! he quips. (Gentle laughter

and applause.)

Having spent a little time with Dr. Ouimet

today, I must say it might be nice to hear that

lecture. (Laughter.) But as you have, for

whatever reason, asked me to be this evening's

speaker, instead of our lovely host, let us begin.

Taking off his glasses and holding them in

his right hand, he looks into the audience as if to

evaluate every listener.

To be 'left behind,' he says, is hell, his


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face pained yet stone-like.

All Christians believe that those whoentrust their destiny to God in this life will be

with him for eternity. This is the meaning of

'heaven.' It is the good side of what will happen

at the end of history. But most Christians also

believe that there is a flip side to it: a tragic side

to the final outcome of history. This the Biblecalls 'hell.'

The somberness of this opening grabbed

Bryce's attention instantly, as it did the whole

room.

Margaret, who worried that Bryce might

not be accustomed to such theological and

abstract content, glanced at Bryce with relief, to

find him frantically filling his notepad with every

thought he could capture as the lecture

progressed.

The Bible teaches the simple truth that,

when it is all over, when history comes to an end,

there will be one big final event called the 'last

judgment.' As a result of that judgment, the

redeemed will be gathered to be with God for

eternity. The ones left behind will be abandoned

to life without Godwhich is hell. The Bible


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also teaches that these two outcomes will signal

decisively the end of the world. They will

happen together as the one terminal event ofhistory and will demarcate the transition from

history to eternity.

Could it be that simple? Bryce asked

himself.Because that's the way it seemed to me.

Only, I was afraid to think it!

Another important teaching of the Bible

that piggy-backs on this main teaching is that no

one but God can know the timing of the end. No

human being has the insight or the capacity to

announce the time when the end of the worldwill occur. It is a decision that pertains

exclusively to Gods own sovereign will.

Humans are to be ready for it to happen at any

moment without engaging in guess work that

attempts to predict the time of its occurrence.

Again! Bryce thought, This is exactly what

I've been feeling. How can this man be putting

into words the conclusions emerging from all my

Bible reading?!

The Bible bears witness to the fact that the

writers of the New Testament expected that the

end might happen during their lifetime, right


52/135

then, during the first century AD! They were not

predicting that it was going to happen then for

sure. But they were calling all Christians to beready for it, should the end have occurred within

their lifetime. In so doing, they defined the

proper attitude of every Christian, in every

generation, to be always ready for the possibility

of the end happening at any moment withoutever speculating about its timing. They taught us

that the end is always near but never

predictable.

Margaret could see, even in Bryce's harried

note taking, that Bryce had found a kindred spiritin his Bible quest. Dr. Garabet's words seemed to

flow through Bryce's pen and simultaneously

into Bryce's inner being as Bryce's face

displayed agreement, connection, and what can

only be called a look of illumination.

Although you would never guess it from

recent trends among Evangelicals, Garabet

continued, this attitude of expectation has been

the posture generally adopted by most Christians

through the centuries of church history.Garabet adopted a momentarily sad

demeanor: Unfortunately, some have


53/135

occasionally strayed from this pattern. In their

eagerness to see God put an end to the horrors of

history, they have tried to second-guess him forhis secret timing concerning the end. They have

pulled verses out of the Bible and tried to apply

them to contemporary events in order to predict

the time of the end. But, without fail, they have

been proven wrong every time. This crystal-ball,'Nostradamus approach' to the interpretation of

the Bible does not honor Gods truth. To the

contraryit often sorely misleads his people.

This thought seemed to disturb Bryce.

Margaret knew she would have to ask him aboutit later. On the ride home that evening, Bryce

marveled at her perceptiveness and sensitivity.

As ready as I am to believe my old friends were

misled, he explained, it's not a good feeling to

think of them as misleading others.

Dr. Garabet likewise seemed to want to

find a reason for people's gullibility in such

important matters: The desire to predict the end

rises to a fever pitch especially in times of

turmoil and stress. Our time, as we have enteredthe twenty-first century, is no exception, of

course. In fact, many groups of Christians are

even now trying to decipher the meaning of


54/135

current upheavals in the light of biblical

teachings. Over half a century of continuous

conflict in the Middle East, a century ofunprecedented worldwide atrocities like

generalized wars, genocides and ethnic

cleansings, the creation of a state of Israel in the

middle of the previous century, the universal

threat of terrorism, the instant media release ofinformation and images depicting fatal

catastrophic famines, epidemics, floods, fires and

earthquakesall of this rightly motivates

believers to gaze heavenward for deliverance.

Allowing such events to prompt believersto look to their Deliverer for his help and to long

for his appearing is perfectly legitimate. It

becomes unbiblical, however, when these

circumstances are used to predict what Jesus

Christ called 'the times or dates the Father has set

by his own authority.' For he clearly stated that

these are not for us to know. Despite such

biblical prohibitions, many popular so-called

Bible teachers, who often attract huge audiences

and may even find their way onto television and

radio programs, have sadly yielded to the thetemptation to throw caution to the wind and have

engaged in unceasingoften conflicting


55/135

speculations regarding the events of the end.

Bryce put down his pen to take in the bigpicture, which was becoming acutely clear:

These kinds of end-times predictions are

frivolous. They misrepresent the Bible's intended

teaching and pose an embarrassment to serious-

minded Bible lovers.

Innumerable books and articles, television

and radio programs, church sermons and

prophecy conferences, Garabet continued, are

devoted to describing various scenarios of events

they allege will usher in the end of time. The

Christian publics eagerness to find biblicalcomfort in times of confusion makes it possible

and profitable to create huge industries for the

promotion of such views through novels and

even movies. Often, however, these scenarios

ironically tend to spread paranoia and panic,rather than comfort. Yet there are no other

Christian publishing ventures as financially

profitable as the ones devoted to predicting the

end times.

Promotional material for one of thosemega-corporations makes the claim that its

books are 'the all-time best-selling and fastest-


56/135

selling Christian fiction series ever. There are

more than 60 million copies in print.' The

aggressive promotion of such enterprises givesthe impression that biblical truth is being

exploited for financial gain and that 'teaching' the

Bible has been turned into a racket.

At the word racket, the room seemed to

catch its breath. Bryce could see several peopleshifting in their seats indicating discomfort.

Others nodded in hearty agreement.

Well, how did this come about? Garabet

asked, taking off his spectacles and looking into

the audience. Sadly, so much of the confusiontoday on these matters can be traced to a

theology first espoused in the middle of the 19th

century by John Nelson Darby, a dissident

Anglican priest turned evangelist who joined

and was influential among the original PlymouthBrethren in England and Ireland. His theology,

called 'dispensationalism,' we should note, was

unlike anything any prominent theologian

articulated in the past. In fact, we can go so far as

to say that nothing ever taught by the greatchurch thinkers of the east or westincluding

the Apostolic Fathers, Chrysostom, Augustine,

Aquinas, neither Luther nor Calvin, nor


57/135

Arminius, nor Wesleyeven remotely

resembled the theological or eschatological

claims of Darby and his followers.

Yet dispensationalism, a strange late-

comer to the field of Christian belief systems,

rapidly came to permeate the landscape of

western Evangelicalism within just a few

decades of its inception. For much of this we cansay thanks largely to the 1908 publication of the

incredibly popularScofield Reference Study

Bible.

Now I remember! Bryce thought to himself.

That was the Bible my friends all had with thefootnotes!

Fundamentalists and Evangelicals quickly

and inexplicably embraced the Scofield Bible

with little scrutiny as to its reliability or the

source of its notes. Recent scholarship has even

raised a number of troubling questions about the

integrity not only of this work but of its editor

including the possibility that Mr. Scofield may

have faked his Doctor of Divinity degree along

with giving conflicting accounts of his ownconversion.

And yet, rather than 'testing and


58/135

approving' this self-appointedpossibly self-

credentialedBible annotator, the

Fundamentalists and Evangelicals of the mid-1900s readily come to treat the Scofield

footnotes on each page with almost the same

reverence and trust they gave the 'holy' King

James Version referenced above those notes. In

fact, some still do today!Bryce recalled several times when he heard

preachers and teachers of his childhood railing

against modern translations. It had not occurred

to him that the archaic Elizabethan English of his

boyhood Bible might be just one of many waysto translate the ancient biblical languages. But

that thought hit him now as he listened to Dr.

Garabet explain that the early dispensationalists'

stubborn King-James-Only mentality also

posed obstacles to understanding the Bible

clearly, as the changing meanings of outdated

English words and terms in the KJV often

obscured the original clarity of the ancient texts.

This often made it difficult for the average

Bible reader to grasp the meaning of evensimplest of passages. Preachers, instead of

exegeting from the Hebrew and Greek, indulged

their congregations in expositions of what the


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60/135

ages. But if Darby and Scofields version of end-

time prophecies were really the intended

meanings of the Old and New Testaments, onehas to wonder how and why the early church

leaders, along with Paul and the Apostles, make

no mention of them and rather expected Christ to

return at any moment during their lifetime to set

up his eternal kingdom. Yet this is exactly whatthey were waiting for! They spoke of an longed

for this to be an eternal kingdomthat is a

'kingdom without end,' not one that lasted a mere

one thousand years. And how silly would it have

been for them to wait for this if they truly

thought all the things that dispensationalists rail

about would have to happenthings that would

require centuries to pass before they could be

accomplishedand some of which still have not

happened!

Bryce glanced at Margaret with a sigh of

relief but he doubted she even noticed. She

seems as engrossed in this lecture as I am, he

thought. Part of him also felt sadness over having

his suspicions initially confirmed like this. But

something else inside him led him to think hewas about to embark on an adventure that would

be neither sad nor disappointing.


61/135

The influence of these dispensationalists

on American Evangelicalism, Garabet

continued, was slightly revised decades laterwith the publication of theRyrie Study Bible,

which offered a slightly tempered form of

dispensationalism without wavering in any

significant way on end-times matters. Their

eschatology has also been bolstered in recentyears with the publication of theLeft Behind

series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and

other publications like it. This series, whose

accounts are as fictional and far-fetched as the

theology they're founded upon, envisions the

kinds of events that dispensationalists imagine

will happen to the world as history progresses

toward 'the rapture.' And as if selling literally

tens of millions of these publications were not

enough, yet more spinoff books and series are

passing through the bowels of Christianpublishing houses while we speak.

Garabet paused, almost as if he hoped this

would pause the printing presses he spoke of. Or

perhaps it was to enable he and his audience to

hear those presses in the distance.

Bryce could feel that Garabet had

something huge to say, something he might be


62/135

struggling to put into words.

All this, he said, might seem harmlessenough. I mean, after all, it's all just speculation,

isn't it? What could it possibly hurt? It's just talk

about the future, right? And if it never happens,

who will ever know or care?

Well ... if only it were that simple,Garabet conceded wistfully. Allow me to note

but a few of the key ways this misguided belief

system has damaged the church, her witness, and

her mission. And I stress, given the limits of our

time together, I can but point to the tip of the

iceberg.

First, the unfortunate and disheartening

truth is that this divisive theological system,

while audaciously claiming to 'rightly divide the

Word of Truth,' has not only schismatically

severed into pieces churches, families, and

friends, but it may well have encouraged or

contributed to some of the most disturbing

human rights violations of our generation.

Bryce wondered what Dr. Garabet could be

referring to. He'd never seen anyone from his old

church violate anyone's human rights. Could

there really be this kind of problem?


63/135

For, this doctrinal system, Garabet

continued, in departing from the New

Testament's definitions of Israel, the church, andfrom its teaching about the natural versus the

spiritual children of Abraham, has fueled

activities on the part of dispensationalist

Christians and their political allies in the Middle

East that have resulted in crimes not only againstentire ethnic groups, like the Palestinians and

Arabs, but even against Christians in those ethnic

groups.

You see, how one understands the past

and the future affects how we behave in thepresent. How we define each other changes how

we treat each other. And dispensationalists get

this wrong on all counts. As a result, many

American Christians have blindly supported

(directly or indirectly) policies and acts of

aggression in the Middle East that have

victimized many innocent people, simply

because of the ethnic or racial groups those

Middle East people were born into. This has

understandably angered large segments of

Middle East populations and fueled hostilitiesbetween Christians and non-Christians, Jews and

non-Jews, and certainly between the United


64/135

States and much of the world.

Bryce had not considered that there mightbe political ramifications to his Bible quest. This

started to make him uncomfortable and he could

see others in the audience displaying similar

reactions.

The fact is that Christians are dividedabout the issue of the legitimacy of Jewish

claims to the land of Palestine. At one extreme,

there are dispensationalists who even go so far as

to call themselves 'Christian Zionists.' This is an

appropriate title for them, and may well be

deservingly applied to others who don't evenrealize this is where their dispensationalist views

have taken them. Those in this camp base many

of their arguments mostly on texts from the Old

Testament and insist the land was irrevocably

promised to Abraham and his descendants. Theycite numerous prophecies that anticipate utopian

conditions under which Jews from later

generations and from around the world would be

gathered in the Promised Land and enjoy the

favor of God. Without necessarily endorsing themethods used to secure the land, these Christians

view the creation of modern-day Israel in 1948

as the fulfillment of divine entitlement accorded


65/135

to Israel to enter into its possession. They even

go so far as to suggest it is a fulfillment of end-

times prophecies.

Other Christians question such claims to

divine rights and God-ordained entitlements, also

on Scriptural grounds. Since they regard the new

covenant as the fulfillment of the old covenant,

they focus on the texts of the New Testament asthe finality of divine revelation. They point out

that the promise made to Abraham was a

spiritual promise, since it was made to all his

descendants described as a multitude of nations

and not just to one people racially defined. Theycite statements of the New Testament that

describe the true descendants of Abraham as

those who have the same faith in God as

Abraham, both Jews and Gentiles. They explain

that God has only one people, known as Israel

and the church, and that this singular people is

comprised of both Jewish believers and Gentile

believers, because God does not deal with

humans on the basis of race, but rather by grace

through faith in the finished work of Jesus

Christ. They view the church as the newcovenant Israel of God in which are fulfilled all

the ancient promises of God, including those


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pertaining to the landwhich becomes a

prophetic icon that prefigures, as stated in the

Epistles to Hebrews and Revelation, the newJerusalem, divinely constituted from heaven and

identified as the Bride of Christ, the eternal

community of redemption.

Whatever view is taken on this subject,

the danger of appealing to divinely-grantedentitlements in order to secure exceptional

privileges is evident. Both the testimony of

scripture and of history is that when humans

equate their own political agendas with 'Gods

will' in order to fulfill it through ungodly means,this consistently results in violations of Gods

will.

Even thoughtful non-Zionist Jews living

in Israel, who have joined the debate, have

commented that the post-World War II creationof the Jewish state to shelter survivors of the

Holocaust, right at the heart of the Muslim

world, where it is surrounded three layers deep

with hostile nations and a billion radicalized

Muslims all over the planet, was the greatestgeopolitical mistake made in the last century.

And they take no comfort in Israel having a

stockpile of nuclear warheads since Muslim


67/135

nations also have access to them. They deplore

the fact that the State of Israel has been at war

since its inception, with no foreseeable end to itspredicament except for another disaster of

unprecedented magnitude.

This is, as I stated earlier, but a glimpse of

the problems that arise with dispensationalist and

Christian Zionist thinking.

Right thinking produces right action,

Garabet asserted. And misguided thinking can

produce tragic resultsas we are witnessing yet

again in the world arena.

Bryce sat there feeling stunned. He had

long since stopped taking notes, having become

so swept up in the issues cascading upon him.

How little I realized what I was getting into

when I decided to read the Bible and reevaluate

the things I'd been taught about it, he thought.

The time has come, Garabet stated, as if

he were an attorney making his summation to the

jury, to pause and to ask ourselves what truly is

the biblical perspective on such campaigns.

Christians must not accept uncritically every

wind of teaching that gratifies their curiosity. The

folly of that is now clearas is the danger of it.


68/135

While we must certainly admit that even wild

and lurid reminders of the possible imminence of

the end can sometimes (paradoxically) havebeneficial effects that can be used to turn people

to God (just as a medical misdiagnosis might

prompt someone to change their life), yet it is

equally clear how important it is for Christians

not to fall into a frenzy of disappointingexpectations that causes them to lose sight of the

real purpose for the return of Christ. The Bible

exhorts us to exercise good judgment in order to

not be 'unsettled or alarmed' in regard to such

matters.

It is time for people who believe the

Scriptures to be Gods wordbut who suspect

that biblical end-times truth is quite different

from the strange scenarios with which they've

been bombardedto find each other and work

together to reconstruct the biblical case for the

truth. Together we can paint the accurate picture

of God's love and of the blessings he promised to

all generations and to all peoples through

Abraham.

This raises the question: How does the

Bible speak today? How do we get at its true

message? First of all, the canonical Scriptures


69/135

come to us with a consistent message that is

readily discoverable when we endeavor to

ascertain what each authors intent was when heor she wrote. Authorial intent can be determined

by the content of the passage under

consideration, its literary and thematic context

within the book, and from the larger socio-

historical situation surrounding the text. Once weprehend the authorial intent of a text, only then

are we in a position to draw principles from the

document that apply to future or present life

situations. This alone is a tremendous safeguard

that can help us from falling into the outlandish

propositions of those who take biblical

statements out of context in order to predict

events that never could have entered the biblical

authors' minds.

So many Christians today are starting to

feel uneasy about the 'prophetic' systems

rampantly proposed by televangelists and self-

styled eschatologistssystems that must be

revised with every new crisis in the Middle East.

These serious-minded Christians are starting to

wake up and look for teaching about end-timeissues that is biblical and, therefore, permanent

and timeless.


70/135

This is what the world so desperately

needs as well!

Here the audience let out an brief applause.

Garabet paused. And then proceeded:

Sensible voices are sorely needed.

Concerned Christians need to examine the

biblical data regarding the end times with anattitude of serenity and on the basis of sound

principles for biblical interpretation derived from

the Bible itself. Too often, the Bible has been

treated as a hunting ground for verses that are

squeezed together to justify the creation of

predetermined systems. Each time you take averse out of context, you strip away its identity.

In this manner, with a little dose of ingenuity,

any set of odd ideas can appear to be 'proven' to

come from the Bible. This is the fallacious and

precarious nature of building a belief system onproof texting. However, every Christian is

accountable to protect ones thinking from such

abuse. The first step to take in order to conduct

properly a truly biblical study venture is to draw

from the Bible itself the ground-rules for its owninterpretation. This involves taking a thematic

approach to each book of the Bible and reading

all passages in their literary, historical and


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cultural context.

I applaud the EUBFC for recognizing thisneed and for making this the foundation for

addressing its missional direction.

At this, the audience erupted into a

standing applause. Dr. Garabet humbly picked up

his notes and descended the platform, bringingon yet more applause.


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Chapter 3: Dominion

Run!

Run!Run! RUN!!!!

The rabbi was not accustomed to running.

He was used to chasing.

But only one word filled his mind and

drove him on with a fear hotter than the desertsand kicking up behind his heels, hotter than any

zeal he'd ever known:

Runnnnn!

Where can I go? Where?All he knew was that he wanted to put

Damascus as far behind him as possible.


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Arabia, came the Whisper inside him.

Arabia! I must hide in Arabia!The landthrough which Moses fled. The land through

which the Israelites fled. Perhaps I will go all

the way to Sinai! he thought.

And so he made his exodus into the

wilderness.You might think that after the vision he'd

seen, and events that followed on its heels, the

rabbi from Tarsus would be filled with

contentmentor that all the zeal he used to

expend on capturing and executing theNazarene's followers would now be redirected

into a new mission on their behalf. After all, he'd

seen the resurrected Jesus in person and found

mercy from him. The physical blindness he

experienced as a result of the vision gave way to

a miraculous recovery as something resembling

scales fell from his eyes when one of Jesus'

appointed followers laid hands on him and

prayed.

And the vision's mandate was clear: I

appoint you to be my servant and my witness of

what you've seenand will see of me! I will

rescue you from your own people and from the


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Gentiles. Go to them to open their eyes. Turn

them from darkness to light and from the power

of Satan to God, so that they can receivecomplete forgiveness of sins and a place among

all who are sanctified by faith in me.

But the sum of all this meant the Rav's

world turned upside-down.

He needed to run.

It was more than the hunter now being

counted among the huntedthough he knew

well enough the terrifying consequences he

would experience if he were caught by hisformer co-inquisitors who were already

mobilizing.

It was more than the disorientation that

comes with a change of worldviews.

It was all that and more.

Who am I? Saul wondered. What has

happened to my worldto the world? What is to

become of my life? Who do I trust? Where will I

be safe? How do I make sense of all this?

Run!

His sight had been restored. But like the


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blind man Jesus healed who first saw people

walking as trees, Saul needed perspective.1

And so he fled. He fled for safety. He fled

for sanity. He fled to find himself and make

sense of everything happening to him. This was

Saul's crisis of faithan identity crisis, a career

crisis, a crisis that, unbeknownst to him, was

about the very future of humanity.

So like Elijah, who fled after defeating the

prophets of Baal, the newly baptized Saul fled to

the most deserted place he could think of, to the

place of divine exodus and self-imposed exiles,

the place through which Moses took flight uponkilling the Egyptian slave driver, the place where

the children of Israel escaped from Pharaoh, the

land where they wandered, where they

encountered God in the most miraculous of

ways, where they even received The Lawthewilderness. Arabia.

* * *

1 Mark 8:24


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He sat alone with his scrolls in a cave he

happened upon just days into his journey.Having managed to buy supplies along the

way, and scraps of food from some Bedouin

nomads passing by, he thanked Yahweh for his

safety.

A cave is a funny place for a tentmaker, hemused.

He needed the daylight to read. His eyes,

though healed, still ached. Study only seemed to

strain them. The candlelight did not serve him

well.

I need to make sense of all this, he

repeated, half to himself, half in prayer. Forgive

me Yahweh, for taking flight like this. But I need

your help. Please guide me. Lord Jesus, please

He had to stop himself there. It still

sounded strange. Lord Jesus.

Yes, LORD Jesus, please guide me. You

have saved me and shown yourself to me. Pleasedon't let it stop there. I need you, Lord. I need

you so desperately to show me the way.


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Where do I begin? he asked himself.

B'reshit, came the Whisper in Hebrew(in the beginning).

Yes, where else can I begin but at the

beginning? he mused.

He opened the scroll of B'reshit (Genesis),

began to read and pray, pray and read.

He pored over scriptures he thought he'd

known since childhood; now they all seemed

new. This rabbi and scholar, this disciple of the

great sage Gamaliel, this zealous heretic hunter

who just weeks prior busily accused Jesus'followers in order to beat and execute them, now

sat before the Lord Jesus to be tutored as a newly

baptized child of God.

Come Holy Spirit, he cried, and keep

your promise to lead me into all truth.

Read!

Read, read!

READ!

He read concerning the patriarch Abraham:


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When Abram was ninety-nine years old,

Yahweh appeared to him saying, I am El-

Shaddai; live before me faithfully and with awhole heart. Then I will make my covenant

between me and you and will greatly increase

you exceedingly-exceedingly!

Yes, Yahweh, God of Abraham and my

God, Saul prayed, show me, I plead, how I toomay serve you faithfully with all my heart. 'El-

ShaddaiO Mighty Breast,' nurse me with your

Word as pure mother's milk. Show me, I beg

you, how to serve you and your purposes now

that you have come and the Messianic Kingdomwe've waited for is coming upon us.

Abram fell prostrate. God said to him,

As for me, this is my covenant with you: You

will be the father of many nations. No longer

call yourself Abram (Exalted Father). Yourname is to be Abraham (Father of

Multitudes), for I have made you a father of

many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I

will make nations of you, and kings will come

from you.Nations! Saul noted the word was plural

and Goy'm! Abraham was to be the father of


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He knew the word could be taken as both

singular and plural, and that with reference to the

seed, it speaks in the plural of being their God.But he quickly referred back to God's initial

vision to Abraham. He referenced forward to

God's later promise following Abraham's near

sacrifice of Isaac. There it was again: God had

given the promises and the land to Abraham'sseedand in that seedwould all the nations

(goy'm) of the earth be blessed.

Lord Jesus! Saul prayed. We have

always pridefully assumed we Israelites are the

exclusive seed. After all, we are the ones whowent through the four-hundred years of slavery

in Egypt. But this passage is talking about

nations, Gentile nations, being blessed in

Abraham's seed and coming from that seed. Lord

Jesus, can it be that we have failed to live up to

what it means to be that seed? Could it be that

you, Lord Jesus, who are his Seed, have come to

take possession of all those promises as their

rightful heir?

All his life, Saul assumed that any other

nations that came from Abraham derived from


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would look upon Ishmael that he might live

before you!

And God said, Regardless, your wife

Sarah will bear you a son and you will call him

Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him

and his seed after him forever.

As for Ishmael, I have heard yourrequest. I bless him. He will be fruitful and I

will increase him exceedingly-exceedingly.

From him twelve rulers will come, and I will

give him to be a great nation. But my covenant

will be with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you

by this time next year. When God finished

speaking with Abraham, God went up from

him.

So even Hagar's offspring are blessed forAbraham's sake? And this covenant that would

yield nationsit's to come through Sarah? They

would come through Isaac, the child of promise!

As Saul pondered all this, and wondered at

the implications, evening crept in. He built asmall fire near the entrance of the cave, faced

Jerusalem, and offered his evening prayers.


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Then, curling up by the fire, Saul drifted

into a sleep unlike any he'd ever experienced. He

later wondered if anyone had ever slept as deeplyas this since the day God caused sleep to come

on Adam in order to draw Eve from his side.

Darkness descended and Saul dreamed he

stood under a sky full of brilliant stars too vast to

count. He was on a sandy beach that stretchedout under the starlight as far as the human eye

could see. On his left and right two trees towered

beside him. One was a cultivated olive tree; the

other a wild olive tree.

The cultivated tree was tall and ancientwith a fat trunk obviously thousands of years

old; its scraggly branches bore little fruit.

The wild tree was plush but strangely

twisted and also fruitless.

Suddenly a man appeared before Saul in

radiant robes and carrying a large pruning shear

in his hands. The man looked at the ancient tree,

looked at Saul, and said: This tree has stopped

bearing the olives I desire and is about to die of

its own stubbornness. What shall I do to save this

tree?

To Saul's amazement, the man attacked the


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ancient tree and began lobbing off huge branches

and limbs from its aged trunk. Saul could see

how barren these limbs were as they fell to theground. The man then dragged them way,

scattering them far and wide, even to the four

corners of the earth.

The man then stood back and looked at the

tree as only a few of the original branches nowremained. Saul wanted to speak but could not.

Am I awake or asleep? he wondered.

Then the man with the shears looked at

Saul, then turned to the wild olive tree. With

speed and determination he violently clippedbranches from the wild tree.

Saul thought, Surely these fruitless

branches will also be spread abroad.

Instead, the man in radiant robes skillfullywent about grafting these wild branches onto the

ancient trunk, where the cultured limbs had been

taken out.

When he was done, the man turned to look

at Saul. As their eyes met, something beautifuland amazing happened. The ancient tree, now

full of newly ingrafted branches, suddenly filled

with blossoms. Even the natural branches that


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remain were full of blossoms. Then suddenly, all

the blossoms exploded into to a colorful array of

plump, ripe olives. And the olives came rainingdown like an avalanche at Saul's feet, covering

the ground and filling the shoreline of the beach

where they stood with a harvest unlike anyone

had ever seen.

In this way, the man said, shall allnations be blessed in Abraham and the seed of

Abraham be complete. Every knee shall bow and

every tonguefrom every nation and tribe

shall confess allegiance to the Name of Yahweh.

And every natural branch that acquires faith willbe re-grafted into its original place on the

cultivated tree.

In this way shall the seed of promise,

which is the seed of faith, bear the fruit I've

longed for and require.

In this way shall Israel, the ancient olive

tree, be saved and the glory of Israel restored.

* * *


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Buzzing.

Tickly buzzing.

Saul awoke to a mosquito flitting about his

ear.

It is time, Saul, came the Whisper.

Return now to Damascus. You are mychosen instrument to proclaim my Name to the

Gentiles, to their kings, and to the people of

Israel. Testify to all people about everything I've

shown and told you.Go now. It's time for you to

begin suffering for my Name.

* * *

Icannot believe I'm sitting at the sametable as Dr. Garabet and Dr. Ouimet, Bryce

thought.

He looked at Margaret and the twoprofessors, whom he first saw on the conference

speakers' platform just a few nights ago.


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He wasn't sure what to do or say. So he

watched Margaret for cues.

She was obviously enjoying herself and

excited about this visit, although she also

appeared far more comfortable with the situation,

being already acquainted with Dr. Garabet.

It was a beautiful spring day and the four ofthem sat having tea around a ceramic-tiled table

in Dr. Garabet's sunroom.

The good doctor had invited Bryce and

Margaret to come by to get acquainted. And

since Dr. Ouimet, the chair of the local EUBFCchapter, had been visiting earlier that afternoon

on chapter business, he invited her to stay as

well.

What did you two think of the

conference? Dr. Ouimet asked, smilinginquisitively at Bryce and Margaret.

Well, we weren't able to attend the whole

weekend, Margaret clarified, shooting a friendly

glance at Bryce.

We were only able to take in Dr. Garabet's

lecture on Friday evening, Bryce explained,

apologetically, I had weekend commitments


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with my kids. But we really wished we could

have come for the whole program.

I see, Dr. Ouimet responded.

And before we continue, Garabet

interjected, I do have a request of you, Bryce.

Yes, of course, Bryce stammered, what

is it?

As the ladies here already know, I do not

like to stand on formality; I prefer my friends

call me Sarki, he explained with a smile.

At this Dr. Ouimet brightened and chimedin, And please, you must call me by my first

name as well; it's Lizzette.

Of course, Bryce replied. You are both

most gracious.

Lizzette, are you also a biblical scholar?Margaret asked.

No, Lizzette answered. My degrees are

in the area of social work and psychology. But I

have always held a deep interest in biblical

studies and social justice issues related to the

Middle East. I actually took the opportunity to

study there as an undergrad, for a year at a


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Christian university near Tel Aviv. It didn't really

fit with my major at the time. But it was

something I'd always wanted to do, and I've goneback now many times since, on humanitarian

trips. Dr. Garabetuh, Sarkiwas one of my

Bible and Theology professors. That's how we

met. And it was he who introduced me to the

EUBFC and their efforts at promotingcompassion, peace and justice in the Middle

East.

But that's not why you're here Lizzette

cut in on herself.

No, Sarki broke in. You're here to talkabout dispensationalist end-times teaching and

why you can't find it your Bible, eh? He

chuckled and added, That's a subject that

Lizzette also has some interest in.

I see that Margaret has filled you in,

Bryce conceded with a grin.

Margaret's smiling face beamed back at

him.

But your lecture answered so many of myquestions the other day, I guess I'd have to say

I've progressed to a new set of questions.


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Well do let us have them! Sarki exhorted,

But first.... He poured a refresher into each of

their tea cups.

Well, I guess some of them, at least, may

indeed have something to do with compassion,

peace and justice in the Middle East, after all.

Now I really am glad I stayed, Lizzettequipped, looking intrigued.

As I've been reading the Bible, and as I

listened to your lecture, Bryce continued, I've

been getting the sense that God's real desire is to

bring all of humanity together under the reign ofJesus Christ, and that this is what he calls his

kingdom, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom

of Heaven.

We're with you so far, Sarki assured him.

And I see that while this is to have its

ultimate fulfillment in the return of Jesus Christ,

it also seems like we're supposed to be doing

things now to make that kingdom a present

reality today, first by spreading the gospel of

salvation, but also by spreading compassion andworking for his rule in society with regards to

justice for the oppressed and promoting peace

between individuals, races, and nations.

the rapture racket

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