Hi Robby: sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been away from a computer for a while and it is normal for me to disappear for days or weeks from a computer. So that you know.robbyyoung wrote:Happy Thanksgiving All!
Concerns involving the evil that is still in the world is an elementary understanding of the nature of man, apart from the past influences of evil spirits (Gen 8:21). Welcome to the depravity of man, no Devil necessary! Jesus and the Saints are currently ruling over the nations with a rod of iron! Welcome to the kingdom and 10,000 years from now we will still be here, let your imagination run wild on this reality.
God bless!
My question for you Robby is, how do you suppose the devil worked in the hearts of man before Christ? He is a spiritual entity operating in the spiritual unseen realm, lying to the minds of people, deceiving them into believing the lie/lies. He was (or may be still is) bound in order for the gospel to go forth but it's clear in The Revelation 20:7 that he is loosed for a short time after a thousand years(or an extended long period of time is what Steve teaches). How do you interpret that passage if you honestly believe he no longer operates in reality at all? OR are you a liberal Christian who sees God and satan as ideas rather than true entities? I'm just trying to understand what the foundation of your view is here. Are you talking about full-preterism?
I'm not trying to debate, I'm just seriously looking at the different viewpoints as the truth, how it really is, is all that really matters to me.
I too believe the Kingdom is now and has been since Christ's advent but I think the Kingdom is filling the whole earth not having filled it completely yet. That's rather an obvious observation for any person who's looking it would seem. I see a dark power operating in governments and in the minds and hearts of people that are in direct opposition to the things of Christ and because it has an obvious cohesive stated goal and is marked by the "culture of death" it must have a head who I believe is the spirit entity satan. I however believe once they have surrounded us and are ready to do us in, then fire will come down out of heaven, either spiritually or physically or both (I don't know) and destroy them. I don't believe the depravity of man is sufficient explanation for the cohesive form of evil we see mounting up against the Church today. So while I agree this is the millennial Kingdom, I also think that the mysterious silence of the Last Day events on the part of amillennialists should be dealt with and this is the view I'm seeing as the really only plausible explanation that I have found so far that satisfies my personal understanding, though I've learned not to be dogmatic about many things in the eschatological area.
God bless,
Mitzi