You Are Correct that I Deny the Trinity Doctrine

Dispensationalism is a construct used to organize and explain biblical history in an orderly, comprehensive fashion. I do not subscribe to Dispensationalism. I do not intend here to offer a critique of Dispensationalism. However, I will comment on a couple of its central features.

Dispensationalism teaches that prior to the appearance of Jesus Christ, Jews found their salvation in the Law. According to Solidarity Theology, which I advocate, salvation, past, present, and future is found solely "in Christ". Contrary to them finding salvation by doing the works of the Law, Solidarity Theology teaches that pre-Christian Jews found grace in anticipating the Coming of Christ and the imputation of His saving merits to them. Jews were taught to do this through the lessons of the Sanctuary Service. Jews looked forward by faith; Christians look back in faith. Hence, Christians have the additional benefit of hindsight to strengthen their perception of faith.

The answers to the Bible's puzzling questions are found, not in a Dispensational construct, but rather in the Archetypal individuals Jesus Christ and the Antichrist. Authentic salvific history is organized around these two persons.

In summary, there is one method of salvation, not two.

THE STATES OF ISRAEL AND ZION

The current State of Israel is a pre-cursor to the future messianic State of Zion, which will stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates. Initially, Zion will exist side by side to pre-messianic Israel.

In summary, messianic Israel is not yet. Only the second messiah, the Good Antichrist, can lay the foundation for this biblical state.

COMMENTS ON SCHOOLS OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION

Am I a Preterist? Yes and No.

Beginning in the year 2000, I undertook to study and understand the Book of Revelation. I was not raised in a religious home, so I was not exposed to any ethnic or sectarian teachings. At the age of 17, I studied with the Seventh-Day Adventists. They espouse an Historicist position on prophecy. I embraced Jesus Christ as my Savior. This was the most significant contribution of the Seventh-Day Adventists. In addition to being introduced to Jesus Christ by them, they taught me to respect the duty of Bible study, and introduced me to the Gospel in the Sanctuary and the obligation of the Judaic, seventh-day Sabbath. I joined their church for several years.

In addition to the Preterist and Historicist positions, there is the Futurist position, which you evidently hold.

The Bible is a living, creative Word. I believe it is a mistake to cling to one position while excluding the other two positions. All three schools of prophetic interpretation are valid and offer clues to the future.

I do want to single out one major contribution made by the Preterist School: the correct date for authorship of the Book of Revelation.

The eleventh chapter of Revelation makes it clear that Herod's Temple still stood when Revelation was written, suggesting an authorship date of somewhere near the middle of 66 A.D. Establishing this date is important because it has a bearing upon the identity of the Beast. "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition" (Revelation 17:11). The eighth is Nero Caesar. According to this prophecy, his spirit is destined to resurrect in the Antichrist. It is in this respect that the number 666 is attributed to the Antichrist (Revelation 13:18), although his personal name does not add up to 666. The Antichrist will adopt the personal number 8 based upon this passage in Revelation 17.

COMMENTS ON THE RAPTURE

A comparison of 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 and Revelation 14:1, 4 seems to discredit the idea of the Rapture, unless the "Lamb" in Revelation 14:1 is the Greek arrhen rather than arnion. (Strong's suggests this very real possibility, which is supported by its context in Revelation. Arrhen means "a male, man child" and is translated "man child" in Revelation 12:5, 13. See also my postings, "The Two Messiahs in Chapters 12 and 13 of Revelation" and "The Victory of the Beast, His Image, His Mark, and His Number".)

Note the contrast in the location of the Lamb in the following passages. Is the Lamb in Heaven with raptured believers, or on earth with the 144,000?

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive

The 144,000 stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion. "These are they which follow the Lamb WHITHERSOEVER HE GOETH". Revelation 14:1, 4, capitols mine.

COMMENTS ON THE BRIDE OF CHRIST

The Bride of Christ is represented as the collective body of believers, Jews and Christians, who emerge after the trials of the Seven Last Plagues: "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, . . . And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: . . . And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Revelation 21:9, 10, 12, 14).

COMMENTS ON THE 70 PROPHETIC WEEKS

Tread Head, You state that 70 prophetic weeks are allotted to the Jews, 69 weeks of which are past, leaving one parenthetic week remaining (specific to the Jews) to be fulfilled after the close of the Christian Dispensation.

Prophetic weeks are 7-year periods according to the day-year principle of prophetic interpretation.

Your error occurs in the calculation. Dispensational Theology leaves out the entire 3 and ½ years in the ministry of Jesus Christ, including His death, burial, and resurrection!

Solidarity Theology, on the other hand, actively embraces the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in their rightful timeframe. Hence, the correct period fulfilled is 69 and ½ prophetic years, leaving only ½ week (or 3 ½ years) of prophetic time remaining to the Jews, "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy". Daniel 9:24.

According to Daniel 9:25-27, the messiah is supposed to confirm the (new) covenant with the Jews for one full prophetic week of 7 years. Jesus fulfilled one-half the required period. In order to validate the prophecy, Jesus would have to return to the earth and prophesy to the Jews for the remaining 3 and ½ years, or a second messiah would have to do it. God cannot lie; the work must be done!

DO THE JEWS NEED ANOTHER MESSIAH? Yes and No.

Under the terms of Solidarity Theology, as advocated in the Book of Romans, the Jews (along with the rest of humankind) are saved "in Christ" whether they believe it or not.

But in order for national Israel to be restored; i.e. saved, another messiah must arise ON EARTH to do it. This work is clearly taught in Romans chapters 9-11 and throughout the Book of Revelation.

NOTE REGARDING THE MEANINGS OF SALVATION

There are numerous shades of meaning behind the concept of salvation. It is important to be precise about one's meaning when discussing salvation with others.

The typical evangelical emphasis when discussing salvation is on the preservation of the disembodied soul.

However, my emphasis in regard to the work of the Antichrist is on the resurrection to life of NATIONAL ISRAEL.

The relationship between the salvific works of Jesus Christ and the Antichrist are peculiarly present in the following passage:

"He saved [sozo] others; himself he cannot save [sozo]. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver [rhoumai] him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God". Matthew 27:42, 43.

Sozo is used only 18 times in the New Testament. It means "1) to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction

a) one (from injury or peril)

1) to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health

1) to preserve one who is in danger of destruction, to save or rescue

b) to save in the technical biblical sense

1) negatively

a) to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment

b) to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance". It is translated "save" 93 times and "make whole" 9 times.

As you may see from the foregoing, there are several shades of meaning behind the concept of salvation, which is attributed to Jesus Christ under the term sozo. In the same context (Matthew 27:42, 43), a separate salvation is attributed to God Himself under the term rhoumai. The same term (rhoumai) is used in reference to the Antichrist I the following passage (See also my posting, "The Antichrist Predicted in the Book of Romans".):

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer [rhoumai], and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes" (Romans 11:25, 26).

Rhoumai is used only 18 times in the New Testament. It means "to draw to one's self, to rescue, to deliver".

A SECOND CHANCE FOR THE JEWS?

Contrary to your assertion, there is a second chance for the Jews. This is clearly taught in the Book of Revelation under the figure of the New Jerusalem.

Notice the relationship of the gates and the foundations in the following verses:

"And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel". Revelation 21:12.

"And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (verse 14).

If taken in chronological order the foundations of the city would represent the Jews and the gates would represent the Christians. But under the divine plan, the order is reversed. The metaphorical city is entered THROUGH THE JEWS. When all is said and done, the Jews are restored