All roads do not lead to Rome

 

On 15 March 2019, 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand while at Friday prayers were gunned down by a white supremacist.  Around the world, vigils were held at innumerable mosques, and I attended one at a mosque in my city.

I went there not in a spirit of 'fraternity', but in a spirit of solidarity and being a good neighbor.  God expects us to be good neighbors, and I felt it important to be there. 

The Muslims I met that day are not the enemy.  And it will be Muslims like those who will be among the billions who will reject the radical-Muslim Antichrist. 

When we talk about Islam, the use of the term 'radical' is critical, and I wish all prophecy teachers would always use that qualifier.  If the Muslim world were Ismaali or Sufi, there would no fear on the part of anyone regarding that faith.  It would still be a false religion, but were the whole of the Muslim world of the peaceful ilk of Ismaalis, Sufis, and those I met that day, the Twin Towers would still be standing.

I do not hate the fanatics, but anyone of any degree of decency must hate and despise what those fanatics are doing as well as fanatics of any religion on earth.  When a Muslim comes to the Lord, Heaven rejoices and Satan wails.  From the sweet people I met that day at the mosque-vigil to the most hardened of living members of Daesh, may all Muslims come to faith, and may we all see Christ all the clearer.

My mother's mother's parents were both sincere believers in Christ who were into their faith such Grandpa Arch read his Bible every day while living his faith out in the world and my Grandma Belle was said to have had 'a hotline to God'.  I can remember Grandpa Arch mentioning to my grandmother something ending in '...split hoof'.  A layman-farmer from rural Indiana ruminating on the book of Leviticus!

Both were spirit-filled, and their children were as well, including the Grandmother who helped to teach me right from wrong.  This was the same grandmother who correctly predicted the outcome of the Six-Day War.  My house growing up loved the Jewish people and loved Israel.

In 1945, Zondervan published Seven Simple Sermons on the Second Coming by W. Herschell Ford, a former President of the Southern Baptist Convention.  This book was in my grandmother's book-collection and was my introduction to end-times Bible prophecy - a classic of pre-modern-Israel/Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine which clearly lays out American Protestant mainstream teaching of that period.  That book was a great source of comfort to me, and to this day, I revere Dr. Ford as my first prophecy teacher whose book, in turn, was based on his sincere interpretation of holy scripture.

Thus, scripture has always been my primary teacher.  Unfortunately, like so many people, I trusted too much in my human teachers instead of searching the scriptures on my own, as I always should have done.  My church growing up always expected us to search the scriptures for myself, but again, I did too little of that.

I first read Dr. Ford's work when I was about anywhere from third through sixth grades, though perhaps I read that book for the first time later than that.  I cannot remember.  A few years after she gave me Seven Simple Sermons on the Second Coming, grandmother gave me her copy of a later classic, Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, first published in 1970 and which for as many as four generations, was the book which brought end-times Bible prophecy to the world, bringing many to the Lord.

In about 1990, my house started watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network.  This meant having ample opportunity to see plenty of Hal Lindsey, Jack van Impe, Grant Jeffrey, and even a little Joseph Good, whose teachings on the Holy Temple I wish I had paid more attention to back then.  Stuart McBernie also had a show, but it came on at an inconvenient time, and we never glommed onto it as we did Hal, Jack, and Grant, the sighting of any of which glued us to the TV set.  May Jack's and Grant's memories be forever a blessing.

Following 1997 and my graduation from college, I stopped watching TBN and entered a somewhat dark period of my life.  After that was done, I went on with my life as a musician, which I still lead.  But my prophecy 'studies' stagnated completely.  I thought I had known enough to go on, even after 2014 when Daesh broke out onto the world stage and my 'prophecy alarms' started going off the charts.  How wrong I was...

On 18 May 2018, eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School were murdered in a school shooting.  The youngest student, a fourteen-year-old, was among the dead, and her mother is a good friend of mine.

It hit me to my foundation and broke my heart.  As much as I would like for the shooter to have not ever gone to school again before that day (not due to death!), the best any of us can do is make the best of what continues for that family to be a situation beyond imagining.  For me, it was introspection and catharsis.  I have never looked at the world the same way again.

The difficulty with checking my internet history on Firefox is the system only records the latest visit to any given web page and not the first time a site was visited.  Because of this, I cannot be sure of exactly when my interest in Bible prophecy was reignited.  But in either late July or early August 2019, it was, and I believe it was on a lark: let's look up stuff on the Holy Temple acting what might have been a random thought of Joseph Good from my TBN-watching days.  Again, I cannot be sure, and my browser history does not help.

One of the videos was a very good two-hour 'tour' of the City of David and other places by Jim Bakker (yes, that Jim Bakker).  Bakker is visually unrecognizable from 'back in the day', and I hope he continues to be well.  Of course, Tammy Faye passed away some time ago.  May she have found peace.

Bakker's video was interesting and it led me to a video by one Bob Cornuke.  Evangelicals will know who I am talking about.  For about twenty-four hours, I, too, was entranced and captivated over the theory of the City of David being the location of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

And here's a lesson for all people: never cease to use your critical faculties.  Cornuke's theory (based on work by Ernest L. Martin who died in 2002) already had a powerful emotional hold on me.  It was so simple - so easy - the perfect resolution to the conflict over the Temple Mount.  If the Mount was not the place where the Temples were to begin with, then so much else could be easily addressed: peace in the Middle East!

But that solitary perfectionist and analytical part of me wanted to be sure - a nagging something in a fog of...something...  Matthew 10: 16 is apropos here, but I was not at that time familiar with that verse, and for me at that moment, it was the conscious decision to do the difficult thing and act on that part of me which still doubted Cornuke and his new theory.  The gentle and beautiful picture of the Holy Temple in the City of David surrounded by lush greenery was powerful.  Dopamine (not the addictive kind) was in full-force.

I did the search for videos debunking Cornuke and Martin and came across one by Joseph Good (again, that Joseph Good), and after watching it was immensely disappointed to realize Cornuke may not have been correct after all.  Brother Joseph's reasoning was convincing, but I was fully under Cornuke's spell.

However, the hard edifice of the Spell of Cornuke was too powerful for that one video to dissipate.  But Good's presentation was enough to convince me to keep looking further.  breaking enough for me to find a second Cornuke-debunking video.  Brother Joseph's, Dr. Richman's, and Mr. Cornuke's videos may be had below in the order in which I found them.  This little essay is turning into a novella.  Thank you for reading this far.

With the video by Hillel Richman, Cornuke's fog was banished, and I knew that for twenty-four hours I had been had.  I wanted truth more than narrative, and it was which saved me from going down a rather stupid path.

I am Gentile, always have been, and always will be.  Yet, for ten years I had a rabbi.  He was the senior clergy at a large Reform schul in my city where I along with several others sang in that temple's professional choir every Friday evening until 2010 when the slow process to us becoming a High Holy Days-only choir began with its conclusion in 2017.  This particlar rabbi loved the professional choir, and we revered him along with all the clergy we ever served under (and 'with' if that word is appropriate).

When I began singing there in 2001, I prayed to God to let me know if my being there in that choir and at a place which did not believe in Christ was something he wanted me to do.  In a personal way I will not get into here, the Lord said 'yes', and again, I've sung there ever since, that place giving me a Jewish context most Gentiles are not privileged to see.  I love those people, and a part of my heart will always dwell there.  May they all come to Y'shua's salvation!

That Jewish context is a large part of the reason I have even a concept of an understanding of the Old Testament.  It taught me Christ's Jewishness and the Jewish centrality of our faith.  The prayers we sing there are the same or similar to those Jesus himself might have sung in the Temple and elsewhere.

The other reason I have a concept of the Old Testament is the church where I grew up revered this Jewish context, but even that education is not the same as being among the Jewish people week after week in their synagogue, knowing them on a personal basis and in a very limited way being a part of their lives and they being a part of mine and of all of us who sang there.

This context also made me realize had I checked more into Messianic Judiasm way back when, it might have turned me into a legalist.  I know myself too well.  My Baptist-Episcopal life may not be 'Torah-observant', but for me, it is authentic and directly reflects where I am. 

Besides, Jesus perfected the wheel.  Therefore, I do not believe God has called me to reinvent it.  No 'Torah-observant' life for me save in following the two greatest commandements, the Ten Commandments, and others like them which affect the heart, which is where God truly works.

In last July and August 2019 and without knowing it, I began a journey which continues to this day.  In the final quarter of that year, it led me to the work of Nelson Walters.  I cannot remember the exact video, but with one video, he gave me a bitter pill: the Pre-Tribulation / Revived Roman Empire point of view so mainstream in the English-speaking Protestant tradition was probably not correct.

That pill was bitter in two respects.  I realized I was emotionally attached to a prophetic point of view taught to me by W. Herschell Ford, Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Grant Jeffrey, and others.  They in that order were my first teachers of Bible prophecy concerning the end-times, and though I never met any of them in this world, I revered them all.

But in terms of prophetic outlook, I had to leave them and go on a new path.  In the wake of Santa Fe, my mind was open to new ideas, and Nelson's reasonings seemed convincing, and I immediately added him to my roster of prophecy teachers - the first of the people I follow (though not blindly!) who are Mid-Trib/Pre-Wrath/Post-Trib as well as adherents to something I had never before considered: a radical Islamic Antichrist.

Not a Revived Roman Empire, but a revived Islamic Caliphate.  I soon found Joel Richardson and his work as well as what I would eventually discover to be the community of Endtime.Church, 'attending' its online services starting in June 2020.  I found Sonia Azam soon thereafter as well as Chadwick Harvey and others I cannot right now recall.

There are, though, Pre-Tribulation prophecy gurus who I don't follow, but have an interest in seeing what they are up to.  They are popular.  Therefore in a way, they are important: Amir Tsarfati (whose IDF perspective is always interesting), Tom Hughes, Jack Hibbs, J. D. Farag (when he is not turning into a puddle of water), Don Stewart, James Kaddis, Jan Markell, Lisa Boyce, Barry Scarborough, Chad Thomas, 'Bro Chooch', and that oddball of oddballs, Jacob Prasch (with his truly horrible speaking style) who is Pre-Wrath/Post-Trib and Revived Roman Empire.  There are others as well.

The video-work and legacy of the late Nabeel Quereshi is stunning and required-watching for all Christians, in my opinion.  I also watch Al Fadi and Sam Shamoun, though they do not get into prophecy.  Only an ex-Muslim can truly speak about Islam, and Sonia's voice seems to be a powerful one.

I could go on, but if one is still Revived Roman Empire, it is easy to deal with: look to the twin legs in Nebuchanezzar's statue in Daniel and ask yourself: historically, are there any candidates which could fit this picture better than Rome?

The answer, of course, is 'yes'.

Jeff Ragsdale
22 June 2021

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Bob Cornuke's video which 'sold' me: Bob Cornuke's Temple Discovery Presentation on Site in Jerusalem | Living Passages Christian Travel - uploaded Nov 29, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oBWNp6Rq9s

1.57K subscribers (as of 22 June 2021)
 
Bob Cornuke was asked to give the full presentation for his Solomon's Temple discovery and findings in the City of David. Here, with a Living Passages tour group, he goes into detail about the evidence supporting his controversial find.

Joseph Good "Was the Temple in the City of David? Truth or Lie?" | #TMJC 2018 uploaded Dec 10, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvv8UVG1fx8

4.99K subscribers (as of 22 June 2021)
 
How do we know the Temples were not in the City of David? Joseph Good gives us the facts and dispels myths. Good has dedicated over 35 years to the study of the Temple Mount from Christian, Jewish, and archeological sources. He is a leading Christian voice on all Temple related topics. http://hatikva.org Temple Mount Jerusalem Convention 2018 http://tmjc.org #TMJC is a convention dedicated to the holiest place on earth and invites the nations to Jerusalem to discuss, network, and get educated and inspired with zeal for God's House. Featuring top Christian and Jewish speakers, Seminars, Breakout Sessions, Panel Discussions, Field Trips, Live Stream, Event Booths, and more! This year we will tackle common myths surrounding the Temple Mount, look at what the archeology really says, and explore the Biblical vision for the future. #TempleMount
 

Hillel Richman: The True Location of the Temple Mount: Fully Illustrated - uploaded Jan 8, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh5yQiPYuo0

53.3K subscribers (as of 22 June 2021)
Archaeologist Hillel Richman, Senior Researcher and Past Supervisor, Ancient Jerusalem Sifting Project and Temple Mount Sifting Project, refutes the spurious theories claiming that the Temple Mount was in any other place other than Mount Moriah, with an emphasis on the 'City of David' theory, while providing incontrovertible historical and archaeological proof that the Holy Temple was, and will be, located on what is today referred to as the Temple Mount. Hillel's talk is accompanied by more than 100 photos, illustrations and charts. This teaching was recorded on November 11, 2018, in Lubbock, Texas.






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