Isaiah 17 Prophecy Makes it to Time Magazine

You know we are living in strange times when Time Magazine decides to write an article about the destruction of Damascus mentioned in Isaiah 17. 

Also it should come as no surprise that they write the article to scoff at the idea that Isaiah's passage, written 2800 years ago, could have ANYTHING to do with events in Damascus today.

Yep, "The word of God is foolishness to those who are perishing."  They simply can't imagine that God could write a book outside of our dimension of time...a book that tells us how the end game on planet earth will play out.

Some Evangelicals See Biblical Prophecy In Syrian Crises

“See, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. Her towns will be deserted forever.”

That’s a prophetic passage from the Biblical book of Isaiah, chapter 17, and now some fundamentalist Christian blogs are buzzing with the belief that the escalating violence in Syria means the ancient text may soon be fulfilled. ”The long prophesied end days are here,” one blog announces.

“With the terrorist groups that operate out of Damascus building up arms caches on the border of Israel in anticipation of another war in the near future, it may not be long before this prophecy from Isaiah 17 becomes history,” another group awaiting Jesus Christ’s return predicts.

NOW WATCH TIME ROLL OUT THE BIBLE SCOFFERS

Nearly all Biblical scholars, however, argue that such a literalist interpretation of the text is highly problematic. The passage was written more than 2,500 years ago, and it condemns Jerusalem’s enemies around the time of the Assyrian invasion. The prophetic oracles, as that section of Isaiah is called, name not just Syria but numerous ancient nations, including Moab, Babylon, Egypt, and Tyre, that threatened the Jewish people at the time.

Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus of Columbia Theological Seminary and an expert on the book of Isaiah, tells TIME the interpretation of Isaiah 17 as a reference to the current conflict is absurd. “You cannot read the Bible that way. It is an ancient poem about an ancient context,” he said. “If we are going to contemporize it with such an easy connection then we have to learn to read the text against the United States as well because the United States now plays the role of Babylon and all those ancient superpowers. We have to tread very gently about making such silly connections.”

A better interpretation of the passage, Bruggemann explains, would be that all nations are answerable to the God of justice, even  nations like Syria and Babylon. “No nation has high moral ground,” he says. “That is a bite against every exceptionalism, including American exceptionalism.”


Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/29/some-evangelicals-see-biblical-prophecy-in-syrian-crises/#ixzz2dvjYL4V7

Oh my goodness!!....Time found Walter Brueggemann from Columbia Theological Seminary?  And he says you can't read the Bible literally but is really just a poem about an ancient story??

Shoot-golly-darn!!  And here all this time I've been reading the Bible to understand how the Age of Grace will end!!  And how the trumpet will blow!!  And how Christ will return to judge the nations!!  And how earth will have 1000 years of Christ on the throne!!  And how for all eternity we followers of Christ will be His bride!!

But now, all that is gone for me since Walter Brueggemann clearly told me that reading prophecy doesn't for tell the future....IT'S JUST A POEM!!

And what do I make about Time magazine saying, "...some fundamentalist Christian blogs are buzzing...."  Rats!!!  Maybe I have been totally wasting my time being a "fundamentalist Christian blogger"??  Maybe the Bible is just a story book and can have NO WAY of seeing into the future??  Maybe God isn't the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end??  Maybe I should quit taking the Word of God so seriously and learn how to have a little more pagan fun??   I mean really....if Walter from Columbia says it's just a book of poems...why have I been listening for the trumpet call of God for these past 7 years?

Friends, of course I am just being facetious.  If the Bible correctly foretold when, where and how Jesus was to be born and how he was to die and rise again and all that was written HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE IT HAPPENED.....of course that same Bible will accurately tell us how Christ will return for us and how He will one day sit on the throne in Jerusalem.

The scoffers are everywhere...which is in itself a fulfillment of prophecy...and "as it was in the days of Noah", also seems to be evidenced by this article.  "Is God really going to send a flood?," they said in Noah's day, right before the flood came and took them all away.

"Come on!...is Damascus really going to be destroyed so completely that it will never be lived in again?", they asked in Time magazine yesterday.  MAYBE this means the destruction of Damascus is close?