Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | 2 Peter 3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Peter 3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming [what has become of it]? For ever since the fathers fell asleep [in death], all things have continued [exactly] as they did from the beginning of creation." |
Bible Question (short): Where do I go from here? |
Question (full): Where do I go from here? Born a Baptist, raised a Baptist, I dutifully went to church every Sunday, zippered Bible in tow, no questions, no worries. At home, the family Bible rested always on the living room coffee table, seldom read, never studied. Then an acquaintance asked me if I had ever read the 19th writer, Robert Ingersoll, his works on religion. I had not. He suggested I do so. I did. And I cannot describe how shocked and angry I felt. But in the midst of all the anger I read these words: Most Christians have not read their own Bibles. He had me there. I had not ‘really’ read much of the Bible and just knew generally the standard fare of the Sunday school teaching. So, now I have read Ingersoll AND the Bible. Since then, I have visited studybibleforum to see the thinking of others, and while here, learned about preterist. This was after I listed several verses in a post that seemed pristinely clear that “soon” and “near” was the common understanding of ALL in the NT as they applied to the 2nd Coming. Except for two responses, neither of which directly addressed the context of the verses, there was silence. After looking up preterist, I discovered that their view of the 2nd Coming ideas were similar to what I had discovered in my own independent Bible reading. But then, as I learned more about their views, I came to understand that, for their particular reasons, they were not willing to take the logic of it all to its inevitable conclusions: a) the 2nd Coming was expected in the 1st Century AD b) the 2nd Coming did not happen c) the disciples were mistaken d) Jesus was mistaken e) if Jesus was mistaken, then He is not God f) there will be no 2nd Coming, no Rapture g) the Book of Revelations is, indeed, the ravings of a madman, just as Ingersoll and Thomas Jefferson declared h) and the accepted notion of God is in serious jeopardy. So, I must bid adieu. Thanks for your tolerance from a great group of people. Treadway |