Yeah

 

I'm going to call it strike 8 against 

old bible scholar dude in that NPR piece.

Armageddon' shows how literal readings of the Bible's end times affect modern times

He went right to 2 Thessalonians 2 

about the man of lawlessness needing to be reveled:

2 Thessalonians 2:3

Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, 

for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs 

and the man of lawlessness is revealed, 

the man doomed to destruction.

(It has.)

But then he didn't say anything about 

the great apostasy thats in the same verse, 

which seems to me to happen 

RIGHT BEFORE 

the man of lawlessness is revealed.

He then goes on to describe in great detail 

the very rebellion he so easily left out:

BART EHRMAN:

" People today interpret it as saying that Jesus thinks that if you give some away now, you'll have even more material wealth in heaven, you know that treasures in heaven means you're going to have palaces and things. And that's not what he's talking about.'

(It's spiritual wealth and it's the kind you want.)

"And so what ends up happening is God takes the wealth from Rome, destroys the Roman world, destroys - takes away all their wealth. And the Christians then have a city of gold and, you know, gates of pearl and eternal life living in fantastic wealth. So I don't think that's the gospel of Jesus at all. I think it's contrary to the gospel of Jesus."

(It is contrary to the gospel of Jesus! This is a bible scholar? He says all that, and then doesn't know what the first part of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says about the rebellion?

I do not like these types of people where they conveniently leave out what they know to be true. The spiritual gift of discernment will tell you what is being said by what is being NOT BEING SAID intentionally. It tells you who is pulling their strings so to speak.)

"Well, there's a lot of violence being sponsored by conservative Christians who are in support of, well, taking over the government, for example, who are in support of all sorts of opposition to social policies that might help people - so opposition to immigration, wanting to cut the budgets so that we don't help out the poor. We cut down on helping those who are desperately in need. But let's build up the defense budget, and let's invade some more."

"And so I'll just say, you know, there are some wars that I think are completely justified. I think America has been in wars that are not justified."

"And most of these unjustified wars, in my experience, have been supported by people who call themselves Christian who want to take over the world in one way or another. So I think the violent Jesus of Revelation resonates with people more than the innocent Lamb of the Gospels."

Did he not just perfectly describe the rebellion?

Can he really not see the forest for the trees?

Or was he not wanting you to?

And doing so intentionally.

(His website is all about making a buck BTW.)

Do you not see the forest for the trees?

Do you have eyes that see and ears that hear?