The Kingdom Come

When men like Martin Luther opposed the Roman Catholic Church, for the most part, since he was in Europe he would have had scant options as to where to go Church. There was certainly the option to go to the Eastern/Greek Church if he left Germany. Or perhaps he could have joined with the Waldensians who had been in existence at least since about 9-10th century. Or he could have joined the Lollard movement in his own Germany. But, as we know neither Luther nor most of the Reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli had to make this choice. Each already had a position and therefore an instant ability to create a "new church". How much different it would have been had Luther, Zwingli and some of the other early reformers been mere laymen.

Today I read a story where 200-400 Nigerian Christians were killed by Muslims, not even a 4 day old baby was spared from the Muslims' machetes. (source). It is difficult to tell from the story if this was some kind of retaliation since the story does indicate that in January, 300 Muslims were killed. The story does not identify the killers of the Muslims. It could very well have been other Muslims.

I am concerned though with this quote by a "Christian" pastor:

According to the official website, Dr. Kenneth Talbot is the president and dean of unaccredited Whitefield Theological Seminary located in Lakeland Florida. Dr. Talbot founded the seminary in 1980.

Prompted by the continual use of Dr. Talbot's and WTS' name by heretical hyperpreterists as tolerant and supportive of the heresy and one of the hyperpreterist movement's leaders, Samuel Frost; in October of 2008, Roderick Edwards wrote an email to Whitefield Theological Seminary inquiring if the seminary considered hyperpreterism to be a heresy and if WTS would have a problem if someone claimed they concluded hyperpreterism by employing the principles taught by WTS; and further if WTS was allowing a hyperpreterist to help design the seminary's Hebrew program.

I've tried to keep the focus of this site on the content and not on the person, but as more people want to know the person behind the content I think it right to share a little about the person; Roderick Edwards.

I am also preparing a testimony and statement of faith so that everything is very clear.

Who is Roderick Edwards?

I've always tried to be very open, very honest with both friend and foe. That honesty has allowed foes to attack. But you know, when I look at people, I look more at who their enemies are than who their friends are. You can tell a lot about a person by who opposes them.

But now, let's see who Roderick Edwards is as a person rather than just some nameless poster of content on the Internet.

First, we must ask where this idea comes from? Is it just hype created by the movie "2012"? Ironically enough, released in 2009. I've reviewed other movies from a Christian perspective but I wanted to delve into this concept in a way more than just a film review.

Apocalyptic scenarios have been with us since mankind began to tell stories, but is the 2012 account different? Let's first get to the origin of the concept. As you may know, a Mesoamerican culture called the Mayans maintained a calendar, called the Haab which ends on December 20, 2012. But why? This requires more about the creation accounts of the Mayans. According to Mayan theology, the gods created three worlds before this present world. The previous world ended on August 10, 3114 BC, and the present world began on August 11, 3114 BC. This in itself causes issues, since for example, according to popular biblical accounts the present world was created on October 23, 4004 BC,

It is interesting that every new generation of evangelical elites, whether it be conservative Calvinists or liberal Postmodernists seem to always go through a time of rediscovery. Christianity is supposed to be an historical religion, with continuity of foundation and purpose but so much time is expended simply rehashing the same issues that had been argued and settled often centuries before. I know some people enjoy this "journey" but to me it seems a waste of time to always be resetting to zero. Why can't we, especially as Christians simply stand firm in the foundations of our Faith? Why do people think it necessary to go through years and years of doubt, as if that is some great achievement? It is like the once obese person celebrating after achieving some milestone weight reduction while it would be better that we celebrate the person who always maintained their diet and never became obese. But such is our culture, always celebrating the overcomers of failure instead of the faithful maintainers of success.

Okay, okay. Yes, I am a LOST fan. Lost is a television series on ABC. The series started in September 2004 but I didn't become interested in it until 2009. In 2009, I spent a few months watching the previous five seasons in order. The synopsis of the series is that a plane traveling from Sydney Australia to Los Angeles crashes on a tropical island. The scenes immediately after the crash are extremely dramatic. Amazingly, many of the passengers survive. The rest of the series are about the struggles of the survivors.

There was a time in Christianity when regional pastors, called "Bishops" would spend most of their time articulating the precepts of the Faith, defending against heretical encroachment, and all around general exposition of historic Christianity. But now, those days are all but gone.  Instead pastors are too busy tending "local churches".  It would be too disruptive, too messy for a pastor to take on the heresies that batter the Church. Instead, individual "laymen" who come across these heresies are either left to fall prey to them or to battle them on their own without much support from the local congregation.
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