Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 16, 1999 at 18:31:52 {pRztWiaeukOL4VPHgCQsFMFBt36Xyc}:
In Reply to: *Post-Armageddon Concerns posted by ros on November 16, 1999 at 12:29:55:
You've raised some good questions that would even make Born Again fundamentalists squirm (especially since the tabloids are claiming that Billy Graham is claiming the end is sooner than we may think, I noticed in the supermarket yesterday).
I think that the book of Isaiah that talks about a global paradise (don't have my Bible handy), helps to clarify.
Also, it's not wait's said but implied, i.e., if Christ is to rule for a thousand years with the 144,000, then over whom is he going to rule? Clearly his rulership is over the earth, and it lasts a thousand years, so put two and two together: human civilization restored in a righteous kingdom.
From there, Ros, we simply add pieces of soft clay like a forensic scientist would sculpt pieces of clay on a skull, until we see the face of the person whose skull it was. It's taking that skeletal frame of logical assumptions (such as the obvious understanding that Christ will not rule over an earth without people). It's like saying "where in the company manual does it say there will be employees after the merger?" who which one answers, "it says here there will be management, so obviously they have to manage somebody, right?" It's that kind of reasoning.
Think of Bible as like a big jigsaw puzzle. The picture becomes clearer as you add more pieces, provided you don't force any of the pieces into place to create a distorted picture.
Rick