10 Responses

1. Pastor Ali is so encouraging.. Covenant and controversy part three was very very good. I knew 90% of the information in regard to Israel’s coming trouble, but the film has a real power to help you picture what is coming and begin to pray for that time. Prayer and fasting is in order… We need the Lord’s power for this time.

2. Joel, Luke 21:25 refers to roaring of the seas and the waves,. This feels figurative in the context, but it does follow after what appear to be natural signs in the heavens. What is your take on this?
   Thanks.

3. Mr. Richardson.
   I so much enjoy your debate dvds. How I wish you had one with Mr Doug Bachelor! I have been working for years with the SDA’s in my area on the Rome vs Mecca issue. I know I could do so much more, and they would be more willing to hear if i had a real scriptural debate that included there most prominent evangelical speakers. Is there any chance of that happening??? I could go so much farther and to many more churches with such a dvd????????????

4. Great update. as usual. I am trying to expose my pretrip pastor to the pre-wrath perspective. He is hung up on 1–mminence and on his belief that 2–Muslims will not
   worship a Muslim Anti-Christ because Muslims will only accept Allah as worthy of worship. Could you point me to your materials that would help this dialog with my pastor?

5. Mideast Beast has a whole chapter dedicated to this.

6. Joel,

   I am currently taking some seminary classes and one of my professors has taken issue with my assertion that Jesus is appearing to Muslims in dreams and visions. His objections are best summed up here… http://tottministries.org/muslim-dreams-and-visions/ . (basically that cessationism precludes any further revelation, that there is little to no scriptual support for it, and that the content of the dreams seem inconsistent with what he said/did in scripture) I’m very interested to know what your views on this are? I’d take any kind of reply if you have the time, but I think it would be a good topic for one of your Underground episodes as well. Thanks,

   Michael A. in OKC

7. Circular reasoning. Cessationism is true, therefore these thousands of testimonies cannot be real. The problem is that the testimonies are simply too abundant, consistent to deny. I pay little attention to arguments like this.

8. So true about the circular reasoning.

   Cessationism also objects to things such as dreams and visions because they allegedly create “experience” focused belief systems – claiming that authority of experience is held above scripture.

   However, while scripture speaks of the reality of dreams, visions and other spiritual experiences, Cessationists dismiss the validity of those experience and the various (scriptural) Spiritual gifts, mostly based on the “authority” of their lack of experience of those Spiritual gifts.

   They claim the gifts are not for today because they themselves have no experience of them – and therefore have to come up with a very dubious rationale for that belief based on their lack of experience.

   If dreams and visions serve can serve God’s purposes in sowing seeds of the gospel to people with restricted access of knowledge of the gospel, who is man to deny Him the right and the ability to use them?

9. For a thorough, easy to read, logical, and Scripturally solid treatment, see Surprised by the Power of the Spirit by Jack Deere.

10. Convinced why so many Christians don’t experience the power of the Spirit, perhaps too many want to hold onto their Harry Potter books and the like………

    “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. (Acts 19:18-20)