RISE OF DISPENSATIONALISM. OBJECTIVISM VS. SUBJECTIVISM. THE PROLIFERATION OF CREATIVITY. THE REFORMATION.

This was such an interesting thing to listen to. I really enjoy the treatment of the development of ideas throughout history in certain cultural contexts. It helps me to feel more connected to people throughout time. I thought I might be able to add a couple things to the conversation too. I really see how the dictates of priests and bishops can lead to relativism throughout time, and how it has also been passed down in insane ways to evangelical and non-denominational churches to this day. We can think of all the gimmicks of indulgences, but we can also think of all the gimmicks of altar calls and feigned miracles and music and fireworks of megachurches. It makes me think of how “real” the miracles some of the saints claimed by Rome actually were. At any rate, we rely on the word of God and not on signs and wonders. Some of the church fathers and the saints claimed by Rome have also been great philosophers and cultured men and women, and I can see how over time the church and her offspring became more and more dogmatic and less zealous for the truth confined to scripture and less reliant upon the opinions of men. Philosophical argumentation has become more disconnected from the essence of things and more concerned with politics and such. One philosophical innovation that was critical to this development was the idea of Nominalism, the notion that ideas have meanings only insofar as we can apply those ideas as names upon the world around us. Ideas are not truths in and of themselves. That can mean that we stop seeing the Truth as existing no matter what, but only in relation to perspectives and developments in the world. William of Occam was a part of this, and his ideas even influenced Martin Luther. I can see how this would also mean that the words of the Bible would not mean the absolute things in the context of other absolute words of the Bible, but they would also be interpreted in the context of more worldly matters that lend themselves to scholarly alterations of meaning. This would be the scholars using worldly developments or academic concepts to interpret the words of Truth instead of finding the related words of Truth to allow the truth to interpret truth itself.

will have to get thomas bergman to speak on this a bit, he has some ideas related

Ribera, Bellarmine, and Alcazar formed Rome's best Jesuit threefold cord in the 16th - early 17th centuries!

THIS I'm very familiar with, having come out from it myself!

Rome will not sit a widow and will suffer no loss of children. Isaiah 47:8 Rome will always attack reformed thought seeking to regain what she lost during the Reformation . . and foolish men (the Jesuit eductaed seminarians) will have their hearts darkened. Romans 1. They will return to their vomit. prov 26:11. I don't understand it and never will. Lukewarm will be spit out. Rev 3:16. Jesus told us to be "wise as serpents" (Matt 10:16) which backs everything you said about learning about things of the World . . history/culture/ etc. Study to show ourselves approved. 2 Tim 2:15. The blind leading the blind will cause both to fall in the ditch. Matt 15:14

The defensive nature of dogmatic dispensationalists, in which they rely heavily on personal emotion and man made tradition, is astounding. The few that I try to present the Truth of The Word to seem to take it VERY personal when you challenge their views on who they identify as Israel, the idea of the “rapture”, or their view regarding “the time of Jacob’s Trouble” from Jeremiah 30:7 (the last of which, I am eager to hear your view). The veil of carnal mindedness placed upon them is saddening, as it is not pleasing to The Lord, but enmitie against Him.