This was an interesting episode of the Lex Fridman podcast where Donald Hoffman helped me realize even from a naturalistic or evolutionary perspective you can not deny that there is more to this reality than we are able to perceive or experience with the senses we have developed.   Here is a link to the episode I'm referring to.   https://youtu.be/reYdQYZ9Rj4 It's interesting though because as a Christina I believe the Bible eludes to the exact same truth; humans are not created to perceive or experience reality to it's fullest. However we are told repeatedly in the Bible that there exists and unseen reality or unseen realm beyond our reality or our dimension which is in fact the reality behind our reality; the real real as I like to call it.

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Scientists have recently made the claim, based on extensive evidence, that our universe is not locally real. Confused? Here's an article to help:  https://medium.com/predict/nobel-prize-winning-scientists-findings-show-the-universe-isn-t-real-51cde7685600 What's that you say? You don't buy it? What about some of the other leading theories out there aimed at explaining away our reality? The Multiverse, Simulation Theory, these are a few more examples of concepts meant to help us make sense of this crazy reality we're all a part of.   A common thread in all these theories is that our reality as we see know it is bound to something outside of this space and time based dimension. Interestingly enough, that's what the Bible has been saying for millennia.   Lets explore what the ancient Bible says about these modern discoveries scientist are just now uncovering.

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Don't contact my pastor to excommunicate me or set me aside for church discipline for this one :) I'm just looking at a strange passage in Ezekiel 28, and others, and trying to make sense of the language while performing some creative mental gymnastics :) I'm not promoting this view as true by any means lol. Just thinking out loud.

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We are starting The Bennis The Menace Book Club today!   Tag along as we read through and discuss some pretty amazing books.  Our first read will be The Unseen Realm by Dr. Michael Heiser.   If there's a book you need to read this coming year, it's got to be The Unseen Realm. This book has completely changed my life and my perspective on the Bible, God, and the grand scheme of things. I think it will do the same for you!  Tag along as we read through the book and discuss!   Let's get into it!

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There are always technical difficulties, but I mean come on Eli!

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Here we go again!   With his amillennial eschatology, Eli believes we are already in the millennial reign of Christ. What else would that mean though? Well for starters, it would mean he believes everything in revelation before the 1000 year millennial kingdom has already happened. He actually believes the antichrist already came, there was already "the mark of the beast", the war of Armageddon has already happened, and Jesus has already returned and established his millennial reign on earth. Crazy huh?   But in this clip from our latest Full Revelation episode, we dig a little deeper into Eli's perspective on the mark of the beast. Most people will say that it's a chip or some kind of technology that is embedded in your body without which you will not be able to buy or sell. I mean that's what the text says right? That men will have to take a mark on their forehead or their right hand, without which people will not be able to buy or sell, they will be cut out of commerce entirely. A technological understanding of this verse just makes most sense based on todays technology and the way we're progressing. However, and Amillenial like Eli disagrees. He think this has already happened.   Let's get into it!

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If you do any research into the book of Revelation, you'll quickly see that the primarily quarrel to this day is whether it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, 70AD, or after. If it was written before Jerusalem's distraction, it's easy to make the argument that John was simply informing his immediate readers of the coming troubles ahead in 70AD. If the book of Revelation was written after 70AD then it likely that all the events described are future / yet to be fulfilled and we are still awaiting the great day of the Lord!  However, what if there's a third option? What's if it's both? What if Revelation describes the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD as spoken of in Mathew 24 and many other passages, but Revelation also describes an even greater whole wide world even which we are still waiting for? Is it possible that the prophecies in Revelation are a dual fulfillment as with some other prophecies in the Bible? Is it possible that the distraction of Jerusalem in 70AD was just a foreshadowing of the things to come in at a future time in history?   Let's get into it!

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Christians believe the book of Revelation is an account of the vision John the apostle had sometime between 60-90AD. Was Revelation talking about the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70AD? Or was it talking about a future global event known as Armageddon and the end of this era?  If you believe John was seen a vision of a later future global even, one has to interpret certain passages in Revelation to indicate that there will be a rise in Roman Empire, or the spirit behind the Roman empire, again in the last days. Interestingly enough, one of the beasts that John sees in his vision in Revelation is actually sitting outside of the United Nations headquarters right now as I'm typing this! Google UN leopard statue if you don't believe me.   This statue was gifted to the UN by a Mexican artist and it matches the description of one of the beasts in the book of Revelation! Coincidence, or blatant mockery of God? Is this the statue that John saw in his vision when seeing events which were to unfold in the future? After all, the United Nations and the European Union have reunified and conquered Europe, just like the ancient Romans did. Just a coincidence? Or are we watching Biblical prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes?

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Ben and Eli bump heads a bit on the possibility that the prophet Isaiah predicted a second virgin birth. Is that possible? Is that a common miracle in the Bible? Or would you say a virgin birth is unique to Christ?   In this passage in Isaiah we clearly see that he predicts a child will be born and that the parents would name it Emanuel. Isaiah uses the same work for the young girl as is used of Marry, the mother of Jesus, who we know was a virgin when she gave birth. Eli understands this passage to say the young woman was currently a virgin when Isaiah gave the prophecy but she would soon know a man and get pregnant with a son and they will name it Emanuel. Ben does not see the girl as being a virgin but as a young woman who was already pregnant when Isaiah prophecies. He merely foretells the child's gender as male and tells the parents to name him Emanuel; this as a foreshadowing of the coming messiah.   What do you think?

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Alright, here we go! Round two!  Lets see how far into revelation we get this time!   This is the second time we are attempting to get into the book of revelation. Claudiu is on vacation in Cancun so he doesn't have to put up with us this week, but the rest of the boys stand firm.  Dennis is a bit tiered in this one because he's in Florida and we were at this for hours lol. Honestly I think Eli is starting to see the error of his amillennial eschatology and starting to realize that the world around him with these wars, and mark of the beast technology, and the rebuilding of the third Jewish temple in Israel, and aliens / demons / Nephilim starting to appear in the skies all over the world, it's just not looking like Christ is reigning in the millennial reign of Christ as we would expect based on Revelation. Although amillennials think they've got a cute buttoned up interpretation of the Bible, reality and the world around them doesn't seem to line up with their views so much. It looks like reality lines up more with a premillennial eschatology and we aren't currently in the millennium, but we are hurtling towards Armageddon and the end of the world where the antichrist still needs to arise and Jesus needs to return with the armies of heaven to wipe him out and institute his millennial reign.   Unfortunately Eli's system crashes right when he starts to acknowledge the error of his ways and it looks like once Dennis goes to bed Eli starts to admit, reality is not favorable to his perspective and he also has premillennialism in the back of his mind as a real possibility. But know knows! This is Biblical Prophecy. It's not meant to be fully understood until after it's fulfilled. But the truth of Revelation is very clear! Jesus Christ wins in the end! Everything else is just details. Whether or not there's a rapture or whether it's a pretribulaiton or post tribulation rapture, or if there even is a rapture, shouldn't deter from the truth we can all agree on; Jesus wins!

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