Even the electronic digital version that I get has not been altered to bring readers up to date with the breaking news. The antiquated website of the CMPA and Christadelphian magazine is equally silent. No discussion forum to discuss these things, no comment, no update - nothing.
Instead we are treated to two rambling pieces by Roger Long in the print version of the magazine; one on Russia and the Ukraine and the other on "A Chaotic Region." - Yeah we get that Roger - Its been a chaotic region for the last seven thousand years - Nothing new.
Roger seems to have mostly given up trying to explain Bible prophecy. He's got thirty years of egg on his face for getting it all wrong and his magazine has a one hundred and sixty five years track record of one mistake after another. Now all we get are "I Dunno; maybe this will happen, maybe something different" type of articles that are frequently punctuated with question marks, as he sits at his desk in Shaftmoor Lane with a baffled and confused look on his face.
I've struggled to find much about Syria and the Christadelphians on the Internet. Ipswich Christadelphians have perhaps made the biggest effort. Click here to view their article on Syria. Here is a taste of what they are saying:
Syria in Prophecy
Here is what Amos and Jeremiah have prophesied concerning the fate of Syria..
Amos 1:
3 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:
4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad**.
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 49:
23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad**.
Isaiah also predicts the downfall of Damascus and the destruction of Syria in his 17th chapter.
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
3 The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria:
Later on in this chapter a prophecy is made concerning an invasion of the land of Israel.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
- No attempt here to explain why these prophecies were not fulfilled over two and a half thousand years ago when they were written. No attempt to explain why there has been no fresh revelation of God or new prophecy given for two thousand years. Instead someone has looked up the words "Syria" and Damascus" in a Bible concordance and thrown out the results into an article in a mindless attempt to make it look as if the Bible has any relevance to the events of today.
Some readers of this blog are beginning to get agitated about Syria; thinking that the return of Christ is imminent. It happens every time that there is a little skirmish in the Middle East and every time, they end up disappointed and forlorn that their precious Bible has once again let them down in confused muddle.
Recent Christadelphian deconvert brother Rob Hyndman wrote on his blog a few weeks ago:
"Even the prophecies that I once found so convincing, appeared to be either contrived, out-of-context, or written after the alleged fulfilment."
If only Christadelphian Theists could have the commonsense to realise the truth of his words.
So here is my challenge to Christadelphian Theists: Read your precious Bible prophecies and tell us in the comments below what is going to happen in Syria and the Middle East over the next few months. Then around the start of next year (2014) we will see if your speculations and predictions were correct, or whether you merely continued the one hundred and sixty five year old Christadelphian tradition of being hopelessly wrong about anything and everything to do with Bible prophecy.
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