Church offers Thursday night Bible study
Events in the Middle East Have some area churches taking another look at Bible prophecy regarding the End Times and the Second Coming of Christ. “Any time you have Israel involved in a war, you have to look at Bible prophecy. For believers, I think it’s a wake up call,” said John Thomas, the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Fredericktown. “I think we’ve been looking at End Times ever since Israel became a nation. For them to be a nation again is a major milestone in scripture. For many years, most scholars had written off that Israel would ever be restored.”
Thomas said the restoration of Israel following World War II made Bible scholars take another look at scripture.
“It made people look at prophecy more literally,” Thomas said.
Thomas said anyone who spends any time studying the Bible will eventually be studying prophecy.
“Twenty seven percent of the Bible is prophecy, so you’re going to touch on it a lot when you’re studying the Bible,” Thomas said.
The Rev. Jack Herman, pastor of Cherry Tree Alliance Church in Uniontown said his church is studying the Book of Revelation during its Wednesday night studies.
“I’ve done studies of the Book of Revelation for years. Obviously, there are things happening that raise people’s curiosity about what does God say about the last days. Revelation is a complex book, but there is a certain amount of literalism,” Herman said.
Herman said there have been many theories about the Book of Revelation.
“One is that is it referring to events that occurred in the first century. That’s a difficult thing to substantiate, since there are several references that these are things that will happen at the Second Coming of the Lord,” Herman said.
And Herman said there are definite signs that the End Times are near.
“The most marked sign, if you want to refer to as a sign of the times, from a Christian perspective, is that there is a significant fulfillment of Matthew 24:14,” Herman said.
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come” (Matthew 24:14, New American Standard Bible)
Herman said that according to the Wycliffe Bible Translators, there are about 9,000 known languages in the world. The Wycliffe Bible Translators have set of goal of translating all or part of the Bible into every language by 2025.
“That’s a significant date, not that we’re setting dates for when the Lord will come,” Herman said.
Cherry Tree Alliance Church launched its current study of the Book of Revelation after a discussion of the Rev. Ralph Stice’s book, “From 9/11 to 666: The Convergence of Current Events, Biblical Prophecy and the Vision of Islam.”
“That’s what launched our Revelation series on Wednesday nights. It’s disturbing to people to see what’s going on in the world, if they don’t have their heads in the sand. The reality is, there are some major things going on in the world that could affect us. We should be alert, as the Bible tells us,” Herman said. “Our congregation believes our God is all powerful and in charge of creation, and whatever comes, He will see us through.”
Thomas began his Thursday night prophecy teachings after war erupted between Israel and Lebanon.
“I had done about two weeks on prophecy and the Middle East when I heard that (Calvary Chapel) Costa Mesa was doing the same thing and they were bringing in some pretty good speakers,” Thomas said.
Thomas arranged to get DVD’s of the speakers from the church in California, showing them in Fredericktown two weeks after the live appearance on the West Coast. The speakers have included Mark Hitchcock, who has written 14 books on biblical prophecy; Thomas Ice, the executive director of the Pre-Trib Research Center in Lynchburg, Va.; David Hocking, a Bible scholar who spoke on the relationship between the Jewish fall feasts and the Second Coming of Christ; and Dave Hunt, co-host of the “Search the Scriptures Daily” radio program. New York Times best selling author Joel Rosenberg will be featured in the video presentation Oct. 5, with the topic “Epicenter: Jerusalem, Center Stage.”
“The Thursday nights that we’ve been showing the series, attendance has really picked up. We’re seeing a lot of friends and neighbors. It gives our people a chance to invite their friends,” Thomas said.