Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
That would be a different theory. My point is that the interpretation was based on different verses, whether or not you agree with the interpretation.
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My interpretation is guided by a simple question: What would one expect this to mean to its first-century recipients? Remember that these were actual letters to actual people. Would we expect any of them to say, "Well, I believe this pertains to some group of believers ages hence"? Or would they rather see it as an echo perhaps of, "Watch and pray, for you do not know the hour"? I.e., be on the alert, be watchful and awake? Does such counsel only relate to one era in church history?
The other interpretation, the Ages of Church History one, seems to need a special decoder ring that the apostle perhaps orally transmitted to his disciples, which was then lost and "recovered" centuries later by God's Oracle, the Seer of the Divine Revelation. Again, self-interest and selection bias appears strong in such a case.