Then why use that article as some sort of proof America is despot?
Your comment implies news articles nowadays are not ethical. Do I understand that correctly?
No, not diversionary in any way. Just a simple inquiry to better understand the explanation for using the article, an article that was posted in response to
Post #4.
The salient point is despotism is not happening now and will not be happening for a very long time. Some countries may shift suddenly from one form of government to despotism but it's not going to happen suddenly in the US and it's not going to happen suddenly globally, either. Reason is our fried. When modern futurists make irrational claims of fear mongering they should either be ignored or bluntly corrected in an unyielding manner, with hope they will recapture their God-given faculties of reason and so their nonsense doesn't mislead the less informed.
In response to those points an unethical article was somehow deemed a rational and valid response.
The chronic use of news articles is a huge problem in modern futurism. Dispensational Premillennialists (DP) and their modern futurist kin are near constantly being told by their preachers and teachers some recent even is a sign of some prophecy coming to fulfillment. The event comes and goes but no fulfillment occurs. In this particular case the predicate condition for being able to buy or sell is a despotic state. Futurists say there will be a one-world government so the despotism that has to take place will be global. There's no diversity of thought about this within Dispensationalism or its modern futurist kin. They do not think this through to its logically necessary conclusions. They should. Instead, a news article is called up as some form of evidence but news, at best, is unreliable because its unethical. This is paradoxical because the unethical nature of the news could be considered (by a futurist) to be a sign of the end times,
but that same sign would mean the news is unreliable as a harbinger of end times.
"
Believe the propaganda! Believe the propaganda! The propaganda is a sign! The propaganda tells us the end is near!"
For any well-reasoning person this goes beyond being merely irrational to being completely insane.
That is, nonetheless, what DPers do.
The title of this op asks how the restriction on buying and selling will be implemented. The op provides a lot of information about China, which is a despotic state and the article bases its information on two LATimes articles. While there are probably some fact and truth in those articles, the LATimes is a far Leftist, chronically unethical, source for information. It is certainly no friend of Christianity. It is unreliable, at best, if not completely deceitful one way or another in every word it writes. That's a problem in and of itself but even if we were to consider what is reported to be relevant to Revelation 13:7 we're still left with the fact despotism is how buying and selling will be controlled
and that despotism must be global if the restriction is applicable to everyone.
Which is why Post 2 was posted.
The response is an
opinion piece from a journalist who, upon inspection, has clearly behaved in an unethical manner as measured by his profession's code of ethics. This is, again, what modern futurists do.
The larger problem, one that is much more severe and problematic than using unethical source material, the larger problem is the near-constant subjugation of scripture to secular newscasts. It is not okay to use liars to interpret scripture. The practice is antithetical to everything written in scripture!
Assuming the Revelation 13:7 restriction on buying and selling is a still-future event
(and I, personally, reject that premise), the restriction will be implemented by a tyrannical government, a despotism. In order for Revelation 13:7 to be implemented globally
(as modern futurists say it will be) the despotism imposing the restriction must, therefore, also be global. We are not anywhere close to a global despotism. A
few countries in the world are run by despots, or a despotic group of people. The Leftist (self-styled progressive) source Freedom House says about half of the world's nations are authoritarian, which is certainly alarming but given the fact 100% of the world's nations were monarchies of other forms of authoritarianism in Bible times, that's a marked improvement
(remember: do not submit scripture to history; submit history to scripture). The more centrist Economist Enterprise's Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has just a hair under a third of all nations as authoritarian. If we split the difference, then 60% of the world's nations still have to become despot states before the restriction on buying and selling described in Revelation 13 can exist.
I, for one, have plenty of other things to do in service to my Lord and Savior than fret over modern futurist fear mongering built on unethical, unreliable propaganda and unethical opinion pieces by folks who won't answer the simplest of question immediately or directly when asked.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
- Subjugating scripture to the latest news propaganda is not a good work.
- Fear mongering is not a good work.
- Relying on propaganda by the enemies of God is not a good work.
- Refusing forthcoming discussion is not a good work.
- Chronic speculation is not a good work; neither is rank speculation.
- Failing to reason through to the logical necessities of scripture is not a good work.
These are NOT works God has prepared for His people to perform.
It will not be a secret when the end comes. Everyone will know what is happening. Until then get busy doing the good works God has prepared for you to perform.
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God....
And I also say to you that you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
The world will look much different when all of God's people act like that statement is true. The gates of hell cannot overpower the church.
Eschatology matters. It should always be measured by Ephesians 2:10, so get busy doing the works God had already prepared for us to do before He saved any of us.
