RIBERA WAS WRONG

FROM THE INTERNET

A while back I posted “ONE NEW MAN”, from our January 2006 issue, on an Internet forum. The following exchange resulted.
Okay, group, let's get personal about this. Has God
ever done something that did not line up with *your* understanding of the Word? Care to share? What did the experience teach you?

MARION SEZ: HE SURE HAS!!!

The most recent, and perhaps the most life-changing, took place just this year. It happened this way:

Back in 1959 or 1960, I was working in a warehouse where bales of hops were re-compressed for shipping around the world. The finished product weighed about 433 pounds each. One would come down the line about every 15 minutes or so, and my job was to wrap it with steel strapping in four places. When we finished, my partner and I grabbed it and stood it up on end for the man with the hand truck to truck it away to the loading dock.

We were not allowed to talk, so I occupied my mind with memorizing scripture in the book of Isaiah. I had the basic ideas of some of the chapters (53 to 61), but could not "get a handle on them", because I was still too bogged down with the "Theory of Ribera", as I have lately been calling it. He was one of the two Jesuit Priests that the Pope commissioned to "Get the heat off the Catholic Church". The Reformation preachers were pointing to the Papacy and calling it the antichrist, and the heat was becoming unbearable.

According to those who have studied the matter, Ribera published a 500 page manuscript in 1590 in which he successfully changed the curriculum of the Church.

The changes included, but were not confined to, re-interpreting the books of Daniel and Revelation, and directing the attention of students of Prophecy to the last seven years of the Church dispensation.

He successfully directed attention away from the Papacy, and focused attention on a future "one-man antichrist", a future "mark of the beast"-- the whole "ball of wax", or the "whole nine yards". This also, of necessity, included the restoration and evangelization of the family of Israel, which, according to traditional knowledge, is/was made up of only what are known as the Jews.

I didn't see how even the Lord could accomplish so much in seven years, but I knew He could do whatever He wanted to do. I had to leave it at that, for my feeble brain could only stand a small amount of pressure.

Then, one day last September (or was it October 2005), The Lord suddenly brought several things into sharper focus for me (this time in my SPIRIT instead of my mind).

I re-read Isaiah 49, and as I did, the Lord seemed to "lay it all out" before me.

I had preached several times about the "work of the Messiah" from chapter 49, but always had to "work around" the fact that the Lord seemed to be calling the Messiah by the name of Israel. It was as "clear as mud" to me.

NOT ANY MORE! For when the Lord opened my eyes to what He has done, and is presently doing in the earth, the horizon of my understanding changed completely.

Suddenly, I saw Abraham, and the Promise, in a new light. I saw Jesus Christ in a new light. I saw Calvary in a new light. I saw Pentecost in a new light. History of the Church changed. History of the World changed.

And the FUTURE, well that is a story all by itself. RIBERA WAS WRONG! DEVILISHLY WRONG !!!

And the lights of revelations are still going on! I have no idea when or where it will end.

THE FUTURE IS NOTHING BUT BRIGHT! GOD IS IN "RESTORATION MODE" NOW ! GOD IS IN CONTROL. GOD IS “CALLING THE SHOTS.”

BLESSED BE GOD !!!!