The Two Great Prophets

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

It was his survival of a near fatal head-on collision in 1940 that turned Elkan Kemps life around. After crossing the threshold of death twice while hospitalized, he gained a new perspective on life and on death, as well. During his six years in the Air Corps, he met his dream-girl while at Pearl Harbor, and they were married. Elkan Kemp began his college education in 1946 at the University of Iowa. There he obtained both a BA and an MA degree, with majors in Sociology and Religion. It was during this time that his interests included in-depth studies of the Old Testament under Rabbi Judah Goldin. He studied religion under Dr. Marcus Bach and Theology under several Jesuit priests. He learned five dialects in Greek and received honors in Phi Eta Sigma, Eta Sigma Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. Reverend Kemps religious studies at the University of Iowa led him to three years of graduate work at the San Francisco Theological Seminary which included research in Greek and advanced Hebrew. He also went on to earn a divinity degree and a Seminary Fellowship for study at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His experience at the University of Edinburgh led him to more advanced work in Hebrew and extensive studies of the Muslim religion. With a Ph.D. thesis entitled, Life, Death and What Comes After, Elkan Kemps education now led him to his lifelong devotion to pastoral work. After teaching from the Bible for more than 60 years, Reverend Kemp became aware of just how many thinking people have been frustrated by the walls of religious myth, legend, creed and dogma that the churches and synagogues have erected. His decision to write this book came out of a desire to ease those frustrations by helping people to break down those walls. There was a practical side to his effort. He sat with many deeply religious laymen and ministers who came to that event we call death, with great anxiety. Reverend Kemp believes that it is evident that the Judaeo-Christian religion is not working, for those walls require a hand-me-down religion and this does not work. Reverend Kemp states, We truly believe only what we know about our God first hand. I hope, with this book, people will be able to find that experience and to have a full life, and then come to death with a firm, happy confidence . . . not just a vague hope.

Los cinco libros de Los Profetas Mayores (Isaías, Jeremías, Lamentaciones, Ezequiel Y Daniel)cubren un período significativo y presentan una amplia serie de mensajes. Isaías habló a la nación de Judá alrededor de 150 años antes de su exilio a Babilonia y les hizo un llamado para ser fieles a Dios. Jeremías clamó a ese mismo pueblo cuando estaban al borde del exilio, implorándoles por su arrepentimiento. Lamentaciones, escrito por Jeremías, presenta un canto fúnebre al ir Judá al exilio. Los dos últimos profetas mayores, Ezequiel y Daniel, hablaron y escribie- ron para el pueblo en el exilio, animándolos a recordar que Dios seguía aún en control y que finalmente restauraría la fortuna espiritual de Su disciplinada nación.Tres de estos cinco libros son bastante extensos y a veces, todos ellos, pueden ser difíciles de entender. Sin embargo, la dedicación en tiempo y esfuerzo para tratar de entender estos escritos pagará grandes dividendos. Se ha dicho que ninguna otra sección en la Biblia ofrece una figura de Dios tan majestuosa y altamente exaltada. Su soberanía es increíble, Su gloria es impresionante, y leyendo estos libros, nuestra fe encuentra nuevos niveles más profundos de confianza.

Many Christians think of end times prophecy as a gigantic, intimidating puzzle -- difficult to piece together and impossible to figure out. But every puzzle can be solved if you approach it the right way. Paul Benware compares prophecy to a picture puzzle. Putting the edge pieces together first builds the 'framework' that makes it easier to fit the other pieces in their place. According to Benware, the framework for eschatology is the biblical covenants. He begins his comprehensive survey by explaining the major covenants. Then he discusses several different interpretations of end times prophecy. Benware digs into the details of the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, the judgements and resurrections, and the millennial kingdom. But he also adds a unique, personal element to the study, answering questions as: -Why study bible prophecy? -What difference does it make if I'm premillenial or amillenial? If what the Bible says about the future puzzles you, Understanding End Times Prophecy will help you put together the pieces and see the big picture.

While writing columns for the Virgin Islands Daily News over the last seven years, I received much favorable feedback from readers. If an article addressed an issue that was currently in the news, many said that I had put into print exactly what they too had been thinking. Concerning personal reflections on family and life in general, again, many stopped to remark positively on how their lives, if just for a brief moment, were touched by what they had read. Recently, I was reminded of Stepping Out of the Box by an acquaintance who also has a fear of driving on the mainland, and how much she had identified with the article as she read it three years ago! In my second year of writing, people started to name their favorite column. If none appeared for two to three months, I was stopped regularly on the street and "prompted" to write soon. One year, My Grandfather's Letter was read to a class at a local elementary school during " Reading is Fundamental Week", and, a secondary school teacher once stopped me to relate how Mbube and the Zulu was the topic of discussion one day in her Social Studies class. The students wanted to continue even after the bell had rung! A male reader once sought the Daily News' assistance in contacting me after reading When the Men We Love Lie he had a story to share about the opposite side of the spectrum! This consistent feedback over the years motivated me to continue writing about issues I felt were meaningful and informational to the reading public and at the same time, gave me a sense of pride and fulfillment. For these reasons, I decided to compile all forty articles into one easy-to-read keepsake, with personal photographs, for those who have faithfully read them over the years and who may enjoy reading them again. Personally, I also wanted to broaden my horizon by reaching out to a first-time reading audience, both in and out of the "islands." While some of the topics are of course dated, lively discussions can be generated for years to come. Favorites include, When the Men We Love, Lie, Where, Oh Where Does Time Go?, Getting Back What We've Lost, My Grandfather's Letter, When My Beloved Grandmother Died, Feeling Proud and I'm Scared!

Siew seeks to examine the events that will unfold within the three and a half years before the dawn of the kingdom of God on earth. He argues that John composed the textual unit of Rev 11:1--14:5 as a coherent and unified literary unit structured in a macro-chiasm. He pays special attention to the fusion of form and content and seeks to elucidate how the concentric and chiastic pattern informs the meaning of the literary units within 11:1--14:5, and proposes that the text of 11:1--14:5 is best analyzed using Hebraic literary conventions, devices, and compositional techniques such as chiasm, parallelism, parataxis, and structural parallelism. The macro-chiastic pattern provides the literary-structural framework for John to portray that the events of the last three and a half years unfold on earth as a result of what transpires in heaven. Specifically, the war in heaven between Michael and the dragon has earthly ramifications. The outcome of the heavenly war where Satan is defeated and thrown out of heaven to earth results in the war on earth between the two beasts of Rev 13 and the two witnesses of Rev 11. The narrative of the war in heaven (12:7-12) is seen as the pivot of the macro-chiastic structure. Siew pays close attention to the time-period of the three-and-a-half years as a temporal and structural marker which functions to unite the various units in 11:1--14:5 into a coherent and integral whole. The events of the last days will be centred in Jerusalem.