As I exceeded the character limit, here is the final paragraph. Eschatology discussions I avoid like the plague, as I do not believe that we have nearly enough understanding of what was actually understood by the early Church. Personally, I have no problems waiting to see what happens.

Greetings and thanks for the reply. I suspect that we are pretty close in theology, as I grew up Baptist with a leaning toward Calvin. The older I get the more I agree with some of Calvin, just not sure about predestination. I did attend Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. First with the hope of a degree in Biblical Archaeology, and then did the classwork for a Master of Arts in Religion but never did write the required paper do to various reasons. While at the seminary, a few of the professors had me teach a class or two, mainly because I represented so well-thought out ideas of just war theory and New Testament history. With respect to the "just war" concept, there has never been nor ever will be a "just war" depending on how you define it, but some are more "just" than others. One of the bad ones that I use for an example is the Opium Wars fought by the British against the Chinese. Most people have never heard of them.

I am happy to talk about almost anything except Eschatology. God will just have to surprise me with the End Times details when they happen. I grew up atheist (nihilism), met God through a Catholic Charismatic Fellowship, was taught to read the Bible by the Church of God (Arminians), but read scripture and found myself a 4-point Calvinist (before I heard of Calvin). I towards Reformed Baptist in my personal theology, but learned a valuable lesson from the Moravian Church ... "In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In all things charity." So unless you deny the Resurrection or Deity of Jesus, I am fairly mellow with whatever you want to believe ... (no matter how wrong.) [Just kidding]

What sort of Theology do you like to discuss? From Timerover51