I've appreciated the things that both you and Joel have written about the backwards fulfillments of the MO Letters. I am convinced that God was trying to say SOMETHING to us, including DB himself. I guess that puts us all on the same page, at least in some sense.

Several things have gotten me started reading the Scriptures from a different perspective lately. The first thing was a chapter on "The Doctrine of the End Times" in Gilbert Bilezikian's book, "Christianity 101". Then, I got hold of some preterist writings by Philip Mauro, and began reading Josephus' "Jewish Wars" and some of Tacitus' writings.

Right now, I'm reading a commentary on Revelation called "Days of Vengeance", by David Chilton, a partial preterist. It's the first non-premillenial commentary I've read (Premillenialism is most prevalent among evangelical Christians. We taught a form of it in the Family). Some of the preterist position is based on a spiritualized interpretation of prophetic passages. But there is MUCH in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, as well as Daniel 9, which I thought could ONLY be somewhere off in the future, but which were quite literally fulfilled between 66 and 70 A.D.

A few tidbits: Josephus says (in "The Jewish War", vi.v.3) that there were great disturbances in and above the Temple around the time of the celebration of Passover in 66. A great light appeared in the altar area of the Temple, and remained for half an hour; later, the massive east gate to the inner sanctuary, which normally took 20 men to move into place, came open of its own accord. Then, at the end of this second Passover in 66 (rescheduled because of the first two great wonders): "A supernatural apparition was seen, too amazing to be believed. What I am now to relate would, I imagine, be dismissed as imaginary, had this not been vouched for by eyewitnesses, then followed by subsequent disasters that deserved to be thus signalized. For before sunset, chariots were seen in the air over the whole country, and armed battalions speeding through the clouds and encircling the cities". A fourth sign occurred inside the Temple on the next great feast day, and was witnessed by the twenty-four priests who were on duty: 'At the feast called Pentecost, when the priests had entered the inner courts of the Temple by night to perform their usual ministrations, they declared that they were aware, first, of a violent commotion and din, then of a voice as of a host crying, 'We are departing hence!' (Tacitus, the Roman historian, summarizes the same events: "In the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armour. A sudden lightning flash from the clouds lit up the Temple. The doors of the holy place abruptly opened, a superhuman voice was heard to declare that the gods were leaving it, and in the same instant came the rushing tumult of their de- parture" [Histories, v.13]).

There was a fifth sign in the heavens that year: 'A star that looked like a sword stood over the city and a comet that continued for a whole year.'

I'm not sure where all this is leading yet, but it's interesting, and, like I said, I think it's worth discussing.