The End Times

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Jesus is returning and when we see the signs begin to appear, we are to look nie, for our redemption draws near.
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But we are to know the signs, which means it is important to know what scripture says about the return. Knowledge is important to understand it all.

Cory
 
I daresay that none of you come close to the knowledge, belief and faith in Christ that his apostles had, and THEY believed they were living in the End Times. They truly believed that it would happen in their lifetimes. What else would you think if Christ said in Matthew 16:28 “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

So what went wrong?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]It is important to see when Matthew 16:28 was literally fulfilled. To find a literal fulfillment we need only look to the next chapter (Matthew 17), where we find that the "some standing here" refers to Peter, James and John and "seeing the Son of man coming in His kingdom" refers to the transfiguration. This is confirmed by 2 Peter 1:16-18 where the transfiguration is said to be "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." The transfiguration was a marvelous preview of the Lord's future coming in His kingdom majesty.
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The following is taken from John Darby's Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, Volume 3, page 137:

In each Gospel that speaks of it, the transfiguration immediately follow the promise of not tasting death before seeing the kingdom of the Son of Man. And not only so, but Peter (in his second Epistle, 1:16), when speaking of this scene, declares that it was a manifestation of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says that the word of prophecy was confirmed to them by the view of His majesty; so that they knew that whereof they spoke, in making known to them the power and the coming of Christ, having beheld His majesty. In fact it is precisely in this sense that the Lord speaks of it here, as we have seen. It was a sample of the glory in which He would hereafter come, given to confirm the faith of His disciples in the prospect of His death which He had just announced to them.
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Cory
 
Absolutely nothing has gone wrong DV. Jesus gave us plenty of signs to show us that the end of the age was near. A great place to start is in Matthew.

Mt 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mt 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

How many people have we seen recently come either in the name of Christ and bear false witness or actually claim to be the messiah. The best example I can think of, of a person claiming to be the messia is Rev. Sun Moon <----wacko

Mt 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

This prophecy is fulfilled daily in our headline news as the media touts all the wars that are going on and are rumored to be ready to happen.

Mt 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

We certainly see plenty of this as well nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Earthquakes are on the rise, just do a search to see how they have increased over the past decade, it'll blow your mind.

My 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

When Jesus speaks of 'this generation' he is speaking of the generation that see's these signs come to pass.

Zec 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

This verse is a description of the use of neutron weapons against Israel's enemies. How else could it be described by an OT prophet 2500 years ago?

1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

This is also fulfilled daily as even our leaders make a cry for peace and safety, yet they are the ones making the war.

Da 8:25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

This one is quite scary as it describes what our own leader is doing today. By peace he is destroying many. Perhaps just a warm-up to the anti-christ.

The possesion of Jerusalem would be at the center of international turmoil (Zechariah 12:3). Almost daily the world news reports on the conflict over Jerusalem.

Literal Babylon (formerly called Babel) would reemerge in the land of Shinar - known today as Iraq (Zechariah 5:11; Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:1-9; Isaiah 13). Saddam Hussein spent over 20 years and many hundreds of millions of dollars rebuilding the city of Babylon.

The fact that God once flooded the earth (the Noahic Flood) would be denied (2 Peter 3:5-6). There is a mass of fossil evidence to prove this fact, yet it is flatly ignored by the scientific world because of its uncanny implication.

Increased interest in vegetarianism anticipated (1 Timothy 4:3-4). The New Age Movement has swept the globe during the past 40 years popularizing this.

Many wars would erupt (Mark 13:7-8). According to Project Ploughshares, there are about 40 armed conflicts in the world today.

Knowledge would increase (Daniel 12:4; Isaiah 11:9). Specifically, this is referring to an understanding of Bible prophecy, but also an increase in scientific knowledge is implied.

There would be technology capable of tracking the world's population and commerce (Revelation 13:16-17). This certainly was not possible during the time Jesus walked the earth.

Birds of prey would eat the dead flesh of the enemy armies that fall in battle against Israel (Ezekiel 39:4, 17; Revelation 19:17-21).
It is a little known fact that Israel is the bird migration capital of the world. In fact, 500 million to 1.5 billion birds fly over Israel each spring. During the fall migration an estimated 1 to 4 billion birds traverse Israel. Many of these migratory birds are raptors - carrion (dead flesh) eating birds of prey. In fact, 34 species of raptors migrate over Israel.

Great signs from heaven predicted (Luke 21:11). Both natural and supernatural phenomena in the earth and sky appear to be increasing.

And I'll end it with the one most important prophecy that is undeniable.
The nation Israel would be born in one day (Isaiah 66:8).
On May 14, 1948 Israel became a nation.

There are plenty more of these, but it may just crash the site if I tried to post them all! Perhaps you should put more stock in that ole' book the Bible. It contains many secrets that God is just waiting to show you. Dont be swayed by what man has to say on the subject. Of course he is going to try and prove it wrong, why? Because if there is no God then he wont have to be held accountable for his actions. Anyways DV I hope you decide to return to the Bible and give it another try, this time asking Jesus for guidance through His book rather than man.

In Christ,
Gabriel





 
Ah, but who did he give those signs to?

Every generation believes they are living in the end times because they believe they see the signs.

Christ said that the end was NEAR and that was 2,000 years ago.
 
I don't get it, u can believe the bible has signs of the future and the returning of Jesus. But when it comes to nostrodous its either called false or satanic.
I don't see the difference.
2000 years from now people will be on mars saying jesus is going to return soon.
 
The difference is the Bible says God says so, so it's must be true!

As if that weren't bad enough, no one goes to see if the Bible is truly the infallible Word of God, they just accept is as such because the Bible says it is!
 
Thats not true Virtue. I have yet to see one of you atheist show any signifigant contraditions in the Bible that are not due to some sort of translation error. Signifigant of course being anything that changes the meaning of what the Bible says.

As for Nostradamous, I don't recall in recent memory there being anything about his predictions on these boards or anyone here making any claims about them. (If there are, I've just missed them, if you can link it, I'll read it.) Just because a man (or woman) can predict the future does not mean they are inspired by God.

Cory
 
I'm not an athiest, I just want to some stable proof that god exists. I just can't go on believing based on faith. It can only take u so far.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I just want to some stable proof that god exists.
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I want some stable proof that God does not exist. I see God in my kids, in the world around me, how can you not look and see the glory of God everywhere? I read the Bible, and seek the truth. I pray and ask for wisdom and discernment, and I do it all with open faith and sincerity. If you want answers you have to seek them. If you do not read, pray and seek the truth, you may not find it. Without faith, how do you accept grace? Without grace, there is no salvation except by works, and none but Christ have been perfect. You have a mighty delima on your hands Mech. To believe or not to believe, that is the question.

Cory
 
Pick any number greater than zero, any number. That number represents you.

Zero represents the Faith required to believe in God and the Bible.

Now divide that number in half. And again. And again.

As small as that number gets, it will never, ever be zero.

That infinitesimal gap is what I like to refer to as the "Leap of Faith".

At some point in time, you have to close your eyes and jump.

There is NO rational explanation for the jump, but in order to have Faith, it has to be done.

There are those of us that simply can't rationalize that jump.

As far as the misconceptions go, sit tight, they're coming. But let me ask you this, let's assume that the only misconceptions I show you are due to a mistranslation. You said yourself, that is still significant. Wouldn't significant mistranslations cast some dispersion on the Bible being the infallible word of God?

And I'm with mechboy, I am not an athiest either. My views don't fit into any perfect slot and I definately don't want to be associated with the term athiest. It conjures too many negative emotions. Consider me a Freethinker.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] I have yet to see one of you atheist show any signifigant contraditions in the Bible that are not due to some sort of translation error. Signifigant of course being anything that changes the meaning of what the Bible says.
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Re read that. I never said it was signifigant that there were issues due to translation. You can call yourself what you want, I really don't care. Kind of a loose term since it really has no conotation about anything. Everyone who thinks "outside the box" is a free thinker.

Cory
 
Thad I'm not really saying your beliefs are wrong, because their your beliefs. I respect u since u did take that leap of faith, in believing in god. But for me I'm not sure if I can justify taking that leap. I have to many questions that can't be dismissed on faith. Just thought I'd put that out there.

Personally I think the Bible can't be the word of god since he never really grabed the pen and write it. And there is the translation part, where I think there have to be mistakes.
 
Atheist is such a shallow term. I too prefer freethinker. They aren't just people that think 'outside the box,' they're merely thoses that speculate and form opinions independently of the authority of others. Freedom of thought is humanity's greatest gift, we merely exercise it and suggest that what is accepted as truth by much of society may not be as 'true' as is believed.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]They aren't just people that think 'outside the box,' they're merely thoses that speculate and form opinions independently of the authority of others
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Cuting and pasting someone elses thoughts here does not equate to forming opinions independantly. We all make our own decisions but it is based on the information we gather from those that have come before us. Whether it be the Bible, Koran, or Stephen Hawkins, we do not soley rely on our own intellect for what we believe. That being said, Any of us who question the traditions of this world are "free thinkers". Any of us who re-evaluate our opinions and do not take what we are told as hard proof are "free thinkers". You can put anything you want into that mold but the facts still remain the same: No information we bring here is new information. It is all in some way someone elses regurgitated thoughts.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Well let me ask you a question.

Do you believe the Bible is inerrant?

Do you believe that it contains translation errors?
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Depends on the translation. Do I think things have been misinterpreted? Yes. You have to remember that the Bible was not a solid book until it was put together by the Catholic church. The letters did not have chapters, those were added. Breaks in what is being stated were implemented by man, but that does not change the message of salvation. It does not change the teachings of the prophets of the coming messiah. A whole lot of things in the Bible can be proven by history. Its the things that cannot that must be taken in faith. There is no body of Christ. We do not fully understand the concept of the Trinity. We do not grasp how an Omnipotant God can give us free will. We as humans consistantly try to put God in our little box of how we think instead of trying to put ourselves in the way God might think.

I read the Bible for what it says and the message it teaches. I pray to God to live a better life every day and to be an influence on my children for His kingdom. I search for answers to questions that I have. I have not found all the answers, but I do not discount the Bible. So much has gone on in the past 2 thousand years that I cannot fathom it all in only 27 years. God has touched my life and changed my life. I have seen His work. I have felt His presence. I cannot deny Him in my life. Not because I am blind, or because I am a lemming, but because it is what I understand.

Cory
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Thaddius @ Aug. 22 2004,11:10)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]They aren't just people that think 'outside the box,' they're merely thoses that speculate and form opinions independently of the authority of others
Click to expand...

Cuting and pasting someone elses thoughts here does not equate to forming opinions independantly.  We all make our own decisions but it is based on the information we gather from those that have come before us.  Whether it be the Bible, Koran, or Stephen Hawkins, we do not soley rely on our own intellect for what we believe.  That being said, Any of us who question the traditions of this world are "free thinkers".  Any of us who re-evaluate our opinions and do not take what we are told as hard proof are "free thinkers".  You can put anything you want into that mold but the facts still remain the same: No information we bring here is new information.  It is all in some way someone elses regurgitated thoughts.
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So?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Mr.Bill @ Aug. 22 2004,6:49)]Freedom of thought is humanity's greatest gift, we merely exercise it and suggest that what is accepted as truth by much of society may not be as 'true' as is believed.
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I wonder, from whom is this greatest gift, that you are exercising?
 
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