Posted on 06/22/2013 7:04:38 AM PDT by kindred
Don't forget amillenialism and postmillenialism, or preterist and partial preterist. Not all of us follow Scofield's notes or Darby's historically anomalous interpretations.
God often reveals things in a surprising, and yet gracious manner, such that He receives praise after having done so. 1 John 4:8 says God is love. We don’t see any parallel “God is” statement in the entire scriptures. This clearly doesn’t paint God as some kind of capricious gambler or a detached spirit who would as soon kill you as look at you. I walk in confidence that the willingly yielded soul, however confused, will be corrected in love. This includes me. And so I do explain why I believe what I do, but in respect and in the love of God as best I can grasp that love. I know I have found the scriptures make it very difficult to fix firmly on any dogma that is not based in a sovereign love of God that has condescended to us.
Well, Jesus Himself is the fully portable insurance policy of the believer. If you love God so much that the world and self can be yielded gladly to Him, then how this plays out, including the enemy attacks, will be of no consequence except as more opportunity to live for the Lord, which means battling Satan and sharing God’s love (really two sides of the same coin). I fear because I am weak, and yet I do not fear because God is strong and God is gracious and God fills me with His spirit. Bring it on.
I have heard literally 100 different views on this by very serious people that have studied in great detail and came to different conclusions. I agree, no point in debating it here.
Well, I’m not necessarily speaking of you personally, and what I mean is that some Christian groups can get so fleshly (more precisely, spiritually focused on being fueled by their pride in their own stature) that they think that other Christians with some doctrinal differences are ipso facto headed to hell already.
God has busted down so many barriers in my life, and filled me with so much hope, that He has greatly outclassed anything my old self could do. I have no room for boasting except boasting in Christ and His wonderful Father and the Holy Spirit, and what Christ did at the Cross. God made that crystal clear to me.
I’m keeping my eye on Damascus and Isiah 17.
I always found it disturbing that God’s judgments in Revelation fell on so many deaf ears. Obviously a door was shut on them “lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”
Regarding the catastrophic events described above, you would think anyone alive would need some sort of supernatural constitution just to “take it all in”. Maybe they are given one, since somewhere in the process people want to die but cannot.
Yes, with God, it seems to always be a matter of the yielded heart over the specific facts. We worship a God outside of our understanding of even time and space - who spoke to us through 66 books written by over 40 men over several thousand years - originally in the expressive and illustrative Hebrew and the technical rule heavy Greek - thus constrained as we are by time, space and english....and mortality....we’ll never understand it all....in this life.
We are definitely trending towards it as the world sinks into the cesspool it will eventually become. If Israel looks safe and secure and the global economy seems to be on a really robust rebound, due to the actions of one man who rises to do the heavy lifting, we can start evaluating him for the signs of the anti-Christ.
Those are indeed warnings, but God is also quite capable of warning of the need for salvation by other means. God repeats Himself because we are all deaf to love. The events of Revelation, however they actually do play out, will be fully in consistency with what the willing soul knows of God today.
The full knowledge may not even come to mankind except in the rear view mirror, so to speak. “Oh, that is what Revelation meant by that!” The situation is made more complex in that events often prefigure or metaphorize other events because God’s work contains patterns. John himself even said it’s already the last hour and that was almost 2000 years ago. Rather than being rigidly dogmatic at all times, I have found it valuable to keep in mind that one verse or passage may reflect on multiple situations in various ways. Categorizing all warnings as to believers or nonbelievers is one of those things that will not fit into air tight bread boxes; some of the warnings can apply to both situations in different senses.
One thing I am sure of. The world will be in its end-phase by 2050, some time after Ariel Sharon’s death.
Possible; I do not live in the camp that says God has lost His focus upon the literal-by-earthly-race Jews. I can’t spiritualize away the Old Testament era prophecies even as they serve to prefigure Christian principles. We may not understand yet quite HOW the Lord is going to synthesize all this, but we can trust that the Lord WILL do that.
Christians have been judged the moment they become Christians...The Rapture is part of the 'first resurrection which takes place at least a thousand years before the Great White Throne Judgment where the unsaved will be judged...Our judgment, the Judgment seat of Jesus Christ will not be a judgment of punishment per se, but a judgment of rewards...
When the judgment of Christians takes place, no one goes to Hell...We are Christians, the body of Chirst...Would you kill one of your kids if he/she made you angry???
Read the parable of the wheat and the tares. It’s asked if they should remove the tares early and they’re told no, they’ll be separated from the wheat at harvest (Christ’s return) not 7 years before.
I assume then that you do not accept the biblical teaching of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ on the earth for a thousand years which is the Kingdom of Heaven...And if you chose not to believe the scriptures, no one can show you much of anything...
This is an unfortunate, but widely shared sentiment. Get stumped by one part of the bible and that means your whole Christian walk goes to hell. Sorry, do not concur.
Agreed - we are not supposed to be able to predict the event except that it will happen. We can only watch for signs and be prepared with our own souls. When every eye sees, and every ear hears, the triumphant return of Jesus, there will be no question...
More specifically, do not concur that getting stumped on one part of the bible or not agreeing with another camp on that part equates to “choosing not to believe the scriptures.” If I may be so forward as to say so, I think this is a fleshly message.
During that time the Christians suffer attacks.
Personally, I lean towards pre-trib rapture as I find it best supported by Scripture, but we’ll find out who’s right after the fact.
In the meantime, our job is to go out and make disciples and spread the good news about salvation through Jesus.
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