Posted on 07/01/2016 2:26:42 PM PDT by amessenger4god
Previously we've discussed 20 specific signs that were foretold in the Bible indicating that Christ's coming is now imminent. This new list is a little different - these are ten indicators that we have reached the upper limits of when Christ can return. God is sovereign and we can merely speculate, but I believe there is sound reasoning behind each of these:
1. The culmination of signs
From the return of the Jews to their God-given land beginning in the late 1800s, to the rebirth of Israel in 1948 and
the recapturing of Jerusalem in 1967, the signs foretold in the Bible are all here. Over the centuries that have
ensued since Christ ascended to Heaven, dozens and dozens of people have speculated that they would witness His return
- many even setting specific dates for the parousia, yet all these speculations were lacking the myriad of prophesied
signs.
Israel is back in the land, a pseudo-global government exists (in the form of the U.N.), a spirit of lawlessness
prevails, homosexuality is rampant "as it was in the days of Lot", violence (via abortion, euthanasia, terrorism, and
war) are at unprecedented levels ("as it was in the days of Noah"), signs in the heavens are appearing left and right,
the Jews have virtually everything in place to rebuild their Temple, the technology finally exists to implement the
Mark of the Beast, the players in the Middle East are rapidly aligning in such a way as to fulfill Ezekiel 38, there
is a truly unprecedented apostasy as foretold (beginning in force around 1960), the population at large calls good
"evil" and evil "good", the world's leaders are proclaiming each and every day the damning words "peace and security" (1 Thessalonians 5:3),
and many both inside and outside the Church are saying, "where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Peter 3:4) In the words of the LORD Himself:
"Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?" says your God. - Isaiah 66:9
According to the Bible the Earth is only about 6,000 years old, so with that said, now that is has been 2,000 years
since Christ's first coming, we must be approaching the climactic end of the age - else God's Word is gravely mistaken -
and I have absolute confidence that it is not.
God and ascend to Heaven on their own strength. As their tower grew, God decided it was time to intervene and
judgment came quickly - He destroyed their tower and confused their languages. The language confusion has prevailed
to this day as the very basis of national divisions.
Yet mankind is once again defying God in its attempt to resurrect a collective world government (via the U.N. and
other supranational institutions). With the advent of information technology and automated translation services,
language divisions mean less and less, and the humanistic collective continues full speed ahead without thought to
what they are doing.
Mankind, for the first time in history, is actually ascending to the heavens via aircraft and spacecraft, so combined
with mankind's globalist overreach you have an almost verbatim replay of Genesis 11.
Interestingly, the E.U. Parliament building appears to modeled on classic paintings of the Tower of Babel. Why would the E.U. powers
that be purposely design their building after something the Bible obviously condemns?
mankind continues to demonstrate its innate affinity for evil. Throwing aside moral and ethical restraints left and
right, geneticists are now combining species against God's created order and are even development three-parent babies,
and babies resulting from two fathers or two mothers. If human/animal hybrids are not created yet, they are on the
very, very near horizon. How long will God allow this to continue considering the very real possibility these
children and hybrids may not have souls? Are they made in God's image or man's image? God intervened when angels began interbreeding with the human population.
Hybrids seem to be another point of no return where judgment must ensue very quickly (see Genesis 6).
While I firmly believe He will, I think the larger point is a foreshadowing of the end-times apostasy foretold in 1
Timothy 4:1. Every generation of Christians has had its apostates, false prophets, and false teachers, but the apostasy
beginning primarily in 1960s is utterly unprecedented. Some polls and surveys indicate that less than one-half of
self-proclaimed Christians around the world still believe all the tenets of historic Christianity. Many embrace "soft
universalism", homosexuality, moral relativism, and every other vice. Genesis is largely dismissed, the resurrection
is often denied, and Christ's return is routinely questioned.
Indeed, who will maintain their faith in God's Word in the midst of this lawless world where Christianity seems to
be the object of every attack and ridicule?
until Christ and the two millennia from Christ until now, you arrive at almost exactly 6,000 years. Revelation 20
promises a coming 1,000 year reign of Christ before eternity. This pattern is unmistakably related to the six days of
work and one day of rest as the weekly pattern God created in Genesis 1. Since we are literally within years, maybe
even months, of the end of 6,000 years, what should that tell you?
and Evil. God banished them from the Garden of Eden and sent an angel to guard it from them so that they
could not eat from the Tree of Life and live forever in a fallen state (Genesis 3:22-24).
Humanity remains in its fallen state and now geneticists and scientists believe we are on the verge of reversing or
even ending aging altogether. There is even a U.S. presidential candidate who promises his voters immortality. I
think science may be nearing a point where humanity may be able to replicate the effects of eating from the Tree of
Life, so God will most certainly intervene.
years passed before God brought judgment upon Israel after bringing them into the land. A similar time passed before
God brought a complete judgment upon the Canaanites. Sodom, though, had reached such an incredible level of depravity that
God brought judgment after only a few hundred years.
Consider these timespans. We are now nearing 2,000 years since Christ's death and resurrection. We are now living in
the longest time period between judgments in the history of the world and God's Word promises that another global
judgment will most certainly come (2 Peter 3:5-7). He is not distant or sleeping. He has planned the end from
the beginning and this wicked world is living on borrowed time. Get on the ark while there is still time.
this fact (though not all), but the Lord's words will not change. This age had a definite beginning and it will have
a definite end. The eternal future belongs to God and His people, not a collective, godless, fallen humanity.
Yes the key is the creation of the state of Israel. If that prophecy is true we are in the last 7 years right now. I personally have no final feeling about it at this moment. Mr. GG2 thinks we are in the last 7 years.
The best thing to do is just be right with God. IMO.
I predict the Cubs will win the World Series before that happens.
It’s best to be in good with him all of the time.
RE: God and Science quotation: Maybe, maybe not.
My Hebrew teacher of years ago - a native Israeli Jew of Tel Aviv who had degrees in both Hebrew and English - would disagree, especially on the usage of Yom.
I have backgrounds in both science and theology; I am not therefore especially impressed by either one, after all the personal egotism and political corruption that I have witnessed to permeate both.
As with so-called global warming, the fix is in: Scientists cook the data, exaggerating favorable information and ignoring contradictory information. Science today is mostly Scientism: A belief system designed to deny a Creator and Law, and to promote global collectivism.
If you want to believe what you posted, then go ahead; I believe in that freedom. Just do not expect me to be particularly persuaded. Neither you nor any of these other “scientists” were present to witness the Creation, or to witness so-called Evolution. It is all, in the end, sophistry and propaganda; it certainly is not true replicable science.
I believe in a God who actually can transcend nature and science. Denigrate me as stupid or simple if you like (although my 150+ IQ would not cooperate).
My opinion of people like yourself and the website you linked is that you are so desperate to appease the fallen prophets of Scientism that you will complicate and rationalize anything in the Bible to accommodate people who will regardless think anyone remotely religious is ignorant and irrational.
It reminds me of a highly-educated theologian I once knew who sought to truncate a debate by interjecting, “There’s no scientific evidence for that.” My immediate thought was: Do you really want to invoke “science” as an authority when “science” says you are an idiot for believing in the Risen Christ?
Science has led us astray - and departed from Natural Law - too many ways and too many times for me to have much confidence in it. The scientific method is a tool, and that is all; it is not God. A tool - like a gun - can be used well or ill. Since most of the users these days are dedicated leftists who hate the thought of inalienable rights and natural law, I do not trust them.
Nope. Not even close. Those prophecies were fulfilled in 70 A.D.
Modern prophecy was popularized by Scofield in the 19th century. He was a shyster.
The reason I am not praying for Jesus to come now is not because I am having such a great time, but because I pray daily for the salvation of others.
[No man knows the day nor the hour]
We will know the season.
I neither said I believe what I posted or even gave credence to the website I linked to. Rather I went looking up if the Bible actually made reference to the 6,000 year claim, because I believed the person who I was responding to was correct. That there is no mention that the earth is 6,000 years old in the Bible. I thought what I read was interesting, and decided to share. Nothing more, nothing less.
I believe in God, and while I prefer Christianity, I tend to reject religions, for the very reasons you stated. The same holds true with junk science, of which we get more of these days, than actual science. After all, junk science only requires a theory, whereas real science requires actual proof.
BTW, unless you were around to witness the Creation, than how is it possible for you to accept or reject anything on the subject matter? Faith is our only guiding light.
I'm am so glad you believe in freedom as well. At least your intellect hasn't given you false reading on that topic.
Nope. Not even close. Those prophecies were fulfilled in 70 A.D.
No man knows the day or hour, but we are commanded to watch and to know the season. We are to learn the lesson of the fig tree (Israel)
They have been saying it for 2000 years. The Montanist sect was saying it in the 2nd century.
The Bible makes it clear that the five "days" were in fact literal days. The Hebrew word for day (Yom) appears over 400 times in the Old Testament, always in reference to a literal 24-hour day. Unless one wishes to compromise with evolution (and therefore undermine the Gospel), there is no reason not to believe that the days of creation were literal as well. The repetition of the phrase "evening and morning" and the Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:11) further destroy any possibility for long ages being used for creation.
"The vast ages of the earth does not diminish the power and glory of God, but establishes that God thought that preparing the earth for human habitation was worth the billions of years of preparation."
At the end of each day, God declared that His creation was "very good" i.e perfect, no death, decay, etc. If it was truly created over vast ages, what was occurring during the billions of years of preparation? Evolution (DEATH of the weak, DECAY of their dead bodies, survival of the fittest.) the Biblical text plainly says death, the "Last Enemy," did not enter until Adam sinned. To say that God's "very good" creation required long ages of death before Adam's sin distorts His inspired Word, slanders the person and work of Jesus Christ, and makes God a liar.
Remember, it all started with the words "did God really say?"
The Greek for on one leaves no room for any exceptions. It excludes every/any possibility of any of us knowing.
It would be a fair statement to say we are one day closer. But that is as far as I would go on this topic.
While it is true that as followers of Christ we should be prepared for His return and indeed look forward to it (Maranatha!), we need to be careful to not demand a specific time frame for when this will occur, for the Father has reserved that knowledge only to Himself.
Jesus is coming, look busy.
Job 38 (where God challenges Job):
Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, "This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves"?
Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion's belt? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?
God makes it painfully clear: When we start to speculate about the mind of God and what happened during creation (beyond what He has revealed to us) we tread on very shaky ground.
Who knows the unfathomable mind of God? For no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:11). Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? (1 Cor 2:16)
This is why I can't support Ussher's 6000 year calendar that starts at 4004 BC. It is not because it is repeatedly and gleefully used as a cudgel by atheists to beat believers sensesless rhetorically (which is why you see it brought up in the media all the time).
The problem is that a 6000 year timeline is not Biblical. It is based mainly on a misreading of 2 Peter 3:8 (which is quoting Ps 90:4), where Peter states with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Ussher did a basic misreading of Peter. What he did was simple. God created the world in 6 days, a day to God is a 1000 years, so 6 times 1000 years = 6000 years, QED. But don't you see? That's not what Peter wrote! He wrote a thousand years is like a day to Him, not that it literally was.
I am not arguing that it is merely a metaphor. Why? Because I don't have to. 2 Peter 3:8 is not a metaphor, it is something much stronger. It is a simile ('like a'). Peter wrote 'like a' very deliberately, I think, to prevent exactly the kind of bogus literal misinterpretation that Ussher did. To underscore that fact Peter intentionally used two similes and reversed them: that from God's perspective it can go either way. In other words, I think the point Peter is making is actually quite clear: that the passage of time is basically irrelevant from God's perspective.
This is why I make a silent sigh whenever I see a Young Earth creationist argue the 6000 year timeline with an atheist. Invariably it only serves to reinforce the atheist's unbelief. Why? Not because a I think a belief in a 6000 year-old Earth is scientifically wrong, but because the Bible does not demand it. I will admit that the Earth really might be 6000 years old - I don't know because I wasn't there - but we cannot demand it, and in particular we should not base our witnessing on it to unbelievers as a condition of their salvation.
This is why I think hanging your hat on Mark 10:6 as an assertion that Adam and Eve were created immediately after the stars and the heavens is very dicey. What does 'From the beginning' actually mean to a God that exists outside of time and space? Where you there? Do you know the mind of God? Yes, Adam and Eve were created as the first man and woman, and yes they sinned and Adam fell. But beyond what scripture reveals to us you cannot safely go.
Basically, don't try to put God in a box. He wants us to marvel as His creation, for the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands (Ps 19:1). Just give glory to God and praise Him for the majesty of His creation, of the universe He created with 100 billion galaxies each with 100 billion stars, and revel in coolness of his Plan for us and what He wrought, and be thankful for the underserved gift of salvation that we receive in the blood of Christ Jesus.
The Bible says no such thing
That phrase describes the Feast of Trumpets (Tishri 1)
You're in the bible!
2Pe 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
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