You said,
When those words were written it was assumed that the End of Times would be coming soon. Didn’t happen as expected nor in 1000 when many believed that it had to be then. Then every year or so some True Believer with Great Insight convinces a gullible flock that next month is the time.
Read 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter tells us we’re going to have scoffers saying, “Where is this wrath of God stuff?” And Peter says that the Lord is patient, wanting as many to be saved as possible.
Jesus is even more clear: Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.
Christian missionaries are excited. Of all the 13,000 people-groups, the gospel has now reached 99% of them. The Bible/gospel will have been translated and penetrated to every people-group on earth, fulfilling Jesus’ commandment. And then the end shall come.
http://www.ad2000.org/status.htm
Jesus told His people NOT to set dates. But the Bible DOES give us signs of the times, and we are truly seeing the end coming, based on those signs. Have you heard false predictions from people claiming the Bible? Yeah, but many of them have been from movements that deny fundamental elements of the Christian faith, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses with their warped doctrine of the 144,000.
There are a bunch of things that tell us that the Biblical scenario is unfolding. The rebirth of national Israel (Ezekiel 37); the ability of Asia/China to project an army of 200 million soldiers (when John wrote Revelation, there weren’t 200 million people in the whole world!). There are MANY prophecies which really serve to narrow down WHEN the end day clock starts running.
Let me ask you a question. In the days of nuclear arsenals, and terrorists who want to get their hands on nukes, do you truly believe that “Armageddon” WON’T ultimately happen? I would actually argue that your faith would be more bizarre than mine, if that’s the case! We’ve also got diseases that are terrifying centers for disease control, and the realization that terrorists could deliver (by becoming human “germ bombs”) diseases that could wipe out millions.
And we’re in a more vulnerable period economically than at any point in human history. Unlike the past, where wealth was in land, or cattle, or gold, today the overwhelming majority of the world’s “wealth” is on paper, and hard assets are often leveraged a hundredfold to create phantom money. We have a world market with $700 TRILLION in derivatives, and it is those derivatives that are beginning to blow up now.
Trying to set a time line for such an event is a futile gesture in my mind and has been done so many times any new attempt has no credibility.
So far one of the main elements is missing in any case and that is the rebuilding of the Temple.
People claimed the end waa here when populations died off by the millions in the Middle Ages. Up to a third of some populations died. As to war and rumors of war when in the last two thousand years was there no war. Then look at the Viking invasions where murderous pagans rampaged among the Christians of Europe killing, robbing and kidnapping even going as far as Turkey. Think Somali pirates times a million. This era approached these horrors only during WWII. Violence and death overall of late have not been increasing but decreasing particularly non-Islamic violence.
Where is Islam in the Bible other than the references to the founder of the Arabs, Ismael?