Posted on 12/21/2004 11:49:02 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
By Joseph Farah
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore ..."
– Isaiah 9:6-7 (NASB)
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ this week and prepare for 2005 next week, I can't help but think about how close we must be to the Second Coming – when the Lord will return for His church and personally rule over the Earth for 1,000 years.
Oh, I know, some of you don't believe in such things. You think it's just a bunch of silly superstition. Even some Christians don't believe in the Second Coming. Many prefer I stick to writing about news events of the physical world rather than arcane spiritual matters.
But, as a journalist, I can't ignore hard evidence – no matter where it may lead me. And the more I study the prophetic scriptures of the Holy Bible and look at the condition of our world today, the more convinced I become that we are nearing that time. In fact, I think we are very close.
For just as Jesus' virgin birth in Bethlehem was foretold by the Hebrew prophets hundreds of years earlier, so, too, was His return to Earth predicted. The only question is when.
The most dramatic evidence for His imminent return our generation has witnessed was the rebirth of the nation of Israel more than 50 years ago. The Jews, God's chosen people, were, as prophesied, scattered over the whole earth for nearly two millennia beginning shortly after Jesus' death on the cross. Yet, in my opinion, the scriptures leave no doubt that the Jewish state would exist once again before He returned.
Interestingly, Orthodox Jews have long taught that the world would last for 6,000 years before the Messiah would come and usher in a 1,000-year period of restful human history. Since God created the world in six days, according to Genesis 1:31, and rested on the seventh day, according to Genesis 2:1, they reasoned the world's history would climax the same way. They cite Psalms 90:4, which says: "For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by."
Likewise, Christians have looked to II Peter 3:8: "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
The early church understood this "six-day theory" of world history. It was widely accepted teaching for the first three centuries of the church. From the time of Adam, we've got genealogical records to show that 4,000 years passed until the time of Christ. From Jesus' time until the present age represents another 2,000 years for a total of 6,000 years or six days.
There's also a three-day theory: Jesus rose on the third day. Would the beginning of the third millennium – or thousand-year period – not be the likely time for His return to Earth? There is even strong scriptural evidence for such a theory provided in Hosea 6:2: "After two days will he revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight." Note that this prophecy is not about the Resurrection of Jesus – it's either about the resurrection of Israel after 2,000 years of dispersal or the physical return of the Lord.
In 1772, Edward Gibbons published "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," in which he cites early documents suggesting the Christian disciples of the first century were taught that Jesus would return after 2,000 years. We'll soon find out if they were right.
For many reasons, I believe Jesus is returning soon. But I'm especially drawn to II Timothy 3:1-5, which describes the state of the world in the "last days." Tell me if this doesn't sound like our world:
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
To me, that sounds like our world today.
Christmas represents a time of great hope for Christians. Of course, we're grateful that Jesus came about 2,000 years ago and died for our sins. Now we should be hopeful and expectant of His imminent return.
Merry Christmas. And happy birthday, Jesus.
OH DEAR. OK.
Not willing to argue about whether they exist or not etc. Have studied it as long as I have Bible prophecy--since Jr High. Started out as an interest in Sci Fiction. Then I realized there were implications regarding end times Bible prophecy.
Ended up having a close relative and others I knew work around UFO type craft in secret government locations.
Anyway--that said . . .
I believe that the puppet masters busy setting up the evil global government predicted so clearly in Scripture--those puppet masters are also in charge of the UFO tech transfers from ET's etc. and SOMEWHAT TRYING to be in charge of all contacts with ET's. ET's can sometimes have their own notions of how things go.
It APPEARS TO ME that 95-99% of the better known types of ET's are in cahoots with satan. Therefore, they must end up supporting the world government. All the reports involve deception or at least not very Christ-like behavior in way most to virtually all cases that seem one way or the other at all.
I do NOT believe that ALL ET's are "only" or "merely" demons in bioengineered bodies or whatever. I believe that at least some of the ET's are from other worlds. I do believe they are in cahoots with satan regarding controlling mankind and sabotaging God's plans for saving individuals.
I believe that the puppet masters have set it up to go either way--(A) casting ET's as saviors of mankind from man's own evils vis a vis pollution, wars etc. . . . just take the SLAG [SLave tAG] chip implant to protect us from terrorism; join the citizenship of the world and the NEW AGE from our space 'brothers.' NOT!
or
(B) casting ET's as conquerors--we have to form a world government to join in fighting off the evil ET's seeking to eat us.
Either way the evil globalists win. Werner von Braun said it would be the latter scenario. He [wrongly, to my view] saw ET's as benign to wonderful.
Either way--many people will see such powers, technologies and reality more or less literally being turned inside out/upside down as utter hopelessness. Secularism has driven such a wedge between individuals and THE ABSOLUTE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL that many will be tooooo prone to fear driven collapse when faced with such rapidly unfolding, mind boggling changes to the status quo.
To me, it's part and parcel of the SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS that the Bible speaks of.
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!
THANKS.
"Every knee will bow...." Every knee. I'm practicing early!
I don't know what hell is.
But it's not a comforting place.
Even if it is 'merely' the utter absence of God and God's perfection--it would be horrid enough.
In any case, God WILL ISOLATE ALL REBELLION, DEATH, DESTRUCTION, SELFIHNESS
AWAY FROM ALL THE REST OF CREATION. HE WILL HAVE HIS CREATION RETURNED TO PERFECTION.
It is, after all, HIS RIGHT.
BESIDES, HE'S THE BOSS.
The thing to do in response to those facts, is to
CHOOSE LIFE--CHOOSE ETERNAL LIFE.
Whatever eternal 'death' is for a soul that exists forever, it won't be FUN.
I was born 2 months before the modern state of Israel was. You make an interesting point, but we just don't know for sure.
My husband is a very level-headed tool and die maker with about 40 years experience. He said that many of the major advances in metallurgy came on the scene not too long after the Roswell incident. Fascinating theories, IMO. Won't it be cool when we finally learn the truth?
Carolyn
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Throughout history . . . there have occasionally been what--3-4--no more than 5-7
factors in the direction of prophetically predicted events or conditions.
AS NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY, THERE ARE NOT DOZENS.
ISRAEL AGAIN AS A NATION IN A DAY HAS NEVER BEEN THE LAST 2000 YEARS UNTIL 1948.
THAT'S JUST A FACT.
A LOT of other facts follow accordingly. One can deny them. One can ignore them. One can rationalize them away to sleep better. But it doesn't actually remove them.
THE FACTS ARE STILL THERE.
HISTORY AS WE HAVE KNOWN IT IS STILL RACING TO THE BIBLICALLY PREDICTED CLOSE.
Pretend otherwise, if you wish.
God is usually not that impressed by such notions.
Nor will you be when you are finally forced to realize you calculated wrong.
Enjoy your construction on reality as long as you can.
I don't think it will last another 3-15 years.
I think it will be infinitely worse than the worst thing we can imagine in a million life times. To say it won't be fun, is an understatement of epic proportions. LOL, I think I already said that today.
Regards.
GOD
TELLS US, EXHORTS US, ORDERS US
TO STUDY TO SHOW OURSELVES APPROVED UNTO GOD . . . rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
Child-like faith is sufficient--especially when led in prayer daily, ongoingly by Holy Spirit leading us into all truth.
Whether one rebells against ASSEMBLING OURSELVES TOGETHER for mutual support and exhortation
or one works to carve out a VIBRANT, OBEDIENT, INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IN A MONESTARY CELL somewhere,
God still expects to walk intimately with us. I suspect you are less intimate with God than you might be.
I agree that organized Christianity can be horrid and that a good church is very hard to find. But we can at least find a handful of believers to fellowship with, grow with, be iron sharpening iron with etc. Telling God we will NOT do things HIS way is not a great way to win His favor.
AMEN!
i THINK Christ's Matthew passage is sure enough for me!
Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I was speaking of spiritual light - not physical light - although by using a candle in a dark room it would appear I was speaking about a physical darkness.
Gross darkness refers to the state of a person's spirit before they are born again.
Cool in a sense.
But likely a hot time in the old town in a list of uncomfortable ways, too.
BTW, I believe that BEFORE
The world was FORMLESS AND VOID before Adam,
that there were other civilizations etc. It's just not in God's interests for HIS purposes with us in this time space dimension to get into all that.
Cayce was a trip. Glad God steered me safely through exposure to his stuff. A lot of angel of light deceptive stuff, imho.
Thank you!
Agreed. Thx. No sweat.
Well, I think He knows exactly what it is like, and is why He went to the cross, to keep people out of that awful place. I am glad He did, or none of us would have a leg to stand on. BTW, check your freep mail.
Agreed.
People faint from life from hoplessness of the isolation in relationships in our present existence.
Imagine being more wholesale isolated from ALL good and that whatever other evil souls or entities may be nearby--they will be the opposite of comforting.
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