Posted on 03/20/2014 8:01:21 AM PDT by xzins
Bible prophecy related to the end times mentions many nations, including Libya, Iran, Iraq Ethiopia, and possibly even China and Russia, but not the United States of America. In an article on his blog, Pastor Greg Laurie gives three plausible reasons for the nation's exclusion.
"Where is the United States? Why are we not in the last-days scenario?" asks Laurie, pastor of Harvest Church in Riverside, Calif.
One reason why the United States is not mentioned in Scripture is perhaps because the nation "might be devastated by a nuclear war," the pastor writes. "It is a horrible scenario and one that none of us would want to see, but we cannot rule it out as a possibility."
The threat remains despite the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, Laurie argues. "It could indeed be a rogue terrorist nation with nuclear capabilities, or even a terrorist group that could set off the dominoes falling onto each other. I hope this isn't the case, but we cannot rule it out."
Laurie is for a strong military for that reason. "We need to take seriously any foreign threats. But having said that, what about an internal collapse?"
A second possible reason could be that the U.S. might decline as a world power, Laurie says, quoting Proverbs 14:34, which reads, "Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people."
"As our country becomes more and more secular, systematically eliminating God and the Bible from our education system, courts, and the arts, we will begin to reap the inevitable results of sin. We will begin to rot from the inside," the pastor warns. "I think to some degree, we already have [seen that happen] as we have seen the breakdown of the family, rampant crime and so many other problems that have come from disobeying God."
Laurie points out that what once was freedom of religion seems to have now become freedom from religion. "We have succeeded in getting God out of our schools, out of our sporting events, out of our public places and out of our workplaces."
The nation needs to remember that the freedom we enjoy is built on the foundation of absolute truth, he says. "And when you remove that foundation, this freedom actually can turn into anarchy."
A third possibility could be that the U.S. will witness a revival, "which I find a lot more hopeful," Laurie goes on to say. "That is not to say a revival would eliminate us as a world power. But if our nation had a revival, it would affect us. Think about this. Let's say, for example, that one-fourth of all Americans are believers. This would mean that we have approximately 78 million true believers in our country today… When the Rapture of the church takes place, don't you think there would be an impact on the United States…?"
Laurie said we need to, therefore, pray for revival in our country today. "When I say that our nation needs God, I don't mean that we need whatever god everyone happens to believe in," he clarifies. "The only hope for America is when we turn back to the true and living God – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who gave us the Bible as the revelation of who he is, the God who loved us so much that he sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place."
Shortly take place...
19 Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.
The things which will take place after this! Yeshua is already in heaven ergo Revelation 12 is not talking about Yeshua ascending to heaven.
Rev. 4:4 After these things I looked, and behold, a door open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”
I will show you things which must take place after this...Yohannan is on Patmos, Yeshua is in heaven.
After this...After this...After this... comprehension and retention nowhere to be found...
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Although you and I are going to disagree on how to define the beast, I just want to point out that, by any measure, the US military is fairly miraculous when compared to any other military, past or present.
During the last part of the Tribulation, the only people who suffer are the ones who took the Mark of the Beast. A really definitive time in that period. During the last years, believers will be sheltered in (so it is believed) Petra, the Rose Red City. The Beast will attack, but be repelled. It’ll be the one and only safe place for Christians. Christians will live there from the time of the Abomination of Desolation (the complete desecration of the reconstructed Temple) and then from then out it’ll only be a matter of time until Armageddon. Then the Great Appearance and thousand years/Millennium. Then the Devil will be loosed and then eternally cast into the Lake of Fire. From then on out, Eternal Life.
NO attack ever happened.
You are hyper-sensitive for some reason.
Why do you call the RM a tyrant?
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And what do you think that means?
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That he was determined not to become distracted by peripheral matters.
But watching is most certainly not a peripheral matter.
It is a commanded activity for all in the end times (the time since Yeshua).
That is the plain meaning of the Parable of the Virgins.
It is also declared in the letters to the churches in Revelation.
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>> “During the last part of the Tribulation, the only people who suffer are the ones who took the Mark of the Beast.” <<
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No, they will suffer after the trib. They are among those against whom Yeshua will make war on his return to Earth.
Only Yehova’s elect will suffer in the trib. It is Satan that does the tribulating.
I think of the Beast as an religio/economic system imposed on the world at large. It will be helmed by that son of Perdition, his false prophet, and an Image of the beast(which is imbued with Satanic power) that all are forced to worship. It seeks syncretise all of the world’s religions under one banner to give the Beast and his system a kind of moral frame work while at the same time making fantastic sounding but false promises about the inherent “godhood” of each man and about the new age of peace and plenty to come.
You are correct in concept. :)
During that seven year period, even before Jesus comes back for the final battle, my Bible reads that up to 2/3rds of the people of the world get wiped out. Yes, the beast system makes war against the saints...but we also know that for 3.5 years the two witnesses make it very uncomfortable for the Beast and the world’s evil population....so much so that there are mass celebrations all over the world when the Beast is allowed to kill them...and at least for 3 days they stay dead. I have always wondered that when the two witnesses are raised up, God raptures his suffering church with them to escape that last 3.5 years when God really starts pouring down his wrath.
I know the rapture is coming at some point and lots of scriptures can be cited as to when how and so on....probably pre-trib but after the world beast system is in operation though That son of perdition may not have quite taken public power as of yet or he is known for just a short time yet the 7 year pact with Israel had yet to be formulated.(All depends on how one reads Thessalonians as to how one understands the scenario.)
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