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No bait involved.

It's an issue I've pondered a long time.

I think the only thing we can do is pray and endeaver to live walking close to God.

I am hoping I can go back to Taipei to teach at the university I have taught so many years at by fall 2005 even though I believe that within 1-3 years later Mainland China will invade Taiwan and do God only knows what with the foreigners there.

I live in NW NM--a mostly unattractive target area for such conflicts. However, I believe when calamaties occur, only walking close to God will be of any safety value. And, being in His will for each individual and family will be of utmost importance. Some will be led to places of safety--evidently some even to safe havens supernaturally protected by God. Others to martyrdom.

Somehow, Christ will have an overcoming, glorious, conquering church that even the gates of hell will not withstand. He must plan to grow a lot of us up rather miraculously and instantly as we're far from that state currently.

It is certainly clear that the world government is coming. It is certainly clear that the puppet masters will have increasing control towards that goal.

Somehow, when evil floods in, God will raise up a standard against it. Believers will do great exploits. The light will get brighter as the dark gets darker.

There are hints and a few brief strokes of outline of the future ahead.

1/3 to 2/3 of the population of the world will die. Some have said that Americans will eat their infanticide results while others wait hungrily for loved ones to die--and some won't wait but will hasten the process for food reasons. I believe it will be true, in some areas. Famine is a terrible thing--and probably all the more so to a generation needing two airline seats.

But the whole world [actually, all CREATION] will be in anguished travail--as The Bible says--groaning expectantly, eagerly for the manifestation of the sons of God. . . . evidently to aid in the deliverance from the pollution of sin.

The world will have a massive demonstration in a dying fire-dance of destruction of the end results of SELF-FIRST and God last, if at all.

Then, Christ will show all Creation what He bought to bring about at Calvary and proved at the empty tomb that He had the right to do.

Part of me wishes I had a more practical response. Part of me feels this is the best response I can come up with and the most fitting.

May God be with you and yours.

Quix, seriously, you are right. If there are calamities ahead, the one who trusts the Lord and is walking in obedience to Him will be "in the secret place of the Most High & shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty". (As is Psalm 91, and yes, it still applies in year 2004.)

Now, His way of providing "the secret place of the most high" and "the shadow of the almighty" will vary from one believer to the next, but undoubtedly will be there as an expression of His love and provision.

For those of us who have committed our lives to the Lord Jesus, reminders such as yours are good so we stay focused and obedient, and also so we will share with others who might not yet believe, share He is real, and He is good, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and that no man cometh to the Father except by Him. And He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory!

And indeed, the wise man lives each day ready to die at a moment's notice, to go and meet his maker, and to be ready for the thing that comes after this, the Judgment.

And whether folks like it or not, there are signs that we are, as it says in the Bible, in the last days of mankind. If that is the case, as you say, each family will be safest if they are, to the best of their ability, smack dab in the middle of God's sovereign will for their life. And then, come what may, miraculous deliverance, being thrown into the lion's den or other tribulation, or abruptly facing a sudden and unexpected death, they will be eligible for and indeed guaranteed of God's presence with them as they go through any of the above.

As for folks who have been too busy or too agnostic or too proud or too scornful or too comfortable or too arrogant or too religious or too legalistic or too lazy or too addicted or too successful to:

Seek Him, read the Word, pray, find a good church, faithfully attend said church, clean up their lives in obedience to God's commands, (stop sinning, stop cursing, stop doubting, stop rebelling, stop hating, stop watching TV, & cetra), they won't be ready. Their screams of terror will be heard all around and it may be too late then for them to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to save them. Some will cry out to Him at the last second and if it's not too late, He will gladly save them, even then. But some will have waited too long. Their screams of terror will continue as they experience death without the help of Him Who conquered death, Jesus Christ.

And how sad for those who were never even warned.

But, for FReepers who read these threads and then do nothing, if we are right, you'll wish you had. Might be worth stopping and thinking about, eh?