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Posted on 07/25/2009 2:40:04 AM PDT by Quix
The Bible says we cannot know the time of the Lord's return (Matthew 25:13). But the Scriptures make it equally clear that we can know the season of the Lord's return (1 Thessalonians 5:2-6):
"You yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night... But you brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night or darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober."
This passage asserts that Jesus is coming like "a thief in the night." But then it proceeds to make it clear that this will be true only for the pagan world and not for believers. His return should be no surprise to those who know Him and His Word, for they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to give them understanding of the nature of the times.
Furthermore, the Scriptures give us signs to watch for — signs that will signal that Jesus is ready to return. The writer of the Hebrew letter referred to these signs when he proclaimed that believers should encourage one another when they see the day of judgment drawing near (Hebrews 10:25-27). Jesus also referred to the end time signs in His Olivet Discourse, given during the last week of His life (Matthew 24 and Luke 21). Speaking of a whole series of signs which He had given to His disciples, He said, "When you see all these things, recognize that He [the Son of Man — that is, Jesus] is near, right at the door" (Matthew 24:33).
A Personal Experience
Every time I think of "Signs of the Times," I am reminded of a great man of God named Elbert Peak. I had the privilege of participating with him in a Bible prophecy conference held in Orlando, Florida in the early 1990's. Mr. Peak was about 80 years old at the time.
He had been assigned the topic, "The Signs of the Times." He began his presentation by observing, "Sixty years ago when I first started preaching, you had to scratch around like a chicken to find one sign of the Lord's soon return."
He paused for a moment, and then added, "But today there are so many signs I'm no longer looking for them. Instead, I'm listening for a sound — the sound of a trumpet!"
The First Sign
One hundred years ago in 1907 there was not one single, tangible, measurable sign that indicated we were living in the season of the Lord's return. The first to appear was the Balfour Declaration which was issued by the British government on November 2, 1917.
This Declaration was prompted by the fact that during World War I the Turks sided with the Germans. Thus, when Germany lost the war, so did the Turks, and the victorious Allies decided to divide up both the German and Turkish empires.
The Turkish territories, called the Ottoman Empire, contained the ancient homeland of the Jewish people — an area the Romans had named Palestine after the last Jewish revolt in 132-135 AD.
In 1917 Palestine included all of modern day Israel and Jordan. In the scheme the Allies concocted for dividing up the German and Turkish territories, Britain was allotted Palestine, and this is what prompted the Balfour Declaration. In that document, Lord Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, declared that it was the intention of the British government to establish in Palestine "a national home for the Jewish people."
The leading Evangelical in England at the time was F. B. Meyer. He immediately recognized the prophetic significance of the Declaration, for he was well aware that the Scriptures prophesy that the Jewish people will be regathered to their homeland in unbelief right before the return of the Messiah (Isaiah 11:11-12).
Meyer sent out a letter to the Evangelical leaders of England asking them to gather in London in December to discuss the prophetic implications of the Balfour Declaration. In that letter, he stated, "The signs of the times point toward the close of the time of the Gentiles... and the return of Jesus can be expected any moment."
Before Meyer's meeting could be convened, another momentous event occurred. On December 11, 1917 General Edmund Allenby liberated the city of Jerusalem from 400 years of Turkish rule.
There is no doubt that these events in 1917 marked the beginning of the end times because they led to the worldwide regathering of the Jewish people to their homeland and the reestablishment of their state.
Since 1917
Since the time of the Balfour Declaration, we have witnessed throughout the 20th Century the appearance of sign after sign pointing to the Lord's soon return. There are so many of these signs today, in fact, that one would have to be either biblically illiterate or spiritually blind not to realize that we are living on borrowed time.
I have personally been searching the Bible for years in an effort to identify all the signs, and it has not been an easy task to get a hold on them. That's because there are so many of them, both in the Old and New Testaments.
I have found that the best way to deal with them is to put them in categories, and in doing that, I have come up with six categories of end time signs. We will explore these catetories beginning in Part 2 of this series.
You’re welcome! Let me know if you do, what you think of it.
I think you’re right, but if that’s the picture, she is definitely NOT on the cross and it looks like her arm is pointing toward the cross and not draping it. But from the size and angle of the picture it’s nearly impossible to tell.
My brother-in-law used to go there every summer to go surfing, he loved it.
INDEED.
Which is a persistent . . . heretical element . . .
in a huge percentage of Marian junk.
A lot of it is ‘nuanced’ such that folks can sort of claim
“Oh, that’s not there . . . “
While the faithful continue to behave as though it’s ‘there’ in quadruplicate.
The Mormon multiple wives sects come to mind . . . when around outsiders . . . certain words are used in euphemistic ways. Yet the insiders know what the reality of the ‘other side’ of the words is all about.
Honestly, Dear Heart,
some of the folks in the Vatican related rabid cliques are the masters and originators of that ilk of thing on such threads. And their relentlessly obsessive displays of such are Olympic class.
I understand that some of them are of the ilk of ‘being more Roman Catholic than the Pope.’ I don’t really find that a very viable excuse, however.
It’s a dreadful habit, spirit, attitude, practice. And it accruse some . . . educational experiences that are significantly less than fun regardless of how long they take to be delivered.
For some, that delivery date is getting markedly shorter.
I know, my FRiend.
We see things differently.
But the thing that I really adore about you is that in the end, your passion for YOUR faith is not based on how bad mine is.
I feel the same about yours.
AGREED.
One of the things I like about you, too.
And, as long as your FAITH is wholesale IN CHRIST and SALVATION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION . . .
Then I don’t even have any significant quibble about YOUR FAITH.
Wow Quix, we do have alot in common.
I feel exactly the same way. Why is it that when enlightened saints such as Evangelist Joyce Meyers opine with their personal spiritual enlightenment, it is perfectly normal. (I think she’s great)
Yet biblical scholars, Catholic Theologians, men and women who have given everything up for our God, opine with their spiritual enlightenment as Catholics, and some people go nuts claiming they aren’t citing gospel passages verbatum?
Agreed, why the duplicity?
As you likely know . . . given the fingers in cheek character of your post and query . . .
IT DEPENDS.
Some Roman Catholic sources who’ve ‘given up all’ seem to write from an authentic heart for God, a truly Biblical perspective out of an authentic RELATIONSHIP with God submitted to His priorities.
Many don’t.
I think you also know that Joyce Meyers
gets shredded regularly by Evangelicals, too.
Some folks of all labels just insist on trying to put and keep God in a tiny tidy rigid littl personal box.
He will never fit and neither will a lot of His servants.
"Calvin and Calvinism
CALVIN BELIEVED IN RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
The outstanding work of Calvin, from a practical point of view, was his municipal dictatorship in the city of Geneva. The literature on the subject is exhaustive. Striking instances of discipline in Geneva are these:
A man was banished from the city for three months because he heard an ass bray and said jestingly, "He prays a beautiful Psalm."
Three men who had laughed during a sermon were imprisoned for three days.
Three children were punished because they remained outside of a church to eat some cakes.
A child was whipped publicly for calling his mother a thief.
A girl who struck her parents was beheaded.
A person was imprisoned for four days because he wanted to call his child Claude (the name of a Catholic saint) instead of Abraham.
It can be seen from the above that many of the persecutions which John Calvin endured were not for "well doing" (1 Peter 2:15): they were for carrying on like a fool engaged in trying to "bring in his Kingdom."
In Geneva, a secret police was forged under the name of The Consistory. Every home was compulsorily examined and searched. The City was divided into districts and committees of the Consistory were empowered to search and interrogate all residents without previous notice. Attendance at public worship was commanded and watchmen were directed to see that people went to church. The one thing that Calvin did not endorse was religious liberty.
From 1541 to 1546, John Calvin caused 58 people to be executed and seventy six were exiled. His victims ranged in age from 16 to 80. The most common capital offense was the opposition to infant baptism. Today, baptism only for accountable believers, is a Baptist distinctive. In Calvin's time it was punished either by drowning, a drawn out and slow burning at the stake, or beheading. All this was done in public, with city residents compelled to watch the butchery. The executions were spaced out so as to exert a continuing policy of fear and terror. Others were killed for advocating local church autonomy; opposing the tie-in of church and state: and preaching that Christ died for all sinners (unlimited atonement). Press censorship continued in Geneva until the eighteenth century."
I wonder how much of it is true.
I am not sure. I don't know too much about Calvinists, thank God.
Not at all my kind of Sunday School teacher by a wide margin!
Hideous to the max.
I don’t think, Petronski, that there’s 0.00% to it. We’ve known for a long time that none of the folks on either side of things back then . . . or now, for that matter . . .
were better than
. . . flawed humans . . . some extremely horrifically flawed.
Humans are pretty much the same the world over
in any era
of any philosophical/religious persuasion.
Some are very horrible.
Some are very wonderful.
Most are in between.
When the very horrible gain any kind of power over others, the evils multiply, and usually deepen and broaden in increased horrific ways.
And, horror in the name of RELIGION tends to be the worst.
I think that’s another reason Christ was so harsh toward RELIGION 2,000 years ago.
He died for RELATIONSHIP.
Nothing else cuts it. Everything else is hazardous.
I checked out one of the churches where Mary on the Cross is located...Some sort of Catholic Church of the Martyrs in Warsaw, Poland...
As you are sitting in the pew, you are looking at a large portrait of Jesus, sitting...He is looking up and directly above Him is standing the the Queen of Heaven, Mary...
I went to the site of the other Church where they have Mary hanging on the Cross at the Vatican...That Church claims to have relics of Mary and the actual blood of Jesus in their possession...
According to the same website, the Pentagon's building of "robo-soldier-super-suits" is a sign of prophecy fulfilling!
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