Posted on 10/01/2011 5:51:45 AM PDT by kindred
Yea, the man antichrist will do it and that mark will condemn anyone and everyone who receives it as it will be an act of worshiping the beast and therefore breaking the first commandment of God,
Exodus 20
1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exactly!
When he comes back its over, period.
Could be.
We don’t know where Enoch and Elijah are; just that God took them but if we follow the early rapture mantra, God removes the CHURCH (believers) and of course we know, Enoch and Elijah were not the only believers.
To those pastors like this who insist on pushing the millennialist’s view of the book of Revelations my question is this, what is more: important spreading your theory on the way things end or spreading the gospel and seeing people saved?
If it is the former you have lost sight of what your Lord told you to do in spreading the Good News and have became entangled in religious dogma much like the pharisees and the law.
¨If I knew God I´d be Him.¨
In fact, the only book of Scripture that uses the term "Antichrist," 1 John, says that there are "many Antichrists even now" (1 Jn 2:18). That was almost 2000 years ago! Second Thessalonians 2 speaks of a "man of sin," but does not use the term "Antichrist," nor does it say anything about him coming from Europe.
Reading B. B. Warfield's article on Antichrist (in his Selected Shorter Writings) many many years ago, cured me of trying to shoehorn what I was reading in the Bible into the Hal Lindsay/Late Grate Planet Earth pop dispensational mold.
Tradition dating back to the early Church Fathers speaks of a final Antichrist preceding the second Coming, but it's not there on the surface of the Scriptural texts.
Worth a look, is Rev. Kim Riddlebarger's Man of Sin. My recollection it goes back even to a pre-Christian Jewish tradition of an anti-messiah.
Rev.13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Biblically speaking, the Church will be removed from the earth prior to a great destructive event that will kill a large percentage of the world population. Beyond that, I won’t argue about it, believing one way or the other is not a salvific matter and differences of opinion arise among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Myself, I’m prepared for the possibility of persecution and severe difficulty, even martyrdom. Why should we be spared when the patriarchs, Apostles and so many devout through the ages were not? I don’t see the justification for our being wisked away and protected from all harm. As for those who do believe in this manner, it would be nice if they’re right, I just hope they’re not leaving their spiritual guards down, it’ll be quite a shock for them if they’re wrong.
We definitely felt attacked by the pastor but really determined he’s extremely defensive of this position because he’s been approached A LOT from others that tell him he cannot defend this position with scripture.
Sad.
I’m in total agreement with you....My resposnse was to Spacejunkie.
Christ says the elements will melt with a fervent heat, etc. That means no one lives; I believe you and I are essentially on the same page. And, who wouldn’t want to be removed from hard times? But, you’re right. If God didn’t remove any of the other devout believers from hard times, why would he remove us?
Wait a minute. You’re giving a message of salvation before the Rapture—not a good bye to those who don’t make the cut.
I’ve never heard such condescending religious crap before in my 71 years.
Oh well, I was speaking as to the “man of sin” not necessarily to the “timing” of the rapture. Revelation speaks of Christ as having been that “child born of that woman” then caught up to heaven saved for the day where he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Sounds to me like the beast system gets destroyed as well as those who carried his mark, then any survivors who remain are ruled by Christ during the 1000 year reign, while Satan remains chained. As to the timing of the “catching up of the saints” I’m somewhat flexible; but of the prophesied reality of the event I am in no doubt!
How will all the lifeless corpses of those raptured appear any different from the aftermath of a WMD attack of some sort?
How will all the lifeless corpses of those raptured appear any different from the aftermath of a WMD attack of some sort?
One, he will rule over a ten nation confederacy that will rise from the ruins of old Rome, probably in Europe therefore.
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The Roman empire extended into both Africa and Asia. Why then do you suggest ‘probably in Europe’?
A number of the earlier “saints” have spoken of the “rapture” over the past 2000 years. It didn’t just start with Darby; he just did some serious elaborative work on the subject.
Daniel and Revelation both speak of the meanings of the prophesies being sealed until the times of the end when their meaning would start to become apparent to Christians living at those times. The “rapture” I beleive is one of those doctrines or mysteries as Paul put it(”I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed....” yeah that one). So fasten your seat belts, as world events spin out of control, God will make even more of his work “plainer to understand” for those of us who are his children and have our ears, eyes, and hearts open.
Agreed, I have no doubt as well, that we WILL be caught up with Him. I just think it’s very dangerous to lead people to believe it will happen before the times get very hard as it leaves them hugely vulnerable to the devil who WILL control everything. Look at what’s going on in our nation and the world now. The evil forces are taking control of peoples lives at a record pace. if we are not prepared we will turn to the enemy for survival. We need to be strong so that we can witness to others during that 7 yr period.
That scripture you’re referencing just means that some of us will still be alive upon Christ’s return. Asleep means dead.
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