God Warning Us Through Amos

Amos 8:1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit. The fruit, God's children, are ripe and it is time for harvest...and/or threshing. So, this sets the time frame for this prophecy....the end of days!

8:2 And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. This is not speaking of the tiny little country Israel but is instead speaking of His children.....all tribes, Jews and Christians.

8:3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

In "that day," the end of days, the time of Satan's "great tribulation." The howlings come from the temple, the churches, when they will realize that their traditions, their holy "man made" traditions will not be acceptable to God.

Who are the "dead bodies?" The spiritually dead that listen to man instead of their Father. They place man before the Word of God. To God they are considered the dead. The "silence" is because they don't realize they are the dead and in their blindness they are causing others to die spiritually.

8:4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Inflation, usury...what our country is now experiencing.

8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

The ungodly can't wait for the sabbath to be over so they can continue stealing from God's children. This speaks of much more than physical things. Satan and his followers want to buy and sell our souls.....we are their prize.

8:6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? This is a picture of the "buying and selling" that those that have and will take the mark of the beast do in His name. Revelation 13:17 isn't speaking about selling goods but instead is about our souls. We are the wheat!

8:7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

8:9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:

In that day is speaking of the time of Satan...his hour of temptation, his great tribulation.

Joel 2:30-31 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.

8:10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

It will be bitter for those that will then realize they have taken the mark...they have worshipped the wrong Christ. And....many will because they are listening to man, not the Words of our Father. They are not being warned by our leaders, preachers, teachers. Again....man placed before the Word of God.

8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: Have we arrived at that time? Even in our churches there are not many Words of the Lord ringing in our ears....instead, it is the words of man with one or two lines of Scripture thrown in.

8:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

Daniel 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall RUN TO AND FRO, and knowledge shall be increased.' To run to and fro is a Hebraism and means....in apostasy! Many will run in apostasy seeking His Word but...they shall not find it as they are too wrapped up in the traditions of man..... They place man before the Word of the Lord.

8:13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. They thirst for the knowledge of God and instead are given milk.

8:14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

This was when the twelve tribes split apart and the king of the northern ten tribes, the house of Israel, fashioned a calf for them to worship instead of God....they put man before the Word of the Lord. In the future this will again happen. Many will worship the false Christ and it will feel so religious to them...until they see the true Saviour.

One of the lessons God teaches through Amos is we individually must look for the golden calf in our life and if there is one...get rid of it! Test what we are taught against His Word for...

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

One complaint about your method of posting. Most if not all posting from freepers of articles are from an article. It appears to me that your posting are from your thoughts which to me is in the classification of a vanity posting which in my opinion should not be allowed on this forum. The moderaters of freerepublic have allowed this on and off on FR. My personal opinion is if they continue to allow it every yahooo and joe smoe will be posting their opinions on FR and FR will become just another chat room. If I misunderstand the rules of FR let me know. If the rules have changed let me know.

I may have sounded negative above, but I also most at least till you I agree with most of your posting more then I disagree. I can see only one advantage of not posting a source when it comes to Eschatological things and that is that as soon as you post a source, all those that take an opposite view of the Eschatological view come out of the wood work looking to nic pick your view apart, My gut feelings is that with out a source the average freeper out of ignorance couldn't till one Eschatological view from another and would say amen to all of them out of ignorance.

ReformedBeckite, you were saying to Ping-Pong — One complaint about your method of posting. Most if not all posting from freepers of articles are from an article. It appears to me that your posting are from your thoughts which to me is in the classification of a vanity posting which in my opinion should not be allowed on this forum.

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I think the “convention” that ended up being followed was to “LABEL” the thread a “VANITY”.

So, perhaps the solution here, is to have this “tag” on the thread, at the end — [VANITY] — to let people right away, that they were getting exactly that...

And in addition to that, all “VANITIES” should be put into the “smoky backroom”... :-)

And in addition to that, all “VANITIES” should be put into the “smoky backroom”... :-)

To be on the serious side I don't think this should end up on in the smoky backroom, hell probably hardly anybody checks out the smoky backroom. It should stay in the Religion forum.

But another thing I've thought off since posting my comment is that Ping-Pong should either say "by Ping-Pong"at the beginning or end, or give the origianl authors name and source if out of a book, journal etc.

Amos spoke to a generation of comfort and wealth. His listeners had abandoned their faith, replacing it with the bounty of their achievements.
So we, today, abandon the source of our strength to satisfy our gluttony.
Today, with the advent of leftist, humanist control of our government and our institutions we are beginning to reap the whirlwind that comes when a people turn away from the Lord.
Amos called his people to repent but they would not repent. Just so our society refuses to repent of its true evil and instead cries out against those who seek to follow the Lord, calling them evil.
The end times occur when good is replaced with evil and the Way of the Lord is made an offense to the people. We are in those days.

Thank you both for the suggestions. My preference is actually to not post a thread at all but instead discuss His Word with others. I don’t see much opportunity to do that and thought these posts would stir some interest in His Word as opposed to religions.

Too, each time I pick up the Bible new understandings are being opened. I thought we, as believers, were to share that with others but perhaps I have gone about it the wrong way.

You were saying, Ping-Pong — Too, each time I pick up the Bible new understandings are being opened. I thought we, as believers, were to share that with others but perhaps I have gone about it the wrong way.

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For me, it’s not about the good intentions which are indicated here, and especially if we are to get the Gospel out to everyone. For me, and what I was talking about, it was more about the “methodologies” here on Free Republic, of posting. So, I wouldn’t confuse the two...

And in regards to that, if it’s going to be “purely” a vanity, then it should be labeled as such. BUT, it’s easy enough to get your opinions out there, and still use the correct methodology in doing so, without something being a “vanity”.

All you have to do is post a documented article from “somewhere” which reflects closely your own opinion, and make your “commentary” on it, to be the first post after the article you’ve posted. It does the same thing as what you’ve done with your “vanity” — but it’s a different “methodology”... (if you see what I mean). And thus, you can get the discussion going that way... :-)

The end times occur when good is replaced with evil and the Way of the Lord is made an offense to the people. We are in those days.

Yes...we are there but I fear it will get much worse. On the news last week a mention was made of things becoming so politically correct that we had to change the name of the Freedom Towers. The commentator said it is getting so we can't say "freedom" in school. My thought was...we can't even say God in school! Yes, we are in those days!

But the "articles" in all of the topics I have posted are...the Bible. They are all Scripture with my commentary. It is the "documented article." Maybe the thing to do would be to reference only the Chapter and Verse in the OP and then....in post one give commentary. Truly, it is to open discussion on His Word. The following Scripture says so much to me....

Malachi 3:16-17 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

There is so much to learn and I fear so little time that the time we do have, when we are gathered "speaking often one to another," is best used discussing that Word....not man's, but His.

Thank you for thoughts Star Traveler...I appreciate them.

Okay, an example of what I mean (but I did it very quickly so it may not be a perfect example)...

I took your “title” and entered it into Google. I came up with this article at the top of the list (whether the article is close to what you say or not, I don’t know, but it illustrates the point...)

http://asthecroweflies.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/a-sermon-on-hosea-61-7/

Now, one can post the excerpt to this article on a post, document it, list all the information and make it a “full-fledged Free Republic article” (not a vanity). And — now — in your “first response” to this article you just posted (not a “vanity”) — you can place your entire comment that you made.

Does the same thing, except now it’s not a vanity, but posting an article... LOL..

[ ... it’s just a little bit of “maneuvering” to do the same thing..., and nothing is compromised in what you want to say... ]

A follow-up comment...

You were saying, Ping-Pong — Thank you both for the suggestions. My preference is actually to not post a thread at all but instead discuss His Word with others. I don’t see much opportunity to do that and thought these posts would stir some interest in His Word as opposed to religions.

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Okay, I might suggest one more “methodology” for doing so... You might also consider the “Caucus” designation for doing so (see the “Religion Moderator’s home page” for an explanation of that...).

In that case, you could end up discussing just “His Word”, as opposed to getting into discussions about other things, and/or “religion” (as you put it) — depending on how you construct the “caucus” topic. You have to think about that carefully and construct it right, in order to make it work, though.

The “mechanisms” are here for doing what you want to do..., but you just have to think it through a bit, before you do it...

I don’t see much opportunity to do that and thought these posts would stir some interest in His Word as opposed to religions.

Most freepers come to the Religion forum to discuss issues related to Christianity, I would go so far as to say that 99% or more of the discussions on this forum are related to Christianity. So the term Religion on FR means mostly Christianity but not to be inclusive of other religions. I know most Christian freepers would like to discuss issues with you on Christianity when they have the time. Some have more time then others. I am one of them that don't have a lot of time so I'm not on this forum all the time, but mostly lurk. I would like to discuss issues related to Christianity with you on FR. But on forums like FR you got to establish rules to abide by. If you don't establish the rules then the forums becomes a free for all. I do believe the Star Traveler has been on this forum long enough to remember the debates that use to go on in the Religion forum everyday, and they were long debates, 1,000's of individual comments. And everyday they would just rehash the same old debates over and over to the point of nausea that was hogging a lot of bandwidth. So the owners of this forum set some more rules to limit the endless debates, etc. because FR is for discussion and not for endless debates, even though that will happen occasionally, but at least it doesn't get out of hand like it use to.

I hope you don't call the term "Eschatology" Religion. It is a theological term that I think comes from Latin to refer to end times theology of Christianity.

And I hope you don't call "Theology" Religion. But any view point that you hold can be label as your theology of Christianity.

I know you might think I'm nitpicking about stuff, but people that try to simplify their Christianity general do more harm then they do good. Their theology gets reduced down to bumper sticker theology of "Jesus saves", I like to get deeper then that.

And then, again, another followup... :-) ... Okay, I see what you’re talking about... You were saying...

But the “articles” in all of the topics I have posted are...the Bible. They are all Scripture with my commentary. It is the “documented article.” Maybe the thing to do would be to reference only the Chapter and Verse in the OP and then....in post one give commentary. Truly, it is to open discussion on His Word. The following Scripture says so much to me....

Well, then, put the full information in the “posting form” as the Bible (indicating the version...) and “author” (which would be “God”, right... :-) .... ). You can be a bit creative here in filling out the form fully. You might even put the “date of the article” to be the date that scholars indicate that this particular portion of Scripture was written.

And then, you could consider either a “Devotional” thread — or — a “Caucus” thread, depending on what you wanted to accomplish and what you thought was better for the purpose. This avoids a lot of the naysayers and crazy criticism from those who have no intention of discussing what you want to discuss. It’s a good tool. If you have an “open thread” — you’re wide open for any kind of remarks, even those who want to harass you about the topic. And if that’s fine then leave it open — but then it won’t be a constructive thread for those who want to hear the “Word of God”...

Then, when you post it, post *only* the straight quote from the Bible and *no commentary* in the initial posting. Leave your own commentary for the “follow-up” reply that you do, right after the initial post. Then the thread *is* an “article” straight from the Bible, and then your own comments “follow it up” in the first reply that you make yourself...

Anyway, some more ideas...

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