So true. What do you see here?
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Locked on 10/27/2009 12:40:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
Childish behavior. |
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.
I imagine there are many liberals who took no offense at the black journalist's coining the term but then took great offense at the term being repeated by a person they loathe. In which case the offense was not the term but the very existence of someone hated.
I cannot judge offense taken as right or wrong. It is what it is.
But I can and do judge hate as wrong.
Indeed, the very sight of Bush waving and smiling might be an offense to those suffering from "Bush Derangement Syndrome." Hate in their case was making them sick.
Of a truth, not many have a judicial temperament allowing them in the normal course of a day to separate the matter from the person as we Christians learn to do (I Cor 6:1-8, Matthew 7).
Without a better picture, I don't we that we can be certain of that. It looks as if some of her fingers might be on the top of the cross, but that could also be the angle. As I said before, other than the photographer's title we have no actual way of knowing WHO is even being depicted.
So true. What do you see here?
Well that doesn’t really answer this question...
“And is it correct to come into a discussion on Rush’s bigotry and use “Barack the Magic Negro” as an example of it?”
Qualia is only a theory. It is not an absolute. There are many critics of it. So let’s put that aside for a moment.
If one is offended by a idea, with no explanation of the intent of that idea, should it be used as an example of a way to prove something?
In otherwords, is using “Barack the Magic Negro” as proof that Rush is a racist correct understanding that the song was a parody of one person rather than any black?
Simply, I’m not seeing proof that this was carved by a Catholic nor that it is on a Catholic grave and especially the context of the carving. We don’t even know that this was “Mary” and not the woman burried there. There is nothing but a title on a photograph by Ivan.
Yet, it was brought onto a thread with a heated discussion about “Catholics” putting Mary on a cross. Could it be that a Presbyterian carved it? A Lutheran grave? Or would that just be silly?
And, as an aside, I find it odd that you attribute this to a location in New Mexico when the words abover her head are in German.
I see Mary standing in front of a cross that is mounted on the Earth.
I’m not seeing Mary “on” a cross. If you are seeing Mary “on” a cross, you would totally freak out at the pictures of my girls standing in front of the cross at my church.
It’s from a cult.
Vatican rejects prayer to “Lady of All Nations”
The Vatican City’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not permit any Catholic community of Christ’s faithful in the country and throughout the world “to pray to the Mother of God” under the title of ‘Lady of All Nations’ with the added phrase ‘who was once Mary’.
(gotta love Unity Publishing)
Here's a better question, how did this subject even come up on a Pentecostal End Times thread?
Oh yeah, because whenever arguments between anti-Catholic get too uncomfortable they can do one of two things:
A. Face the reality that the man-made invention of "sola scriptura" is inherently flawed, otherwise ALL Christians would reach the same conclusion about EVERY verse.
or
B. Unite around their mutual hatred of Catholics and change the subject.
It seems that they invariably choose option B.
I also do not think an artist's rendering depicts Church dogma or teaching - unless of course it is done by commission for the Church, according to it's specification and approved by it's authority.
All that we know of this is the image itself and the photographer's description: "Mary's Sacrifice, Granada, Nicaragua."
He doesn't appear to have any motive other than to make money from prints, so I deduce his description is sincerely written.
Interesting. I wonder what would happen if I started posting pictures of men with white hoods circled around a burning cross and asked if all Protestants prayed this way.
Then again it's entirely possible that the cross was once upright and fell during the wars there during the 1980s and the people in charge of the cemetery decided to leave it the way it came to rest.
It is the clothed figure on a raised platform with cross to the left and the back. Sadly, there's not much detail, so I'm not sure: nicatour
>>Here’s a better question, how did this subject even come up on a Pentecostal End Times thread? <<
Good question!
If you ever visit Massachusetts, I recommend the cemetery in Concond. It is exceptionally lovely.
http://www.concordma.gov/pages/concordma_cemetery/sleepy
Excellent points.
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LOL! Good point!
>>I don’t recall ever saying it was a Catholic graveyard though in Nicaragua that would be likely.<<
No one should think a thing of it. And their offense should be their own.
In fact, when you state that you know that it’s Protestant because you’re sure that Catholics never pray that way AND say how Anti-scriptural it is, make fun and belittle anyone who disagrees with you all the while quoting scripture.
Because it isn’t the facts, it’s the accusation that counts.
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