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Are We Living in the End Times?
http://www.patheos.com ^ | June 13, 2013 | Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Posted on 06/14/2014 4:58:45 PM PDT by NKP_Vet

In the fundamentalist Bible church I attended as a child we would regularly have long sermons about the “end times”. These were based on an interpretative system of the Bible called “Dispensationalism”.

The roots of this theology were the idea that history could be broken down into various “dispensations” or time periods and that God behaved differently and different things happened to the human race in these different dispensations. Part of this teaching was that the “rapture” would take place in which all the Christian people would be supernaturally whisked up into heaven and the sinners would remain behind. Thus the “Left Behind” series of books and films.


TOPICS: Ecumenism; General Discusssion; History; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: endtimes; eschatology; theology
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To: elcid1970

This Evangelical believes them as well.

What I’m saying is that we are in a new paradigm where evil can be globalized as was never possible with earlier ages.


21 posted on 06/14/2014 5:34:44 PM PDT by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: NKP_Vet

As our Bible study leader said, we are probably closer to the end times now then the beginning after Christ’s death. If God doesn’t end it soon he should apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
This country is loosing all that made it great, we are no longer a blessed country. Just look at our leadership, I don’t see anything better in the future.


22 posted on 06/14/2014 5:36:04 PM PDT by Vinylly (?%)
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To: PapaNew

Actually, a whole bunch of us are. If you receive Jesus Christ and hang around long enough, you’ll get a free ride to Heaven escorted by the Lord Himself when he comes to take his own.

Enoch already made it.


23 posted on 06/14/2014 5:37:07 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: NKP_Vet

This topic has nothing to do with conservative politics.

But people have been looking for the signs and finding them for a long time.

My instinct is ‘no,’ we’re not particularly close.


24 posted on 06/14/2014 5:38:49 PM PDT by Ted Grant
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To: NKP_Vet

Of course, I don’t know. I will say that in the last 20 years I have seen things I never dreamed would happen and in the last 6 or 7, it has gotten so bad that I don’t think the country can recover.

Same goes for most of Western Civilization.

It sure would not be surprising.


25 posted on 06/14/2014 5:42:55 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8: verses 38 and 39. "For I am persuaded".)
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To: NKP_Vet

we having been living in the end times since Christ’s, ascension into heaven. The Apostle Paul spoke of the end times. Christ’s return when God has appointed the time of his return. Dispensationalism has been disproven many times over. Scofield Bible is an example of Dispensationalism. The Dispensationalism Theory came into existence in the 1920s.


26 posted on 06/14/2014 5:44:00 PM PDT by hondact200 (Candor dat viribos alas (sincerity gives wings to strength) and Nil desperandum (never despair))
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To: NKP_Vet

I think this thing came from anal sex:

http://thetruthbehindthescenes.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/alien-2.jpg


27 posted on 06/14/2014 5:44:23 PM PDT by Vinylly (?%)
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To: G Larry
Well, here we go.

A pre-trib vs. post-trib discussion. Are you up to it? Am I up to it?

Dunno. I'm ready to relax on a Saturday night with a glass of merlot.

Do I dare say anything? I think if I knew there was a listening ear on the other end, regardless of pre-formed opinions, I might enter in. I only want to do this kind of stuff if I feel like I've really helped someone.

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, who were obviously interested and concerned and not quite sure of the end times, Paul's main theme to them was that of comfort and reassurance. Among other things, he said, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath" (1 Thess 5:9). Whatever else the seven-year period of the Tribulation (the "beginning of sorrows" Matt 24:8) and the Great Tribulation ("the end" Matt 24:14) is, it is a time of "the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev 6:16) and "the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture" (Rev 14:10).

If you have questions about reconciling that with the Lord's return, I can help if you want.

28 posted on 06/14/2014 5:52:38 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: mountainlion

Dang, man, got that right.


29 posted on 06/14/2014 5:54:57 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: NKP_Vet

No we are not currently living in “end times.” However, the conditions are falling into place. We are moving towards the end. Do not confuse a dying Western Civilization with a dying world.


30 posted on 06/14/2014 5:57:25 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: PapaNew

• Matthew 24:37-42, “As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man.”

“…Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

Christ seems to be referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, as he warned “…this generation will not pass away till all these things take place”. Also, notice the people taken away in Noah’s time were the unrighteous, not the righteous, which is the opposite of rapture theory.
In Matthew 24:13 Christ promises “…the one who endures to the end will be saved”. This includes Christians who will endure the Tribulation.


31 posted on 06/14/2014 5:59:35 PM PDT by G Larry (Which of Obama's policies do you think I'd support if he were white?)
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To: PapaNew

That glass of Merlot tastes great on a Saturday night! No sense arguing with the post-trib folks! Either they have really accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, and will be surprised to standing on the Glassy Sea watching Jesus open the First Seal, or they will be left behind so that they can get their wish to experience the Tribulation.


32 posted on 06/14/2014 6:03:36 PM PDT by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR!)
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To: PapaNew

• 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

This also refers to the Second Coming of Christ, in that “the twinkling of an eye” refers to the instantaneous change from a mortal body to a glorified body, NOT to the speed of the rapture. Its connection to the blast of the “last trumpet”, heralds Christ’s Second Coming. The Catholic Church has consistently interpreted this passage as such for the last 2000 years.

No “help” needed, Thank You!


33 posted on 06/14/2014 6:05:47 PM PDT by G Larry (Which of Obama's policies do you think I'd support if he were white?)
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To: PapaNew
Laodicean Church

These folks were so "lukewarm" about their faith that "Laodicean" became another word for lukewarm.

34 posted on 06/14/2014 6:07:55 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: G Larry

PREPARE! http://www.patburt.com/

Regardless of pretrib, posttrib, intrib, outtrib, there is going to be a trib; however, more importantly no one is guaranteed a next breath or a tomorrow. But we are guaranteed an eternity. . .in heaven or hell. . .the destination . . .everyone’s choice.


35 posted on 06/14/2014 6:11:25 PM PDT by Maudeen ("End Times Warrior - Just a Sinner Saved by Grace")
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To: SubMareener
All of us believers who are around are going up with Him on the first round, but it will be funny to hear these guys telling Jesus that he's has it all wrong and he came too soon.

Have a good evening.

36 posted on 06/14/2014 6:13:02 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: NKP_Vet
>>>"....look around us at the remains of what was once called the Christian West, noting a host of behaviors and beliefs that seem custom-made to initiate and accelerate decline. For example, we find in the West depopulation, legal abortion, open homosexuality and same-sex “marriage,” epidemic levels of pornography use, declining marriage rates, and rising cohabitation rates". <<<

All that evil is the result of Satan's deception, who, by his sorceries, is able to deceive the nations into believing evil is good, and good is evil. Satan's handiwork has been spreading for the better part of a century, turning once Christian and free nations into instruments of tyrannical bondage. First century Jerusalem was in similar bondage, until the Lord appropriately destroyed it, and cast Satan into "prison" for almost twenty centuries. Recall that Jesus explained who the children of Satan were, in his day:

    "Ye [Scribes and Pharisees] are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (Jn 8:44 KJV)

Isaiah prophesied of them in a slightly more congenial tone:

    "Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it." (Isa 28:14-18 KJV)

And were they ever "trodden down by it." Every building was leveled in Jerusalem--a city of more than a million people; the land was completely destroyed; every tree was cut down for miles around; and even the ground plowed under:

    "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." (Mic 3:12 KJV)

The hail that "swept away the refuge of lies (e.g., swept away Jerusalem)" was relentless, with each hail stone weighing about a talent, according to Jesus in his Revelation (16:21,) and Flavius Josephus in his historical work, "Wars of the Jews" (book V.6.3):

    "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great." (Revelation 16:21)

    “The engines, that all the legions had ready prepared for them, were admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to the tenth legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones were more forcible and larger than the rest, by which they not only repelled the excursions of the Jews, but drove those away that were upon the walls also. Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of a talent, and were carried two furlongs and further. The blow they gave was no way to be sustained, not only by those that stood first in the way, but by those that were beyond them for a great space.” [Flavius Josephus, Wars Of The Jews, Book V.6.3]

And what about the covenant with death and agreement with hell? Jesus mentioned the second part here:

    "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Mt 23:33 KJV)

This is what happened to that generation of vipers. First, the justification:

    "… by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." (Rev 18:23-24 KJV)

And the punishment:

    ". . . in one hour is she made desolate." (Rev 18:19 KJV)

And what about Satan?

    "And [the angel] cast [Satan] into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Rev 20:3 KJV)

Is that a coincidence, or what? Jerusalem was destroyed (in part) for deceiving the nations, and Satan was imprisoned for a very long time for . . . (drum roll) . . . deceiving the nations.

Therefore, Satan, the Father of Lies, controlled Jerusalem and the Jews through the deceit of his children: the Jewish leadership.

The release of Satan to deceive the nations occurred about a century ago; which, coincidentally, was about the time of the creation of the Federal Reserve; the enslavement of Russia's Christians by Satan's children, the Bolsheviks; and the rapid dissemination of the doctrine of Dispensationalism via the Scofield Reference Bible.

Philip

37 posted on 06/14/2014 6:16:39 PM PDT by PhilipFreneau
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To: G Larry
No “help” needed, Thank You!

You're welcome.

In your spare time, you might want to reconcile "Behold I come as a thief" (Rev 16:5) (nobody knows when a thief comes) with "For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt 24:27) (everybody'll see that).

38 posted on 06/14/2014 6:17:52 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: NKP_Vet

No one knows the time and the hour. Rather than engage in pointless speculation as to when the world will end, live every day as if the end were tomorrow and Christ will take care of the rest.


39 posted on 06/14/2014 6:19:01 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Pope Calvin the 1st, defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS

Right. The end of America may seem like the end of the world, but it’s not.


40 posted on 06/14/2014 6:20:49 PM PDT by Corey Ohlis (Visualize Swirled Peas)
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