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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.
Another sobering doc via this link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2300943/posts
re flu, martial law etc.
track to source link.
Of course this was well before the coming of the current computer age with all the fancy gadgets. (70s)
Technological advances were suppose to relieve mankind of all sorts of burdensome problems but, it seems to have done the opposite.
Maybe I have too much of a negative attitude.
Bets on if the problem with that site gets spotted?
LOL.
I have sometimes thought . . . Most of history that we know anything about has been full of drudgery.
Wherein folks had to do almost everything in close cooperation with lots of toil to even survive.
. . .
I’ve wondered . . . was that designed to teach us mostly about . . . drum roll . . .
RELATIONSHIP and RELATING?
FORBEARANCE
FORGIVENESS
LOVE
PATIENCE
KINDNESS
GENTLENESS
PEACE & PEACEABLENESS
GOODNESS
FAITH
MEEKNESS
TEMPERANCE
. . .
Will things be returned to an aggrarian era or continue on with technology after Armageddon?
WOW
From Calvinism to JW-ism! Fascinating.
Walter Martin rightly discovered from extensive research that the upper leadership elites of the JW’s
KNEW their pile of stinking pretend theology was a pile of . . . stinking.
And, further, that there were strictly in it for the money and the !!!!CONTROL!!!! FREAK ‘fun’ of it.
. WHAT A BUCKET OF BULLBUTTER
“Dispensational truth” has supposedly provided a hermeneutical key to unlock prophetic interpretive mysteries in a literal way. It is interesting that “dispensational truth” had its beginning in the early nineteenth century along with a number of other heresies. Since the turn of the century dispensationalism has far exceeded the Jehovah's Witnesses in false prophetic predictions. There is no denying that these predictions cause great emotional excitement among dispensationalists. This writer, formerly a dispensationalist was oftentimes thrilled hearing about the predictions of the pre-tribulation rapture that was to take place in 1981. In reality, the excitement or thrill experienced when gaining a dispensational understanding of prophecy is more reminiscent of Gnosticism's concealed or secret knowledge (only possessed by those initiated into the deeper mysteries or dispensation truth) than a correct knowledge of the Bible. Those who live in glass houses should not cast stones, lest their own house shatters.Dispensationalism's Eschatological Dilemma by Jack Kettler
Clearly
a number of folks hereon do
NOT have PhD’s in psychology.
That MAY make it MORE difficult for them to realize that
. . . for example . . .
—even drunks can feed their faces at least part of the time;
—even blind folks can find the bathroom;
—even some moderate DIMRATS can occasionally vote sanely;
—even some orthodox traditionalists can have a Salvation experience with Jesus Christ;
—even some Calvinists can realize these are the END TIMES;
—even some Cathedrals can be visited by Holy Spirit;
—even some atheists sometimes find Christ
and
—even some off the wall denominations get some things right.
I wonder . . . is it less likely that a Calvinist denomination would get some things right
or less likely that a JW would get some things right.
Interesting question.
Welllllllllll, Dear Heart,
When one grasps so vainly and uselessly at straws . . . before long . . .
one doesn’t even realize that one has been grasping at . . . uhhhh
‘bovine processed straw’
pretending it was choice unchewed clover.
That pile of lies has been refuted hereon multiple times with historical documentation.
Interesting that some folks still pretend it’s true.
So much for uhhhhh . . .
historically accurate as well as
Biblically accurate posting
from some camps.
To read later.
Nothing in dispensationalism predicts the Rapture in 1981, however, Reformed Covenant Theology misses the boat completely in falsely declaring all prophecy of the Great Tribulation was fulfilled in 70AD.
Thanks for your kind reply.
INDEED.
They seem to soooooo
COMPULSIVELY
throw the baby (truth) out with the bath . . . one would almost wonder if they hate babies (truth) in general.
You MUST
KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!
I’m a full fledged Dispy!
Mostly a Pre-Trib Dispy at that.
. . . though I don’t really think anyone has THAT all figured out.
I was mostly spring boarding off your post with my own metaphor for the fun of it.
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