New Jerusalem

Maybe America will be ripped apart; but there is no Biblical prophecy which identifies the United States or America.

Anyway, why focus on destruction and doom when instead, as Christians, we should be caring for God's creation and working with that of God "in the other"?

There is plenty wrong with our social and economic systems now. I'd much rather spend my time with that than sit in a room and worry about the possibility of what might happen. My death is inevitable; so is everyone's death. It will occur to every human. So why waste time talking about rapture when that energy could be spent on something useful?

Ehh; call me crazy for thinking practically.

 

http://www.americathebabylon.com/exerpts.shtml

As Christians it will be our greatest day. Why do you act as if it will be the worst. Jesus is coming ready or not? With this we need to prepare and act with greater urgency. And failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

 

Hmm. That's funny... because so far my greatest day was comforting a person who'd lost their way with the promise of God's love.

Jesus has come and is living..now. His kingdom has begun, but has not yet been brought to completion.

Now, but not yet. The kingdom of restoration of peace and justice has begun, but we still have sin..so the kingdom will be complete in the Second Coming.

But until then, it's all speculation about when that day will come. Thousands of Christians have, I think mistakenly, wasted time speculating and have created one sectarian group after another because of their anxiety over this last day.

 

MollyBloom,

As Christians it will be our greatest day. And, as Christians, it is the day we look for.

Yes I know Jesus has come and the Holy Spirit is with us today. But we look for His promised SECOND COMING. It has nothing to do with anxiety but excitement. Blessed are those who look for Christ's coming. The signs have all been on track and the Jews returning to Israel is not by coincidence...



Many people believe there is nothing that can be known about the timing of the Lord's return because Jesus said He would return like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42-44).

But Paul makes it clear in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 that Jesus' statement does not apply to believers: "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. . ." He then proceeds to explain why: "for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." Paul is referring, of course, to the light of the Holy Spirit who indwells all true believers and who can enlighten us through our study of Scripture to know the season of the Lord's return (1 John 2:27).

http://www.lamblion.com/Web02-00.php

 

Yeah, JDFU, I bet you guys just love it when those suicide bombers blow themselves up...just that much closer to getting your cookies.

 

So well be split into three, then canada will see it as her chance to over throw us?

 

There is no love in your interpretation of Christianity, only obsession and praise towards Jesus.

 

We will be split in three... and then Russia will attack.


Revelation 16

Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.

 

I would not say obsessed but that IS worldview. The Bible is like a pair of glasses to me in which I look at the world. However, if there is one thing to be obsessed in, Jesus would be my #1 choice.

Praise toward Jesus in wrong? I try to live in their world where it is not about me but about ALL about Him.

 

Death is NEVER a happy event! But certain things must happen before the return of Christ...

Matt. 24


5Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 6Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

 

Also...

"....At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ[c]!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time."

The majority of the people in Christ's time missed His first coming; shall we repeat history and miss the second?

 

The Bible indicates that all of the nations around us will also be destroyed.

 

JDFU & Campbell, I'll recycle this post once again:

In Luke Ch. 21, Jesus describes the signs of the coming end of time, and finishes with Verse 32: "Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, until all be fulfilled".

Jesus specifically describes observable phenomena, and then states that it will all happen within the lifespans of those to whom he is speaking.

In Luke Ch. 17, Verses 20 and 21, Jesus had previously stated:

20. And, when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21. Neither shall they say "Lo here! or Lo there!" For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.

He dismisses those who would predict his second coming and states that the Kingdom of God is an inner and individual matter.

In Matthew Ch. 24, Verse 14, Jesus states that the end will come only after the gospel is preached to the entire world.

2000 years ago, from a Rome-centered point of view, the known world extended West to the British Isles, North to barbarian lands in central and northern Europe, South to North Africa and Egypt, and East perhaps to Western India.

A reasonable conclusion appears to be that Jesus directly predicted that the end of the world would come in his time of history, after the gospel had been preached to the known world. But, he also cautioned against listening to those who purport to know when these events would happen.

Do you think that he intended these statements only for his immediate listeners, if his words were never to pass away?

 

spook13,

More careless misinterpretation that could be avoided if one would take the time to study... I am tired of people butchering and taking this passage out of context.

Lets start at the beggining...

Signs of the End of the Age

7"Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"

(Jesus then explains all the signs of the end of the age) then he states THIS generation (the generation that sees these signs) will not pass away. NOT the generation that he was talking to unless all those signs happened in his generation which they certainly did not.

Reading in context is important.

Jesus knew the future in which the majority of the whole world 2000 years later would hear his words. Today we have missionaries all over the world preaching the gospel. I mean here you have a Jewish carpenter in the middle east claiming he is the messiah and God of all and 2000 years later He is more popular then ever throughout all of the world. Why did he not die off like all the rest of the false prophets. Jesus made an interesting remark when He said, "Although heaven and earth will pass away, MY WORDS will never pass away." And here we are 2000 years later and this "crazy" prophet's words have held true.


The Gospel will be preached to the entire world
Bible passage: Matthew 24:14
Recorded: about 30 AD
To be fulfilled: End Times

In Matthew 24:14, the Bible says that the Gospel (the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) will be preached throughout the world. The Bible also says that after this happens, the end times will come. The Bible has been preached throughout the world for a long time. But now, with the increasing worldwide availability of television and the Internet, there is greater potential for the Gospel to be preached to everyone, everywhere.

 

"(Jesus then explains all the signs of the end of the age) then he states THIS generation (the generation that sees these signs) will not pass away. NOT the generation that he was talking to unless all those signs happened in his generation which they certainly did not."
This makes no sense. Youre twisting the worse and putting in your own explanation.

 

It makes perfect sense... The generation that sees all those signs is the generation that will see Christ's second coming.

Christ's generation did not see all those signs...

Let's just take one sign...


"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

Was Christ's message preached to the whole world in His Generation?? NOT EVEN CLOSE

The Generation that does see this sign and many others will be the generation that sees Christ physically enter this world again.

 

Yeah... let's talk about "this generation."

Scripture Verse: Matthew 24:34 – Most assuredly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Stop now and without any theological preconceptions let the full import of that phrase sink in. Certainly Jesus appears to be saying that the people to whom He is speaking will not die until those things of which He spoke happen. This is certainly confirmed by numerous translations/renderings/paraphrases. For example amongst the renderings intended to make the text plain see these:

Scripture Verse: [GNB] Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died.

[NCV] I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living.

Even the Amplified lends support..

Scripture Verse: Truly I tell you, this generation – that, the whole multitude of people living at the same time, in a definite, given period – will not pass away till all these things take place.

Futurists have devised four major ways to get out of this pickle.

• “Generation” means race.
• This is referring to some future generation.
• “Generation” means wicked people of all time.
• Jesus did mean that generation then living but the prophecy is delayed.

(of course skeptics “solve” it by merely saying Jesus was wrong)

If this were the only strong verse, I would not be a preterist, but it isn’t. Here are some more examples….

Matt 10:23 When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Matt 16:28 Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

Romans 16:20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

James 5:8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand…..Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour.

Rev 1:1,3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place…..Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near…

Revelation 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Now if God really had wanted to communicate that this event was truly near, truly soon, truly at hand, truly to happen shortly, and truly to happen before all of them died, what other words could He have used to express it if “near, soon, at hand, shortly, quickly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until, this generation will not pass away until,” do not cut it? As DeMar so aptly stated, “If the Bible can be interpreted so ‘soon’ can mean ‘late,’ and ‘near’ can mean ‘distant,’ and ‘shortly’ can mean ‘delayed,’ and vice versa, then the Bible can meaning anything and nothing.”

Let's see... Surely the gospel wasn't preached to the entire world by 70; it hasn't even reached some people now! But we need to look behind a key word: world -- it isn't aion, and it also isn't kosmos, the word which indicates the broadest possible connotations -- this time, it is oikoumene, a word used to express only the Roman Empire (cf. Acts 11:28, Luke 2:1). It is significant that this is the only place Matthew uses this word; he has selected it carefully as a geographical delimitation; it is also significant that he has used this word rather than kosmos as he did with reference to the spreading of the Gospel correspondent with the separation of the justified and the wicked. The gospel had to be preached to the Roman Empire as a whole before the end of the age. Was this fulfilled? According to the NT, it was (Rom. 10:18, 16:25-7; cf. 2 Tim. 4:17; see also Rom. 1:8 and Col. 1:6, which uses kosmos hyperbolically). Secular history would agree that there were churches as far away from Judea as Italy; evidence of evangelism in places like Britain and Germany are based only on tradition. Nevertheless, with a church in Rome by the 50s, it could hardly be argued that evangelism in Britain, the farthest-flung part of Rome's Empire with respect to Judea, was not likely by 70.

So yeah, they DID see this fulfilled.

Where did He (Christ) say that they would see Him physically returning?

 

"But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."
"Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?"
Everyone is clay in the hands of the Lord. By your words you imply God has no understanding of the way to make souls or what God desires: for one soul is made Hindu, one Muslim, and another Christian. Ask God if this is true.

And you oppose God's good works with your words. Ask God if this is true.

They were motivated by ignorance of the things of God. Peter thought God's plan to have Jesus crucified was wrong, because he thought as a natural man- he was ignorant of the ways of God. Ask God if this is true.

You certainly don't appear to, to me or God. Ask God if this is true.

Why would someone do this if they were not ignorant of God?

God removed the ignorance from many people with Christ.

 

I've read the entire chapter from KJV and am aware of the context...It's very obvious, with the phrase "this generation", that Jesus was speaking about near-future events to those in his immediate hearing. Where exactly does he say "I'm talking to you, but not about you"?

These verses seem to be the most definitive made by Jesus on the subject...he clearly states that observable signs don't predict the coming of the Kingdom of God, and that spiritual life is to be found within one's self or own heart. And this was Jesus speaking, not a later writer.

I've posted this several times and neither you nor Campbell have given a definitive answer as to the meaning. Once again, I'm aware of the context.

 

The Kingdom of God came after Christ died on the Cross, for it was after His death and Resurrection that the Holy Spirit came to earth and was able to enter men. This is why Christ said the Kingdom is with in you, for it is the Holy Spirit that enters the believer when you give your life to Christ. For matthew states that when Christ returns the second time, every eye will see Him. I have found that unless you have a handle on the Bible it is easy to get confused on details. Yet when you do the homework, you begin to see the bigger picture.