Thank you for your contributions and again I ask, do you believe in the second coming of Christ?
This is what Iām attempting to spotlight? Will He return and will there be signs? Is anything happening today, that you believe is any indication of His eminent return? If so, what are they and was it mentioned anywhere in the Bible?
My nature is one, that I donāt worry. If I have energy to waste worrying, it should be applied correcting the problem youāre āworryingā about. If thereās nothing you can do, itās in The Lordās hands and Iām always good with that. This is a discussion about the many things happening today around the world. If you go back just 100 years, the average man had no indication in real time what was happening. Now thereās so much data coming in and much of it is could be labeled catastrophic. Are things heating up in your opinion. Is this unusual and could it possibly be any kind of indication of His return?
This is what Iām attempting to spotlight? Will He return and will there be signs? Is anything happening today, that you believe is any indication of His eminent return? If so, what are they and was it mentioned anywhere in the Bible?
Yes He will return for sure. People have always been looking for signs and finding them and pointing to it just around the corner. Expect like it could happen today, but also prepare your life as though it wonāt come during our lifetime, though at death, weāre all gonna face Him.
The Jews will accept Christ, and a final exceeding persecution of the Church of those who follow Christ, the catechism Catechism of the Catholic Church - PART 1 SECTION 2 CHAPTER 2 ARTICLE 7 CCC 673-677, a lot of Scriptural citations in that one. Of course Iām interested but as Jesus says we wonāt know the day or the hour, Iāll leave it in His hands. Is it on the verge of being fulfilled? Not sure.
As a side note, I remember listening to a whole bunch of people who thought within 40 years of the establishment of the state of Israel, and 1988 was the big sign. False prophecies happen, leads me to less speculation.
I believe in the Parousia - second coming.
Paul used the word Mello - imminence.
Malachi warned about the āgreat and terrible day of the Lord.ā John, Jesus and the Apostles repeated that message, and those that heard Johnās message were fleeing the imminent coming of wrath. It was āat handā for them. Not for us over two thousand years later.
Jesusā coming - parousia, the word doesnāt mean coming in bodily form, but his āappearingā would be in the lifetime of some of those who heard Jesus and His apostles.
It would be the last days, not of the universe, but the last days of the old covenant with its religious and civil law in the Law of Moses and national Israel which that law had produced.
Jesusā parables of the kingdom detailed things they would live to see. Jesus would be rejected and crucified. He would take his sacrifice into the Holy of Holies in heaven while the gospel was being preached in that Jewish world among the Jews and Gentiles.
Then He would return. He would redeem and immortalize the righteous of the ages past and the first fruits of Christ who slept and were awaiting that spiritual resurrection which was the āhope of Israel.ā
Meanwhile, the Roman legions had surrounded Jerusalem, besieging the city for three years in that great and terrible day of tribulation bringing total destruction of their city, the temple and the religious system it represented and to national Israel.
These events were described as āthe coming of the Lord,ā āthe last days,ā āthe dayā, the last day, āthe last hourā and āthe end.ā This was the judgment of Israel and the culmination of redemptive history.
Jesus had told Martha that her brother would rise in the resurrection at the last day but those who lived and believed in Jesus would never die. They would need no resurrection.
Jesus was not speaking of physical death and resurrection.
After that, believers would die physically, but at that time they would be given immortality. So when we die today physically, our spirit is not sent to hades to await resurrection and judgment. We continue to live with God forever.
It was appointed for man once to die and then be judged for his sins, but Jesus took our appointments and died and was judged in our place so that we neither die nor must be judged.
If our sins are forgiven, why would we have to be judged for them after death? If we are saved by faith, why would we be judged by our works? Jews, being under law were judged by works, but we were not.
All prophecies concerning Jesus have been fulfilled. Redemptive history - the theme of the Bible, has been completed.
None of the New Covenant writers were alive to write about the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century, but we do have many accounts written by eye-witness historians. Jesus came in judgment on that generation just as he promised.
The end is past. Redemptive history (which is the theme of the Bible) ended with the coming of Jesus at the dissolution of the nation of Israel with its earthly system.
That Old Covenant of Law (between God and the Jews) had to end for the New Covenant of Grace (between God and the whole world) to begin. The two laws overlapped about 40 years. Just like our new laws today, there is an overlapping of two laws - a period while the new law is becoming effective.
For reference----, the book āTHE PAROUSIAā written by James Stuart Russell, 1878.
Weāve been in the End Times since the day Yeshua ascended back to glory.
Yes and the question is, will there be signs before His imminent return? If so, what are they and do you see anything that leads you to believe it will be with in say the next 10 years?
Ephesians 3:21, Paul said āUnto Him be glory in the Church (Ekklesia) by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end, Amen.ā
Paul affirms that the Church (Christās Ekklesia) is unending.
The only end we have to worry about is the end of our short life on this earth. Everything else is in Godās capable hands.
Some time ago I read an article where the author outlined a theory that with the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, early Christians may have melded some of Jesusā words together to appear that End Times would quickly follow the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
His advice about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple: Do not stay in the city, but flee to the mountains. Josephus records some terrible events that occurred during that siege to people who chose to stay in Jerusalem. He says that over a million died; he outlines the horror of the hunger at that time. It was such that a woman was known to have roasted her suckling child.
The signs of End Times are that the sun and the moon will darken; stars will fall from the sky. One theory as to what ended the age of the dinosaurs was an asteroid crashing into the earth. This caused the atmosphere to be filled with smoke and dust, which means the sun and the moon were darkened, and it would certainly seem if the earth was a victim of a meteor shower (one of which hit the ground) it would appear like stars were falling from the sky.
Soā¦perhaps two very different events, possibly still eons away. The first was immediate, something those in the current generation would witness. The secondā¦no one knows but the Father, and the signs of the second are quite different from the first calamity.
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Hereās another phenomenon that again makes me ask, are we in the end times? Dinesh DāSouza says that all around the world, Muslims are converting to Christianity and they theyāre having dreams and visions of Jesus.
Hereās another aspect to consider; how many among us actually live in another reality? How many of us are immersed in a reality created by social media and not the here and now of the real world? Is this another symptom of the end times? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is reinventing his company and creating an alternate reality. Is this your real and if so, is it real?
No. It says that in Jesusā day no one knew.
Matthew 24:36 KJV ā But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 25:13 KJV ā Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
And it says no one will know the exact day or hour. Daniel says it will be 1335 days from a certain future event.
Ā¶And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
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Daniel 7
4 The first was like a lion, and had eagleās wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a manās heart was given to it.
5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Is it possible, that Daniel was referring to this very time in the history of man? If so, how much time is it between whatās currently happening and the coming of Jesus?
12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
Is whatās currently happening in the Ukraine, what Daniel was referring to thousands of years ago. Is the āeagleā the United States and the ābearā Russia? Does this precede the second coming? How long does a āprolonged for a season and timeā represent?
Maybe a season could be three months (summer winter autumn spiring); and a timeā¦ one year.
A time, times and half a time is taken as 3 1/2 years.
I have for a long time considered these four beasts to be empires that swallowed up Israel. Since they were yet to come, Babylon is excluded. That leaves Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Islam.
However biblical prophecies are also somewhat fractal or telescopic and the same historic sequencing can occur at different places in history, so I am taking another look at this prophecy based on your comments. It could apply to a more local set of events.
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We read in Daniel 2 the story of Nebuchadnezzarās dream. He dreamed of a statue with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and feet part iron and part clay.
Daniel told the king that he was the head of gold but his kingdom would be succeeded by three more kingdoms to come. Babylon was conquered by the Medo-Persian empire, in which the Persians became dominant, this empire was the silver in the statue, Persia was succeeded by Greece, the brass part of the statue, and Greece was succeeded by Rome, the iron.
Rome wasnāt conquered, but fell due to internal corruption. Rome was sacked and itās power diminished, and in its place, ten prominent peoples or tribes arose in the European continent which would become the ten prominent countries in Europe throughout its history. The Franks became France, the Lombards became Italy, the Allemani became Germany, the Celts became Great Britain, The Suevi became the Spain and Portugal. There were many tribes during the time of Times fall and I donāt remember all of them, but there were 5 more (maybe Ostrogoths, visigoths and Vandals) that were most prominent. These were the toes and feet of the statue.
The eagle and bear in Daniel also represent Babylon and Persia. In Revelation, we see some nations are named and so clearly they still exist and play a role in end time events, but nothing in Revelation points to a nation resembling America. My belief is that America is no longer significant in the end times. I donāt know the means by which we are diminished, perhaps war or maybe weāll go the way of Rome and will be destroyed by our own corruption. Looking at what our politicians are doing and given the ignorance and apathy of too many Americans, I tend to believe the latter.
Thank you for this insightful contribution. If thatās the case with the US, then there appears to be many more years ahead and the 3.5 mentioned isnāt in close to being in play? Itās hard to understand what was written so long ago and how it would or even could apply today butā¦Iām simply āwatchingā.
Thatās all we can do. Watch and wait, and keep working. I tend to think the state of the world points to a soon return of Christ, but of course, soon to us us is not necessarily soon to the Lord.
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