Considering answers to those faith-questions we all ask…
Tag: THE SECOND COMING
Some Christians and theologians think that one of the only sins left to commit is to look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ. If you commit this one you're "sticking your head in the clouds"; you're "too heavenly minded"; you're "ignoring Christ's commission" and you just aren't living as a Christian should live. My first erudite, thoughtful and carefully considered response to such accusations is "Poppycock!" More precisely, it's unbiblical poppycock.
I spent the first two years of my Christian life telling my non-Christian friends and family that Jesus was coming back "in the next few years". That was forty-four years ago. Having been proven wrong at least in their eyes, apparently fulfilling their conviction that I was a gullible idiot, I could have tossed my Bible long ago in sheer embarrassment, had I allowed myself to be defeated. Thank the Lord, my faith persisted and I was blessed with a little insight, so that here I am still in love with my God and with all the Bible has to offer. Additionally, certain central facts relating to end-times prophecy have maintained my hope in the soon - coming of Christ, except perhaps with more caution.
I had planned that this part of my series would discuss deception. Instead, this is an interjection, written because it seems to me that an equally large problem to deception is apathy within the Church, and among professing Christians.
The world gets smaller at the same time as the sign of all signs - anti-Semitism against a newly regathered nation of Israel - increases. I wouldn't say I believe that the Biblical end times are almost upon us with one hundred percent certainty, but there are just too many giant "coincidences" in play at the same time to ignore, and the world is surely heading in the direction described in the book of Revelation. I think prudence is on the side of those who have their eyes open, and as I quoted in part one, Jesus Christ repeatedly told his disciples to do just that: What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ (Mark 13:37).
As I shared in part two of this series, the book of Daniel foretells a succession of world empires. That is, empires as God sees them, and empires which directly affect the nation of Israel - central to Bible prophecy. The last empire before the coming of the Messiah will be (and now is) an amalgamation of nations and people groups which will never actually succeed in blending.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 