And do we feel fine?
Seriously, Obama was re-elected, there's a push for more gun control, the Pope has announced his resignation, and the Kardashians are all over television. These and other current events are being cited by some of my Christian brothers and sisters as signs that soon, true believers will disappear from the planet, a one-world government will form led by a man who is the Antichrist, a deal will be made with the present-day secularized nation of Israel, and later war will be waged against said nation, and after seven years of very bad things, Jesus Christ will return to reign as King for an actual calendar 1,000 years, and after some other stuff happens, then we'll get a New Heaven and New Earth.
Full disclosure: The only things I'm convinced about when it comes to the future are:
1) Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will physically return in power and glory to judge everyone.
2) We'll have a "new Heaven and new Earth" where the problems of sin, sickness, death, deterioration, and decay will be done away with.
3) Those who are in Christ will have glorified, imperishable bodies and will fellowship with Him.
4) Those unrepentant, unredeemed sinners who do not have Jesus Christ as their Lord will suffer apart from that fellowship.
I know premillenniallism with a pre-Tribulational Rapture is very popular view of the future now, depicted in the extremely popular Left Behind series and promoted by Hal Lindsey and many other popular Christian writers/television preachers (and somewhat in "The Omen" series of feature movies), but in current form, it doesn't go all that far back in church history. That doesn't make it wrong, but I'm not convinced it is right, nor am I convinced any form of post-millennialism or "amillennialism" or "partial preterism" is right; some say everything prophesied in the Bible except for the four things I listed above were fulfilled in the first century and nothing else has to happen before "the end of the world" and judgment for all. For anyone who IS certain that their eschatalogical view is right, well, fine... but the experts thought they knew exactly how things were going to be the first time Messiah came around, and most of them were wrong. I don't know with certainty which view is right, other than the four things I listed, on which all views agree.
Please understand that my only dog in this fight is the truth, and glorifying Jesus Christ, and communicating the Gospel to the world. I do not think it glofires Christ to set dates for His return, try to pin the tail on the Antichrist, or decry new technologies as "the Mark of the Beast". If Jesus Christ is your Lord & Savior and you are His follower and you refuse to deny Him, you already HAVE the mark of The Lamb and no chip or bar code or triple digit number is going to pry you from the Holy Spirit.
I don't see why the partial-preterists AND the furists can't BOTH be right. Why can't Nero be considered an Antichrist and why can't we still have another one to come? Why can't events in the first century be seen as a Great Tribulation and yet we still will have a Great Tribulation in the future? It would not be the first time that prophecy had more than one fulfillment. The Bible is full of repeating types and shadows and things that had a valid meaning intended for the original audience as well as a later audience.
I'm not convinced the USA must terminally decline NOR that our Lord has made any promise to preserve the USA. I oppose world government because I support limited government and competition. I support Israel for political reasons, in so far as the actions of the government are just. I live like today could be the end (because it could be... for any one of us, if not for the whole world), but I plan as though I'm going to live this life into the triple digits and that my kids will have to live on after me, and that we could face some very rough times along the way. I work to make life better - if it will get worse, so be it, but it won't be because I threw up my hands and gave up. As long as I'm clinging to Jesus, I will go where He goes, when He goes there.
Please, please, please... plan like you and your children and grandchildren will live long lives in this world, because there's no guarantee things will change sooner rather than later, and be spiritually prepared for this to be your last day of this life, because it just may be. We, as individuals and as the world, are not guaranteed another day. I focus on God like today could be my last day of this life – because it could be, even if it is the end of my life but not the end of the world. But I also need to plan and work as though I’ll have to take care of myself and my family for the rest of the century. I have thrown myself on His mercy, because I have sinned against Him. I look to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, recognizing that He paid for my sins on the cross.
Seriously, Obama was re-elected, there's a push for more gun control, the Pope has announced his resignation, and the Kardashians are all over television. These and other current events are being cited by some of my Christian brothers and sisters as signs that soon, true believers will disappear from the planet, a one-world government will form led by a man who is the Antichrist, a deal will be made with the present-day secularized nation of Israel, and later war will be waged against said nation, and after seven years of very bad things, Jesus Christ will return to reign as King for an actual calendar 1,000 years, and after some other stuff happens, then we'll get a New Heaven and New Earth.
Full disclosure: The only things I'm convinced about when it comes to the future are:
1) Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will physically return in power and glory to judge everyone.
2) We'll have a "new Heaven and new Earth" where the problems of sin, sickness, death, deterioration, and decay will be done away with.
3) Those who are in Christ will have glorified, imperishable bodies and will fellowship with Him.
4) Those unrepentant, unredeemed sinners who do not have Jesus Christ as their Lord will suffer apart from that fellowship.
I know premillenniallism with a pre-Tribulational Rapture is very popular view of the future now, depicted in the extremely popular Left Behind series and promoted by Hal Lindsey and many other popular Christian writers/television preachers (and somewhat in "The Omen" series of feature movies), but in current form, it doesn't go all that far back in church history. That doesn't make it wrong, but I'm not convinced it is right, nor am I convinced any form of post-millennialism or "amillennialism" or "partial preterism" is right; some say everything prophesied in the Bible except for the four things I listed above were fulfilled in the first century and nothing else has to happen before "the end of the world" and judgment for all. For anyone who IS certain that their eschatalogical view is right, well, fine... but the experts thought they knew exactly how things were going to be the first time Messiah came around, and most of them were wrong. I don't know with certainty which view is right, other than the four things I listed, on which all views agree.
Please understand that my only dog in this fight is the truth, and glorifying Jesus Christ, and communicating the Gospel to the world. I do not think it glofires Christ to set dates for His return, try to pin the tail on the Antichrist, or decry new technologies as "the Mark of the Beast". If Jesus Christ is your Lord & Savior and you are His follower and you refuse to deny Him, you already HAVE the mark of The Lamb and no chip or bar code or triple digit number is going to pry you from the Holy Spirit.
I don't see why the partial-preterists AND the furists can't BOTH be right. Why can't Nero be considered an Antichrist and why can't we still have another one to come? Why can't events in the first century be seen as a Great Tribulation and yet we still will have a Great Tribulation in the future? It would not be the first time that prophecy had more than one fulfillment. The Bible is full of repeating types and shadows and things that had a valid meaning intended for the original audience as well as a later audience.
I'm not convinced the USA must terminally decline NOR that our Lord has made any promise to preserve the USA. I oppose world government because I support limited government and competition. I support Israel for political reasons, in so far as the actions of the government are just. I live like today could be the end (because it could be... for any one of us, if not for the whole world), but I plan as though I'm going to live this life into the triple digits and that my kids will have to live on after me, and that we could face some very rough times along the way. I work to make life better - if it will get worse, so be it, but it won't be because I threw up my hands and gave up. As long as I'm clinging to Jesus, I will go where He goes, when He goes there.
Please, please, please... plan like you and your children and grandchildren will live long lives in this world, because there's no guarantee things will change sooner rather than later, and be spiritually prepared for this to be your last day of this life, because it just may be. We, as individuals and as the world, are not guaranteed another day. I focus on God like today could be my last day of this life – because it could be, even if it is the end of my life but not the end of the world. But I also need to plan and work as though I’ll have to take care of myself and my family for the rest of the century. I have thrown myself on His mercy, because I have sinned against Him. I look to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, recognizing that He paid for my sins on the cross.
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