About
I AM AN 80 YEAR OLD MALE, BORN AGAIN, CHRISTIAN WITH A LOVE FOR JESUS. I DO NOT GET OUT MUCH ANYMORE BUT FIND THAT TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT THE LOVE JESUS HAS FOR THEM IS NOT ONLY WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO BUT SOMETHING THAT THE WORLD NEEDS.
Website
Location:
Zipcode: 32934
Country: US
Stats
Profile Tag Cloud:
LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT BY ANDREW WOMMACK
This scripture and the parallel scripture in Matthew 24:27 make it very clear that the second return of Jesus will be no secret to anyone. In Matthew's account, it is especially clear that this statement about the lightning was made so that we wouldn't be deceived by false Christs. Just as lightning is visible to everyone, so the second return of Jesus will be witnessed by the whole world. That's the reason we don't have to be fearful about missing His second coming and anxiously follow every report that Christ has come.
These verses completely destroy the claims of the Bahai religion and others who claim that Jesus has secretly come back the second time.
Just as Jesus had warned His disciples not to be deceived by false Christs because His second coming would be visible to everyone, He also explains that until the very day of His coming, the world will continue on its present course. People will not discern the signs of His coming just as the people during Noah's day didn't realize their impending judgment. This corresponds exactly with Jesus' prophecies about His coming being like the appearance of a thief in the night. Jesus is emphasizing that the unbelievers will not recognize that He is coming until it is too late. He is stressing that His coming will take the world by surprise.
The Lord is pointing out the urgent need to be ready for His return. In the same way that a thief comes when people are the least prepared, so our Lord will return in a time when people are not looking for Him. There will be a condition of apathy in the latter days that will tend to lull even the faithful to sleep if they don't take heed to His words. He urges us to be watchful so we will be prepared.
No worries. Most people are not studied up on Eschatology (it just means one's view of the end times).
most high (inquisitions) and fulfilled all of the other prophecies attributed to it (18 in all), prompting the Reformers to label this corrupt system anti-Christ.
Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.
Basically, it falls into 4 camps.
1) Idealism - it's all symbolic and can't really be understood. Various interpretations are put forward for the symbols, none of which are Biblical or satisfying.
2) Historicism - the traditional Protestant interpretation. Some passages are literal some are symbolic and some are mixed. Where the Bible uses symbols they are interpreted by the Bible itself. (ie. beasts are kingdoms, horns are kingdoms, the waters where the harlot sits are people, nations, multitudes.)
This method sees prophecy unfolding from ancient Babylon down to our day with the rise of the Papacy fulfilling the little horn of Daniel 7 and the rise of Islam the horn of Daniel 8. Thus one is the enemy within and one is the enemy without.
Pagan Rome split into 10 kingdoms and Papal Rome rose amongst the ashes. It destroyed 3 kingdoms in its wake. It persecuted the saints of the
A Great Cloud of Witnesses: "Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist." Taken from All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen.
3) Preterism - invented by the Jesuits in the 16h century to point the finger away from the Pope. In this view, the anti-Christ came in the past (Nero) which clears the Pope. It never really caught on well.
4) Futurism - also invented by the Jesuits in the 16th century (Francisco Ribera) to counter the reformers charge that the Papacy is anti-Christ. In this view, the anti-Christ is in the future, never the present, so once again the Papacy is in the clear.
Futurism was rejected by Protestant scholars for centuries. However, now it is loudly trumpeted from nearly every pulpit (thanks mainly to the influence of Darbyism). 95% of Christianity has now bought into the deception and for most people, it is the only version of prophetic interpretation they have heard. Anything to the contrary creates cognitive dissonance and disbelief.
THANKS KEN AND GOD BLESS YOU.