Christian Signs Of The End Times 2

  

Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?

OK, time for part 2 of Christian signs.  Again, they are not in any order and are not complete.  The ones omitted here will be added later.

False Christs, Prophets, and their cultic groups: The Falling Away 

And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here [is] Christ; or, lo, [he is] there; believe [him] not:  For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if [it were] possible, even the elect.  Mark 13:21-22  You can also find it in Matthew 24: 4-5 and Luke 21:8

How many false Christ’s or Prophets have we seen of late??  There was ‘Heavens Gate’ where they were convinced that if they killed themselves they could catch a ride on a space ship that was behind a comet.  You have to wonder why anyone would believe that.  There was Jim Jones who got more than 900 people to kill themselves and others for him.  There was David Koresh of the Branch Davidian’s who led almost 80 of his followers to their death.  Koresh thought of himself as a angel and an agent of God.  These are just 3 men who caused untold heartache to the families of the dead.  And only in the US.

Not that long ago there was a cult up in Canada where they committed suicide together, sorry I can’t think of the name right now.  There was the cult in Japan that set off gas canisters in the subway making many sick and killing some. 

The bottom line is this, any religion or religious leader who wants you to kill yourself or others in the name of that religion, should be considered suspect.  Actually you should RUN as fast as you can, away from it!!  I have already made my opinion clear on this subject, I don’t think that God wants us killing in His name.

There was a cult up in the Washington State area who poisoned salad stations in area restaurants, in order to have the population out sick on election day. Thus giving themselves the majority (saw it on court TV). And how could this section be complete without mentioning the so called Rev. Sun Myung Moon. What is up with this article?? And please don’t tell me you visit people like this. This is concerning as well, and this especially is. I could go on and on for days or weeks. But the main purpose is to point out the obvious, that we are moving rapidly towards the end. This small list shows exactly what was spoken of in the Bible, at least that is the way I see it.

The Falling Away:  “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” 1 Timothy 4:1  In Europe today very few go to church, and in America millions are forsaking their church’s or wandering after men who conform to this world rather than to the will of God.

Oh boy here’s some good ones . 

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, [and commanding] to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God [is] good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.  1 Timothy 4:1-5

Here is the NIV version: 

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

Outbreak of demonic and occultic activity:

How many of us teach our children that this is good??  From TV to books to movies, all of a sudden its hip to be a Witch.  Speaking of Harry Potter, I wish I could find the story now, but I did hear that the number one requested book at Guantanamo is Harry Potter.  What about this, who ever heard of a Pagan pride parade??  Leave it to San Francisco.  I would be very careful dealing with this kind of stuff.  You may just end up channeling the devil himself, and he may decide to stay. Parents remember what the Bible said about training up your child in the way he should go, and in the end he will not depart from it.  What are you training your child to be??

Here is what can happen if you immerse yourself in the occult.  The Columbine High School massacre was committed by two teenager’s who were heavily involved in occult practices and Satan worship. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold professed faith in Satan and Nazism frequently and were not taken seriously – that is until after their killing spree. Hal Lindsey, who wrote ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’, said “Satan never wanted a world that did not believe in the supernatural. He wants a religious world that will believe in Him. And for this He will supply all kinds of supernatural experiences to lure in those who reject God’s truth.”  I have to say, I agree with him.

Tribulation and Persecution of Christians: Matthew 24:8-9

Christians are under attack throughout the world today.  In the United States Christians still enjoy freedom to worship God without suffering much more than ridicule, hatred, or discrimination at work and school.  However in many other countries such as China, Sudan, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Russia, and many Muslim nations, Christian suffer much greater persecution and often times death for their faith.  During the tribulation this suffering will be worldwide and will continue even to the point of martyrdom.  There are some today calling for doing away with all religion because it is, in their eyes, the root of all fighting in the world.  

There will be even more of this during the tribulation, I will go over it in the future when we get to that part of the series. 

We have covered a lot of bad stuff in regards to the Christian signs, but there is also some good, so lets get some of that now.

The Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit and The Gospel Preached Through out the World

And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.  Joel 2:28-29

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.  Matthew 24:14  also Mark 13:10 says: And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

This isn’t new, its been going on for quite some time.  And it has done great in keeping our kids interested in God and Church.  It seems to me that the youth movement in the Christian faith has really taken off some years ago, an appears to be continuing today.  When I was a kid, it wasn’t nearly as big, there wasn’t much in the way of others to socialize with at school.  Everyone knows how huge peer pressure is, so the fact that our youth today have so many of their peers to look up to is great.  Some communities even have Churches geared towards youth alone.  I would encourage them to go to Church with their parents, but if not, then by all means, go to the youth Church. 

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.  Matthew 24:14 

This prophecy has already been fulfilled through television, radio, missionaries, the translation of the Bible into many languages, and the Internet.  People all over the world now hear the message of Christ from missionaries who have the means to travel the globe, and via technology that allows us to communicate with people on the other side of the world right from our own homes, churches and offices.

Increase of Knowledge – The Prophet Daniel was instructed that in the last days knowledge and travel would greatly increase: “Be thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4) It is evident that in the past century both education and travel have exponentially accelerated. In 1991 Knowledge doubled every 10 years.  It now doubles every 22 months.  

Billy Graham was quoted as saying, “ninety percent of all the engineers and scientists who have ever lived are alive today.”  Air travel, space travel, DNA research and human cloning are all examples of the rapid increase in knowledge in our generation. 

OK, so far we have covered the following: 1) Wars and Rumors of War; 2) Famine; 3) Pestilence/Plague; 4) Earthquakes; 5)  2 Tim 3:1-5 which is a whole list of stuff; 6) Fearful and Great signs and sights from the heavens; 7) The Falling Away; 8) False Christs Prophets, and their cultic ways; 9) 1Tim 4:1-5, another list; 10)  Outbreak of demonic and occult activity; 11) Persecution of Christians; 12)  The Out pouring of the Holy Spirit; 13) The Gospel preached through out the world; 14) Increase of knowledge;

Please let me know if you want me to go further on any of these subjects. I’m saving some of the best for latter.   

My next post I will write some on Islam’s signs of the end times.  Then we will start on the good stuff. 

 

 

Christian Signs Of The End Times 1

  

My plan was to put up in one post what both Christianity and Islam say are the signs of the approaching End Times. It appears however that it may be too much information to put all in one post so I will split it up into 2-4 posts.  I will also mark each sign in bold.  In case the links don’t show up where I placed them, you will find them in order on the bottom of the post. 

For those of you who may not be real familiar with Christian text, when I am writing about the signs of the End Times, I am talking about what the Bible says that we may know that the time is upon us. Not the things in Revelations which is much more involved, but we may get to that. My primary goal at first will be leading up to that point.

Since I am more familiar with the Christian stuff, I will start with that. The next post will have Islam’s signs. Also, my Christian friends will notice I have left some out, don’t worry, I know what I left out and will get to it soon. In addition to that, these will not be in the right order, because some will be given posts to themselves.

Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?

The above scripture will top all posts when I write about the Christian signs.

Jesus said, that we would hear of wars and rumors of wars. That nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom (Mat 24:6-7).

It doesn’t take much to see this is in fact the case. America, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, North Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, are the major players. You can mix and match in a variety of ways these nations and the rumors of war. Since 1914 there have been two world wars, and how many others between nations and within nations. Jesus also said: See that ye not be troubled; for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So watch, but don’t fret.  

There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. Mat. 24:7-8

Famine: We have heard and seen plenty about famine in Africa and North Korea. Also parts of China and other countries, where you wouldn’t think there would be famine problems. At least I didn’t, Guatemalans for instance. I also read that in the Ukraine 15 million died from starvation, but I am not for sure when this took place. In the 2003 Europa World reported that 20 million were in danger of starvation in Africa. With the increase of population worldwide, it is easy to see how it wouldn’t take much to cause a worldwide famine.

Pestilence/Plague: Aids; Venereal diseases; STD; Anthrax; Biological warfare, etc.

According to UNAIDS at least 30 million have died from Aids. Also T.B. has made a comeback which is now antibiotic resistance, in other words, if you get it, you can very well die from it and that is in modern country’s. We have all heard about the threat of Bird Flu, with the rate of world travel, it could spread worldwide within a week. We also have heard about SARS, West Nile, The Hanta Virus, drug resistant Staph infection, Ebola, Dengue fever, Measles, just to name a few.

The bottom line is germs have a tendency to change their genes, so our efforts to fight them aren’t always successful. You’ve heard all the warnings about the over use of antibiotics. Plus we have to worry about the fact that terrorists could use germ warfare as well. Some of these have been in places other than where you normally would associate them. Dengue hemorrhagic fever in El Salvador for instance. And a Measles outbreak in Italy in 2002. Surely Italy is a modern state.

Earthquakes: According to the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center, earthquakes are increasing at an alarming rate, from 16,612 in 1990, to 27,456 in 2002. And of those some have been HUGE, with great loss of life. One only needs to think of the Earthquake off of Indonesia with the accompanying tsunami, which affected so many nations and had a incredible death toll. After that earthquake and tsunami there were documentaries on T.V. on how something bigger could hit the East Coast of the U.S. where the population is so big, that evacuating in time, will not be possible. We have been blessed here in the U.S. to not have some of the major loss of life that countries like Mexico, Iran, Turkey, China, and Pakistan have. That does not mean that we are exempt.

In 2001 stats from the National Earthquake center showed the following statistic’s regarding earthquakes of 5.5 or higher on the Richter scale: 1800-1900 = 645 earthquakes in 100 years..to be fair, I am not sure of the type of reporting we had prior to 1900. 1900-1994 = 1845 earthquakes in 94 years and increase of 2.8%. 1994-2000 = 1163 earthquakes in 7 years which is a increase of 175.2% of 1800-1900. Amazing isn’t it. I don’t know if there has been any explanation as to why the numbers are so much higher now, by the scientific community. They are not likely to say; ‘It’s because Jesus said it would be so’, are they .

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boaster, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; From such turn away. 2 Tim 3:1-5

That was the King James version, the NIV version is here: But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV).

Sounds different doesn’t it. You may not get exactly what is being said under the King James translation, but the NIV leaves no doubt. Personally I have read and studied the King James version my whole life and love it, but it never hurts to see other views, especially if you don’t understand the thee’s and thou’s of the King James version. When you read the above verses, it sounds pretty much where we are.

Things in the U.S. took a dramatic turn during the 1960’s, and personally I haven’t seen much in improvement since then. How many parents are busy with work, so much so, that they have no clue what is going on in their kids lives. We turn on the ‘babysitter box’ and put our kids in front of it. And then we wonder why so many kids seem to have Attention Deficit Disorder. For those of you who may not know, TV has been associated with increasing the disorder when children spend too much time in front of it as infants and children.

We as a nation, used to spend our family time differently than we do now. Instead of talking with one another or even eating a meal together in the dining room, we park ourselves in front of the television set. The only conversation is what to watch on TV for the night. TV is alright some of the time, the same way the computer is. But at what cost to our family, to the health of our children. I saw a news story this week that Nickelodeon TV went dark for 3 hrs. Saturday, just to encourage kids to go out and play. I have some dear friends who didn’t have a TV, and spent at least one night a week as family night, where the whole family played board games together, regardless of age.

I want to add a personal story here, when my son was in the 3rd grade, I found out that he had been molested by the husband of my babysitter.  My son had been 4, 5, and 6 years old at the time.  I had enough schooling in criminal justice to know what that all entailed, I had just completed a course on child porn and the US Postal Service.  The course itself made me sick to my stomach.  Within 2 weeks of completing it, I found out what happened to my son.  I can’t express my feelings at the time, suffice to say, they were raw.  Kind of like ripping my heart out through my throat.  My first response was to want to kill him, but had I done that, what would it teach my son.

Through the coarse of preparing my son for court, one day he said to me…”I’m going to be waiting for him when he gets out of jail” I thought, I bet you will, to kill him.  Then this 8 year old kid said, “he needs help, he needs someone to tell him that what he did was wrong”. 

That one little statement changed my view, if my son could forgive this monster, I had to do the same.  I knew what the Bible said about forgiving, but when it concerns your child, that is something which is hard to come by.  There was a reason why Jesus said to bring the little children to Him, their spirit is pure.  They don’t question, they just accept.  Jesus said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 18:3-4

If you find your self not forgiving someone you should, think about this.  “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.  But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”  Mark 11:25-26  A little off track here, but some lessons we can all use.  

Have you found yourself falling into any of the things mentioned in the verse (2 Timothy 3:1-5)  above??

How many examples can you find of lawlessness, violence, immorality, greed, selfishness, hedonism, rebellion and despair??

Fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heavens Luke 21:11. I’m not sure about this one, whether it means leading up to the tribulation or the tribulation itself (which we will also be getting to). But we can point to a few strange things such as Is the earth preparing to flip? Or all the ’sky is falling’ cries over global warming. Or the closeness of this asteroid. Real science is predicting the next/current sun cycle to be the worst in 50 years. The first two sunspot’s of 2006 are moving in reverse direction. Also, here is a solar storm warning. In Dec. of 2012 we will see a Galactic Alignment which only happens every 26,000 years. Which also happens to align with the Mayans end date on their calendar.

I’m not sure what to make of this… you have to be careful of what/who you listen too (not meant as a joke).  It could fall under fearful and great signs.  Or it could fall under false prophets.

I think this post is long enough for now.  I will be adding to this within the next couple of days.  Please remember what I said at the beginning of this post, I know they are not in order, or complete, they will be by the time this series is over.
 

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15818/story.htm 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2889127.stm

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/03/19/asteroid.blindside/index.html 

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/15aug_backwards.htm

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm

http://www.alignment2012.com/whatisGA.htm

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,915125,00.html

Politically Correct???

This isn’t part of the new series, but I had to put it up. This article was brought to my attention. I will comment on it below.

First Jell-O, now Santa

OAK LAWN | School district considers banning traditions seen as offensive to Muslims

September 28, 2007

BY ANGELA CAPUTO Daily Southtown

So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa’s gift shop.

The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students.

Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122’s five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said.

Parents expect that the announcement is going to add to the tension that has been building since officials agreed earlier this month to change the lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate Muslim students. News that Jell-O was struck from the menu caused such a stir that officials have agreed to bring it back. Gelatin is often made with tissue or bones of pigs or other animals.

That controversy now appears to have been been dwarfed by the holiday debate, which became so acrimonious Wednesday that police were called to Columbus Manor School to intervene in a shouting match among parents.

“It’s difficult when you change the school’s culture,” said Columbus Manor Principal Sandy Robertson.

Elizabeth Zahdan, a mother of three District 122 students, says she took her concerns to the school board this month, not because she wanted to do away with the traditions, but rather to make them more inclusive. “I only wanted them modified to represent everyone,” she said.

Nixing them isn’t the response she was looking for. “Now the kids are not being educated about other people,” she said.

There’s just not time in the six-hour school day to celebrate every holiday, said Smyth, who sent the message to principals that they need to “tone down” the activities that he sees as eating too much into instructional time. “We have to think about our purpose,” Smyth said. “Are we about teaching reading, writing and math or for parties or fund-raising during the day?”

Robertson is hoping to strike compromises that will keep traditions alive and be culturally acceptable to all students — nearly half of whom are of Arab descent at Columbus Manor, she says. Fewer than a third of students district wide are of Arab descent, according to Smyth.

Following the example of Lieb Elementary School, Columbus Manor School will exchange the annual Halloween parade for a fall festival next month. The holiday gift bazaars at both schools also will remain, but they’ll likely be moved to the PTA-sponsored after-school winter festival. And Santa’s annual visit probably will be on a Saturday.

I have seen some really stupid things going on in our public schools of late, and I am getting really sick of it. For instance, doing away with kick ball, we can’t have any of our kids getting hurt now can we.

First let me say, I think that different religions should be accommodated to a certain degree. There should be options in food choice for Jewish and Muslim students. The same way that peanuts have been removed in order to keep allergic students safe. But, you can’t discriminate against other students either. If the school in question can’t provide different food choices, then students with special food requirements can bring a bag lunch.

We have seen all kinds of things REMOVED, from the public square because of the ACLU’s war on Christmas. God forbid we have a nativity scene ANYWHERE. But it’s alright to have Muslim stuff or Jewish stuff. How is that any different than Christian stuff??

In my humble opinion, it should be all inclusive or nothing. It seems we have gone with a knee-jerk reaction. We are so concerned with showing understanding to one religion that we have omitted every other religion and I don’t think its right.

And to my Muslim readers, before you jump down my throat, you know I have done my best to be inclusive here. And to show that all Muslims do not believe in the terrorist ideology.

We, or they, (the schools amongst others), have gone so politically correct, that it has become ridiculous. A lot of Christian parents don’t like Halloween, but never tried to change the schools decoration or celebration. Same with the Easter bunny, which has absolutely nothing to do with Easter, I have no clue where it even came from.

I can tell you this…Many Christian parents have decided to either home school or place their kids in private Christian schools. INSTEAD, of calling on every school to meet their needs in regards to their religion. Some are trying to revisit prayer in school. Many see the failure of our kids, to be directly associated with removing prayer from school. And as far as what I believe, I have to agree.

There are many other things that have been removed from school which I find beyond explanation. When I was a kid we said the pledge of allegiance everyday. We were taught many patriotic songs that we sang on a daily basis. Patriotism was a big thing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that is something that is being taught in our schools anymore.

What is wrong with teaching our kids to be proud of their country?? What is wrong with teaching our children the 10 Commandments?? What is wrong with teaching our children the reason for the season??

We should be sensitive to other people’s religion and needs, but not at the cost of everyone else. If we can’t include every religion, we shouldn’t be including any. It’s the basic principle of fair play.

I’m sure that there will be people who are not understanding what I am trying to say here. It has been my experience so far, that everyone reads with their own personal beliefs in mind, then they see something different than what I am saying.

This country was founded and developed under Judeo/Christian beliefs. I’m sure you have heard that plenty, especially around Christmas. If you pay attention to the news, you can plainly see that there IS a war on Christmas. Based on the fact that we were/are a Christian/Judeo nation…that should be consideration when it comes to Christmas. I for one, am really sick of ‘politically correct’.

It is things like the article above that makes people prejudiced against Islam in general. And you can see what I think of it. When you look at nations that were/are based on being founded and developed under Islam, its plain to see how they base their schools and holidays. Even though we are America and based on freedom and freedom of religion. Why do we need to change what our country was based on, when Muslim country’s don’t??

I would like to ask our Muslim Americans their opinion on this.