Hello everyone
Im a almost blank slate today. I went to Church Sunday we had Homing and like always way to much food. We dont have homeless shelters around here or we could always take food to them. But im up in the country. 55miles away from Nashville where there are shelters so that wont help.We had a good time at homecoming many old friends came and we had time to talk and visit with each other. And the best singing you ever heard if i do say so.
Hope everyone had a good weekend Im going to post some teaching from the end times.There from a friend in myspace called Joseph. Hope you’ll enjoy them. There are 3 note pads full so here goes.
End times I – Rapture
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Two days ago was June 6th, 2006…numerically 06/06/06 or 666. This day has been touted as an evil day, the end of days, blah, blah, blah. Mainly…its the day that the remake of the Omen was released. And thats about it. Some years from now we may look back a realize…oh, the anti-christ was born on that day…but any powers that the anti-christ may possess probably wont manifest themselves until the Tribulation. So two days ago really was nothing. But nonetheless many a people have been asking me some questions about end times stuff because its not a subject that a lot of people know about. Granted it is a hard study to go about…but nonetheless…here I go…
The rapture is typically looked at as the first event of the end times. The rapture is the point at which all born-again Christians are caught up to heaven. This should be an instananeous event, which is where we get the popular culture look of cars without drivers, and airplanes without pilots because they have all disappeared. In the Left Behind series they even have the clothing of the disappeared remaining in the sheets where the people disappeared from. Who knows how it will actually work. The main point is that all believers are sucked up to heaven! This is not to be confused with the return of Christ. The Rapture is not Jesus coming down to Earth, gathering up the believers and then going to heaven, its the believers “caught up in the air together”…in other words in an instant we’ll just all go to heaven and meet Jesus! Now being that the word heaven has been used to describe our eternal home, and the celestial space above us…maybe Jesus appears in the sky as the believers are caught up? I dunno. But you get the point.
It is debated whether or not the Rapture happens before, during, or after the Tribulation. I believe that the pre-trib theory is the most prevalent for several reasons. One because the church is never mentioned in Revelation chapters 4-19, while the rest of humanity, and the jewish peoples are. So one would assume they are gone. Also it popular because people for the most part don’t want to believe that we as Christians should have to endure the Tribulation. There are also some verses that make it seem as if there is a possibility that the rapture wont happen til later. But without going into too much detail…I have been led to believe in the pre-trib theory myself.
Ignore the nay sayers who say that the word Rapture does not even appear in the Bible. It doesn’t…but that is beside the point. The original greek “Harpazo” was translated in the latin “Rapturo” both mean to be caught up, or to be seized up. So in English we just made up a word that described the specific event referred to by these descriptive words. The word that was used in english to describe this one particular time of people being caught up was “The Rapture”. Obviously it was based on the latin 
Here is some scripture to check out if you are interested:
Revelation 3:10, and chapters 4 – 19
I Thessalonians 1: 9-10, 4: 13-18, 5:9
John 14: 1-3
II Thessalonians 2
I Corinthians 15: 50-57
Matthew 24: 26-27
End times II – Between Rapture and Tribulation
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Okay, so if you haven’t go back and read my last blog on the Rapture.
Even though the Rapture may usher in endtimes it isn’t the beginning of the Tribulation. I’m assuming pre-trib. of course. There are a few things that must happen before the Tribulation.
The rise of the Anti-Christ. This is the guy that will rule the world and together with the False Prophet will make the world think that they are the messiah and the world will follow them, etc. It is commonly thought that the anti-christ will arise from the remains of the Roman Empire. In other words he will come from one of those countries….keep in mind the Roman empire ruled southern, central, and western Europe, N. Africa, and the middle East. So there are a lot of potential places. It is said that there will be a 10 kingdom alliance, and that the Anti-Christ will depose of three of the 10 rulers of those kingdoms before the other 7 swear him allegiance…or he may be one of the 7 therefore it would only be 6 swearing allegiance.
Anyway this guy, his kingdom, and alliances will start conquering the world, warfare will mostly be in the middle east it sounds like. That is what makes a lot of people think that the anti-christ will be European…greater chance that the U.S. would enter into an alliance with a European power than a middle eastern or African power. Otherwise at this point in History no one really thinks the U.S. could be taken over by a European power, or any other for that matter. Therefore it is figured that the U.S. will enter into an alliance willingly. Keep in mind that at the time if the rapture has taken place the U.S. population might be decimated by the raptured Christians. The resulting problems in manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, etc. would lead to the U.S. becoming a secondary power until they got back on their feet, allowing for another power to come into play…namely the kingdom of the anti-christ. Then the U.S. might be pushed to enter into an alliance for protection until they could regain strength. But then again I really don’t know.
Anti-Christ goes about conquering the world. Whether or not he has power over the entire world or not before the Tribulation is debatable. Also there is the war of Gog and Magog versus Israel. This is thought to be a coalition led by Russia, and Iran against the people of Israel. God intervenes and destroyes these armies. Leading to an easier take over of that part of the world by the anti-christ. Keep in mind God intervening is for the protection of Israel not the anti-christ. The rest is my own guessing. I’m also not entirely sure that the Gog and Magog battle will take place before the Tribulation. It might take place during.
It is thought that there will be a one-world gov’t eventually. Led of course by the Anti-Christ. Now we’re pretty sure he’ll come out of the old Roman Empire. But who could it be? A politician? The Monarch of England? The head of the U.N.? The head of the E.U.? Maybe a future politician or even a military general? We really don’t know. Some even say maybe he’ll come from the U.S. since the U.S. was settled mainly by peoples from the old Roman Empire (English, Italian, German, etc.) and/or Latin America because Spain was part of the Roman Empire. Then again it could be an African warlord, or an Arab sheik….we just don’t know!
Peace and false security will be the biggest thing. People will probably be saying…look, this guy has achieved world peace! They will feel safe, and protected, and secure. But it will all be only an illusion!
Here is a little scripture if you have further interest:
Ezekial 38 & 39
Daniel 7:23-24
II Thessalonians 2: 1-3
I Thessalonians 5: 1-3
End times III – Tribulation (the first half)
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Alright every body…if you haven’t read parts one and two go back and do it .
So assuming a pre-trib rapture as discussed earlier there is an undetermined amount of time between the Rapture and the Tribulation. The Tribulation is a specific period of time during which many crazy things will happen. The beginning of the actual Tribulation should be marked by the Anti-Christ and his kingdom making a deal with Israel…a 7 year covenant. This is probably in the form of an alliance and/or a peace treaty that leaves the jewish people in control of Jerusalem under the protection of the kingdom of the anti-Christ. Or something like that.
Israel will construct the Thrid Temple or the Tribulational temple. They will rebuild the traditional type temple on the temple mount in its traditional location. This will either happen between the Rapture and Trib. or during the Trib. It is often thought that the covenant with the anti-christ will be a protection covenant brought on by necessity when the jews rebuild their temple as protection from Muslim nations, or that after the jews have the support of the anti-christ they will rebuild their Temple knowing they have a powerful alliance. The thing that makes this truly significant is that the Dome of the Rock sits on the Temple mount now. Some people have said that the temple and the dome could be built side by side and both would fit. Others say that the dome would have to be destroyed in order for the temple to fit on the mount like it used to…I dunno. But I do know that currently only muslims are allowed on the mount in order to keep conflict from occurring. So even if both buildings can fit…the people most difinitely can’t. The jews currently visit the side of the mount known as the wailing wall.
The first half of the tribulation will be marked by continued reliance on the anti-christ and the belief that he is an okay guy. It will also be marked by the 7 seal judgements.
During his vision John saw seven seals being opened during the first half of the Tribulation. These seals were in heaven and symbolized 7 things that would be unleashed on the earth….
1. White horse – Anti Christ
2. Red horse – War
3. Black horse – Famine
4. Pale horse – Death & Hades
5. Martyrs under the altar – more martyrs to come
6. Universal upheaval and Destruction
7. Issues in the Trumpet judgements
Note that these things will take place over a three and a half year period. The first four seals and their corresponding judments are typically known as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. But of course we will not see them as literal horsemen but rather just feel the affects of what they symbolize. My guess is that the Anti-Christ will arise and there will be constant wars as there always are as countries wage war against his kingdom and against his rule. The thrid horsemen says something about a days wages for a small amount of grain. In other words food will be so scarce that nearly all of your income will have to be devoted to buying food. Keep in mind that right now a days wage for a middle cleass person could probably buy enough cheap bread to last all year ($15 an hour x 8 hours = $120, you can get bread for $1 a loaf sometimes). So if it takes an entire days wages to eat, we’re in trouble. The fourth, a large portion of the population will perish due to various reasons…I believe it is 25àThe 5th seal shows that there will be further persecutions of those who believe in God. The sixth seal my guess is getting later in Tribulation…but all sorts of horrible things happen all at once it seems. The bible doesn’t specify deaths or anythings, but it does say that kings and servants alike will attempt to hide from the destruction, and fear the judgement of the Lord. The last seal that is opened is the trumpet judgements. We will discuss those later.
But during this time there is also hope. 144,000 jewish men will be sealed with the mark of the Lord on their foreheads. These men (12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel) will witness until the end in the name of the Lord. They will be protected from all the tribulations. So certainly there will be those who will be saved during the Tribulation.
I think it is important to mention one thing that may be of interest. That is that the anti christ may be meant to emulate Christ in order to play his part in the “unholy trinity”. It is said that the Anti-Christ will be joined by a religious leader known as the false prophet. Together with Satan they will by the unholy trinity. Some people have said that the anti-christ may be born of a virgin, and sometime during the first three and a half years may be assassinated and resurrected. The power for this will of course come from Satan not himself, but he will appear to be Jesus himself in many ways.
The first half of the Tribulation ends when the False Prophet sets up a statue of the anti-christ in the holy of holies inside the jewish temple and demand that it be worshipped. This is known as the abomination of desolation. It marks the breaking of the covenant with Israel. This is the second time this has happened. Before the Roman Empire took over Israel in 63 BCE one of the Greek kingdoms either the Ptolemies or the Seleucids did the same by erecting a statue of Zeus in the Temple.
That is the end of the first half of the Tribulation. This period is often times compared to “birthpangs”…in other words, it seems bad, but its nothing compared to what is coming.
On another note. Due to the Anti-Christ/False Prophet team up people have theorized about who it will be. Popular thoughts are A European leader being the Anti-Christ and the Pope being the False Prophet. Or a Greek or Eastern leader being the Anti-Christ and the Archbishop of the Orthodox church being the False Prophet. Maybe even an Arab leader and some religious leader from the Muslim religion. Who knows? I would like it said though that regardless of where these two come from…they are individuals and it doesn’t necessarily speak against their entire religion or denomination.
Here is some Scripture for ya…
Revelation 6: 1 – 8: 5
Daniel 9: 27
Matthew 24:15
End times IV – Tribulation (second half)
Category: Religion and Philosophy
If you haven’t read parts I-III go back and do so.
Okay…the Abomination of desolation has just taken place. Now its time for things to really get bad. Here are the 7 Trumpet judgements. Keep in mind the 7 trumpets are in fact the 7th seal that was opened. Anyway…here we go…
1. Bloody hail and fire – 1/3 of vegetation destroyed
2. Fireball from heaven – 1/3 of oceans polluted (fish and ships destroyed)
3. Falling star (wormwood) – 1/3 of fresh water polluted
4. Darkness – 1/3 of lights darkened
5. Demonic invasion – torment and locusts
6. Demonic army – 1/3 of humanity killed (by four demons)
7. Not entirely sure…but it seems to be a precurser to judgement by God. Possibly the Great White Throne Judgement that comes after the Millenium?? I dunno. Right before this one John was told not to record some stuff he heard so who knows really.
After the 7 trumpets which unfold over the last three and a half years…come the 7 plagues or 7 bowls which seemingly unfold very quickly over the last few months of the tribulation, or maybe even all at the same time.
1. Sores on worshippers of the anti-christ
2. Seas turn to blood
3. Fresh water turns to blood
4. Intense heat
5. Darkness and pain
6. Armageddon
7. Earth quakes and hail
Notice these things seem to affect the bad people more so than the general populace like the rest of the Tribulational events.
Anyway…during this whole period some other important things are happening. The 144,000 continue to spread the word of God, but they are made to suffer for a short period.
The two witnesses descend to Earth. These are two beings who will appear at Jerusalem it is commonly thought to speak prophecy and witness in the Lord’s name. We really have no idea who they are…but it is thought that it might be Elijah and Enoch the two men who were good enough to be taken to heaven without dying. Other think Moses will be one. Doesn’t so much matter who. They will witness for so long, be killed, etc. All part of everything that is going on.
The jewish remnant will take to the hills after the Abomination of Desolation because they will be persecuted during that time. It is thought that they will have a safe zone…where God wont allow them to be touched during most of the Tribulation…and that is in the hills between Petra and Bozrah. Petra be the ancient city surrounded by cliffs and barely accessible. They will be hanging out there when Armageddon happens.
Armageddon = Har Megiddo. Megiddo is an ancient city on a hill over looking the valley of Jezreel in Northern Israel. It is said that it is there that the armies of the world will gather to fight. I’ve heard varying versions of this…I tend to believe one way, but I’ll give you both…read the bible and decide for yourself.
1. Anti-Christ gathers the armies of the west, and the Euphrates dries up allowing the armies of the east to come and join him…and they destroy Jerusalem and the jews living thereabouts. They then march south to destroy the remnant at Petra which is when Jesus returns to Earth at the head of an army and destroyes the Anti-Christ and his army.
2. Anti-Christ still has some enemies and first crushes the armies of Egpyt, and then the armies of the North…either Syria, or another Gog and Magog. Then the Euphrates dries up allowing the Anti-Christ’s enemies from the East to quickly advance, and he has to go to war with them…and who knows….more middle eastern powers? China? I dunno. After that the Anti-Christ destoryes Jerusalem and a revived Babylon (not necessarily in that order) before heading to crush the jewish remnant at Petra. Which of course is when Jesus comes back to destory him.
Either way the Anti-Christ destroyes Israel. The question is will it be with the help of the whole world, or will he be destroying other nations at the same time. And who knows how much time this campaign takes…certainly it must be more than a day!! So maybe a few weeks? I dunno. Point is its a huge battle that ends with Christ destroying the remnants of the Anti-Christs army.
At that point the Tribulation is pretty much over. Jesus has returned to rule the Earth. The anti-Christ and the False Prophet are both thrown into the lake of fire, and Satan is bound for 1000 years in the abyss.
At this time the new Jerusalem descends as the capitol of the world…a one kingdom world ruled by Jesus. But more on that later.
Here is some scripture….
Revelation 8:6-20:3
Daniel 11:40-43
II Thessalonians 2:4
Daniel 2:44
love Fancy
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