End Times

[kmr]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I begin to think that we may not be "on the brink" of the End as many believe.... It just doesn't seem to be that way to me. I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me that every Christian civilization has thought that they were on the brink of the End... and, now that I think about it, it just doesn't seem like the world is ready to fulfill the prophecies. Sure, many events are taking place that are further preparing the world for the End, but I don't think that the world is prepared yet for either turning to Christ or to an anti-Christ who claims to be God... I think there is still time to be had before the End arrives. I don't know about any of you, but it just seems like we have a ways to go.

[Katabole]

Hey kmr.

Well many people over the centuries have claimed that Jesus would return in their lifetimes and He never did. It seems that from a biblical perspective, the message is that there is indeed an appointed time, that no one would know that specific time, but that there was enough evidence given by Christ to understand when it could be.

The piece of "evidence" I use to believe that the return of Christ is emminent, is the fact that we live in a time when Israel is a country. I believe that that is the answer to the parable of the fig tree which is the only parable Jesus asks the reader of the New Testament to learn in Matt 24 and Mark 13. I know the parable is simplistic and is basically a riddle, but I believe that Christ uses the simple ways of understanding to confound those who are looking for a much more intelligent and sophisticated answer.Those Christians who believed over the years may have claimed that Christ was returning, but they were basing it completely on blind faith and not on evidence. And Israel only became a nation in the last century, even though attempts had been made to try and create it as a nation before then. The last time Israel was a country was circa the seventh century BC, before the Assyrian empire conquered the nothern kingdom called Israel. The fact that Israel is presently a country when it really shouldn't exist, that it originated from the mass persecution and destruction of the Jews and that it has remained and grown stronger even when attempts have been made to completely erradicate it from existence tells me that there is something incredibly powerful and yet sublime working to keep it there. And I believe that to be the power of God. And why there? Because all biblical prophecy points to Christ returning to Jerusalem and no where else.

If Israel didn't exist, then we could guess all we want as to when Christ's return would happen, maybe in a billion years give or take a million.