| Author | Message | ||
| Hrobinsonw Registered user Username: Hrobinsonw Post Number: 201 Registered: 7-2004 |
First and foremost, hello to all and I have missed you. Now to the topic at hand. Does it not seem as if we are on the verge of a serious war that could promote armageddon. For, example, Israel has a history of battle, what if Hezbollah bombs Tel-Aviv? Will Israels reaction be drastic enough to bring other Muslim countries into this war? Iran's president wants such an action because he feels that such a war would bring on the return of the Mahdi, who will supposedly, according to his twisted sense of religion, convert Jesus to Islam. My question is, does any of this seem to show signs of a potential Armageddon type war? | ||
| Snaggle Registered user Username: Snaggle Post Number: 6 Registered: 7-2006 |
It could very well be the beginning of trouble, but then who knows. Wars like this have come up before and then peace is restored. Best we can do is watch this space. Personally, I think that the war taking place has very little to do with Israel v's Hezbollah, but rather the USA v's Iran. I think it is only a matter of time before Iran is drawn into this conflict as well as Syria. Visit www.stratfor.com to keep up to date with the latest. | ||
| Agapetos Registered user Username: Agapetos Post Number: 259 Registered: 10-2002  |
I thought this article from the Worldwide Church of God was really good: http://www.christianodyssey.org/06/AS06/04.pdf | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 1448 Registered: 7-2003 |
I liked that article Agapetos! It is a little intimidating every time I hear of such wars anywhere but especially so because I know the US tends to like to be the world's police force in certain areas. There are real ramifications for people's lives in those areas as well as the cost to those who come in to help. I'm always a little amazed why we like to run in when others turn their blind eye...and then am reminded of Germany and what Hitler was able to do because the world turned a blind eye...and in that sense, I feel at least we try to prevent a similar tragedy. Whether any of these are the beginings of the war that brings Christ back, we have no way to know, but it is hard not to wonder and hope that soon the misery of this world will be replaced by a time where tears and suffering are no more. | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 524 Registered: 7-2004  |
Yes, that is a good article! This quote sums it up nicely: In fact, I can't think of any prophecy that people actually got right and understood correctly before it happened. Usually it's not understood until as it's happening or in hindsight. Whatever happens and whenever, I trust completely that God is in control and He will return the minute He plans to. I think what we can understand from the New Testament is that "the Last Days" were always considered to be all the days after the cross until Jesus returns. We're always to live as if His return could happen any day, but no one can know for sure if it will be in their lifetime. | ||
| Honestwitness Registered user Username: Honestwitness Post Number: 106 Registered: 7-2005  |
I like this saying, attributed to Martin Luther: "Even if I knew the world was coming to an end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree today." Honestwitness | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 596 Registered: 8-2004  |
Oh I like that saying HW! I should stick it up somewhere around here. I've often quoted to myself the saying, "Be as ready as if He were coming today, and plan (for quality and endurance) as if He wouldn't be here for a thousand years." But this one is even nicer I think. Thanks for sharing it! | ||
| Agapetos Registered user Username: Agapetos Post Number: 270 Registered: 10-2002 |
Here's another letter from the WCG about the situation---or rather, about the gospel perspective on the situation. I really like it. http://www.wcg.org/lit/church/letters/Aug%2006.htm | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 604 Registered: 8-2004 |
Oh thank you for sharing this link Ramone. I especially like this quote:
This has come to be my experience also. The concern is not 'what is going to happen to me', but rather 'am I walking with Jesus today'? As a young child I spent hours and days poring over 'wilderness servival' books, learning the names and uses of wild plants and trees, anxiously searching my soul as to whether I would ber able to 'stand' when the time came . . . (and the time was upon us you know - Ronald Reagan was sure to be the one who brought the sunday law, or was it that Carter had already secretly 'brought' it and Reagan would enforce it? Hmm. . . ) The fruit of this was not faith and hope and confidence in God, but rather fear and temptations to despair because my confidence in myself to be able to make it thru was not strong. Sometime later I came to learn that so long as you're walking with Jesus today you can trust Him to prepare you for what you will face tomorrow - and that that will be true for EVERY day He gives you. What a relief! And also what a present, decisive choice: I chose to walk with Jesus today, I don't have to worry about tomorrow or the next day or even 'the end of the world'! But I was still laboring under the idea that there were 'ideal' places to live and 'ideal' things to be doing that would protect me somehow from the bad stuff that is coming. God dealt gently but firmly with me on that too. He finally got it thru to me that being in the wilderness when to be there was to choose to deny my walk with God was as unsafe as a city street in the poor part of town in the middle of the night. . . And to be in the middle of a street full of criminals when that's where God was and had called me to be was as safe as being in my mother's arms as a baby. Safe I say? And yet not safe from what we often consider 'harm'. It doesn't mean that I will necessarily be unhurt, or even that I will escape with my earthly life, but still safe! Safe in the arms of my Heavenly Father - whether I live or die. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 4465 Registered: 12-2003  |
Mary, you said that so well! I've had a similar experience. I thought often about fleeing to the hills, did Pathfinder survive-in-the-woods "stuff", worried endlessly about hiding in caves from men chasing me with guns to shoot me for keeping the Sabbath, and lived with a subliminal sense that if I had a home in the country, I was closer to God's territory than in the city. Amazingly, this whole persepctive changed when I finally knew I was safe in Jesus. God has clearly put is in a metropolitan area for a reason, and as Richard has said, "I no longer fear crowds. I realize God puts me among them because these are people who need salvation." Colleen | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 488 Registered: 6-2004 |
God has not given us a spirit of fear, so whatever comes our way, we are in his hands regardless of the outcome. That is truly more comforting than the ol' SDA "run to the hills" theology. | ||
| Agapetos Registered user Username: Agapetos Post Number: 272 Registered: 10-2002 |
Fun, I never associated the Pathfinder stuff with the "running to the hills" beliefs... I hadn't connected the two, haha. I wonder if that's how Pathfinders got started. But I was always bad at the classes anyway. It was all about camping and capture-the-flag for me.  Another recent picture piggybacks on your comment, Colleen. |
