Hello Christians:

I've been reading the thread about some date that's rapidly approaching, when the earth will end, or something like that... The people engaged in that thread actually believe it.

I suppose, if you believe in your religion, that would be something you'd think... My question is, and I mean no disrespect, how do you deal with your day to day life KNOWING there's only a few days left???

I cannot imagine waking up each day knowing I had only a few mornings left. Do you REALLY believe that this upcomming date is it, or is it just some undetermined time wayyyy down the road?

But, I'm interested in hearing from those of you who think there's only weeks left.

excon

excon

Hello M:

Go preach to somebody who cares!

excon

TheCitadel

People who call themselves christian but try to predict the end times are foolish and obviously haven't read the bible. According to scripture only God knows when he's going to allow the earth to be destroyed...we don't we can't even guess. It's actually a joy to think about the end of days cause i won't be here...i'll be in heaven with God like he's promised. The apostle paul said "to live is christ and to die is gain"so the rapture for christians is the most AMAZING thing that could happen way better than death...for the lost world it would be something to fret about because they just don't see it coming.

ETWolverine

Saph and Gal,

I accept the correction.

Elliot

ETWolverine

That would seem to be a matter of logic.

If you believe that an event or set of events called "End of Times" must occur, and if that event or set of events has not yet occured, then you are AUTOMATICALLY closer to it today than you were several hundred years ago.

Given entropy, we are closer to the end of the universe than we were several. hundred years ago too.

We are, in fact, closer today to EVERY EVENT that has not yet occured than we were several hundred years ago.

I'm not sure that that constitutes a logical basis for the existence of an "end of times" as described in Christian theology, or "the Geulah" (lit: "The Redemption" in Hebrew) as described in Jewish theology.

I can tell you that in Jewish history there have been a number of times when the Geulah was predicted to occur. In several cases, lots of people hung their hats on those predictions of a date-certain for the Geulah, and when those predictions didn't come to pass, it caused all sorts of trouble... including crises of faith, rebellion, war, and other suffering.

The general belief among Orthodox Jews these days is that there WILL be a Geulah... but as for when and how, we leave that up to G-d. We don't generally try to predict a date anymore, and such predictions are somewhat discouraged (though not particularly strongly).

From our perspective, if we are doing what we are supposed to as good people and good Jews (as that is the perspective from which I speak), G-d will let us know in his own way and in his own time where we need to be to meet and greet the Messiah and start the Geulah. If we are do the right thing ALL THE TIME (within our limited abilities as human beings, of course) we don't need to worry about the timing of the Geulah, because we'll ALWAYS be ready. We don't need to predict it to be a part of it. We just need to follow G-d's Law to the best of our personal abilities. So such predictions are a very low-priority item of theological speculation within Orthodox Judaism.

If you start from the pespective of trying to do the right thing all the time and follow the boyscout motto of "always be prepared" in the spiritual sense, regardless of timing, then "being ready" is no longer a matter of predicting the future. It becomes a matter of living life to the best of your ability in the present.

Just a thought from an outside perspective.

Elliot

firmbeliever

This is so true.

If we are living the best all the time (as you said as humanly possible), there is no need for worrying about predicting an event that we know will occur when it has to.

Mine was an outside perspective too, considering this question was aimed at Christians.

zac0118

there are many who think that they can tell when it is coming but nobody actually does. i think i'll just throw this out here. you see the bible says that when Jesus takes his church of real believers on earth then there will be a time, and a time, and a time, and a half of tribulation for those left behind some have said that because of an earlier mentioning of a time that this should be 7 years a time being 2 years but when Jesus takes his to heaven in the twinkling of an eye that is not when it starts it will actually start whenever there is someone in power who makes a big peace treaty with Jerusalem of course we might not know about that fro weeks but then after that there are the horsemen of the apocalypse the seven scroll judgments the seven trumpet judgments and the seven bowl/vial judgments which will all take place leading up to a great battle between the tribulation saints (Christians of the time) and the Antichrist

paraclete

Christians have been debating the end times since Christianity began. Even the apostles didn't understand Christ's prophesy about the Temple, which had a double meaning but within a generation times of tribulation truly came upon the Jews. The question is was Jesus talking to Jews or Christians? and then we have John's revelation talking about an entirely different tribulation which we would appear to be in the middle of now but are our times any worse than those of a century ago or those in the seventh century and once again was Christ talking to Christians or the Jews? which part of the three and a half years are we in, have they begun with a count down to 2012?

galveston

The Great Tribulation is the final (70 th) week of Daniel's prophecy. As such, it will have to begin with the signing of a treaty between Anti-Christ and Israel

Since The Anti-Christ has not yet been revealed, much less assumed power, we know that we are not in the Great Tribulation periiod.

Will we have tribulations before then? Of course!

Mankind has always had tribulations, but the Great Tribulation stands alone in prophecy, and is the last before the actual physical return of Christ to planet Earth.

paraclete

The question I have about all of this is are we talking about mankind or are we talking about Israel and the Jews What defines a tribulation? was the holocaust a tribulation? and does it stand apart from the Great Tribulation? was the destruction of the Jewish people in 70 AD and 135AD any less a tribulation or fulfillment of the prophesy

galveston

The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy about that destruction, and He said it would happen witin that generation, and it did.

I believe that the Great Tribulation will be world-wide, but ther will be features of it that apply to Israel only.

There is no way that you could have that amount of turbulence in the Middle East without everyone being affected.

It is also called the time of Levi's cleansing, so the focus will indeed be on Israel.