Are we in the end times ?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
O

Oblio

Guest
#41
An exhortation, perhaps, for the church to wise up.

Yourself included.
I'm awake enough to know not to judge by mere appearances. You have no understanding of why I am the way I am. If you did, you wouldn't have said that.
 

ewq1938

Well-known member
Oct 18, 2018
5,020
1,268
113
#43
More absurdity and nonsense.

No, the opposite is absurdity and nonsense. I can prove it as well.

There will be a time when the former dead will come with Christ. What coming is that?
 

Hann57

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2018
270
57
28
#44
1Co_8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
So let me tell you what you aught to know.
I don't like to boast, but I know how to count. If you don't better learn the wisdom.

As for the signs. Rising china vs declining usa - thucydides' assessment of peloponnesian war to the rise of athens, air-sea battle doctrine where war is avoided by threat of thermonuclear exchange, american generals saying the china engagement will result in massive loss.

The hegemon will flip soon, the options are limited. End of history is at hand.

Read about the 5th seal and just enjoy the show.
Nothing you have said here makes any sense. From the scriptures which is the word of God I read.
 

Hann57

Junior Member
Jan 2, 2018
270
57
28
#45
If we apply this question to the church or assembly Christ is building - we would say there are no signs because as believers in the church age, we are not instructed to look for signs. However, we were given the signs, as told by Jesus Christ, upon Jewish ground. Therefore, we do know some of the signs. There are also prophetic signs given in the OT but I will use only those spoken of by Christ:

Mat 24:7-8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are the beginning of travail.

What is "travail"? The beginning of the birth pains. So nation rising against nation and famine and earthquakes are the beginning of the end times. I think we would all agree, that wars are very prevalent today. Additionally, that war has been extreme in just the last hundred years. WWI and WWII, Korea and Vietnam, Afghanistan and Kuwait, just to mention a few of the big ones. Famine has become an ever increasing global problem. Food production is stretched to the limit. Earthquakes, seem to be on the rise, if not in number, the intensity of each. Volcanic eruptions are taking place all around the globe. These are just the birth pangs.

Mat 24:10 And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another.

Is not the hatred for fellow man on the increase? People are vilified for their beliefs, whether they are about religion, politics, are way of life. In Religion - not just Islam vs. Christianity but within so-called Christian circles. People lash out at others because those do not hold to what they believe. Erroneous Doctrine should be dealt with but not through slanderous speech and name calling. One should always listen closely before giving answer. In Politics - The Republicans hate the Democrats who hate the Independents. The liberals can't stand the conservatives. In way of life - People hate being told what they do or think is wrong. People want to do what is good in their own sight. Sound familiar? People are up in arms over "race", when it should be called "ethnic differences". All of humanity is of the same "race" but we do have ethnic variety. Homosexuality is being forced upon Heterosexuals' and we are told by our government, that if we don't conform, we could be penalized by law. People are surgically changing their sex. Is this not of the last days?

Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray.

Is not the state of the churches, today, the worst ever seen? Doctrine is no longer taught as it should be. In power and truth. Most church goers, today, don't even know what their church believes. The church teaches "Christian Liberty", instead of sound Doctrine. We have never seen such an attempt by church leaders, as today, to compromise Doctrine and push to find common ground among various belief systems. The "world" church cannot be far behind. Churches, full of false prophets, tell people that it is "okay" to practice homosexuality - God Loves You - completely in contradiction to the Bible. Some churches ordain them. Women are ordained as Pastor/Teachers, forbidden by the Bible. The end results, leading many astray.

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.

Have we ever seen a time, when the love of fellow man has grown so uncaring. My daughter saw an accident the other day, where a car went off the freeway and burst into flame. She said many motorist stopped. To give aid? NO - to video the incident with their phones. Only two men went to the driver's aid. A police officer told me recently, they were trying to find this guy, who keeps running around the clubs in Scottsdale, NAKED. He told me, 'People video him and put it on YouTube but they don't call the police.' Lawlessness increases hatred and decreases love. Is not our world, country and cities become like Sodom and Gomorrah?

Mar 13:12 And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.

While this particular "sign" has not yet risen to it's zenith in our nation (U.S.), in many countries this is taking place. Has there ever been a time when the family institution has been in such disarray? People marrying and divorcing like some one changing socks. Persons out of wedlock, having children everywhere and aborting those they care not for. Parents neglecting their duties to each other and their children. Children thumbing their noses at the authority of their parents. Sons threatening their mothers with physical harm.

Are we in the last days? I will let you decide. All I can say is: "Come Lord Jesus".
I read Paul's epistles only. As a saved member of the body of Christ that is all we have.
Anything outside of Paul's writings was not written to us.
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
#46
If we apply this question to the church or assembly Christ is building - we would say there are no signs because as believers in the church age, we are not instructed to look for signs. However, we were given the signs, as told by Jesus Christ, upon Jewish ground. Therefore, we do know some of the signs. There are also prophetic signs given in the OT but I will use only those spoken of by Christ:

Mat 24:7-8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are the beginning of travail.

What is "travail"? The beginning of the birth pains. So nation rising against nation and famine and earthquakes are the beginning of the end times. I think we would all agree, that wars are very prevalent today. Additionally, that war has been extreme in just the last hundred years. WWI and WWII, Korea and Vietnam, Afghanistan and Kuwait, just to mention a few of the big ones. Famine has become an ever increasing global problem. Food production is stretched to the limit. Earthquakes, seem to be on the rise, if not in number, the intensity of each. Volcanic eruptions are taking place all around the globe. These are just the birth pangs.

Mat 24:10 And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another.

Is not the hatred for fellow man on the increase? People are vilified for their beliefs, whether they are about religion, politics, are way of life. In Religion - not just Islam vs. Christianity but within so-called Christian circles. People lash out at others because those do not hold to what they believe. Erroneous Doctrine should be dealt with but not through slanderous speech and name calling. One should always listen closely before giving answer. In Politics - The Republicans hate the Democrats who hate the Independents. The liberals can't stand the conservatives. In way of life - People hate being told what they do or think is wrong. People want to do what is good in their own sight. Sound familiar? People are up in arms over "race", when it should be called "ethnic differences". All of humanity is of the same "race" but we do have ethnic variety. Homosexuality is being forced upon Heterosexuals' and we are told by our government, that if we don't conform, we could be penalized by law. People are surgically changing their sex. Is this not of the last days?

Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray.

Is not the state of the churches, today, the worst ever seen? Doctrine is no longer taught as it should be. In power and truth. Most church goers, today, don't even know what their church believes. The church teaches "Christian Liberty", instead of sound Doctrine. We have never seen such an attempt by church leaders, as today, to compromise Doctrine and push to find common ground among various belief systems. The "world" church cannot be far behind. Churches, full of false prophets, tell people that it is "okay" to practice homosexuality - God Loves You - completely in contradiction to the Bible. Some churches ordain them. Women are ordained as Pastor/Teachers, forbidden by the Bible. The end results, leading many astray.

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold.

Have we ever seen a time, when the love of fellow man has grown so uncaring. My daughter saw an accident the other day, where a car went off the freeway and burst into flame. She said many motorist stopped. To give aid? NO - to video the incident with their phones. Only two men went to the driver's aid. A police officer told me recently, they were trying to find this guy, who keeps running around the clubs in Scottsdale, NAKED. He told me, 'People video him and put it on YouTube but they don't call the police.' Lawlessness increases hatred and decreases love. Is not our world, country and cities become like Sodom and Gomorrah?

Mar 13:12 And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.

While this particular "sign" has not yet risen to it's zenith in our nation (U.S.), in many countries this is taking place. Has there ever been a time when the family institution has been in such disarray? People marrying and divorcing like some one changing socks. Persons out of wedlock, having children everywhere and aborting those they care not for. Parents neglecting their duties to each other and their children. Children thumbing their noses at the authority of their parents. Sons threatening their mothers with physical harm.

Are we in the last days? I will let you decide. All I can say is: "Come Lord Jesus".
These are the perilous times Paul spoke about.
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
#47
I have been praying that the reign of the Antichrist will not be able to occur for at least another 500 years.

The reality is that he will not be able to reign until "the power of the holy people has been scattered" (Daniel 12:7).

The church may let him reign while we are still on the earth; only if we are stupid.

"Where there are prophecies, they will fail" (1 Corinthians 13:8).

The reign of the Antichrist is not inevitable in this time;

As a matter of fact it is a doctrine of the Bible that he will not be able to reign for as long as the Holy Spirit is in the world, dwelling in the church.

As soon as the church is taken out, and the Holy Ghost with it, then and only then will that restraining factor be gone from the earth so that the agenda of the Antichrist will be able to be accomplished by the enemy of every man's soul.
Antichrist will not be slain until the day Christ comes to slay him. When he sits in the temple proclaiming himself to be God that is the end of his career.

His career of opposing everything god so called or everything worshipped as god ... clearly his career will be to stamp out all religion ... YOU if you are alive when he comes.

It is these things that come on a sudden and the church is quite unprepared for it. It will come suddenly like a came suddenly for the Jews in Germany, suddenly it was bad to be Jewish.
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
#48
Oblio, I would like to ease your mind in saying we wont be here during the time of the mark, and that is my opinion
of COURSE we will. The beast will be slain when Jesus comes for the church to take us home. So we will have endured the reign of antichrist.
 
O

Oblio

Guest
#49
My mind does not need to be eased. I will live every day that the Lord had made with me in mind. I am not afraid to die. I am not afraid to live. I am not afraid of Satan. I am not afraid of the Antichrist.
I will only be content when I am standing on that street in the New Jerusalem, looking into Jesus' eyes as He is looking into mine.
Then I will sigh with relief. Shalom.
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
#50
My mind does not need to be eased. I will live every day that the Lord had made with me in mind. I am not afraid to die. I am not afraid to live. I am not afraid of Satan. I am not afraid of the Antichrist.
I will only be content when I am standing on that street in the New Jerusalem, looking into Jesus' eyes as He is looking into mine.
Then I will sigh with relief. Shalom.
Hallelujah :)
 

Charlie24

Well-known member
Oct 31, 2021
998
270
63
#51
of COURSE we will. The beast will be slain when Jesus comes for the church to take us home. So we will have endured the reign of antichrist.
I don't think the church, the true church that is will endure the great tribulation, I believe we are taken out of here.

Rev. 3:10

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

Jesus is addressing the true church here through John, they will not go through the tribulation.
 

Gideon300

Well-known member
Mar 18, 2021
5,347
3,148
113
#53
The apostle Paul writes of perilous times.

2Ti_3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

Paul describes what men will be like in these times from verse 2 to verse 7.


Are there any so called "signs of the times"

I am afraid not.

1Th_5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

We are in the dispensation of the grace of God right now.

Eph_3:2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

Col_1:25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

God has dispensed his grace given to Paul our apostle by Jesus Christ.
Have you noticed in that verse above Paul has fulfilled the word of God.
Which means God has said all that he is going to say, through Paul our apostle.

2Ti 2:7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Paul writes consider what I say, but when you think about that statement ,he got everything from the risen Christ, even visions and revelations in an abundance.

2Co_12:1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

2Co_12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

Paul had an office given to him by God, he had received the gospel also by Christ to give to us.

Rom_11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

Paul was on the wrong road in life, he said he did it in ignorance and unbelief, until the Lord called him by grace, he had come to trust in what Christ had done for us by believing the gospel of Christ.

Paul new whom he had come to believe in with many more after Paul who would gladly lay down their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you come to see the light of the gospel given to Paul ?

1Co 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
The end times began when Jesus rose from the dead. Every generation believes/hopes that it could well be the last. You think perilous times have not come? Tell that to the church in China, North Korea, most Muslim nations, India, Burma and others. If you don't believe me, look up "Open Doors" who keep a close watch on persecution around the world. Christians have never been more at risk than they are right now.
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
#54
I don't think the church, the true church that is will endure the great tribulation, I believe we are taken out of here.

Rev. 3:10

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

Jesus is addressing the true church here through John, they will not go through the tribulation.
Logically if the messages of Christ to His church are set in chronological order the end time church will be Laodicea, however we have the promise of God that no temptation can overtake us but that He will provide an escape for His faithful ones.
 

Evmur

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2021
5,219
2,618
113
London
christianchat.com
#55
The end times began when Jesus rose from the dead. Every generation believes/hopes that it could well be the last. You think perilous times have not come? Tell that to the church in China, North Korea, most Muslim nations, India, Burma and others. If you don't believe me, look up "Open Doors" who keep a close watch on persecution around the world. Christians have never been more at risk than they are right now.
These are the tribulations the church has always faced, even the English church has her martyrs and brave men and women they were too. However the Great Tribulation or persecution is of a different order.
 

Charlie24

Well-known member
Oct 31, 2021
998
270
63
#56
Logically if the messages of Christ to His church are set in chronological order the end time church will be Laodicea, however we have the promise of God that no temptation can overtake us but that He will provide an escape for His faithful ones.
I'm a dispensationalist so I believe the 7 letters to the churches represents the entire church age.

For example, the first church, Ephesus represents the 1st century church that lasted up to 100 ad, and so on.

With the last church, Laodicea representing the last church period on earth, which is our present time in history. This is the apostate church. No doubt we can see the apostasy in the scripture for this church as John described it, and we can see that it matches the apostasy of the church today.
 

Vindicator

Active member
Nov 11, 2021
228
71
28
#57
I read Paul's epistles only. As a saved member of the body of Christ that is all we have.
Anything outside of Paul's writings was not written to us.

That would be a severe problem. You take the words of the apostle Paul as more authoritative than the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? I can't tell you the problems that creates theologically, even with Paul's own teachings.
 

John146

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2016
17,128
3,689
113
#58
That would be a severe problem. You take the words of the apostle Paul as more authoritative than the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? I can't tell you the problems that creates theologically, even with Paul's own teachings.
Paul's words are the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ taught him through an abundance of revelations.
 

Vindicator

Active member
Nov 11, 2021
228
71
28
#59
Paul's words are the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ taught him through an abundance of revelations.

To place Paul's words not only on the same level with but superior to the Lord Jesus Christ's is fraught with problems, and it appears to be what Hann is doing by rejecting the teachings of the Lord in the Gospels (Matthew and Mark specifically) as if they were not written to us. Rejecting the words of Christ in the Gospels yet affirming them in Paul is at the very least illogical, and at its worst deeply heretical.
 
O

Oblio

Guest
#60
"Munch, much," is heard as Truman the Norman chomps down on the last of his Pringles. "I'll get to the store, man, to get some more, man, or my name isn't Norman (which it isn't). :rolleyes:
Oops...wrong forum! Lol