Joined: Jun 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 709 Location: Reality
Will the World End? « Thread Started on Jun 4, 2009, 1:20am »
The End of the World?
Now, more than ever before we hear about the world coming to an end. We see it on television, we hear it on radio, we read it in various publications and we watch it in movies. We hear about it from some of our pastors, and we overhear people talk about it in our daily lives. All in all, talk about the end of the world is not going to go away.
The end of the world is a very popular phrase. It is popular because it both raises our curiosities and levels of interest, while at the same time it triggers fear by those who sense the strong possibilities of it coming to pass, and feel that there is no way to stop it from occurring. In many ways there is a thrill factor in talking about the end of the world. It is interesting to know what the future will hold, and it is even more interesting to think that there may not even be a future at all. That is why people are showing a great deal of interest in the writings of Nostradomus, as well as a new interest in the year 2012 (which is the last year on the ancient Mayan calendar), and such and so forth. Even in 2009, in Florida they are holding an International Bible Prophecy Conference that they have been airing on the GOD-TV satellite network.
The Question at Hand:
Will there be an end of the world? Will the earth blow up the way many speculate? Will approximately 6.6 billion people on earth be destroyed in a very small time frame due to nuclear warfare, neutron bombs, dirty bombs, or something worse?
The answer to this question depends on who you put your faith in. Do you put your faith in man’s word, or God’s word?
If you put your faith in man, then here is what to expect:
Nuclear scientists, physicists, world leaders, and many prominent scholars on many levels of life believe that the world is going to end. In 1947, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago created a symbolic analogical clock that represented how close mankind is in engaging in a global nuclear war, and how close it is to obliterating itself, causing an end to the world.
On the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists website, it describes for you the background pertaining to its existence.
Scientists differ as to how they think the world is going to end. According to England’s major newspaper The Guardian, there are at least 10 major ways they believe the earth is going to end.
According to the above article, scientists believe that the world will end via…
1. Climate Change 2. Telomere Erosion—Simply Put, Darwinists believe that our “evolutionary clock” will just run out and we will all become extinct. 3. Viral pandemic—Worldwide diseases that kill humanity off. 4. Terrorism 5. Nuclear War 6. Meteorite Impact 7. Robots taking over—A scenario that “The Terminator” movies suggest. 8. Cosmic explosions due to exploding stars in space 9. Super Volcanoes 10. Earth Swallowed by a Black Hole
These are all scenarios brought about by the worlds leading scientists. Simply put, if you place your faith in the words of scientists, you should expect them to be correct. This is where one’s faith in science (and in this case, Darwin’s theory of evolution) or one’s faith in God becomes critical in discerning the future status of the world. Within the confines of a strict, scientific standpoint, one should expect an end to the world. It is, by their standards anyway, only logical.
If you believe in God, and you put your faith in His word, you should expect God to be in control of the situation, and not allow the end of the world to take place. The choice is that simple and that straightforward.
In the Bible, there are numerous verses supporting the idea that the world is never going to end. But the only way the world can never end is by Jesus Christ returning here to put a stop to people destroying his earth and destroying one another, as well as ruling and reigning on earth forever and ever.
Ecclesiastes 1:4 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
Psalm 104:5 5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.
Ephesians 3:21 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Luke 1:32-33
32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
Where is he supposed to set up this Kingdom if the earth is going to blow up and end? Let’s take a look at some of the prophetic verses regarding the future of this world.
Isaiah 45:17 17 But Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.
Revelation 11:15 15The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
That is yet to happen, but it will.
Biblically, we see that the earth is never going to be destroyed, so what is the end? The Bible describes the “ends of the earth” in various passages, but those are geographical. It means from north to south, east to west, from point A to point B, covering one region to another clockwise. Then, there is an end of the age. This is what many pastors misinterpret, or misdescribe as the end of the world. In a way, it will be an end of the world AS WE KNOW IT TO BE RIGHT NOW, but it won’t be an end of the world by destruction. There is a difference, as I will explain it.
Explaining the Age of Grace: To put it as simply and as briefly as possible, there have been two ages. The age of the law, and the age of grace. The age of the law were the times recorded in the Old Testament, in which God held a series of high standards for those seeking access to him. In the age of the law, only holy, upright men of God were able to access him directly in the Jewish temples erected for him. Since man became more evil, and as the religious leaders became corrupted, God pulled out the big guns. Knowing that humanity was going to reach a point where they would be hopelessly lost, He decided to fulfill his last option, sending his son Jesus to die for our sins, and fulfill the prophecies identifying Christ as the coming Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. Because it reached a point where humanity began falling away from such strict, and high standards set by God the Father, the future of humanity was destined for hell, and God could no longer set up a kingdom with those he wanted to do it with, meaning US, YOU AND ME. So God sent Jesus at the time he did, and provided us a way out. After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the age of Grace replaced the age of the law. The age of Grace began by the death of a perfect, willing, and sinless sacrifice. Since the wages of sin is death, Christ, a sinless person died, because he took all of humanity’s sins on him. Since Christ took on our sins, while having no sin in his heart, death sort of “threw him back.” God had raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus rose from the dead. That gave mankind the option to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and be allowed access into God’s presence, or reject him and be judged according to the old standard of the law. Christ provided a way to be free from being judged by the law for those who accepted him as their own personal savior by their own free will. When those who accept Christ as their savior die, their souls go to heaven, while their earthly bodies remain on earth. When those who do not accept Christ as their savior die, their souls go to a waiting place, a gloomy dungeon (Isaiah 42:7, 2 Peter 2:4) before they are judged, but their bodies remain on earth as well.
Defining The End of the Age:
Jesus described the end of the age through a parable in Matthew 13:24-30, and explains it this way.
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' 29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
He explains the parable in Matthew 24:37-43, saying….
……"The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. Here is the reality of what has happened so far, and what is to come. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and before he ascended into Heaven, he said, “19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)”
In Part 2, I will explain even further the reality of the end of the age, where we are at this point, and what to expect from a Biblical point of view.
Joined: Jun 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 709 Location: Reality
Will the World End? (Part 2) « Reply #1 on Jun 5, 2009, 2:43am »
So, how could Christ be with us always, even to the end of the age if he ascended into Heaven? Answer; by the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. “8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8).”
Those who have become Christians notice that when they personally ask Christ to be their savior their entire outlook on life changes. A presence literally overcomes them, much like the first encounter between the first people who personally encountered the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-3, and enters into their hearts. They change, and they have an entirely new outlook on life. Of course, one grows and increases his understanding as he sees earth with an added “track,” an additional perspective on life other than what he can see, hear, taste, and smell. Christians live life in a 2 track system, a spiritual track and a physical, worldly track, and are not confined to just the physical, worldly one. Judging from my own personal experience, the Holy Spirit becomes a teacher, and reveals things to you that you would otherwise never look into, or care about without him. The Holy Spirit is what enables us to see other people the way God sees them, with value and purpose, as well as enables us (many of us anyways) to get involved, or intervene in certain arenas that we know negatively affect the world. In this sense, true Christians, by the direction of the Holy Spirit serve as a restraining influence to the advancement of evil, and a light that exposes evil (Matthew 5:13-16, John 3:18-20), thus causing those who do evil to either hide or be stopped entirely.
Where Are We Now?
At this particular moment in time, people’s hearts are growing in darker strains, and people are taking more and more liberties, while making decisions without any fear of being held accountable to God. This is the fulfillment of prophecy.
2 Timothy 3:1-9
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
I can name people who are all of the above in my life, at my work, in my government, and such and so forth. The world is fiercely saturated with all of the above. It is that common. Now, some will say that the world has always been like that. Well, in some minor instances that’s true, but never at the degree it is right now. Why do I mention this? I mention it for this reason. The more Godless the world gets, the more controlled by their deceitful hearts they become. The more corrupt they become, and the more they take certain liberties that are beyond standard barriers, meaning they take certain liberties, that they might never have taken if there was a fear of being held accountable for doing it. Right now, we are living in a period of rampant lawlessness. We are living in a time much like Noah, right before God got angry and destroyed the world by water. But then again, this is also prophetic.
Matthew 24:37-39
37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
How was it in Noah’s day? Let’s rewind back to Genesis 6:11
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.
Let’s go back to Matthew 24, but take it to verse 38 and 39. So while the earth is corrupt and full of violence, people would continue with business as usual.
38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
As the world continues to grow darker and the bolder in darkness it gets, Christians will begin falling away from the faith, as is happening at this moment.
I Timothy 4:1
1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
But not all Christians will. Very soon, judging from the moral and political climate at this time, Jesus Christ will call those who have accepted them as their savior to heaven in the event Christians call the rapture, leaving behind those who rejected receiving Christ as their savior. God has something in store for the completely Godless world after the rapture.
II Thessalonians 2:7-12
7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
The Holy Spirit is the one holding it all back. Once Christians who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts are removed, then the Bible says that the infamous antichrist will be revealed. Folks, the people who are left behind and fall for this powerful delusion are the “weeds” described in the parable I talked about earlier.
Matthew 24:30 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior are the wheat, and those who fall for the terrible delusion and accept the antichrist as their savior are the weeds. At this moment, the world is full of people who will fall for the antichrist and accept him as their savior. Since people today are not governed by a standard morality, God will give them over to depraved minds.
Romans chapter 1 verses 18-32 explain this in detail, but I am going to focus more on Romans 1:28-32.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
This describes the world to a tee today. All of the above is considered “normal conduct” to today’s standards. Heck, there are no real standards today, and we see how we are slipping as a result.
Let’s think about this for a moment; after the event of the rapture as described in the Bible, man will be left to his own devices. There will be no restrainer, and man in his selfish, greedy, boastful, proud, abusive, ungrateful, unholy, hate-filled, unforgiving, slanderous, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, pleasure consumed hounds, who are depraved, wicked, evil, envious, murderous, fighting, deceitful, malicious, gossiping, God-hating, insolent, arrogant, boastful, disobedient, senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless state without self-control will have to continue the progress of this world. Now I ask you, can it be done? No. Why? Because there is no order, much less a desire to have order. There is no order in all of the above, and man will continue in his messed-up state to the point that all of the above will lead to man exterminating others, as well as himself… without the presence of Jesus Christ to personally intervene to put a stop to it all.
While man progressively rots morally, and whose hearts are stone cold in their hatred for Him, God the Father will pour out 21 Judgments on the earth. This is all placed on people who think they are in control of everything, and part of the refinement process that begins after the event of the rapture and before Christ physically returns to the earth.
Jesus Christ said that “heaven and earth will pass away.” Is that a contradiction to the verses that say that the earth will abide forever, or does it mean something else? In part 3 of this series, we will examine what Christ meant when he said, “heaven and earth will pass away.”
Joined: Jun 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 709 Location: Reality
Will the World End? (Part 3) « Reply #2 on Jun 18, 2009, 5:10pm »
Mankind is an interesting creation. When he gets to the point where he has everything he could possibly want, he begins taking the things he has for granted. After he takes things for granted, he pursues more, with his appetite never fully satisfied. This happens particularly and frequently in the areas of sex, money, power, fame, drugs, domestic pleasures (like smoking and drinking), and so on. Everything that feels good to him is good to Him, and anything that challenges what feels good to him, in his eyes, is the enemy. Man becomes his own god, and centers his life on his own pleasures, likes and dislikes. As time progresses, it gets to a point where man shuts out any thought of a higher being, and as others share their faith around him he becomes irritated, and sometimes reaches a point where he becomes combative, and moves in the direction of becoming intolerant of others sharing their faith in their presence, until eventually he calls for its destruction.
If man disregards God, he feels that he is in control, and if he is in control, then he feels that he is the writer and creator of the laws, and eventually begins playing God. When a person holds power and has no fear of God, or being held accountable to Him, then he feels that he is accountable to nobody outside himself. If his deceit works, then he feels that his deceit is his security. His personal goals and achievements are the only guidelines that drive him to move forward until the world becomes his, or works in his self-serving favor. As people’s power increases, their lust for money and power increases until it reaches a point that others are drawn in and are either negatively affected by his pursuits, or everything other people have are brought under the control of the one pursuing it, or a select few, all in cahoots for money and absolute control. While this progresses, man gets to a point where he begins trampling over others, steamrolling over them as long as he gets what he wants.
God’s laws were written for man to preserve, prosper, and have a relationship with Him. But many people do not want to have a relationship with him. They want his influence out of government, out of their lives, and out of their country, but the first thing they ask when something catastrophic happens is, “Where was God?” It only makes sense that the creator of natural law would assign certain laws that would assist natural order, and when violated, would naturally work against the violator. But people don’t care.
Colossians 1:15-17 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Is it any wonder the world is falling apart? Without a fear of God, and a deteriorating moral compass, you have hundreds of millions of people going out, doing what they want to do, committing evil against other people, and so forth, and for what? To defiantly make the world their own, and to tailor it to their own perverted liking. The world to them is their trophy, and as such it belongs to those with the most money, the most powerful (whether they acquire it by evil or not), and the most famous (regardless whether they sold their souls to get there or not). The world will not or cannot continue this way forever. If it did, it would progressively wipe itself out.
Mark 13:20 20If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.
What the world needs to escape this is change, a complete overhaul, an overhaul that cannot be implemented by mere man because man is fallen and in his selfish pursuits is failing miserably taking everything and anything that properly works to failure with him.
The Death of Earth: Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33). You might be thinking to yourself, “but Rob, doesn’t the Bible say that the earth remains forever, and that its foundations cannot be removed?” Yes. So what does that mean, you may be wondering? It means this; The earth itself will not be destroyed by man in the sense that you and I know it. Man will destroy areas and certain places in the earth, but the physical presence of earth, as a planet in space, will not blow up or end. What is God talking about if he says that the earth remains forever and that the earth will pass away? God is talking about the old order of things, earth as we know it at this moment will pass away. In the prophetic book of Daniel, Daniel even mentioned this to the disturbed King Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 2:44 44 “At the time of those kings, the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed. No other people will be permitted to rule it. It will smash all the other kingdoms and put an end to them. But it will be established forever.
Mankind had their chance, and they blew it. The earth under human sovereignty will be officially over, never to ever happen again. That puts an end to corrupt authority figures, an end to legal “justice” that isn’t really blind, and an end to all of the perverted forces and organizations attempting to corrupt man so that the people are incapable of governing themselves and needing someone (in many cases, the corrupt individual causing problems and helping to corrupt others for his benefit) to make the decisions for them. Earth will undergo a major remodeling process. In a remodeling, you usually have to gut out the old order of things, make some rearrangements, acquire some new materials, and reconstruct it into a new form. When you really think about it, the way you once knew it has passed away, and the new is the new, even though it sits on the old foundations.
In Revelation 21, the risen Jesus gave John, his last surviving apostle at the time a vision of the future and prompted him to write it down. John did, and said this….
Revelation 21:1-7
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
So can you see the difference? The way man governs causes sadness, death, bitterness, anger, pain, and so forth. Man is selfish and sins against God’s perfect order. God promises to eliminate that, and as such the opposite will occur, bringing to the earth happiness, life, joy, healing, and so forth. When God says the old order of things will pass away, and that he will make everything new, He is not kidding.
When someone makes a promise and fulfills that promise, trust is established. When someone makes a series of promises and fulfills all those promises, expectations are depended on as they are rooted in that trust. Faith is then developed and strengthened. You can have faith that the promises not yet fulfilled will soon be fulfilled. It is only logical and sensible to believe that. After all, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stands out above all other forces since He is the only one who has told the future with accuracy, is building his Kingdom on earth, and sent his son to offer man a chance to, at a time of his choosing, save him from his own fallen nature and destination of enduring the punishment intended for Satan and his Demonic minions.
Scientists are fallible humans, and they have been wrong on numerous occasions. In the list I provided for you in the beginning of the series, I mentioned that scientists believe that there are ten ways they think the world is going to end. Even scientists who believe in the theory of evolution believe that the world is going to end and that humanity will simply reach a moment of extinction. But again, it all depends on who you put your faith in.
What I Believe:
I believe that scientists are right to a certain degree, but not to the full degree. I believe that many of their scenarios are plausible and understandable in the sense that mankind is leading to, what appears to be its own inevitable destruction. But there is a reason for it. Sin. Sin is the causes these problems, and selfishness is the root that enables sin to occur. Sin is a direct violation of a direct order, and if God’s intent was to design things to live, then anything in violation to those designs would cause death, pain, and/or despair. It’s only logical. If the creator of natural law says not to do something, then he is saying it knowing full well that it works against its designed function, only to lead to its destruction and yours. With people disregarding God, there is massive chaos and confusion, while earth is becoming more corrupt and more violent. Of course, what the scientists are saying would happen if Christ were to come and put a stop to man destroying one another and destroying his earth. That is what I believe will happen. And why not? Natural law, the secular historical record, the prophecies fulfilled, the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, and so on have all proved tangible and compatible with God’s word. Why wouldn’t I believe that Jesus will return to put a stop to man destroying one another and destroying this world when He has never let me down on a promise, and has proven himself in so many ways, on so many levels? Of course, I have a personal relationship with Him, as can you. When you have a personal relationship with someone, there is back and forth communication. It is not just limited to me. It is accessible for you and for everyone else who chooses to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And with that comes a sense of peace that cannot be matched.
"We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." —Romans 5:1 (NIV)
If you would like to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ, here is a link that will lead you to some information so that you can do it on your own.