Chippy wrote:
So what do propose we all do Craig if indeed your claim is that these are the signs that Jesus said to watch for?
I'm not going outside with a billboard and bell proclaiming "Hear yeah" for instance.
Chippy, you don't have the facial hair requirements for that job...
But on a more serious note...
The world is not going to "end".
The "end" of something, is ALWAYS the "beginning" of something else. Yes, I do believe that Revelations is a profound vision of future events... events we will begin to see unfold in our own lifetimes. But the language of Revelations is also rich in imagery and symbolism. It is also given in the language and understanding of more ancient peoples, who lacked modern scientific understanding.
The descriptions given in Revelations, were true visions of the future.
Our future!
But they will be far more Earthly and understandable to... "US", living in a scientific age.
Take for example, these verses in Revelation...
Revelation 9
1The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.
Kuwait Oil Fields in the DAYTIME!
Revelation 9
3And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.
4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
(...)
Revelation 9
7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.
On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.
9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10They had
tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.
Apache Helicopter
Could something like the Apache Helicopter be what John saw in his vision?
- Looks like a Locust (insect)
- Scorpion like tail
- Breastplates of Iron
- Faces like people
- Sound of their wings like MANY horses and chariots
- Their "stings" had power to torment people
- Does not harm grass or trees, but harms PEOPLE
That last line, would be a revelation to John, that this "Locust" unlike the ones he knows 2000 years ago, does not eat grass or harm trees, but hunts PEOPLE instead!
To an ancient person, without the benefit of modern knowledge and experience, an Apache helicopter could EASILY appear to be a locust, which flies up and back down to Earth, and whose spinning rotary blades, would resemble the speedy beating of a Locust's wings!
Are you getting the picture?
We have to seek to understand revelations and visions in the Bible through the PRISM of a more ancient people, who knew NOTHING of modern machinery, that could fly, with PEOPLE commanding them, which can fire missiles, while flying through the air.
But the question you asked was "What should we do?"
And for me, the answer is the same, as the one I would give, were these visions from Revelations not for our own lifetimes, and that is...
SEEK GOD!
It's not about RELIGION or RULES or PROPER WORSHIPPING PROCEDURES, or.... ANYTHING ELSE, but this...
Mark 12
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"
The most important one," answered Jesus, "
is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]
There is no commandment greater than these."
32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33
To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "
You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
--
1) Love God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength
2) Love your neighbor as yourself
That's all there is to it.
Any race of person, any political persuasion of person, any person of any religion, any societal level of person....
ANYONE who lives their lives in accordance with those 2 simplified commandments, given by Jesus Himself... IS VERY CLOSE to the heart of God, and will receive God's love, blessings and direction in return, in full amounts!
God "IS" the Mothership Chippy.
He is "mothership" and "fathership" all in one, containing the yin and yang of positive force and negative force, all within Himself, which is why He is eternal, with no beginning and no end... self-sustaining... self-existing.
He separated His nature into "Male" and "Female" to create our PHYSICAL EXISTENCE, which also allows us to REUNITE as "male" and "female" into an intimate sexual union, which has the power to CREATE LIFE, so that we experience his parental heart and love, and know what it is like to "create"... to step into God's shoes in a sense, as His children, who share in His nature, share in His creativity, Share in his life-giving nature, Share in His LOVE!
The Asians are right... all things exist through a relationship of balance between positivity and negativity, spherically (even the solar system, even the action of positive and negative electrons surrounding a nucleus)
We, humans... and nature itself...
ALL OF IT... resemble the nature God contains WITHIN HIMSELF!
From the smallest building blocks of positive and negative electrons, to the largest masses of planets and solar systems... it is ALL essentially the same design, the same patterns, the same circular motion.
WE ARE ONE!
WE ARE A FAMILY!
God desires for us to LEARN to "love as He loves".
We are created "in His image" so that we have the TOOLS and the POTENTIAL and the ABILITY to do so.
We MUST learn that we are "in this together" and learn to cooperate and recognize our interdependent nature (made interdependent by design) so that we can CONTINUE this project God began... Humanity, and spread out into the outer reaches of this nearly infinite Cosmos that God created and designed for us to dwell within.
But THERE WILL be dark days ahead, because man has SHUNNED God's blessings and tools, and USED THEM INAPPROPRIATELY for harm, for our own selfish ends, to Lord over one another, rather than RELY ON ONE ANOTHER!
Often times, we must be BROKEN, before we are HUMBLE enough, to recognize and ACCEPT our need for the Creator who made us, who loves us, and only wishes the best for us.
It is usually from that place of humility, that salvation comes.
Which is merely the ENDING of being "Gods of our own lives" and putting our hearts and lives in the TRUE ORDER, which is "Accepting the ONE TRUE GOD, as Lord of our lives"
What to do?
Desire, pray and SEEK, a deeper relationship with God, your Father... and Mother
and practice love toward your neighbors and those whom you come across, because WE ARE ALL "neighbors", and as that relationship grows, it is God Himself, who will reveal all things to you, and will tell you WHERE you need to be, and WHEN you need to be there.
I have lived most of my life this way, and I have been AMAZED time and time again, at how something God told me to do, which seemed so insignificant at the time... came to be understood so clearly, in how important that one event really was... How many things were changed, and fell in line, because I did that "one thing" he asked me to do.
You think I write alot now?
I could write ENTIRE SERIES OF BOOKS on the miraculous and spiritual things I have observed, just in my own life, things that could not possibly, be explained away by coincidence or chance.
GOD IS REAL!
You live RIGHT NOW within the CREATION that He designed, and which sustains you, and whose beauty amazes you.
ALL FOR YOU CHIPPY!
And for Jimmy, and Phil, and each one of us!
To mock that power, that love, that SACRIFICE, from a loving parent, is the HEIGHT of arrogance and rebellion, and results in one eventuality.... DESPAIR!
We can try to RATIONALIZE away God's existence, we can through ANGER try to scream away God's existence, we can through DENIAL try to pretend away God's existence...
We can do all those things, and we are FREE to try to do all those things, all the while DEPENDING UPON and LIVING WITHIN the Creation that God Himself made for us!
But it will drive us to evil, and even drive us mad.
Because it is a CONTRADICTION of REALITY itself to do so.
In doing so, we are DEFYING the natural order itself. It is like us trying to breath water into our lungs, rather than air. We are free to do this, but the results are ALWAYS devastating.
We are created to breath air for our physical life, and we are created to breath LOVE for our spiritual lives.
If we fight doing EITHER... we DROWN... either physically or worse... SPIRITUALLY!
