end of the world
| The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes, have their attention fixed upon the events taking place about us. They are watching the strained, restless relations that exist among the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession of every earthly element, and they recognize that something great and decisive is about to take place--that the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis. Angels are now restraining the winds of strife, that they may not blow until the world shall be warned of its coming doom; but a storm is gathering, ready to burst upon the earth; and when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture. The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history of our world, events that already are casting their shadows before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. |
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. " Matthew 24:14 The great protestant reformation was helped by the development of the printing press, finally people could get a copy of the holy scriptures and read the Bible for themselves in their own language. Today, in our time, the everlasting Gospel is being preached around the world via Radio, Television, Internet, DVD's and CD's, Missionaries and more. |
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: " Revelation 14:6-10 Part of the gospel that is to go through out the world at the very close of earth's history is the strongest warning messages ever given to man. These messages are being spread world wide today, they can be found in Revelation 14:6-10. You can learn more about these warnings here: http://www.BibleUniverse.com |
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, [even] to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Daniel 12:4 People will understand the prophetic books of Revelation and in particular the book of Daniel at the time of the end. Today people do understand the prophecies found in Daniel as most of them have already come to pass. For more information visit the website: http://www.BibleProphecyTruth.com |
 "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." Luke 21:25-26Signs have been happening left and right, people are truly afraid, and the governments and politicians are at a loss for what to do about all of the problems. Yet at the same time multitudes are saying that everything has gone on as it always has. But this is not true, even the director of FEMA, James Lee Witt, has said that weather related disasters have been increasing. "Natural Disasters are getting more frequent and more severe, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt said Tuesday, preaching a gospel of preparation and prevention for Americans." by Associated Press Writer Randolph E. Schmid on Wednesday May 24-2000. |
|
|
That time is at hand. Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming: "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these [are] the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)" Matthew 24:3-15 |
| The final overthrow of all earthly dominions is plainly foretold in the word of truth. In the prophecy uttered when sentence from God was pronounced upon the last king of Israel is given the message: "Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: . . . exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." Ezekiel 21:26, 27. The crown removed from Israel passed successively to the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. God says, "It shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." |
|
so is the end almost here? yes |
Comment(s) »
» Leave a comment
- Your E-mail address is never displayed. If you enter it, it will only be visible to the blog author
- Since there already are comments to this post, your eventual comment might trigger a notification e-mail to the persons that commented before you.
- The line and paragraph breaks automatically
Comment by MOS— 2007/02/05 @ 09:11 AM — (Reply)
Comment by MOS— 2007/02/08 @ 04:31 AM — (Reply)
Comment by mel mel— 2007/02/08 @ 05:39 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Sloppy— 2007/02/08 @ 06:59 AM — (Reply)
Comment by mel mel— 2007/02/08 @ 05:40 PM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/09 @ 08:07 AM — (Reply)
Comment by mel mel— 2007/02/09 @ 10:53 AM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/09 @ 01:48 PM — (Reply)
Revelation 19:9 - John claimed "These are true words of God".
Consider what other Bible writers claimed for their writings. Did they actually claim God guided their writings or is this something modern people attributed to them though they never claimed it? Are there just one or two references about it, or is this something they claimed frequently?
A. Old Testament Writers Claimed Their Message Was from God
Isaiah 1:2 - The Lord has spoken.
Jeremiah 10:1,2 - Hear the word which the Lord speaks. Thus says the Lord...
Ezekiel 1:3 - The word of the Lord came expressly.
Hosea 1:1,2 - The word of the Lord that came ... the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said...
Jonah 1:1 - The word of the Lord came to Jonah.
Micah 1:1 - The word of the Lord that came to Micah.
Zech. 1:1 - The word of the Lord came to Zechariah.
[See also Joel 1:2; Amos 1:3,6, etc; Obad. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hab. 2:2; Deuteronomy 30:9,10; Numbers 12:6-8; 23:5,12,16,19; plus see references in other sections.]
B. New Testament Writers Claimed Their Message Was from God
1 Corinthians 14:37 - The things I write are commands of Lord.
Ephesians 3:3-5 - The things Paul wrote were made known to him by revelation. Formerly these things were not known but have now been revealed by the Spirit to apostles & prophets.
1 Thessalonians 4:15 - We say by the word of the Lord.
1 Timothy 4:1 - The Spirit expressly says.
[2 Thessalonians 3:12; John 12:48-50; Acts 16:32; Romans 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:5]
C. Inspired Men Claimed that What Other Writers Wrote Was from God.
Matthew 1:22 - A quotation was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
Matthew 2:15 - Another passage was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
Acts 1:16 - The Spirit spoke by the mouth of David.
Acts 28:25 - The Holy Spirit spoke by Isaiah ... prophet.
Hebrews 1:1,2 - God spoke in times past to the fathers by prophets. But now He has spoken to us by His Son.
Matthew 15:4 - Jesus Himself confirmed that Scriptures were from God. He quoted the Law revealed through Moses and said it was what God commanded.
Matthew 22:29-32 - He said the Scriptures were spoken by God.
Luke 10:16 - He also confirmed the inspiration of the New Testament for He told the apostles who wrote it: He who hears you, hears Me; he who rejects you rejects Me and rejects Him who sent Me
John 16:13 - He promised the men who penned the New Testament that the Spirit would guide them into all truth
To deny or question that the Bible writers spoke from God is to deny and reject the truthfulness of their own statements about themselves, their statements about one another, and Jesus' statements about Scriptures.
[Matthew 19:4-6; John 10:35; 2 Chronicles 34:14-19; Isaiah 2:1-3; Matthew 22:43; Romans 1:1,2; Hebrews 3:7; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:20f; 3:15f; Acts 4:24f]
D. The Writers Denied They Wrote by Human Wisdom
Some people think the writers wrote some ideas that were their own. Hence, the Bible may contain some things from God, but it may also contain some things the writers originated without Divine guidance. What do the Bible writers say about this?
Jeremiah 14:14 - If a man speaks as though he has a message from God when God really did not speak to him and the message is just his own idea, that man is a false prophet and deserves to be punished and rejected as a prophet (23:16,26; Ezekiel 13:2-7,17).
Clearly if the Bible writers wrote a message of their own origin, then they are condemned as false prophets by their own words.
Ezekiel 3:26,27 - A prophet was not to speak until God opens his mouth ... When God did move him to speak it would be a thus says the Lord God.
Matthew 10:19,20 - It is not you who speaks but the spirit of the Father speaks in you.
1 Corinthians 2:4,5 - Preaching was not with words of human wisdom. Their faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but power of God. Faith is based on the message preached (Romans 10:17). To the extent the message is human in origin, then the faith rests in the men who originated it. Paul expressly did not want their faith to rest on human wisdom but in God's wisdom and power.
Galatians 1:8-12 - The gospel came not from man but was revealed from Jesus. To preach another is to be accursed. Hence, to preach a message that is human in origin is to bring God's curse upon us.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 - The message is not word of men but the word of God.
2 Peter 1:20,21 - Prophecy never came by will of man, but holy men spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 22:18,19 - If men add their teachings to the book, God will add the plagues written. They were not just forbidden to write something entirely human. They were forbidden to take a message from God and then add something human to it.
The writers themselves say they did not write human ideas, but it was God's will. They said if anyone did put in human ideas, God's curse would be on them and they deserved to be destroyed. If we claim there are human ideas in the writings, then we are calling the men liars, false teachers, deserving of punishment.
[Numbers 22:35; chap. 23 (see below); Deuteronomy 18:18-22; Matthew 15:9]
E. The Writers Claimed Inspiration for Everything in Scripture
The writers did not claim that part of their writings were God's will and maybe part was not. They claimed everything they wrote was from God so it was all authoritative.
This follows from the last point. The writers were prohibited from adding anything human. If anything human was added, they were under a curse. Hence, if none of it is human, then all of it must be of God.
Note also the following Scriptures:
Exodus 24:3,4,7,8 - God's will included all that was written. The people agreed to keep it all. But man-made teachings are not authoritative such that men must obey them in religion (Matthew 15:9). If all must be obeyed, then all must be from God.
Deuteronomy 17:18-20 - The king was to copy the law and keep all that was written.
Joshua 1:7,8 - Joshua was to observe all written in the book.
Matthew 4:4 - Man must live by every word from the mouth of God.
2 Timothy 3:16,17 - All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching & furnishing to all good works.
The belief that we should obey everything Scripture requires of us goes hand in hand with belief that it is all God's word. Invariably when people begin to say there may be some parts of the Bible that are not from God or not accurate, you soon find there are Biblical requirements that they do not want to obey.
There is simply no reason to believe you must obey all Biblical requirements unless you believe it is all accurately God's word. Bible passages claiming we must obey it all, then are saying necessarily that it is all inspired.
Note especially these passages from 2 Peter:
2 Peter 1:20,21 - No Scripture is of private interpretation; for prophecy never came by will of man, but men spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit. Consider the significance of "interpretation" here. The context shows the reference is to the prophets who wrote the Scriptures, not to the readers of the Scriptures.
Note: For (this explains the previous statement) prophecy never came by will of man, but men spoke as moved by the Holy Spirit. The passage is discussing how prophecy came and how prophets spoke, not how it is studied.
If God just gave ideas and men explained them as they thought best, Scripture would be of private interpretation (like the difference between what the president says and what the news commentators say about what the president said)! But this is not the case with any Scripture or any prophecy.
Instead, the men spoke as moved by the Spirit. The Spirit carried them along to a destination of His choosing, not of the prophets' choosing (like a person carrying a burden - Luke 23:26, or a ship being borne by the wind - Acts 27:15,17). This passage directly disproves the view that God gave men ideas and they explained them as best they could by human wisdom.
2 Peter 3:15,16 - This concept of inspiration applies to the New Testament as well as to the Old Testament, because later in the same book Peter said writings of Paul in the New Testament are Scripture like "other Scriptures." [Cf. 1 Timothy 5:18 to Luke 10:7]
[John 14:26; 16:13: Deuteronomy 31:9-13; 18:18-22; Josh 23:6; Jeremiah 25:13; 30:1-4; 26:1-4; Acts 3:22,23; Mat. 28:18-20;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. These Are Words of God
- God Gave theWords.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revelation 19:9 - These are true sayings ("words" - ASV) of God. God did not just give the ideas and let men choose the words to express them. God guided the men in the very words they chose so that every word was the word God wanted, not the words the men chose by human wisdom. This is exactly what 2 Peter 1:20,21 said. Note other Scriptures.
Exodus 4:14-16; 7:1,2 - In calling Moses, God defined the work of a prophet. Aaron was Moses' "prophet" like Moses was God's prophet. A prophet was a spokesman. The one who originated the message put the words in the prophet's mouth.
The point is that Moses claimed he could not speak well. He thought it would be up to him to express the ideas God gave him (like some people think today). God said He would be with the prophet's mouth. It wasn't up to the prophet to decide the words. He just spoke what words God put in his mouth.
Exodus 24:3,4,8 - Moses gave the words the Lord spoke.
Deuteronomy 18:18-22 - God put His words in prophet's mouth.
2 Samuel 23:2 - The Spirit's word was on my tongue.
Isaiah 51:16 - I [God] put my words in your mouth.
Isaiah 59:21 - My words which I put in your mouth.
Jeremiah 1:4-9 - I have put My words in your mouth.
Jeremiah 30:1-4 - Write all the words I have spoken.
Jeremiah 36:1-4 - Write all the words I have spoken.
Ezekiel 3:4 - Speak with My words to them
Zech. 7:12 -The words the Lord sent by His Spirit.
Matthew 10:19,20 - Given by Spirit what and how to speak.
1 Corinthians 2:4 - Preaching was not in words of human wisdom, so faith would not stand in man's wisdom but in power of Spirit. This could only be so if the words were given by the Spirit, not by the man.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13 - The message spoken was given to the men by the Spirit. Then they spoke in words taught them by the Spirit not by man. If the Spirit just gave the ideas and the men chose the words, this would be just the opposite of what this verse teaches.
What these passages describe is sometimes called "verbal" inspiration. To truly believe the Bible is inspired, one must believe every word is exactly the word God wanted.
This does not mean there is no human element in the words, for God used the men as they were with their human language, human vocabulary, human forms of expressions, and sometimes even the knowledge they had gained by research of personal eyewitness, etc. (Luke 1:1-4; 1 Cor. 15:1-8). But God then used them as they were and guided them to speak the words that accurately expressed His will.
[Exodus 32:15,16; 24:12; 34:1, 27,28; 31:18; 20:1; Numbers 22:35; 23:5,12,16; Ezek 1:3; Hos 1:1; 2 Peter 1:20,21; Jeremiah 25:13]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. These Are True Words
- No Errors in Scripture
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Revelation 19:9 - These are true sayings of God. If the men chose the words in the writing of Scripture, some say maybe there are errors in it. But if every word is from God, then there cannot be errors because God is infallible and makes no errors.
Numbers 22:35,38; 23:5,12,16,19,20 - A prophet must speak what God says. But God does not lie nor repent. He does not deliberately tell things not true, and he cannot make mistakes because of lack of knowledge since He knows everything. So there cannot be anything untrue in what He reveals.
Deuteronomy 18:18-22 - The test of a prophet is, if he makes a mistake in prophetic utterance, he is not from God. Don't fear him.
Note: if a man claims to be a prophet, but he makes a mistake in his prophetic speech, then the thing you know is that God did not send him at all, so don't accept anything he says as being revealed by God. In truth he is a false teacher. Some say they accept some of the Bible, but reject other parts of it; this passage says take it all or reject it completely.
Psalm 19:7-9 - God's word is perfect, right, true.
Psalm 33:4 - God's word is right & done faithfully.
Psalm 119:128,142,160 - All God's precepts are right.
John 17:17 - God's word is truth.
Romans 3:4 - Let God be true, though men may lie.
Titus 1:2,3 - God, who can't lie, manifested the word.
Hebrews 6:18 - It is impossible for God to lie.
Revelation 21:5 - The words written are true and faithful.
If one claims that the Bible errs, then either he must completely reject the Bible as God's will, or else He is saying that God is not infallible. For the Bible says it is all from God, and it says any teacher should be rejected if he says he speaks for God when he doesn't. If the message is in error anywhere, then either the speaker is not from God at all or else God made a mistake!
Hence, we must conclude that there are no errors at all in the Bible writings. This is sometimes referred to by saying the Scriptures are "infallible and inerrant." To truly believe the Bible is inspired one must believe there were no errors in what the men wrote.
[Psa 147:4,5; Job 37:16; 1 Peter 5:12; Galatians 1:20; John 10:35; Jas 1:25]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. The Consequences of Denying Infallible, Verbal Inspiration
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When people say the words of the Bible are not all God's words but some are human in origin, or when they say there may be errors in the Bible, consider the consequences.
A. We Are Left without Any Reliable Source of Authority or Guidance in Religion.
Matthew 22:32 - Jesus claimed the Bible language was so exact we can make arguments that rely on the tense of verbs. But if in fact there could be errors in the writings, no such arguments would be reliable. How would we know what parts are correct and reliable and what parts are incorrect and unreliable?
2 Timothy 3:16,17; John 10:35; Acts 3:22,23; Matthew 28:18-20; John 12:48 - Bible writers said the Scriptures were reliable sources of authority and guidance in religion because they were God's will. They said we must accept all that is taught or stand condemned. They said we will be judged by what is taught. They said we must reject all human doctrines that differ from Scripture (Matt. 15:9; Gal. 1:8,9). But if there may be errors in Scripture, then we should obey only the parts that are true. How can we decide what is true and what is not?
B. We Begin a Course of Continual Rejection of Bible Teachings.
When we conclude that the Bible may be in error on some points, we almost invariably begin to question and deny more and more of what it teaches. People may start out saying they don't believe creation (or the Flood, or some other miracle) occurred the way the Bible describes it . Or they may say they don't believe the Bible is correct in its teaching about women being subject to men, or they reject the writings of Paul.
But such denials leave us with no grounds for believing anything else the Bible says. Disbelief is progressive. Whenever we say, "I know the Bible teaches this but I still cannot accept it as true," we have opened the door for more and more unbelief. The camel's nose is in the tent. We have started down the slippery slope. There is no logical stopping point. Soon we deny more and more miracles or more and more doctrines, etc., because we have undermined the foundation of belief.
C. We Deny the Claims of the Bible Writers, Necessarily Implying They Are Liars or False Teachers.
We have seen that the writers said they did speak from God, they did not speak their own ideas, all they said was from God, and therefore it could not be in error. To deny these claims is to say they were lying or insane. In any case, they were not true teachers of God, but by their own statements they must be false teachers. If so, we should not follow their words as having any authority in religion, but should completely reject them as we do the Koran or the Book of Mormon.
The claims of the Bible writers are such that they will not let us take a middle ground, as modernists try to do. Either we must accept the Bible as completely God's word - it is not the word of men, but every word was given by God with no possible errors - or else we must completely reject it as having no authority in religion at all. In that case we must conclude that the Bible is the product of evil, hypocritical men. We cannot say the Bible is a good book but may teach error sometimes.
D. We Deny that Jesus Is God's Divine Son and Make Him too a False Teacher.
Some want to say they believe in Jesus, but don't necessarily believe that everything in the Bible is true.
But the Bible is the only way to know anything about Jesus' life and teaching - John 5:46,47; 20:30,31; Acts 17:23; 18:28; etc.
How can you know Jesus is God's Son and a true prophet without appealing to Scripture? In fact, what good would it do you to believe in Jesus without the Scriptures, since you would have no idea what He did or did not teach?
We have seen that Jesus claimed the Bible was from God, and that both Old and New Testament writers spoke God's will.
He quoted the Old Testament writers as authoritative, and He said the New Testament writers would be guided by the Holy Spirit. If we say this is not true, then we have rejected Jesus and His teachings just the same as we saw, in the last point, that we are rejecting the Bible writers.
Luke 10:16 - Further, Jesus said that, if we receive His apostles and prophets we receive Him, but if we reject them we reject Him and His Father. Hence, if we say these men may have taught error, then as we have seen, we are rejecting what they said, and therefore rejecting Him.
E. We Bring the Curse of God on Ourselves.
To claim there are errors in Scripture is to reject the claims of the Bible writers and the claims of Jesus Himself. We cannot disbelieve those teachings and yet have the blessings those teachings offer.
Galatians 1:8,9 - If we preach a different gospel, we are accursed. But the gospel says, even in the context of this passage (vv 11,12), that the message is from God not man, therefore it is infallible, etc. If we say this is not so, we preach a different gospel and we are accursed.
1 Thessalonians 4:8 - To reject what the inspired men said is to reject, not men, but God, because God guided the men by the Holy Spirit. The men said what they wrote was God's word, not their own. If this is true and you reject, then you have rejected the word of God Himself.
Conclusion
There is no middle ground. We must accept the Bible as exactly what it claims to be: God's verbally inspired and infallible word. Or else we must reject it completely and give it no weight of authority in our lives at all.
To decide which to believe, we must consider the evidence that it is or is not from God (fulfilled prophecy, unity, miracles, etc.). This is material for another study (see links below). But to compromise and say we believe some of it but not all of it, is to take a position that the teachings of the Bible itself will not allow.
What is your view of Scripture? Do you accept it? If so, have you obeyed it?
Comment by Sloppy— 2007/02/10 @ 07:23 AM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/10 @ 07:43 AM — (Reply)
Hope you're doing well too. Don't die on me or nothin. I'm hoping to meet you at Roswell one day.
Comment by Sloppy— 2007/02/10 @ 07:54 AM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/10 @ 08:45 AM — (Reply)
Comment by MOS— 2007/02/23 @ 08:09 PM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/24 @ 04:07 AM — (Reply)
Comment by MOS— 2007/02/10 @ 03:13 PM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/10 @ 04:33 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Ernie Els— 2007/02/10 @ 04:59 PM — (Reply)
Comment by MOS— 2007/02/10 @ 05:12 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Ernie Els— 2007/02/11 @ 12:28 PM — (Reply)
Comment by MOS— 2007/02/12 @ 01:58 PM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2007/02/12 @ 03:54 PM — (Reply)
Comment by mel mel— 2007/02/13 @ 07:28 AM — (Reply)
Comment by mel mel— 2007/02/12 @ 01:08 PM — (Reply)