Oh Christine,
I can't believe what I am reading on the threads. There seems to be no ability of the followers of the Lord to explain there beliefs without criticism. It makes it look like they are apologetic or unsure or just plain flat afraid to give a reasonable answer like I don't know or we should ask God. When ALan and I came on these threads we experienced full blown anti-semitism which we were totally not expecting and Jane and James were our friends, now they attack people who do not think like they do it is confusing at best. So many times I have pointed out that the Lord only criticized the self righteous who thought only they had an inside track to God and excluded others. If you read the woes to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law you will see His anger was at their oppression of the people they felt were inferior to them spiritually.
I can't remember the definition from the show about apocalyptic Jews but I believe from the term I would be in that group. I do believe He is returning to the earth to bring the peaceful Kingdom promised by God in a large proportion of the Bible. According to the Bible if taken litterally as I do 97% of the prophecies from the OT (Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah,Jeremiah, etc...) have been fulfilled and only 3% are left and they refer to His return to reign a perfect Kingdom from Zion. That is why He told them "do not think I have come to bring peace no but a sword" He has to weed out the Kingdom beforehand. When I say weed out I mean determine positions of people in Heaven, in Matthew and many places Jesus spoke of being greatest or least in the Kingdom, and He will give to every man according to what He has done . Anyway if 97% have been fulfilled as an educated person, what would you think teh odds would be to the final 3% being fulfilled?
Jesus left the time of His return open and did not pinpoint it because this is a time of testing and if everyone knew when it was coming they would not choose to grow and wait until just before and accept Him. He wants people to grow constantly there is very little complacentcy in teh Lord and we are like gold being refined in the fire so we can be free of all self destruction and self hatred. See God told us to love others as ourselves so He expects and commands us to love ourselves equally to the love of others so humility is not a self abuse but an equal respect of all others. In fact we are to look up to others as more spiritual than ourselves and we may actually learn something from God. I think the Lord also wanted to give us hope in the Kingdom to come, no matter how bad it gets there is always a hope of peace coming. In the Holocaust that was what kept many Christian and Jew going was that Messiah will come and deliver us. Hope is a major part of the love chapter (1 Corinthians 13) the part I like is "there remains these three things, Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest of these is Love." all three of these IMO are necessary for us to have peace and joy. Just like I believe there has to be morals to have freedom. I am sorry this is so long and more than that I am sorry you have been so talked to so harshly but remember the Lord has wide open arms and a big smile for you. May His love fill your home with the light of His presence, Nancy |
