Shinobi
Well-known
Before I get into this I need to say of what I have learned from reading the Bible is that God has an economy of language. By that I mean the Bible is finite yet eternal in that it answers everything He wants us to know. Not saying it is always easy to understand just complete in the knowledge He deemed we need to move through this world. By that I am saying from past experiences dealing with different situations I have been led to single verse of scripture several times. Each time I was dealing with a different situation and yet that verse was pertinent to each.@Margery
CONCLUSION
I'm simply wondering if the period of time before the Rapture would be characterized by a brief period of apparent economic stability that collapses into chaos the moment the Rapture occurs.
I think you are on to something. You have great postss Margery.
We hear peace and safety a lot in UN/WEF stuff. So we tend to see that caption relate to the gentile world. But the thing that has me take a step back in that is this: In general we see judgement for the evil gentile world. BAM! SPANK! And then the trib. We see it as a shock to the gentile world. And we want God to be glorified by punishing the wicked. Amen. In contrast, would we not all say that these end timish looking days have certainly come on the wings of slow motion? No surprise....just slow ramp up as things get crazy? It is more like a long patient tap on the shoulder, right? Is not the watcher world surprised by how under water running like everything is unfolding?
However we did get one surprise. Oct 7 2023. Mirror of likely the surprise we will see in Ez 38. So slow motion vs surprise. If we were to compare these social artifacts what we would see is this: Take your eyes off the gentiles...but them viewing through Israel. I tend to go with that.
What that looks like in 1 Thes 5 to me is "pregnant woman" = Israel language. I believe the sudden destruction is Ez 38. While the watcher world is mostly gentile. We tend to want to see God's judgement on the evil gentile world (like the globalists). But the tribulation (although includes the gentiles) is not the gentiles 70th week. Its Israel's. Since they have the title, it would stand to reason i think best to look at Israel to tell the story.
For 1800 years the church thought the 1st seal was good: Christ, the word, the church, the Spirit, the gospel etc. Since then we see it as the AC and false peace. But this is a story we are telling ourselves. And then looking at eschatology as though that view were correct. Even Andy Woods has this view, whom i admire greatly. I think it is just a thing of our times to read the gentile world into the Israeli story. I mean it makes sense that we do. But i believe this home stretch we are likely in will be somewhat easier to parse out I believe if Israel is the focus FIRST. Its not about the church. Its not about the gentile world. As much as it is about budding Israel as "the prophetic story telling piece." This is how i would roll. Because if we are looking to put a man the world is looking for and false peace into the mix as though that is what we should be looking at (ideas we came to on our own), it would be easy to see everything else around that a bit off center IF the emphasis is actually Israel.
You might wonder why? Think about it though. And i am totally open to being wrong. But i have not found a stronger argument than this. If there is one i would be happy to concede....truly. But doesn't Ez 38 make sense as a judgement to Israel for not seeing that God is wooing them to remember the 1,000 year reign to come? Sure Ez 38 is a judgement from before i reckon. But they already has a diaspora for 2k years? God does not generally tells stories with senseless violence. Like He just thought it would be cool to burn Israel down to the ground because its close to the trib timeframe and God is in the mood. It seems more likely that Ez 38 is as much a fresh judgement as it is an omen, or a refining of those who go through the tribulaiton. We just normally don't think on those terms because we were not a part of the original Abrahamic covenant. Which we know still applies in ways toward Israel afresh.
So i was just thinking that America gets stronger. Israel get richer and more powerful (what we normally call fake peace) and in that status of Israel getting to be at peace -- they then become accountable to God miraculously granted them favored status once more. And again not recognizing an apocalyptic taste of what is on the other side for them. A thousand year reign. If God is blessing them in this way, and they still reject their messiah? It would make sense that those destroyed in EZ 38 would be because "new revelation" for them in God's contemporary character toward them would be not noticed...though prophesied 2500 years ago. And the apex of it all perhaps is the rapture Israel can take part in with the church and not have to go through the tribulation if they just believe on their true messiah today.
This may seem like quite a stretch. And of course it could be off amen. But i'm just saying that from what we have seen: slow motion/Israel surprised...its like a reverse echo. Telling a story. No? Blessings.
Ok my personal view end times. I am of the mind that the rebirth of Israel is the key that unlocks prophecy. The 1967 capture of Jerusalem is the lock in the door which is the third temple. Hence I see the start of everything pertaining to the end times as 1948. I may be wrong but it makes the most sense to me that way.
Given the birth pangs analogy and understanding the process a woman goes through from conception to birth and the time frame of it the only way that works is back to the idea that a day is as a thousand years, etc. Well the 9 month of pregnancy in this case is as the length of a generation. Only problem is we don't which generational length Jesus was referring to and still don't. But looking back historically and matching historical events to a pregnancy is that 1948, in a single day was a nation all over again. That I see as meeting the conception of the end times prophecy analogy.
Then came the 6 Day War in 1967, that was nearly 20 years later and kind of like as best as I can see that time of morning sickness. The time of first showing around 6 months usually comes with little fanfair. You just look at her one day and notice all of a sudden she is bulging in the middle and then you realize she is pregnant. No major event to equate to that as it does not require one it just shows up when it shows up. Finally in the 8th and 9 months it is obvious for all to see and a time when She is complaining about her back, her swollen legs, having something insider her constantly squashing her bladder and in general making life a kind of a pain to deal with. That is where I see us now given all that has transpired in the last 30 years or so. Finally the water breaks and she goes into labor. I imagine the water breaking is the Rapture, swift, decisive and sure. Labor is everything after that.
Now as to how you are viewing the different accounts of the Olivet Discourse what you say makes sense but so do other things. For one Luke was a doctor and wrote like a doctor in that he was detailed and followed his thoughts in a timeline fashion. Mathew kind of jumped around and penned as he landed on thoughts as the came sometimes in a jumble. Same for others. The point being that we can't use just one version, we need them all to make a complete and cohesive picture. But exactly how they match up we are not yet quite sure about on some details but the over all picture is pretty clear already. I look at that in the way of taking details of an accident from say and off duty police officer as compared to typical Joe Public. The police officer will likely provide a better and more detailed description than Joe Public will but because they saw the same accident from two perspective Joe Public saw things the officer did not so both descriptions are necessary for the big picture but how they connect is not always clear.
All of that to say, simply the end of days is focused on Israel and for good reason. Yet the whole rest of the world is caught up in it as it should be because we are all evil sinners and need to seek Jesus in advance or live with His judgement after the fact. So separating Israel from the church from the world at large is sometimes difficult and we do the best we can till some new information comes to light. It is obvious that Ez 38 is about Israel but mentions the destruction of Damascus part of the world. We know of things like the 10 nation confederation which Israel is not a part of from studying Daniel and Revelation. So while end time prophecy focuses on Israel it still includes the rest of the world, kings of the north, kings of the east, Gog and Magog and so on. In all this Israel is like a time piece in the bigger picture but all the world is the stage and we are all actors on it till we are gone fly or die.
Finally I am also of the mind that much of prophecy is still a mystery in that we don't understand a lot because what John wrote in Revelation is his best attempt to say what he saw of future technology that made no sense to him. Some of that we are still figuring out today as more information on technology becomes available. For instance the MOB was probably though back in the early church days as a strait up tattoo because they did not know about electronic banking and the ability to connect an ID to a bank, to a job and to a bunch of accounts like utilities, shopping places etc. With the advent of crypto currency and block chain record accounting, tapping cards and now phones we see more clearly that which John saw as probably magic. And while I may appear to be dogmatic at times I am not really. If someone brings new information and it makes sense in light of scripture I am more than willing to change my mind. Anyway time to get busy. Maybe I can come back later to this.
This combo has surely got to be a serious contender for the MOB contract?
