Christianity and the End Times

I'm not sure why you are correcting that for me since I don't think I addressed that post.I'm taking your views into account but they are different enough from the usual evangelical way of understanding these things that all I can do is just note them for now.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Looks pretty straightforward to me. There are other passages that imply the rapture but this one directly describes it.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Um, but why this sense of imminence right now? I only very recently came to believe in the pre-trib Rapture and it is still more or less new to me. Oh I've read and heard arguments for it but never really dug into it because it never seemed compelling enough, or biblically consistent enough, to spend the time on it, just figured I'd wait and see. On the other hand I've believed we are in the final end days for some time now, but the pre-trib Rapture had never completely convinced me until very recently. I'm not sure that explains this sense of imminence either. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Nothing you said explains my having a sense of the imminence, specifically of the Rapture, in the last few weeks. It's unusual. It might mean something.

Phat, I didn't say I "want a Rapture," what I've said is that I've come to believe the Rapture is imminent so I don't want to miss it. If it doesn't come soon as I've been expecting it to, I think the experience of expecting it, plus jaywill's encouragements, is going to lead me to more serious time with the Lord though, which I've already begun. I want to be ENraptured by Him as I was in the early days of my belief, not in order to be ready for the Rapture so much as that that was the happiest time of my life.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

OK, well you could be right that it's not going to happen within the next month as I've had in mind. But even if it doesn't that is no proof it won't happen at all.

I don't recall your having mentioned a prophecy that your house will fly off into the sky. THAT would be the reason to think it will eventually do that. We can't "learn" what you want us to learn because we are looking at a prophecy that will eventually be fulfilled.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

We know it is future; insisting it must already have happened is a delusion of the unbelievers.

Sorry, feelings of imminence are NOT how people generally determine when it is going to happen. No no no no no. They always figure it out with scriptural and historical calculations. I'm not even trying to argue for any certainty for my feelings of imminence but certainly this is not how the Rapture is usually predicted. No absolutely no, don't read my own experience into these things. I saw a video not too long ago where this pastor was putting together all kinds of historical and biblical information that led him to his own conclusion about when it might happen. And he didn't say it WOULD happen, just as I'm not saying that. We are looking at likely possibilities. ALL THE TIMING claims I've ever heard are based on that sort of calculation and I never find them very conclusive.But NOBODY ELSE has made an argument from FEELINGS. And besides my feeling of imminence is based on some events in my own life, somebody calling out of the blue about something related, omebody sending me something that relates, things like that that have been happening over the last few weeks that to my mind symbolize an imminent Rapture possibility, stuff that is just happening, not in any way intended to prove anything or even consciously related to the Rapture.Last night I happened to turn on the radio as the book of Revelation was being read: earlier in the day I'd wanted to hear it read having no idea it was in line to be read on the radio many hours later. Revelation 5 to 13 was read, and it is very informative to hear it all read in order like that because you can see how the images flow one after the other more easily than when you read it yourself. To my mind that was God's hand you see, and that's the sort of thing that's been happening a lot lately, although most of the events have had more direct pertinence to the idea of the Rapture itself, while the book of Revelation is more about the Tribulation.So it's been these odd occurrences that contain some symbolic relation to the Rapture that have been adding up to this feeling of imminence. So even my feeling is more a collection of happenings that suggest a soon coming Rapture to my mind than just a feeling out of the blue. Of course I've been praying a lot about all these things too.As I said maybe I'm a crackpot, but that's where I'm getting this sense of imminence.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Yes, my mistake, he thinks it didn't happen at all.

Yes it's been expected in every generation, but there is nothing in the prophecy itself to say which generation, just "we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord."

I read it as a real cloud and figure it was read that way in the first century too and all the time in between. Whenever I read early interpretations of scripture I don't find anything in them that is culturally different from our readings today. I suspect this is in fact a modern prejudice being imposed on the text.And nobody that I know of is praying FOR the world to end, certainly I am not. All of us are simply trying to understand prophecy that says it's going to end and gives signs that we can ponder about when and so on, so that we'll be ready for it. And I HAVE at times asked God to put it off, for the selfish reason that I don't feel ready for it. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Fine, believe what you want. Everybody I know reads it as applying to whoever is alive at the time of His coming.

Right, we know how to read the Bible, you should learn from us. We read this kind of scripture as written directly to us as it is supposed to be read. But as I said, believe what you want.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

That is ridiculous, GDR, in fact there are other places where cloud is taken symbolically. You really think all the theologians that support my point of view are that stupid? Oh I guess you do.