MAKES YOU THINK

While I don't like to get all Armageddon on you, the news of the day makes it hard not to think about it. Since I use this blog as a place to flush out my reactions to things, I'm going to take the risk of sounding crazy and alarmist as I think these things through.

I've been thinking about some of these things in the back (or middle and sometimes front) of my mind for awhile, but today I heard a verse from the Bible that moved it to the front of my thoughts again.

So Lot went out "Hurry and leave the city! The Lord is about to destroy it!" But they thought Lot was joking. Genesis 19:14

It's not that I think for a second that God is joking when He says that Jesus is coming back and there will be a reckoning according to the prophecy in the Bible, but I sometimes do in the sense that whenever I contemplate that this could be the time, I tell myself that's a joke. People have thought this for every generation, and we are again. But, I can't help but see some pretty startling parallels to the state of the world and the...

(Funny and ironic aside . Fox News, in the background, just showed Obama talking in Iowa. He said, "You know what they're calling this? Armageddon! Can you believe that? Armageddon! Do you see hail falling from the sky?")

....prophecy of the time people call Armageddon. I guess I'm not the only one talking about this!

A week or so ago when this type of thinking was swirling in my head, I started looking some things up. I was hearing more of Obama being called, "The One" and so forth. Usually it was in a sarcastic way, referring to how he was truly looked to by some during the campaign. I looked again to the classic "Signs of the End of the Age" verses in Matthew 24, beginning at verse 3.

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives [I love that the details of location are added], the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?"

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains."

There is no one that can deny that things that look like this have taken place over and over again since Jesus was here....since the beginning of time. I'm not sure that people have claimed themselves that "I am the Christ', but there have been several key figures in history where people have looked to them as such, and I suspect that the dictators and/or prophets looked at themselves that way. I'm sure there have been many over time, but I'm thinking of figures in recent generations such as Hitler, Mussolini, and now Obama. These are leaders that peopled followed in a cultish way. So, it is clear we have been experiencing things described as the "birth pains."

Labor can be very painful and take a long time, as many a woman knows. And there is false labor, too. So, some of the "signs" might be false signs, looking like the end time signs but not really being them. But at some point, the labor is complete. The intense pain is followed by unparalleled joy as the new baby is put into the mom's arms. I see this as joining Jesus after the end comes.

Like the boy who cries wolf, the "false labor" makes it harder to accept or recognize the real labor when it comes. I think that's what I thought of when I heard Genesis 19:14 today (sited above), that when the people heard the warning, "Hurry and leave this city! The Lord is about to destroy it!", they thought Lot was joking. And, at the same time that we are to be watchful and see the signs, Jesus also precautions,

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Matthew 24:36

Like God warned through Lot, He warns again through Jesus,

"So when you see standing in the holy place, 'the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel-let the reader understand- then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains..."

In Daniel, the words "abomination that causes desolation" is sometimes translated "the rebellion that causes desolation."

Because the difference of the "false labor" and "real labor" is "when you see standing in the holy place, 'the abomination that causes desolation'" , I looked up abomination, rebellion, and desolation in the dictionary.

Abomination means: a thing that causes disgust or hatred or a feeling of hatred.

Rebellion means: an act of violent or open resistance to an established government or ruler.

Desolation means: a state of complete emptiness or destruction.

I heard earlier today that in light of the fact that Obama has decided to appease other countries and not put the harshest of sanctions on Iran, it is likely that Iran will have a nuclear bomb before the end of Obama's presidency. I think that war again Israel with a nuclear weapon would definitely be an act of violence, caused by hatred, of open resistance to an established government or ruler that would cause a state of complete emptiness or destruction.

I'm almost done here. The last pieces of scripture and ideas I'll leave this entry with is from Daniel.

"He will speak again the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. (3.5 years)." Daniel 7:25

3.5 years is nearly a president's terms. Obama is trying to change laws, the ways laws are passed, and the interpretation of the Constitution. Then, in Daniel 9:27, it says,

"He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven." (7 years). In the middle of the 'seven"(3.5 years) he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."

In the end, it is no joke that the end is coming and it will just as He says. With Israel coming so much into the forefront and America weakening, and Iran getting the bomb, most of a term of our presidency is 3.5 years and 2 would be about 7 years, I think it's not out of the realm of reason to be watchful.

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door." Matthew 24:32-33