walla299

I'm not a prophet and have no idea when the rapture will happen in relation to the tribulation. I've seen good arguments for all three major positions over the years. I will readily admit that I have a preference! Reading through the tribulation passages sounds a lot like hell on earth. Strong preference here for missing out on that! The Lord will decide when it's going to happen and He is in control. We're just supposed to be ready at any time. Keep in mind that in Revelation the text refers to those "who worship the beast" as the ones taking the mark. Taking the mark seems to be done as part of worshiping the beast, and I would think no true believer is going to do that (without being forced, threatened with torture, death, etc.)

Yep. History shows leader who keep saying they are going to take out another nation/people group generally try to do just that. Might be a good idea to give the mullahs something to think about before they try taking out Israel.

Maybe I'm just cynical, but those running Iran are fanatics and fanatics never listen to good sense. This refers to the Iranian government, not the Iranian people themselves. Therefore . . . I have the feeling things will get explodey in Iran if they attack Israel again - and Israel has ever right to defend themselves.

Agreed. It's not unconstitutional, but is election rhetoric most likely. The thread title caught my eye though. I thought the Politics forum had been renamed Looney Tunes at first glance - and thought that made a lot of sense these days.

A local brother here said much the same thing and it didn't sound right at first. Then I recognized the same thing. God's mercy amazes me.

Which is why (on the eighth day) God created: chocolate syrup!

Thanks for that. Good to know he's not another media/propaganda ministry member.

Some of that you can see on the 'net channels . . . the "news" is mostly the propaganda ministry and they have nothing to say to me as a believer. So I don't listen to 'em. Makes life in this slowly imploding culture a little bit more tolerable. I think I can honestly say I have no idea who that fellow is - and something tells me that perhaps I don't want to know! :)

You can have peace from the election garbage this very day! Just turn off the TV . . . and enjoy the silence.

I found gas for (only) 3.00/gallon in my area a Costco earlier this week and it reminded me of my dad. Back in east Texas in the early '70s he would snarl and cuss when he couldn't find gas for less than $.30/gallon. Thirty cents a gallon. Think about that for a moment. $3.00/gallon is the lowest I've seen it in my area for some time, so I guess you could call it an "improvement" at 10 times that old price back when I was kid. I also remember $2.25/gallon gas before the Biden folks started their war on the petroleum industry . . . there were some more sensible policies back then (and more than a few "mean tweets"). If someone told me that 20-30 years in the future we'd be looking at a sorry state of political affairs like this current dumpster fire of an election I'd have though they were crazy, on drugs, or both.

Fair enough, but consider what God told Judah as they were being taken into captivity in Babylon. They were to live in that society and pray for the towns/cities where they were going to live. Personally I'd say that goes along with voting, but that's just me. We live in a fallen world and we don't always get to make nice clean black and white choices - and sometimes both options . . . are distasteful for various reasons. There are very few ways to get away from "Belial" (aka the world) is to exit the culture which as holy as that sounds usually means either being a hermit, being part of some cult, or dying. None of those sound all that great to me, and it would seem we're in this sorry mess partly because the church stopped being the ones preaching the gospel which would change hearts. Changed hearts would change the country just like in that riot Paul indirectly caused in Ephesus.

Agreed. I've always kept stickers off my vehicles. Especially the political ones. There's so much division and hostility sown over the last few years that I don't need to have my vehicle vandalized, road rage, or be shot at by some crazy just because of sticker on the back window. There's enough crazies out there already. On the election: I could write a book, but there is more than the presidential election on the ballot. Please don't ignore the elections for local officials, etc. which tend to affect our lives where we live sooner than elsewhere. We have a participatory form of government and I would encourage everyone to vote. We can still have some influence in things. We don't have the same issue they did back in the 1600s when royalty had a bad habit of saying, "You'll do it my way or I'll kill you."

The leftists are running the old Soviet playbook so Putin's tactics are not a surprise here. I'll just say it: the Democratic party has be hijacked by straight up communists for quite awhile. It because we allowed the education system to get infested with them among other places. History shows that once communists get into power they'll stay in power - which history shows removing them requires another revolution/overthrow to remove them. Elections have consequences and so do bad policies.

I had a tiny kitten show up out of nowhere and grew into a 17 pound Maine-Coon. I'd trained her (or tried) to stay off the counters and the kitchen table for the most part. I messed up one day and left a partially completed sandwich on the table to get something from the fridge - and she got up on the chair, swiped the meat & cheese with a paw and took off into the living room. Quick and clever. I decided to let that one go even if I had to rebuild the sandwich.

I hear a lot of discussion about Harris vs. Trump, etc. and this is not a question about them. It's a question that I have heard little about from Democrats, Republicans, or the Media. It's this: Biden's cognitive issues are not the kind that develop overnight. They were there before he was elected and I would guess some would say they were there long before he ran for office. Such is the aging process in our fallen world. I thought it might be interesting to discuss how being lied to about these health issues makes folks feel. The elites (for want of a better term) covered for Biden at every turn and that means the Democrats were lying to their own people as well as everyone else. No one seems to have mentioned this much or it was quickly swept under the rug - along with Biden now that he's out of the race as he seems to have vanished for all intents and purposes.

I grew up a military brat so politics wasn't really on the menu as a kid. It wasn't as an adult either since I spent a lot of time in foreign countries where learning the language was enough of a challenge. Local politics wasn't even on the radar especially in the region I was in which was near the French border . . . so you had a mix of both French & German politics in the local papers. I tried to follow some of it but doing that in a second language gave me a headache. American politics these days just makes me mad. Anger is not a fruit of the Spirit so I avoid it for the most part except for keeping an eye on things due to work. There is no salvation in politics anyway. That is only found in Jesus Christ.

I can agree with you that the pain and suffering of cancer patients is real. It is not a joke and I certainly would not make light of that and I don't think that was the author's intent. God tortures no one in this fallen world. The fall and its consequences do enough on their own (and the enemy.) Paul made it clear that our suffering in this life cannot be compared to the glory that awaits the believer & it is "light & momentary" when compared to that. (Consider also that Paul had more than a passing familiarity with suffering!) I believe the author's point was that as fallen humans we deserve eternal punishment from a holy God. Nothing buy justice: that's as bad as it can get. Anything short of eternal punishment can be considered mercy because stepping into eternity without Christ is much worse in its consequences than anything else in this life. So long a lost person lives there is hope of salvation. Our suffering has an expiration date in other words: we go to be with Christ unless He should return first.

Based on years of keeping a eye on the region I expect some expensive things are going to blow up in Iran due to "industrial accidents" and other such normal sounding causes if the Iranian government says anything at all about them. Nothing like a refinery or two blowing up to get someone's attention. Based on the way the Jewish people are being encouraged to go back to Israel it would seem the Lord's return is drawing nearer.

Nothing a little "redneck engineering" can't fix: tie it on top if it won't fit inside, and drive slow . . . lol

Found this blog post in my feed this morning and it's a good reminder of God's mercy for all of us when we're confronted with life in a fallen world:

Yeah, Paul tried to "be all things to all people" as it were - for the sake of the gospel. Big difference from being martyred for your faith and being a politician. They won't stop talking about race because then they would need something else to sow division over. Both parties are using the identity/race card in their own way. It's all the same game really because all the subtle division on race, gender, etc. is straight out of the old Soviet playbook for how to bring down a country from the inside. Any division no matter what will do as a starting point, get cracks going all though the structure, and you can have your Marxist revolution. I have confidence in this: The Lord will see to it we get the leadership we need - or the kind we deserve. I'm praying for the kind we need.

Also don't forget that in the Bible one of God's many judgements on Israel was sometimes bad leadership & giving folks over to the "desires of their heart". Neither of these are good for the long term survival of any country . . . God is still in charge though. Never forget that!

Didn't see it live but saw a few write ups on it and pictures (which was more than enough for me, thanks.) Like the rest of this crazy world I'm sure the Lord will settle accounts when the time comes. I gave up on watching TV sports years ago after the first baseball strike. Seeing the reports on that opening ceremony, well that just confirms for me that I've missed nothing by not watching much TV any longer. I still watch a very few things - but the Olympics will not be among them.

. . . and then there are some churches out there where you will be called "evil" for voting in an election (in a participatory form of government God allowed to be set up, because who is really sovereign here? i.e. God sets up kings, etc.) Yes, that really happened. There are some folks with some really far out beliefs out there! While all this will be dissolved we are still required to be good citizens wherever we happen to live. . . . and now back to the slow motion train wreck already in progress . . .

I have to pay a certain amount of attention to it because of my job. Elections and other slow motion train wrecks do affect the financial markets and I have to be able to discuss that with clients. Other than that I try to pay attention to what's going on only for the purpose of trying to avoid being blindsided. I have enough on my plate trying to follow Jesus.