Hidden In Him

This thread really has me thinking now. And I think it eventually also runs into deeper matters like bearing one's cross. By that, I mean this: I've recently come face to face with my biggest hinderance in general to being used by God: My emotional side. As men go I am deeply emotional, and this comes out not only in things like irritation and anger but also in a need to be loved and appreciated. I have encountered some truly nasty opposition over the last year since getting involved in Christian Forums - really hateful stuff on occasion - and have realized my need to have people around me who can counter these emotional attacks with praise. I have even been considering the need to draw closer to the Lord Himself for such needs, so that He is able to supply whatever healing others may not be able to provide. I can come off as very aggressive on the surface (I am in ways), but underneath it all is a very loving and kind-hearted man who only wants to minister for the betterment of others, regardless of whether I am able to do so or not. What I'm saying is, the more we come to understand ourselves as we were made, the more we recognize our strengths and weaknesses acutely. And this makes things like bearing our cross and walking with Christ a little easier as well, because we have come face to face with what gets to us the most.

Glory to God Almighty! If I could have voted several "Praise God"s to that one, I would have filled an entire page with them, LoL. Thanks for sharing! @GandalfTheWise Same to you, brother. Wonderful testimony of the power of God. I find He has to bring us ALL back to our childhood in a sense, to the very heart of who we are, so as to create anew in us what we were designed to be from the very beginning.

Excellent post. My strongest negative reactions have always come in dealing with those who showed a significant level a education in the scriptures, yet who were deluded by falsehood in some way. The higher level of eduction and intelligence made them extremely difficult to persuade (having a better ability to find weaknesses in my arguments, scrutinize verses I used, redirect to huge, convoluted arguments of their own, or worst of all, use debate tactics on me). Those showing total obstinance against and refusal to hear anything that contradicted their opinions have always brought out the worst in me... or at least they did until I realized this was my weakness. I began dealing with this better by just recognizing it was a weakness of mine and staying on guard against it. But that isn't really enough. Holding one's tongue yet being irritated is only solving half the problem, and still leaves one vulnerable to temptation. So I think the primary question becomes, "What promises of God deal with my particular situation? What verses imply that one day this situation will be set straight?" For me, I think the promise that falsehood will one day no longer be allowed to be championed as the truth was found in Matthew 5:19: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." In other words, even among those who truly belong to Him, those who taught accurately will one day be recognized for having done so, whereas those who taught falsely will likewise be recognized for having not, despite assuming they were. The trick, however, is in remembering the specific promises of God that apply to our individual situations, so as not to forget them when the Devil comes rearing his ugly head again, LoL.

Oki Doki. No problems. As a heads up, Acacia, whenever you answer someone on a thread, try and make a habit of clicking the quote button before you post. That way, they will get a notification that you have responded to something they said. I just happened to look back at this thread, but otherwise I wouldn't have known.

Wow. I was just skimming along and I came to this. VERY interesting. I've probably read past 1 Peter 5:13 several times without actually noticing his use of the term Babylon here, but now that I'm taking a look it carries some weight. Tradition connects the apostle Peter with Rome in the latter part of his life, and early Christian writers also state 1 Peter was written from there. The primary argument against this position is that Revelations was written much later than 1st Peter, so to make that connection would be invalid. But I no longer regard the Book of Revelation to have been written in 90 A.D. There's too much internal evidence to suggest it was written in the early 60s A.D. This all the more confirms it. Thanks for posting this. I have no great interest in getting into the debate over the Catholic Church, but thought I should at least give you a public thank you for this post.

It's an interesting hypothesis. It's been a while since I covered end-time prophecies, and I'm not sure if I'm ready to get into it, but you may have a case. I can promise you the pre-tribulationists will take issue with a one-year wrath period because they maintain the rapture occurs before the 7-year tribulation begins. The post-tribulation crowd will likewise also take issue with it because most of them maintain that when He returns there will be no time left in the tribulation period; all will be consummated. I hold to neither of those views, however, so I find your argument has some plausibility to it.

That's a good pair of verses. So what gifts are you hoping to "step into," or don't you really have any sense about that just yet?

The fact that numerous Islamic leaders have called for the complete extermination of the Jews is also one of the selling points of the idea that the Antichrist may be Muslim; that, and the fact that they behead non-believers. There are others - It's been a while since I studied the subject - but those two stand out in my memory.

Here. This is the thread I was referring to. This person sounds like you in some ways, so maybe you two would have something in common to talk about. Anyway, read my response in it. It would be similar for your situation as well.

Let me give you a short word of encouragement here. I and my wife are friends with a family who have two daughters and a son, and the son used to be absolutely obnoxious sometimes when we would go over there for holiday gatherings and such. One day, I was sitting in the living room with a plate of food (Too many guests to sit at the table, and besides I wanted to watch TV anyway). So here he comes. He stops and stands right in front of me, stares at me, then looks down at my plate and starts taking things off of it that he wanted. I think I was hungry at the time, and combined with all the other stuff he used to do, it set me off. I didn't react, but BOY did I want to. I told my wife I was afraid to go over there much anymore, for fear of potentially striking a child, or at the most giving him a very demonstrative lecture on how rude it is to just walk up and start digging in someone's plate. Then the parents would get upset, and possibly a rift would be created between the two families. Well, long story short, the father went through something of a spiritual conversion to getting far more serious about his Christianity a few years later, and one of the things that changed was the extent to which he began disciplining his children. That boy has grown up to be one of the sweetest, kindest and gentlest young men to be around. I think he was actually longing for someone to take authority over him at the time, and his behavior was a way of reaching out for it. But I would not have done it the right way, whereas God found a way; the right one. The upshot to the whole thing is that I am very grateful I kept ahold of myself with him, or today I might be remembered as being a hot-head. So trust God to deal with them. As the scripture says, "in meekness [we should] correct them that oppose us, if peradventure God may grant them repentance unto an acknowledging of the truth." Or in other words, keep your behavior pure, so that if they do come to a place of repenting of the way they treated you before God, they will remember you as someone who was merciful to them in their sins and acknowledge you for it. I do recommend you do this, and I would begin asking the Lord in prayer regularly, daily, to help me find a way to do so. I agree. A college degree is more overrated these days than it once was. Unless you feel very much led without question to go in a certain direction that requires a college education, I would focus more on just finding a job where you can support yourself, then maybe worry about more career-oriented things once you have gotten yourself established. I've responded to this one in a similar thread. I will see if I can't find it and repost it here. Oh, please! That's just Satan's nonsense. You don't need friends like that anyway. Follow Christ and He will give you friends you don't need to use crude humor around to be liked. So PRAY about these things, all of them, specifically, and keep praying until you start receiving some answers to your prayers. You are in some ways in a good position, because you are in a place with many needs. And if you will lean on Him increasingly, you will see those needs starting to get met, which will increase your faith. You're 19, for Heaven's sake! Things will be fine, you just need to start leaning increasingly on God in prayer for these concerns, and then focusing on the positives in your life. Read Philippians 4:8 daily, even hourly. It will keep you in the right Spirit. I'll see if I can find my other post, and please forgive any typos. This was a long answer to write out.

Ok, LoL. I held to this for a long time, too. I eventually started giving thought to the theory the Antichrist would be Muslim and the Beast the coming caliphate. This made more sense out of a lot of things for me. But at issue would be some of things we're talking about here. If he would have to be recognized by the Jews as their Messiah, that all but completely eliminates the possibility of him being a Muslim.

Btw, sorry about all the typos in that one. I think I have it cleaned up now, LoL.

Oh, I see. Ok, I understand... So do you take the view that the Beast will be a revival of the Roman Empire, in something like a future version of the EU?

Thanks for the response, WN. My question here would be, don't these verses all presuppose they apply only to those who honor God's Lordship? The Antichrist will clearly enter the temple by force, as other Antichrist figures in Israel's past did, in defiance of the Most High God. I'm just saying that the Antichrist will have no need to honor these laws. The people of God will be given into his hands, and he will seek to change the laws (Daniel 7:25)... OH! I see, you are saying that he will presumably enter the temple BEFORE he breaks the covenant. I think that would be the next thing you would have to prove then. I've always assumed he would only fulfill 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and other verses after breaking the covenant, at which time he would be under no obligation to any Jewish law, including the need to be a Jew to enter the inner sanctuary. Is there/ are there verses that suggest he will fulfill this prophecy before the covenant is broken?

If I understand you correctly, you would be applying the word "Messiah" here to the Antichrist, and therefore reading the verse as referring to a false Messiah, yes? Forgive me if I am completely misunderstanding you, LoL. Just trying to understand your application of the verse.

Ok. Hopefully, you have him right, as I'm guessing he'd get a little peeved if not, LoL. But if so, where is the interpretation that the Jews will believe he is the Messiah coming from? 2 Thessalonians 2:4?

Convince them of what? Maybe you are referring to a verse somewhere that I'm not aware might apply here, but so far as I understand it, the only thing scripture says the Antichrist will convince the Jews of is to form a covenant of peace with him for seven years, and then break it after 3 1/2. What do you mean?

I believe a case could be made that "the god of forces" here will be the god of Islam, who has always been a militaristic god who spread his religion by the sword. This, in my mind, would make the Antichrist someone with a non-Islamic religious background who turns to Islam, and then ascends to increasing prominence within the Islamic community over time. I think secretly he will actually be a Satanist, but may come from what appears to be a family of Christians (possibly Catholic or Anglican), which would all the more make selling Islam as the one true religion credible, since he had cast aside "Christianity" in favor of becoming a Muslim. Just a theory. Not presenting it as something I'm as of yet set in stone about.

What do you mean? I'm simply leveling with you that you come off as contentious. If someone tells me that, I apologize for giving them that impression, and in a Spirit of love reassure them that's not the case with me at all.

No offense, Kiwi, but if I had taken the conversation seriously to begin with I wouldn't have posted about it here. And while I'm not trying to offend you, in all honesty, if I were to have a serious discussion on it it would be with someone like Butero, whose responses suggest he would not easily get into contentious debate over the issue, despite having his own opinions on the matter.

Kiwi, the OP asked us specifically not to open up debates on this thread, but to just have fun here. So in keeping with that statement... Da Jesus Book. https://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/da-jesus-book-is-the-best-bible-translation?utm_term=.hwpOVkzRBz#.vgDRP5yOQy

LoL. Thanks. I had to back out on another thread I got involved in at another Forum about a month ago cuz it started turning into a mental monstrosity on me that I really didn't have the time or energy for. And when it comes to that, heavily-involved discussions on eschatology can be just about the worst, LoL. Hopefully He gives me time and space down the road to fully consider your position. There are some things there I've certainly never considered before, at the very least.

I do believe that's the first time I've ever been accused of being a preterist, LoL. Ok, I can see our interpretations of so many verses are in conflict with one another that we may need to just hang it up for now. Chalk it up as a brief introduction to each other on this topic. Maybe we can continue it another time.

Not quite sure I understand your point here. So you're saying the ten kings are the same kings who then become sad at her torment and stand afar off? I read through this response several times, but you'll have to forgive me that I don't fully follow the point you're making here. You appear to be arguing that the expression "will be found no more" is either figurative or temporary. Can you clarify for me? Though not addressed to me, I read through this as well. In response here I would argue that these two passages do not equate historically (unless you are a preterist). Rev 18:24 speaks prophetically of the blood that Mystery Babylon will be held accountable for, whereas Matthew 23:35 addresses the blood for which Jerusalem has already been held accountable (in 70 AD). Are you a preterist, Wingnut?

Then this is why I am absolutely in support of you attending. I hope you don't assume that what I was saying applied in my situation applies to yours, or to anyone else's specifically. I was simply sharing my own perspective to the OP, in case they are in a similar situation to me. Please understand, Neighbor, in my case this is not about simply feeling "flat in my joy." This is about wasting hour after hour, service after service, not being spiritual edified or ministered to (at all). My Lord will hold me accountable for where I spent my time, and I will not be able to stand before Him and give the excuse that I was "obeying what the word said." I will know better than that, and so will He. But please don't take offense with me in this. It is not my intention to discourage anyone from membership in a church. In fact, I envy anyone who finds a church that ministers to them, and am very happy for them. It is just not my circumstance anymore, so I post my own perspective in hopes of encouraging these who going through similar things to what I am now. Trust me. If I should find a fellowship operating in true New Testament practice anywhere near me, with strong leadership who are humbly submitted to His Lordship, you can REST ASSURED I'd be in attendance. I'm only concerned with making sure I don't waste the time I have left. I've had more than three decades now of both dealing with and observing local churches, and I will stand judgment for wasting time in some of them already; months of my life that I cannot get back, and will now be held accountable for. I would love to be pleasing to all men, especially all Christians if at all possible, but in the end I will not have to give account before any of them. Nor will I be able to use the excuse before the True Judge that I was doing what others said He was telling me to do, when my conscience was very clearly telling me something different. Just please don't assume this is in any way a judgment upon you, or what you are doing, or what you believe. I am not that type of person. I'm again simply hoping there is also consideration for what I and others like me are going through as well.