Christendom fights back? Yes or no?

[Ezra]

On 20/01/2016 at 6:29 AM, Sister said:

Oakwood

The battle we are about to enter is a spiritual one.  These verses seem to cover your question.

Sister,

Oakwood is referring to the end-time victories of Christ at Armageddon and beyond. You are posting Scripture related to the spiritual warfare of individual Christians.  Two entirely different things.

[Sister]

Ezra

Our fight is what I quoted above in Ephesians.  It's a spiritual fight.  God uses the wicked to destroy the wicked, and the God fearing will keep all Christ's commandments.

If you are speaking of at the Coming, when the saints come with Christ for the takeover, it's Christ that does the job with the sword of his mouth.  Christ executes the vengance of our Father.  Not us.

Nahum 1:2   God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

 

[thereselittleflower]

Oakwood remember that Revelation, The Apocalypse of John,  is from the perspective of the heavenly realm, not the earthly realm.

 

 

[Reinitin]

On 1/19/2016 at 9:31 AM, OakWood said:

I have a serious question to ask.

Can anybody tell me (from scripture) - is the End Times victory going to come purely from the hand of God or are Christians involved too?

We know from the Bible that sometimes God carries out justice by himself, but sometimes he likes his people to do it on his behalf (when the Jews were asked to carry out the slaughter of the Canaanites for example).

Will there be a Christian revival? Are we supposed to get involved and fight back? Will the final victory come from Jesus and the angels alone or will there be a similar parallel victory here on Earth where armies of Christian warriors fight the anti-Christ and all those who serve him? I mean, a real physical war.

And please don't answer with "oh no, everything comes from God. God knows everything. We do nothing. Without him we are hopeless" because that's not very helpful and will not be answering my question. Is there anywhere in scripture that suggests that it is our duty to be involved in the final battle?

Will there be a revival of the Church? Will Christian nations rise to the glory days of yesteryear? Can we expect to see the saints battling the forces of darkness?

You might think that I should know the answer to this question already but the Book of Revelation especially is full of symbolism and analogies and I'm beginning to look at it in a different light.

 

There is a falling away from the truth not a revival.  2 Thessalonians 2

 

2 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: We ask you, brothers, ² not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord^[a] has come. ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy^[b] comes first and the man of lawlessness^[c] is revealed, the son of destruction. ⁴ He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits^[d] in God’s sanctuary,^[e] publicizing that he himself is God.

⁵ Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I told you about this? ⁶ And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time.⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, ⁸ and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and will bring him to nothing with the brightness of His coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders,¹⁰ and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved.¹¹ For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false, ¹² so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness.

 

 

People in general will become cold hearted.

 

Mathew 24:

¹² Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.^[c] 14 This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world^[d] as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination that causes desolation,^[e][f] spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand^[g]),¹⁶ “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! ¹⁷ A man on the housetop^[h]must not come down to get things out of his house. ¹⁸ And a man in the field must not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁹ Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days! ²⁰ Pray that your escape may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For at that time there will be great tribulation, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again!²² Unless those days were limited, no one would^[i] survive.^[j] But those days will be limited because of the elect.

²³ “If anyone tells you then, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Over here!’ do not believe it! ²⁴ False messiahs^[k] and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ Take note: I have told you in advance. ²⁶ So if they tell you, ‘Look, He’s in the wilderness!’ don’t go out; ‘Look, He’s in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever the carcass is, there the vultures^[l] will gather.

The Coming of the Son of Man

²⁹ “Immediately after the tribulation of those days:

The sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not shed its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the celestial powers will be shaken.

³⁰ “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth^[m] will mourn;^[n] and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds,from one end of the sky to the other.

What is good will be called evil and what is evil will be called good.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

 

So this world gets real darkened in heart , spirit and soul and we are called not to be part of it but to be lights and witnesses to a truth this world hates and we are called to love and do good in very evil times.

 

 

 

 

[Ezra]

On 19/01/2016 at 8:31 AM, OakWood said:

You might think that I should know the answer to this question already but the Book of Revelation especially is full of symbolism and analogies and I'm beginning to look at it in a different light.

Oakwood,

The symbolism of Revelation should not distract anyone from the fact that we are looking at Bible prophecy and events that will actually transpire on earth and in Heaven. There are far too many out there promoting the idea that the Revelation cannot be understood in its plain literal sense. That is totally incorrect.

We see Christ, we see angels, we see demons, we see Satan, we see the Antichrist, we see supernatural judgements being poured out on the earth, we see Armageddon, we see the Millennium, and many other things, all as real, tangible, literal, and future.  

When we see the woman clothed with the sun and another woman clothed as a harlot, we know these are symbolic women.

The prerequisite for understanding Revelation is the indwelling Holy Spirit and His enablement to sort out what is what. God did not have this book placed in the Bible so that Christians would be confused. The confusion exists because people play games with Revelation, e.g. 1,000 years is not 1,000 years, but could mean anything or nothing.