Can Man Effect God's Timing for the End of this Age?

[Neighbor]

29 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

God listened to a man - there was some delegated authority He allowed man, so therefore He took note.

 

 From The Peanut Gallery: Delegated authority - Did God not know the result before the search began? What authority to modify the soon known to become results was given by God? What was delegated? ???

[com7fy8]

20 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

Therefore I'm wondering, is God waiting on the church to effectively exercise its given authority, in order to bring this age to a close?  (To clarify: if this is to happen, it will certainly not be of our own energy and doing, but rather Christ living in and through us!)

It seems Jesus has already said that our Father does know the exact time. However, I understand that our Father includes us in His process. 

One thing that stands out more and more for me is how champion players of a sports team will say they did things like a family with each other, and that helped a lot. And their family relationships will last longer than their dominion on the sports court or field or in the water.

[Vine Abider]

1 hour ago, Neighbor said:

 From The Peanut Gallery: Delegated authority - Did God not know the result before the search began? What authority to modify the soon known to become results was given by God? What was delegated? ???

well then, why did Jesus give authority to His disciples? That is, if it was all going to happen any way, why bother?

[AnOrangeCat]

20 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

Therefore I'm wondering, is God waiting on the church to effectively exercise its given authority, in order to bring this age to a close?  (To clarify: if this is to happen, it will certainly not be of our own energy and doing, but rather Christ living in and through us!)

I lean toward no, largely for the reasons Neighbor and FreeGrace cited. But another reason is that prophecy as we typically interpret it has a lot of elements that don't directly pertain to the church as an active force. Some of it is wicked men being wicked. Some of it appears to have to do with the mark of technology. We're also told that there will be an abundance of false teachers. 1 Timothy 4:1-3 is one of several areas where we see a state of apostasy described.

[Neighbor]

25 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

well then, why did Jesus give authority to His disciples? That is, if it was all going to happen any way, why bother?

Fair question, and one easy for all of us to ask I suppose, but one which is not for me to know the answer. For it is God that has made it so. God just doesn't consult me on his doings, neither in collaboration nor corroboration.

God simply puts me where He wills when he wills and for the purposes He will have me used- by Him and not by my own plan for life.  I then stand my post until that is changed and I am moved on to yet another post, used in the manner that He wills and not the manner I will.

All that happens that I am aware of does not happen on my desired schedule for events,  not at all, never! But I get to see often enough how it was  on His schedule. 

[Vine Abider]

49 minutes ago, AnOrangeCat said:

I lean toward no, largely for the reasons Neighbor and FreeGrace cited. But another reason is that prophecy as we typically interpret it has a lot of elements that don't directly pertain to the church as an active force. Some of it is wicked men being wicked. Some of it appears to have to do with the mark of technology. We're also told that there will be an abundance of false teachers. 1 Timothy 4:1-3 is one of several areas where we see a state of apostasy described.

This brings to mind when Judah was carried into captivity by Babylon.  The story of their return to rebuild Jerusalem starts with Daniel. He saw in scripture that they were to return after 70 years, and began praying about it.  God answered that prayer in a marvelous way, and had a gentile king allow the Jews to return and rebuild.

After praying for 21 days, the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel, and told Daniel he had been delayed by an enemy in delivering the message/answer to Daniel's prayer.

The takeaway: Yes, God's will will be done, but He wanted a man to pray for it and seek it's manifestation; and also there is an enemy trying to thwart God's will.  This is the authority God delegated to man, and a good delegator allows the delegatee to exercise that authority for a variety of reasons. ("The earth He has given to man." Psalm 115:16)

[teddyv]

Just an additional point. God relented from destroying Nineveh since they repented after Jonah's warning.

[Vine Abider]

41 minutes ago, teddyv said:

Just an additional point. God relented from destroying Nineveh since they repented after Jonah's warning.

Yes indeed - great example showing that God's will can be influenced by men. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"  Psalm 8:4

[Jayne]

I just have to take the words of Jesus as total truth.

Matthew 24:14: “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

What I see Jesus saying is that all people groups will hear and then the end will come.  While I take this as truth - I also believe that we should not be pre-occupied with it to the point of only looking at end times and not evangelizing and discipling.

The volume of unreached people groups gets smaller and smaller by the month.  The greatest barrier is language.  There still are people groups who do not speak a well-known language and have no written langague.  If I can find that article I read of one of them, I 'll post it.

 

 

 

[Vine Abider]

9 minutes ago, Jayne said:

I just have to take the words of Jesus as total truth.

Matthew 24:14: “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

What I see Jesus saying is that all people groups will hear and then the end will come.  While I take this as truth - I also believe that we should not be pre-occupied with it to the point of only looking at end times and not evangelizing and discipling.

The volume of unreached people groups gets smaller and smaller by the month.  The greatest barrier is language.  There still are people groups who do not speak a well-known language and have no written langague.  If I can find that article I read of one of them, I 'll post it.

 

 

 

Great verse!  This supports the notion that God's timetable is influenced by the salvation of souls (which is a commission to us, the ekklesia).  2 Peter 3:9 is another one that supports this, "God is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not wanting any to perish, but that all men might be saved."