Are we actually getting real close to the end of the age?

[Vine Abider]

Covid showed this generation that we can pretty much wake up one morning and everything seems to have changed.  However, this has happened a few times in the 20th and 21st centuries. The world changed rapidly during both world wars and in the US on 9/11.  But do you have the sense that these were just a precursor to what is apparently coming on the world now? 

From what I read in scripture, at the end of the age, previous historical calamities will pale in comparison.  With the final countdown comes rapid and strong delusion . . .

Man likes to think he has some effective control of the situation.  Effective control?  Not really. Here's something to consider - I watched a documentary last night about how the first thing the UN adopted after being formed, were measures to prevent another major genocide, as had happened with six million Jews in Germany.  But since the UN was formed there have been at least 10 instances of genocide where at least 100,000 were killed (with 4-5 instances possibly being over a half million)!  Needless to say, genocide demonstrates perhaps the very worst of Adam's race, yet the grandest international body of nations ever devised, has been hamstrung and basically unable to do much to address this most heinous activity that it was designed to prevent!

This shows how little control we humans (i.e., Adam's race) really have over our fallen world . . .

What is the situation we find ourselves in now?  Nations and whole continents are becoming increasingly paranoid and are doing their best to consolidate their power and resources to themselves.  Much fear is in the marketplace.  We personally hear of business leaders pulling back, uncertain of the future and unwilling - at least right now - to move forward with their plans.  Economic wars can quickly escalate and become something more than just fighting with economic barriers and money.  AI is beginning to say it could do a better job and is hinting it could take over when the time is right - oh boy!  Electronics and human brains are being integrated.  Many look to an answer (ET) coming from the stars. People are greatly divided philosophically, religiously, and in many places racially.  Faith in Christ has waned significantly. Society's morals have gone down the drain with few decent leaders and fewer having much of God's light in them.

The perfect "storm" is gathering.  The time appears ripe, if not now then it seems very soon, for a great leader to pull all this "ball of confusion" together and provide the apparent answer.  A strong delusion.

It seems we are on the border, close to the edge, and the levy can break about any time.  Again, yes, one might say we've been here before, but I suspect all those prior instances were just precursors for what will come upon the earth, when men's hearts will fail them for what they see coming.

But regardless of how close we are, we do not loose heart because WE HAVE A MIGHTY SAVIOR WE SERVE!!!

"So when you see all these things, look up, for your salvation draws near!"

Luke 21:28

[Marilyn C]

9 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Covid showed this generation that we can pretty much wake up one morning and everything seems to have changed.  However, this has happened a few times in the 20th and 21st centuries. The world changed rapidly during both world wars and in the US on 9/11.  But do you have the sense that these were just a precursor to what is apparently coming on the world now? 

From what I read in scripture, at the end of the age, previous historical calamities will pale in comparison.  With the final countdown comes rapid and strong delusion . . .

Man likes to think he has some effective control of the situation.  Effective control?  Not really. Here's something to consider - I watched a documentary last night about how the first thing the UN adopted after being formed, were measures to prevent another major genocide, as had happened with six million Jews in Germany.  But since the UN was formed there have been at least 10 instances of genocide where at least 100,000 were killed (with 4-5 instances possibly being over a half million)!  Needless to say, genocide demonstrates perhaps the very worst of Adam's race, yet the grandest international body of nations ever devised, has been hamstrung and basically unable to do much to address this most heinous activity that it was designed to prevent!

This shows how little control we humans (i.e., Adam's race) really have over our fallen world . . .

What is the situation we find ourselves in now?  Nations and whole continents are becoming increasingly paranoid and are doing their best to consolidate their power and resources to themselves.  Much fear is in the marketplace.  We personally hear of business leaders pulling back, uncertain of the future and unwilling - at least right now - to move forward with their plans.  Economic wars can quickly escalate and become something more than just fighting with economic barriers and money.  AI is beginning to say it could do a better job and is hinting it could take over when the time is right - oh boy!  Electronics and human brains are being integrated.  Many look to an answer (ET) coming from the stars. People are greatly divided philosophically, religiously, and in many places racially.  Faith in Christ has waned significantly. Society's morals have gone down the drain with few decent leaders and fewer having much of God's light in them.

The perfect "storm" is gathering.  The time appears ripe, if not now then it seems very soon, for a great leader to pull all this "ball of confusion" together and provide the apparent answer.  A strong delusion.

It seems we are on the border, close to the edge, and the levy can break about any time.  Again, yes, one might say we've been here before, but I suspect all those prior instances were just precursors for what will come upon the earth, when men's hearts will fail them for what they see coming.

But regardless of how close we are, we do not loose heart because WE HAVE A MIGHTY SAVIOR WE SERVE!!!

"So when you see all these things, look up, for your salvation draws near!"

Luke 21:28

Morning VA,

Very good post. I certainly agree. Now I would just say, that `What a situation FALLEN man is in now.` You would agree I know that WE are not a part of God`s judgments coming on man`s world system and those who adhere to it.

As to the UN it was only created as a `cover` to give the impression the world is working together. You see the UN`s Security Council consists of the permanent Big Five.

- USA, UK, France, Russia and China. 

Each permanent member has power to veto, enabling them to prevent the adoption of any `substantive` draft Council resolution, regardless of the level of international support of the draft.

However, the UN does have a very significant role in the Global Government - religious.

GLOBAL MOTIVATION

A Global Government needs the hearts and minds of the people to agree with it. Thus there is needed the motivating force of religion to drive people towards a Global Government. It is the unifying reason that people will give allegiance to. 

Thus we see that the United Nations has become the International Institution to promote the New Age one-world religion spirituality.

THE UNITED NATIONS (UN)

The UN has issued a Global Charter called `The Earth Charter.` This is promoted as the `new scripture.` It stresses that man is his own saviour. By saving `mother earth,` they say, that we will once again return to an idyllic garden of Eden.

All aspects of society are being involved - religions, business, education, health, entertainment, sport and civil society. Everyone is to work towards the same goals, with the same moral values. These goals are called the `Sustainable Development Goals,` (SDG) officially known as `Transforming our World,` and popularly known as `The Future We Want.`

To achieve these Sustainable Development Goals the United Nations uses the Common Values of the `Earth Charter.` The document makes a declaration for a just, sustainable, peaceful global society and its mission is to promote -  

`A Global society founded on a shared ethical framework.`

 

Global Moral Values & their meaning.

These are – respect, responsibility, justice, trustworthiness, civic virtue & citizenship, etc

RESPECT – like tolerance & inclusive – means appreciation for people & lifestyles (pagan & promiscuous, different sexual preferences……)

RESPONSIBILITY – refers to the `common good` of the community, where individuals must yield to the collective interests. (Socialism)

CIVIC VIRTUE & CITIZENSHIP – are also open ended. Compliant citizens must be ready to conform to changing rules & evolving duties.

People are made to think that they are to blame for all the world`s ills, diseases, poverty, crime, inequality and thus to get rid of these guilt feelings people give over their personal responsibility to the UN`s plans and goals.

The Global Charter was drafted in coordination with a hard law treaty designed to provide an integrated legal framework for all environment development law and policy. It is called the `International Covenant on Environment and Development.` Governments are required to adhere to its ever-increasing requirements.

 

Thus, we can see that the United Nations, the arm of the G20, is bringing together all areas of society to believe in this new religion  of `Mother Earth.`  

 

 

 

[AdHoc]

20 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

Covid showed this generation that we can pretty much wake up one morning and everything seems to have changed.  However, this has happened a few times in the 20th and 21st centuries. The world changed rapidly during both world wars and in the US on 9/11.  But do you have the sense that these were just a precursor to what is apparently coming on the world now? 

From what I read in scripture, at the end of the age, previous historical calamities will pale in comparison.  With the final countdown comes rapid and strong delusion . . .

Man likes to think he has some effective control of the situation.  Effective control?  Not really. Here's something to consider - I watched a documentary last night about how the first thing the UN adopted after being formed, were measures to prevent another major genocide, as had happened with six million Jews in Germany.  But since the UN was formed there have been at least 10 instances of genocide where at least 100,000 were killed (with 4-5 instances possibly being over a half million)!  Needless to say, genocide demonstrates perhaps the very worst of Adam's race, yet the grandest international body of nations ever devised, has been hamstrung and basically unable to do much to address this most heinous activity that it was designed to prevent!

This shows how little control we humans (i.e., Adam's race) really have over our fallen world . . .

What is the situation we find ourselves in now?  Nations and whole continents are becoming increasingly paranoid and are doing their best to consolidate their power and resources to themselves.  Much fear is in the marketplace.  We personally hear of business leaders pulling back, uncertain of the future and unwilling - at least right now - to move forward with their plans.  Economic wars can quickly escalate and become something more than just fighting with economic barriers and money.  AI is beginning to say it could do a better job and is hinting it could take over when the time is right - oh boy!  Electronics and human brains are being integrated.  Many look to an answer (ET) coming from the stars. People are greatly divided philosophically, religiously, and in many places racially.  Faith in Christ has waned significantly. Society's morals have gone down the drain with few decent leaders and fewer having much of God's light in them.

The perfect "storm" is gathering.  The time appears ripe, if not now then it seems very soon, for a great leader to pull all this "ball of confusion" together and provide the apparent answer.  A strong delusion.

It seems we are on the border, close to the edge, and the levy can break about any time.  Again, yes, one might say we've been here before, but I suspect all those prior instances were just precursors for what will come upon the earth, when men's hearts will fail them for what they see coming.

But regardless of how close we are, we do not loose heart because WE HAVE A MIGHTY SAVIOR WE SERVE!!!

"So when you see all these things, look up, for your salvation draws near!"

Luke 21:28

It is remarkable that God at the same time asks for a walk by faith and is gracious enough to give signs. In Matthew 24:3 four disciples came privately to Jesus and asked Him three questions. They were;

1. When will this be?
2. What is the sign of the end of the age?
3.What is the sign of your Coming?

Jesus answers them with signs - remarkable when one considers that He had accused the Pharisees of being an evil generation for asking for a sign. Of course, the two cases are different and this is not what I want to comment on, but nevertheless we should be grateful for these signs. The astute student will read and study all three synoptic gospels and discover that Luke 21 has a different construction to Matthew 24 and 25. For the first 24 verses, Luke 21 deals with the 70 AD and the historians tell us that in the conflagration of 70 AD, all the Church at Jerusalem escaped. We should take this with caution as historians can be wrong, and they are certainly not inspired. But we can also give the glory to God for such mercy because by 70 AD the Church at Jerusalem had fully returned to the Law of Moses. But we can equally give God glory and thanksgiving for the situation with the Churches that are on earth at His Coming.

Seven representative Churches are exposed in about 96 AD and it doesn't look good for us. If you add the fact that half of Paul's epistles are not for building Churches like the other half, but are calls to individual overcomers to overcome the fallen situation. Paul ends his course almost alone, in prison, facing Nero, but with the assurance that he would, at the Bema, be awarded a crown. But in Philippians 3:9-14, this same Paul, with about four years left to live, was not so sure.

Two things are mentioned in this text, 1. the "out-resurrection" - a special resurrection within the resurrection, and the Upward call of rapture. The gravity of the situation is missed by many students. The "out-resurrection" is is to be ATTAINED and the "Upward call" that Paul alluded to was a PRIZE. Now, 1st Corinthians 15:23 says that all who are Christ's will be resurrected "when He COMES". And 1st Thessalonians 4:13-17 says that we will all be caught Upward after a shout. So what then is all the "STRIVING" and ATTAINING that Paul was onto? What had he not ACHIEVED? On what criteria is that special resurrection to be WON. And what special UPWARD CALL is there to be so sought after that it is a PRIZE? 

If you count Philippians 3, did you know that three more scriptures address this same matter of EARNING a place, and four other scriptures show Christians in the Great Tribulation. I've written a lot already, so I'll be brief. Revelation 3:10 clearly states that a christian will be kept FROM the hour BECAUSE he Overcame a situation that other Christians are warned about. The sobering implication is there. Not all Christians will qualify. And in Revelation 13:7 the Beast will be reigning and have power of the SAINTS. This verse could not be written if there were no saints there!

Are ready brother ... sister ...?

[warrior12]

 

We have gone from a virgin organic world to an artifical world.  Our food supply is basically sustained by chemical fertilizers derived from artifical products.  We have polluted our air that is essential for a healthy body, and have built machines that can extract the earth resources at rapid rates.  

This plus all that was mentioned before by the other posters, have contributed to a world at the precipice of disaster. Those are the physical parts that we can see, but there is another part of our world that we cannot see, but has activities that are just as alarming as the one we can see vividly with our eyes.   I don't know who have encountered the evils that goes on there, but I have made a thread of what I have encountered and it is very real.  

Spiritual fornication are what the leaders, merchants and the consumers are all wrapped up in to gain the wealth of the world to live luxurious and with ease and comfort.  Who wants to work hard labour, when there are other means of getting the world goods by other means.   Even today I am being intoduced to these spiritual seducing spirits to please the spirits behind them, who are really satan minions .  

Now the world knows how gigantic the world trade is and the vast amount of money is being circulated by the current trade wars. It is truly stunning.

Solomon, the man blessed with the most wisdom, was subjected to following the false idols of the pagan Gods.  We have put on the FULL armor of God to stand against the wiles of the devil and all his schemes and plots. 

Much that is going on in the world are being implemnted by demon spirits using men to create situations that causes chaos and disaster.  First though they create the sense of utopia, like the AI that will soon impact our world in stunning ways.  This is what poeple wants, to live with total health,wealth and freedom, from things that promises a goldern age.  Let's see. 

The OP opening post is on track, I would say

Edited April 15 by warrior12

[Orion]

No doubt the end is near.  Deception is taking a hold of more and more people around the world, convincing people to believe a lie and fall away.  

I heard of an experiment on "group think" conducted by the CIA. They put 80 people in a circle and asked each person to identify the geometric figure on a piece of paper.  The figure was clearly a triangle, but the first 79 people, one after another, when asked what figure was on the paper, all said that the figure was a square. The last person to be asked, the 80th person, also stated it was a square. The catch: the first 79 people were employed by the CIA, and deliberately lied, the 80th person was a random test subject.  The CIA proved that if you say a lie over and over send over again, many people will fall in line and believe the lie. 

Deception is widespread in both politics, the news media, all levels of education, the entertainment industry, etc.  

We need to continue to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil..." Eph. 6:10-11.

[Marathoner]

My answer to the OP most assuredly won't be a popular one, which is the overriding reason why I avoid topics such as this. Needless to say, I don't concern myself in the least with the nonsense of this world, focusing instead upon what the Lord has me doing today. I don't worry about tomorrow nor what it will bring, for I am only a man and I cannot see far at all. What is it I do?

I trust the Lord. The end of my time on this earth --- or His coming --- will not overtake me like a thief. I hear His voice, and I obey His word. He will not leave me confused nor stumbling about in the dark. I will know, for He will tell me when the time comes.

For many years I looked on while many men and women, fervent in their convictions, declared how they were living in exceptional times. This war, they said, would lead to this and that, which would herald events and scenarios that dispensationalists are fond of holding ( and arguing about). On those occasions when my agreement with those schemes was solicited --- and withheld --- I was accused of all manner of evils... of not "watching" properly... of being ignorant of scripture... and so on. I said nothing, because those accusations warranted no response on my part. Accusers come, and accusers go.

When their fervent convictions proved false, these men and women didn't seize the opportunity to examine themselves; instead, they picked up where they left off and came up with more "end time" declarations because, after all, they were living in exceptional times. They sounded just like the OP. Indeed, generations of dispensationalists have declared the same thing; so I must ask, what makes one correct where they were false? This cycle has repeated itself over and over again over the past 140 years or so, and I've had the opportunity to witness one cycle play out here on the forum. The predicted "final war" turned out to be simply another of man's endless wars.

I have never understood what I call "end times mania" and what drives some incessantly to pursue it. All that matters is this: walk in the Spirit, and walk in those works we were created in Christ to do. 

[enoob57]

I love the Lord's advice in these matters
Matthew 6:34 (KJV)

[34] Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

We have always had this reality

Matthew 6:24 (KJV)

[24] No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

 

[Locust]

4 hours ago, Vine Abider said:

But since the UN was formed

considering that the UN is a second rate power what would it take to put them on top ? as it is the U S of A is a massive power . is the UN going to be the element declaring peace and security?    

[D. Adrien]

4 hours ago, Orion said:

No doubt the end is near.  Deception is taking a hold of more and more people around the world, convincing people to believe a lie and fall away.  

I heard of an experiment on "group think" conducted by the CIA. They put 80 people in a circle and asked each person to identify the geometric figure on a piece of paper.  The figure was clearly a triangle, but the first 79 people, one after another, when asked what figure was on the paper, all said that the figure was a square. The last person to be asked, the 80th person, also stated it was a square. The catch: the first 79 people were employed by the CIA, and deliberately lied, the 80th person was a random test subject.  The CIA proved that if you say a lie over and over send over again, many people will fall in line and believe the lie. 

Deception is widespread in both politics, the news media, all levels of education, the entertainment industry, etc.  

We need to continue to "be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil..." Eph. 6:10-11.

I tend to view this as the power of peer pressure. A recent example is the "woke". Many leftists fear being ostracized by family and friends if they speak what they really think, along with losing a job.

The closer a Christian gets to God, the more weird they appear to those not so inclined. "You've got to be balanced with this stuff"!

[Marilyn C]

And I think it is good to remember that God has appointed times for His judgment upon the nations, starting with the (far) northern Federation and his pals. (Zech. 6: 8    Ez. 38    Joel 2)