If I was a prophet ....

The church seems to be awash with prophets and prophetesses all prophesying wonderful things concerning the church in the end times. Magnificent she will be, glorious, bedecked with majesty, all powerful she is ready to seize the reins of power. All around her as earthly rule and power fail she alone will stand.

Get you underground ... that is what I would be shouting from the rooftops, do it now while you have the time or at least get yourself into a position of readiness whereby you may vanish from the public view. The storm is about to break and it will sweep away all before it.

Imagine yourself a prophet to the Jews in the Germany of say 1930, imagine if you were trying to warn them of the horror which was about to unfold and engulf them. Hardly a one of them would believe you, certainly they would not believe the scale of the tragedy about to engulf them.

"We've been through it all before" they might say, "it could not happen, Germany is a civilized country, there is too much respect for law and order, the rule of law, any way German society would collapse without the Jews" those are the kind of arguments you would have met.

You say "have you heard from the Lord brother?"

I read my bible.

I see that Antichrist is imminent, even in the wings. He will oppose [says Paul] everything god so called or is worshipped as God. That is a systematic program for the total eradication of all religion ... and largely he is going to succeed before he can march into the temple and declare that he is himself God. Whatever pact he had going with Israel will be reneged on.

People say it is the Pope, no Catholics will among the first to go, Islam? no they also are too visible, they will be at the front of those to be cleansed. Antichrist is almost certainly a military dictator.

If any Christians are to endure to the end, they will be those who lean upon the Saviour's bosom who hear His secret counsels.

I love you brother, but don't give up the daytime job just yet, unless you have already retired. When you are ready to say...Thus says the Lord...let me know.

Thus saith the Lord ...

... perilous times ahead bro

Frankly, if any of us were prophets we don't know what we would say because God has yet to put His words in anyone's mouth. A prophet isn't told he is a prophet and then look around and see what he should talk about. True prophets speak what God is declaring.

If any Christians are to endure to the end, they will be those who lean upon the Saviour's bosom who hear His secret counsels.

Since the Fall, when hasn't this been so? And the answer hasn't changed either.

You beat me to it...

I was going to say:

If I was a prophet, I would say whatever God told me to say.

You have assumed that the Church will face the Antichrist. But that cannot be.

The Antichrist can only take control of the inhabitants of the earth AFTER the divine Restrainer -- the Holy Spirit -- is "taken out of the way". The Bible says that it is God the Holy Spirit who is restraining Satan, but He will not do so when Satan and the Antichrist are in control.

Since every genuine believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, when He is taken out of the way (and returns to Heaven) the Church will also go to Heaven at the Resurrection/Rapture. Thus you will not find the words "church" or "churches" from Revelation 4-18 (which also covers the reign of the Antichrist).

Further proof that the Church is not present at that time is that God specifically sends His two witnesses/prophets to earth during that exact period of time. They will no doubt preach the Gospel to the Jews (as well as to the world) since there is no one else on earth preaching the Gospel. Many will be saved at that time, and will also be martyred for refusing to take the Mark of the Beast. The two witnesses will also be killed by the Antichrist, but will be resurrected and raptured after that.

I don't know who the Restrainer is because the Bible doesn't say so, but it can't be the Holy Spirit...

Matthew 24:21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened


So this passage shows that this is a very specific, distinct time, not the general perilous times since the fall.


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Really? "It can't be the Holy Spirit"? And the rest of what you have said is simply your assumption.

The Hoy Spirit was sent down from Heaven for the Church. So when the Church departs to Heaven, so does the Holy Spirit. At the same time, ONLY GOD HIMSELF can restrain the Evil One. Even Michael the archangel said "The LORD rebuke thee", and only God could restrain Satan in the book of Job. While He is not named in 2 Thessalonian 2, it should be evident to anyone familiar with the Bible.

I agree it's a distinct time. Can you tell me what could be more devastating than God ending a covenant with a nation?
God dealt severely with Israel many times. He never ended His relationship with them.

You do realize the subject of the conversation is Israel, not the world? The audience knows of a greater promise to come through Messiah. The recognize Jesus as that Messiah. They are in essence asking...so what comes now? And this is what Jesus is answering.

Was Jesus really just talking about Israel anymore and the old covenant? No, it's about Christians and the gospel. He makes no mention at all about ending the old covenant. And who was He talking to? Not the Jews, but to His followers, the Christians (even though His first followers were indeed Jews).

Read it again:

Matthew 24:4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

So yeah, no mention of the old covenant. And a few verses later Jesus tells that the end times will be the very worst, even worse that what you're referencing (since the fall).


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