Question about End of Days, Rapture, Tribulation

[1911Sooner]

I just watched Son of God on netflix. Came out in 2014 and is worth checking out if you haven't seen it.

 

[TerryMiller]

There was a show on the History Channel a couple of weeks back about the End of Days.

My understanding is that the timeline is as follows:

The Rapture occurs. The living Christians and dead are taken to Heaven. (Which puzzles me, because aren't the dead Christians already in Heaven?)

Many times the dead are referred to as sleeping.

The seven year Tribulation begins. The first three and one half years sees the rise of the Anti-Christ, his sidekick, The False Prophet, and a one world government.

The second three and one half years is marked by disease, famine, etc. People are required to take the Mark of the Beast.

Christ returns and vanquishes the Anti-Christ and his forces in the Battle of Armageddon. Satan, the Anti-Christ, False Prophet, demons, and all their human followers are cast into the Lake of Fire.

Is this correct? As I understand. The Internet is all over the place.

Those of you responding in this thread, please be respectful of others' beliefs.



Why do you ask? If you care to answer.

Reade,

I can answer some of your comment. Upon death, everyone, both believer and non-believer, enter into the Hadian world. According to the Bible, Hades is made up of two areas, with a wide, uncrossable chasm between. One side is Paradise for the believers, and the other side is for the non-believers. Each goes to one's particular area to await the judgement day. After the judgement day, believers go to Heaven and non-believers to Hell.

As for the History Channel, their stories are interesting, but not biblical.

 

[SM Rider]

I guess Thomas Paine was a rabble rouser when it came to religion as well as the politics of the day.

Seems to be the case. One of the reasons I admire his work Age of Reason.

 

[nofearfactor]

Im still waiting on someone to make a good movie about the Book of Revelation. Seen several, Christian financed and secular, but none have been very good.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WDP667NX

 

[FamousAJ]

I guess Thomas Paine was a rabble rouser when it came to religion as well as the politics of the day.

wait, so you're a rebel rouser if you don't hold the belief that god exists? wow.

for being christian and supposedly open minded and loving one another, you all sure shut down anyone who doesn't believe in your religion. Just because someone follows a different faith or no faith at all does not make them any less of a person than you, unless you too are a rebel rouser.

 

[TerryMiller]

wait, so you're a rebel rouser if you don't hold the belief that god exists? wow.

for being christian and supposedly open minded and loving one another, you all sure shut down anyone who doesn't believe in your religion. Just because someone follows a different faith or no faith at all does not make them any less of a person than you, unless you too are a rebel rouser.

Was Paine's beliefs different from most of the others that founded this country? If so, even his contemporaries could have called him a rabble rouser (not rebel rouser). Besides, his description of the Bible is somewhat accurate but he ignores all the good that is in it. And, if one really studies the Bible, it isn't as contradictory as Paine proclaims. One has to consider the whole Bible and its statements and not just cherry pick certain passages.

 

[FamousAJ]

One has to consider the whole Bible and its statements and not just cherry pick certain passages.

Most people who try to prove their point do this all the time.

 

[SM Rider]

Paine's main contention was that the Bible is nor more the word of God than any other book. He asserted that nature (creation) is the only revelation of God to man. This is my viewpoint as well. I've concluded that 'belief' is an emotional investment to an idea devoid of facts with the hope that it is true. There is a reason the Bible is referred to as 'SCRIPTure', it is a play where a steady stream of fictional characters come onto the stage and give a performance. It is no more real than a play written by Shakespeare.

My view is that the Revelation story is of a past worldwide cataclysmic event seen by many different people of ancient time scattered around the globe and recorded in different ways. Time and embellishment have provided a good story. That it and the rest of the Bible has been politicised as a tool of fear and control is the tragedy. Who benefits? Certainly not God.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t7EAlTcZFwY

 

[TerryMiller]

Well, I've stated numerous times that I'm not God, thus I can't judge others in an effective way. Who is to say that those of differing beliefs won't find His grace and forgiveness. However, I certainly wouldn't say that God won't benefit. Also, while one might state that the biblical stories are strictly fiction, that would fly in the face of archeological finds that corroborate those stories.

 

[SM Rider]

Explain how God benefits? He needs nothing and nobody to be whole and complete. The idea that God created man for his benefit seems at odds with his nature of oneness with himself. There is no reason for God to create man just to have them get on their knees to worship Him. If he did then this reflects insecurity on his part.

An archeological find doesn't prove the Bible. All events in the Bible are written after the fact. That the script incorporated an account of a past event into the storyline is no proof at all. This is Paine's incredulity of the Bible being the revelation of God:

Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication-- after that it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it can not be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to ME, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him." -Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

The Bible Revelation is the script. Future events that are made to fit this account are the play. To assert that those events happening are proof of God's will is a stretch.