Blog #2 End Times - Bible Prophecy

By: Dave Withers

For my second blog, I have picked a more serious subject. And no, if you read Blog #1 - I never did get the pie baked.

Let me disclose that I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe He is my savior and redeemer and I believe the Bible to be the word of God. If you have heard the term "Born again believer," - I am in that category. If you are a nonbeliever, I will try my best not to preach at you in this blog. This is for informational purposes only. I welcome comments from nonbelievers and believers to this blog.

I will promise to you that we at Ark Twin Valley Personal Care Home will not discriminate against any person of another faith or one that has no faith in any God. We will do our best to serve, protect and care for all those that come to live and work in our home. Also, we do not discriminate against employees of other faiths or those that do not believe in any spiritual higher power.

The subject of my blog today is end time prophecy - what the Bible says about it. As you would expect, there is not a 100% consensus among Christians about end time prophecy. I do not believe it to be a subject that should create argument, but rather discussion. I believe as we get nearer to the end, the path will be made much clearer to us all.

Many people believe that events occurring in our world today are signs of the end times. Although I have not included those in my comments, I welcome believers to add comments and maybe we can get a discussion going.

End time prophecy is a massive subject and we do not have the space in this blog to cover it in great detail. I do hope to further your interest in the subject and get you to search for the truth. I believe we are getting near the end of time.

The Basics

1. At some point God the Father will send Jesus the Son back to earth to gather his people. This happening is called the "Rapture." If you are not one of his people, you can ask Him today to change that.

2. We do not know when that gathering time will be. God has not disclosed that to any man. If someone is predicting a date, we know they are guessing or just wanting to sell books. It could be today or it could be thousands of years. However, I believe events are occurring that indicate it is very close.

3. Jesus will take his people back to Heaven for a period of time and then all will return to earth and we will live with God.

4. Those that are not his people will be thrown into eternal Hell. If that sounds like discrimination to you, all I can say is take it up with Jesus or the Father. I didn't make the rules and I am certainly not in a position to enforce them. See management - I'm in advertising. I have heard people joke about going to hell - from what I have read in the Bible, you really do not want to go there or have anyone else sent there.

5. There will be a time - a period of 7 years near the end that is called the Great Tribulation. You have heard the term "When all hell breaks loose." This will be a time like no other. Christians differ on whether Jesus will take His people out of the world before this time or later on. My hope and belief is that we will go before this time.

6. Jesus said there will be signs before the end. These are listed in the Bible in the book of Matthew chapters 24 and 25. He also speaks about what the prophet Daniel says in his book in the Bible. There is also much written about the end times in the book of Revelation which is called the "Apocalypse." That just means the revealing of Jesus Christ. There is much symbolism in the Bible especially the book of Revelation, but most is also explained in other places in easy to understand terms.

7. There will be a great battle at the end of the Tribulation period. It will be called the Battle of Armageddon. Many Christians also believe there will be another great battle as described in the Bible in the book of Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39 It is believed the nations of Turkey, Iran, Sudan and Libya will try and destroy Israel. Many also believe Russia to be part of this group. Those nations will not succeed - God will protect Israel.

8. There will be an anti-Christ revealed during the Tribulation period.

Hopefully, that is enough to get the conversation started. If you have specific questions or comments, please list below.