Escha-what?

As promised a few weeks ago, here is the first part of my end time study. 

With this subject, one needs to find a starting point.  Where I started in my studies was not the usual place but at what is called the Millennial reign of Christ.  I will come to this later but I wanted to begin learning and not feel like I was spinning my wheels considering at what time the tribulation will occur.

I will try and teach some form of series chronologically and begin in the Church age.

There is going to be some debate as to when the church age ends and again when it began, depending on if you are dispensational.  I see little point in debating this as it is not a critical tenant of the Christian faith.  You may see it as beginning at Penetecost (Acts 2), you may see it at outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Gentiles (Acts 10) or even at the Ascension of our Lord Jesus(Acts1).  There an awful lot of discussion and it doesn't get any more unified in terms of mass agreement form here on out.

Eschatology means the study from the time of the end, I use it to refer to a collective study of things which include - the rapture, the Millennial reign of Christ, The second coming of Jesus, Judgement, the False Prophet and the Anti-christ.

So where shall we begin?  Lets look at Matthew 24, I encourage you if you are following this series to read the passages as I touch on them.  Sometimes I will quote passages, other times, I am assuming you are reading them and give bullet points if the passages are long such as this one.

The bible is not like any other book, is unique amongst all what the world calls religious texts, it contains matters pertaining to physics, geology, biology, history, ecology, theology and a great many other ologies.  Why is it unique?  It is because on every matter it touches on, and especially in these areas which are not essential to the gospel it is proven as being accurate, it taught things hundreds of years sometimes before an area was found to be accurate, for example it teaches the earth is round, imagine if science then proved the earth was flat, this then creates a question of the supernatural origin of the Bible , can it really be trusted?   It if it cannot be trusted on something observable then it cannot be trusted on things which are unseen.  For some additional reading, check this out - http://evidencebible.com/witnessingtool/scientificfactsintheBible.shtml  The bible is consistent over the thousand of years with multiple authors - can you get 10 people to agree on something controversial?  Try separating those people, by culture, language and time add another 50 people - it all adds to the reliability of the scripture as being authored by God (I think I'll write another acticle on this later).

Matthew 24 - Jesus is asked what will be the signs of your second  coming and the end of the world?

Jesus responds with a long list of conditions and events some of which I will touch on just now. 

1 - Many will come in the name of Jesus deceiving many.  These are false messiahs and false religious leaders saying they are Jesus (David Icke is an example of saying He is like Jesus)

2- Wars and rumors of wars - Global and regional conflict shall increase. Talk of wars kicking off, threats of wars, commentary of war its all what we see now and have done for some time.

3- Famines and Pestilences, earth quakes and natural disasters - I looked into this a while ago an 2010 was a record breaking year for earthquakes.  We also live in a media age where we know and hear of disasters where 40 years ago we did not.  Sure these have always existed, but an increase of them is something that can be quantified that even the secular world is noting.

These things are called the beginning of sorrows.

Labor pains in child birth increase in severity and get closer together, these signal the impending birth of a Child.  This parallel is drawn here with pains upon the earth as the return of Christ draws closer.

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

I think of the tolerance and mass acceptance of false teaching that we see.  Money is a sign of godliness, God exists to serve mankind, a recent trend of the discussion on a universal path to salvation - these are not new lies but getting recent discussion which is leading to the deception of many.  Entertainment  is in the church big time, its the vehicle seen to grow the church.

Thanks for reading.