The Last Days Are Coming!, How to be saved.

Welcome! Glad you could join me.

Throughout this post, I will be talking about why we are here. I will not bore you out with history. I will only state the important facts.

Over the last few years I have been a Chrisitan, my faith has grown, and God has shown me more and more. I used to think there was not a God, like most people now days, so I gave God a chance. He answered me in a way I did not expect.

He showed me the importance of life through other people. In this post, I will answer questions, and give information.

First of all, I am just a normal human being like everyone else. However, what makes me different is my beliefs. I don't beleive in gaining huge amounts of power or being super rich (although I may like too!), but instead, my first priority is to do what I need to get to Heaven.

We are only on this earth for a few decades. However, one will be in Heaven for eternity - forever. If God took 7 days to create this Earth, just imagine how good Heaven must be - he's been working on a place for me for 2000 years!

Let me state one of my favourite versus (don't worry, there won't be many more!)
Look at the next post please.

No, don't read all of it, unless you want to. Just read verses 1-4. I speaks about the attitude of Chrisitanity. We do not fight and show off.

Read verses 10-11. Even if you don't want to. See! The things written 2000 years ago are happening now! If you skim read on, it tells you more about what is going to happen. Read 34. OK that's all for now. Go to the next post.

Just note. There will not be world peace. The world will get worse.
DON'T BELIEVE ME? JUST WAIT AND SEE!

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Luke 21
The Widow's Offering
1As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

Signs of the End of the Age
5Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6"As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."
7"Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"

8He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them. 9When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away."

10Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

12"But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13This will result in your being witnesses to them. 14But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17All men will hate you because of me. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By standing firm you will gain life.

20"When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

29He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

32"I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

34"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."

37Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

One of the big issues at the moment is that people want proof of how the Earth was created. How did we get hear?

People say it is because of the "big bang". Others say it is because of a black hole concept (which is a recent theory, and its interesting). The thing is that we are currently in a perfect position; if the world was a couple of kilometers closer to the sun, we would all fry (literally). God made this earth; that's my answer. He placed us in the perfect position. Before the days of Noah, the world had no weather. Man sinned, just like they do today, and God flooded the Earth. Even though it does not say it in the Bible, I feel that God tilted the Earth on it's axis to create weather while it was flooded, due to man's sin. Anyhow, I am going of topic. More about sin later!

The main point is that with theories, there is a 1 in a 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 to the power of 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 + more, chance that the Earth was positioned in this very place. If space is so big, why aren't we somewhere else. Why are we here? It could have been a fluke you say. That's another theory! Let me think about this more. I will post soon!

What created God?

The smiley face made that even sicker than it already is. How about you loudly tell people to run rampant in the streets with explosives, because there is no point, as you say there will never be peace.

I agree with ashes here... Where did god Come from? who created it?

I don't believe in god but I believe that if it does/did exist it is a very sick spirit/person/thing... to let people live in poverty, to let people die, to leave the world this way 'god' if it existed is a sick bastard.... it made its mistake by creating humans. Isn't killing a sin?

The Pharoah of the sky.

hahahaha! sorry, just saw an ad at the bottom of this page

"God isnt a dead beat Dad!"

1) 'did' exist?
2) it wasn't up to god for any of this to happen. people chose to reject God, people chose to have a strong leader instead of the prophets God had put there to rule (hence we see that the ideals behind the renaissance, reformation and enlightenment were also what God intended.
3) (most important), whatever we endure here on earth will be nothing compared to what we will live like for the rest of our lives, in heaven or hell. it says in the bible, pure and simple. Suffering leads to endurance. Endurance leads to faith. Faith leads to eternal life.

can you honestly say that you think that God creating all of us was a mistake??? Then what about the significance of the sacrifice of Jesus, that showed God loves us all, and is willing to forgive us for our sins. What about every good thing that has ever happened in your life, and the bad things that have shown you your shortcomings, or your sins, or whatever it is!

"But God showed us how much He loved us, by having Christ die for us, even though we were still sinful".

We were God's enemies, yet he gives us this gift.

this is nearly a year ago now.
a year is nothing to God.
God can't get sick, can't age.
Is it not possible God was never born?

who is saying that god had to be born?
It had to be created by something? didn't it?

To believe in a deity is exactly the same as to believe in unicorns and witches. That may sound insulting, but it is true.

Wouldn't it be kind of confusing for people? And by people, I mean every member of our species that exists, or has existed. I mean, there are some 2,000 religions currently, pretty much all with their own vision on how the universe, earth and the animals that inhabit it came to being. Let's say someone was brought up under the 'veil of ignorance' and had to choose one that he/she finds to be most relevant/truthful. What would they pick out of those many thousands? Some of which are spiritual, not even theological (i.e. the branches of Buddhism), so the very concept of a higher being/higher beings isn't consistent. Should we believe in Zeus and his cohorts, Yahweh, or Odin? Surely if there is a unitary God, she/he would be reasonable enough to understand if people weren't to take her/his account when she/he allowed so many distinct mythological constructs of the mind? All this is an alleged 4/6,000 years. It's amazing that the distribution of all human life had been so far out of communication, that this god decided to just give minute social groupings her/his word. Adam and Eve must have really been poor teachers.

Poor people that were excluded from God's word! Poor disabled people! Poor people that cannot find religious enlightenment out of the many thousands that exist/existed!

Really, by the sounds of things, this god has no one to blame but her/himself! Not just for poor design (in that she/he gave us poor memories and poor teaching skills), but also for being completely juvenile and picking favourites. If you ask me, this god deserves to have her/his back turned on/be rejected.

...

I think I may have worked out a brilliant system, utilizing biblical loop holes! If not, please re-inform me, so I can continue working on my life saving theorem. Okay, so the logic goes like this:

1. The plane of existence that we currently live in is so awful and horrible, that there is no point living in when we have been given an afterlife that is so perfect and worth striving for.

2. It is irrational to maintain living in an existence that is terrible and pales in comparison to this promised afterlife.

3. However, it is wrong to commit suicide and wrong to kill one another, so it appears that the only way out of this awful existence to die of natural causes.

4. Conversely, so long as one is to repent and accept the love of God, we shall be forgiven, no matter how heinous our crimes.

5. Using this loophole, we can then create a system that allows every single person on the planet to move onto this afterlife and live in a lap of luxury that is so far out of comprehension. The system goes as follows:

a) Every single person is to form into a line.

b ) It is B's job to murder A.

c) B repents and accepts the word of God. C then Murders B.

d) This continues until every person has been sent to the afterlife, except for the last two.

e) Unfortunately for the last two, the death will be excruciating. However, as this suffering is irrelevant, the two will know they are moving on to beauty. It will be the task of one another to kill each other in a way that they start off some kind of systematic murder, where they both have time to repent.

f) Once the last two have died, every single person is living in an afterlife, an afterlife of such delights we can only dream of!

6. Therefore, we should follow this system, seeing as it is so worth striving for.

No. But I can honestly say that I believe that our existence was brought about by sheer luck. I think religion undermines the complexity that we seem to value so highly. Evolution via natural selection can seem so unbelievable that we decide to undermine just how amazing the concepts are, we choose to rather believe in mystical concepts which equate to the same things a 5 year old believes.

But would Jesus have died otherwise? Of old age? Otherwise, what was he doing aging? Why not just have him appear as a man, and stop him from aging? Or were we meant to kill him, undermining free-will?

Does that mean that everything is nothing to God? What exactly does God do with her/his time?

It it possible that we can prove a God?

If so, how? And as mentioned, how do we know if it's the right one? You could say we know intuitively, but this would be wrong?

wow, i'd better get out of here, this is too serious.

(see above)

so all those missions we run into the slums of Cambodia to aid the people that are crippled by diseases were for nothing.
To expand on the "excluded from God's word", that's Christian's job, to spread the story of faith.
Also, God has reached millions, if not billions, of people that were not His! Remember, God's Kingdom was the Chosen People. But Jesus broke down the nationallistic borders. I like this quote, "although they are not my people, I will make them my people. I will treat with love those nations that have never been loved."

God gave us everything we needed. but it has always been human nature to want more. We had prophets for a time, people chosen to speak directly to God, but it was the people that called for the first King (a leader of the people, a strong leader). Should God have crushed these people for wanting a different leader? What would be the point of giving us life if we were only going to waste it? At this point, I should point out that it's not even right to be asking these rhetorical questions, perhaps i'm doing so to point out the ridiculousness of ridiculing God's actions.
The people of the time used an analogy between a potter and God, "doesn't a potter have a right to make whatever they choose out of the clay?"


Also, consider the fact that God rejoices after every singular person saved. Every time someone turns back to Him, God is there.

If not for God's ultimate understanding of our minds, hearts and bodies, the system works! But when we come before God to be judged, it is described as a process much like "cleaving flesh from bone", exposing everything right throughout us.
I think i may have posted this in another thread, there are three things that are eternal: Faith, Hope and Love: the greatest of which is Love.

I was merely pointing out in our concept of time, God doesn't age.
I like the imagery presented in Bruce Almighty of God having to answer every single prayer of every single Christian in the world. Then adding onto this, working through the Holy Spirit to reach those that aren't Christian.
Of course, I can't answer what God does with time, because I don't know! Imagine if God had no concept of time, perhaps working instead with people constantly!

Jesus dying of old age would not have had any affect what-so-ever. However, the fact that he did age pointed out that he had come as a mortal, not some sort of gigantic heroic King that the people expected would overturn the Government and the High Priests and the Pharisees.
Jesus still had his own choices to make, and his own path to follow. He was amazing the church leaders at a very young age!
His last prayer, "not my will, but your will be done", implies that God did mean him to die, yes. The rulers did what they thought was right, crushed a rebellion by crucifying Jesus. If they hadn't, they feared an even bigger revolution.
God can make people stubborn, and I think this was the case with the Pharisees, Ceaser, King Herod, at the time, they were so addicted to power that they ignored the omens and decided to get rid of this rebel while they still could.
It's a good question, and i think you could argue either way. Obvioulsy, in this day/age, it's very hard to tell.

Sorry for posting such a large reply to your large post, but I felt that I had to answer as much as I could.

As for disease; it is either biological (which it is; bacteria are micro-organisms of sorts and viruses are dependent on the living) and happens randomly through environmental conditions, or this god is a scum bag. As for being crippled; this is either a result of disease, malnutrition, an event or inheritance. A lot harder to justify. In my view, there is no way to reconcile this with a loving god, responsible for the creation of the universe and all that is in it. These are 'natural evils', not 'moral evils', so it is gods fault in the first place for these problems. If you adhere to creationism, you adhere to the 'fact' that god created deadly bacteria, tape-worms and mosquitoes.

As for assisting them, this becomes a heated topic. The Dan Man said this earlier:

Now, hoping this won't offend anyone, and it isn't always the case, but this turns any act of religious based altruism into an act of egoism. Sure people are benefiting from this and certainly it needs to be done, but the intent of the act is not necessarily always to help these people, but rather to secure a place in heaven for the volunteer. The moral worth of the act somewhat disintegrates.

Also, many, many organizations are secular or of other faiths/spiritual sects. It is a mixed bag.

Personally, I adhere to secular-humanism. Why do something purely for a reward at the end of it? Why not accept that we do not know what happens after/during death and treat this as the only existence we know?

I assume this is redirecting me back to your earlier post? If this is the case, it doesn't answer anything. All you have said is that people chose to reject god. This is does not answer my question. It answers nothing.

But Christianity has not, and never will reach all people. The same problem I posed before still applies. And why weren't they his? I would assume they would be. They are people after all. Not unless we are ready to admit that there are really differences between humans, thereby meaning there are human and sub-humans. This is why Christianity becomes extreme; just look at the Ku Klux Klan. And the nation-state as we know it has only become a distinct social system universally in the past 300 years. Before that the vast majority of people were organized into tribes/clans/small communities. I believe the 'chosen people' of the old testament was used to mobilize people into a political grouping. Just read the stories of David and Solomon. The people were given a 'divine' reason to slaughter the Philistines and to seize territory. Like most wars/conflicts, it is a lot harder to assess who is good and who is bad, because it doesn't always work like that. But if you propagate that you are given a 'divine' right to kill gentiles or other races, then you can pretty much control your population to do whatever you say. For example, in World War I, the Germans, the British, the French, the Austrians, the Turks, the Australians and basically everyone else went into war under the impression that god was on their side. Quite obviously, this is impossible. And if god is on anyones side, then once again, free-will is undermined.

My favourite passage from Homer's Odyssey:

So either you accept whatever free-will is, we have it and god is not responsible for what we consider 'moral evils', or you accept that god did/does have a 'chosen people' and he is responsible for at least some 'moral evils'. Or, you could become a racist and call all other people 'sub-human', justifying Israel's aggression in the time of antiquity. It is a dilemma, that I find is very difficult to evade.

What is it that we need? If that is a feature of human nature, then I assume that leads to a conclusion that it is intrinsic of us; we are psychologically egotistical. In other worlds, it is genetic. God created us to have the ability to be greedy and reject him. How ridiculous. Not what I would call an intelligent designer.

Furthermore, I don't need or want a god, as neither do many other millions of people. So he gave us everything we want, except she/he didn't. She/he gave us his word, but also she/he gave us reason to reject it.

The system would absolutely work. When it comes time to be judged, St. Peter, or god will assess the moral worth of the intent and realize that this was a massive act of altruism, following the word of the bible. Sure people were murdering each other, but they repented and carried this massive suicide in order for the benefit of man; god's creatures. The bible allows this loophole.

But if god is everything, then god is time. She/he is time right to the lowest reducible point, so therefore time is everything to god. It is a dimension that is impossible for our universe to exist without. Whether time is linear or not is a separate question. The fact is, time exists.

But then if Jesus is man, his personality must have been hard-wired? He then, is largely not a man.

Historically, it appears that this is correct (if Jesus did in fact exist. Many scholars put him down as a priest). However, Emperor Constantine adopted the faith (as with many others, contradictory) and used it as a social contract. He, and a panel of high-priests revised the bible to serve their own political needs. This effectively made Christianity timid and a means to control people within and out of the Roman Empire. It was Emperor Nero that burnt the Christians and tried to prevent them from rebelling against the state. Caesar was not a Christian. He was in the era of the Roman gods.