I have my own theory about the "end times"

I might as well be overly blunt about this and say that people realizing that all that dispensationalist trash is false is for the better - there's a long history of people having 'wrong' beliefs about various religions (Christianity only being one that it's happened to), and when they see that most of the rest of the religion never followed those crackpot ideas they move on and the actual membership is unfazed, nor do I think those that weren't already dead-set against whatever religion it is will avoid it either. Those unable to cope with the fact their beliefs were misguided get caught in the crossfire, yes, but even a large number of them continue adhering to the religion they always followed, and just readjust their beliefs in light of what's happened.

That kind of end times belief is most visible in the United States, some of the aspects of it are almost totally exclusive to the US evangelical/fundamentalist camp (particularly the pieces about one world government conspiracies and the anti-European sentiments that usually accompany them). Moreover, even in the US, it's still a mixed bag because not all churches here fall into that demographic or have anything to do with that theological framework. Not to mention that the state of the US' pop-culture churches doesn't equal the state of Christianity itself. Maybe it represents the hollow, consumeristic, feel-good, milk-fed Modern Church, but that's not representative of Christianity either.

About using those differences to drive us apart, when hasn't that been the case? You only need to look at numerous other contentious theologies and groups that make rifts between believers or make believers look like they need to be locked up in the loony bin. But I still trust that the vast majority out there are able to understand that a particularly vocal minority isn't representative of all believers.

I have no doubt that all these popular Christian speculations about the end of the world are all false. Particularly as there are so many interpretations of it. However, I have come to the conclusion that this continual barrage of all these end times speculations is causing people to become over familiar with all these themes.

And what will be the outcome of all this? Simply this. As the entire world continues to hear about the end of the world, the antiChrist, 666, the mark of the beast etc and as all these things DON'T come to pass, the world will be turned off Christianity. Because the world will see that these things are not happening. Like I said before, when you see Tim LeHaye parodied in The Simpsons, you know the message has become saturated.

Did you know that the nation of Islam believes in their own 'end-time' Messiah. I find this notable and disturbing.

...the hybrid Afrocentric offshoot, the NOI.

Dear CF'ers - I would like to toss in a thought, which I have found stunning and I find so few believers talk about.

Did you know that the nation of Islam believes in their own 'end-time' Messiah. I find this notable and disturbing. This is only one of MANY links to this 'promise'. PLEASE COMMENT - I need your thoughts on this.

Your sister-in-Christ, Gail


The concept of Messiah in Islam

According to the unanimously accepted saying of the Prophet Muhammad, God will bring about a saviour before the end of time to establish the global domination of Islam over all religions. In other words, the saviour will establish the Kingdom of God on this earth. In Islamic traditions, that saviour is known by the name of "al-Mahdi".
The establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth at the hand of the righteous people has been clearly mentioned in the holy Qur’ãn. God says:

We would like to bestow a favour upon those who have been oppressed in the earth and make them leaders and make them inheritors (of the world)." (The Qur’ãn 28:5)

He again says,

Certainly, We wrote in the Psalms (Zabur)...`As for the earth, surely My righteous servants shall inherit it.’" (The Qur’ãn 21:105)