Buying, selling, marrying, eating, drinking, planting, building

Are we still in times like these, even with a global financial crisis looming?

Luk 17:26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
Luk 17:27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
Luk 17:29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.


1Th 5:3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.


2Ti 3:1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2Ti 3:2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self‑control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
2Ti 3:4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–
2Ti 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
2Ti 3:6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak‑willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,
2Ti 3:7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

Will this be what is going on during the reign of the beast or ...like, NOW?

Seriously people, do those scriptures about buying,selling,marrying, eating, dringing describe what life is going to be like after the trumpet judgments, the beasts, the two witnesses, the bowls have all happened and Jesus is returning to destroy the army formed against Him ?

or

Does it describe life RIGHT NOW before the sun/moon darken while people are free to live as they please and not have to bow down to an image, take a mark, in order to buy/sell?

rdclmn7 said:

It appears at least 3 times in the OT.
Its shorthand for business as usual.

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Then, would you agree that this can't be the state of the world during the time when the trumpet judgments, the beasts, the two witnesses, and bowls are all poured out?

It has to be a time like now, right? When everyone is carrying on as usual.

Well, the Bible has told us what life will be like all around us when Jesus is about to come.

People will be buying, selling, marrying, etc and THEN wrath.

It won't be like this on the Day of wrath when the two witnesses are testifying, the trumpet judgments are happening, the beasts are reigning or the bowls of wrath are being poured out. It will be like this BEFORE these things happen.

Mark2010 said:

Ok, so if this is what life is supposed to be like at that time,then what next?

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Expect God to make His presence known.

We apparently won't be in the midst of a world war or unable to buy or sell, plant, build, etc.

But things will get steadily worse...moral decline.

Bible2 said:

People will still have to eat and drink during the
coming tribulation of Revelation chapters 6-18, no
matter how bad it gets, and people still get married
even in the worst of times. If people want to eat
they have to plant, and if they want shelter they
have to build.

Luke 17:26-30 simply means that even right near the
end of the coming tribulation of Revelation chapters
6-18, people will still be going about their lives,
trying to survive as always, without any expectation
that Jesus is about to return in wrath (Revelation
19:15) to destroy them (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Luke
17:34-37 is referring to them being taken and killed
at the second coming to where the birds will eat
their dead bodies (Matthew 24:28, Revelation 19:21,
cf. Job 39:27,30).

1 Thessalonians 5:3 could be referring to when the
whole world will rejoice and make merry and give
gifts to each other at the death of the two witnesses
(Revelation 11:10), thinking that now there will be
peace and safety on the earth and no more plagues
from the two witnesses (Revelation 11:6), not
realizing that shortly thereafter the vials of God's
wrath will be poured out upon the world (Revelation 16).

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Is that how it was in the days of Noah and Lot? Did God make His presence known by darkening the sun/moon and then pour out judgments (two witnesses) before wrath? NO! People were going along as normal and then judgment and wrath came upon them.

IF you think that people will be going along as normal after the sun/moon darken, and the trumpet judgments are being poured out, you're wrong. There will be nothing "normal" about that time period.

Mark2010 said:

So wha does "as in the days of Noah" refer to then? If not the return of Jesus, then what?

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No, I believe it IS the return of the Lord, just not the physical return.

Everyone will know when the physical return of Jesus is.
1. The Bible says it's 1260 days from A of D (Dan 12)
2. It says that the devil reigns for 42 months (Rev 12 & 13)
3. The devil even forms the armies of the world to Megiddo in preparation to fight against Christ as He is physically coming. (6th bowl of wrath in Rev 16 & Rev 19)


The thing is, the physical return of Christ is AFTER the beasts have reigned, after the trumpet judgments have been completed, after the two witnesses have testified and been killed, resurrected and raptured....it won't be like "the days of Noah" during that time. People will not be carrying on as normal during that time, unaware that destruction is coming.

Remember what Peter said?

2Pe 3:3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
2Pe 3:4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."


IF the devil is gathering an army to war against Christ before He physically comes, I wouldn't exactly call that "scoffing" that Christ isn't about to come.

In fact, 3.5 to 7 years before that gathering to war against Christ, men will be saying this:

Rev 6:16They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

Rev 6:17For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"


After this, the beasts, the two witnesses, the trumpets and the bowls happen.

Mark2010 said:

Yeah, was reading Revelation last week. Not sure how people could anticipate Jesus' coming, as in preparing for a war. I'm thinking the war must be against an earthly kingdom (maybe Israel, or someone else). You wouldn't gather an army to prepare to fight against someone that isn't even present.

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I don't know if the actual people involved understand they are gathering to fight against Christ or if the devil has told them a lie. One thing is certain, those who gather to war against Christ will have the mark of the beast and be in league with the devil.

Rev 16:14They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.


Rev 19:19Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army.

So the conditions "as in the days of Noah" don't refer to Jesus' return, do they refer to things at time of the rapture? Or something else?

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Frankly, I really think it has to be at the time of the rapture when the sun/moon darken because I really don't see how it could possibly refer to what is going on when Christ is about to physically return.

When Christ is about to physically come, the beast will have reigned for 42 months, the two witnesses would have testified and called down plagues for 42 months, the waters, earth, trees will have been burned, turned to blood/bitter, people will have died or been imprisoned by the beast, God would have poured out the plagues on the kingdom of the beast to include sores on those with the mark, etc.

THAT does NOT describe what life was like in the days of Noah and Lot! Scripture says they'll be eating, drinking, planting, building, marrying...carrying on as normal when Christ returns....not gathering for war against Christ after having been through plagues and major events of wrath.

Mark2010 said:

You know, from reading Revelation, it seems like the witnesses testify and are later killed before the beast has taken control of the world government. Maybe a slight overlap of time, but not entirely the same time period. Because it seems like the trumpets come after the witnesses have finished testifying.

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YEs, that is where I'm very unclear. The things that the two witnesses do are similar to the trumpets. The turning waters to blood, fire, striking the earth with plagues reminds me of the trumpets. It is the beast out of the Abyss who kills them and that happens in trumpet 5. If the beast out of the abyss is the false prophet (beast out of the earth) then, the two witnesses are testifying while the beast is reigning...I think...

I don't know....it's the false prophet who forces people to take the mark and worship the beast...so....hmmm....when does the reign of the beast begin? I imagine the ending of the beast's 42 month reign is when Christ physically returns after the beasts have gathered their armies to Megiddo.

The two 42 month time periods would have to be at least slightly different in order for the beast to kill them and still be reigning after the two witnesses have done their thing for their full 42 months.

It's interesting to consider...