Live in Fear?

Yeh I can see where your coming from Theresa . I know a couple of athiest women who don't wish to have children...simply because of the way the world is and the way it's headed , and they know nothing about bible prophecy .

I don't think many of us eschatology freaks are fearful of what's coming...I think we look foreward to it , I know I do .

And like you said...anyone of us could drop dead tomorrow and miss the show , so I think your right , what's the point of being overly concerned .

Take each day as it comes I guess .

Originally posted by Theresa
I can't live in fear of the Endtimes. I'm not going to worry about tomorrow...

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I believe we all -- whether we are pre-trib or post-trib -- must in these days begin to face and get free of any fear of tribulation and any fear of death, as Christians have always been exhorted to:

"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Revelation 21:7-8).

"Deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:15).

"Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do" (Luke 12:4).

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better" (Philippians 1:21-23).

I myself is looking for that end to come because it means I will be with My LORD JESUS CHRIST!
There is nothing to fear about that!

I fear neither death nor end times. However I enjoy studying all aspects of the word and love knowing the end of the book and how it will all pan out. It's pretty cool knowing how this story will end even though the world looks completely different right now. God is awesome.

I used to hate it when people mentioned anything about the end times! I did NOT want it to happen when I was alive! I don't know when or why the change came, maybe because my relationship with God grew emensely; but now I'm rather intrigued by it all.(If you can use that word when talking about the end times!) I actually think I'd like to be here whenever it happens! Now if it started tomorrow, I may think a bit differently, but that's the way I feel right now! I'd like to see how it would all unfold and all! My only selfish, petty request to God is that I want to be married before it happens!lol! But I'm not sure if God takes requests! My question now is would it make a difference if you worried?! Would it stop it from happening? I don't think so. And it just becomes a big stress and worry in your life! For anybody that does worry I say that instead of worrying, you should work on relationship with God grow! Heck maybe one day you'll think about it and find you can't wait til He comes again! God Bless ~rh

You should not live in fear of the end-times but rather look forward to them coming with longing for when the end-times are here our Lord and Saviour will not be far behind.

12th January 2003 at 05:05 PM Theresa said this in Post I can't live in fear of the Endtimes. 

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Where did you get this ridiculous idea that the end times are meant to generate fear in the believer? The unbeliever, on the other hand, should live in fear regardless of the endtimes, because the eternal Lake of fire is far worse than anything that will come upon earth.  I take it your're a believer?

 

from all my reading this theory about the Endtimes

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It's not a "theory' but a fact. Prophecy is God's way of telling His people He is always fully in control, no matter what happens.

 Perhaps he would be killing Christians in secret the same way the Jew were killed.

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The Antichrist will openly kill those who do not take his mark and worship his image, but believers who are living now will not face the Antichrist. *God hath not appointed us to wrath, but unto salvation*. The appearance of Antichrist on earth means that God allows Satan to take control of the earth for a few years as a form of judgment against those who have rejected the Gospel.

Can you believe that I lived in so much fear of the End earlier in my life that I didn't want to have children? I'm glad God gave them to me anyways. Theresa 

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So do you know that you've been born again, and that you have everlasting life? Then share the Gospel with your children and lead them to Christ.  Those who belong to Him wait for His coming to take them home before all these terrible things come upon the earth.




 

Originally posted by Ezra:
…believers who are living now will not face the Antichrist...

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In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, I believe Paul says that the apostasy and abomination of desolation must occur before the day Jesus comes to gather us together (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4), and that Jesus' coming (parousia) to gather us together must destroy the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:8). We Christians must go through the reign of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:7-10, 14:12-13).

Originally posted by Ezra:
…God hath not appointed us to wrath...

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I don’t believe that 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is referring to the wrath of Satan, but to the wrath of God, for those of us who have obtained salvation can be appointed to the wrath of Satan:

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 12:17).

"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

Originally posted by Ezra:
…Those who belong to Him wait for His coming to take them home before all these terrible things come upon the earth...

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Does any scripture promise us a rapture before the tribulation? Doesn't Jesus say that he will come to gather us together "immediately after the tribulation" (Matthew 24:29-31)?

What's there to be afraid of? Jesus will rapture the church b4 the worst begins.

Joke:

church goer: Who's the Anti-Christ?!

pastor: why? You wanna have lunch with him?

*LOL

Before the anti-christ can be revealed, the church has to be taken out of the way.

We should certainly not live in fear of the end times.  Indeed, the first thing that is prayed for in the Lord's prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught us, is "thy kingdom come" - so we should be praying for the end times to come and God's kingdom to be established upon earth.

However, we should be mindful of the potential coming of christ, which could come at any time because "No-one knows about that day or hour" and it should motivate us to be good stewards of what we have been given (see Mat 15:14-30, the parable of the talents) and to general godly living, (Mat 25:31-46 and Luke 12:35-47).

Originally posted by Andrew:
...Before the anti-christ can be revealed, the church has to be taken out of the way...

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I don't believe the restrainer (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8) can be the church because many of us Christians will still be on the earth during the Antichrist's rule (Revelation 13:7-10, 14:12-13), and there are no Christians outside of the church (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Originally posted by Yahweh Nissi:
...we should be mindful of the potential coming of christ, which could come at any time...

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I don't believe that the Bible anywhere says that Jesus can come to gather us together at any time, but says the opposite (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, compare Matthew 24:29-31).

In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, I believe Paul says that the apostasy and abomination of desolation must occur before the day Jesus comes to gather us together (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4), and that Jesus' coming (parousia) to gather us together must destroy the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:8). We Christians must go through the reign of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:7-10, 14:12-13).

Originally posted by Yahweh Nissi: .
..because "No-one knows about that day or hour"...

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"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:36-37).

Note that in Matthew 24:36-44 Jesus is referring to the same "coming of the Son of man" as when he says "immediately after the tribulation of those days... they shall see the Son of man coming" (Matthew 24:29-30). Jesus isn't teaching a 3rd coming. Note that he is speaking to the same believers, the same "ye," in Matthew 24:15 that he is speaking to in Matthew 24:42.

Note that Jesus didn't say "no one will know the day" (future tense) of the 2nd coming but "no one knows the day" (present tense in translation, perfect tense in Greek).

Note the exact correlation of the phrase and tense of "knoweth no man" in Matthew 24:36 and 1 Corinthians 2:11-12: "Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God." See also: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth... and he will shew you things to come" (John 16:13).

Jesus said his coming would be "as the days of Noah were" (Matthew 24:36-37). God told Noah when the flood would come before it came: "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (Genesis 7:4). He told him because: "Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).

Note that Jesus comes on people at an hour they will not know only "if" they aren't watching: "IF therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" (Revelation 3:3). Paul said that if we watch for the 2nd coming it will not overtake us as a thief: "Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief... let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch" (1 Thessalonians 5:2, 4, 6). Note that between the 6th and 7th vials, at the very end of the tribulation, Jesus is still exhorting us to keep watching for his coming: "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth" (Revelation 16:15).

Before the 2nd coming, at the abomination of desolation, I believe those of us alive and still watching will know that we'll have to wait 1,335 days until Jesus comes: "From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days" (Daniel 12:11-12).

Originally posted by Yahweh Nissi:
...it should motivate us to be good stewards...

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Note that belief in an imminent pre-trib rapture isn't required to be motivated to work diligently every day for the Lord because we never know when we're going to die (Luke 12:20). And we know we will be judged by our works (Matthew 25:26, 30; 2 Corinthians 5:10-11; 1 Peter 1:17; Revelation 2:23; Luke 12:47-48).