I never knew you

[Johann@P]

 

[Matt5]

After big wars and the mark of the beast, who is left to greet Jesus when he finally arrives?

Jesus is talking to virgins who took the mark of the beast.

 

[Johann@P]

After big wars and the mark of the beast, who is left to greet Jesus when he finally arrives?

Jesus is talking to virgins who took the mark of the beast.

@Matt5
Where in the scriptures do you read that the foolish virgins "took the mark of the beast?"
J.

 

[Matt5]

@Matt5
Where in the scriptures do you read that the foolish virgins "took the mark of the beast?"
J.

I guess my question just blew by you.

Are millions regular Christians, who have not taken the mark of the beast, still around when Jesus arrives on Earth?

 

[Johann@P]

I guess my question just blew by you.

Are millions regular Christians, who have not taken the mark of the beast, still around when Jesus arrives on Earth?

No, but..As the Apostle Paul promised, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And one day, we will fully see through the darkness into the light. We will understand His eternal plan, His mercy, and His love. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

Blessings
J.

 

[Matt5]

No, but..As the Apostle Paul promised, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And one day, we will fully see through the darkness into the light. We will understand His eternal plan, His mercy, and His love. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

Blessings
J.

Parables are designed to confuse people on purpose.

What is this parable even talking about? Jesus comes back and there is all kinds of confusion. Really? I don't think so. Something else is going on.

When is the last time unmarked Christians are found alive? Right before the mark. That means all the confusion surrounding the arrival of Jesus is really about the fake Jesus, aka false prophet. A guy shows up doing miracles and calling himself Jesus. Half the virgins are fooled and the other half are wise enough to understand. The fooled virgins take the mark. The wise ones are killed. A few hide out in the wilderness. See, there is some faith left but not much.

Who does Jesus reject? He rejects the foolish virgins who took the mark.

 

[Johann@P]

Parables are designed to confuse people on purpose.

What is this parable even talking about? Jesus comes back and there is all kinds of confusion. Really? I don't think so. Something else is going on.

When is the last time unmarked Christians are found alive? Right before the mark. That means all the confusion surrounding the arrival of Jesus is really about the fake Jesus, aka false prophet. A guy shows up doing miracles and calling himself Jesus. Half the virgins are fooled and the other half are wise enough to understand. The fooled virgins take the mark. The wise ones are killed. A few hide out in the wilderness. See, there is some faith left but not much.

Who does Jesus reject? He rejects the foolish virgins who took the mark.

Whatever you say @Matt5 whatever you say, the tares and the wheat must/dei grow up together. It's a mystery.
Blessings
J.

 

[aiki]

I'm kinda'...disturbed by your flooding this subforum with John Piper stuff. His higher-level (by which I mean more radical) Reformed doctrines infuse much, if not all, of what he has to say, corrupting and confusing things in some very fundamental and destructive ways. I get that one shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but folks looking for answers who encounter Piper's ideas on soteriology are going to find themselves led down a very dark path toward a God who is a moral monster, ordaining the rapist's rape and the murderer's murder; whose salvation is actually only for a select few He has arbitrarily chosen to be His; who has made most incapable of wanting Him (but desirous of evil things) and then condemns and punishes them for His making them so; who has meticulously decreed all that occurs so that, no matter what I do, no matter how cockeyed or evil it is, I can shrug my shoulders and say, "God made me do it." I lived within the bizarre confines of Reformed/Calvinist doctrine for twenty years. Thank God, I never sank my teeth into it as Piper has! Anyway, be careful whose "signal" you're boosting and what sort of "signal" it is.

 

[aiki]

I just listened to Piper's comments in the video and thought to myself, "If Reformed doctrine is actually true, then the warning Jesus gives in the parable of the Ten Virgins is pointless. On the Calvinist view, all who are spiritual strangers to Christ, to God the Father, are made so by God who has sovereignly decreed that they should be strangers to Himself. What then, of urging folk to act contrary to God's decree? If He has meticulously ordained that they should not prepare themselves well for the Marriage Feast, who are they to resist His divine ordination? Is it not better to submit to God's will and be the "careless virgin" He has ordained that they should be? In this way, Reformed doctrine eats itself, placing the Reformed theologian in a constant condition of self-contradiction from which a facile appeal to "divine mystery" does not extricate them.

The parable Jesus gave, however, does not read like the teaching of one who has adopted theistic determinism (even in it's compatibilistic disguise). A straightforward reading of the parable seems to me to imply very clearly that all of the virgins had the same capacity to prepare themselves well for the Marriage Feast and so those who did not are fully responsible for their unprepared state - and properly deserving, then, of the bad reception they receive from the Bridegroom when they arrive before him in such a state.

 

[Johann@P]

I just listened to Piper's comments in the video and thought to myself, "If Reformed doctrine is actually true, then the warning Jesus gives in the parable of the Ten Virgins is pointless. On the Calvinist view, all who are spiritual strangers to Christ, to God the Father, are made so by God who has sovereignly decreed that they should be strangers to Himself. What then, of urging folk to act contrary to God's decree? If He has meticulously ordained that they should not prepare themselves well for the Marriage Feast, who are they to resist His divine ordination? Is it not better to submit to God's will and be the "careless virgin" He has ordained that they should be? In this way, Reformed doctrine eats itself, placing the Reformed theologian in a constant condition of self-contradiction from which a facile appeal to "divine mystery" does not extricate them.

The parable Jesus gave, however, does not read like the teaching of one who has adopted theistic determinism (even in it's compatibilistic disguise). A straightforward reading of the parable seems to me to imply very clearly that all of the virgins had the same capacity to prepare themselves well for the Marriage Feast and so those who did not are fully responsible for their unprepared state - and properly deserving, then, of the bad reception they receive from the Bridegroom when they arrive before him in such a state.

And five of them were wise,.... The order of these words is inverted in some versions, as in the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, which read, "and five of them were foolish, and five of them were wise"; but this is of no great consequence. There is a parable of R. Jochanan ben Zaccai (m), who lived before, and after the destruction of the second temple, which bears some likeness to this part of the parable, and others in it, and is this;
"a certain king invited his servants, but did not fix any time for them; those of them that were פקהים, "wise", adorned themselves, and sat at the gate of the king's house, and said, is there any want at the king's house? but those of them that were טפשים, "fools", went and did their work, and said, is there any feast without trouble? on a sudden, the king inquired after his servants: the wise went in before him, as they were, adorned; but the fools went in before him, as they were, filthy: the king rejoiced at meeting the wise, and was angry at meeting the foolish; and ordered, that those who had adorned themselves for the feast should sit and eat, and those that had not adorned themselves for the feast should stand.''
The wise virgins are such, who are wise, not in their own conceits, which is the case of natural men, and empty professors; nor in the things of nature, or in the things of the world, of which the saints are oftentimes less knowing than others; nor in notional and speculative knowledge, much less in things that are evil: but they are such who are wise unto salvation; who not only know the scheme of it, but are sensible of their need of it; apply to Christ for it; venture their souls on him, and commit them to him: they trust in his righteousness for justification; in his blood for pardon; in his sacrifice for atonement; in his fulness for daily supplies; in his grace and strength to perform every duty; and expect eternal life in, and from him: they know him, prize him, and value him as their Saviour; rejoice in him, and give him all the glory; and they are such who are also wise in the business of a profession, as well as in the affair of salvation; they are such who take up a profession of religion aright, upon principles of grace, and after mature thought and deliberation; and when they have so done, hold it fast without wavering, walk becoming it in their lives and conversations; and yet do not depend on it, or trust to it:
and five were foolish; not in their own apprehension, in which they might be wise enough; nor in the judgment of others; nor in natural knowledge; or with respect to the things of the world; nor in speculative notions of the Gospel; nor merely so called, because unconverted; every unconverted man being a foolish man: but they were so in the business of salvation; as all are who build their hopes of it on birth privileges; on a carnal descent from good men; on a religious education; on their own righteousness; or on the absolute mercy of God; and not on Christ, the one only, and sure foundation: they are such who know not themselves; the impurity of their hearts, and nature; their impotency to that which is spiritually good; and the imperfection and insufficiency of their own righteousness: they know not Christ, and his salvation, neither the worth, nor want of him, or that; and are altogether strangers to the power of godliness, and spiritual experience: and are also as foolish in the affair of a profession, which they take up without a work of the Spirit of God upon their souls, and without considering the cost and charge of it; and either in a little time wholly drop it, or, if they hold it, they foolishly depend upon it, or lead lives unsuitable to it. The number of wise and foolish virgins being equal, does not imply that there will be just the same number of nominal, as of real believers in the churches, in the latter day, a little before the coming of Christ; only that there will be a large number of such among them.
(m) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 153. 1. Vid. R. David Kimchi in Isa. lxv. 13.
Gill.

 

[nhisname]

I believe in the pretribe rapture. The ones left behind will either take the mark of the beast or be martyred.