When I was in high school, I sat in the back corner of one of my classes with a couple of Christian girls. They regaled me with End Times stories which I now believe were cobbled up from John Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, further promoted via the Scofield Bible, which gave rise to Dispensationalism and Christian Zionism.
I wasn't a Christian myself, just an ignorant, clueless churchgoer, but I listened avidly to their tales. They said that one day soon, there was going to be a one world government, a one world religion and a one world currency. I had no idea about any of this, but lo and behold, we are actually now at the precipice of such a possibility. Not that I believe this will happen. It is being threatened after a fashion by WEF.
They said that one day, Jesus would come and rapture all of the Christians out of the world before the horrors were unleashed, and they considered they would be receiving this wonderful ride.
However, all of the non-Christians "left behind" were going to be in very serious trouble. The Anti-Christ would arise and rule the world and would begin persecuting any new Christians that would convert after the rapture. These people would have a kind of "second chance" with Jesus, but it would really cost them, because the Anti-Christ would chop off their heads if they didn't take the "mark of the beast," without which no man could "buy or sell."
I was so freaked out by these talks, that I got out a Bible and read all of Revelation, without any understanding of the text, of course. Since I didn't know how to "believe in Jesus," I thought I was going to end up being one of those people who got their heads chopped off, because taking the mark would result in a ride to hell, which, of course, I didn't want.
This was about 15 years prior to my conversion. And I finally learned that much of Revelation is written in a very symbolic way.
After conversion, someone gave me a copy of the Scofield Bible. It is very influential in the American churches. I noticed that there are copious margin notes, and the notes overwhelmingly promote the earthly nation of Israel. So this led many American churches to put earthly Israel above Christ's Kingdom.
If you notice the kinds of things that WEF and others of that ilk are saying, doing, and threatening to do, they seem to be promoting some kind of End Times madness. It is interesting that in the early days of the Christian church, people were saying that the disciples were "turning the world upside down." It is equally interesting that today, the world has once more become something that has "turned upside down," but not in the Gospel sense, rather in a crazy, never-seen-before kind of way. Good has become bad, ugly has become beautiful, upside down is now considered to be right side up.
If the WEF orcs get their way, there will be all kinds of suffering and death, and they have been holding this over our heads since early 2020. Not that they didn't talk about it before. It's just that not many were listening. Well, a lot of us are listening now, because the orcs got louder.
Since 2020, I have had some days with crying and even screaming at the walls. "Isn't anyone going to put a stop to this?" The world has truly gone mad. I thought maybe Hazmat suits were going to come to my door, throw me down, and forcibly inject me with poison. Hasn't happened so far. I thought the BLM riots might come to my neighborhood, robbing, raping, killing and setting fire. Hasn't happened yet. Last fall, Biden promised a dark winter. Didn't happen. They are threatening us now with no money, no food, no heat for our homes, no fuel for our cars, and even a potential nuclear exchange. Is any of that going to happen? Or is it mostly just fear mongering for the purpose of controlling the masses?
Orcs such as Klaus Schwab talk as if they are on the verge of victory. I think they are wrong. They haven't read the back of the book. I don't think we will have to line up at guillotines, emaciated, freezing, and beaten nearly to death. These things have indeed happened to some people throughout history. But I believe in the happy ending that God has promised. Satan's army is busy threatening ALL of us. That has never happened before, to my knowledge. Satan can't win, however. God wins. It is that simple.
Maybe you should read yours! Ever heard of the Book of Revelation or 1Thess. Maybe 11Thess.?
Revelation was about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70AD.
1 thess: that this passage refers to the visible, glorious, second advent to conclude history, not an invisible rapture removing believers in preparation for setting up another redemptive-historical era (the great tribulation followed by the millennium).
Paul says:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1Th 4:16).
By all appearance, this seems emphatically to be a very public event, even if we do not take these elements as literal trumpet blasts and loud audio vocalizations. Besides, this event involves millions of physical resurrections and the transformation of millions of living believers, removing them from the world. This must have a public impact.
In addition, the passage teaches that “so shall we ever be with the Lord.” It says nothing of Christians going with him to heaven for seven years, then returning to the earth to rule in a thousand-year millennium, then returning back to heaven. Some (not all) dispensationalists hold that: “The locale of their future is not permanent as they will be in heaven during the time preceding the Second Coming [i.e., during the seven-year great tribulation]. They will be on earth during the millennial kingdom.
I think not but you can believe what you want.
Oh thanks for your permission. I will. It happens to be the same thing the vast majority of Christians believed up until about 200 years ago. You're eschatology is so young it has diapers on still.
Meanwhile I can explain every part of Revelation and what it means historically without calling locusts Apache helicopters and other such silliness.
I'm sure the Pope can explain it too along with most other cults. By the way, the Rapture was taught by the early church Fathers and of course we are told there would be a great falling away too. I hope we see each other on the other side.