The Israel/United States War With Iran

        Recently, during the current Middle East conflict of the United States and Israel (and now, a growing list of other countries) against the Islamic Revolutionary State of Iran, I have seen numerous people online who believe that this is the beginning of World War Three and that the End Times have begun. One commenter flatly stated that the Rapture would occur in the next few days.

        Christians!!!! Listen to the Bible! Base what you believe on what the Bible says. Read Matthew 24:1-36, Mark 13:33-37, and Acts 1:7. The Rapture may occur in the next few days and it may not. We should not worry and fret about it. What we should do is always be ready, not just during worrisome times.

        There are numerous Christian eschatological (End Times) positions ranging from preterism, amillenialism, premillenialism, to postmillenialism, with all sorts of gradations and combinations of the different interpretations. These various interpretations exist because the Bible does not explicitly spell out what will happen during the End Times.

        Questions for which we will have to wait for answers: When will the rapture occur? Will Jesus return during our lifetimes? Who is the Antichrist? Are any modern countries mentioned in the Bible? Is the Antichrist already alive and active? Which of the Christian eschatological interpretations is correct? Are any of them correct?

        If events do not play out as you have believed that they will, do not reject the faith. Perhaps you, perhaps I, perhaps all the scholars and theologians, have misunderstood what the Bible has said about the End Times. We all start with our own underlying worldviews and, inevitably, our understandings are colored and influenced by those worldviews. Justin Martyr (2nd century) expressed premillenial views but also said "...many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and who are true Christians, think otherwise."

         We really do not know when the End Times will play out, but we do know that to attempt to establish elaborate and highly specific future timelines is forbidden. Jesus told us that.

Film Comment: This Is the End

Collect up at least one hundred film actors, singers, and entertainers at a wild drug and alcohol fueled party, then start the end of the world, complete with giant monsters and demons. The Earth cracks open and people fall into a burning Hell. Have the actors portray themselves, thrown into this situation.

This Is the End (2013) has a cast filled with big name celebrities: Jamez franco, Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Dany McBride, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, The Backstreet Boys, and many others.

When the trouble starts everyone runs outside as the world begins to burn and explode around them.  Too dumb, selfish, cowardly, drug-addled, gluttonous, etc. to “escape” some do not even notice the disturbance.  But they soon will. The six main protagonists run back into the “safety” of the house.

The guys tell themselves they will survive because they are “good people,” but they realize that they are not.  The film does not show any of these people in a good light.  They all realize that they are damned.

The film, a comedy with some undeniably hilarious moments, features violence, gore, impalement, decapitation, penis jokes, nudity, profanity, cannibalism,  homosexuality, demons, intentional blasphemy, obscenities, betrayal, alcohol and drug abuse, self-righteousness, taking God’s name in vain, urination, vomit, obscene gestures, discussion of intent to rape in the presence of the intended victim, masturbation, demonic possession, prayer for the death of another person, sexual slavery, cowardice, self preservation at the expense of other’s lives.  Did I forget anything?

The supposedly ”happy” messages of the film are:

1.     Self-sacrifice confers instant entry into Heaven.

2.     In Heaven, we become angels.

3.     In Heaven, you can have anything you want, even a dooble.

4.     There is no need to be a “Christian” to enter into Heaven.

5.     Heaven is just another wild party.

6.     The Rapture looks like an alien abduction with a beam of light pulling the person up into the sky.

This highly offensive film intends to offend in every way imaginable, showing a contempt or disregard for any conventional understanding of propriety or morality.  It made me wonder.  The actors, portraying themselves, know that they are damned.

In the film, they are facing evidence which, at the very least, proves that God and the supernatural are real.

These are extremely talented, supposedly very intelligent comedians who have gone out of their way to intentionally offend nearly everything related to Christianity and the End Times.  Should not this film prod these actors into actually thinking about their real-life situations?

To some, or most of the actors, I am sure that this was all just a big joke.  Perhaps they are like many people and do not believe anything at all.  Post-modern moral and intellectual relativism at its logical conclusion.

…………………………………………

This is an end of the world film where the Earth is not merely damaged, but is actually destroyed.  Two other prominent films of this type are When Worlds Collide (1951), which depicts the chaos which erupts when a planet the size of Earth is on a collision course with our planet.  The other is Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), a surprisingly tender and bittersweet love story.  Either of these two films would be an infinitely better use of your two hours than This Is the End.

The World Ends Next Saturday

www.FAMILYRADIO.com has bought billboards and a very expensive full page advertisement in the USA Today newspaper to announce that the end of the world will begin with a worldwide earthquake on Saturday, 21 May 2011.

They acknowledge that Mark 13:32 says, "But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."  They say, "The Bible declares that "No Man Knows" is describing the unsaved condition of mankind.  If you are saved then we may know all things spiritually discerned in God's Word."  They also deny that "the Son" mentioned in Mark 13:32 is Jesus; they say the Son is Satan, the "son of perdition."  The "angels in heaven" are the fallen angels who were cast out of Heaven because of their rebellion against God.  (I will have something to say about these claims later). 


The theology expressed here and the dating of the Judgement Day are based on the calculations of Harold Camping (b. 1921, Colorado, USA).  He previously announced that the Rapture would occur in 1994.


If the announcement is correct, then all Spirit-led Christians are ready.  I am ready as all of you should be, but what I suspect will happen is nothing.  The followers of Harold Camping will join a long line of other disappointed people who have thought that the date that they set was the proper one.  And the result will be that they will have brought reproach and derision upon the Church, the ἐκκλησία.