Is God getting ready to 'fold things up"?

[ironglows]

.
  It looks like man could be on the brink of creating a race of "super humans".  That has happened before, and they became so corrupt and depraved, that God to decide to wipe out most of humanity with a flood..and start anew.

  Now, we have an eminent scientist, at his passing..warning mankind that they may be repeating just such an experience.

  https://www.sciencealert.com/stephen-hawking-future-superhumans-threaten-end-humanity-genetic-engineering-crispr-evolution-ai-planet

  History repeats itself!  The first such calamity can be read about in  (Gen 6:1-6) and (Numbers 13:32,33)

[darkgael]

The message is worth attending to. Hawking wrote of this in what was, iirc, his last book. The book was published in 2018.
Pete

[powderman]

Hawkings was a nutcase, AND an aetheist if I remember right. Why would ANYBODY pay attention to him?? Didn't he spend most of his life trying to prove that GOD did not exist?? He knows now. CHARLIE. 

[ironglows]

.
  Yes, Hawking was an atheist, and I in no way agreed with him on that point. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that everything he says is wrong.
 
  So far as I know, neither my local gun store manager, the proprietor of the local station where I buy gas, do not totally agree with my theology, but i still deal with them, and often hold enlightening conversations with them.

  Did  you read the article? Unless you read the article, it seems to be out of place to criticize it...right?

  In fact, if you read my post, I didn't either accept or reject it's premise, but simply placed it in reference

    to (Gen 6:1-6) and (Numbers 13:32,33)...did you compare those diverse sources ?

[Lloyd Smale]

MASTER RACE!! if i look at whats happening in this country today it looks like hes dumbing down mankind.

[Ranger99]

JMHO-  the United States is dumbing
itself down without any real help.
We have scores of people now that
can't spell or write correctly, and are
all but helpless without their cellphones.
May not happen until I'm already rotted,
but if we continue on the course we're
on at present,  the US will be no more
and this will be a chinese outpost

[ironglows]

JMHO-  the United States is dumbing
itself down without any real help.
We have scores of people now that
can't spell or write correctly, and are
all but helpless without their cellphones.
May not happen until I'm already rotted,
but if we continue on the course we're
on at present,  the US will be no more
and this will be a chinese outpost

   Only question...   Accidental or planned?   Every day it seems to be more a planned devolution.

[Ranger99]

I don't know
I'm from a long gone period of time
when the learning we got free from
public school was precious and wasn't
to be taken lightly.  I was glad for it
later on working full time as a grown
man because the mistakes that you
would make would screw up everything
else and create multiple sets of problems.
I've had to deal with lazy service advisors
that wouldn't spell correctly or would
print erroneous information on a repair
order and it would mess up the technician
trying to find the car and looking for
any repair data, the wrong parts would
often be ordered because of bad information
or delay the order, the service history of
that customer would be fouled up unless
corrected, etc. etc.

Then we see these intelligent kids come
in from overseas that were dirt poor that
make American kids who've had the best
of the best of everything, make these
kids look like blithering idiots and people
get mad because the foreign kids make
us look stoo- ped
Then they holler " GRAMMAR NAZI! "
and things like that

[ironglows]

I don't know
I'm from a long gone period of time
when the learning we got free from
public school was precious and wasn't
to be taken lightly.  I was glad for it
later on working full time as a grown
man because the mistakes that you
would make would screw up everything
else and create multiple sets of problems.
I've had to deal with lazy service advisors
that wouldn't spell correctly or would
print erroneous information on a repair
order and it would mess up the technician
trying to find the car and looking for
any repair data, the wrong parts would
often be ordered because of bad information
or delay the order, the service history of
that customer would be fouled up unless
corrected, etc. etc.

Then we see these intelligent kids come
in from overseas that were dirt poor that
make American kids who've had the best
of the best of everything, make these
kids look like blithering idiots and people
get mad because the foreign kids make
us look stoo- ped
Then they holler " GRAMMAR NAZI! "
and things like that

  Sadly, you have a valid point there in many cases.  This is what happens when any education system tries to tell  WHAT to think, rather than HOW to think (critically).

  ...Or when the instructor teaches politics, rather than life skills .

[littlecanoe]

Christ said that only the Father knows. Therefore, the question is one that doesn’t not need be asked. Based on the word of Christ it is only something that can be known by God. Anything else is idle speculation and the cause of much confusion. History is pregnant with examples.

[powderman]

LC. Great to see you posting again, you have been missed. CHARLIE. 

[ironglows]

  .
  Yes, welcome back aboard LC..glad to see you here..

  ..An interesting quandary..  In Mark13:32..we are told that only the Father knows the DAY, nor the HOUR of His return...

  But by the same token, in Matt 16..chides some, because they cannot/will not read "the signs of the times.

[Bob Riebe]

A day in heaven is as a thousand years on Earth so even if you are in the last ten second count down, wlee can be many years from the day the Father says -- enough is enough.

As I read the signs we have a ways to go.

I have viewed most of of your videos IG, very interesting.
May all of you have a God blessed 4th of July.

[ironglows]

  .
   Bob; you will note, i still do not suggest any dates, that is not my intention..

  Hey..everybody..... Y'all have a great Independence day, & stay safe !

[DEACONLLB]

Read the first chapter of Romans and you will see where we are today. And the killing of 62 million babies don't help matters either. Its like bail worship in a way as they put their children in the arms of a statue that then dropped them alive into a fiery pit. I do not understand how a woman could ever abort their child which is a gift from God.

Deaconllb

[littlecanoe]

Duplicate

[littlecanoe]

There is no quandary. It’s not something that we are to engage in. In Christianity, look for the issues that generate money and make a hundreds of millions of dollar “Christian” industry. In modern times that is end times and charismatic subjects. Where there is so much perversion there is little to no truth.

Many have made the points that you make. When the making of the point places us in direct opposition to what God says we have to change our thoughts. The admonition so “reading the times” is not instruction to make Daniel, Ezekiel and Romans into something that they are not, thus, no quandary.

We simply know, based on the fulfillment of prophecy, Christ having completed His work and ascending that we live in the last days and thus, as the apostles and post apostolic fathers exemplified, await Christ’s return.

[ironglows]

There is no quandary. It’s not something that we are to engage in. In Christianity, look for the issues that generate money and make a hundreds of millions of dollar “Christian” industry. In modern times that is end times and charismatic subjects. Where there is so much perversion there is little to no truth.
   Please note..i made no predictions and not even a hint of a given date.. Ionly suggested that things today appear much as He said they would be just before his return.  No, I don't in any way endorse the many authors who have written the many books and provided the many videos dealing with same

Many have made the points that you make. When the making of the point places us in direct opposition to what God says we have to change our thoughts. The admonition so “reading the times” is not instruction to make Daniel, Ezekiel and Romans into something that they are not, thus, no quandary.

  Where did I go in opposition to what God has said ?(book, chapter, verse).  Are you saying that
 Ezekiel, Daniel and Romans are not prophetic?  Please explain.../color]

We simply know, based on the fulfillment of prophecy, Christ having completed His work and ascending that we live in the last days and thus, as the apostles and post apostolic fathers exemplified, await Christ’s return.

  Doesn't the parable of the ten virgins, tell us that we should be watchful, and continually prepared for His return?   BTW; what is meant by "post apostolic fathers" ?

   ...And please note; the OP was a question..not a statement..

  Again..welcome back..

[ironglows]

.
  BTW; by "fold things up", I didn't mean the new heaven and new earth.  I should have said..."start the fold up the process"..that being the rapture..

[Bob Riebe]

  .
   Bob; you will note, i still do not suggest any dates, that is not my intention..

  Hey..everybody..... Y'all have a great Independence day, & stay safe !

No I did not say you did.
I just think we are years, probably a lot, before the rapture happens, as bad as many think things are, it has to get a lot worse.

Had an excellent 4th of July; drove over to Fargo, North Dakota and refilled my fireworks supply on the 5th.

Used to be on the 5th in Dakotas you could get 2 or even 3 for one sales prices, but now best is 30 percent off or at some places you can dicker for a better deal.

[ironglows]

.
    I see blue Minnesota is as restrictive on fireworks, as is blue New York..    So our neighboring states make the sales and pay the sales tax to their respective state's treasuries..

 In our case Pennsylvania has fireworks stores just about sitting on the border... Looks like S Dakota does the same.

  I don't think the reservations have done the same yet with fireworks, as they have done with tobacco..

  The tobacco thing is a joke..  I see the cigarette prices in NY stores $10 plus per pack...over $100 per carton.

      Folks here can drive 20 miles to the reservation and pick cigs up for $21 per carton. 

   Gasoline has a total of about 65 cents tax each gallon...the res sells no=name gas for about 12 to 20 cents less.   Since the state bureau of weights and measures doesn't check their pumps and the source of gas is unknown, I rarely buy gas there.

[littlecanoe]

There is a tension in what Christ said ("Only the Father knows").  That tension is the same tension that we see when Christ was dying and cried out "Father! Why have You forsaken Me"?  We know that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are individual but One in essence and being.  This is purposefully  beyond comprehension for us.  That being the case, Christ's response to the question asked of Him concerning the end of this world is beyond our comprehension. 

When Christ explains His return it is with the analogy of a wedding. The wedding was arranged for many years. The groom waits for the father, his father, to tell him to go and collect his bride. It is with this understanding that Christ responds "only the Father knows".  To understand that Christ does not know but only the Father is beyond our comprehension and we have to accept that we have incomplete knowledge and are not to know more. We are to be satisfied knowing that God keeps His word.

I think that it is natural for us to have that question in our mind as we get older.  Tomorrow I will be fifty five.  Time has exposed more of the "fallenness" of this fallen world and what that means as I see the world around me and myself. As I see myself reflected in God's word I become more weary in the sense that I see my sinfulness and inability.  This makes me ask that age old question "How long O Lord" with more frequency. 

Rather than interpreting this recurring question as one that must be answered beyond trusting God I accept it as a rhetorical. The mystery of when must remain a mystery. I have the revelation that God intended in that we trust His promise and this must be enough. I find this approach safe in that it keeps me from placing Christ's words in conflict by implying that elsewhere He tells us to have more knowledge of His return than has been revealed.

As I understand the parable of the ten virgins it does not teach about the end times. It is given as an example of faith by contrasting those who look to their own righteousness vs those who look outside themselves to God for salvation.  I'm sure that this passage and many others have been used over the nearly two millennia since the ascension.  The problem that I see is an innumerable number of men who took too much liberty with scripture in light of the revealed word of God, found hidden secrets or codes in scripture and tried to make general revelation specific. 

History is full of men who, for the last two thousand years, asked for more of scripture than this general revelation. They share a few things in common. The secrets that they found were errors. They were wrong. They are all dead. They distracted many people from the nature and purpose of our religion. Christ has not yet returned.  All we have need of knowing is in agreement with the early church.  Christ has ascended having completed His work. He has promised to return. Because of this we know that we are in the last days. All of the signs have been present during that period of time. We await His return.

[ironglows]

.
  LC; I in no way am trying to emphasize or modify any given part or parcel of scripture.  As born again Christians, we are almost bound to look forward with anticipation, that day of our possible rapture.

   Like you, I have little patience with those who capitalize on others' insecurity.  My point was merely to share the thought that we can have an elevated sense of joy, looking forward to that day.

   Surely, you and i have both been through the Bible in studies repeatedly.  If we are just to think.."well I've studied it over and over, so I don't have need of referring to the word anymore"....we both know that would be a mistake.

   We need not be single dimension Christians..

[littlecanoe]

Unfortunately our heritage as American Christians is one that is pregnant with cults and industry related to this one subject. I’ve met far too many people in my lifetime who were Christians who could talk of nothing else. They know intricate apology on nuanced speculation related to mystical truths that are hidden; codes, secret organizations, secret movements etc.

This speculation distracts many from the simplicity of the message of Christ in the word. Rather than seeing Christ, Christ being the subject of all structure, they are taught to see events and happenings that are speculation.

I’m happy with the promise that we don’t know what we will be but that when He appears we will be like him. I am happy to await that event.

[ironglows]

.
  LC;

 While I agree with you that to many Christians dwell too much on eschatology, I don't think we should ignore it because some overdo it!
  While we apparently do not entirely agree with what message is being delivered in (Matt25:1-13), I think Jesus  explicitly told us to "watch" for such signs... in vs 13.
   
  ..But no problem,  disagreement on it, won't affect our salvation..

   The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
 
25 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

[littlecanoe]

I don’t mean to imply that we ignore eschatology. What I have tried to do for the last 17 years is unravel all of the bad theology that I was taught as a child in young men. That has been a long process but it is let me do the understanding that the modern era has brought us to a point in the church that was experienced before the reformation. People have become dependent upon other peoples theories and ideas at the cost of moving away from the original text. Is with that attitude that I approach eschatology. Figure out new wants is a figurative speech that scholars can’t agree on because they don’t know whether they’re reading literal or figurative language in relation to books like revelation is not what our faith is about and it’s not what the average person is to know of eschatology. The book of revelation was simply written to ignorant people who could never understand The crazy and jacked up ideas that permeate modern eschatology. The book of revelation was written in a very peculiar literary form. John repeats the same message in three or four different ways to drive home the idea to those early Christians that they do not worry about missing the second coming or that God would come again. The message was simply to them that God would keep his work. They were never instructed to go into asinine detail based on random while speculation. I am reminded that many of the modern heresies and possibly many of the old heresies come from a miss guided you off necessity of an in-depth knowledge of eschatology. Eschatology is simple Christ will return we don’t know when only the father knows. I have to leave it at that.

[Bob Riebe]

I see it this way:
It is a lot like the 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard in Minn.
Every one was having a great day, not checking signs for weather and therefore; not taking precautions.

What they expected was 100 percent different from reality and a lot of people died.
Things will be bad, by Christian standards but people prefer to like what they like and will ignore any signs that times are a changing and do what makes THEM feel good.
BADA BOOM, there will be no second place winners.

The misery the ultra left socialists are dumping on the current me generation, may be a sign from the Lord to sleep with one eye open, or a slap with the Holy Two by Four to WAKE UP PEOPLE, you brought this one yourselves, fix it, or suffer your own desires.

[ironglows]

.
   "
The misery the ultra left socialists are dumping on the current me generation, may be a sign from the Lord to sleep with one eye open, or a slap with the Holy Two by Four to WAKE UP PEOPLE, you brought this one yourselves, fix it, or suffer your own desire."

  ^^^the essence of it^^^