Armageddon at Megiddo

I'm going to skip covering the Rapture in this exposition of eschatology (end time study) because most of you who will likely be waiting for it, have already formed your opinion as to when it may happen in relation to the end times.

Those of you who have not yet accepted that it may take place in your lifetime, will likely be facing what happens AFTER the Rapture, taking away, or however you choose to describe Christ coming back to collect His church, Ekkesi, separated, elect, chosen ones.... you get my drift!.

Basically this is not an in depth study, there are stacks of them around to confuse even the elect if that were possible.

This is a short review of what scripture says will happen.

If you want to explore who the Antichrist may be (and he's probably alive right now, waiting in the wings for his cue to take the stage) go read any number of sites dedicated to that. The bible tells us how we recognise him, that's good enough for me, someone will tell me who he is, not who he may be, when it becomes apparent.

I have my ideas, but all that's relevant is.... I know I'm not him!

So are you ready to explore further?

Think of Armageddon like an horror film, with one vital difference... the audience don't get up and go home at the end.

But like horror movies, you do have the choice to watch them or not, I'm just showing you the trailers so that you can decide whether you want to see the 'film' first hand!

Actually, not even see it, you'll be starring in it!

Of course there is a chance that you have no idea what the Rapture is or will be, and I admit that before I came to faith, neither did I.

Well to put it in a nutshell it's a seemingly improbable event where Christ returns to earth (but does not touch down) in order to gather together those of His people that He wishes to remove from earth before they get damaged too much.

Christ appears in the sky (look to the East if you are watching for Him) and in a 'twinkling of an eye' (which is obviously very fast indeed, like probably faster than a camera shutter clicked, when we still had cameras that used shutters) all the true believers disappear and are instantly with Him, no longer of this world, vanished, gone.

It's all very dramatic and missing it will be bad news.

Frankly it's not the sort of thing you want to take chances with, and even if you don't agree now, you may see it prudent to take stock of your chances of being Raptured when you read below what happens AFTER the Rapture has taken place.

It's called the WRATH OF GOD and it's not for nothing that the bible tells us that "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31

Now mocking God seems to be a national sport nowadays, and people seem not to care, but these prophesies are either accurate and will come to bear, or are false.

Let me put this in perspective.

There are 688 fulfilled prophesies in the bible, fulfilled meaning they came true 100%, not 99% 0r 98%, no siree, they came the full 100% right. On the Hub forums, there are always athiests and evolutionaries shouting their religious mantra "show me the scientific proof".

Well this chap Peter Stoner wrote a book called Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability.

Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies, "we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10¹⁷."

That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.

In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that "we take 10¹⁷ silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep.

Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.

Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one.

What chance would he have of getting the right one?

Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man.

Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷, or

1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 10⁷⁹.

It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident."

(Ref: http://www.carm.org/christianity/bible/prophecy-bible-and-jesus)

So taking a chance that the following scriptures are not going to happen would probably qualify you to win the Darwin awards!

"Now I know what you're thinking, did he fire five or six shots, well I guess the answer is; How lucky do you feel?"

With apologies to Dirty Harry, but I love those lines....

How lucky do you feel?

PS. Luck comes from Lucifer, believers get Blessed by God!

Revelation 16

The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth."

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.

The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.

^{Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:}

"You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged; for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve."

And I heard the altar respond: "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments."

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire.

They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness.

Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.

Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."

Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!"

Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake.

No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.

The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed.

God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.

Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.

From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men.

And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

Right now, men are already cursing God and refusing to repent.

Will you continue to do so?