It is the not-too-distant future, and the rapture has happened. Every single child and born-again Christian on the planet has, without warning, disappeared from the face of the earth to meet Christ in heaven. Planes have crashed due to missing pilots, cars have been left unmanned, offices suddenly cut of a third of their workers, leaving behind only their clothes and jewelry as clues to their earlier presence. The removal of believers from the earth sets the stage for history's most traumatic era: the Tribulation. This seven-year period will be filled with a reign of terror from which no country or nation will be excluded, and it will all happen under the Antichrist's rise to power and rule. Jesus will, however, return at the end in the flesh, and in a monumental battle he will vanquish and destroy Satan and his followers. There will then be a thousand years of peace under the reign of Christ on earth. Satan will then once again be unleashed at the end of this millennium, but will then, once and for all, be defeated for ever. God will create a new heaven and a new earth, both to be governed and inhabited by the faithful for eternity. To most people, at least those unaccustomed with dispensational evangelicalism, this may sound like an outlandish scenario only possible in the context of fantasy fiction. A significant number of evangelical Christians, especially in the United States, do however believe that this precise sequence of events – or one very similar – will actually take place in the not too-distant-future. They believe that this apocalyptic reckoning has been foreordained by God and described in the prophetic books of the Bible, to be discovered by all who can learn and read the clues correctly. It is beliefs like this t... ... middle of paper ... ...uted its prerequisite maneuvers. Already assured of triumph, the Tribulation Force is downgraded to the role of players in nothing but a cosmic drama in which improvisation is strictly prohibited. The characters are not simply spectators to the signs of the times they are able to interpret, but also spectators of their own actions. Because they don't see themselves as making history but simply fulfilling it, the characters understand themselves as actors. This is not meant as actors in the sense of people doing things that matter, but actors in the theatrical sense of people performing from scripts written and directed by others, and whose actions are highly restricted. The participants try to behave as if they are acting of their own free will and accord, but instead they are really only reenacting, or to use Ken Ritz's way of saying it, “going through the motions.”
The 21st century is the age of information and technology and as the human species continues to advance there are growing concerns that the human race is close to its end. Jerry Oltion uses his text Judgment Passed as an allegory for the belief of the Christian salvation and the state of the modern world. In Jerry Oltion’s text planet Earth is depleted, causing humans to send astronauts into space to colonize another planet named Dessica (Oltion). These astronauts are in space for twelve years and when they return to Earth they learn that the end of the world has occurred without them. The astronauts learn through old newspaper articles that Jesus Christ returned to earth and saved everyone. This causes the astronauts to ponder the reason they were not saved like all the people on Earth and the other colonies in space. Throughout Judgment Passed there are metaphors for the Christian belief of what happens after death such as the realm of limbo and then there are the metaphors that are a depiction of today’s world and its possible future such as Jesus Christ representing a hierarchy political figure. Therefore, Judgment Passed is more than a short narrative for entertainment, it is allegory for the Christian belief system and it is a metaphor for the human condition of the modern world.
Martyn, J. Louis. "The Apocalyptic Gospel in Galatians." Interpretation 54.3 (2000). 09 Jun. 2002 http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/tel_a/mmcwml.
The reader is put in the middle of a war of nerves and will between two men, one of which we have grown up to learn to hate. This only makes us even more emotional about the topic at hand. For a history book, it was surprisingly understandable and hard to put down. It enlightened me to the complex problems that existed in the most memorable three months this century.
Everyone has his own sentiment of when he thinks the world will end some said it would happen at the turn of the millennium but it didn’t, others have hypothesized random dates throughout history But none have come true as to date. Jesus teaches that many calamities will mark the Second Coming and the Apocalypse. Kevin Knight writes in an article for New Advent and in it he says, “They are meant to foreshadow not to tell the day or the time, and will include. 1) The General Preaching of the Christian Religion. 2) The Conversion of the Jews. 3) The Return of Enoch and Elijah. 4) A Great Apostasy or revolt against the Catholic Faith. 5) The Reign of Antichrist who will be a powerful adversary of Christ. He will seduce the nations by his wonders, and persecute the Church. 6) Extraordinary Perturbations of Nature. 7) The Universal Conflagration. 8) The Trumpets of Resurrection will awaken the dead to resurrection. 9) The sign of the Son of Man Appearing in Heaven or in a wonderful cross of light.”
After reading The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins I found that this book reminded me of a memorable passage from the movie Apollo Thirteen: a military man in the tense Houston control shares with a political figure his forewarning that the tragedy before will be the catastrophic moment for the space program Mission control flight chief Gene Kranz overhears their conversation and addresses it: 'With all due respect, gentleman, I believe this will be our finest hour.' This summarizes the book quiet well as the apparent demise of the western church (when the day comes) is forecasting on its fate over against the perceived adversaries of secularism and post-modernism. Jenkins reminds us that when view through a wide-screen lens so to speak, the inherent threat often yields to a broad outlook of opportunity, painting a clear picture of the future of Christianity in colors unaccustomed to American thinking, outlining the characteristics of the fast growing Christian churches that are outside of Western Europe and US. Jenkins also shows the possibility of conflicts between Christianity and other major religions (such as Islam or Hinduism). Speculating what affects this will have on established churches of having a Christian majority outside the west. The basic premise of this book I think is simply: the heart of Christendom has moved from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, what is surprising about this premise is that the northern hemisphere did not see the move, and still deny that it is moving.
... Print. The. 2003 Hartman, Louis F. & Lella, Alexander A. The Anchor Bible, The Book Of Daniel. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. Print, 1978 Cook, Stephen L. Apocalyptic Literature.
At the Rapture, we, the believers, will meet Jesus in the air. During the Rapture, Jesus will call for all of the believers who have died, give them glorified bodies, and take them from the Earth along with all of the believers who are still alive. The apostle Paul describes the ordering of this snatching away event in 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV, "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. After that, we who are alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we shall be with the Lord forever." Paul goes on to further describe the timing of this sequential, rapturous event in 1Corinthians 15:51–52 NIV as being instantaneous, "Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." The Rapture is nothing you should fear, rather God wants us to "encourage each other with these words," as we are told in 1Thessalonians 4:18
Unlike other views that believe the second coming will be in two phases, amillennialists feel it will occur in one stage; within the time between the first and second coming (459). They fuse the two resurrections spoken in Revelation 20:1-6 into one stage. In this one stage, a general resurrection will occur in which all believers and unbelievers will be gathered. They understand that Satan will be bound during the in-between time and at the second advent he will be released for a short time to cause havoc (458). Christ will return after the heavenly millennium reign and all believers and transformed believers will be taken up to the clouds to be with Him.
The Merriam-Websters dictionary defined tribulation as distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also: a try experience, the trials, and tribulations of starting a new business. Leaders must expect tribulation; challenges, complexities, and downright “ugly” situation, they will often find that
Verstraeten, J. Scrutinising the Signs of the Times in the Light of the Gospel. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2007.
Literalist fundamentalists read Revelation’s multivalent visions as predictions of doom and threat, of punishment for the many and salvation for the elect few. Scholarly scientific readings seek to translate the book’s ambiguity into one-to-one meanings and to transpose its language of symbol and myth into description and facts. In Elisabeth Schûssler Fiorenza’s The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment, a third way of reading Revelation is depicted. The collection of essays in this book seeks to intervene in scholarly as well as popular discourses on the apocalypse from a liberationist feminist perspective.
The next tragedy to take place is when Agamemnon and his men completely overlook all the warnings given by the chorus and Cassandra about the unrest in his house. The leader of the chorus...
The term millennium does not appear anywhere in Scripture. The idea originated from a thousand year period of time that characterizes the reign of the Messiah. In fact, the phrase “thousand years” is stated six times in Revelation 20. There are three main schools of thought based upon one’s view of the thousand-year reign of Christ. These views are: Amillennial, Postmillennial and Premillennial. Over the centuries these prophetic differences have caused conflict within the body of Christ and are still currently widely debated. Instead of the book of Revelation being the basis of comfort (1 Thess. 4:18) among Christians it has become a bone of contention. However, this controversy should not deter Christ’s disciples from receiving the blessings that Revelation has to offer (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). Rather, one should study prophecy under the Spirit’s guidance and look at the data provided within the full context of the Word assessing each of the views for correct motives and presuppositions. Therefore, this paper will examine the nature, timing, and duration of the millennium as well as the occupants of the millennial kingdom and the relationship of Israel and the Church to the millennial kingdom. The aim of this paper is to address “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV).
The. Kate, Lauren. Rapture: A Fallen Novel? New York: Delacorte, 2012. Print. The.
For hundreds of centuries, man has pondered what revelations or spiritual awakenings will occur in future's time. Poet William Yeats, has written, "The Second Coming," which foretells how the Second Coming brings horror and repression to the world. Yeats takes into speculation that the future will certainly bring further darkness than is already present in the current world. He employs various symbols and allusions to assert his claims of the world's ultimate demise. The purpose of these symbols and allusions make it possible to fully understand Yeats's point of view of the fall of our present civilization and the rise of a new civilization with a gloomy future.