In Judaism when the Messiah comes he will bring peace to the world. The world will be characterized by the peaceful co-existence of all people. (Isaiah 2:4) Hatred, intolerance and war will cease to exist. There will be no murder, robbery, competition or jealousy. There will be no sin (Zephaniah 3:13).\n\nThe Christian version (at least what I am hearing on this board and amongst evangelical Christians I know) Is the world will be destroyed and everyone will be judged. And any who does not accept Jesus will be cast into hell (or destroyed?)\n\nWhy would g-d create the world just to destroy it? Is this whole thing a test for us who he made in his image? Please clarify this as it makes no sense.
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The misinterpretation has to do with the word judgment.  Typically, it is thought that this will mean that many will be condemened.  But the only judgment of love is innocence.  This misunderstanding is brought about by those who do believe in judgment and condemnation.  That is what they understand and therefore project onto everything else and then assume that the mind of God is like their own.  You are right, a loving God would not do this.
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If Jesus was talking about the future, he would have said the future. He was talking about His death. As He was lifted up, all of mankind was lifted up with Him.\n\nThe day of the cross was the end of the world. World in Hebrew is translated as 'age' or 'era'.  The old world of law and sin ended and new world of grace and peace began.\n\nThis is the gospel, this is the good news !! The end has occured. I wish more Christians would realize this. That there fear and following laws is of no avail. Jesus saved the world. Anything we think we can do to add to or change that is self righteous.\n\nThe law was taught so harshly to show people that they could not live up to it no matter how hard they tried.\n\nSpread the good word!!
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After WWII and the Nazi persecution of the Jews, the UN and the world leaders set up a secular nation of Israel at the beckoning of SECULAR ZIONISTS. This is not the "Kingdom" of Israel and has nothing to do with any Bible restoration prophecy. People today (“Christian Zionists”) think it is according to prophecy, but they are seriously mistaken. Any restoration prophecies that really pertain to literal Israel were fulfilled long ago when they were released from Babylonian captivity. Any newer prophecies are fulfilled in a new Israel which is not the literal nation of Israel, but rather a spiritual nation of people made up of every nation and tongue today. Their Jerusalem is a heavenly one. Their capital city is a heavenly government ruled by the resurrected Christ Jesus.\n\nJesus Christ, near the end of his lfe, stood on the hill overlooking Jerusalem and the temple....looked down at it and condemned their relationship with God.\n\nNow....looking at the modern situation...it gets very interesting....you see there are a great many Christian Zionists who think that Israel is still favored by God and they feel the Israelites have a god-given right to palestine....these people have HUGE pull in the affairs of the governments which support Israel. Believe it or not this zionist movement will do anything to prevent the current peace efforts from proceeding because they do not want Israel to loose any of their "god-given" land. (The peace plans or "road map to peace" calls for them to loose some)\nThese people interestingly think they are going to be raptured off the world scene so they do not have to deal with any of the nasty results of their meddleing. The Christian zionists are sadly mistaken and bad things will come from their involvement.....(They already have).\n\nGoing on.....ponder this....just 3 days before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.....the United States and Israel walked out of the UN conference on racism...they turned their backs on the world community who had passed a resolution that stated that zionism equals racism. This conference was planned for years......the arab community for years planned to present this resolution at this very conference......I wonder.....Could it be.....that this was in fact the TRIGGER for the attacks on the WTC in New York and the pentagon? Were these Al Khada terrorists poised and waiting for this walk out? I say this is a possibility, but what do I know? This presents the question.....If the US was not so motivated by Christian Zionists and their political influence, would there have been an attack? Would Muslims have the same view that they have of Americans today? Thanks for asking this question.
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Mat 24:3  And as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world? \nMat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no man deceive you. \nMat 24:5  For many will come in My name, saying, I am Christ, and will deceive many. \nMat 24:6  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for all these things must occur; but the end is not yet. \nMat 24:7  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in different places. \nMat 24:8  All these are the beginning of sorrows. \nMat 24:9  Then they will deliver you up to be afflicted and will kill you. And you will be hated of all nations for My name's sake. \nMat 24:10  And then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another. \nMat 24:11  And many false prophets will rise and deceive many. \nMat 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold. \nMat 24:13  But he who endures to the end, the same shall be kept safe. \nMat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to all nations. And then the end shall come. \n\n\n2Ti 3:1  Know this also, that in the last days grievous times will be at hand. \n2Ti 3:2  For men will be self-lovers, money-lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, \n2Ti 3:3  without natural affection, unyielding, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, \n2Ti 3:4  traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, \n2Ti 3:5  having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; even turn away from these. \n2Ti 3:6  For of these are those who creep into houses and lead captive silly women loaded with sins, led away with different kinds of lusts, \n2Ti 3:7  ever learning and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth. \n2Ti 3:8  But as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these also resist the truth, men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith. \n2Ti 3:9  But they shall proceed no further. For their foolishness shall be plain to all, as theirs also became. \n2Ti 3:10  But you have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, love, patience, \n2Ti 3:11  persecutions, afflictions, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured! But the Lord delivered me out of all. \n2Ti 3:12  Yea, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. \n2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers will go forward to worse, deceiving and being deceived. \n2Ti 3:14  But continue in the things that you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, \n2Ti 3:15  and that from a babe you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. \n2Ti 3:16  All Scripture is God-breathed, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, \n2Ti 3:17  that the man of God may be perfected, thoroughly furnished to every good work.
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Dear girl... if NO ONE WITH SIN WILL GO TO HEAVEN... then we are ALL doomed... because there is no one living that has not sinned and Jesus died to pay for our sins... so we who are imperfect and sinful can with love and repentance and trying to live a moral life can get into paradise...\n\nBut you are right... Religion has always been the weapon of choice by Lucifer to use against us...to cause dissension among mankind... As long as people do not start living according to the teachings of Jesus... we will always have people dying because of religion.  That will be the reason for the final battle at Armageddon... so it looks as if we will never learn...  And that is not ignorance... that is stupidity... I agree with you...
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I think your question is very interesting. What the world is coming to is very involved in what you are asking as well as other sins.\n\nIt matters a great deal whether a person is homosexual or not. The Bible says it is an abomination to God. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins, one of their most predominent being homosexuality.\nyou can read more here :\nhttp://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5003/5003_01.asp\n\nThe legalization of abortion, homosexuality etc is going to lead to the judgement of our country make no mistake. Some judgement has already come.\n\nAs far as what the world is coming to.The Bible has the answer to that also. \n2Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.\n 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,\n 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,\n 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;\n 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.\n\nYou can't deny that is a very good description of the world we live in.\n\nHope is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for our sins and arose the third day that we might be saved. God's wrath and judgement is coming to this earth - only those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ will escape that wrath.\nRevelation 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?\nIf you really want to know more about what the world is coming to read this :\nhttp://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/5025/5025_01.asp\n\nAs far as being put here for a reason - you are right - we were put here for a reason. The Bible tells us in Revelation 4:11, that reason is to please God. If one is living in sin that is not pleasing to God. Hebrews 11:6a tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith in what?  Faith in God's Word, in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to please God is to be reconciled with Him through the blood of the Lord Jesus. When we trust Him as our Saviour that pleases God. When we live our lives according to His Word that pleases God. That is our purpose on this earth.
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JESUS IS ALIVE TODAY.  Jesus will destroy the country that attacks Israel with nuclear weapons.  As for the anti-christ, prophecy must be fulfilled for non-believing  humans to see and believe in Jesus.  The anti-christ will be destroyed by the Lord Jesus.  This will happen once the New World Order is established and the anti-christ makes all who have the mircochip inserted - the mark of the best -woship him as god.
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Hi,\nYou are misinterpreting the text.\n\nAfter we die, we go to 1 of 2 places:\n\n1. Those who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior go to be with God. To be absent from the body is to be in the presence of the Lord\n\n2. For the unsaved, yes even those who seem to be really 'good' people go to hell.\n\nWhat God is referring to in Revelations is the Lake of Fire-\nEternal Damnation, even Satan himself will be in there. \n\nGod's word is infallible, its us that misinterpret his word, distort his word, or just pervert His Word.\n\nGOD BLESS YOU\nJESUS SAVES
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Earth will be destroyed by fire or by a nuclear war. In support of this belief, some point to Revelation 21:1, which says: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.”\n\nThe Bible often uses the term “earth” in a figurative sense, referring to mankind. An example is found at Genesis 11:1, which says: “All the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.” (See 1 Kings 2:1, 2; Psalm 96:1.) At Revelation 21:1, “the former earth” refers, not to this planet, but to wicked human society that will be destroyed. This will open the way for the restoration of Paradise on earth. (Luke 23:43;  Revelation 21:4) And this agrees with the rest of the Bible, which indicates that the literal earth will never be destroyed. For instance, Psalm 104:5 states that God “has founded the earth upon its established places; it will not be made to totter to time indefinite, or forever.” ( Ecclesiastes 1:4.) Indeed, Jehovah ‘formed the earth to be inhabited’ eternally.—Isaiah 45:18.\n\nIn the Christian Greek Scriptures, earthly governments and their peoples are shown to be subject to Satanic rule. \nThe apostle Paul referred to “the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places,” with their governments, authorities, and world rulers. (Eph 6:12) So the passing away of “the former heaven” indicates the end of political governments along with Satan and his demons. This identification of “the former heaven” harmonizes with the fact that shortly before the statement concerning the ‘former heaven having passed away,’ John had seen a vision of the complete defeat of Satan’s forces and the casting of Satan into “the abyss.” (Re 19:19–20:3) The earthly subjects of Satan’s rule are destroyed prior to his abyssing, as shown at Revelation 19:17, 18.
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The Jewish concept of Messiah is one who brings freedom to the Jewish people and, usually also peace to the land of Israel. Moses, Cyrus the Persian, etc. were all Messiahs. \n\nIt's not an afterlife issue. Jews don't believe in Hell. Jews believe that dutiful following of G-d's Law results in a clear conscience at death, which results in ease in being in G-d's presence. Having a guilty conscience results in the person's spirit not being able to "face" G-d... it is the person, and not G-d, who defines one's afterlife experience. This is "deep," "subconscious" awareness of one's righteousness and/or sin, not some sort of "wish away the bad stuff" deal.  Why would you want the death of someone else (e.g. Jesus) on your soul? Having another human being "die" to take away the guilt of your own misdeeds makes no sense from the Jewish point of view. Actually any human sacrifice is clearly forbidden by the redemption of Issac. One does Mitzvah (prayer, charity, good works) to balance errors that you couldn't directly fix. If one is motivated by caring and good works, then the errors you make don't weigh too heavily on your soul, especially if you consciously seek to make things right. When the Temple existed, Temple sacrifice was a Mitzvah. It wasn't the actual food being sacrificed, but the willingness to give to the community through especially defined rules (an additional opportunity to follow Law), that cleansed the soul.\n\nWhen Jesus did not drive out the Romans and bring Israel into independence and peace, those Jews who were initially following him realized that he was not a Messiah.\n\nChristianity is actually Greco-Roman "dying god as bringer of life" cycle mythology tacked shakily onto Hebrew scripture so that Paul could start his own religous following with a Jew in the role of the dying spring god. When Rome took on Paul's concept in the 400's, they did so because they needed a religion based on submission to authority for their people, to try to hold a dying empire together.  To discourage people looking too closely at the actual concepts in the original Hebrew scripture and possibly converting fully to Judaism and away from Christianity, they modified scriptures and preached heavily to make Jews into evil servants of the ancient pagan gods (devils) in the minds of their followers, and only referred to Jewish scripture line by line, pulled out without historical and full-text (original text, not the modified stuff) context, to try to prove Jesus' divinity.
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What a good question.\n\nYes, the God that Christians worship (I assume that's the one you're asking about) isthought to by them to be the creator of everything, the source of all things.  \n\nPersonally, I believe the first responder is incorrect in his understanding of Isaiah 45:7. "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things."  -- You have to understand the context of Isaiah's writing to understand the meaning of the text.  I think everyone on here would agree that pulling verses out randomly from the Bible, or any other religious text, in order to support your hypothesis is dangerous.  In the text above, Isaiah is known to be speaking to the prevading rulers - the Persians.  They believed in duality - two gods, one good and one bad - a kind of yin/yang.  Isaiah uses his text to emphasize that God in one - there are no other gods, and that he is the sole creator.   God has no opposite.  \n\nMost people feel that evil is simply the corruption of good - in other words, it doesn't exist in and of itself, but only when someone or something goes against what is good.  Since God is, by definition, good and perfect, you could extrapolate that to mean that evil is the corruption of God's will and law - i.e. going against God.\n\nThis is exemplified by Satan - an angel, beloved by God, who chose to disobey him.  Satan is not the creator of evil, just the prime example of it.
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i'm a muslim.\nhowever, what my christian friend has told me is that the evagelical christians believe that Jesus will return when the borders of Israel will extend from Nile to Euphrates (Nile in africa and Euphrates in Iraq), and Jesus will take all the true christians to some un-earthy place/eternal place and the rest of humanity will fight and die (this is probably their concept of armageddon), and when there will be no evil power remain in the world Jesus will return those real christians back to the earth where they will form the state based on the pronciples of bible.\n\nMy christian friend told me that this is one of the concepts where evangelical christians have different view point than other sects of christianity. I think there must be some other differences.
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It does not condemn man to failure. It raises God to final victory over satan. In actuality it is God's way of allowing man to finally attempt to rule himself without interventon from God. By the time of the anti-christ all God's believers will be gone from the earth. This is based on the premise that the anti christ will totally reject God and proclaim himself as God. If you notice, the devil attempts to mimic God in everyway and what better way that to install his own guy who will fool the world. The anti-christ, who will at first come in peace has evil intentions from his beginning and his greed will ultimately overcome him to the point of his own distruction. His final mistake is when he moves into the temple of Jerusalem and proclaims himself God over Israel. Of course Israel will not stand for this and then in simple words "all hell breaks loose" for a final 3 1/2 years until God/Jesus Christ invervenes and stops the mess to finally save His people and fulfill his original promise to the Jews. I know all this may sound freaky to you but I have studied the Biblical prophecies and I always follow the happenings that God predicts will occur. Any layman can study and see that todays world happenings are in line with the Bible. Of course don't take my word. Go see for yourself and let your own conscious be your guide.
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The whole notion of the rapture and the belief that the wicked will get a second chance while the Bible clearly states that when Jesus comes for the righteous, all of the wicked will be dead.\n\nThose who teach that the wicked will be tortured forever in the fires of hell are not telling the truth.  The Bible says that they will be burned to ashes.\n\nLet me add another name to the list;  Harold Camping.  He wrote a book saying that Jesus would return in October 1994.  This prophecy did not happen (as we all know.)
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First off, I think your question could have done without the attempt to compare Christ's message to the confused and conflicting pagan pantheons.  I understand that you are trying to single out what Christ's main message is but it very much like comparing apples and oranges.\n\nThe second part of your question, however, has merit.  Christ did teach to "love your neighbor as yourself" and that all lives are precious to God as the core of his message.  Based on this, it is certainly true that Christians are called to be peace minded and to aviod wars.  War is an awfull and terrible thing that is brought about by the effects of sin on our world.  But what about the wars and battle of the Old Testament?  If every type of armed conflict was abhorrent, why would Christ not openly condem the Jewish Patriarchs?  Each of them led their people in countless battles against enemies.  The answer is that the bible's only provision for this type of conflict is when innocent lives are threatened and need to be protected.  Authorities - or governments - are charged by God to protect the innocent against those who would harm them and sometimes the only way to do this is through battle.  In the same token, it is the governenment's crucial responsiblity to act wisely and to take into account God's will. \n\nIn light of this, I belive that your charge that any Christian who supports any type of international armed movement is a hypocrit to be much much too broad of a statement and does not take into account God's desire to protect the innocent and punish those who would harm them.
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God has never pitted us against each other.  That is the work of Satan.  God is showing his love for us all.  He sent his only Son, Jesus Christ to die for us all.  There can be no greater love than that!  Revelations is a warning to you and you are not listening.  God's Church will be raptured and spared the Judgments.  The non-believers and the followers of the Antichrist will not change.  They will question God, they will curse God and then they will have to answer to God.  It's not difficult to accept His Word and lead a Christian life.  You have to read the whole Bible, not just pick and choose.  You have to thank God and accept Jesus as your Savior then you will be born again.  You will have the Holy Spirit within you.  You will understand God's love and grace.
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jessicabjoseph, it does not say that he will destroy the earth. He will end the CURRENT system of things and place the survivors on the Earth in a setting comparable to Adam and Eve's. Why would he have created that and then completely change the purpose of humans? Because Satan challenged him, you might say? Well, just because Satan challenged him doesn't mean his purpose for humans has changed. If you've read more of the Bible you will find Scriptures stating that God never lies and he always keeps true to his promises. Like the Scriptures you have mentioned. He will keep true to those. The Earth will be restored to a paradise, NOT be destroyed. \n\nThe gospels really do not try to disguise teachings. They only speak in metaphors when quoting Jesus because of the way he spoke to his listeners since they were mostly uneducated and had to be explained complex things in terms they could understand. A theif coming in the night needs no watering down.\n\nYou cited Psalms 37:29: "The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." \n\nWould you see that the righteous is inheriting the land? Or ever has? No. FAR from it. Only Adam and Eve BEFORE they sinned. But this was written after, of course. So God WILL destroy this SYSTEM of things and implement a new "rule" with him as King ON THE EARTH. He has the ability to restore it to it's original beauty.