Hello all. Just having a little fun on Yahoo Answers. Someone raised that question with the following extra commentary:
FROM THE BIBLE~
Prophecy 4: “In one place after another pestilences.”—Luke 21:11.
Fulfillment: Despite medical advances, millions still die each year as a result of infectious diseases. International travel and the world’s growing urban population have increased the likelihood that disease outbreaks will spread rapidly.
WILL SCIENCE CURE THE WORLD ?
What the evidence reveals:
● Smallpox killed an estimated 300 million to 500 million people in the 20th century.
● The Worldwatch Institute reports that during the past three decades, “more than thirty previously unrecognized diseases such as Ebola, HIV, Hantavirus, and SARS have emerged as new threats.”
● The World Health Organization has warned of the rise of drug-resistant germs, saying: “The world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, [will] kill unabated.”
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Statesman again. I may have gotten a little carried away with my answer, but there is a lot of good stuff in my answer that I wanted to share with everyone here. It is the quickest synopsis of the first 4 chapters of Revelation that I could possible give. I studied a lot on prophesy and the end times and have a lot of awesome things to share. One of the things on my agenda is to rewrite my post of "What Heaven and Hell Will be Like" because since, I found a lot more and things that are a bit different from what I previously wrote. That would be a huge undertaking because it is a lot. But please read and enjoy the following. Hope something in here blesses you:
My response:
I see you quoted the Christian bible...so I'll take the time to answer you. Mark 4:38, the disciples asked Jesus that very question: "Master, don't you care?" "Don't you care if we drown?" Of course He cares. The passage you quoted in Luke is referring to the 7 year tribulation period. Another reason why we know God cares is because all Christians will be Raptured out of here and will not even experience the Tribulation. We (Christians) will not experience that terrifying passage you speak of because He cares.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 says, "And now you know what is holding him (the Anti-Christ) back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he (the one who now holds it back, referring to the Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way." So let me paraphrase: The Holy Spirit is in all believers. And believers are on the Earth today. When the Rapture comes, Jesus will take all believers to Heaven, leaving behind all unbelievers. Well, with the believers, that means the Holy Spirit also leaves and goes to Heaven because the Holy Spirit is inside all believers. And the Holy Spirit is the one who is currently holding back the Anti-Christ until the proper time. The only thing is that when the Anti-Christ shows up, the believers will be in Heaven while he and the tribulation itself torments the world of all who rejected God's payment for salvation. The Holy Spirit is currently sanctifying the world, which is now benefiting unbelievers from experiencing the full wrath of God. Confer with Psalm 78:38. God is a God of both love and wrath. He is a God of wrath because He is Holy and just and must deal with sin.
If I could quickly explain the first 4 chapters of Revelations, that would help. Chapter 1 begins with a preface (vs. 1-3) then moves to the table of contents of the entire book (vs 4-20.) Rev. 1:19 is helpful because that is a summary of chapters 2 through the rest of the book. John is told to "Write what you have seen (John's current life at the time), what is now (chapters 2-3; the different times of human history after John and up to today) and what will take place after this (our contemporary future that has yet to happen.) The churches can be read with a divinely inspired layers of 3 accurate and different interpretations. God wrote to 7 literal churches of his day and depicted their flaws and sometimes good points. But there is a key phrase in each section about each church that points to their particular time in prophetic human history.
The church of Ephesus (2:4) "you have fallen." The church of Smyrna (2:10) "suffer persecution for 10 days." The church of Pergumum (2:14) "The teaching of Balaam." The church of Thyratira (2:20) "That woman Jezebel." The church of Sardis 3:1 "have a reputation...but you are dead." The church of Philadelphia (3:
"an open door". And finally, the church of Laodicea: (3:16) "you are lukewarm"...I can also add verse 17, "You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth...but you do not know you are wretched...and poor."
Stay with me...
Those clauses point to the whole passages of each church as the prophetic succession of human history, where Ephesus represents AD 33- 100; Smyrna = AD 100-300; Pergamum = AD 300-500;
Thyratira = AD 500-1500; Sardis = AD 1500-1700; Philadelphia = AD 1700-1900; Laodicea = today (and the last church, by the way).
I can't show you all churches, but let me just give you a sample. The church of Smyrna, whose clause is "suffer persecution for 10 days." During AD 1500-1700 the following occurred. Firstly, 10 days, means that it is relatively brief (that is, compared to eternity). The Christians during this period suffered 10 persecutions under 10 rulers ending with Diocletian. Diocletian was the ruler just before Constantine. And, under Diocletian, who was the last ruler during this period, his persecution lasted 10 years. And after Diocletian, there was only 10 more years then there was no more Roman Empire.
During the Philadelphia period ("the open door") there were many famous evangelical Christians evangelizing to many nations throughout the world: Spurgeon, George Mueller, William Kerry, just to name a few.
And today's church, it should be very obvious that our church today is a lukewarm church who thinks that it is rich. We enclose ourselves in stain-glass building shouting "Lord bless me with more." But when we leave we do nothing. The world continues to dominate its influences (abortion, no praying in public, etc.) while we just continue being the do-nothing-luke-warm church.
I had to give you a quick synopsis of the first couple of chapters of Revelation to point out the following. The Rapture occurs in Chapter 4:1 when Jesus says to John, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." John here is representing the Church. Confer with John 21:20-22 (note that the disciple Jesus loved is the same John who wrote both the book of John and Revelation (also 1,2, and 3 John)). You would find that fascinating if you can understand what that is saying. But back to Rev 4...in verse 2 John is in heaven, and for the rest of the book, there is no more mention of the Church (and the word church was mentioned 19 times in chapters 1-3); the Holy Spirit is now only in Heaven. So Chapters 4-19 speaks of the Tribulation period and we (Christians) ain't there to experience those terrible things; we were raptured to Heaven early in the book.
Finally, I'll leave you with Romans 5:9, "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" We have been rescued from his wrath, which includes the Tribulation. Those things you mentioned isn't anything compared to what the Tribulation period will be when God's wrath will be fully unleashed onto the wicked.
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