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What is The Rapture?

The Second Coming of Christ will occur in stages. First, He will remove all Christians from the Earth, to protect them. This is called “The Rapture.” The term comes from the Latin verb raptare, and the Greek word harpizo, both meaning “to be caught up” or “to be snatched up.” Jesus will “snatch us” out of harm’s way.

Most Christians believe in the Rapture and the Tribulation, which will be followed by a 1000 years of Christ reigning together with the resurrected saints.

Christians who do not believe in the Rapture and the Millennial Kingdom are referred to as “amillennialists”. They believe that mankind will simply become better and better through the efforts of the Church, and when mankind becomes holy enough Christ will return.

After The Rapture, God will begin executing judgments against unbelievers, during a period called the Tribulation. At the end of the Tribulation all nations will attack Israel, and Jesus Christ will physically return, leading the armies of heaven. At the Battle of Armageddon they will destroy everyone who is not a believer. Then Satan will be bound, and Jesus will set up the Millennial Kingdom, headquartered in Jerusalem. Jesus and the saints will rule over the nations of the Earth for a 1000 years. During this period there will be people born who are not loyal to Christ.

The prophesy continues that a large group will take up arms against the Lord and be defeated. Then, Christ will judge all who have ever lived, giving rewards to some and punishment to others. Those who were “destroyed” will be cast into the Lake of Fire, i.e., Hell. After that, God will destroy heaven and Earth because they have been polluted by sin. He will create a new heaven and a new Earth, put those who were saved on the new Earth, and rule it forever.

What are the 7 signs for Armageddon? What are the seven signs of the Apocalypse?

The White Horse: The First Sign: Its rider carried a bow and went forth conquering and to conquer.

Next to Satan – this is the worst, this is the Antichrist. This seal portrays the going forth of Yahweh’s Warning Truth concerning. He will teach peace and folks will be drawn to this leader over God.

A Red Horse: The Second Sign – Its rider was given a great sword and proceeded to take peace from the earth

This seal tells of wars, revolutions and bloodshed on an unparalleled scale. The great sword symbolizes world wars involving many nations.

A Black Horse: The Third Sign: Its rider held a pair of scales and weighed out food at extremely high prices.

This seal brings to view world-wide famines when prices for even the barest of life’s necessities will spiral out of control.

A Pale and Sickly Horse: The Fourth Seal: Its rider’s name was Death and Hell followed him.

pestilence and disease epidemics of various kinds which will lay low millions of people.

Souls Under the Alter: The Fifth Seal: Souls were heard crying for justice. They were told to wait for a while till a further martyrdom took place.

This seal reveals a further persecution of God’s people, a persecution as intense as any which occurred in the past.

Celestial Signs: The Sixth Seal/Sign

1. A great earthquake.
2. The sun turned black
3. The moon turned blood-red.
4. The stars (meteorites) fell.
5. The sky was rolled back as a scroll.
6. Earth’s population was terrified.

These are literal signs in the physical universe. When they occur people will freak out.

The Sealing of Yahweh’s Servants: the Sixth Seal/Sign: By divine authority the devastation of the earth, the sea and the trees was delayed till the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads and right hands. 144,000 Israelites were sealed.

Trumpet
1
A third of the earth, a third of the trees and all the green grass were burned.
Trumpet
2
A third of the sea became like the blood of a dead man. A third of the fish perished and a third of the ships sank.
Trumpet
3
A third of the rivers of water were made bitter and many people died.
Trumpet 4 : The sun, moon and the stars were then darkened by a third.
Trumpet 5: The Bottomless Pit (Abyss) was then opened and an evil host led by Abaddon the King of the Abyss came forth. They proceeded to torture all mankind for five months – all except those who had received Yahweh’s Seal at the time of the sealing.

Trumpet 6: Four mighty angels were then loosed from the Great River Euphrates. Aided by a force of 200,000,000 they killed ONE THIRD OF MANKIND. At this time the holy city is trampled under foot for a period of 42 months (3½ years).

Trumpet 7: This is a time for God’s anger, his judgment of the nations and the rewarding of his saints. At this Trumpet the kingdoms of this world will pass to their rightful ruler, the Messiah of Israel.

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With the recent Gaza military conflict, I’ve got to thinking about 2009, religion and other things.  I’m not sure about the scope of the conflict, but it is definitely sustaining and causing issues.  From BBC:

Mass demonstrations are being held around the world in protest at Israel’s military offensive against Hamas, as the campaign enters its second week.

This is a significant development, what will the world think of Isreal as the conflict?  There are lots of ways to look at it, so hopefully we all keep an open mind and try to figure out the right solution to this sticky situation.

Articles of Interest on the Gaza Conflict

• Gaza propaganda
• Israel braced for Hamas response
• Hamas warns against ground attack
• Leaflets warn Gazans to get out of harm’s way
• Bombardment of Gaza Continues;So Do the Rockets
• Israel destroys Hamas homes, flattens Gaza mosque