It was the best of times, It was the worst of times, it was the end of times - Part 1

Introduction

The End Times is easily one of the most controversial and misunderstood subjects in the entire Bible. I have to admit that it intimidated me as well for a long time. The main book that speaks of the end times is the book of Revelations. But other references can be found in Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and the gospels. All these books uses weird language that boggles the mind. The rest of the Bible is pretty straight forward and relatively simple to understand. But the parts that seem to deal with the end times is just one of the places that does not seem to make any since at all.

Which brings me to the 1st issue. When it comes to our Bible, we Christians are pretty lazy. We dont study it to make sure that we know what we believe. This is especially true when it comes to the end times. The end times just seems like its too complicated. Why not just let other, smarter people, do our thinking for us?

Well, while I do understand this, its dangerous to just sit back and accept blindly other peoples theology. This is how people get sucked into cults and find themselves way out in left field. Even with the study that I will present here, its my hope and prayer that you wont just take what I deal out without question. Take what I say with a grain of salt. Go study the Bible yourself and make up your own mind.

Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.
2 Corinthians 13:5

One of my favorite movies is "The Matrix." Its a very interesting movie about people that are stuck in this carefully constructed computer program designed to keep people in a simulated realty. Neo goes to see this person called The Oracle that may be able to help him. Neo asks the oracle why he should trust her to help. She tells Neo that he just has to make up his own mind as to weather she is trying to help him or not. The oracle knew that it would not do any good to just tell him that she was trying to help. She needed Neo to make up his own mind based on evidences and her character. Once he made up his own mind about her, he would be in a much more trusting place.

What you believe in regards of the Bible needs to be the same way. Dont just let others tell you what to believe. Do some research, and make up your own mind. Develop your own theology. Any good Pastor worth his salt will tell you the same thing. Study your Bible and figure these things out for yourself. Listen to what your Pastor says, but test it against the scriptures. If your Pastor does not follow this, but instead believes that he is completely right and you should accept everything he preaches without researching it yourself, run...dont walk..to another Church.

Disclaimers

Before I go much further, I want to give you some disclaimers.
I will do my best to cover the end times. But this is pretty difficult in a blog. I dont know how long this will end up being. So I decided to divide this blog into several smaller blogs called part 1 through how ever many parts it takes.

Below I listed out the topics that I intend to hit on. Each of these topics could easily be a lengthy blog entry in itself. I will try to keep this blog somewhat short, but at the same time, giving the topics their due diligence. If anyone that is reading this has questions, or wants to go more in depth, I would suggest that you contact me and we can talk about it. I dont pretend to be an expert on the end times, if there is even such a thing. But I have done research on it and I believe that I have arrived at some conclusions.

I do not want you to just accept my conclusions. I want you to do some research and arrive at your own theory as to the end times. As much as possible, I will try to present the facts and let you come to your own conclusions.

The end times is a very controversial subject. There are only a few real concretes in the Bible.

• Jesus is the son of God
  
• He is the only way to God
  
• He died and rose again after 3 days.
  
• And a few others

Most everything else in the Bible is open for interpretation. Thats why we have so many denominations, so many translations of the Bible, and so many preachers and evangelists all saying different things.

These interpretations only bring division.

• They divide Churches
  
• They divide denominations
  
• They divide friends
  
• They even divide families.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn A man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law —a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household."
Matthew 10:34

Jesus prayed for Unity in the Church. He did not, and does not, want division and arguing. The end times seems to be one of those subjects that is more dangerous than most others in the Bible. Its fun to talk about and reason over, but its just not worth the bickering. If this blog causes this, or you think it will, then dont go any further.

My purpose for writing this blog is not to bring division. I want to cause you to think about what you think you believe. My hope is that this blog will encourage you to study your Bible on the end times and other subjects for yourself. Test those things that you are hearing in Church, reading in books, learning in school and hearing from friends and relatives against the truth of God's word.

But dont use the truth that you learn to put others down that have not found that truth yet. Dont be a stumbling block and a source of problems in your Church, your family, and your friends. You can certainly challenge them as to why they believe what they believe, but dont just tell them that you are right, and they are wrong. No one likes being told they are wrong. In love, gently tell them that they should know why they believe what they do. If the source of their belief is not the Bible, then they should study it and come to their own conclusions.

"So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live--for I don't want to cause another believer to stumble."
1 Corinthians 8:13

"It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble."
Romans 14:21

End of part 1
------------------