Armageddon, what is it?
The day we have all feared, will be the day of Armageddon.
To better understand why Christians of most denominations have varied interpretations, one may start with the 24th chapter of St Matthew. The description of a particular time is easier understood than the book of Isaiah, Daniel or Revelation. Other books of the Bible also write of this period of history that is to come, such as the minor prophets, but it would take far more space than is available to write of each.
Therefore this article is a synopsis of the above mentioned books and the controversy among the churches as to translation. This synopsis is designed for you to decide for yourself (after careful reading) with a few personal thoughts for scholarly stimulation. Beginning with St Matthew we find: "As the disciples were showing Him the temple, they asked when would be the time He returned again. He answered them by saying; "take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall ccome in my name and say they are Christ and shall deceive many. Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass , but the end is not yet." "For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. And all these are the beginning of sorrows, for they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for My names sake." This referral to Armageddon is probably a literal place which was and is known as Megiddo. If there is no God, how did the prophets know that thousands of years later that literal area woulf be the focus of where man considers to be the starting point of a great nuclear war; Israel and it's warring neighbors will be the start, but it states ALL NATIONS will be involved. Now picture the technology of rockets being launched from all over the world. Is that not a literal holocaust of which few if any would survive. It might start in the Holy Land region, but then all countries taking sides and becoming involved? China, Russia, US, and each and every nation.
It further states that every eye shall behold Him when He returns. I remember being a kid of fifteen in an open discussion night at church and someone addressed the congregation about watching for Him because He could come any minute. In my thought process, it didn't compute and since we were allowed to openly discuss our thoughts, I bravely said, "no, something more would have to happen to enable every eye to see him coming, because I couldn't even see the store from the church. That was before we had television of today. A simple child who liked to think!
He further states "there will be many false prophets that will deceive many and because of sin and lack of knowledge, many will lose their closeness with God. " He further tells us, it will take perserverance and faith to endure to the end, where all will be rewarded for their steadfastness. He also told them that these things would not happen until the gospel He had taught would be preached in all the world, then to watch, for this would be the period of time in history in which He was speaking. Whoa; now we have something to seriously consider, for there are few if any spots on earth that hasn't heard of Christ. He told all to read the Book of Daniel (old Testament), and when they saw the abomination of desolation, let them have understanding. (Please read the 11th and 12th chapter of Daniel for a descriptive period of time that most Christians believe to describe this day and time. Nations are plainly portrayed and their role as the world will come to the most destructive war in the history of man.
Many Christians believe this portrayal is describing a nuclear war and It certainly appears to coincide with the knowledge we have of this bomb and it's devastation. Daniel further describes the end of this holocaust by stating that there is a book that contains the name of all who have gone before and those who have come through the horrible tribulation that will befall mankind and who have learned/gained knowledge and have held their faith in God. Are you really thinking of a literal book, or are you considering a method or means of a manner of record keeping. How many years back was it that one would have thought a small boxlike electronic would sit on a table or desk and contain many gigabytes of information, much less the industrial computers of today, or the governments system? Not that long ago, huh? Now consider a world billions of years old and engineering of that world. Not within our realm to reason it out perhaps.
There are many intriguing points to be made;
1. These scriptures were written over two thousand years ago, yet the words are definitive for today and have never been so until this age. For instance St matthew says the gospel of Christ/Christianity must be heard and taught in all lands before that day. This has only been so in the last few years.
2. It speaks of all nations being gathered together at Jerusalem. How could it have been known that today the area spoken of would be the hotbed of unrest. This was to be a time when Israel was a nation. Israel was not a nation until 1947. It says the Israelites would gather back to their homeland. This couldn't and didn't take place until it became a nation and until the holocaust was over.
3. It states the Jew will not accept Christ as the messiah until that day. How did they know this then?
4. What about the description of the environment? it says a third of the earth, trees, waters, seas will be destroyed/polluted. Wow! Are we headed in that direction? How did they know?
5. What about the "mark of the beast." The Bible states there will be a mark placed upon the forehead or in the hand and unless you have the mark, you will be unable to buy or sell. We led into the opening days when the earth became so populated that there had to be a numerical system to keep track of it's inhabitants. All people have paid taxes of a sort since early days of history, perhaps earlier.
6. We are already in the process of implanting a chip for identification in animals. How did Christ know if he was not "The Christ."
7. These prophecies have produced outrageous, sometimes over zealous, sometimes demented and/or deluded minds. This is and has always been dangerous and detrimental to all followers of Christianity. What about Jim Jones, David Koresh and the unforgettable Heavens Gate whose members expected to be picked up by a hiding flying saucer. They were serious cultists that made most of us wonder what had happened to cause them to take such a destructive route, but there have been many before them and there will be many yet to come, who believe they are the "enlightened ones", and are on a mission to convince and take with them. Doesn't this sound like the Taliban who are renegade Islams/muslims, who believe they are the anointed ones. Then we should be able to understand how a false prophet and a beast (Bible prophecy) will be able to stand and influence so many that they almost succeed at fooling Christ's chosen. Where is wisdom in becoming a radical that promotes mayhem and confusion? This is what God said would be the ushering in of the last days, but would not be of His prophets. If they aren't His, then they can't be the ones to follow now can they?
I just noticed this online and am passing it on for you to think about. Christianity has been hated and many attempts made to destroy throughout it's history. Be aware and hold fast to the faith as Paul said, but fall not for false leaders of the day.
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Rare Nuremberg Papers Posted on Web
By SHEILA HOTCHKIN
The Associated Press
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A long-buried document published Thursday by an online college law journal details how investigators in the Nuremberg trials struggled to prove Nazi leaders planned to eliminate Christianity and convert its followers to an Aryan philosophy.
The 108-page document was among a collection of notes, transcripts and photos kept by Gen. William J. Donovan, a leading investigator at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, in the late 1940s.
The collection had been gathering dust in Donovan's law firm before another attorney bought it and turned it over to Cornell University's rare book collection. Now, the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion is posting the documents online. The document released Thursday describes how investigators at Nuremberg concluded that the Nazis planned to infiltrate churches and discredited, jailed and occasionally murdered Christian leaders.
According to the document, Nazi leaders sought ``a complete extirpation of Christianity and the substitution of a purely racial religion tailored to fit the needs of National Socialist policy.''
``National Socialism by its very nature was hostile to Christianity and the Christian churches,'' it says.
While the document offers insight into how prosecutors reached their conclusions in the 1945-1949 trials, scholars said the Nazi plan itself was not surprising. But over time, they said, the law journal could give a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at the trials of Nazi war criminals. Donovan's complete 148-volume collection is ``almost like a secret history that has come out,'' said Michael Salter, a law professor from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England. ``There's some material there which Donovan should basically have never taken away from the Nuremberg trials,'' Salter said.
The cache includes transcripts in German and English as well as background memoranda and evidentiary analyses of the defendants. Some are marked ``top secret.'' The transcripts are not unique, but Donovan supplemented his set of trial-related documents with original photos, letters, sketches, handwritten notes and additional evidence. ``It's the supporting documentation that's harder to find,'' said Betsy Pittman, archivist at the University of Connecticut, which has its own set of Nuremberg papers. When Donovan left Germany, he took the documents, had them bound in blue leather and kept them in his New York law office. The papers gathered dust for decades after his 1959 death, until another lawyer recognized their importance. When the firm closed in 1998, attorney Henry H. Korn bought the volumes and handed them over to fCornell University.Sincethen, scholars have visited Cornell's rare books room to flip through the brittle pages, but the Donovan collection has not been widely available.
Rutgers worked out a deal with Cornell to publish the papers in the online law journal. ``Up until now, it would have taken a lot of work to get a lot of this information,'' said Julie Seltzer Mandel, editor of the law journal's Nuremberg project. The project had added significance for Mandel, a third-year law student who has edited Rutgers' Nuremberg project since March. Her 80-year-old grandmother survived the Auschwitz death camp.
``For as long as I can remember, the importance has been on remembrance and making sure the story is told accurately so history won't repeat itself,'' said Mandel, 29, of Berlin Borough. She said her grandmother ``feels anything I can do to get the story out there and keep it in people's attention is working toward that goal: in essence, another victory.''
On the Net:
Journal of Law and Religion: http://www.lawandreligion.com
AP-NY-01-10-02 2140EST
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
Then we must be thoughtful, but not contributors to radical extremism, for therein lies the root of destructive behavior. America was founded on "In God We Trust", so we must diligently pursue the right to free worship and not allow the constitution to be revoked by minimalists. Christians must be firm in their pursuit of religious rights of our country, but not to stand in the way of others rights to display and word their belief. As of today, the non-christian is taking away your rights!li Bibical prophecy; I think so! So whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc., better think! If one right is stricken, it won't be long until your belief is also stricken.k
We just saw the epitome of evil when a group of terrorists in the name of religion set out to destroy America and all it stands for; whatever your religion, it must not be destructive or harmful to others. And we must aid our leaders in ridding the world insofar as possible of the evil that seeks to destroy all other beliefs.
Shall the earth be a wasteland someday due to the destructive hands of man? This is what is called Armageddon...................................................................................
Watch as we stand at the brink with Israel and the Arab nations, just as the Bible predicted....
