The Last Days

This know also, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent(without self-control), fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady(reckless), highminded(proud, arrogant), lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power therof;

If we're not living in the fulfillment of this prophesy, then we're awfully close to it.

Amen to that.

Amen, that was a bit of an eye opener

Certain things have become glaring to me:
1. Road rage - road rage comes from the attitude that "This is my road, I paid taxes on it, I have every right to be here, and you have no right to get in my way - I LOVE MYSELF!

2. Rude behavior - I'll smoke where I want to because it's my right, I'm not opening that door for you because you can do it for yourself, I can jump the line just because you can't do anything about it, I saw that parking space first, I can stand up at this show and block your view because I bought a ticket, I can talk during the movie if I want since I paid to be here...etc. I LOVE MYSELF!

3. Drug and alcohol abuse: Need I say anything about that? Look at the news and police reports!

Other things that are indicators are the rising incidents of child abuse, child molestation, gay rights, abortion rights, etc.

I look for Jesus to come any time. Every time I see an odd shaped cloud or a glorious looking sky, I think about what He said, and wonder if now is the time.

I hope all of you are ready and anxious to meet Him. If not, then you'd better prepare yourselves.

Actually according to the Scriptures we have been in the last days since the ascension of the Lord.

Hbr 1:1 GOD, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
Hbr 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

1Jo 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
1Jo 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

1Jo 4:1 BELOVED, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1Jo 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
1Jo 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
1Jo 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Jud 1:17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Jud 1:18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.

That is true, but it is also true that Paul's words to Timothy were a warning as to the severity of the conditions: as the time drew near for the Lord's return these conditions would intensify.

I have seen a serious and sharp change in society in my days, a change that probably no other generation has seen since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. You need look no further than TV to see the differences in acceptable behavior in our land today. In my early days of watching TV, you wouldn't see a husband and wife in bed together, let alone an unmarried couple. Now you see everything from simulated hetero to implied homo sex during daytime and primetime!

Keep an eye on the sky!

Could be worse...like Roman life under Caligula. But I agree, the world isn't a good place with a few bad people...it is a bad place with a few good people.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sup-rbeast</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Could be worse...like Roman life under Caligula. But I agree, the world isn't a good place with a few bad people...it is a bad place with a few good people. </div></div>

Amen to that. Couldn't have put it any better.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ut1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

I have seen a serious and sharp change in society in my days,
</div></div>

Your days? Try my days. Hell, try the last 10-15 years.

We're swirling in the bowl...

All those are sins just as cursing and pre-marital sex. How many people take part in that, yet aren't looked upon as bad by the Religous Right?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: PVFAN</div><div class="ubbcode-body">All those are sins just as cursing and pre-marital sex. How many people take part in that, yet aren't looked upon as bad by the Religous Right? </div></div>

The "Religious Right" has not altered its view of "sin is sin". There is no little, or no big sin in God's eyes. He hates it all, yet He loves the sinner. It was not so long ago that I can't remember it, that a young woman getting married who was not a virgin was a rare thing. Now it's rare for one to be a virgin on her wedding day. The same can be said for the guys.
I could count the number of divorced couples I knew on three or four fingers back then. Now I need a sack of marbles to keep count, and the sad thing is, the divorce rate is nearly the same for church-goers.
Just another sign of the decline of morals and committment in our society.

You are right about the girls, not that the guys are any better...

But I graduated high school in 2001, and I'd dare sare over 75% of the girls in my class were not virgins....

And by age 20 85-90%

And by now, age 24, married or not 100%

I guess thats why the Romans were homosexuals, and more people in the Civl War died of diseases, many contracted from prostitutes. World's not changed, it's the media attention thats changed, 50 years ago you couldn't plug up a computer and watch two people engaging in sexual intercourse as you can today. I agree all sins are the same, so my question to you is this why are some talked about much more so than others?

You can't compare a pagan Roman government (which contained such religions as those where part of the "religious" experience was to have sex with the temple priestesses) to one professed to be a "Christian" government. Like it or not, that's the label the US has had since it's birth. The very fact that we had a Civil war tells the tale of a divided allegiance: both sides professed Christianity and prayed to the same God, yet if the nation had been in tune with God's plan, hostilities would have never started. We brought the war, and the pestilence that comes with it in whatever form, upon us ourselves.

Were in a war today, fighting against what most would call a "non God-like" nation. Should we stop fighting the war on terror, and send people over there to try to convert them to Christianity? See, this is why I dont really like talking on the religon forum.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Like it or not, that's the label the US has had since it's birth. </div></div>

Like it or not? I believe in God, and have been saved. Now, at the same time I'm not naive enough to not recognize the pro's and cons of religon. Religon is a great thing if used properly, the problem in my opinion is today there is no common ground like there was, there are the haves and the haves not. You either go to Church every Sunday and are very religous or you dont go period and just try to live your life. Hundred years ago people went to church and had a common ground, the cause of that is debatable. Media, sin, church pushed people away, and more religons could be the cause of this.

You talk about war, in any war people are divided. We were divided during WWII, but at the same time I believe our cause was just. Like I said there is good and bad in everything, from Hitler to Churchill, from Tammy Faye to Billy Graham. I think Christians in this country should be opening their arms to people and non-believers instead of telling them about how much sin they are living in, sadly I think thats what you see in the media today. Fallwell, for as much as he was on tv I never once heard the man talk about salvation or the path to heaven he instead directed his time in pushing sinners farther away from the religon instead of trying to bring them in. I hope our nation as a whole doesnt' turn to that.

May be missing part of PVFAN's point.

According to current medical and historical research 73,382 cases of syphilis and 109,397 cases of gonorrhea occurred among white Union troops during the Civil War, with African-American troops having a slightly lower incidence.

That's Union troops only! I'm not too sure morals have really changed all that much over the years.....

It now seems likely that my screennamesake (Frank Gotch) arguably the greatest real wrestler of all-time who died in 1919 at the age of 39 actually died from syphilis. Cause of death was listed as a blood disorder.

I think maybe what has changed is our willingness to face and speak the truth about such things.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I could count the number of divorced couples I knew on three or four fingers back then. Now I need a sack of marbles to keep count, and the sad thing is, the divorce rate is nearly the same for church-goers. </div></div>

I do not know your age, however my guess is you grew up during the 70's or earlier. That being said, 30-50 years ago woman couldn't divorce, they couldn't afford it. Today, thanks to equal rights woman have the opportunity to work for themselves and not stay in a marriage that they do not like.

Our mission as Christians is to go unto all the world and spread the gospel. I don't like tactics like that used by Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, using as my guide of "model evangelism", Billy Graham. Yes, Billy pointed out sin, but never without The Message of Love and forgiveness offered by Jesus Christ. Our common theme throughout history is a tendancy to sin and do that which God hates. Some generations seem to fare better than others in refraining from that, and the generation before this one was definitely better at it, as a whole.

Define generation? The 60's and 70's were not the highest of moral times.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ut1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Some generations seem to fare better than others in refraining from that, and the generation before this one was definitely better at it, as a whole. </div></div>

I knew there was a verse that applied to the above instance of "my generation served better than your generation"...

James 4:16
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

It wasn't so much that women couldn't afford divorce as it was that it wasn't acceptable socially. I started kindergarten in 1978 and I had a friend that told me his dad didn't live with them. I thought that was so strange back then. By the time I was in 3rd grade there were many more of my friends that had seperated and divorced parents..and by 11th grade mine were as well..and most of my friends parents were too. And I guess it's a vicous cycle cuz now I have 2 kids and am divorced. But, our media and our acceptance of less than savory people in our society is what has caused our moral decline. The root of the problem is to be found in how kids are raised nowdays..and the inability of one parent to be at home to watch over and nurtutre them. Want the society to change?..then pressure politicians to push for wages that would enable one parent to work and their family still live comfortably while the other stays home. IMO greed is the cause of our society's problems..and its trickle down effect is just now coming to fruition in other aspects of our society.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sup-rbeast</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Want the society to change?..then pressure politicians to push for wages that would enable one parent to work and their family still live comfortably while the other stays home. IMO greed is the cause of our society's problems..and its trickle down effect is just now coming to fruition in other aspects of our society. </div></div>

Excellent point. You can point our modern decline to the "Burn the bra" generation.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: PVFAN</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I could count the number of divorced couples I knew on three or four fingers back then. Now I need a sack of marbles to keep count, and the sad thing is, the divorce rate is nearly the same for church-goers. </div></div>

I do not know your age, however my guess is you grew up during the 70's or earlier. That being said, 30-50 years ago woman couldn't divorce, they couldn't afford it. Today, thanks to equal rights woman have the opportunity to work for themselves and not stay in a marriage that they do not like. </div></div>

I was entering the workforce in the seventies. Fifties and sixties were my growing-up years.

This post isn't in response to any one poster, but just a general post in this thread.

The point has been made that the world is worse off now than at any time in the past, that we're in the "last days". But is the world at large worse off than it has been in the past? Is it worse off than it was during the time of the flood? Or is it worse off than it was during the days that Israel rebelled against the Lord God and the people sacrificed their children to pagan gods and participated in every sort of lewd act? Or is it worse that the Assyrians, the Babylonians, or Persians? Is it worse than the corrupt Romans whose emperors slept with their own mothers, daughters, and sisters at times?

I don't think anyone who gives a serious thought can think this. I have to believe that the world is much better off now with almost 2 billion christians and the gospel preached throughout the nations than it was when 70 met together at Pentecost in an upper room and the rest of the world was in darkness. Just because this nation is crumbling doesn't mean the world will soon end. God can destroy the US and raise up 10 tomorrow. History doesn't hinge on the US.

And as far as the US being a Christian nation? Yes, this nation was founded, for the most part, by very godly men who served our Lord faithfully. But you would think if it were a christian nation somewhere in our documents our founders would have stated that. There is only ONE nation in the entire world that proclaims itself a Christian nation in its Constitution and where would that nation be?.....Africa.

"We the people," begins the Zambian constitution's preamble. It sounds familiar to Americans, but a few words later is a phrase that American Christians haven't ever heard: "declare the Republic a Christian nation while upholding the right of every person to enjoy that person's freedom of conscience or religion."

Now our fouders could have very easily declared this land a christian nation, but for some reason didn't.....

And a couple other articles in the Zambian constitution that one might find different...

The official language of Zambia shall be English.

No person shall deprive an unborn child of life by termination of pregnancy except in accordance with the conditions laid down by an Act of Parliament for that purpose.

Both the world and the nation of Israel survived those acts by God. The day coming will be like no other day in the past history of the world.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sup-rbeast</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> But, Want the society to change?..then pressure politicians to push for wages that would enable one parent to work and their family still live comfortably while the other stays home. </div></div>

Why is it up to politicians to raise wages that would enable a one-income family? Better that the dads get off their hind ends and take a second job if mom at home is their goal. We're just a fat, lazy society that looks to the feds to supply all our needs.