If nothing else, the thread has caused me to read more about the end times and the various beliefs on eschatology. So there's that.
The reason I've avoided studying it and debating it is because of all the folks who have read Revelation and have put dates and current events to the scriptures.
I previously posted about disagreements with my father. I love my father. I do not take to people questioning his walk with God or salvation, as seen in this thread. My disagreements with him, and my avoidance of end time study is, ironically, because of his love for end time study and his like and use of Irvin Baxter's magazine and studies. My father will talk eschatology and end times for hours, even at 84. He believes in dispensationalism and, from the last we had any discussion on it (well over a decade ago), believes in a pre-trib rapture.
Unfortunately, his fondness of all things related to the End Time Magazine and Baxter has led him to events such as Y2K. Remember that? The world was going to end. Economies were going to collapse. Electric grids and banking systems were going to fail and we were supposed to experience massive riots and martial law.
I was in my early 20s in the build up to Y2K. When it passed without so much as a light bulb flickering, I decided these studies and people trying to decipher future events were a waste of time. My avoidance isn't laziness or fear or moral relevance. My decision to avoid the issue was based on what I believed was more and less important per scripture.
Making disciples is the most important role of a believer. Debating one's position on eschatology and the end times is not. Now, a believer must believe in the coming judgment and the end of days. But belief of when it happens is not something upon which a believer's salvation hinges.
"But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and
contentions, and strivings about the law; for
they are unprofitable and vain."
Calling names, damning and condemning people over a personal interpretation of scripture, which has no bearing on salvation, is causing contention and is unprofitable. It's also mostly out of vanity (though unconsciously) that we write these long posts, boasting of what we know and why our opinion is better than anyone else's opinion, why it's more biblical, etc.
Threaded Mode
