When you explain to people through scriptures that we are living in the last days, does this happen to you?
Just a few of the scriptures you use are:
Matthew 24:7 “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another. 8 All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.
9 “Then people will deliver YOU up to tribulation and will kill YOU, and YOU will be objects of hatred by all the nations on account of my name. 10 Then, also, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and mislead many; 12 and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off. 13 But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved. 14 And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.
And then you get this reply:
2 Peter 3:3 For YOU know this first, that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires 4 and saying: “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep [in death], all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.”
Mindy2010-05-01T18:27:13Z
Favorite Answer
Definitely.
The thing that always blows my mind is that they miss the very strong point that Peter makes at 2 Peter 3:5-7.
The people of this world have absolutely no idea just how close they are to having all they know and love (including themselves) destroyed forever by God. They are about to die and true to Jesus' prophecy at Matthew 24:37-39, they are taking NO NOTE of the seriousness regarding what is about to very soon overtake them.
They simply go on with their lives carrying out their mundane everyday activities that encompass their mundane lives and time, while they sleep in the horrific slumber that Satan has them enchanted in.
Oh yeah, they cringe at hearing about the rising reports of devasting earthquakes that are taking place "in one place after another", the "increasing of lawlessness", the ever increasing rise and talk of children who are "disobediant to their parents", the late night infomercials of organizations asking for money to feed the unfortunate children who are suffering from massive "food shortages"... etc, etc, and what do they do?
Why, they shake their heads at their dinner tables, the office watercooler, school cafeteria, and wherever else they gather to make idol chip chat and simply say; "What is this world coming to?".
In a vain attempt they try to find answers from places that are as dry as a plate of pankcakes with no butter and no syrup.
They REFUSE to accept the fact that the answer is right under their nose, but because the answer doesn't fit in to THEIR idea of what the answer should be, they reject it, ridicule it, scoff at it... dismiss it and anyone who brings THAT answer.
They are unfortunate fools who are soon about to perish.
They fail to realize that it is not merely the fact that there have been wars, famines, earthquakes, and crime that is significant.
They fail to realize that the sign Jesus gave at Matthew 24:3-14 was a COMPOSITE one.
Jesus didn't say that any ONE event BY ITSELF would prove that we were in “the last days”.
When the ENTIRE SIGN is in evidence, THAT is significant—and especially when it appears on a GLOBAL scale and beginning with a year that is fixed by Bible chronology and prophecy (1914)!!!
http://www.watchtower.org/e/bh/appendix_10.htm {What Does the Bible Really Teach?: 1914—A Significant Year in Bible Prophecy}
Part of the sign given by Jesus involves war between nations and kingdoms (Matthew 24:6, 7).
Do these people realize what would happen today if fulfillment of the sign required that we wait until another all-out war were to break out between the superpowers?!
Such a war would leave few if any survivors. God’s very purpose that there be SURVIVORS indicates that we are NOW VERY CLOSE to the end of this old system!
Matching world events to the prophecy is like matching a fingerprint to its owner. There will NOT be someone else with the IDENTICAL print. Likewise, the pattern of events that began in 1914 absolutely will NOT be repeated in some future generation.
Everything that goes to make up the sign is CLEARLY in evidence beyond the shadow of any doubt.
If these people want to continue to be like the people in Noah’s day who laughed, scoffed and took no note by continuing with the mundane day to day activities of their lives and treating the message that Noah PREACHED as insignificant... so be it hun... so be it (Matthew 24:37-39; 2 Peter 2:5).
When the "stuff" hits the fan, they won't be able to say that they weren't given enough fair warning.
They are perishing and the sad thing about it is that they don't even know it:
"For the speech about the torture stake is FOOLISHNESS TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power." ~1 Corinthians 1:18~
"and he (Jehovah) did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a PREACHER of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of UNGODLY people; 6 .... setting a pattern for UNGODLY persons of THINGS TO COME." 2 Peter 2:5, 6
Let them "live it up", let these people try to get all there is to get out of this present world, this present life, let them squeeze and milk it for all it's worth. Like Jesus said; "they are having THEIR REWARD in full" (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16).
They are getting their reward NOW, they will die with all that this world deceptively offered them and they will NEVER get to know what they could have had in the new earth that Jehovah is bringing. They are having THEIR REWARD in full.
Tonga lies east of longitude 180 degrees. The international dateline deviates from a strict 180 degrees around Tonga and includes it with the other side of the date line on the next day. This is a man made deviation used for trade and economic reasons. Tongan Seventh-day Adventists do not accept this anomaly in the dateline. They worship on Sabbath from sunset to sunset according to the Earth's rotation as they have always done. Since they lie east of the 180 degree line, they use the Saturday Sabbath of the hemisphere they are located within - the Western Hemisphere. Adventists in Kiribati, Samoa, Tuvalu and remoter parts of Fiji do this too. It is not an acceptance of Sunday worship but a rejection of artificial date changes.
Yes, isn't that true. In the American Standard Version that scripture in 2 Pet. 3:3 says they are "mockers" and walking after their own lust. vs 4 and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? .....all things continue the way they were from the beginning... (scripture in part)
It's easy to be in denial.
Here is an unknown quote I personally love: "A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well then a fool can see from a mountaintop."
That is a common criticism of Jehovah's Witnesses. We are always talking about the end. However they overlook the fact that we are not saying anything new, but only pointing out what the Bible has been saying .
yeah i can relate,mayb we should pray tht their eyes mayb opened to the truth bc a lot of ppl are blinded by the enemy 2 corinthians 4:4 and therefore don't have a chance to see what's true or going on though the buible speaks about this.