NotJon : This is getting a little off topic but I was wondering, would you consider yourself a literalist?

Hehe, I hear that a lot. That is just a childish way of giving names to Christians who take the words of the Bible seriously and educatedly. Obviously you are not suppose to take ALL of the Bible literally. Most people who calls Christians "literalist" say it whenever Christians use ANY parts of the Bible literally. But seriously, if people actually study and read the Bible, there are contexts and qualifiers that glares at you on what is interpreted literally and what is interpreted figuratively. (Ex.: Jesus said "I am the door." That statement itself is plain "duh" that Jesus is not a 2 by 1 meter wooden plank. The context adds on to the fact that Jesus is describing Himself as the pathway to salvation like a door to enter the pastures) There can be a few that would be hard to determine, like the Book of Revelation.

Many of these things have been occurring throughout history...
Yes, I know, but like what you said, some of these have not. This is why the passage said to "be alert" because non-Christians will obviously see these things as nothing new. and obviously if you did some researching, there are some things that pop out on what the end times would be like (Antichrist, WWIII, more diseases, more disasters, more earthquakes, one world currency, one world government and religions, which is where new Christians will be persecuted by their faith, ten kingdoms, Armageddon conflict, etc etc) Most of these details are more dependent on the interpretations of Revelation and Daniel and Thessalonian books.

4. It's the Middle East - the epicenter of Islam - I wouldn't call what a few individuals are doing persecution of the entire Christian population.

Not just Middle East, China, North Korea, Japan, Africa, there are way more places that have persecution of Christians (used to be Russia, but now is not.)

Besides, Christians still have power in the US, Europe, Central and South America, etc.

Pssh, Europe, yeah, right. Hare Krishnas maybe, but not Christians. So many of them are just "cultural Christians" which is basically not a Christian at all.

5. I can't tell, does this have something to do with homosexuality?

No. Just read the verse as it is. It's more about the violence.

7. I looked it up and I did not understand this one.

If I remember correctly, the more common belief of this verse relates to the AntiChrist, and this person will rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and violate the place of the holy.

Much of this list that you provided is old news.
It's not a matter of whether it happened or not. It's about whether these events are escalating or not. Again, this is why the verse, and many other verses say "be alert" or "wake up".

Cyro Xero : "Why is it that nobody talks about what happens after everything is done? Why does nobody mention that in the Bible people don't stay in hell forever, that after a certain amount of time the damned are released? And that God puts people back on Earth for 1000 years before finally taking EVERYONE up with him? Well?"

First, probably nobody talks about what happens after the Rapture because most of the world doesn't believe in it to begin with so it would be moot, I have actually discussed it here - https://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/thread.php?id=14114 "if you're left behind during this Rapture the Bible, in the book of Revelation, describes this time as the Great Tribulation in which there will be cataclysmic events of God's wrath being poured out on mankind. Based on Zechariah 13:8-9, 2/3 of the earth's population will be killed during this time. But the Bible states that a great multitude of people will also be saved during this time" (to sum up the result of being left behind).

Second, in my 8 years of being a Christian and reading the Bible cover-to-cover 2 times now, I've never heard of the people of hell being released -- what passage of the Bible are you interpreting that from?

Edit - Perhaps my post here - https://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/thread.php?id=14522&ppp=20&page=0#218044 pertains to what you're talking about?

NotJon : I really do not believe that the rapture is gonna take place on that specific date but it could we just do not know. No matter what somebody says or when they say its gonna happen we will never know the exact date the lord has picked for his coming back.

i don't believe that the world will end there have been many people who are saying the world will end on certain dates but it never happens the world was supposed to end in the year 2000

As for all the rumors about the world ending really soon, they are using the Bible as evidence, as for the scientists they reject the idea of the world ending really soon. As for me, I don't think that the world would end so soon, but it might be plausibe to happen. Who knows for sure when the world would really end?

Eh. I don't believe it myself. Many people are already paranoid about the whole 2012 scenario. Religious leaders and scientist claims different occurrences of the ending of the world. For all we know. Our world as already ended years ago and we are stuck in a world people like to call. "Hell on Earth" Which thats happening anyways even without the whole end of the world thing. As for the rapture. I haven't heard anything and I know I've sinned. So of course I'm going to be here on the 22nd. I mean. Who's left on God's green earth that haven't sinned? So there is no way of telling if there is going to be a rapture or any of the sort.

Off topic

Hell when the Saints won the Super Bowl. It started to snow here in Louisiana and we rarely get sleet let alone a few snow flakes. It showed for two days straight. Now thats the end of the world. Lol.

There's about 24 hours before anything's supposed to happen. Any possibly final thoughts?

Yeah - final thought: when it happens, according to the Bible you should look up and be ready for the return of your Lord Jesus (sarcasm intended for this topic, but that's a true statement).

NotJon : well,its may 21st here and im not dead so im feeling pretty confident.

If people actually READ the Bible, they would know that God's day of judgement will "come like a thief in the night". We will not know the day or the hour. And God wouldn't blow up the earth like some people claim. He is a loving God. In the Bible it states, "God is love." Therefore, he will not create something and be so cruel as to blow it up. The Bible is very clear about what his day of judgement will be. He does NOT say when. Only he knows and there is a reason only he knows. Some people need to actually read the Bible before claiming anything like this Harold Camping has.

I was googling May 21st doomsday and I ran into this site where it said that Harold Camping was misunderstood the bible and said that the world would end soon. Harold Camping IS USING THE BIBLE as evidence. Obvisously, Harold is decieving us as if it was a huge April fools joke to scare the heck out of us. Here's the link to the article: http://www.realtruth.org/articles/110514-001-prophecy.html?s_kwcid=TC|7308|judgement%20day||S|b|7370110157&gclid=CP2Bk_i5-agCFRx3gwodQlFNUA

well there was supposed to be an earthquake in new zealand or that area but nothing yet

So, going on nearly 9pm EST and still no rapture. I think it is pretty sad that some people actually believed this enough to invest their life savings into "sounding the trumpets."

I think Mr. Camping should be ashamed of himself for leading people to empty out their savings like that.

Elara : Exactly. If this did happen, what would be the purpose of telling everyone about it? What could anyone have done to brace themselves? I don't understand.

SunflowerGaming : There's a lot of Bible to cover. That passage seems to contradict his prediction, however, if you delve deep enough, you can find a few passages out of the Bible (or any text for that matter) to find support for anything you want.

Wow omg am I glad to be alive here today lmao!! I did see a few ppl doing some funny sh** today though. Lol! also knew about some parties going on...

"I'm pretty sure I just saw NBC congratulate President Obama on defeating The Rapture."

Too funny.

Sigh....Here we go again..... Harold's response: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390268/Rapture-Harold-Camping-explains-wrong--says-God-bring-Rapture-OCTOBER-21.html#ixzz1NFbpDvbQ

Harold said that Jesus came "spiritually," that God "did not want people to suffer for 5 months," so he will do it "all at once on October 21"...ok....if God gave a prophecy and it's written in paper, He's going to do it. He's not going to change His mind about it, so if you say He said in the Bible that the rapture is on October 21 and the people left behind will suffer for the next 5 months, and yet it didn't happen, IT MEANS YOU READ THE PROPHECY WRONG!!!!

Can someone PLEASE explain to Harold that Matthew 24:36 applies to him? (NO ONE KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR) He needs to stop spreading false teaching and start going back to church, instead of preaching that Satan entered all the churches on May 21 1988! He is totally twisting scripture in order to make himself correct!!!

And to the believers of Harold, please stop following this heretic/false prophet!! He does not understand correct theology in Christianity and is making stretches in quoting scripture! Please go get a Bible and read it for yourself. There is NO way he and he alone can get End Times prophecy correct. He is not even following any traditional beliefs of end times theology. No Bible scholar, pastor, Christian leader is agreeing to anything that he is saying. Please repent, believe the gospel and guard your heart, or it will hurt you, both realistically and spiritually.

I know this date is already over and The rapture did not occur. But I knew it wouldn't because, People have been predicting these things before my grandma was born and shes like 77. I simple "quote" Noone on this planet will guess or estimate or predict when the world will end. Because Its not gonna happen. The lord will choose to come back.. when It is time.

It is now 05/59/2011 and the "rapture" didn't occur. The aforementioned old kook has now revised his "predictions" and set the date for some time in October of this year.

Does anyone know how many millions of dollars this crazy old man got from stupid people? I've heard figures like 8 million.

This guy also pulled this off in 1994 and will keep doing it until he dies. I hope he doesn't have any children that will join in this scam.

Bobbynibbles : To be fair though, I heard that May 21st was supposed to be the day that everyone who will be saved will rise to Heaven or something. October 21st I think is when all Hell breaks loose.

Honestly, his prediction wasn't even well thought out. He pretty much just used the 7 days that it took God to make the Earth and multiplied that by one thousand because of a quote that he found in the Bible that says that a day is like a thousand years to God or something. So it's supposed to be 7,000 years after the great flood.