I have a lot of friends who I had met back when I was at a Bible college and sadly many of them don’t take the COVID-19 virus seriously as some think we don’t need to worry as we just simply need to “trust the promises of God i.e. Psalm 91:10” and other such verses being misused and thus no need to wear mask as wearing a mask would entail “lack of faith”. Others say that wearing a mask is some how conditioning to the “mark of the beast” which of course our friendly anti-Christ Bill Gates is somehow cooking up to chip all of us with his vaccine. All of this stuff has been making be sad and upset in how the “evangelical” community has acted this way and thus given Christians another slanderous bad name and it pains me most that faith is being both misused and abused when we should seek wisdom in these times. It also pains me that people are saying their “religion” is under attack because churches have been ordered to close and then it all goes down hill with this being the start of the “great tribulation” which I find humorous as a certain individual whom Paul talks about in 2nd Thess.2 hasn’t popped his head out yet and others try to attribute the COVID-19 with the 4th seal as told in Rev. 6:7-8. but I joke and wonder where all the “wild beast” are that are to kill a “fourth” of the earth are?
It is my hope that Christians get a hold of themselves and seek wisdom and return to proper Biblical faith and know that regardless of what is going on we can trust that our God will guide us and lead us to the New Jerusalem despite all of what is going on around us. Are we in the great tribulation? No not yet, but if and when it does happen, it will probably be something crazy and worse then what we are seeing right now. But there is no need to fear and despair, as Jesus himself said, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.
Peace and love to all in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
A few times now when someone tries to bring up the whole lack of faith thing concerning masks I just try to convince them to pick up a snake. Tried to convince a guy few days ago to pick up a cotton mouth since it says you want be harmed by those either. Mark 16:18. So far no one will. I also ask them if they have so much faith how about they tell this rock to hop into the river, don’t even need to be a mountain I’ll be satisfied with any levitating item lol.
Just to be clear to be clear though I would obviously stop them if they got anywhere near picking up the snake. Most wont even come within 3 feet of them though.
My beliefs mostly line towards partial preterism though and so this particular issue of the mark of the beast is if no concern to me.
My mom has been sucked up into this web of conspiracy theories. It’s really frustrating.
She did send me something from Facebook about the mRNA COVID vaccines turning people into GMO’s. Thankfully, she did seem to abandon that one when I explained how that mRNA is not made into DNA and is not inserted into any genome. Threaded through that conspiracy theory was stuff about Bill Gates and Fauci, which is exceedingly weird. I am still trying to figure out how I should confront some of the things my mom says, or just let it go by with a smile and a nod. Probably the latter. Sadly, there appears to be a toxic mix of politics and tribalism in some parts of the evangelical community that is giving rise to this conspiratorial thinking.
The Anti-Christ is clearly identified as the Man of Lawlessness" 2 Thes 2:3. Who in this world has declared himself above the law of God (unable to tell the truth) and the USA?
These could well be the Last Times, so why are many “Christians” following the person who personifies the opposite of “Love others as you love yourself.”
My view has come round towards Amillennialism and a elastic view of seeing prophecy. I do see tribulation as being present among us now since the start of the Church but I do expect there to be a final climax of events “i.e. the last things” such as the gospel being preached in all nations, the conversion of the fullness of Israel, the revealing of a final personal anti-Christ and the great apostasy and climax of the tribulation. For me I feel we aren’t even close to being in any of the “last days” what so ever.
That seems to be an ugly side of the evangelical side of the church, sucked into political camps and feasting upon conspiracy theories. It is my hope that wisdom is sought out and people see truth from lies and misinformation.
Someone who used to be a dear friend got sucked into conspiracism. It’s really pernicious. She had some trauma in her marriage and it gave her a sense of control, sharing things in the online echo chamber pot, ha, and alienated others in her family, including her own children.
For me somethings I would have to consider is that Jesus mentioned the end coming after the temple was destroyed. He was looking at the second temple that was still there when he said it. That temple was destroyed within that generation. He also said the kingdom would come within that generation and that some there would not tasers death until they saw him coming in the glory of his father. That generation had passed and all there are dead.
Paul also says that the gospel was heard throughout the whole world already. However recently on the podcast, The Bible Project , they did a some work on examining how revelation may be a book of cycles that showcases the rise and fall of civilizations and how Christ works through them again and again.
And it did happen and take place as Jesus predicted within the Gospels but I feel his prediction was a flash between his time (Matt. 23:34-36. 24:15-28) and other other verses spoke of both the general church age and the climax of the last days. (Matt.24:4-14,29-31).
I take to understand Revelation from the progressive parallelism in that Revelation uses Old Testament archetypes in a series of cycles that talk about/looking forward to the Day of the Lord and the Final judgement. They aren’t to be understood as it within traditional evangelical futurism as chronological series of literal events.
Oh. And don’t forget, "Trump is a praying man… No president has ever been attacked like this one… The government is out to destroy religion… The whole world is working together in one giant conspiracy to enslave you, and nobody has leaked that information yet… the sky is falling… AAAANNNNND… People who wear masks are the fearful ones.
Why is it free, the flue shot?
Why are big name celebrities pushing it, you know the same ones who push all liberal topics?
These two facts alone frighten me, while a Muslim Magazine accused Bill Gates and the Gates foundation of Crimes against Humanity after his organization gave free vaccines to millions in Africa.
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Please do not just ignore the possibility that this conspiracy might be real:
For do not liberals claim that we are no more than animals.
Do they not claim that overpopulation is actually destroying our world?
Please let us reason together. If you believed that overpopulation was destroying our world, would it not be very logical to sterilize people, even without their consent, or even worse, if this was the only way to save the world and humanity too?
While what better way could there be to hide a world wide conspiracy than to mock all conspiracy theories and maybe even pay people to promote the most ludicrous theories that can be imagined as a way of denying them all, both false and true.
The flu vaccine is not free. For many it is a covered benefit of their insurance or Medicare, but someone pays.
I ‘ve not read what your Muslin buddies say, but have looked at the critical objections some splinter Christian groups had, and while unjustified, can understand their suspicions given the past colonial history regarding some of the African immunization programs.
I think many people including liberals believe that humans are animals but that there is something special about being human.
Many experts today reject the Malthusian model. The liberal newspaper Vox published an article by the economist Lyman Stone who argued that fears about overpopulation are overblown. I do not know what the public thinks about overpopulation, but Stone indicated that the people who raised concerns about overpopulation to him are from all over the political spectrum.
Actually, in the USA there was a very real eugenics crusade to keep undesirable people from reproducing. The goal was to “improve” the human race by getting rid of undesirable traits. You know, feeble-mindedness, epilepsy, criminality, etc. They even coined the word “moron” for this purpose. Thousands were sterilized against their will. Hitler got some of his ideas from the American eugenics program.
Fwiw, there are some notable scientists proposing this sort of idea. Last year apparently 10,000 scientists signed a statement endorsing global population control in order to fight global warming.
