The Apocalypse

The Greek word means 'to disclose' but took on a new and different meaning when Christianity gained power.
The last verse of Revelation is

Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

That was around 2000 years ago. Since then people always expect 'any day now' quite a bunch of Christian sects have been made possible because someone convinced enough people the day is close.
It never happened.

Christianity was only possible because the Jews believed a Messiah would come and after that the world would be just and pure, God's kingdom will come. It never did.

Instead the Church came to be.
A Jewish sect, Jesus was a Jew, all the first Christians were Jews...still waiting for the Messiah who never was and never came back.
But what it did, at least semantically, is turning the disclosure of the truth in the ultimate total meltdown.

In the beginning 'Christian' was synonymous with criminal & trouble-maker. Today they're for sure not the biggest problem this planet has, more an odd curiousity, a case study if you will:
How the oldest lie ever told to humanity, that a Messiah will come and fix all their problems, is despite all evidence to the contrary 2000+ years later still considered true by a non-insignificant amount of people.

The only way to explain that is humans are by default irrational, maybe a little schizophrenic. They choose as their 'truth' not what is experienced/seen/happening but what gives them hope.
And that's not just in religion. That's true for everything we think about: science, politics, relationships...
But Christianity kind of proves it.

When Jesus said, "Behold, I am coming soon," even his disciples thought he meant in their time. They had it wrong. And for 2000 years, people have been saying things like you're saying - those people are still wrong - and it isn't really valid to say things like "they've been saying it for 2000 years and have been wrong for 2000 years."

When Jesus said, "Behold, I am coming soon," he meant once the Tribulation starts. The Tribulation will last 7 years. 7 years passes by quite quickly these days. That's what Jesus meant by "soon." I hope this helps you to understand Jesus better and his 2nd Coming.

Coming soon to an Earth near you!


TCB

I'm not religious but with each passing day I feel we creep closer to a doomsday, but not a natural apocalypse event, it will be of our own doing, if those in control continue leading us down this path of chaos. You can feel it brewing just below the surface, and you can see the fear in their eyes... they have the ability to pull out of this nosedive before it's too late, but are they capable of letting go of their ego to do that, I don't know.

originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
I'm not religious but with each passing day I feel we creep closer to a doomsday, but not a natural apocalypse event, it will be of our own doing, if those in control continue leading us down this path of chaos. You can feel it brewing just below the surface, and you can see the fear in their eyes... they have the ability to pull out of this nosedive before it's too late, but are they capable of letting go of their ego to do that, I don't know.

That is the real essence of the whole situation ChaoticOrder. The road ahead is becoming narrower and narrower (the narrow way) and at the end of it is a narrower doorway - and that doorway only has enough room for one to pass....not two.

a reply to: HilterDayon

Concepts like competition really ruined this brilliant monotheistim maker mechanism....

a reply to: Peeple

For those who take the time to read the Bible in its entirety, the explanations for all of these ponderings and questions are answered, clear down to the expected impatience of those who wait for Jesus' return...

2 Peter 3:8-9

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

What leads you to believe it was the oldest lie ever told?

a reply to: In4ormant

You are right. The oldest lie ever told is this: Let there be light!

Who in their right mind would believe in this biblical nonsense?

I really am living in an open air asylum.

Most cultures have destruction and chaos as a theme in prophecy or in their origin stories. The ancient Aztec sacrificed people on a daily basis to keep the sun rising everyday. People over the world feel wicked and need salvation it seems. We are not worthy because of a lack of faith more or less.

Jesus comes back alot, in fact there are thousands of jesus at any one time.

They just all happen to be spending their time in mental hospitals.

Christianity is impossible without faith. Faith is belief in something unseen and unproven. So in a way, yes, we Christians are irrational.

The Bible says there will be scoffers

"Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."
2 Peter 3:3-7

we should be grateful that God has withheld judgment, waiting as long as possible for unbelievers to repent and be saved.

a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

Behold, I am coming soon

I hope they didn't mean anything dirty.. just kidding.

In any case, I guess when you are a Cosmic Being, 'soon' has a bit of a different meaning than it would to a Earth-crawling ant. To us, 10 000 years is an eternity, but cosmically thinking, from even just a tiny Galactic perspective, 100 million years is 'soon'.

No one party on ATS is going to convince you either way. Its all about personal testimony. For me the evidence is overwhelming that Jesus is the Son of God and my savior. The Holy Spirit also confirms this.

a reply to: Peeple
I'm not a believer

But

The world is constantly going through stages where consciousness and awareness increases

Enlightenment eras etc, so maybe it is due to happen again, when was the last one about 70 years ago. It feels like things have been changing for a while

70 is an important number that means completion, every 7 years the cells in your body have been completely replaced, a week is completed after 7 days.

a reply to: PeepleIm new here and im not sure if I'm replying to the right one but I wouldn't scoff at something you obviously have no clue what the difference is between the time of the end and all the times people thought it was. The Bible gives what the time of the end a way to recognize and know it is that time. If you really understand prophecies of the last generation and correctly compare scripture with scripture and dig for it then you just might be blessed enough to eventually see that it's speaking of our time. Not only are we in the last generation but have been for 7 decades. Signs like people being lovers of pleasure applies to our time on a scale far beyond the same low scale man has had since the beginning. Sealed until the time of the end prophecies have only now in our time become understood. Of course you have one that says, in that day scoffers will come saying it's the same as its always been yada yada. Bible scoffers are the ones that are going to be in regret if they die and take that curse with them, not us "crazy Christian's".

a reply to: Stangstunnet13

I don't think he is scoffing at Christianity. I think, he is setting us straight.

First and foremost "Christ" was a teacher, a teacher of things mankind once knew but forgotten over time. His teachings forced a lot of changes as shown in the creation of the "New Testament". He initiated a "Apocalypse".

Today we are in the middle of another Apocalypse by the name of "Disclosure". "And the truth, is, setting us free".

a reply to: Peeple
All religions say the same thing, from the first to the last, gods exist in man. Jesus is your compassion. Mary the perfect mother, would be Christian... Why did Jesus come when he did? Because the world needed those attributes. All gods exist within man, so who are the Lords of men?
Plants obviously!
God gave you the ten command Ments
God was a Bush, a burning Bush seen by a man under the influence of a plant... Genius instructions to stop the savages killing each other, and instead multiplying and spreading seeds all over the world.

a reply to: All Seeing Eye

Peeps is fem

a reply to: Peeple

The Greek word means 'to disclose' but took on a new and different meaning when Christianity gained power.

It still means that.

The Greek word apokálypsis, which is where we get "apocalypse," only occurs one time in the Holy Bible, and that is in the title of the book we refer to as "The Revelation of John." The actual title is "The Apocalypse of John." It literally means "to uncover."

The meaning of the term "apocalypse" was not changed by Christians. It was changed by those who tried to understand the Holy Bible without studying it thoroughly and without any insight into the religion. "The Revelation of John" is a description of a series of visions had by John on the Isle of Patmos... visions which he interpreted to be of the future and especially of the final days of mankind in Earth. Those visions are sometimes terrifying, speaking of great wars and devastation. So as time went on, those who tried to read the book without context or understanding assumed that the title, the "apocalypse," was a reference to a great calamity.

That's where the word changed meaning in popular culture. Christians in John's time knew exactly what he meant. It took centuries of misinterpretation by those who had only a passing familiarity with the Holy Bible and Christianity, translators, and popular icons for the popular but incorrect meaning to be "calamity."

Ironically, this shifting of meanings is still going on today. You, OP, just provided a wonderful example of it. I'll try to point out some of the high points; it would take a literal novel-length essay to address all the misconceptions in your relatively short OP.

That was around 2000 years ago. Since then people always expect 'any day now' quite a bunch of Christian sects have been made possible because someone convinced enough people the day is close.

And every one of them has been somewhat right. The vision in "The Revelation of John" started at the time of Jesus. It is not of a single event, but of a series of events. Those events are still occurring and have been occurring.

Yes, many got the meaning wrong. What else is new? People get things wrong all the time... we call it "news."

Christianity was only possible because the Jews believed a Messiah would come and after that the world would be just and pure, God's kingdom will come. It never did.

The main difference between Judaism and Christianity is that the Jews are still waiting on the Messiah. Christians believe the Messiah has already come and gone, and that He will return again. There is no date specified for this second coming of the Messiah (Jesus), so therefore it cannot be said that the prophesy of the second coming was wrong.

I could make the statement, "There will be a large earthquake in California," and I would be correct. At some point in the future there will be a great earthquake in California. Since I did not say when this great earthquake would occur, it cannot be said that my "prophesy" failed.

What John's vision does do is to show through the chronology of the events described a way to determine just how close we are to the "Day of Judgement." We do not have an exact date, and the events prophesied are happening just as predicted.

A Jewish sect, Jesus was a Jew, all the first Christians were Jews...still waiting for the Messiah who never was and never came back.

Of course they were all Jewish. That's what we call in Alabama a "DUH."

Here's an interesting fact for you: there are actually three major religions on Earth which have their basis in the Holy Bible:

• Judaism of course, is a religion that focuses around the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham (Abram) and Sarah (Sarai). It is Judaism that foretells the coming of a great Messiah, who will be a descendant of the Jewish House of David.
  
  
• Christianity is a religion that encompasses all peoples. It is based on the belief that the prophesied Messiah of the Jewish people was, in fact, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus taught that by His coming and His foretold sacrifice, all people would be welcomed into the Kingdom of God, not only the Jewish people.
  
  
• Islam is a religion which focuses on the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar. Through jealousy, Sarah caused Abraham to abandon Hagar and Ishmael, and God blessed them that their descendants would be a great multitude. The followers of Islam believe in Jesus as well as the Christians and Jews, but consider Him a prophet like the Jews rather than a Messiah. Their Messiah was Muhammed.

In the beginning 'Christian' was synonymous with criminal & trouble-maker.

Another "Duh" moment here. Of course they were considered troublemakers! They actually were. The trouble they stirred up, however, was refusing to denounce Jesus as the Messiah. They bucked the established religions of the world and thus were called troublemakers.

There's nothing new about that. Remember the hippies? They were called troublemakers and criminals as well, when most of them just wanted to get stoned and chill out, maaan... peace, maaaan... free love, maaan...

How the oldest lie ever told to humanity, that a Messiah will come and fix all their problems, is despite all evidence to the contrary 2000+ years later still considered true by a non-insignificant amount of people.

Who said that the Messiah would come to Earth and "fix all their problems"? It wasn't any of the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah. They simply said that a Great Messiah would come and establish a Kingdom on the Earth.

Well, it looks to me that such is exactly what Jesus did. He established a church that serves as a kingdom for those who believe in Him. This kingdom is world-wide, existing in practically every country on Earth, contributing massive amounts of money, time, and labor to worthy causes across the globe. They (at least try to) follow the laws of God rather than the laws of man. Many are killed on a regular basis for daring to do so.

Do some of them make mistakes? Of course! A large part of the religion is acknowledging that man is not perfect and thus cannot please God unless he accepts the sacrifice of Jesus as payment for being so imperfect. And there's a lot more to accepting that sacrifice than just saying "God forgives me because Jesus"... that's what the unenlightened say. The Holy Bible says differently.

I will close with this one statement of observation: when I come across something I do not accept, especially if it is not forced upon me, I tend to ignore it. A good example is the Church of Scientology; I think they're full of crap and that's that. I need spent no more time on them. If I were to become fascinated with why so many people are members of the Church of Scientology, that would actually indicate that I am interested in Scientology. Otherwise, it would be completely illogical for me to spend any time thinking about them.

You, OP, are searching for something you cannot find. You know it is there, but you are afraid to allow yourself to find it. I advise you, then, to be not afraid... Jesus will not hurt you. Christians will not hurt you. God will not hurt you. Only your fear can hurt you, and only if you continue to allow it to do so.

You need not reply to that last part; simply consider it at your leisure.

TheRedneck