universalchiro wrote:Some major signs to look for of the coming Messiah that tells you He is within 7 years:
1. Seven year peace treaty.
2. Israel builds Solomon's Temple on the Temple mount, not where the Rock of the Dome is, but next to it.
3. Hyper-inflation
4. Famine
5. Plagues
6. Anti-Christ breaks the 7yr peace treaty and declares himself worthy to be worshiped.
@degaston: Jesus said that know one knows the Day nor the hour and then followed that with but when you see the fig tree bud it's leaves, you know the harvest is near. We see the signs being fulfilled today, therefore we know the Messiah is near. No one knows the day nor hour, but we can know the season or year? Maybe.
Do not try to see the fig tree bud. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.
What truth?
There is no tree.
People have been seeing the signs and making predictions for over 1500 years. What makes you right about this when
every single one of the previous predictions has been wrong? I know you
really want this to happen, so you gather some meaningless superstitions and vague prophecies that could be interpreted in any number of ways, and then twist and cherry pick current events until, SURPRISE!, all the signs show that Jesus is coming in your lifetime! What are the odds?! But hey, you can't argue with the facts, right?
If there really was a tree, then you wouldn't need to interpret unrelated natural, political, social, and economic events to try to figure out when the fruit was coming. The tree would be self-evident, and the fruit would come on schedule. But you want to tell everyone that there is a tree (though they can't see it), and even though it hasn't had any fruit for 2000 years, you're sure it will within the next seven... because, Locusts! And then you accuse other people of being illogical if they don't believe you? Because you play CC better than they do?
When previously predicted dates have come and gone, and the predictors are faced with the cognitive dissonance of being so completely sure about something and yet so wrong, they may question their calculations, or the strength of their faith, or say that God changed his plan, but they never question the premise. What are you going to question in 2022 when he still hasn't shown up? Probably not much. Religions have done a great job of surviving by making faith a virtue. Once you get people to believe that, then the more they reject any evidence that contradicts their beliefs, the better their score. Congrats on the high score!
EDIT: The only reason I can think of to even start a thread like this in CC is to work on your faith defense techniques (and increase your score), so I hope this has been useful to you.