Apocalypse in the year 2239?

[Neithan]

I’ve been wondering about the Second Coming lately. It’s one of our more fantastic beliefs. Although I think it would be sad if humanity ended soon, because that would cut short our budding exploration of the known universe; Christ did say he is coming “soon.” And that was 2000 years ago.

A Jewish tradition is that the Messiah will come in the Hebrew year 6000, which would place the approximate date of the Apocalypse in 2239. No one knows the day nor hour… but maybe the year?

What do you think? Could the end of the world be in the next 200 years?

 

[mikekle]

He said no one can know the day or hour, that is correct, but people forget that he gave very detailed signs and warnings for us to be on the watch for…if you look at the list of these, compared to history and our modern times, there has never been a time when so many are happening at one time, or have happened already.

With all the problems going on the world right now, I would not be surprised to see the sudden appearance of one person that apparently seems to have all the solutions to these things…plus keep in mind, Jesus said MOST will not be able to recognize this person for who they are truly are…I think that is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.

I think it will happen way sooner than 2239

 

[Neithan]

He said no one can know the day or hour, that is correct, but people forget that he gave very detailed signs and warnings for us to be on the watch for…if you look at the list of these, compared to history and our modern times, there has never been a time when so many are happening at one time, or have happened already.

With all the problems going on the world right now, I would not be surprised to see the sudden appearance of one person that apparently seems to have all the solutions to these things…plus keep in mind, Jesus said MOST will not be able to recognize this person for who they are truly are…I think that is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.

I think it will happen way sooner than 2239

Interesting point. Maybe this is just the beginning of a post-Christendom era, a kind of spiritual dark age, or the “reign of the anti-Christ” - in whatever form that takes. In that case, by exploring the universe we are just tainting it (like C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet). It’s kind of like how western post-Christian countries are trying to push death and gender ideology on the rest of the world.

 

[twf]

He said no one can know the day or hour, that is correct, but people forget that he gave very detailed signs and warnings for us to be on the watch for…if you look at the list of these, compared to history and our modern times, there has never been a time when so many are happening at one time, or have happened already.

With all the problems going on the world right now, I would not be surprised to see the sudden appearance of one person that apparently seems to have all the solutions to these things…plus keep in mind, Jesus said MOST will not be able to recognize this person for who they are truly are…I think that is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.

I think it will happen way sooner than 2239

Early Christians were convinced Our Lord would return within the first century. Christians were convinced Our Lord would return at the AD 1000 mark. Christians of the Reformation era (1500s) were convinced the end times were upon them. Christians of the 20th century, especially early/mid-20th century, were absolutely obsessed with End Times and convinced the end was nigh. Will the Lord return soon? I don’t know. But neither did those previous generations.

 

[pianistclare]

Pointless speculation.
No one knows, no can say they know. Fearmongering never gets anyone anywhere. I think recent evens intended to frighten the world are proof of this.
What we must do, is be prepared spiritually and have our soul ready when the good Lord returns in glory.

 

[Gertabelle]

Odds are far more likely that I will die before the return of Christ. I need to be ready to meet Him at any moment on any day.

Speculating and calculating to find the hidden secrets of God is pointless. What purpose could it possibly serve? If God reveals to you that Our Lord will return tomorrow morning at 8:00 am, what difference does it make if you die before supper today?

There is real work to be done in this life. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

[Strydersroom]

He said no one can know the day or hour, that is correct, but people forget that he gave very detailed signs and warnings for us to be on the watch for…if you look at the list of these, compared to history and our modern times, there has never been a time when so many are happening at one time, or have happened already.

With all the problems going on the world right now, I would not be surprised to see the sudden appearance of one person that apparently seems to have all the solutions to these things…plus keep in mind, Jesus said MOST will not be able to recognize this person for who they are truly are…I think that is VERY VERY IMPORTANT.

I think it will happen way sooner than 2239

Again, NO natural disaster or terrorist acts of murder or hate is a warning from God. Let me ask you just one question: did the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco have ANYTHING to do with being a warning or punishment from God? Or does sf happen to be on the San andreas fault? If you are not 100% sure it’s there latter, then

 

[Crusaderbear]

I’ll be dead, so pffftttt, don’t care! Still a staunch supporter of no one knows they time or the day…

 

[RPRPsych]

Pointless speculation.
No one knows, no can say they know. Fearmongering never gets anyone anywhere. I think recent evens intended to frighten the world are proof of this.
What we must do, is be prepared spiritually and have our soul ready when the good Lord returns in glory.

Odds are far more likely that I will die before the return of Christ. I need to be ready to meet Him at any moment on any day.

Speculating and calculating to find the hidden secrets of God is pointless. What purpose could it possibly serve? If God reveals to you that Our Lord will return tomorrow morning at 8:00 am, what difference does it make if you die before supper today?

There is real work to be done in this life. Let’s get to it, shall we?

I’ll be dead, so pffftttt, don’t care! Still a staunch supporter of no one knows they time or the day…

Couldn’t agree more.

Ever since the Church began, there have always been some over-enthusiastic folks who were busy proclaiming: “Now is the time!”, “We are the last generation!”

One has only to look back at the way this phenomenon hit the Evangelicals back in the 1970s-80s - and how it deflated like a pricked balloon when the most elaborate predictions proved to be quite wrong in every detail - to understand that it’s terribly easy to be fooled by one’s wishes and preconceived notions.

Perhaps the world will end in 2017 (hey, it’s 100 years of Fatima! Never mind that 100 years never was an important time period in any of the apocalyptic texts!) or in 2030 (hmm, that’s 2000 years after the Resurrection! Isn’t that late enough?) or even in 2025 (yay, it’s 100 years since Pius XI wrote about the Social Kingship of Christ). One can make up convincing justification for all sorts of dates, but that doesn’t make them right.

The trouble is that idle speculation on these things often (a) distracts us from the very real fact of our own “Judgment Day” and the Four Last Things, which the Church has taught from its very beginnings, (b) encourages simplistic thinking in which those who endorse a particular date or schema are “the faithful remnant” while the rest of us are unsaved heathens, stooges or conspirators, (c) reflects a simple envy of the Rapture concept developed by some Evangelical theologians, and (d) encourages slander, detraction and rash judgment of certain public figures who fit into this schema (just look at what some of us Catholics are saying about the Holy Father ) For all these reasons, I believe that this practice can be spiritually dangerous. There are better things we can do with our time. What does it profit us if we work out the “exact date”, but die in a state of unconfessed mortal sin?

 

[mikekle]

Again, NO natural disaster or terrorist acts of murder or hate is a warning from God. Let me ask you just one question: did the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco have ANYTHING to do with being a warning or punishment from God? Or does sf happen to be on the San andreas fault? If you are not 100% sure it’s there latter, then

I cant say all natural disasters are ‘signs’ from God, but the bible did mention earthquakes specifically in regards to end times signs, something along the lines of ‘more frequent earthquakes and in various places’. I was recently discussing this with another co-worker and found the USGS quake data going back to 1900s pretty interesting, for some reason, there is a HUGE increase in the number of earthquakes starting about late 1990s.(go figure?)

I also find it curious the bible even mentions there will be many people who fail to recognize the times for what they are, not sure of the exact verse, but it talks of people who say ‘things are as they have always been’ sort of like those today that say 'every generation has thought they were the last, our times are no different, etc.

Im just curious, what would you consider to be a real ‘sign/ warning’ from God?

 

[adamhovey1988]

I was born in 1988, I am 28 years old, and on average, there are several “End of the world” predications a year. Personally, I think it will happen when it happens and we need to stop trying to predict it.

 

[Gertabelle]

I cant say all natural disasters are ‘signs’ from God, but the bible did mention earthquakes specifically in regards to end times signs, something along the lines of ‘more frequent earthquakes and in various places’. I was recently discussing this with another co-worker and found the USGS quake data going back to 1900s pretty interesting, for some reason, there is a HUGE increase in the number of earthquakes starting about late 1990s.(go figure?)

I also find it curious the bible even mentions there will be many people who fail to recognize the times for what they are, not sure of the exact verse, but it talks of people who say ‘things are as they have always been’ sort of like those today that say 'every generation has thought they were the last, our times are no different, etc.

Im just curious, what would you consider to be a real ‘sign/ warning’ from God?

Well, all this likely proves is that the equipment has become more sensitive and more common (there are more devices recording movement) in the past 100 years.

But OK, let’s say that this data actually does prove the end of the world is near, really near… What next? What’s the “take away” from this?

That we should repent? We should do that anyway.
That we should return to God with all our hearts? We should do that anyway.
That we should “be ready to share the gospel with anyone who asks”? We should do that anyway.
That we should take stock of our life’s choices and prepare ourselves for judgment? We should – you guessed it – do that anyway?

Do you think, with all the wrong predictions – some of them highly public wrong predictions – that you are going to be able to use this information to convert anyone to Christianity?

Most people who are past their teens know that they’re going to die someday. And if they follow world events at all, they likely know that death could come at any moment.

If knowledge of death itself does not cause people to repent, what makes “end of the world-ers” think their latest data or theory is going to change anyone’s heart?

And if the point of all this speculation isn’t conversion of heart, then what IS the point?

Just my two cents…

And to the OP, no, I don’t think the world is going to end in 2239. I don’t have any inside info. I’m just playing the odds.

And besides, I’ll be long-since dead, so I don’t really care. :harp:

 

[Mintaka]

There was also a huge increase in earthquakes in the 1890’s, and the 1790’s, and the 1690’s, and…

US faultlines tend to move around, every hundred years or so. There are other systems of periodicity that have also been discovered around the world. It’s just one of those things; rock and tectonic plates only move so fast, so they tend to be on a schedule. If we understood the tectonic plate system better, we could probably predict earthquakes better.

So yes, earthquakes are a sign, but so are wars a sign. And we are always, always having bad earthquakes and bad wars. Welcome to the human condition and life on a fallen Earth.

If the New Madrid earthquake in the 1800’s wasn’t the end of the world, and if the Port Royal and Lisbon earthquakes weren’t the end of the world, it’s probably not going to be the end this time, either.

Don’t panic. Just do what Jesus says, and don’t let Him find you not doing your job!

 

[mikekle]

Well, all this likely proves is that the equipment has become more sensitive and more common (there are more devices recording movement) in the past 100 years.

But OK, let’s say that this data actually does prove the end of the world is near, really near… What next? What’s the “take away” from this?

That we should repent? We should do that anyway.
That we should return to God with all our hearts? We should do that anyway.
That we should “be ready to share the gospel with anyone who asks”? We should do that anyway.
That we should take stock of our life’s choices and prepare ourselves for judgment? We should – you guessed it – do that anyway?

Do you think, with all the wrong predictions – some of them highly public wrong predictions – that you are going to be able to use this information to convert anyone to Christianity?

Most people who are past their teens know that they’re going to die someday. And if they follow world events at all, they likely know that death could come at any moment.

If knowledge of death itself does not cause people to repent, what makes “end of the world-ers” think their latest data or theory is going to change anyone’s heart?

And if the point of all this speculation isn’t conversion of heart, then what IS the point?

Just my two cents…

And to the OP, no, I don’t think the world is going to end in 2239. I don’t have any inside info. I’m just playing the odds.

And besides, I’ll be long-since dead, so I don’t really care. :harp:

Why do you think Jesus was so specific on the various things to be on the watch for in regards to when the end times begin? If there really was no point in us recognizing this, why bother giving us all those details?

 

[pianistclare]

He wanted to KNOW there is eternal life

And how to get there. What “details” are you specifically referring to?

 

[Faith1960]

Pointless speculation.
No one knows, no can say they know. Fearmongering never gets anyone anywhere. I think recent evens intended to frighten the world are proof of this.
What we must do, is be prepared spiritually and have our soul ready when the good Lord returns in glory.

So when people say the know when the Apocalypse is coming, they’re either wrong or lying?

 

[Usagi]

So when people say the know when the Apocalypse is coming, they’re either wrong or lying?

They all have been so far. Someone might get it right one day by chance, but the track record doesn’t inspire confidence.

 

[pianistclare]

So when people say the know when the Apocalypse is coming, they’re either wrong or lying?

They’re speculating. You can call it lying if you want.
Christ said no one knows the day or the hour.
I’ll go with what He says over others.

 

[RPRPsych]

So when people say the know when the Apocalypse is coming, they’re either wrong or lying?

Exactly. We must be careful, though, to distinguish between:

1. honest speculators, who admit that there is a margin of error in their predictions, who do not hold to them obstinately, and who submit to the judgment of the Church or its approved ordinaries on such matters.
2. those “caught up” in a theory, who may well be sincere, but who are firmly convinced of their beliefs to a degree that can become spiritually unhealthy. A good example would be the way the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination was formed; it arose as a result of holding on to a mistaken calculation of this sort.
3. those who use such predictions in a manipulative or cultic sense, or to stir up resentment against a particular group of individuals or population.
4. snake-oil salesmen, who make loads of $$$$$$ off such idle speculations (or stories about them) and are probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Only (3) or (4) would really be considered liars in my opinion; (1) and (2) are probably sincere and zealous, if mistaken.

 

[Faith1960]

They’re speculating. You can call it lying if you want.
Christ said no one knows the day or the hour.
I’ll go with what He says over others.

Me too.