America Asks More Questions about the Second Coming of Christ

Question
Isn抰 the book of Revelation just so many symbols and thus should not he placed on the level of other clearer messages of the Bible?

Answer
The book of Revelation is replete with symbolism; but so is much of the rest of the Bible. We should give no less credence to it than to any other part of the Bible. Symbolisms were used to guide an entire nation of ancient Egyptians and to protect and give hope to generations of Israelites. All of this was done in the very first book of the Bible, so if we are going to lessen the veracity or the practicality of biblical symbols we would have to start at the beginning of the Bible. If we start there, we will find countless other symbols not to trust and in the end we will have chopped up a great deal of Gods word. We don抰 have the right to remove even one letter from Gods word physically, but we are not to remove it by spiritualizing it or nominalizing it either.

When Egypt was about to undergo one of the worst droughts in its history, Pharaoh had a dream filled with symbolism that deferred the worst from happening. When Joseph interpreted Pharaohs dream he secured a future for his own generation of Israelites. Genesis 41:1f

It might do well to note that the very first recorded prophetic message in the Bible was a dream also filled with symbolism. Genesis 37:5f Joseph抯 dream of the sun and the moon and the stars would outline the history of his people forever. Why then should it be hard to see Revelation and its symbols as the outline for only one small seven year long period.

The very first prophetic utterance in the Bible is referred to as the Prote-Evangelium, and it uses symbolism. Genesis 3:15 There is where the first promise that Christ would overcome all evil is found.
Highways around the world are covered with universal traffic symbols. Language and lore is embellished with symbols. Theater, television, business, culture, and our own daily conversation are saturated with the use of symbolism. How is it that we have thought God couldn抰 use symbols to covey part of his message to us, and that it could he trusted. And how is it that those who are so quick to point out that this is the most educated generation in the history of the world, cannot seem to find a way for implicit and explicit teachings in the Bible to co-exist and compliment each other. To persist in this silly fear of the symbol comes under the heading of hypocrisy rather than confusion, if we would he honest enough to admit it.

Question
Aren抰 many of the pictures and symbols of Revelation much like those of the Old Testament and are they just borrowed from the Old Testament?

Answer
I find it hard not to answer this question with a simple yes, but so what, but for the sake of the more serious student of the Bible I will try to address the question in a more persuasive manner. Many New Testament references are made from the Old Testament. Jesus, the apostles and many others referred to the Old Testament scriptures and its symbols.

Have we forgotten that the Bible is to the Christian after all only one book, not two? If God were not so faithful in his revelation to us we might find huge differences between the symbolism of the old and new testament. That would no doubt give rise to another group of people who would argue against the validity of the Bible because of the enormous disparity in the images presented in the Old Testament as compared to those of the New Testament.

Doubters will never be satisfied with anything. Believers are glad that God has given us one comprehensible picture of his intentions in sixty six books, spread out over thousands of years.

This alone is a miracle. When John received the Revelation of Jesus Christ on the Isle of Patmos, we can imagine how relieved he must have felt when he saw it didn抰 diverge very much from the messages given to Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and others. If it had been that radically different, he may have been inclined to dismiss it as not having come from God in the first place. We can thank God that John knew the voice of his Savior as Jesus promised he would, John 10:27 and he could see its consistency with the rest of the messages given to his predecessors.

I am also thankful that when I saw a vision of the sun darkened and the moon glowing the color of blood, that when I finally saw that description in the Bible it wasn抰 something unfamiliar or strange. It takes no genius to comprehend that though the symbolism of the New Testament is similar to that of the old, it is only to supplement, advance or further elucidate the message not just to borrow from it. Borrowing from the Bible or any other source to enhance a vision that purportedly came from God would make the messenger not a visionary or prophet but a common liar. The last time I looked, God was still calling only those who are searching for, living for and willing to die for the truth, to become his messengers.

Rev Bresciani is the author of two popular Christian books, one on the second coming of Christ. He has hundreds of articles published both online and in print. Visit the website at www.americanprophet.org

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Being Hypocritical About A Truth Does Not Invalidate The Truth.

Do a Christian's actions change the truth?

Let's say I was standing in front of you smoking a cigarette and said, "Smoking is bad for you! You ought not to smoke."

Will you say to me, "You are a hypocrite and therefore what you are saying must be false. Therefore, smoking must be good for you." That is absurd.

However, rational people will actually say, "Christians are hypocrites and therefore what they are saying must be false. Therefore, there is no God."

That is an error in logic called a non sequitur. It is an inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence; a statement that does not follow logically from what preceded it.

Are Christians hypocrites? If a Christian says to you, "You should be like me; a perfect person who does no wrong." Then yes, that Christian is a hypocrite. However, I have yet to hear any Christian, that is, a follower of Christ, make such a statement.

What Christians are most often heard saying is this, "You ought not to sin." And this means different things depending on to whom it's directed.

What an atheist thinks he hears is this: "You are a bad person unlike me who is a good person." If this was what was truly said then hypocrite is a worthy label.

This statement "You ought not to sin", however, is usually, or at least should be, directed only to Christians. When a Christian says, "You ought not to sin", he means: You ought to obey God's laws because He loves you, He knows what's best for you, and because of what He did for you your desire should be to obey Him.

Why would I say that the moral imperative that one "ought not to sin" be directed only towards Christians? Because there is no reason to tell an atheist he ought to act according to God's laws. What would be the point? Biblically speaking an atheist's actions, whether moral or immoral, will have the same result: eternal separation from God. So telling an atheist he ought to be good does nothing for his eternal soul.

So while it is understandable to say, "You ought not to sin" to a Christian, to an atheist it would be better to explain to them how Jesus died for our sins and that without Him we are all sinners separated from God.

Are Christians hypocrites? One of the greatest apostles of the Bible writes this,

Rom 7:18,19 "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."

For followers of Jesus Christ, who understand that man is a fallen and sinful creature, battling the flesh is a moment-by-moment struggle. "We're not perfect, just forgiven" some say.

However, regardless of the actions of those claiming association with God, God and His truth do not change. Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I change not."

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Happiness Is About Connection And Gratitude

People complain. They抮e complaining all the time about everything. As a child, I was innocent enough to believe what people were saying. I really thought there were plenty of valid reasons to complain: the weather (most often), lack of money (runner-up), the neighbors, husband or wife, the children (me, in this case), civilization (or the lack of it), bad health, etc. I assumed the world just turned out to be like this and there was nothing much we could do. It was called 揻ate?or something.

The thing to do was to pray. Not to ask for a better life. No! I learned to pray to ask God to forgive me for my sins. I was a nice little girl, doing very well at school, polite with the neighbors, helpful at home, so it was rather difficult to keep finding sins for our weekly confession. But because human beings are profoundly sinful by birth, they told me, I had to go confess anyway. The nuns at school came up with a solution to help us out: they 損repared?our sins for us. Every Wednesday, on confession day, they gave us a pink paper with our 揷onfessions of the day.?I remember feeling sorry for the poor priest, hidden in his little black cabin, spending the entire day listening to the confessions of 600 little girls, endlessly repeating the same sins over and over?
Growing up, I figured something was missing. Pretending to be sinful by repeating sins someone else had cooked up for me, that could not be what life is about. I refused to further confess sins that I had not committed. I refused to believe that I was the cause of my misery, and that I had to pray every day without things getting better!

When I was 26, I went to Africa. There I met my husband (he抯 from Belgium) and together we had a wonderful time, with plenty of sunshine and plenty of money; circumstances people usually don抰 complain about, right? According to my childhood logic, people only complain for a reason: lousy weather (too cold, too much rain), lack of money, etc. But what I discovered over there seriously opened my eyes! My 搘hite?friends just went on complaining: about the weather (too hot), about the service (5 servants and still they were complaining) or about how things were too expensive ?while they were earning 5 times as much as before!

I discovered there and then that the complaining was not based on any objective reasons. I also noticed that the black people, who were living in their villages with close to nothing, were not complaining. I got interested in this phenomenon: they had nothing except a big smile on their face, while we had everything and were still complaining! How could this be?

It became crystal clear to me that the complaints had nothing to do with the outer circumstances. It was an attitude, a habit. Next, I wanted to find out where this habit came from. So I examined the way of life of the local people and compared it with our way of life. When I finally came up with the explanation, it changed my life forever!

There are two important differences between them and us. The first difference is that they have a social network to help everyone in the village. They stick together. They don抰 push out people who don抰 fit the norm. In our society, everybody who is a bit different is sent to an 搃nstitution.?An institution is a place to collect those individuals who cannot follow the fast pace of society and thus fall out of the boat. Most institutions have great walls to prevent us from 搒eeing?that these people really exist. They look more like a prison than a shelter.
Who are these people that don抰 fit in our society, put away behind walls so we don抰 have to confront them? They are the disabled, the diseased, the dangerous ones, the mentally retarded or disturbed, those who are too slow (they go to special schools), too difficult to handle (they go to educational institutions) and those who are too tired and too old (we put them in expensive homes).

There in Africa, everybody stays in his own village and is accepted and taken care of (except the really dangerous ones, they go to prison). Everybody has a natural social network and access to help. You are not isolated from society merely because you cannot walk or because you are mentally slow. They stick together. I figured out that inner loneliness and isolation is one of the main reasons why we are complaining so much.

The second difference is that all of these people are connected to something 揼reater?than themselves. They have a strong faith in a god who takes care of them. They spend a lot of time performing rituals to please their god(s) and get good health and harvest in return.

I gave these two differences a lot of thought and concluded that creating social networks of people and a solid relationship with something bigger than ourselves, are vitally important fundaments of human happiness.

It抯 all about 揷onnection.?Connection to each other. Connection to the Universe. In the meantime I found out that good things can happen only when we stay connected to each other and to the Universe. I started studying the Laws of the Universe and spent a lot of energy helping people establish a connection to each other and to the Universe. In fact, this became the very purpose of my life.

Many people think they are alone, without help, and have to do everything by themselves. This is not the case. You are guided, you are loved by Something Greater than your little personality. Try to feel this connection. Take time everyday to connect to the Source. Do like the African people I was lucky to meet so many years ago: create a real connection between yourself, the Universe and people around you, without being overly dependent on others. You will never feel alone again and you will be able to spread a lot more love around.

Living this kind of 揷onnected life?will make you forget about your former complaints. What抯 there to complain about? Your complaints will be replaced by gratitude! Say 搕hank you?to the Universe for all the things you already have, and for all the wonders that may still cross your path. Express your sincere gratitude for all the love you have received and will keep receiving throughout your life. Be grateful for the clean water coming out of the tap by a simple gesture of your hand, while many people spend six hours every day to get a little bit of water, and others die of thirst. Be grateful for the light you switch on with a simple flick. Large parts of the world have to do without electric power! Say 搕hank you?for the variety of food that is available to you every day ?a lot of people have to get by on one scarce meal a day, or are simply starving.

There is so much to be grateful for. I felt so ashamed there in Africa, at 26 years old, hearing my white friends, bathing in luxury but still complaining, while my black friends, who had close to nothing, were laughing, friendly, grateful and most of the time quite happy with the little things in life.

It抯 all in the mind. Gratitude and happiness are an attitude, a state of being. It has nothing to do with circumstances. The attitude is gratitude.

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