John,

The text 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 does not support your position that Paul was teaching that the Second Coming was beyond his time.

In fact, he was counseling the Christians to not fear that the Second Coming had "already" taken place and that they had been left behind. He informed them that certain events(i.e. coming of man of perdition, etc.) must first take place before the Lord returned.

When all of Paul's exhortation are placed within context it can be easily concluded that he, along with most Christians of his day were anticipating the soon return of Christ.


Concerning the shepherds.......

All of the Jewish nation were anxiously awaiting the coming of the Messiah....even the Sadducees and Pharisees.(The prayer of every Jewish woman was that their son would be the Promised Messiah.)

Why didn't the angels appear to them and announce Jesus birth?

The point that I have continued to try and make is that the prophetic description of the Laodecian church would lead us to conclude that the state of the church in the last days prior to Christ's return will be "lukewarm". Christ also warns the church of what will happen to them because of this "lukewarmness". He counsels them to by the "gold and raiment", but there is not indication given that would show that the church follows this counsel.

I would consider this a serious indictment, indeed.

There are thousands of Christian churches in existence today that claim to be Christ's church. Unfortunately, there is an "evil" that has infiltrated all of these churches that disqualifies them from being God's True(Hot) Church.

(I seem to recall that I started a discussion on the true nature of evil, but I can no longer find it on this forum, so it must have been deleted.)

Whether there will be any "living saints" on this earth when Christ's returns remains to be seen. Personally, I hope that there are, but the depiction of the Laodecian church does not provide any encouragement.

Danielw,

Apology accepted.

I don't intend to get into a discussion on this thread in regards to EGW and Miller. I believe that there is sufficient evidence(Scriptural/Historical) available to us all to assist us in determining the validity of the positions that they presented on certain Biblical topics.

I am fairly confident, though, that the points that I have made on this thread are Biblically sound. They may be in disagreement with other's interpretation(s), but as we all know, everyone has a unique perspective when they look at the same picture.

The conclusions you have drawn are quite unbiblical. Many texts have been shown, but they seem to have no weight here....

Bob D,

Your topic "What is this thing called EVIL" is still in SDA Church Concerns. You might have to adjust your viewing settings to be able to see it, since the last post to that thread was more than 60 days ago.

Danielw,

I point you to a statement made in Luke 18:8.....

'.........Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

Jesus does not provide and answer to that question, which could lead us to believe that the possibility exists that no "living saints" will be awaiting the Second Coming of Christ.

Again, I hope that this is not true.

I would appreciate you pointing out any particular statement that I have made that can be considered unbiblical. Of course, some statements of mine may be in disagreement with the understanding/interpretation of others, but I don't know how you could say that they are "un-biblical".

John,

Thank you for the info,

If we are able to understand the true "core nature of evil" then we should be able to see how it has infiltrated into the Christian churches of today. It may surprise you to discover how much "evil" is being practiced by the churches.

Bob

Oh, there's plenty! Sadly enough. In the SDA church as well as those found in 'Babylon'.

The unbiblical ideas expressed were covered in my post of 2004-06-19 11:55 AM.

Let us uphold the prophets God has, in his mercy, given to us to lighten our path in this dark period of the world's history