Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Franklin Graham's Comments Stir Firestorm of Internet Searches

Franklin Graham's comments about the End times on Newsmax have stirred up a frenzy of Internet searches for more information over the past few days. My original blog post about it has sent hundreds of hits over here to Talk Wisdom.

One thing I noticed while viewing and listening to the Newsmax interview (although it is a very small detail) was that when Graham was describing what Jesus had told us in the Bible regarding "the signs of the times" (and how to interpret such signs to mean that it is getting close to Jesus' Second Coming), Franklin neglected to mention, "rumors of wars."

Here are the quotes from the Bible where Jesus mentions "rumors of war":



Mat 24:6 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Mar 13:7 "But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet.

Luk 21:9 "But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."



Are you curious to know what "rumors of wars" means? I was interested in finding out so I did a search for commentaries about these verses over at Blue Letter Bible.

First, in Matthew, Jesus said:

Mat 24:6 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all [fn] these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.


Mat 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, [fn] and earthquakes in various places.


Mat 24:8 "All these are the beginning of sorrows.



All that we are experiencing right now - the earthquakes, pestilences, famines, etc. as a result of all of these disasters - are only "the beginning of sorrows." We need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. And I'm not just talking about food, fuel, and shelter. I am talking about eternal salvation!

I like Chuck Smith's outline of a sermon he did years ago (around the year 2000) on these verses.


"THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING"
Intro: Jesus promised His disciples, "if I go, I will come again..." The second coming of Jesus Christ is essential for the fulfillment of Bible prophesy. He shall return to the earth again with His Church to establish God's Kingdom.

I. THE DISCIPLES TWO FOLD QUESTION, "WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE, AND WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING..."

A. Notice the questions do not deal with the rapture of the church which is a separate event.

1. There are no prophetic signs needing fulfillment for this event.
2. This could take place at any time.
3. Jesus said watch, be ye ready.

B. The rapture shall precede by seven years the second coming.

1. So signs of the coming of Christ can cause us to be aware.
2. Many of the signs here in Matthew shall not be fulfilled until last seven years.

a. Verse 14 fulfilled in Revelation 14.
b. Verse 15 happens in the middle of the seven year span and is the mark by which we can number the days 1,290 to the end.


II. WHAT WERE TO BE THE DEFINITE SIGNS.
A. "Nation shall rise against nation..."
1. This denotes world war.

a. Though wars and rumors of wars have existed and were not a sign, world war is to be a sign.
b. Some of you have lived through two such wars.

B. "Famines."
1. Amazing how much we are reading about famines in these days.
a. North Africa being plagued.
b. India has perennial problem.
c. Bangladesh
d. Great drought in mid-west causing some to talk of food rationing by next spring.
e. Food production not keeping up with population expansion.

C. Pestilences.
1. We read each year of new virus that are sweeping around the world.
2. Hospitals become plagued with staph infections [Christine: e.g. MRSA] which seem to be imperious to all disinfectants.

D. Earthquakes indifferent places.
1. Hardly a week passes that you do not read of an earthquake taking place somewhere in the world.
2. They can only speculate at what possible damage might incur here in Orange County if one of the five fault systems should slip.

a. Because of the high water table in this whole basin they speak of the ground liquefying.
b. "The Lord is my refuge and my strength."


III. "NOW LEARN A PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE."
A. A parable was intended to teach a lesson through symbols.
1. Expositional constance.
a. The field is the world.
b. The fig tree the nation Israel.
1. The cursing of the barren fig tree.

B. The re-establishment of the nation Israel was to be a sign.
1. This generation shall not pass.


What does "rumor" mean?

I have discovered that it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as our current English dictionary states. But the "Word Origin & History" definition (in bold) is more accurate to describe the Greek meaning used in the Bible:

Word Origin & History

rumor

late 14c., from O.Fr. rumour "widespread noise or report" (Fr. rumeur ), from L. rumorem (nom. rumor ) "noise, clamor, common talk, rumor," related to ravus "hoarse." The verb is recorded from 1858 in the sense "spread a rumor." Rumor mill is from 1973. Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Looking in a Bible Concordance, we read the Greek word(s) and meaning(s):

189. akoe ak-o-ay; from 191; hearing (the act, or the sense, or the thing heard): - audience, ear, fame, which ye heard, hearing, preached, report, rumor.

191. akouo, ak-oo-o; a prim. verb; to hear (in various senses):- give (in the) audience (of), come (to the ears), ([shall]) hear (-er, -ken), be noised, be reported, understand.


What is the ultimate purpose of these signs? Namely, the spread of the Gospel! Such signs: "birth pangs" are to give the people of the earth one last chance to repent and accept Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives.

Have YOU heeded the call?

Hat tips to all links.

8 comments:

GMpilot said...

A “frenzy of internet searches”? In the first three pages alone, I counted that 27 of the first 30 were Christian-related sites. I'm also willing to bet that the death of Elizabeth Taylor will produce an even greater 'frenzy' of internet searches.
I also notice that you were still linked to Google. You never stop saying it's evil, but you never stop using it either, do you?

”D. Earthquakes indifferent places.
1. Hardly a week passes that you do not read of an earthquake taking place somewhere in the world.
2. They can only speculate at what possible damage might incur here in Orange County if one of the five fault systems should slip.”


Yes, earthquakes are indifferent. They don't care where or when they strike.
As for what one might do to Orange County, I recall what a Christian wrote about the New Orleans flood five years ago:

http://www.talkwisdom.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5549&postcount=15

”Maybe it wasn't wise to build the area in the first place? Was it wise to build a city on ground which is below sea level? Where was man's wisdom in this?”


Was it wise to build a city along a fault line? What's the difference between this and a city built at or below sea level?
Mark my words, in 2016 you and others of the rabid right will be looking forward to the end of Obama's second term (or seeking a second term for your candidate, whomever it is), and there will be time for nothing else. The Japanese will have picked themselves up, buried their dead, and begun to rebuild, and there will be no more talk of impending apocalypse from Christians until the next disaster. The only difference is that everyone will be five years older.
According to Harold Camping, the Rapture is less than 60 days away, and The End is slated for October 21. Graham pussyfoots around the question whether this is the real thing or not; Camping, at least, sounds sure.

Christinewjc said...

For this little blog to double the hits here on particular post represents quite an interest in that one particular subject.

I generally use Bing, but my stats had a lot of links in (91%) from google so I used one of the incoming links via google to show where Talk Wisdom ranked on the search page at the time.

It is difficult to get away from google. This blog is created from that Internet giant. But I try and use this tool for good.

That "earthquakes indifferent [should be 'in different'] places" was a typo.

You won't get an argument from me about the lack of wisdom building a city on a fault line.

For you to support Obama in a second term shows just how absolutely anti-American, radical leftist your ideology really is.

Oh, and BTW, the claim that there are no blacks in the TEA Party Patriot movement is absolutely wrong! Take a look at the video on this blog:

Patriot Action Network: You need a smile? You're gonna DIG this ! Could be the best Tea Party Movement get together EVER! From some artist friends in Atlanta :-)

Christinewjc said...

Went back to that link to read the comments and found this:

"Reply by Reed Williams on March 6, 2011 at 9:22pm
many many others... interesting the original word for "left" in Latin was sinistra, and it did take on the meaning of what it translated down into English as: sinister. I believe the meaning still applies."


HA!!! SO TRUE!!!

Christinewjc said...

Another good one:

"Reply by Diana Endris 1 day ago
This is a perfect example of America, the Melting Pot assimilating by principles and core values. It's a shame that President Obama has encouraged disunity by promoting his Marxist agenda driven by unions, trial attorneys, and radical organizations funded by Soros, some even with our taxpayer $. No matter how much he apologizes for America, we are the best nation in the world."

Christinewjc said...

Ha!! The good ones just keep on comin':

"Reply by Katie Kalpin 1 day ago
Tony you rock! But how can this possibly be? There are Black Americans here, and they know that truth about us...I thought that we were racist?! LMAO! I am so glad to see this..but please note that the NEWS WILL NEVER SHOW THIS! Like we saw in the Video..CNN right there...NO reporters...they closed their windows lol just to deny that there are Blacks who SUPPORT this Great nation and the Tea Party....they don't want other blacks to know about this...so I am going to have to share this with my Facebook friends...I have liberal trolls on there...I let them stay because they amuse me...like clowns! :) Boy are they going to hate this one. :)"

Christinewjc said...

More!

"Reply by Patricia Traeger 1 day ago
This is what America is about! We are not about violence, threats, name-calling or any form of ugliness. Watching this video actually brought tears to my eyes because this is what I grew up loving about America and what we see across the country is just more and more violence. People who have no respect for others and will use physical means to stop people from voicing their opinions is not what my America is about. Everyone has a right to their opinions. Why can't they express them openly without violence or the threats of violence? What's happening in Arizona and Wisconsin are just a couple of examples of how our country is moving toward more and more violence and threats, even to people's lives. No, this is not my America, but the people in this video give me hope that somehow with the help of the tea party movement and grass roots patriots everywhere, we can get back to our constitutional roots. God bless the tea party and God bless AMERICA!"


" Reply by Connie Boone 1 day ago
Way to go Atlanta Tea Party. I'm proud of my former state of Georgia. Who said the Tea Party was racist? Those who say we are racist need to see this to know they are WRONG!!!! Hopefully here in Tennessee we can follow your example."


"Reply by Rebecca Belden 1 day ago
Hold on a minute.... I thought that there were no Blacks in the Tea Party movement???? lol

This is a great video. Thanks for sharing. I felt so close and United with these people. Funny how

tough times pull people together and Unite us! What a difference in the way people behave compared

to the examples of the protests in Wisconsin. We are a world away from that behavior yet we are the

angry mobs! I am proud to be a Tea party Patriot and I will continue to join with other likeminded people

to bring a positive change to our great nation!

God Bless you all and God Bless America!!!!"


"Reply by Fellowship 1 day ago
Tony,



I'm seeing your video and raising you one!
HERE.




I don't need to do this, of course, but it is a good excuse to BUMP this thread of yours. The video you posted here is as important a thing as anyone in the US could see, right now, IMO, because the view that the Tea party is racist is horribly entrenched and the lie hurts us badly every day.. Go to the comments sections of places like yahoo/AP news and see how many people call us racists, and young people read that stuff and believe it. These videos are crucial to - to paraphrase Reagan - tearing down that wall.



This can't be seen enough. The future of our country may depend on things like this.

GMpilot said...

I thought the topic of your post was about F. Graham's comments as to whether this was really the End Times™. This TEA party business is just a sideshow compared to that.
BTW, I know that there are blacks in the Party; they're just not common. Of course, there are large numbers of black people in Atlanta...not so many in, say, Minneapolis. Unfortunately, the only group I know of where African-Americans are represented in greater proportion to their numbers is the prisoner statistics.

Just because I mentioned a second term for Obama does not mean I support one. Didn't I mention the alternative? Either way, 2016 will bring renewed hopes for the Christian Nationalists...if the world doesn't end first.
I see you didn't dispute what I said about the Japanese, though, nor the fact that most Christian 'leaders' are publicly quiet in between disasters. Or perhaps it's because in such times, people seek solace from the same God who sucker-punched them with calamity in the first place.

So you've learned the origin of the word “left”. Good girl. Now learn the origins of “left” and “right” in political terms, so you'll know whom you stand with.
I'm sure your Catholic upbringing provided you with reason to be thankful that you weren't born left-handed. Woe to to the child who used 'the Devil's hand' to write with!

III. "NOW LEARN A PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE."
A. A parable was intended to teach a lesson through symbols.
1. Expositional constance.
a. The field is the world.
b. The fig tree the nation Israel.
1. The cursing of the barren fig tree.

B. The re-establishment of the nation Israel was to be a sign.
1. This generation shall not pass.


According to the story (Mark 11:13), the tree was out of season for figs. Here we have a God who fed several thousands with a few loves of bread and a couple of fish, but couldn't get himself a tasty snack when he wanted it! The text shows that the tree was NOT barren, but Jesus, displaying all the wisdom of a four-year-old, puts a death juju on the tree because it didn't have what he wanted. I guess that explains all the trouble Israel has had ever since.

Anonymous said...

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