End times Antichrist

For some time I've been aIN A STRUGGLE WITH THE pRE tRIBULATION rAPTURE END TIMES ESCHATOLOGY FOR THEIR IDEA THAT THE aNTICHRIST IS ONLY GOING TO E KNOWN JUST BEFORE HE COMES TO POWER.  i'VE BEEN PERSUADED OF HE rEFORMATION VIEW OF THE aNTICHRIST AS THE rOMAN pApacy, the final Antichrist to be the last Pope whenever he comes at the right time.  I've accepted some of the Pre Trib scenario about the very last  SSatanic playing out of the Antichrist's persecution of true Christians, along the lines of the persecutions by ghe Roman Church in the middle Ages against Christians anbd other supposed  heretics.  

Lately I've had some other problems with ehte Pres Trib cenario.  For instance I'm dcoming to think that the first five seals of Revelation Six are jot part of the Great Tribulation but evils  that have existed for the last two thousand years.  Revlation Six  is future it seems to me, all those sings in sun and moon and earthquake and so on heralding the tribulation.  I odon't yet know how to understnd the plamecement of thje rolling up of the heaven like a scroll and so on, but it's future in any case.   And the martyrs of Revelation Five are a particular problem for the Pre Trib scenario in my mind because fotr one thing they are described as "souls', meaning they are not in their glorified bodies as all those raptured would be.  Of course if this occurred after the Raputre they'd be gpart of the tribulation martyrdomes so nothat wouldn't be expected, but I just can't see a whole group of martyrs waiting for thei r fellow martyrs to show up who were madew in the very few years that would be all that could occur if the first five seals were part of the seven year Tribulstion period.   But I don't think that any more.  I think the martyrs are first the martyrs of the Caesars, and then the martyrs of the Roman papacy of the Middle Ages.  That means there are yet more martyrs to come during the seven year tribultion that is  about to be unleacshed.    

So now I thinkthe WSeventieth Week of Daniel, or the seven hyear Great Tribulation starts with the opening of the Weeventh seal, and that the ratprue has not yhet occurreds.    When it is to coccur I haven't yet understood but I'm starting to think it may be just when Jesus returns or perhaps just before the final wrath of the vials, or a bit earlier.  But I still have a problem with tyhere being two separate grops of believers and I know the pre trib system accepts that idea.  

I think it could all get starte with Pope Leo's confirming a covenant, accporeding to the book of Daniel, with Israel.  I hink that may be the next thing on the proophetic agenda.  But I'm still pondering all this and praying for God's leading.

More to say about all this.

Cultural Marxism is a Big Enemy the Chruch Needs to Face Down, but Romanism is Worse

 For some ime I'd wantend to hear the book by Eric Metaxas titled "Letter to the American Church" but couldn't find an audible version I could access.  Finally I did, through my Alexa device.  Never would have guessed she'e could be such a great help.  So I finally heard the book and I had mixed reacgtions to it.  This was  writtern a few years abgo, before trump became President and he was exhortin g the Church to stand up against the trends in the cuolture that are Marxist inspired and anti God, such as the transgender insanity, gay marriage, Critical Race Theory, Cancel culture, and so on.  Also the lockdown imposesd on the churches by the government durin gthe pandemic, which very few had opposed.  

All a good message though since Trump has taken on a lot of that since he was elected I wonder what Metaxas has to say about that and I haven't yet tracked it  down.   He did a good job of emphasizing the fact that if we are the Church we have faith in God's power and in Jesus' conquest of death, so that we should have no fewr of being cancelled or eeven killed ourselves if we are true to our calling to be salt and light in even the most threatening cultural environemtns.  Ours hasn't yet gon ethat far but it has gone far enough to be quite intimidating and to take definite courage in the face of its threats and ridicule and scorn.   Metaxas compares our situation to Germany in the thirties before the full fledged  horrors of Naxism had taken over, when it was becoming uncomfortable to speak out but wasn't yet quite the threat of the death camps and other intimidatings.   His gook was meant to warn the churches that it is our job to stand up against the attempts of a godless culture to take over and tyrannize us all into submission to their anti God agenda and that if we don't we are allowing it to grow into something like Nazi German;y.

The threat is still there although Trump has made great tstrides in his first six months toward undoing a lot of it.  Al it would take is the Left to win back power and the whole thing could be reversed in a flash.

My mixed reacton was larhgely a reaction to his holding up Chuck Colson as a good example of somehowone who faced down the evil culture, and while I won't argue with that part of the message I did notice that he never objected to Colson's willingness to join with Catholicism in these efforts, and not just as a poltiical alliance but on the ground that we share a Chricstian message, which we do not.    Metaxas also refferred to the Lutheran influence in Germany as having become eweakneed by Hitler's time while never once mentioning that Luther was combating the Roman Church, that it was the Roman Church that was the grave threat to civilization at one time.  As I listened to Metaxas it seemed one could get the impression that Luther was battling not Romanism but merely a tyrannical secular culture.  

I've noticeds this sort of thing before.  Many a good Christian exhortation may be given in a way that tacitrly incloudes the Romanan Church as if it were just another Christian denomination, which to my mind rwastes the whole message.  Id you EW Qeninf Finar qolcwa auewly you's mKW MOEW PEOFEWAAICW YID YOU SISN'R Hcw qolcwa on youe aisw.  Oe id you sis'r dIL RO EWXOFNIW RHr qomw on youe aisw rhR YOU ew XXWPRINF AO VLIRHWLY ew rhw wnwmy A MUXH OE MOEW RHn rhw rEFWR YOU ew SSEWAAINF r rhw mopmwnr.  

I suspect Metaxas dopesn't see the Catholic Roman church as the enemey.  I couldn't be wrong but there is no hint of it in many places where it should have been expressed in his book.  To my mind that wrecked the whole message.    Hew even critizized John MacArthur for failing to join with Colson in the Manhattan Declaaration, but MacArthur would have refused because of Colson's embracing of Romanism as sharing the Christian gospel, not because he opposes a political alliance.     

I  was focused for some weeks on the Cration Evolution debate and the sciebntific positions of Creationism, but suddenly I realized that God doesn't want me there, he wasnts  me here.  Romanism is a real enemy and few recognize it any more and much as I would like to just let it alone for a long time I don't think God wants me to do that.  I am certainly no great scholar of these things bnut  He has given me enoughn of an understandihg and sense of His calling to realize I've got to use whatever little I have to  talk about it and with more sgfdnvgh ghan usual.

And He's been leading me threre lately.