Christian Pipe Smokers

Anyone else following this? I'm curious what CPS members think of Israel's procurement of red heifers and the potential building of the Third Temple. Is this potentially a sign of the end times? Thoughts?

Yes, watching closely.
The Jews know it's prophetic significance.
The Arabs know it's prophetic significance.
It's only complacent Christians that don't know & don't care.

Interesting. We'll see what happens next.

I know from Scripture that a red heifer is the commanded sacrifice for the dedication of a newly rebuilt temple. It could lead to religious war if the Arabs believe that their mosque and sacred meteorite located on the Temple Mount are threatened.

But to be honest, only American Evangelical Christians who have studied dispensational theories comprehend what this has to do with their version of the End Times. It's a niche tradition that most Christians are not familiar with, including myself.

If anyone cares to briefly unpack this for me, I would appreciate it. What does a rebuilding of the Temple tell us?

For my part as an Apostolic Christian, the Second Coming is tied to the Spreading of the Church Throughout the World (which hasn't fully happened yet) and a Great Apostasy (which we are currently enduring, although this isn't the first and might not be the last). Persecutions of the faithful remnant of Christians are not anywhere near as evident as they were after the Reformation, after the French Revolution, and during the terrors of the Nazis and the Soviets. So we still have yet another world of hurt to endure before Christ comes again.

According to what I heard this past Sunday, the second coming won't occur until a remnant of Jews is gathered in Jordan, near Petra. They will recognize Jesus as Messiah and call out for Him and He will come, and then head to the Mount of Olives.
As far as a third temple is concerned, it very well could already be built, but perhaps is in need of a remodel.

My thoughts on the end times, and one of the things that might make me a "complacent Christian" in Biff's eye:

Matthew 24
36“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

42“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus tells us there is no cheat code. Be ready - as best you can anyway - every minute of every hour of every day. He says, five times in these three paragraphs, that we will not have a days notice nor even an hour! We (hopefully) will not be like the rotten man whose doctor tells him he has 3 breaths left and uses those breaths to confess' his sins and accepts Christ as his Savior. I know it's never too late, and it's never a bad thing, to claim God's Grace for oneself, but the world is deprived of any good that rotten man may have done if he'd came to the throne as a younger man. I don't exactly know how to square the Book of Revelation with the words Jesus spoke, but I know it makes sense that we won't know which chance will be our last chance. He's warning us to get right and stay right, right now. Now, if He causes some Jews to gather up a few red heifers for a summer BBQ, and He uses that event to 'scare' some wafflers or lukewarm Christians into confessing and accepting, well, that's not a bad thing. His love for the lost never ends and the angels always rejoice when a lost sheep is found so I'm certainly in no position to doubt His methods or mechanizations.

Summarization of #RedHeifer

https://x.com/ElephantsMusk/status/1773 ... 79713?s=20

There is a lot of historical context in this, worth a watch.

Putting aside for a moment any specific prophecies related to Jews and heifers and the Temple....

I live in a weird place. Madison is so weird.... like Austin and Berkeley, and other such places that pride themselves on their weirdness. There aren't any Evangelicals here, not within easy reach. Everyone in my circles is either faithfully Catholic or a big leftist pagan.

Yes, I grew up in Missouri.... but I was not wise enough in my youth to be curious about what 75 million American Evangelicals believe. So now I am stuck.... fortunately I have you guys!
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Here is an observation on which I would appreciate your input and correction:

Whenever I see an Evangelical writing about signs of the End Times, I don't get a sense that this is in joyful expectation of the Second Coming, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Final Judgment. I get a vibe that we are concerned about the Tribulations.

Is this the focus? Fear of persecutions?

I share that fear.... Persecution is coming. Except that Catholics call it a Chastisement, and we don't expect every persecution is a sign that Jesus is Coming soon. We've been through this too many times already. Early Christians expected Jesus to come after the persecutions of Nero and Diocletian, and He didn't. In modern history, the bloody persecutions after the Reformation, after the French Revolution, and during the regimes of the Nazis and the Soviets come quickly to mind.

A Chastisement (such as a persecution) is self-afflicted suffering, a just punishment for our turning away from God. God politely steps aside, and next thing we know we have murdered 65 million children. Our society is rejecting God and embracing the unnatural. Our democracy and prosperity are falling apart, and unrest is growing quickly.

Hillaire Belloc (The Great Heresies, 1938) observed that we were already turning away fast, and that we would not turn back to God until the word persecution was once again active on everyone's lips. That was 85 years ago. And I don't want to get all "prosperity gospel" here, but America was certainly blessed in the decades after WWII for our faithful answer to God's call for heroic virtue.

Soon we will have to answer for our behavior in the decades after Roe v. Wade.

+JMJ+

I would say that the only thing with which Christians have to concern themselves regarding the Parousia is to make sure that they're pushing-back the End Times and not pimping for them. #BeTheRestrainer