Watchers for 10+ years, Has it ALWAYS been like this?

[ncbelle]

About six months ago the Holy Spirit really woke me up to what's going on; that we ARE in the end-times (beginning of sorrows), and that the rapture of His Bride IS imminent! I am 32 years old and have three kids, but I STILL can't wait for Jesus to come back and deliver us. My question for those of you who've been watching for His return longer; has it always been like this; so many people talking, so much going on? How do you see these times as being different from in the past?

Trust me, I need no convincing! One of my biggest pet peeves, is when you talk about the end-times, and someone says "Oh, they've been saying that for years". People, DON'T allow those who were over anxious in the past (put yourself in the shoes of the person awake to the truth witnessing Hitler in action for example...whouldn't you have thought it was the end then?) to discredit what is currently happening before your eyes!

At no time in history have we had moral decline, GLOBAL economic collapse, wars and rumors of wars, famine, disease, widescale ecological disasters, and apostasy in the churches ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

I just thought it may be helpful for others who are just starting to wake up to hear some stories, etc.... Thanks!

MARANTHA!

[RaptureReady_7]

I don't let anyone suck the joy of watching for Jesus, from me either. There is a crown for those of us looking. Where we are going is going to be so much better, we won't even remember this old place.

I get mocked by unbelievers, but when I talk to most Believers, they are excited that someone else is watching too.

[IMSAVED]

I grew up in the 50's and believe me things are much worse now than they were then.People are really lovers of themselves,evil and rude.Things are coming together for the Rapture.We could not say that in the 50's at all.Technology is advancing at a rapid pace.Yes,their have been moral decline and all those other worsing situations of our world but it is definately at it's peak now. The End Times signs are definately with us.I am looking for the Rapture of the Church definately in my lifetime.

[RaptureReady_7]

I grew up in the 50's and believe me things are much worse now than they were then.People are really lovers of themselves,evil and rude.Things are coming together for the Rapture.We could not say that in the 50's at all.Technology is advancing at a rapid pace.Yes,their have been moral decline and all those other worsing situations of our world but it is definately at it's peak now. The End Times signs are definately with us.I am looking for the Rapture of the Church definately in my lifetime.

What I find really disturbing is the unveiling of hate against Christians for no reason. I run into that a lot. I mean people who outright lie about Christians and things that happen being Christians fault. I am talking unreasonably lying, deliberate lying against Christians.

And of course, I tell those same people how they prove the Bible true to me, for the end times, because of their very blind hate for Christians. And most of these people also feel that Christians unfairly persecute Muslims, but can't cite any instances, not even one. When I point out the news items, in secular papers or online sources for persecution of Christians, especially by Islam, they just ignore me, as though I had said nothing at all and still get the, "everything is Christians/Jews fault".

Reminds me of the verses in Timothy about the deceivers and those being deceived.

[$teve]

About six months ago the Holy Spirit really woke me up to what's going on; that we ARE in the end-times (beginning of sorrows), and that the rapture of His Bride IS imminent! I am 32 years old and have three kids, but I STILL can't wait for Jesus to come back and deliver us. My question for those of you who've been watching for His return longer; has it always been like this; so many people talking, so much going on? How do you see these times as being different from in the past?

Trust me, I need no convincing! One of my biggest pet peeves, is when you talk about the end-times, and someone says "Oh, they've been saying that for years". People, DON'T allow those who were over anxious in the past (put yourself in the shoes of the person awake to the truth witnessing Hitler in action for example...whouldn't you have thought it was the end then?) to discredit what is currently happening before your eyes!

At no time in history have we had moral decline, GLOBAL economic collapse, wars and rumors of wars, famine, disease, widescale ecological disasters, and apostasy in the churches ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

I just thought it may be helpful for others who are just starting to wake up to hear some stories, etc.... Thanks!

MARANTHA!

21 years watching and no, it certainly hasn't always been like this. There's been some moments no doubt, but what is strikingly different about today is that all these events are converging like few times in history, if ever, which is poignantly indicating the imminence of the rapture as the shadows of the great tribulation period descend over the earth.

[NarrowRoad]

I've been watching since the 70's... almost 40 years, but just a tiny blip in God's time.
The pace at which things are moving today sometimes leaves me but very excited

NR

[Acts5:41]

Well, if you'll pardon the pun I have been RR since about the late 90's. I was actually one of the first board members.

That said, I see a couple of differences:
1. HUGE HUNGER for Jesus. Massive. Hence, Bible Handouts.
2. Even a hardened unbeliever is willing to admit we're in the last days.
3. More willingness to hear testimony and witnessing, even for unbelievers. At least for us. I can't talk to others.

Mainly, the thing I notice, is way more hunger and desire for Jesus. People want to be prayed for. They love it when you pray for them, and their families. They get excited about Bibles (I really am single-minded) and love testimony.

I see tremendous opportunity. Tremendous. I'm glad I'm "working" now, it's a huge opportunity to help bring in the harvest.

I didn't see that 15 years ago.

[Tall Timbers]

Hard times and crazy things have been happening throughout modern history, but everything happening today, like never before, IMHO, points to an imminent end of days as we know them, the rapture, the beginning of Tribulation.

I see evil rising up in all but the devout, and it'll grab hold of us too, if we're not prepared against it. Lies, envy, betrayal, etc., once frowned upon, now embraced and celebrated.

[kjlistrom]

About 30+ years for me. 20-30 years ago, you would see something happen and maybe 1-2 years later you would see something else take place and I'd get real excited, but today it's every waking min. of the day-- its upon us--- its here--- every where you look. Every nation hears the earth groaning if they would turn their ear and hear.

[jadeeyes]

I must echo the consensus here. There have always been times when great evil has been revealed. Prominent in my mind is the Holocaust, but there were certainly times even long before the 20th century when evil was apparent. I think the difference now is that so many things are converging at once. Israel is a nation, back in her land. The Middle East is a powder keg and Iran and others are lighting matches. There has been an increase in 6+ earthquakes. Immorality no longer appears to hold any shame. There are so many who are blatantly, in-your-face with their immoral behaviour. And the out in the open hatred of Christians and anything to do with God is something I haven't seen on such a massive scale before and I am nearing 60. There are so many other things going on that convnce me that the Church Age is nearing an end and that Jesus will soon be calling His Bride home, but I have touched on some of the things that are so obvious to me.

[Little Bug]

I've been watching since the 70's... almost 40 years, but just a tiny blip in God's time.
The pace at which things are moving today sometimes leaves me but very excited

NR

Me, too. And it (these near 40 years) IS just a tiny blip in God's time! Oh! The wonder of spending an eternity with Him!!!! Anyway, it really has amazed me how much the evil, apostasy, greed, and the "me, me, me!" mindset of people has snowballed. Everything is converging--the perfect storm is just around the corner. I'm ready to go Home!

[kristine]

I must echo the consensus here. There have always been times when great evil has been revealed. Prominent in my mind is the Holocaust, but there were certainly times even long before the 20th century when evil was apparent. I think the difference now is that so many things are converging at once. Israel is a nation, back in her land. The Middle East is a powder keg and Iran and others are lighting matches. There has been an increase in 6+ earthquakes. Immorality no longer appears to hold any shame. There are so many who are blatantly, in-your-face with their immoral behaviour. And the out in the open hatred of Christians and anything to do with God is something I haven't seen on such a massive scale before and I am nearing 60. There are so many other things going on that convnce me that the Church Age is nearing an end and that Jesus will soon be calling His Bride home, but I have touched on some of the things that are so obvious to me.

My thoughts, exactly! I'm close to 61 years of age and have never seen so many prophetic events happening in such close succession. Since around the year 2008, it seems that things are happening at warp speed compared to 2001 (the 9/ll tragedy). During the last 10 years, there were a few lulls here and there. As for today ----- where are the lulls?

[RaptureReady_7]

And to answer your first question. "Has it always been like this?"

No, no, no. In the last 4 years that is when it has gotten so crazy, so insane. People have literally taken leave of their senses. They have no moral center any more and call you judgmental when you point this stuff out.

My sister and I belong to a forum on facebook and the "atheists" Mormons and assorted "beliefs". They al have one thing in common, Islam is peaceful, wonderful and all the problems in this world are the result of Christianity. I mean that literally.

The posters will out right lie about an event or who did something wrong sand blame it all on Christians. And they lie with no compunction at all. They cuss ,at my sister and I and call us hateful (for quoting the Bible after telling us what the Bible says and we correct them), accuse us of all sorts of lies, lie about what we say, swear to it and demand we answer for all of Christianity in the last 2000 years. It is like being in bizarro world. I mean this seriously.

I laugh at them and tell them if they have to lie to make a point, their point is a lie. Almost all of them eventually got kicked off that forum because of their attacks against my sister and I, or anyone who disagreed with them, when we were not around., The "crazy" ones were so focused on what my sister and I said about God, Jesus and the Bible and true history, that they talked about us, literally 24/7.

The moderators (not even Christian, but are super conservative) told them they were being a bit obsessive about my sister and I. The crazy ones denied it, but the mods pointed out that they literally went on and on and on and on about me, specifically. Laughed at their out of control hate for anyone who stood up for Jesus.

It was really crazy, I had never seen such hate for anything about Jesus, like that, ever. And for no other reason than they hated it that a few of us believed in Jesus. Some of them would say, "I hope your family dies, or I wish you had aborted your kids" and other stuff. That is the kind of hate I am talking about.

It was creepy, and the mods kicked almost all of them off, that did not calm down. the funny thing, it was a political forum, not even a religious forum, but if I was posting, or a couple of others, they only focused on Christianity, lie after lie.

The time is here that there is no more dialogue. Either you think and say like liberals do, or they will attack you with all the hate they can muster. There is no differences of opinion for them, either you are in lock step with them or they hope you will be murdered. I mean that literally.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I am not exaggerating. It drove them insane they could not get me to shut up. I laughed at them mostly because you had to hear the crazy and preposterous things they would say and lie about. And the creepy thing? They would lie, know they were lying and just keep spouting the lies.

I called them on it and they just cussed, as though that somehow was going to make me stop posting. The world is embracing evil. Not bad things, I mean, bone deep evil and rejoicing in it. The anger at people who will not tow their line is great. Amazing in it's depth. Truly.

[Sydney Spider]

Yesterday, I was at a very large shopping mall and two innocent bystanders were shot and injured in a shooting. It was especially crowded yesterday (Saturday here) because it was a rainy day and for some reason that draws everyone to the shops. I had tried for three quarters of an hour to get an undercover car park at that end of the mall but gave up and eventually parked outside in the rain on the opposite side, and just did my shopping in that area.....otherwise I would have definitely been in the area where the shooting occurred. Apparently people were running around screaming hysterically, trying to get away from the shooter.

A few years ago at the same mall, a mentally-ill person picked up a sharp carving knife on display at K-Mart and grabbed a random shopper, then slashed her throat all the way from one ear to the other. Fortunately the carotid artery wasn't severed and she survived.

The area where I live is developing a bad reputation for shooting incidents lately. You know things are getting crazy when you run the risk of being shot or slashed just because you visit the mall.

So much violence everywhere in this world, and it increases by the day.

I've been "watching" for 30-40 years and the changes over that time have been phenomenal, but even in the past ten years there has been a significant difference. I feel like a duck out of water in this hardened, anti-God world.

RaptureReady_7....can you just imagine what it will be like for the Trib Saints if there is such an attitude of hatred towards Christians even now? It doesn't bear thinking about. Without the Restrainer here, their hatred will increase 100-fold. It will be bad enough that the governments and law-enforcers will be their enemies, but the average citizen might be their worst problem. Perhaps satan is preparing their hearts for those days even now.

[Eleora]

The evil influencing them knows what is holding it back from just taking over...

It was really crazy, I had never seen such hate for anything about Jesus, like that, ever. And for no other reason than they hated it that a few of us believed in Jesus. Some of them would say, "I hope your family dies, or I wish you had aborted your kids" and other stuff. That is the kind of hate I am talking about...The time is here that there is no more dialogue. Either you think and say like liberals do, or they will attack you with all the hate they can muster. There is no differences of opinion for them, either you are in lock step with them or they hope you will be murdered...The world is embracing evil. Not bad things, I mean, bone deep evil and rejoicing in it.

[RaptureReady_7]

Sydney, I cannot even begin to imagine those 7 years and having to overcome them. No wonder Jesus tells us, "that unless those days be shortened, no one would survive".

Mankind would exterminate itself out of existence. If we see this kind of focused hate and absolute intolerance for Jesus now, imagine how awful it will be in the 7 years,

[Mitsy]

About six months ago the Holy Spirit really woke me up to what's going on; that we ARE in the end-times (beginning of sorrows), and that the rapture of His Bride IS imminent! I am 32 years old and have three kids, but I STILL can't wait for Jesus to come back and deliver us. My question for those of you who've been watching for His return longer; has it always been like this; so many people talking, so much going on? How do you see these times as being different from in the past?

Trust me, I need no convincing! One of my biggest pet peeves, is when you talk about the end-times, and someone says "Oh, they've been saying that for years". People, DON'T allow those who were over anxious in the past (put yourself in the shoes of the person awake to the truth witnessing Hitler in action for example...whouldn't you have thought it was the end then?) to discredit what is currently happening before your eyes!

At no time in history have we had moral decline, GLOBAL economic collapse, wars and rumors of wars, famine, disease, widescale ecological disasters, and apostasy in the churches ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

I just thought it may be helpful for others who are just starting to wake up to hear some stories, etc.... Thanks!

MARANTHA!

I've noticed the difference in my 31 years of being in Christ within the Church and in the Secular world.

Although there have been people back in the 1950s saying this or that about the End Times.

The Prophecy and End Times teachings have just flourished here in Australia from the late 1990s. It used to be what only the Charismatics and Pentecostals used to listen to but now Christians of all denominations are interested and watching and waiting.

The Moral decline since my childhood has been steady but increasing. Homosexuals existed but men rarely admitted it because it would hurt their reputations when I first started my working life many, many years ago. Nowdays it's trendy to be gay or bi-sexual.

I've lived in an era without personal computers on workers desks. Office work was done mainly by hand. Some of it was put on sheets for data entry girls to put into our Mainframe computers and we got only printed reports because it was too expensive for every office to have a computer work station to look up information on a screen. So you waited each morning for your updated report printouts to be sent from the central computer department.

Yes it is very different now with almost everything done on a computer screen.

It has changed and everthing today is so intense to the more easy going carefree life I experinced as a child and into my teens. It was certainly still not too bad when I started my working life, you were still generally safe going to and from work as long as you didn't walk down dark alleys late at night or something like that. These days you aren't safe in your home or your own car.

I can see a big difference over my lifetime. I was a child in the sixities, a teenager in the seventies from the late 1970s I really noticed the erosion of societies morals and ethics and the death of common sense. Even in the 1980s we still had some idea of what was good and bad that has almost dissappeared today. We are calling wicked and evil things normal and good today.

I was taught to not lie when I was growing up but today lying is the norm. Your word is your bond and a handshake used to mean you would honour what you said you would do. Today not even a signed contract is any assurance you will see somebody fulfill their promise to you.

Yep it has all gone pearshaped in a bad way since my days as a young child.

I agree with most posters here the last few years have been pretty crazy insane.

[kristine]

Mitsy, you brought back so many memries!!! I was a teen during the 60's and a young woman in the 70's. When I graduated from high school in 1969, anyone who tried drugs was considered very bad. Very few even considered trying drugs. Sex was something we waited till marriage for. In just 5 short years (1973) when I was student teaching, classes went smoothly in the morning but by afternoon, several kids would be on drugs. Drug pushers would actually meet the kids on school property close to the front door!!! It was a real nightmare because they would disrupt my classes when I was trying to teach. This is one of the many reasons, though I LOVED teaching, I decided to choose another career.

As you said, people still knew right from wrong in the 80's but that changed in the 90's. When my dd was in high school (class of 99), lying, sex and drugs were the norm. Amazingly, she told me the the class of 01 was even worse than her class.

As I stated in my post above, in the past couple of years, things have been moving at warp speed. The world I see doesn't even resemble the world we lived in just 10 years ago. I thought, at that time, that things were as bad as they could get but I was sooooo wrong.....

[$teve]

Just by way of an example of unbelievers seeing current times different, I cite some comments from a person (who publishes periodic newsletters on economics) that were rather strange to read considering. He mentioned: "I woke up this morning with the distinct feeling that a chapter of the world had come to an end. I felt that a new world is being heralded. What this means I don't know. The thought came out of my unconscious. It haunted me all Sunday. One chapter had come to an end, and a new one was starting. The new chapter may be starting in China.”