Are we living during the time of the First Seal of Revelation?

iagreebut wrote: »

There's so many versions of churches and Christianity, but I think it got lost along the way.
It's probably best to keep it simple, go back to humility and just thank your God for the gift of life, love thy neighbor and friend's keep my own house clean and have a few reliable friend's.

I don't think it matters if you're a Catholic, Anglican, Muslim or other religion..

Great to see that you are passionate and excited about finding the truth, I think it is very sad that so many people are happy to just say that we can never know the truth or that it does not matter.

There is a principle of logic called the Principle of Non-Contradiction (PNC). It means that two contrary things cannot both be true at the same time and in the same respect. Therefore, Ireland cannot both be an island and not be an island at the same time. The same patch of sky cannot both be blue and red at the same time. Similarly, God cannot both exist and not exist. Either the believers are 100% correct on this point, or the atheists are. I see that you are a man of faith, so you are past this first hurdle.

Following on from this principle, it matters a great deal if you are Catholic, Anglican, Muslim or a member of another religion. These religions contradict each other on the same points of doctrine - therefore the PNC applies. If Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for us on the Cross, rose from the dead and is now with God the Father, then Allah cannot be God and Muhammad be His prophet. It would make zero sense. Simply by strictly applying the rules of logic, we can know that one of these religions is false and its adherents are living in error (whether they realize it or not is a different issue).

The story is similar between the Catholics and the various Protestant sects (Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists etc). Either the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ, as He said at the Last Supper ("And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19) or it is not. Similarly, either the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, to whom God wants us to submit in matters of religion, or he is not. These things cannot both be and not be true at the same time. To be a Catholic or any other denomination matters a great deal. Think about it - if the Eucharist really is Christ, then are non Catholics not missing out in a massive way?

I can tell you that for me, personally, Catholicism just makes sense. It is faithful to Scripture - the Apostle Paul told believers: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle (2 Thess 2:15). I find that other Christian traditions are forgetting about the "word" part (Scripture alone). I also find that only in Catholicism I have access to the Lord's Supper (Mass) and the forgiveness of sins as He instituted it ie. Confession ("Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained". John 20:23). Moreover, if you look at how the early Church worshiped, those who lived closest in time to Christ, you will find that they celebrated the Mass. Have a read of this account by Justin Martyr from 155 AD.

Salvation is available to everyone who have awareness, the book of revelations is very powerful.

Statements of such gravity should be reasonable ie you should have sufficient reasons for believing them. None of the Christian denominations teach that salvation is easily available to anyone who has awareness (not sure what that means by the way). Christian teaching is that we are saved by accepting the salvation which Christ secured for us on the cross. This is done by applying the merits of his sacrifice to us individually through Baptism. Then, we spend our lives in joyful anticipation of eternal life with God, however we remain conscious that salvation can still be lost through grave sin ("There is a sin leading to death" 1 John 5:16).

Those who are humble, and have the wisdom to know the difference will be saved.

Same problem. Show me a single argument to support the position that salvation is secured through being humble and wise. These questions carry eternal consequences; they really need to be thought out.

I suppose that scene in Mel Gibson's movie of Jesus stamping on the snake in the garden of Gethsemane resonates with me, he knew that his time was near.
He squashed the snake and confidently rose up and accepted that he had a job to do.

Great scene. He went on to die for you, me and the rest of humanity.

I'm on the fence I suppose with religion and culture, but I'm willing to find the answers..

There's definitely something brewing... better to be saved rather than be the dammed.

But if I decided to convert to Christianity, I'd keep it very simple and abide by the commandments to the best of my abilities and enjoy the simple things in life...

As you can see I'm on my own journey of self discovery...

You are bang on that it is better to be saved then to be damned

Please keep praying to God for light, that He will show you the truth.

"Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you". (Matthew 7:7).

santana75 wrote: »

I was actually talking with some friends about this recently and we all confessed to feeling like something was definitely happening with regards to the revelations in John's Gospel. I have no prove to back that up, and I think its a rabbit hole you could easily fall into, expecially since theres so many theories floating around, now more so than ever. But It feels as though time has sped up and we're careening towards some point of convergence. Whether this is gonna happen within the next couple of months, years, or even longer, God is the only one who knows, all I know personally is that something is happening behind the veil.

Sometimes I have this feeling too. And, to be perfectly honest, if we were on the brink of a period of chastisement, I wouldn't be surprised.

According to this document from the WHO, we abort around 56 million children annually (its probably 'remove fetuses' in WHO doublespeak. Because we all go around congratulating our friends on being pregnant with a fetus). 25% of all conceptions end in abortion, also according to this document.

If you step back from it, this information is staggering. Every year, we silently kill roughly the same number of people as died in World War II. Every year, we cull 25% of all our new-borns. These are people who could have been doctors, artists, husbands, wives... It beggars belief. This has never been done in the history of the world.

Moreover, we have made an absolute mess of ourselves as humanity. We have totally undercut the four pillars of our human identity, namely religion, family, country and gender. We have chased God out entirely from our public square and largely from our private lives too. The institution of the family has all but disappeared in certain areas - cohabiting, single parent households and other arrangements which were condemned in the Bible are the order of the day. Country - we are basically citizens of the world now. Gender - you would think the easiest one to maintain. People no longer know what their gender is. We are teaching our children that gender is not determined by biology. Some are claiming there are hundreds of genders.

I could go on, but this is already depressing. Maybe the only way out of this mess is if it all collapses and we start anew. Maybe then we will have a chance to make our civilization correspond to reality and the natural law.