i guess this prayer went unanswered too, lol

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I keep a prayer journal Sean.  And MOST of my prayers are answered.  It's usually Yes, No, or Wait.

Sometimes people think when God says wait or no he's not answering their prayer.  He's not a Lotto machine we yank around with a list of demands...haha.  He can see the big picture and we can't.

I don't think Jesus is a liar.  In fact, He's the only person whose NEVER lied to me.  About the end times...imagine if somehow 2000 years ago someone made a reference in the Bible to metal flying birds...meaning aircraft.  Well, for 1900 or so years everyone would say the Bible was lying....there are no metal flying birds.

All that to say, sometimes we think we know what God is referencing, when in fact it is something else.  Who knows maybe the apostles will be here for the end times or will see it from heaven.  Who knows?

I don't know why some "seek" and find God fast and easy....and others of us struggle..actually I do know why for me its about selfishness...not trusting Him to do right by me...which is nuts because He always has when I've allowed it.

 

You are either one super scholar, to have put such a battery of seemingly anti-Christ scriptures together, or a poor lost soul duped by the anti-Christ into thinking you've stumbled onto some great, hidden-to-all but you truth. It's obvious that you are not a believer in or a respecter of Jesus Christ. Why would He answer your faithless prayers or for that matter, do anything for you? Why reveal any of the divine mysteries to you? You sound like Herod, who upon meeting Christ wanted to see tricks. First things first. Believe that Christ died for you, a hopeless sinner, which is the sad story of all who have not believed on the Son of God.
I will put forward this to you; if you thoroughly searched out the verses you have listed, and received answers from those who have dedicated their lives to the Bible being the inerrant Word of the Living God, I believe you will be astonished at how you ever missed that Jesus is Lord. Let me know how things turn out.

Ok, where does it say that Caiphas would live to see the second coming here? Jesus never said that. What he did say is that Caiphas would see one day that he was who he said he was.

What is repeated in scripture is that when he does come "every eye will see him." That doesn't mean in Caiphas near future but just in his future period. Rev 1:7



Well let's look at Mark 9:1. Compare it to Matt 27:28 which says: "Verily I say unto you there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

This was true. It already happened. Three of them witnessed this in the very next chapter 17:1-8 when the disciples witnessed the transfiguration which was in miniature a preview of the kingdom with the Lord appering in a state of glory (Dan 7:9-14).

Now lets look at Mark 13:30-31: There are diff views on this one. It could mean this generation that witnessed what he just spoke of in the verses prior. So the same generation that sees the obvious signs in 14-23 would see it all come to pass. Now I believe that because I believe in the 7 year tribulation so this would all happen in one generation.

The word generation can also mean race. So the Jewish race would not go extinct and would still be around when all these things come to pass. I think one of the greatest proofs of the bible is the Jewish race. They are still here after all they have been through including wandering around with no country for 2000 years. That is the greatest miracle in my book.



I'm not sure where and how you put these two scriptures together but they don't go together. Read this again. 24:36 comes right after the seven woes directed at the Pharisees (v13-33). This was directed directly to that generation literally as read. Many martyrs died during that first century after Christ died.



Why do I think you're smarter than this Sconn? Have you read this? This is exactly what it says:

"Jesus said to him, If I will that he tarry's till I come, what is that to you? Follow me."

Basically Jesus was just saying to Peter. Don't worry about John. Peter's top priority was to follow Christ, focus on Christ, not others. He never said or implied one twit that he would come in John's lifetime. It's clearly hypothetical.



well how can that be in lieu of what was said in Matt 24:14? "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come."

I could say alot on this but just look at the whole thing here in context. There is two parts with its own perspective. The first part 10:5-16 deals with the immediate situation. The second part 10:17-23 covers a later period when the apostles will be engaged in a wider ministry and which they were following the resurrection and the coming of the Spirit. Compare v 5 with 18. Do you see anything strange? Do you see a contrast?

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oh this one is easy.....

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

God is very slow moving when it comes to his wrath. He gives us every opportunity to repent. I'd like to think my friend, relative, neighbor etc. is going to come into the kingdom before God shuts the door for good. So I look for every opportunity to tell others about Christ realizing God is patient and wanting more to come into his kingdom before the day of his vengeance. Paul said himself he was torn between leaving this earth and going home and staying here to minister to the people. I can relate to that.

Good questions Sconn. Too many for even me to tackle.

wrong. i am merely asking questions.

and how dare you tell me what my faith is about.



this is not quite what i'm saying tova. in "answering " a prayer, i mean a positive answer, as was promised by christ. for example...

4) Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. (Mark 11:24-25 NAB)



5) And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-13 NAB)


6) And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14 NAB)

those passages don't say "ask, and i may or may not do it, i'll decide then." they say "everyone who asks, gets what they ask for." to me, the language is pretty clear. it's all the excuses that are murky.

and i hear a lot of rationalizations and non biblical claims of knowledge of "how it works." but none of that seems to judge with the overwhelming theme christ laid out that says ask-get..no if, ands or buts about it.

thanks KFC,,,this is more of the answers i was looking for. not that you satisfied all my questions,,,but you didn't claim to either. in fact , some of your answers brought up new questions in my head...but those are whole other cans of worms.

i do appreciate your attempts and the fact that you are at least basing what you say out of your biblical interpretations and not the rationalizations of man.

that's a bold statement for someone who doesn't know thing 1 about my life.

and there were people like that too in christ's time...christ tore their temple down. the people christ sent out to preach his word weren't those so called scholars, they were the women and men that found him directly instead of claiming divinity because their church placed them in a position of power. in fact, i dont ever remember christ going to any church leader or scholar for any advice whatsoever. the only time the bible references him interacting with the heirarchy is when he was a child and showed them all up and corrected their bad teachings.

oh, then as an adult he tore their temple down and rejected their authority and so called wisdom at every opportunity...and they turned their back on him and let the romans crucify him. why? because they thought he would rise from the dead? no...because he was a threat to their power.

Questions are good. It means God is dealing with you. If you have the desire to learn and question I'd be willing to bet He's behind it. It's ok to question Him. How else does one learn? I also have questions for God. I don't have all the answers but I do have more answers now than I did say 10 years ago. I was very much the skeptic and rebellious to boot. Little bit by little bit I started to realize that the answers could be obtained after all and they made sense. Much more sense than the world had to offer. So I went on a quest to see what else I could uncover. I've been doing it ever since.



well you have to go back even to v22 and look at the context which is the crux of the whole thing here. First you have to have Faith in God. To have faith means to literally lean on Him.

This verse is very misunderstood. Jesus isn't telling us to literally move mountains around and throw them into the sea with our prayers. If you understand more about the Fig Tree it may help you understand where Christ is coming from. You can go to Matt 21:19-22 and see the story about this fig tree a bit more clearly. The tree represented Israel. They were an obstacle in the way of others coming to Christ. The curse on the tree is illustrative of the rejection of Israel unfruitful despite every advantage.

In the same way, we have obstacles in our way that need to be taken out of our lives. We need to pray that God will remove them from us. When we sincerely want to follow God and remove the obstacles that Satan places in our path, they will disappear and fall into the sea where everything bad goes.

Just like location location location is very important to the Real Estate Business so isn't context, context, context very important to understanding scripture. Also by looking elswhere in scripture for the "rest of the story" is very helpful.



Well Tova is right. Sometimes the answer is No. But first we must ask ourselves are we a child of God (John 1:12)? Is He our Father? Because if he's not, then we will not get an answer. It's like going to somebody else's dad we don't have a relationship with and asking for favors. The other thing we need to do if we are not getting answers is to examine our lives. It's very laid out in scripture that if we are harboring sin in our lives, he will not hear us. I mean if we are really messed up, hanging onto our sin instead of giving it over to God and then asking God for favors what do you think he's going to say?



Again context very important here. Notice how many times he ties this whole section with "belief." When we believe in God we want to keep his commandments because when we do so we bring God glory. Jesus tells them this in context that everything has to be done that will give glory to God. So if you are a believer and are asking for something it has to fall into the category of giving God glory. Besides that would be your desire as well. If you're asking for a shiny red car, for example. How does that bring glory to God? Doesn't that bring glory to the owner of the car? Notice the very next verse he's talking about keeping Christ's teachings.

John later said this in 1 John 3:22 (again for clarity) "And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment."

So say you're harboring ill will or down right hatred towards someone but yet turn to ask God for something. He will not honor your request. Again, examination is the key.

Also he said this in 5:14:

"And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us."

God's will is always best for His children. Just like your will is best for your children as well.

SEANCONNERS WRITES:



There seems to be an automatic assumption that the words “coming on the clouds” always refer to Jesus’ Second Coming TO EARTH at the end of the world. This is not so in St. Matt 26:64 or in Daniel 7:13-14.

Daniel 7:13-14, “with the clouds of Heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages shall serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom one that shall not be destroyed”.

The Ancient of Days is God the Father and the "Son of man" is the Messiah as Jesus referred to Himself as the “Son of man” and He was the promised Messiah. Here Daniel describes the Son of man as coming with the clouds to the Ancient of Days. So, in Daniel and in St.Matt 26:64, the direction that the Son of Man is traveling is not towards earth, but towards the Father in Heaven for the ceremonial bestowal of His Kingdom which is rightfully His. The event of His coming in the clouds could well have occurred in Heaven as that is where we expect the Throne of the Ancient of Days to be!

What does this have to do with the Sanhedrin? During Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious leaders of Jerusalem, Jesus paraphrased these 2 verses from Daniel and applied them to Himself. He said, "But I tell you: hereafter you will see 'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'” St.Matt 26:64. The High Priest understood immediately that Jesus viewed Himself as the Messiah of Daniel, and so he tore his robe and accused Jesus of blasphemy.

Jesus told the men judging Him in Jerusalem that they would see the coming day when He would come to judge them. We can assume that the actual "coming" occurred when Jesus ascended into Heaven to received His kingdom. But how and when would the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem during their generation witness some undeniable evidence that Jesus, would be given His Kingship and recognized as King of Kings and Lord of Lords over His kingdom?

Most Christians would agree that Christ received His kingdom as a result of His work accomplished at Christ’s First Advent. God recognized Christ as King of the kingdom and that occurred in Heaven. Since Jesus made His prophecy (St. Matt 26:64) after the Transfiguration and the Sanhedrin most likely missed His coming in clouds of Heaven(His Ascension into Heaven), Jesus must have referred to another earthly event that the Sanhedrin would see within their generation.

These passages referring to the coming in clouds of Heaven of both Daniel and St.Matthew can’t possibly be a prediction of the Second Coming at the end of the world since the Sanhedrin have been dead for thousands of years. Yet, at His trial, Jesus told the Sanhedrin who condemned Him that they will see the day when He comes to judge them. When Jesus quoted Daniel at His trial, there was an implied threat which the Sandhedrin immediately understood. Why is the Son of man coming? To judge and the High Priest understood this threat clearly and decided that Jesus must die.

The generation of the Sanhedrin overlaps the time frame in Daniel’s prophecy where he describes the little horn which symbolizes Nero. There was only one event that occurred during the generation of the Sanhedrin that would show them that Christ was their Judge and that He was the King of His kingdom. The public event which evidenced the coming of Christ in victory was the destruction of Jerusalem’s Temple in 70 AD as instigated by the little horn, Nero. The destruction of Jerusalem illustrated to not only the Sanhedrin, but to everyone, that Christ was seated on the right hand of the Father. Christ from Heaven judged Jerusalem with the Roman army.

The Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, the city of the Sanhedrin, and laid waste to it’s Temple where no stone was left on top of an other one. This event put an end to animal sacrifice in the Temple and meant the end of biblical Judaism. The early fledgling Church, Christ’s kingdom that He had established before His Ascension into Heaven, was no longer understood as a sect within Judaism, was now free to expand without being encumbered by confusion of biblical Judaism. This event that the Sanhedrin saw in their generation fulfilled the ‘son of man’ prophecy of Daniel as expanded by Jesus’ prophecy at His trial in St.Matthew.

SeanConners, Jesus Christ is God. He doesn’t lie and always keeps His promises. Please get yourself right with this Truth.

Hey Lula,

Did you know the Sanhedrin is now being reorganized even as we speak? This is in preparation for the temple that is in the works. what are you going to say then? You will have to put your Preterist Pen down.

Nero was an anti-Christ, but is not THE anti-christ that will come.

nice words lula, but chipping off 1 of a multitude is hardly enough. and that's a long way to go to try to discredit relatively simple language. and ya didn't even address the main part about prayers being answered. but like kfc, this was the type of answer i was looking for. i don't find the evidence convincing, but thank you for your input.

and lula, don't assume what my beliefs are because i ask challenging questions. fyi, last weekend, we celebrated my 1st son's 1st communion at our catholic church. you know that i have many problems with the CC, and any sect that has organized itself into a business model essentially amongst other issues, but my doubts about man shouldn't be confused with my religious beliefs concerning God. i can't prevent you from making statements telling me how and what to believe, but you should know that such an order like "SeanConners, Jesus Christ is God. He doesn’t lie and always keeps His promises. Please get yourself right with this Truth" are useless. if i had no faith in God, and you simply told me to believe in him, what would that do? nothing. one can only find god within themselves, not from what man tells another to believe.

thank you for your comments tho:)

I would have to point out a couple of things. Unless you believe in the infallibility of the Bible, you've basically got no argument. If Fox New said that John Kerry said that puppies are delicious, would you immediately start pondering the eating habits of John Kerry? Nah.

So, you have to weigh what you read as second hand accounts. Remember Life of Brian? "Blessed are the Cheesemakers." If there is a handpuppet with real potential in the Bible it is Jesus, after all. If you want to make people believe what you want them to believe, you just say that Jesus said so, right?

Second, in terms of faith, who knows? Maybe it is like Douglas Adams' description of flying. Maybe you have to forget you can't move mountains. "Know" in real terms. Maybe the kind of faith that moves mountains is the total lack of any doubt that you can't.

More importantly, it wouldn't be reasonable. The human race AS A WHOLE would have to be evolved to a state of perfection to allow such an ability. A world with 4.5 billion people with immense power such as that couldn't work otherwise. Erase all the stuff in us that creates such danger, and who knows, maybe the absence of such flaws would leave us with such ability.

In the end, how could we function as a species if the literal translation of this were true? No one would ever be sick, no one would die. Everyone would get that promotion, no car would ever run out of gas. Every lottery would have a million winners. "Oh God please..." would basically be all you'd need to get anything you want.

Is that life as we'd want it? I don't think so. Think about telling your kids they can have whatever they ask for supper. If they ask for an 8-ball and two hookers, you're probably gonna get caught in a lie. Tell them they can go anywhere they want for vacation, they'll say Mars. Tell them they can be whatever they want to be in life, and let them get back to you on that one in about 20 years.

Yet... we always say these things to our kids. We trust that they won't ask for things we can't give, or won't for their benefit. If we have the reason and care to do such for our kids, it would be a pretty lackluster God who wouldn't do the same for us.

I suggest tracking down This episode of Futurama. It's called Godfellahs. Maybe you've already seen it. The last thing you really need to do is waste your time trying to figure out which book or which faction really knows what God thinks or what Jesus really said. You might as well start over in the Middle East arguing about whether Mohammed was a prophet or whether blowing people up is a good thing to do. Same song, different singer.

Sean, first and foremost, my heartiest congratulations to you and yours, especially your son for making his First Holy Communion. I can still remember mine oh so many years ago. It's truly a big deal in the Catholic life....receiving Our Lord's precious Body and BLood in the Holy Eucharist, the manna from Heaven.



Hardly enough? I chipped away at a couple of the passages you cited, and I think others on this thread adequately answered the others.

Have you ever considered posing these questions of yours to your parish priest? That would be the avenue I would take. Email him and see what comes of it!! (This is just a suggestion...I've got to be careful not to tell you what to do)!

thanks lula,,,much appreciated!



i have spoke with clergy on questions like this. most of time, the answers are not satisfactory to me and remind me more of political rhetoric more than scripture or the interpretation of.

and your suggestions are always welcome...it's not the same as an order or a holier than thou edict.