"And There shall be...Upon the Earth Distress of Nations, with Perplexity ...Men's Hearts Failing Them for Fear, and for Looking after Those Things Which are Coming on the Earth"
But isn't that just an elaboration, admittedly vivid at that, of the emotional fall-out from the events outlined in the Scriptural injunctions issued by our LORD and Saviour Himself - in all three of the 'synoptic gospels', i.e. those of Matthew, Mark and Luke - that
(As Matthew states):
[At 'the end of the world']...there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places...All these are the beginning of sorrows.
(As Mark puts things):
[The 'sign when all these things shall be fulfilled']...shall [include] earthquakes in divers places, and...famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
(And as the 'beloved physician' Luke expresses matters):
"And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences..." ?
And as Timothy, the Apostle Paul's later missionary companion, put things rather more succinctly:
Mark my words, in the last days there will be times of great stress (David Bernhardt paraphrase of 2 Timothy 3:1.)
While elsewhere one has penned the following description of events that will precede the final days:
"I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God [W]ho will display His authority as God.
His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothing." (Italics all mine.)
Sounds awfully like the traditional *four horsemen of the Apocalypse to me - how about you?
*I.e. Revelation 6:1/2-8's citing of four coloured horses appearing on the scene, as 'the Lamb opened' each of the first 'four seals' in succession...
1) a white horse - which went forth...conquering and to conquer...
2) a red horse - to which power was given...to take peace from the earth...that they should kill one another.
3) a black horse - holding a pair of balances in his hand.'
4) a pale horse - named Death, and Hell followed with him.
And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
So perhaps we ought to sit up and take heed, when Jesus - at the conclusion of this discourse upon Olivet - the Mount of Olives - exhorts us all to
take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that [D]ay come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Which doubtless explains why He then warns us to:
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
(As Matthew states):
[At 'the end of the world']...there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places...All these are the beginning of sorrows.
(As Mark puts things):
[The 'sign when all these things shall be fulfilled']...shall [include] earthquakes in divers places, and...famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
(And as the 'beloved physician' Luke expresses matters):
"And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences..." ?
And as Timothy, the Apostle Paul's later missionary companion, put things rather more succinctly:
Mark my words, in the last days there will be times of great stress (David Bernhardt paraphrase of 2 Timothy 3:1.)
While elsewhere one has penned the following description of events that will precede the final days:
"I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God [W]ho will display His authority as God.
His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothing." (Italics all mine.)
Sounds awfully like the traditional *four horsemen of the Apocalypse to me - how about you?
*I.e. Revelation 6:1/2-8's citing of four coloured horses appearing on the scene, as 'the Lamb opened' each of the first 'four seals' in succession...
1) a white horse - which went forth...conquering and to conquer...
2) a red horse - to which power was given...to take peace from the earth...that they should kill one another.
3) a black horse - holding a pair of balances in his hand.'
4) a pale horse - named Death, and Hell followed with him.
And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
So perhaps we ought to sit up and take heed, when Jesus - at the conclusion of this discourse upon Olivet - the Mount of Olives - exhorts us all to
take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that [D]ay come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Which doubtless explains why He then warns us to:
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
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