...first I have to get us all on the same page with some background material. I wouldn't just come out and say something ultra-libelous like "Maitreya is the Antichrist" without first having a very good reason. In this case my reasons "are legion" (Biblical joke, there...).

Some of you also may not understand why I spend so many hours trying to get such info out to the public. Well, though my site offers me no monetary benefit, the satisfaction of knowing that I am finally using my gifts and talents for a worthwhile purpose is a very therapeutic thing. Besides, Jesus commands His worshippers: "Go ye into all the world" to spread His Good News. I figured a computer geek like me should try it on the Net! So...

There are several major interpretations of Bible Prophecy, with many minor interpretations on each... nearly as many as there are Students of Prophecy! This is of course because no one knows for sure exactly what God has laid out in His extremely complex plan for the future. Perhaps the most widely accepted interpretation (and the one that I subscribe to) is called Pre-tribulationism. Before I can go much further I had better define some words that may not be familiar, or that have been grossly misinterpreted by the world at large:

• The Rapture: The literal "snatching up" of Jesus' true followers (those who have made Him Lord over their lives). This is an event that is spoken of in both the New and Old Testaments, though never called "the Rapture" by name. It will be an instantaneous disappearance of millions, caught up to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds "in the twinkling of an eye". This is the event that He was referring to when He spoke of coming "as a thief in the night". He made it quite clear that it would come very suddenly and that most people would be left behind. (Sadly, there are even a large number of people who assume they will be included and will find out differently.) When the rapture happens, it will be the greatest news story ever reported to date. It will be impossible not to notice this event. Just one small impact will be the millions of driverless cars careening all over the world's roadways, creating chaos and deadly accidents by the thousands. Small, and perhaps even commercial planes will fall out of the sky, unmanned. (Several major carriers are concerned enough about this that they do not allow all-Christian flight crews!)

• Second Coming: A very different event from the Rapture. This entails Jesus physically returning to Earth, joined by His followers and Angels. This is when He comes as the Conquering King that the Jews have been expecting, rather than as the Teacher and Savior of 2000 years ago.

• Antichrist: A human man, fully endowed with the power of Satan (Lucifer - The Angel of Light), claiming to be Christ Himself. His ability to deceive will be nearly limitless, aided by the miracles performed by him and his "prophet" sidekick. He will not have horns or fangs; rather he will come as a beautiful man of peace, ready to save the world from it's chaos and hate. He will be readily accepted by a properly prepared humanity that needs answers immediately. He will have all the solutions, and will calm the fear in the world's heart. Such will be the initial nature of "The Beast".

• The False Prophet: The Antichrist's right hand man. The one who may well introduce him to the world, much as John the Baptist did for Jesus 2000 years ago. Both of these men will have somewhat normal names, and will strongly disavow any relation to the Bible's names for them.

• The Great Tribulation: Also known as "The Seventieth Week of Daniel" or merely the "Tribulation". This is a 7 year period of time in which the entire world feels God's wrath in ever-increasing proportion. The Bible spends much time devoted to in-depth descriptions of this short era. This is the commonly misunderstood period. It is NOT "the end of the world". The truth is that both the earth itself, and a fair number of its inhabitants, will survive through it all. Billions WILL die however, in the catastrophic and horrible phases of destruction. The Bible says that the rest will wish they were dead. More about this below...

• Pre-Tribulationist: Sometimes seen as "PreTrib", these terms describe the followers of the Biblically-based viewpoint where The Rapture happens before The Great Tribulation. MidTribs, PostTribs, and Amillenialists are also interested in the same events, but have rather altered opinions on how or if they will happen.

• Fundamentalist: A Fundamentalist Christian subscribes to a minimum of these basic tenets of faith: (1) Divine Creation, (2) Verbal inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, (3) The Virgin Birth of Christ, (4) His Deity, substitutional atonement for sin, bodily resurrection, His coming physical return, and (5) The existence of a literal Heaven, and Hell. Though good Christians may disagree in other areas, to deny these essentials is to abandon the Christian faith.

• The Millennium: A 1000 year period in which Jesus Christ will remain on Earth and rule as King over all, complete with the Peace and Justice that we all desire. Not since the Garden of Eden has there ever been such a wonderful time to be on Earth. This is the time that the Bible says "swords will be beaten into plowshares", and "the lion will lie down with the lamb".
  

  You currently have the opportunity to exist, and even help rule during The Millennium if you so choose!

  
  
  
  

  Now, The Universal Timeline of God

  (briefly, of course!)

  
  

  • The Creation: The literal creation of all things by God, including Man (Adam) made in God's own image. God's reason for creation was to satisfy the longing in His heart for Spirit to spirit communication - Holy Communion with God on His perfect level.

  • The Fall: The "Eve and the Apple" story. Yes, it really happened. Satan, the rebellious Archangel (created by God as "Lucifer", the once-perfect Angel of Light) came to Earth and tempted Man to break communion with God by doing the exactly that which God told them not to do. Satan's attack plan was the same then as it is now - question Authority (in this case, God's authority). He simply said to the woman, "Did God really say...?". Interestingly enough, the First Lie is also the same one we see so commonly now: "Man is (or can become) God". The effect of Adam and Eve's willingness to rebel was to allow Sin to enter (and thus corrupt) their perfect bodies. This new imperfection could not be tolerated by the perfect God, and severed the Holy Communion that had been taking place. From this time forward, all mankind by way of simple birth received the seed of rebellion, and it's effect: Death.

  • The Flood: The earth eventually became filled with wicked people, and God decided to destroy all but Noah (and his family) who was the one man left that loved God. Through a Great Flood (the effects of which can be seen today) the face of the earth was wiped clean, for a fresh start. Noah and his family then began to repopulate the globe.

  • For brevity, I will skip the thousands of years of Jewish history...though they do figure rather heavily in a complete biblical timeline! From these ancient times we have God's Law (The Ten Commandments), hundreds upon hundreds of Prophecies (many of which are already fulfilled), and a beautifully detailed account of how God works with His People, and enemies. In addition, God's plan of salvation is wonderfully foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament.

  • The Life: For 33 unparalleled years, Jesus Christ walked the earth as a Man, though He was God. He had to deal with the same thoughts and feelings as we do, and showed very human emotions (sorrow, hunger, outrage...) on many occasions. The last 3 years of His life were spent in His Ministry, which was interrupted by:

  • The Death: Jesus was eventually murdered by those who hated His radical teachings on peace, love, and God. Fortunately, this was all a part of God's master plan for our salvation. Just during the 2 months starting with His "trial" and death, Christ fulfilled many Old Testament Jewish Prophecies related to their Messiah.

  • The Resurrection: When Christ returned to life 3 days after His death, He was seen by more than 500 people. This fact is better documented than the existence of Julius Caesar. Having conquered both sin and death, Jesus soon ascended to Heaven, with a promise of:

  • The Spirit: Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. It is this day, ten days after Christ left for His place back in Heaven, that the Holy Spirit was sent to continue His work. The apostles, Christ's immediate followers, were blessed with a physical appearance of "tongues of fire" above their heads - signaling the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Earth.

  • The Present: Through the nearly 2000 years since Pentecost, the Christian Church has been splintered, revised, copied, and "religionized" into something Christ might barely recognize. The beginning of this century saw Fundamentalism rise in righteous response. Now many Christians prefer to be called Fundamentalists, rather than Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Catholics, Anglicans, or the hundreds of other off-shoot denominations of the original church. The increasing rejection of Fundamentalism by more liberal "Christians" is a sad and very telling sign of the End Times. So is the rise of religious tolerance - in the name of making everyone feel good about themselves, real doctrine is taking a backseat to unity. "Intolerant" seems to be the label applied to those who have the guts to repeat what Christ said. The world hated Him, too. Today's watered down faiths will allow Antichrist to step right in and unite them.

  • The Rapture: The end of the Church Age. As of this writing, ALL major Prophecies that are required to precede the rapture of the true Church have come to pass. In addition to these requirements, the world is also undergoing ALL of the signs that Christ warned would signal His Return. The Rapture could happen at any moment!

  • The Tribulation: I and many others believe that within DAYS after the Rapture, a man will emerge to the world as a whole (via modern communications, and perhaps even some sort of demonic telepathy) to explain away the disappearance of millions of people. His explanation will probably be: "These people were standing in the way of our New Age, and were removed by the Space Brothers...Now is our time of peace and love!" or perhaps even, "These people had achieved the necessary level, and were taken to the next level. I am here to teach you the way that you too can achieve godhood". Either way, it will be the first of many deceptive and captivating lies made by The Antichrist. For a short time, it will look as if he is really the answer, and he will be loved by billions. After 3.5 years, however, he will enter the newly rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem and demand worship. Enter the Mark of the Beast (a method of tracking his followers and destroying the rest) and the worst times our world has ever known. God will be pouring out catastrophic judgments, leading up to:

  • The Second Coming: Jesus Christ physically returns to Earth, accompanied by His Church (all those who accepted Him) to defeat the armies of the Antichrist at Armageddon. The Bible says that the valley of Megiddo (basically Palestine) will be filled with blood "to the horse's bridle"! This will be the physical time of death for all remaining unbelievers, and those that took the Mark of the Beast.

  • The Millennium: 1000 years of righteous rule by Christ, the Tribulation Saints (those who chose Jesus and were thus martyred during the seven years - many of these will be today's Jews!), the Old Testament Saints, and the Church Age Saints. Jesus, of course, reigns supreme! During this time, Satan is bound by chains, cast into the bottomless pit, and sealed away from partaking in this era. During this period, the Earth is being repopulated by the survivors of the Tribulation (only Christians, to begin with...) who will have free will, but no Satan to tempt them - only their own sin nature. At the end of 1000 years Satan is loosed one final time, he gathers armies from these free-willed people (hard to believe, but folks will STILL be denying Jesus even then!), is defeated by Christ, and cast into the Lake of Fire once and for all, along with the rest of those who died without Christ (please avoid this fate!). Then, finally:

  • The New Heaven and the New Earth: This is the promised Heaven and Earth of perfection. The old Heaven and Earth (of today) will be replaced. If you wanna know what it will be like, Revelation 21 and 22 are the chapters to read; they're the last two in the Bible! Yes, the Earth we know today will finally be destroyed and regenerated, but not until at least 1007 years from the date of the Rapture! So, though the "End of the World" WILL happen, there are plenty of events before it that have yet to take place. Armageddon is NOT the end.

    
    
    

    
    

    OK, Eastwood, so why do you think Maitreya is The Beast?

    And why is NOW the time for this to happen?

    (...after all, haven't thousands of people said stuff like this and been wrong?)

    

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