Damon Rambo
Puritan Board Sophomore
#1 The degree of persecution against God's church.
FACT: There have been more Christian Martyrs in the last 100 years, than in the entire previous 19 centuries combined.
That is a totally meaningless statement. For one thing, there are more Christians now than at any point in the past. So, in the first 10 years after Christ rose from the grave 10 percent of all Christians could have been killed and that might have been only a few hundred people, while now 1,000,000 Christians could be killed, and that would only be 1 percent of total Christians.
For another, were 600,000 Armenians killed by the Turks where they had been living for 500 years because they were Christian martyrs or because of complex politics? Were 3,000,000 Poles killed because they were Christian martyrs or because they took a British treaty more seriously than common sense?
I do not believe evil is percentage based. If I take 10 people, and kill one of them, it is not the moral equivalent of taking 1 million people, and killing one hundred thousand.
#2 The number of people getting killed by the unrighteous, period.
FACT 150 million people have been killed in wars, in the last 100 years. It has been the bloodiest century in History, outside of Old Testament events (Noah's flood).
Again, meaningless. Less people died during the Plague, but a higher percentage of the world population died of the Plague than died in the last century's wars. And why do people die less often from the Plague? Because science has finally caught up to the Bible in understanding the principles of hygiene, and it is a direct result of the Christianization of Europe.
More people died, per capita, in the 20th century, than in the 1st. You are including disease: I did not. However, if you want to look at that, as many as 500 million people died from smallpox alone. Considering the population median of about 2.3 billion, that makes a ratio of 1:4.6.
Compare this to the Black plague of the 14th century, when the median population was 400 million. It killed a maximum 75 million. A ratio of 1:5.3. Much lower.
Then add in the OTHER huge diseases of the 20th century (Like Polio).
[/quote]#3 Holiness.
FACT Although in some ways the Romans were just as immoral as we are today, in other ways they were not. For example, in Roman Culture, there was a GREAT respect for parents. Also, even in regards to things like Adultery, the Roman society was not as bad as today. In that time, you could at least get away from unholy things: now, people are bombarded with them from the time of their youth. Things like p0rnography are rampant; effecting even those who desire and struggle to separate themselves unto God. This is more difficult today, than at anytime in history.
Things are illegal in Sweden today that were legal in Rome!!! Please
There are things that are legal in the U.S. today, which were illegal in Rome.
When my Lord says things will get worse and worse, I believe Him. Of course, this whole thing is not the purpose of the thread; my only point was to show that Premillenialism sees things as getting worse until Christ returns, not better, as some seemed to claim.