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    Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World
    Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World
    Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World
    Ebook121 pages1 hour

    Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World

    By Mark Ashton

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    About this ebook

    The Reality Check series makes just one assumption: that you’re serious enough about your spiritual journey to investigate Christianity with an open mind. This isn’t about joining anyone’s religious club—it’s about being real with yourself and with the others in your group. Since no one has all the answers, there’s plenty of room for discussion. After all, if there is any truth to the Bible’s stories about Jesus, then one thing he’d welcome are questions and opinions that come from honest, earnest hearts.What do you think the future holds? Right now it looks pretty scary. And Bible prophecy hardly brightens the picture—not with its mind-boggling images of singing saints, ten-horned monsters, mystical numbers, and a lake of fire. What does it all mean? Fortunately, it does mean something. A great deal. And while the Bible paints a grim future for a world bent on worshiping its own ways, it offers great hope for those whose hearts are set on God. Future Shock includes these sessions: Will Jesus Return This Year? · The Scroll Opener · After the Gavel Falls . . . · Ultimate Evil: The Antichrist, the Beast, and 666 · Happily Ever After? · Flight TrainingFor the Group LeaderReality Check is for spiritual seekers of every persuasion. Uncompromisingly Christian in its perspective, it steers wide of pat answers and aims at honesty. This innovative and thought-provoking series will challenge you and those in your group to connect heart to heart as together you explore the interface between Jesus, the Bible, and the realities of this world in which we live.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateFeb 23, 2010
    ISBN9780310867746
    Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World
    Author

    Mark Ashton

    Mark Ashton is the director of seeker small groups at Willow Creek Community Church. In addition, he supervises the staff for more than 40 new believer groups, 80 seeker groups, and Willow's Internationals ministry. He is also the director of TruthQuest - Willow's ministry that answers tough questions about Jesus and Christianity. Mark is a frequent speaker at conferences and is the author of Absolute Truth?

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      Book preview

      Future Shock - Mark Ashton

      Halftitle Page

      Reality Check Series

      Clear Evidence: Eyewitness Reports of Jesus

      Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World

      Hot Issues: Jesus Confronts Today’s Controversies

      Jesus’ Greatest Moments: The Week That Changed Everything

      Leadership Jesus Style: The Master and His Mission

      Sudden Impact: Powerful Encounters with the Real Jesus

      When Tragedy Strikes: Jesus’ Response to a World Gone Wrong

      Winning at Life: Jesus’ Secrets Revealed

      Title Page with Zondervan logo

      ZONDERVAN

      Future Shock

      Copyright © 2002 by Willow Creek Association

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

      ePub Edition September 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-86774-6

      Requests for information should be addressed to:

      Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

      ISBN: 978-0-310-31162-1

      All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

      All rights reserved. The original purchaser of this product shall have the right to make unlimited print-form copies here of, provided such copies are not resold or distributed to the general public.

      Interior design by Sherri L. Hoffman

      Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

      Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.

      EBOOK INSTRUCTIONS

      In this ebook edition, please use your device’s note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response Here]. Use your device’s highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

      To Josiah

      May your future be filled with

      the love and life of Jesus

      CONTENTS

      Ebook Instructions

      What Does the Future Hold?

      Discussion 1    Will Jesus Return This Year?

      Discussion 2    The Scroll Opener

      Discussion 3    After the Gavel Falls …

      Discussion 4    Ultimate Evil: The Antichrist, the Beast, and 666

      Discussion 5    Happily Ever After?!

      Discussion 6    Flight Training

      Ultimate Life

      Leader’s Guide

      Introduction

      How to Lead a Great Discussion

      Notes for Each Discussion

      Acknowledgments

      About the Publisher

      INTRODUCTION

      WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

      Everyone wants to know what the future holds. Don’t you?

      Do you lie awake at night wondering, What will my next job be? Will I have a long and happy marriage? Will I meet an intriguing person I can trust and spend my life with? Will I make enough money? When will I die? When will my loved ones die? What happens after death? Will our country become more or less healthy? What will happen to the economy? When will the world end?

      You’re not alone. People will go to extreme lengths to unlock the unknown. Some find the future revealed in fortune cookies. Others look to astrologers and horoscopes to point the way. Masses of people pay the psychic hot line $1.50 a minute to tell them whether there is a new job, an exciting vacation, or an intriguing man or woman in their future. Some think that Nostradamus, the sixteenth-century French physician and astrologer, has predicted many events of the twentieth century and is the key to understanding the twenty-first. Others trust stockbrokers to predict the future of the economy.

      And then there are those who look to the Bible to unlock the future. This makes sense! Over thousands of years, hundreds of predictions from the Bible have come to pass. Many of Jesus’ teachings have to do with the end of the world. And the Bible’s final book—Revelation—is devoted to communicating about the future.

      But is it possible to read and understand the Bible for yourself, especially when so many of the Bible’s future references are clouded in symbolism and a culture that’s thousands of years and thousands of miles from our own? There are beasts coming out of the sea, the number 666, the Antichrist, singing saints, four horsemen, a final battle, and a great white throne. All are fantastic images, but what do they mean to us—and to our world today? Can they answer the questions, When will the world end? What will happen in the future? To our planet? To our country? To our homes? To our loved ones? To our jobs? To our very lives?

      Future Shock is designed to help groups from all spiritual backgrounds grasp not only the symbolism related to the end of the world, but also the key role Jesus plays in this unfolding drama. As you talk about the most important themes of the end times, the individual and corporate destinies of humanity will become abundantly clear. And they’ll demand a response.

      In this guide, every discussion about the future begins with an Icebreaker—a question that will help stimulate your thoughts and also make it easy for you to share your ideas and opinions, even with people you may not know very well or at all. You’ll read words from the Bible that reveal clues about our world’s destiny and then have the opportunity to discuss them with others. Each topic ends with a Reality Check—a few questions that will help you apply what you’ve learned to your life and future plans. And in the back of the book is something you won’t want to miss—the key to Ultimate Life!

      As you journey through this discussion guide, you’ll discover clues about when Jesus will return, what the mysterious beast, the Antichrist, and 666 are, and the result of the final battle between good and evil. Plus you’ll unlock the mysteries of the final destinies of humanity—and warring spiritual forces! At last your curiosity about these

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