Quote Originally Posted by cyril evans awaydays View Post
Not all eclipses will point to significant events, and not all earthquakes will be preceded by an eclipse. So how will we know what's important and what isn't?

You seem to have covered most bases there, fair play.
How can we understand what is important?
That's an excellent question and we are now moving into the arena of spiritual discerment within the field of *eschatology.

My apologies this isn't a one line answer but I'll make it as short and jargon free as possible (feel free to ask further questions).

This involves the study of the original languages of the Bible, learning what conditions, events and attitudues to look for. And to know when the key elements of the bigger picture are coming together on a worldwide basis.
Many top scientists and theologians have devoted a significant part of their lives in studying these key truths concerning the furture, with Sir Isaac Newton allowing it to take up more of his time than the other scientific work he became famous for!

Also when it comes to spiritual discernment, the person who may wish to use the Bible as a tool to know what happens next (etc), will have a massive disadvantage if they don't already know the ultimate Author of the Book, Almighty God.
The reason being this - God is an Eternal Spirit, and as humans are made up of 'Spirit, Soul & Body'. However the Bible tells us we are 'dead' because of our rebellious nature, and the part of us that is dead is our Spirit. Possibly why people are historically referred to as Body & Soul. When someone seeks God's forgiveness and commits their life to Christ acknowledging that His death on the Cross was to pay the price (sentence) of their rebellion, their dead Spirit becomes alive, and that person is said to be born anew, or born again, now alive as Spirit, Soul & Body as all of us are meant to be.
Those who remain 'dead' will not understand these things, or even discern the significance of events going on around them and across the world, so they will simply scoff, declaring it to be a confusing picture that nobody could possibly understand and that there are NO signs that Christ is soon to appear in judgement at all:-

2 Peter 3:3 "Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

* Prophecy is one element of Eschatology.