Wow, I guess my post spawned quite a reaction. To be honest, I am very un-studied in prophesy and maybe was a little unwise in what I said, though I tried not to make any concrete claims about the state of the world. To speak of things I know little about is pretty foolish. I don't believe that "once there is peace in the middle east, it's the end of the world." Nah. But I do believe that today's Muslim Palestinians are partly the descenants of Ishmael, and before his birth his mother, Hagar, was visited by an angel of the Lord who gave her some disheartening news about her son and his family.

"The angel also said, 'I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.' / The angel added, 'You are now pregnant, and you will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cries. / Ishmael will be like a wild donkey. He will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will attack all his brothers.'" (Genesis 16:10-12 NCV)

So the conflict in the middle east has been going on a long time, arguably since Ishmael came of age. But maybe I'm misinterpreting this, too. When I label myself a "Christian," I mean only that I am a follower of Jesus Christ and I believe in Him as my Lord and Savior. However, that doesn't make me a Bible scholar by any means. I hope that makes sense.

So, now that it's cleared up that I don't know diddly about prophesy, the fact still stands that my friend's dad thinks he DOES. So, whatever his motives, whether they're true or not (and I have no idea what they really are), he doesn't think he'll come back from Israel alive. And that's really what the big deal is for me. Maybe it's not the end of the world -- I really can't say that I believe that's coming any time soon (as in, within the next 50 years, at least!) -- but nonetheless, there is fighting going on over there and my friend's dad could quite realistically be in danger. So, all theology aside, I'm worried about him.

Also, sorry for sparking conflict in the Forum. Nobody likes that.

-useless"My, we can be quick to grab our proverbial swords, can't we?"ness