Toreador,
You wrote: The whole problem is that these interpretations can be wrong for our whole lifetime and many more years before realizing these professional interpreters realize they were wrong. People can spend their whole lives believing in a fantasy. Look at C. T. Russel as an example of just one of many who was big into date setting and date interpretation. His clap trap (new word for me) , is still destroying peoples lives to this day. I believed it, so did many others and many still do.
I meant that I trust people who read Hebrew and Greek to translate the original text of the Bible into English. I do not trust men to tell me how the English text should be understood. As Russell and others like him have demonstrated, we should never rely too much on the opinions of others when it comes to deciding how the Bible should be understood. As we should all by now well know, doing so can be very dangerous.
You wrote: If God 'really' wanted us 'all' to gain salvation, he has, IMO, a very messy way of getting his message across. The record does not paint a very favorable picture of a God of order.
God's message to all of us today is a very simple one. Christ died for us. The rest in window dressing. Those who believe that Christ died in our place and then ask God to forgive their sins and begin doing their best to live as a follower of Christ will be given eternal life by God. Those who don't risk eternal condemnation. That is not to say that all who don't will be eternally condemned. Billions of people have lived their entire lives without hearing the Gospel message. Many who have heard the Gospel and have not responded to it may have failed to do so for a very good reason, a reason which God may fully understand on Judgment Day.
Maybe you think that "a God of order" who is "a loving and caring God" would have fully controlled all of mankind's affairs from the very beginning, preventing all pain, suffering, death and injustice. Or maybe you think that "a God of order" who is "a loving and caring God" would have made sure that every human that has ever lived was from birth given a complete, very easy to understand, instruction book from God, telling them exactly what God demanded from them in order to be given eternal life. Obviously God has not done those things.
I believe God has chosen for good reasons, up until now, to intervene very little in human affairs. For one thing, if God had completely controlled all of our affairs, protected us from all harm, and given everyone a complete instruction book, many of us would have complained saying God was giving them no freedom to do things their way. Many would have almost certainly said, "We don't need you. Leave us alone. We can make it just fine on our own." Adam and Eve said essentially the same thing. But outside the paradise of God they found hard times, a very harsh environment, sickness, and death. Just as every one of us today, whom God has permitted to go his own way, eventually finds. When God does intervene in human affairs in a very big way, when Christ returns, none of us will ever be able to say again, "We don't need God's help. We can do just fine on our own." For if anyone ever does, God will have all of human history behind us to prove him wrong.
One,
You wrote: So only those who see the "sign" will survive, right?
I never said that. Very few personally saw "the sign of Jonah", Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, before God brought Judgment on the Jewish nation at the hand of Roman armies in the first century.
You asked:
what is that mourn about?, what is the cause?
People who have long rejected Christ, including many who will be persecuting Christians just prior to Christ's return, will no doubt mourn when they see Him coming to judge them harshly.
You wrote: so today anyone who wants to KNOW God or Jesus and establish a personal relationship with him/them have to be an historian, mathematician, like science and no less... a linguistic expert.
Of course not. As I pointed out earlier, billions of Christians have managed to come to know God and have a strong relationship with Christ without ever understanding what I believe are signs of Christ "in the sun, moon and stars." However, Christians who are able and willing to spend some time studying the Bible, history and science can come to know God even better. This, of course, has always been true.
You wrote: Tell that to Amazon indians and hungry africans. Otherwise the poor african guy need to RELAY and trust the guy who wrote the 4, 40 400 4000 theory, if the piece of paper ever gets on his hand, could read and understand it.
Obviously, at this time, some people on this earth are better off than others in many ways. Fortunately, "Amazon indians" ... "hungry africans" ... and "poor african guy[s]" do not need to understand "the 4, 40, 400, 4000 theory" to be judged worthy of eternal life by God.
You wrote: To me such verse about the sign is just that there would be an indication, a car is approaching, you hear a peculiar noise or a horn, quickly then you confirm seeing the real thing. Like I see dark clouds and then the rain. An obvious sign that most people choose to ignore, obviously the 4, 40 400 relationship is not so obvious.
If the "sign" will be as "obvious" as you say it will be, why will most people ignore it? Few people ignore a horn of an approaching car.
You wrote:
Again, I take you say or imply that the sign is to be seen only by those who will survive.
Only by some of those who survive.
You wrote: then 99.999 percent are blind [to this sign].
That may well be.
