End Of Days?

[Dar~]

Read and Discuss:

End Times


"Question: "Have any aspects of end times prophecy been fulfilled?



Answer: Revelation 4:1 introduces a section of scripture that details “things which must be hereafter.” What follows are prophecies of the “end times.” We have not yet reached the Tribulation, the revelation of the antichrist, or other “end-time” events. What we do see is a “preparation” for those events.



Jesus said that the last days would be preceded by several things: many false Christs would come, deceiving many; we would “hear of wars and rumors of wars”; and there would be an increase in “famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:5-8). Today’s news is full of apostate religions, warfare, and natural disasters. We know that events of the Tribulation will include all that Jesus predicted (Revelation 6:1-8); current events seem to be a build-up for greater trouble ahead.



Paul warned that the last days would bring a marked increase in false teaching. “In the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1). The last days are described as “perilous times” because of the increasingly evil character of man and people who actively “resist the truth” (2 Timothy 3:1-9; also see 2 Thessalonians 2:3). The list of sins in the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-2) seems to fit our modern age exactly.



Can there be any doubt that the prophecies concerning apostasy are being fulfilled?
Our Twenty-first Century world has embraced moral relativism, tainting even the church. For example, many denominations are having a hard time defining marriage as being between one man and one woman, and many religious leaders today are openly supporting homosexuality. The Bible has become subordinate to the modern church’s quest for a more appealing “truth.” These are indeed “perilous times” spiritually.



The formation of the European Union—and the fact that we have a reunified Germany—is very interesting in light of biblical prophecy. The “ten toes” of Daniel 2:42 and the ten-horned beasts of Daniel 7:20 and Revelation 13:1 are references to a “revived” Roman Empire which will hold power before Christ returns. Although the precise political structure has yet to be formed, the pieces seem to be falling into place.



In 1948, Israel was recognized as a sovereign state, and this, too, has ramifications for the student of scripture. God promised Abram that his posterity would have Canaan as “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8), and Ezekiel prophesied a physical and spiritual resuscitation of Israel (Ezekiel 37). Having Israel as a nation in its own land is important in light of end-time prophecy, because of Israel’s prominence in eschatology (Daniel 10:14; 11:41; Revelation 11:8).



The next prophecy to be fulfilled is the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His Church (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

Recommended Resource: Understanding End Times Prophesy by Paul Benware."

 

[cloudy]

A lot of that, Dar, depends on whether you're a christian or not. The Hopi, the Cherokee, and a ton of other tribes have prophecies, as well, but it's not necessarily about the "end" of the world, as it is a huge change.

Here ya go:

There was the cycle of the mineral, the rock. There was the cycle of the plant. And now we are in the cycle of the animal coming to the end of that and beginning the cycle of the human being. When we get into the cycle of the human being, the highest and greatest powers that we have will be released to us.

At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit made an appearance and gathered the peoples of this earth together, and said to the human beings. “I’m going to send you to four directions and over time I’m going to change you to four colors. I’m going to give you some teachings, and you will call these the Original Teachings; when you come back together with each other, you will share these so that you can live and have peace on earth, and a great civilization will come about. During the cycle of time, I’m going to give each of you two stone tablets. When I give you those stone tablets, don’t cast them upon the ground. If any of the sisters and brothers cast their tablets on the ground, not only will human beings have a hard time, but almost the earth itself will die.”

And so He gave each of us a responsibility, and we call that the Guardianship.

To the Indian people, the red people, He gave the Guardianship of the Earth. We are to learn during this cycle of time the teachings of the earth; the plants that grow from the earth; the foods that you can eat, and the herbs that heal. Then, when we came back together with the other sisters and brothers, we could share this knowledge with them. Something good was to happen on the earth.

To the South He gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of the Wind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take that within ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with us at this time.

To the West He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the Water. They were to learn the teachings of the water, which is the chief of the elements, being the most humble and the most powerful. The elders have told me that the black people would bring the teachings of the water.

To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the Fire. If you look at the center of many of the things they do, you will find the fire. They say a light bulb is the white man’s fire. If you look at the center of a car you will find a spark. If you look at the center of the airplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and also moves. This is why it was the white sisters and brothers who began to move upon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family.

And so a long time passed, and the Great Spirit gave each of the four races two stone tablets. Ours are kept at the Hopi Reservation in Arizona at Four Corners Area on Third Mesa. I talked to people from the black race, and their stone tablets are at the foot of Mount Kenya. They are kept by the Kukuyu Tribe. I was at an Indian spiritual gathering about 15 years ago. A medicine man from South Dakota put a beaded medicine wheel in the middle of the gathering. It had the four colors from the four directions; he asked the people, “Where is this from?” They said, “Probably Montana, or South Dakota, maybe Saskatchewan.” He said, “This is from Kenya.” It was beaded just like ours, with the same colors.

The stone tablets of the yellow race of people are kept by the Tibetans. If you went straight through the Hopi Reservation to the other side of the world, you would come out in Tibet. The Tibetan word for sun is the Hopi word for moon, and the Hopi word for sun is the Tibetan word for moon.

The guardians of the traditions of the people of Europe are the Swiss. In Switzerland, they still have a day when each family brings out its mask. They still know the colors of the families, and they still know the symbols, some of them. Each of these four peoples happen to live in the mountains.

Each of the four races went to their directions and learned their teachings. It was in Newsweek not long ago that eight out of ten foods that people eat on the earth are developed here in the western hemisphere because that is our Guardianship -- to learn the teachings of the earth and the things that grow from the earth. We were given a sacred handshake to demonstrate, when we came back together as sisters and brothers, that we still remember the teachings.

It was indicated on the stone tablets that the Hopis had that the first sisters and brothers who would come back to them would come as turtles across the land. They would be human beings, but they would come as turtles. So when the time came close, the Hopis were at a special village to welcome the turtles that would come across the land. They got up in the morning and looked out at the sunrise. They looked out across the desert, and they saw the Spanish conquistadores coming, covered in armor, like turtles across the land. So this was them. So they went out to the Spanish man, and they extended their hand, hoping for the handshake. But into the hand the Spanish man dropped a trinket. And so word spread throughout North America that there was going to be a hard time, that maybe some of the brothers and sisters had forgotten the sacredness of all things and all the human beings were going to suffer for this on the earth.

So tribes began to send people to the mountains to have visions to try to figure out how they could survive. At that time there were 100,000 cities in the Mississippi Valley alone, called the mound civilization: cities built on great mounds. Those mounds are still there. They began to try to learn to live off the land because they knew a hard time was going to come. They began to send people to have visions to see how we could survive this time. They were told in the prophecies that we should try to remind all the people that would come here of the sacredness of all things. If we could do that, then there would be peace on earth. But if we did not do that, if we had not come together as a human family, the Great Spirit would grab the earth with His hand and shake it.

The elders on the west coast prophesied that they would then begin to build a black ribbon. And on this black ribbon there would move a bug. And when you begin to see this bug moving on the land, that was the sign for the First Shaking of the Earth. The First Shaking of the Earth would be so violent that this bug would be shaken off the earth into the air and it would begin to move and fly in the air. And by the end of this shaking this bug will be in the air around the world. Behind it would be a trail of dirt and eventually the whole sky of the entire earth would become dirty from these trails of dirt, and this would cause many diseases that would get more and more complicated. So the bug moving on the land, of course it’s easy to see now. In 1908 the Model-T Ford was mass-produced for the first time. So the elders knew the First Shaking of the Earth was about to come about -- that was the First World War.

In the First World War the airplane came into wide usage for the first time. That was that bug moving into the sky. And so they knew something very important would happen. There would be an attempt to make peace on earth on the west coast of this land, and so the elders began to watch for this. They began to hear that there was going to be a League of Nations in San Francisco, so the elders gathered in Arizona around 1920 or so, and they wrote a letter to Woodrow Wilson. They asked if the Indian people could be included in the League of Nations.

The United States Supreme Court had held that a reservation is a separate and semi-sovereign nation, not a part of the United States but protected by it. This became a concern because people didn’t want the reservations to become more and more separate. They didn’t want them to be considered nations. So they did not write back, and the Native people were left out of the League of Nations so that circle was incomplete. In the League of Nations circle there was a southern door, the yellow people; there was a western door, the black people; there was a northern door, the white people; but the eastern door was not attended. The elders knew that peace would not come on the earth until the circle of humanity is complete, until all the four colors sat in the circle and shared their teachings, then peace would come on earth.

So they knew things would happen. Things would speed up a little it. There would be a cobweb built around the earth, and people would talk across this cobweb. When this talking cobweb, the telephone, was built around the earth, a sign of life would appear in the east, but it would tilt and bring death (the swastika of the Nazis). It would come with the sun. But the sun itself would rise one day, not in the east but in the west (the rising sun of the Japanese Empire). So the elders said, “When you see the sun rising in the east, and you see the sign of life reversed and tilted in the east, you will know that the Great Death is to come upon the earth. Now is when the Great Spirit will grab the earth again in His hand and shake it, and this shaking will be worse than the first.”

So the sign of life reversed and tilted, we call that the Swastika, and the rising sun in the east was the Rising Sun of Japan. These two symbols are carved in stone in Arizona. When the elders saw these two flags, they knew that these were the signs that the earth was to be shaken again.

The worse misuse of the Guardianship of the fire is called the gourd of ashes. They said the gourd of ashes will fall from the air. It will make the people like blades of grass in the prairie fire, and things will not grow for many seasons. The atomic bomb, the gourd of ashes, it was the best-kept secret in the history of the US. The elders wanted to speak about it in 1920.

They would have spoken of it and foretold its coming if they could have entered into the League of Nations. The elders tried to contact President Roosevelt to ask him not to use the gourd of ashes because it would have a great effect on the earth and eventually cause even greater destruction and a the Third Shaking of the Earth, the Third World War.

So they knew after the Second Shaking of the Earth when they saw the gourd of ashes fall from the sky, there would be an attempt to make peace on the other side of this land. And because the peace attempt on the west coast had failed, they would build a special house on the east coast of this Turtle Island, and all the nations and peoples of the earth would come to this house, and it would be called the House of Mica, and it would shine like the mica on the desert shines. So the elders began to see they were building the United Nations made out of glass that reflects like the mica on the desert so they knew this was the House of Mica, and all the peoples of the earth should go to it. So they met and talked about this. They said that in the 1920’s they had written and they had not been responded to, so they said this time we’d better go to the front door of the House of Mica because things might get a lot worse.

So elders representing a number of tribes drove to New York City. When the United Nations opened, they went to the front door of the house of Mica and they said these words, “We represent the indigenous people of North America, and we wish to address the nations of the Earth. We’re going to give you four days to consider whether or not we will be allowed to speak.”

They retreated to one of the Six Nations Reserves in New York State. Four days later they came back, and I believe the nations of the earth heard that the Indians had come to the door. And they voted to let the Indians in. They wanted to hear what they had to say. But the United States is one of five nations of the United Nations with a veto power, and still they were concerned because this time the Native sovereignty was even stronger. And I believe they vetoed the entrance of the Native people.

So then they knew other things would happen on the Earth. So they retreated to the Six Nations Reserve, and they talked about this, and they said the time is really getting close now -- 1949. They said, “We’re going to divide the United States into four sections, and each year we’re going to have a gathering. We’re going to call these the White Roots of Peace Gatherings.” They began to have these around 1950. And they authorized certain people to speak in English for the first time about these prophecies.

One that I used to listen to many times, over and over, was Thomas Banyaca. He was authorized to speak in English about what was on the stone tablets, and he has dedicated his life to doing this. And they began to tell us at these gatherings, “You’re going to see a time in your lifetime when the human beings are going to find the blueprint that makes us.” They call that now DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. They said, “They’re going to cut this blueprint.” They call that now genetic splicing. And they said, “They’re going to make new animals upon the earth, and they’re going to think these are going to help us. And it’s going to seem like they do help us. But maybe the grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to suffer.” The elders said long ago, “They will release these things, and they will use them.” This is going to be released not too long from now. They are making new animals. The elders talked about this. They said, “You will see new animals, and even the old animals will come back, animals that people thought had disappeared. They will find them here and there. They’ll begin to reappear.”

They said, “You’re going to see a time when the eagle will fly its highest in the night, and it will land upon the moon. And at that time, many of the Native people will be sleeping,” which symbolically means they have lost their teachings. We’re at that time now. The Eagle has landed on the moon, 1969. When that spaceship landed, they sent back the message, “The Eagle has landed.” Traditionally, Native people from clear up in the Inuit region have shared with us this prophecy, clear down to the Quechuas in South America.

At this time you’re going to see that things will speed up, that people on the earth will move faster and faster. Grandchildren will not have time for grandparents. Parents will not have time for children. It will seem like time is going faster and faster. The elders advised us that, as things speed up, you yourself should slow down. The faster things go, the slower you go. Because there’s going to come a time when the earth is going to be shaken a third time. The Great Spirit has shaken the earth two times: the First and Second World Wars to remind us that we are a human family, to remind us that we should have greeted each other as brothers and sisters. We had a chance after each shaking to come together in a circle that would have brought peace on earth, but we missed that.

Now they are talking about the sign for the Third Shaking of the Earth. They said they’re going to build what the elders called the house in the sky. In the 1950’s they talked about this: they will build a house and throw it in the sky. When you see people living in the sky on a permanent basis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this time not with one hand, but with both hands. When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is going to shake the Earth a third time, and whoever dropped that gourd of ashes, upon them it is going to drop. They say at that time there will be villages in this land so great that when you stand in the villages you will not be able to see out, and in the prophecies these are called villages of stone, or prairies of stone. And they said the stone will grow up from the ground, and you will not be able to see beyond the village.

At the center of each and every one of these villages will be Native people, and they will walk as hollow shells upon a prairie of stone. They said hollow shells, which means they will have lost any of their traditional understandings; they will be empty within. They said that, after the Eagle lands on the moon, some of these people will begin to leave these prairies of stone and come home and take up some of the old ways and begin to make themselves reborn, because it’s a new day. But many will not. And they said there’s going to come a time when in the morning the sun is going to rise, and this village of stone will be there, and in the evening there would just be steam coming from the ground. They will be as steam. And in the center of many of those villages of stone, when they turn to steam, the Native people will turn to steam also because they never woke up and left the village.

They say there’s going to be the Third Shaking of the Earth. It’s not going to be a good thing to see, but we will survive it. We will survive it. And when we survive it, there’s going to be another attempt to make a circle of the human beings on the earth. And this time the Native people will not have to petition to join but will be invited to enter the circle because they say the attitude toward us will have changed by then. People will let us into the circle, and all the four colors of the four directions will share their wisdom, and there will be a peace on earth. This is coming close.

The prophecies are always either/or. We could have come together way back there in 1565, and we could have had a great civilization, but we didn’t. Always along the path of these prophecies, we could have come together. We still could.

If we could stop the racial and religious disharmony, we would not have to go through this third shaking. The elders say the chance of that is pretty slim. It seems to me like it’s pretty slim, too. But they say what we can do is we can cushion it so it won’t be quite as bad. How do we do this? We do this by sharing the teaching that will reunite us.

 

[Dar~]

A lot of that, Dar, depends on whether you're a christian or not. The Hopi, the Cherokee, and a ton of other tribes have prophecies, as well, but it's not necessarily about the "end" of the world, as it is a huge change.

I don't necessarily believe it, but isn't it fascinating that a book written hundreds of years ago calls for storms and natural disasters in clusters as one of the signs? I wanted to gauge the various responses and beliefs.

Buddhism, hinduism, Islam, and christianity have very simmilar and almost symmetric characters, beliefs, and events. That Native's have simmilar views is no surprise.

Thanks for your response. That is incredibly fascinating. I used to read Nostradamus. I find it amazing that wisdom is passed from one to another this way and yet people can still doubt foretelling.

 

[English Lady]

Dar, it's amazing you started this thread today.

I thought the same this morning.

We've been living in the Last Days since Jesus walked on the Earth, but I definitely feel like this is some serious End of Days Stuff and I am a Christian.

 

[rgraham666]

I hope you're wrong.

According to every religion, except perhaps, Buddhism, I'm going to Hell.

 

[cloudy]

I hope you're wrong.

According to every religion, except perhaps, Buddhism, I'm going to Hell.

Not according to mine, you're not.

 

[rgraham666]

Not according to mine, you're not.

D'oh! I'm such a white man sometimes.

This is true.

Anyway, Revelations was a public relations exercise, to show how Christianity was going to destroy all the other religions extant at the time.

The only thing I take from the Bible is the advice, "This I ask of you, that you love one another as I have loved you."

That's quite enough for me, thanks.

 

[CharleyH]

A lot of that, Dar, depends on whether you're a christian or not.

As the study of ... was it Jason and the Argonauts in National Geographic? Revealed .... there is truth to every myth, Pagan, Native, Christian, Jewish or Hopi et al.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Big storms have been happening since the Solar System formed. Storms happen in clusters because the weather systems of this planet are all inter-connected. These storms are part of a forty-year cycle, that went through its light phase- during most of us' lifetimes- and now is working through its busy period.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/env99/env001.htm
The biggest difference between this particular group of storms and any other is that we are personally affected by them. Several hundred years ago, that hurricane would have killed alligators, hawks, possums, maybe some Indians that lived in the swampland. There was no city- poorly situated in a spot guaranteed to flood- full of pattern-seeking humans who will try to make sense out of any senseless happenings. We have to, you see- it's instinctive.

During the big blackout of a few years back- that blacked out New York and much of the three adjacent states- people went out and waited in Central Park for Jesus to come and pick them up. They told reporters that the power outage was a sign of the Rapture approaching. Of course the engineers knew it was a sign of poor civil planning, under-budgeted infrastructure, and a good gamble that didn't pay off.

We humans consistently mistake discomfort for disaster. And we forget that storms happen. I live in Los Angeles, and do you think I care much about the possibility of an earthquake devastating my city? Sure, if I happen to think about it, but I don't think about it that often...

But I won't be seeing it as a sign of the end days. I will see it as one of a myriad of earthquakes- taking place over more than one hundred thousand years- that have created the particular character of the area I love. One that I was unlucky enough to be in.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't necessarily believe it, but isn't it fascinating that a book written hundreds of years ago calls for storms and natural disasters in clusters as one of the signs? I wanted to gauge the various responses and beliefs.

Buddhism, hinduism, Islam, and christianity have very simmilar and almost symmetric characters, beliefs, and events. That Native's have simmilar views is no surprise.

Thanks for your response. That is incredibly fascinating. I used to read Nostradamus. I find it amazing that wisdom is passed from one to another this way and yet people can still doubt foretelling.

I don't think it's especially surprising that people everywhere think there'll be storms and disasters before the world ends. What would you expect? Picnic weather?

The fact is, we've been waiting for the end of the world for 2005 years (if you're a Christian, longer if you're some other religions) and it hasn't happened yet, and it's not going to happen.

I've read Nostradamus too, and they only way he makes sense is in hindsight, when "The Prince will visit the Golden City" can mean anything you want it to mean: Bush in Jerusalem or Will Smith in Beverly Hills.

 

[Dar~]

Zoot, I don't calim to disagree. I also do identify with Christianity. I don't think God would end the world so soon after having his son die when he let so many die before they had a means of being saved. I just find it interesting that so many religions have surprisingly similar views and predictions involving the apocalypse, yet they are so arguementative about the "true" religion. I truly feel that all religions have the capacity to be the "correct" religion. If indeed there is one. If there isn't a real purpose behind religion, at least it lead some to comfort and peaceful existance.

You are 100% correct about Nostradamus. He is befuddling until after events many times. However, some of them are surprisingly revealing.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

You want to read Jung or Joseph Campbell then about the common threads that run through all myths and religions. Jung believed that some of those themes are hard-wired into our brains. Campbell traced the same themes all up and down the world's different cultures. From Rome to the steppes of Asia to the South American rain forests, the same themes appear again and again.

One of them is the Golden Age that man used to live in. Another is the end of the world. Still another is the Dying God, whose resurrection redeems his followers and promises them eternal life. Christ wasn't the first and he wasn't the last. Wherever people farm, you find the idea of the Dying God. The theme comes from the agricultural cycle and the resurrection of life in the spring,

Yeah, it is cool stuff. I just notice that, whenever these apocalyptics quote scripture about there being false prophets in the end times, they never consider that they may be the ones. It's always the other guy.

 

[Dar~]

You want to read Jung or Joseph Campbell then about the common threads that run through all myths and religions. Jung believed that some of those themes are hard-wired into our brains. Campbell traced the same themes all up and down the world's different cultures. From Rome to the steppes of Asia to the South American rain forests, the same themes appear again and again.

One of them is the Golden Age that man used to live in. Another is the end of the world. Still another is the Dying God, whose resurrection redeems his followers and promises them eternal life. Christ wasn't the first and he wasn't the last. Wherever people farm, you find the idea of the Dying God. The theme comes from the agricultural cycle and the resurrection of life in the spring,

Yeah, it is cool stuff. I just notice that, whenever these apocalyptics quote scripture about there being false prophets in the end times, they never consider that they may be the ones. It's always the other guy.

Do you know any titles, b/c I am fascinated by religions.
That last bit is an incredibly funny yet true sentiment.

 

[The_Darkness]

As far as it goes, without doing some extreme reaching and going "poor me" in these times of disasters and the ilk, as far as I know, we're not to the bowl seals yet and the trumpet archons have yet to bend the world to its knee.

We've not yet seen the false Christ, so far as anyone knows....much as we hate some people, the anti-Christ would have the power of working miracles, or at least falsely performing them.

The rapture won't come for many moons, kids.

What does get me is the number of prophets and psychics (which are just prophets by a different name) who have predicted the world is going to hit some serious shit in 2008, and the fact that the Mayan Calendar runs out in 2012 (Correct me on that one if I'm wrong....i'm sure someone will.)

Enjoy the next 7 years, folks...if more than a few philosophies and religions are correct, it's gonna be a bumpy millenia after that.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Do you know any titles, b/c I am fascinated by religions.
That last bit is an incredibly funny yet true sentiment.

Jung wrote a popularization of his theories in a book called "Man And His Symbols".

Campbell has a book called "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" that's pretty good. His magnum opus is a 4-volume set called "The Masks Of God."

Campbell also had a series of very popular shows on PBS some years ago, and you can probably find those on videotape at the library. I forget the name of the series though.

Another great author who wrote about religious symbols was Vardis Fisher. His "Jesus Came Again" and "My Holy Satan" have a lot about the pagan roots of Christian thought and symbolism. I stumbled across him in high school and he changed my life. He lived alone in the woods of Idaho and wrote in the nude. You know a guy like that has to be good.

 

[Stella_Omega]

.... I just notice that, whenever these apocalyptics quote scripture about there being false prophets in the end times, they never consider that they may be the ones. It's always the other guy.

Heh.. That's what I always say, too!

 

[The_Darkness]

Heh.. That's what I always say, too!

Isn't it like that in everything we do, though? We always come out on top of our own statistics....well, almost always....

 

[English Lady]

The second coming will happen like "A thief in the night" it's unpredictable. I do see the signs,and call me niave, blinded, stupid or whatever, I'll still see them as signs

Theres other things that haven't come true yet either, the worrd of Christ has to reach every tribe and nation of the world and though it's a while since I last heard anything on the worldwide status of missionary work, last I heard we were nowhere near that aim.

We can't predict the future, no one can. People have been seeing the sign of the End of Days since Jesus died. I guess it's just a longing we Christians have to see our Lord come again in all his glory. I guess it's a human, selfish thing really.

He'll turn up on His own time when he so dictates it

 

[thebullet]

As a teenager we had a bible course that studied the Revelation of St John the Divine. It was concluded that basically John was something of a paranoid nut. He was exiled to some stony island and was pissed off about it. So he wrote Revelations explaining how Christianity was going to bring down the Roman Empire. The symbolism was all about Rome. He was afraid if he came right out and said it, Rome might come and execute him or something like that, so he used symbolism. It took modern religious persons to apply modern symbols to the symbolism.

As RGraham said, it was pretty much a public relations piece.

But now it's looked at as if it actually means something. People read whatever the heck they want into it. There are always convenient storms and natural disasters somewhere that can be linked to the prophecy du jur.

On the other hand, I've been a bit of a fatalist in my writing for the last several years due to global warming and the possibility of that warming triggering an Ice Age.

It can be argued that there are men in key positions in our government who actually believe in the coming rapture and therefore see no reason to do such things as conserve the environment or plan for the future, since there is no future.

Is this a great country, or what?

 

[Liar]

Naah.

People always see "the signs" in current events. If we take a step back and review them, how are they different than any other place in history where people saw "the signs", which in restrospect was just some fucked up random ocurrances?

For instance: "Our Twenty-first Century world has embraced moral relativism" says the original post. Haven't every generation bemoaned the downfall of moral absolutism compared to the "good old days"?

I can't see why now is different from the other times the horsemen were supposed to come trotting.

 

[rgraham666]

For instance: "Our Twenty-first Century world has embraced moral relativism" says the original post. Haven't every generation bemoaned the downfall of moral absolutism compared to the "good old days"?

'Moral relativism' is generally code for 'you don't think like us and are evil for doing so'.

And anybody who talks about the 'good old days' is talking through their hat. Do we really want to go back to a world where women and children were property? Where the atmosphere in major metropolis was often literally poisonous due to lack of sewers and no controls on how people disposed of their waste?

Do we want to live in a world with infant mortality rates of the 19th Century? Hell, where we adults have 19th century mortality rates? Or wage rates?

If things are bad now, it's because too many people are looking to return to the past, not travel to the future.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

As a teenager we had a bible course that studied the Revelation of St John the Divine. It was concluded that basically John was something of a paranoid nut. He was exiled to some stony island and was pissed off about it. So he wrote Revelations explaining how Christianity was going to bring down the Roman Empire. The symbolism was all about Rome. He was afraid if he came right out and said it, Rome might come and execute him or something like that, so he used symbolism. It took modern religious persons to apply modern symbols to the symbolism.

Exactly. Most Catholic schollars are of that opinion too, that Revelations was about how Christianity would overthrow Rome. Numerology was very big at the time, in terms of symbology, and 666 was the sign of the Beast - and also the numerologic equivalent to Nero's name.

 

[mismused]

delete

 

[thebullet]

Lauren said:
Exactly. Most Catholic schollars are of that opinion too, that Revelations was about how Christianity would overthrow Rome. Numerology was very big at the time, in terms of symbology, and 666 was the sign of the Beast - and also the numerologic equivalent to Nero's name.

Thanks, Lauren, for reminding me of that.

I find it somewhat amusing while at the same time totally frightening that the rantings of a pissed off paranoid cleric 1800 years ago are believed by some to be the most important writings of the Judeo-Christian era.

What a country!

 

[thebullet]

mismused said:
To help your fascination with something new (unless you already know of it, of course), here'a a book that was written as far back as 1893: "The Witness Of The Stars." which purports that Jesus' coming was predicted by the Zodiac. Yep, the Zodiac. It suggests strongly that the Sphinx "points" the way to unfolding the mystery of it, being the head of a woman, and the body of a lion, and saying it is telling us to begin with Virgo, the Virgin, and end with Leo.

There's lots of books out there with interesting ideas.

There is so much ambiguity in things discovered or retained from the past - so little understanding of what artifacts might mean within their true archeological context - that it is easy to ascribe meanings to things that are totally alien to their originally intended purpose.

I guess I'm saying that while it's fun to read these speculations about meanings ascribed to the writings of Nostradomus or the arrangement of the pyramids of Egypt, or the writings of St John the Divine, or whatever; I recommend that you keep it in the category of 'fun'.

Don't live your life by it At best nothing will come of it; at worst you will be disappointed.

On the other hand, I read Chariots of the Gods, which proved conclusively that the Egyptians and the Incas and the Indians and the Siamese and (filll in the blanks)... all were visited by the same space aliens who taught them how to make pyramids and create landing strips for space ships.

They said it and I believe it.