Apocalypse progressing nicely, Fifth Trumpet

The debate continues about whether the Bible is literally true or symbolically true, in those places where extreme events take place (such as creation in 7 days, which I addressed in another post, and about the "rapture", which I also give my explanation.) Now I'm going to explain how the Fifth Trumpet of the Apocalypse has already sounded and is in action, and how human kind is doing, actually, even more poorly than is seen by St. John. Apocalypse 9:6-11:

And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die and death will flee from them. And in appearance the locusts were like horses made ready for battle; and there were on their heads crowns as it were like gold; and their faces were like the faces of men. And they had hair like the hair of women; and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many horsechariots running to battle. And they had tails like those of scorpions and there were stings in their tails; and they had power to harm mankind for five months. And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon [this is a name indicating a "destroyer" not a literal name], and in the Greek Apollyon; in Latin he has the name Exterminians.

Now, St John did literally see this and literally report it correctly. Remember, however, that St John, a humble man of the country of 2000 years ago, was through God looking into the future and reporting what he was seeing in the words available to him at that time, and with the understanding available to him at that time. This was a time where things people take for granted did not even exist, such as a regular ability to read and write, or travel outside of one's area. Communications was verbal and local.

So St John had no way to understand that what he was seeing was electronic communications and "entertainment." He was seeing TV. He was seeing cartoons. He was seeing videos. He was seeing movies. He was seeing photographs. And he was seeing the pain that the electronic media causes through the air, like locusts. He was seeing a time saturated with mixed sex, animal, and species images, the jumble of images, some real some totally fantasy, that is broadcast everywhere in the world. It has the power to hurt for five months? Sounds like a season of TV to me. There is a king, of course, since that's how a CEO would appear to St John. And he even heard the sound, like "horsechariots", of both static and the immense noise of simultaneous media blaring in the world today.

And for the causes of pain, who has watched anything in the media who has not experienced some pain? Horrible news. Perverted entertainment. Manufactured envy and lusting for goods through commercials. And there is an interesting synchronicity here (a synchronicity means a coincidence that is a mask for some genuine underlying truth.) One name for the TV ruler is APOLLyon. Is it not true that virtually all human activities are now controlled according to "a poll?" From the TV ratings system (which is a poll) to political polls, people are now experiencing the fifth trumpet, and it's going even worse than St John saw.

It's not a coincidence that some researchers are reporting that TV is causing damage to babies' brains. It is not a coincidence that there is totally ADHD in our children. And just as St John saw five months of pain from these "locusts", the implication is also that not viewing destructive TV and other images (such as violence, perversion, and excess fantasy) for five months would bring relief.

When I read the "Left Behind" series, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at how wrong and childishly, and often churlishly, the Apocalypse was treated. They didn't give St John enough credit for actually seeing the truth of what was going on in the future, by insulting his intelligence by having literally little swarms of transformoscorplionolococustybeasties flying around zinging non believers. Good grief. St John was seeing, through God's grace and power, into the future, the real future, not some self serving caricatures that ignore the real demise of society that is taking place through the mundane means that St John so accurately described.