Understanding Revelation/Apocalypse

I really want to blog about Christmas, when I get back into the swing of things, as I've not blogged much, but before I do, here is a quick point. I'm raising this uncheerful topic again because people insist on bringing it up over and over again, yet with less rather than more understanding. I thought of a pithy way to put it in perspective for you, and hope that you will do so and then move on into living good, genuine, faithful and most of all believing in God mindset from here on out.

People have lost touch with something I've discussed before, so I will repeat it. We are far from seeing the Antichrist. We are, however, in the time of false prophets that Jesus spoke of, yet that does not at all mean that the Antichrist is imminent, as he is not. How do we know that? Because the Antichrist will be so terrible that he will make all of the evil humans that lived previously, such as Hitler, Pol Pot, etc look like teddy bears in comparison. His evil will be monstrous beyond current imagination. So do not waste your time further "wondering" if the Antichrist will be soon among you because he is not, nor will he be. With what people know today, no matter how depraved, brain damaged and morally challenged you have become, none of you would fail to recognize the Antichrist within one minute of viewing him.

So why did Jesus say that it will be like "a thief in the night," coming suddenly? The answer is simple. It will be sudden for the people who live during the time of the Antichrist because so many of them will be so depraved themselves that they will not recognize him as being evil. You see, at some point humans will degrade incredibly (even as their technology may continue to increase) as they increasingly surrender their own humanity. Then when he springs up he will seem like a great leader because compared to the filth of most of humanity, he will seem "effective," and "inspiring." That is because he will organize the surrendering of humanity based on the groundwork already laid in day to day degeneration.

Here are two analogies to help you understand what I am explaining. Suppose that a person today, even one of the lowest moral character, total disbelief in God, and lack of interest in charity was time traveled forward to the time of the Antichrist. That person would faint in horror at what the average person would be like and would spot the Antichrist, fear and loathe him in a New York minute. (That's just an expression, not linking NY to the Antichrist). The biggest thug of modern times if moved forward to the future would faint in horror at the sight of average people, and would of course spot the Antichrist immediately, even though few others of that time will do so.

How do I know this? That's kind of a "duh" question by now, is it not, but I want you to learn on your own how to understand the scriptures. The reason I know this and you should be able to deduce that too is that the Antichrist will have what no other human ever had, which is an indwelling of Satan. An indwelling of Satan will take the Antichrist, a human, to a point far, far FAR beyond what any evil madman of a human can or will ever achieve on his own.

But people will not recognize that of the time, and that is why the End of Days (the Apocalypse) will be a "surprise" to them. The people will have already laid the groundwork, unwittingly, for the Antichrist by accepting and adopting horrific life views and practices, ones that are being only sampled today. For example, the creation of false life by combining living humans and animals will be common and even thought to be "progressive." The road to hell is "paved with good intentions" as the saying goes, and the small steps people are taking today, if not stopped immediately, will be pathways from the laboratories into Frankenstein reality, and the Antichrist will take it to its ultimate, which will then trigger the Apocalypse.

My point is not to give you the scripture, which I of course can, to back up all I've written since I'd like to actually think about Christmas right now, thank you very much. But it's hard for me to avoid as even in Sunday school people who ought to know better are still glomming onto the Book of Revelation as if it is "about" to take place, and the news and pulpits are of course filled with it too, most inappropriately. All of that is an excuse to 1) avoid fixing the problems of today as the Bible (and the Qur'an) command otherwise and 2) total lack of understanding that while God and only God determines the Apocalypse he does so in response to the ultimate sinning and falling away of humankind in general. Only a total defeatist would think that humanity is at that point, as much as so much is horrible crap and neglect of human well being now. God triggers the Apocalypse when humans have gone way, way WAY too far, and as rotten and sinful as they are now, it's still a drop in the bucket of what the world will be like when the Antichrist arises from the corrupt soil that human nature will have made for itself.

So stop the crap and false propheting (and false profiting) and get on with the great Commission and spread the word of God, and of the Savior Jesus Christ, with genuine doctrine and understanding, and regain genuine understanding of charity.

The second analogy I want to give to you is the lobster in the slowly warming pot analogy. People who cook the shellfish called lobster know that the theory is that if you put the lobster in a lukewarm pot of water and slowly heat it, the lobster will go numb, fall asleep, become unconscious and then die. This is how disbelief will grow among humans, and how their total decay will take place. They will start out with the familiar and then gradually introduce more and more depravity and disbelief until each addition is not noticed. Each dose of depravity and disbelief will even seem comfortable and "logical." For example, more and more heinous medical "advances" will be made to "cure diseases," until people don't realize that they are creating interspecies humanity busting Frankensteins. Like the lobster they won't know that their humanity is warped, depraved and then dead and dying because each new dose will seem "compassionate," "fair," "logical" and "medical progress." That is just one example and you do not need to look far in the news to see humanity has put itself in the pot and the heat has just turned up a notch of their own doing.

The Antichrist will appear when people are at the second to last stage of this dying depravity, even though they themselves might think they are splendid, wonderful and thriving, since they've become used to the boiling water. That's why the worst thug alive today if forwarded through time to see anyone, even an average person, in that time would be horrified probably totally out of his mind. The people alive at that time won't have a clue what our theoretical thug will be so shocked, disgusted and horrified by, and they will wonder why he would in particular scream and go nuts at the sight of their superb leader, the Antichrist. Even the worst dirtbag lowlife of today who puts porn on the Internet of his or her own son or daughter would be horrified beyond his or her own capacity to endure it by what will be routinely going on the pre-End of Times "society." It is against THAT kind of backdrop that the two witnesses and others will speak up since of course not all will be deluded. There is no comparison at all between then and now except for one thing: humans refuse to understand they have put themselves into that pot and started to warm the water toward their own demise in preparation for the Antichrist in the far future.

When Jesus said to be watchful he did not mean to sit around like dumb stone heads and figure that "it's going to happen anyway." Yes, it is going to happen at some point that only God knows, but how can you ignore the mundane everyday evil, neglect and disbelief that is humanity's own created "plagues" now? You are supposed to care about how many souls of each generation hear the good news, believe and obey God, become saved and join God in eternal life, and not sit around thinking "Oh well, and I'm alright anyway." If you think that then you are NOT "alright."

Here is how to explain it. Remember how Jesus used the parable of the bride's attendants who are supposed to be ready before the wedding when the groom arrives? He points out that some are ready, but others let their wicks extinguish and are not ready. But here's the point: there IS a wedding, there IS joy and a real life. I think that some people today totally miss that Jesus is saying to be ready for collective and real life joy, in addition to the joy of his return. Otherwise the parable would be "And then they canceled the wedding because hey, after all, it was the End of Time and who cared anyway, except for their own assumed salvation?"

Are you the person who has extra oil, but figures not to share it with those who do not have it, simply because "Hey, the world's going to end anyway and 'I'm saved?'" Well, think again because with that attitude you are ignoring not only the great Commission but the example that Jesus Christ gave in the reality of good day to day life with preparedness, yes, but not "checking out" and neglecting life that is far from being ready to be extinguished.

Sheesh, I really wonder sometimes, what are people thinking. Well, unfortunately I know what they are thinking, but I find it hard to relate as to why they think that way and find it desirable to do so. A lot of it is pride and that ever craving for "specialness," where people think they "know" what is "going to happen" and that they are "OK with God," yet all they do is "phone in" their supposed faith instead of living it in a full and real life, one that is not going to be truncated by the Antichrist and his milieu to come.

If you really want to win souls for Christ then you don't want to hasten the depravity and hasten the neglect because that only increases day to day suffering of the innocent, but also loses souls rather than gains them for Christ as people lose hope in daily life as well as eternal life to come. Further, if you are not concerned with winning souls for Christ then you have to be a bit concerned if you really are supposedly "OK with God" after all.

When you die and are given individual judgment in front of God (and Satan will be the accuser, as he will know all the failings) do you think you can say "Well, I didn't care if others were comfortable and cared for in real life, nor did I care if they were saved, because I *knew* that I'd be *raptured* and that the Apocalypse is coming *soon...*" and then you look around and your mental voice trails off because after all, duh, you are there in front of God and obviously you weren't so called raptured and the Apocalypse did not happen, but you died of cancer, a heart attack, drunk driving, or whatever instead. Ooops.

For the love of Pete will you all get a grip and use this blessed Christmas season to think once again about how Jesus showed humanity how to know God, how to love and serve God, how to respectfully fear God, and how to do his will throughout one's ordinary life and in charity to others, and not how to fly in a holding pattern thinking you are "OK" and everyone's "on their own" because "the end is coming anyway?"

Whenever you think about the Antichrist remember that he will have an indwelling of Satan and that can only take place against a normalizing of the most horrific daily life attitudes and "advances" and that even the dimmest thug dim bulb alive today would be faint with horror at the sight of the real Antichrist and/or his cohort humans if he were put forward in time to see them. Like I said, even Hitler would look like a teddy bear compared to the Antichrist, but like the lobster in the pot, not because the Antichrist will outdo Hitler at being Hitler, but because he will have an indwelling of Satan within the context of a totally, totally, TOTALLY fallen humanity who think that is normal life and even admirable. We are only having bitter foretastes of that path today and that is entirely by human choices alone.

I hope this helps, especially you young people (hi my friends) who were raised with much of this error by those who should have known both their faith and their logic/common sense better than what you were given by them.

May I please get on with "Merry Christmas" now? Thank you.

Both God and Jesus have roles in judgement

I've noticed there is some confusion among some people based on the completeness of the authority given to Jesus by God to judge all of humankind. Here is a quick way to help you to understand precisely what God does and intends.

Yes, Jesus has complete authority to judge, which he will do at the Second Coming. The Book of Revelation explains that through the eyes of the Apostle John, who is taken to heaven in vision to see some of what will happen in the final days leading up to the Apocalypse and Christ's Return. God remains on his heavenly throne while the world passes away and Jesus judges all, the living and the dead.

However, until that time comes, people have individual lives and they live and they die. Each person is judged on their death by God himself. How do we know this? Again, turn to what seems to be my most cited scripture, Luke 16, where Jesus describes what happens to a rich man who goes to hell.

"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores...When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames" (Luke 16:19-20, 22-24).

Now, remember that Jesus has a greater point to make in telling this story, this actual event that has happened, so you must read it for both 1) the main point and 2) any other insight one can glean since everything that Jesus said is saying it "as it really is."

Notice that the rich man does not say, "Abraham! HEY! What in the world am I doing in hell? I was a great guy!" The rich man knows exactly why he is there so he does not bother to ask for an explanation, which he already knows (and in fact is gazing on the very reason, his neglect of the poor, suffering and dying Lazarus). This is because God judged that man as he woke up in hell. It's not like there's a kind of courtroom or waiting room where God calls people in and judges each one in a neutral spot in turn. One wakes up from death in the place where one is sent, with the knowledge of God's judgement. Period. The angels escorted the poor man Lazarus, carrying him to heaven. God's judgment was apparent by the fact the angels were taking him to heaven. Likewise God's judgement was apparent and the facts about "why" given into the spiritual heart and mind of the person who ends up in hell. So the first thing that careful reading and trusting that Jesus is precise and truthful and complete in all things reveals is that people die and wake up in either heaven or hell, knowing exactly why they are there, which only God can provide.

The second thing you notice is that Jesus did not say at any point that he, Jesus, was the one who judged Lazarus or the rich man. If that were the case he would have said so, since Jesus' complete ministry is to be open, freely sharing the facts of the Kingdom of God, and he would have told the disciples if he, Jesus, were the one who was already judging each person who died, even before he was alive as Son of Man on earth and before his crucifixion and resurrection. That would have been an extremely important fact to share in the Gospel and Jesus would have done so if that were the case. Indeed, it would have been mind boggling for the disciples to hear that even before Jesus was born to Mary on earth that he was in heaven judging each person who died! So even though Jesus is of course of God and thus eternal, when he speaks of his role of judge and authority to judge whether one goes to heaven or hell he means at the Second Coming.

So when Abraham explains why the rich man cannot have a drop of water, Abraham is not breaking the news to him about why he is in hell, Abraham is explaining the unchangeable rules and conditions, that no aid or comfort will be given to those in hell.

"Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours" (Luke 16:25-6).

Do you see? If Jesus had judged the rich man, Jesus would have told the disciples that "And I told him during judgement exactly how many times he had ridden past the poor bleeding hungry and dying Lazarus while riding on his horse and then I had told him each and every one of his sins and that's why he's in hell." But Jesus did not do that....God himself did that. Another way that you can understand that it was God and not pre-born Jesus doing the judging is that Jesus mentions that angels carried the poor man Lazarus to heaven, and everyone realizes that God sends angels to do his bidding. For example, when Jesus is praying before the betrayal in Gethsemane, God sends an angel to comfort him; Jesus does not summon angels. He could do so but he never did so, as Jesus and God work in harmony in all things. It is in the Second Coming where Jesus sends angels and judges. Until then it is exactly as it has always been, which is that God himself renders personal individual judgment and the sending of a soul to heaven or hell upon that person's death.

So to continue the reading, the rich man now asks for permission to send Lazarus (and can you see that he still does not "get it," I mean, he's in hell for how he neglected Lazarus in the first place and he's still trying to order Lazarus to go on his errands... the road to hell is pride, pride, pride...) to warn his brothers. Again, if you carefully read this you can glean an important insight. The rich man is not so much wanting to share the sins that got him into hell, but, and this is important, he wants to tell his brothers how bad and final the suffering of hell is!

"He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him [Lazarus] to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment'" (Luke 16:27).

See? It is the horror of hell in its actuality that spurs the rich man to want to warn his brothers. It's not a genuine repentance since he is still trying to get the very poor miserable "beneath his notice" Lazarus, even as he's glorified to heaven, to go back to earth and do his bidding! So it's not like the rich man didn't "realize" "why" he was in hell since he wasn't judged until Abraham "explained" it to him: he knew full well all along since the story does not start out with "Hey! What's that poor bum Lazarus doing in heaven while I've found myself in hell? What gives?" He immediately hits up Lazarus, through Abraham, for a drop of water. This is how you can infer from what Jesus relates are the facts that people are transported, waking up to find themselves in either heaven or hell with full understanding of how and why they were judged to go there by God. Jesus tells the disciples this actual portrayal of heaven and hell and two people who go to their judgement respectively to make the broader point about what God expects regarding charity, but also to explain how the reality of heaven and hell "works." This is why Abraham explained not only the "why" of why he would not given the rich man even a drop of water or send warning to living five brothers, but also the mechanism, the physics, of heaven and hell, where the great chasm prevents any crossing in either direction. So Jesus was providing a moral and lesson in the telling of what actually happened in this case of the judgment of two men, but also describing for the disciples, who of course needed to know, how the reality of hell and the divide between heaven and hell "works."

Since that is Jesus' intention, if Jesus were "already" judging individual human beings upon their death, he would have said so. To use the expression "it goes without saying" that the disciples understood that God had simultaneously rendered/conveyed judgment to each person and had them conveyed to their place of eternity, either heaven or, of course, hell.

So yes, Jesus has all authority and he will Judge. But do not fall into the trap of thinking that upon personal death (not the End of Days when all will die and rise again for judgement) that when one dies one goes into kind of a waiting room area where one can argue one's case in front of stereotype "forgiving and easy going" Jesus. One is BANG! in heaven or hell, receiving simultaneously judgement and full knowledge of the why's from God himself. Simultaneous with being conveyed by the angels to heaven Lazarus would have received the light of God praising him for his belief and comforting him for his suffering with reward in heaven. Simultaneous with waking up in hell, the rich man would have received full knowledge of the why's of his condemnation and judging by God, which we know because as Jesus relates, it's not like the rich man was puzzled at seeing that "loser" Lazarus in heaven with Abraham. No dialogue is wasted in him asking why that is, because he wakes in hell fully knowing how and why God judged him. No, he's just shocked at how truly unbearable, unrelievable and eternal that hell actually is. It is that shock of suffering that makes him want to warn his brothers that ignoring that dirtbag Lazarus and other poor losers like him is a bad idea. In other words, by how the dialogue progresses you can see that if hell were in theory not such a bad place, but not heaven, this guy would never have bothered trying to warn his brothers, since he still doesn't "get" how unrighteous and unjust he was to Lazarus through his neglect. He's solely motivated by how dreadful that hell is and how he truly can't order the peasant around to do his bidding like he did on earth.

That's why, to remind you of a few postings ago, pride is the downfall of MANY who go to hell. Pridefulness, especially putting one's self before God's priorities, IS a grievous sin and merits hell, regardless of the other "good deeds" or whatever.

When one decides that Jesus is one's Lord and Savior, it is not so you can show a membership card to Jesus, because he's not the one checking at the door upon death: it's God. This is why Jesus repeatedly explains he is the "way." Jesus is not saying that he is judging people's entry into heaven. Remember when James and John's mother asked Jesus if he would have them sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom? What did Jesus say? He said that was up to God. Jesus promised them to go prepare the places for them in heaven. Jesus did not say that he would be the judge when they die. Jesus is the way in the sense that if one trusts him to not only save but to be LORD over one's life, then one will pass judgement from God. It is at the End of all Days, at the Apocalypse, at the Second Coming, that all who lived and died in all humanity will resurrect and be judged by Jesus. Until that time each individual person's death and rendering of judgement to heaven or hell is in God the Father's hands.

Finally, another way you can understand this is to recall one of the most insightful, but most subtle and unnoticed, of all the writings of St. Paul.

And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).

You see? Here Paul is reminding the readers that the Holy Spirit also partakes in the final judgement! What he is basically saying that if Christians are "All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling...along with all malice" (Ephesians 4:30-31) then these Christians risk losing, by giving sadness and grief to the Holy Spirit, the seal which will get them redeemed. This is powerful and serious stuff, people. Again, this is why I must caution you not to allow a kind of video image of Jesus in the waiting room giving easy judgement upon a person's death to delude you that it's not something that can't be lost. One can accept Jesus as one's Savior but if one does not also follow completely his "way" and indeed, going further, grieves the Holy Spirit, if Jesus is not truly Lord, then one is not prepared to be judged favorably by God, who does the judging based on 1) one's belief and 2) one's righteousness, through the guidance and filter of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Paul is warning good believers of the early Christian community that they can lose the seal of redemption if they grieve the Holy Spirit through the actions as listed above.

Bible reading: Revelation

And I saw that the Lamb had opened the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, "Come!" And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who was sitting on it had a bow, and there was given him a crown, and he went forth as a conquerer to conquer (Apocalypse 6:1-2).


Um, by the way, that is a bow, as in bow and arrows, and not "take a bow" as in that dreadful "Madonna's" song LOL. As the Lamb (Jesus Christ) is sending the first horseman with a bow from heaven, that is a spiritual bow of conquest. It remains to be seen how that is achieved in reality, not in people's cult sociopathic imaginings.

Understanding God: tragedies like Australia

There is a debate because a Pentecostal minister says that he dreamed some time ago that the liberality of abortion in Victoria would bring about a disaster like fire, as God withdraws his support from the people there. Others are upset and angry at such theories and remind people of the continual mercy and consolation that God provides. Both sides accurately cite scripture. So what should people think?

First of all, there is no new revelation, so those who dream that God is directly telling them something (especially of a prophetic nature) must use a great deal of discernment in understanding their dreams and intuitions. Remember that Jesus Christ himself did not know when the Second Coming would occur, for example, so God certainly will not give advance warning to anyone of anything apocalyptic or revelatory in nature: all that is going to be said on those subjects is already said in the scriptures.

Having said that the Holy Spirit works tirelessly among all people-believers and unbelievers-to attract them toward God and at the very least to do the best of moral and good things. Thus it is possible for people to have accurate premonitions. ESP is a fact and I recently wrote about it. So yes, both believers and unbelievers can have premonitions and accurate dreams of foreboding. The trouble is that people tend to dream using authority figures that they believe in, so a religious person will tend to dream of a premonition coming from a religious "authority figure," such as God, that the person believes in. A nonbeliever might have an equally valid premonition, but his or her dream may feature a person from the family, or someone from TV, or a historic figure... the assignment of revelatory seeming roles in dreams tends to be very individual and cultural. For example, Americans, obviously, rarely dream of the Queen of England, however she is a regular figure in dreams of British males, at least she was when I read of a study conducted about twenty years ago. So the Holy Spirit pushes all people to be good neighbors and to do the best that they can, and hopefully to become faithful believers in God, while at the same time, humans possess extra sensory perception, which gives various people remarkable insight in certain occasions.

Now, to the salient point. I've written before about God's wrath, sometimes called smiting, and warned that it is real and God will and does smite, but there are two things you must realize to put this in context. One is that God rarely smites directly and the scriptures indicate this quite clearly. It is only at times of egregious sin and corruption that God smites. One does have to have a little bit of pause and guilty conscience if one is honest, as these are times of great corruption, sin, immorality and turning away from and even mocking of God and desecration. So I would not, if I were you, sit back and think, "Why would God smite us? After all, we are so kind and wonderful." These are not kind and wonderful times, far from it. But no, God does not run around setting fires and doing "tit for tat" smiting.

However, the point the Pentecostal is making, that many deliberately or unconsciously miss, is that God is perfectly capable and frequently does withdraw support and blessing. So God does not smite, but he allows people to stew in their own juices of the consequences of their sin, evil, wickedness, or sins of neglect and omission. This is what is called in the Bible the "hardening of the heart." God can and does harden his heart when people have gone too far, and he also allows the hardening of human hearts to take place, particularly when they have tried and presumed repeatedly on his mercy without genuine reform and repentance.

When God withdraws support and allows the hardening of the heart to take place, very bad things can and do happen. This is because the Holy Spirit will not push as hard for goodness in the spirits of all men and women, and instead God will allow their true natures (which without God is not very nice) to have free rein. You have to understand that God, through the Holy Spirit, and through the guardian angels, does a great deal to make life bearable by constantly appealing to people to withstand the temptation of evil and neglect and to opt for the good whenever a choice is before them. Many people think that God is silent and aloof, but this is not true. Jesus reminded the disciples who would bar the children from coming to him that the guardian angels of all children constantly face God, and thus God is particularly protective of how children are treated. All children and their souls are born good, and are only pulled away from goodness through the actions of adults, their environment, and in some cases mental conditions. So God is very aware and through the Holy Spirit and the guardian angels strives to not only keep people on the righteous path of goodness, but also to help them with the difficulties of life. If God withdrew the support of the guardian angels, for example, life would be unimaginably unbearable, as it would be like a type of oxygen that you don't even know about but you need is suddenly sucked out of the atmosphere. Guardian angels and the Holy Spirit provide a very real constant "oxygen" of spiritual and bodily goodness, and they are individually attentive, whether the person believes or not.

So when God hardens his heart, and then allows others to harden their hearts, what happens? Well, look at the tsunami. God did not send the tsunami, but why is it that people did not install a simple warning system in that part of the world until after a quarter of a million people were washed away and died? People are greedy and selfish and did not care about implementing a warning system in that part of world, even though they knew full well the risk.

Why do I read that Victoria has liberal abortion laws, but for five years have not implemented an emergency fire warning system? Again, God does not send the fire, but he gets very tired of selfish and wicked human priorities, so he says, well, go ahead, set your priorities. And then there comes the fires and the warning system is sitting gathering dust on the shelf for five years, because of quarrels about who will pay for it. Money, money, money.

And people are shocked that many of the fires are suspected arson, and not lightning strikes (which can be monitored and I read that they are). Well, how long has a nihilistic and despairing, violent and yobbish mindset been a problem among humans? For decades now. No one has decency and mercy among each other, if one is to watch the "entertainment" that is offered, filled with violent nihilism, and how long will God protect humans from the consequences of each other's inhumanity? As I commented before, when I was in that region of the world, Melbourne and Healesville, where the fires are, Princess Diana was being raked over the coals as "average people" gleefully trumpeted her sexual and intimate matters in "Squidgygate." People were well on their way to being vulgar, coarse and cruel in the middle 1980's, and youth was being lost to nihilism, violence, addiction and thrill seeking.

God does not have to "smite," God simply needs to withdraw his protection and let you all do to each other the lowest inclination that humans will come up with, which is, as we see, pretty low. Are the arsonists horrified at what they did? Apparently not since some have raced out there and started even more fires.

That is what God meant in the Bible when he says he will "raise up an enemy" to smite the disobedient Israelites, for example. He withdraws his special blessing and protection and leaves a group exposed to the very evil that they have either promoted or neglected to address since they are busy being material idolaters and selfish depressives. God is like the parent of the addicted teenager who after repeated attempts to get them to obtain help, finally stands back and lets them fall, as they are so determined to do.

It is the same if one looks at Hurricane Katrina. No, God did not "send" the hurricane to punish people for their sinfulness. However, God withdrew his protection, and so people who worried about the levees breaking, evacuations not being sufficient, and so forth are ignored, and then the trouble comes, big time. To use a modern phrase, at some point God stands back and watches the human caused or exacerbated "train wreck." The cyclone in Burma is another example. There you have a secretive bunch of reincarnation believing Buddhists in charge of the country and they won't even allow aid to help the devestated impoverished victims. Natural disasters are a part of life, but without human intelligence and goodness to anticipate, plan, finance and be good neighbors, it does not matter what one's "faith" is or not: God will stop, at some point, the continual presumptions on his mercy and the lack of mercy that humans show toward each other.

That is what I see over and over. It is like humans are insisting on doing a dry run of the Apocalypse, through their own arrogance and neglect. Thus people are correct to feel that something is very wrong, and to think about the End of Days. Yet they are incorrect that these are those times because, believe me, there will be no mistaking it when it does happen. It's not something that the human puppeteers behind the scenes will manage or mitigate; when it happens it will be full out and unmistakable. Instead you have a time when humans should be so far advanced in decency, compassion, wisdom, stewardship and faith but are actually losing ground and going backwards, not forwards, in all of these areas. Thus humans are bringing on through their own actions and their own selfishness and neglect mini-tribulations and a dry run of the Apocalypse. Like the parent of the addicted teenager God wants nothing more than to be the consoler, yet what response does he get when he tries?

I hope that you have found this helpful.

Intellectual case study: modern thinking problem

Life could not exist without some expectation of constancy of results. In fact, one could argue that animal and human life is the epitome of achievement of constancy of results. Even the inanimate objects of the universe, such as the stars, require constancy of results to exist, even though they of course have no “expectations” since they are not living, conscious beings. This is very important to understand because moderns have become so disarranged in their thought processes that they need to learn to recognize the meaning of orderliness again.

The universe and life within it does not work according to “rules.” Rules are simply the way that humans express in speech what they have noticed about the constancy of results. The term constancy of results means that similar actions result in similar outcomes and can be repeated with confidence. Gravity is the premiere example of a constancy of result. Gravity is always “on” and everything, whether living or inanimate, experiences the same effect of gravity which is the tendency to move toward the center of the earth. If a child stumbles he or she falls because gravity pulls him or her toward the ground. If a rock breaks from the face of a mountainside, the rock will travel toward the ground, either by falling or rolling until it reaches a point of stability.

How would life exist, or planets even form in the first place, if gravity “worked sometimes” and “did not work other times?” Planets would not exist at all because the material that makes them up could never clump together and stick into a cohesive mass that becomes a stable body of rock and magma. So if there were, just to use this example, a place in the universe where gravity was fickle, and it was “on” sometimes and “not on” other times, a planet or a star could not form there. Obviously the problem would be impossible for humans or other life to exist. Gravity flickering on and off would disrupt all plant life, so that one could not have vegetation grow at all, and thus there would be nothing to eat and no animal life. Shelters could not be built and young animals or human babies could not thrive. In fact, one would have to wonder if the human body could ever have developed as the heart would have had to form a way to pump blood with forces that suddenly change direction as gravity fluctuated. It is thus clear that without the constancy of expectation of gravity that not only would the planets not have developed into solid clumps of matter that hold together, but no life could develop.

The ability of space suited humans to go into space in zero or low gravity conditions does not make the point that gravity is consistent weakened or challenged in any way. In fact it only points out further the constancy of results of gravity, which is that it is present to a greater or lesser degree according to very observable measures of its presence. For example a large planet exerts greater gravity than a smaller one. People can use their powers of observation to learn more about gravity, and when they use a commonly agreed terminology and numerics to describe what they observe they call it “physics” or “rules.” But gravity would “work” and have perfect consistency of results whether humans were around to observe it or not. For example, gravity was obviously “around” before humans were, and we can study how the ancient dinosaurs evolved to cope with the constancy of gravity (such as how did their bodies pump blood to their small heads when they had large bodies? We can observe similar biological adaptation to the absolute constancy of gravity in modern day giraffes).

Therefore, continuing with our example of gravity, a constancy of results, that is, “gravity always works the same way” is essential to 1) the inanimate structures within the universe, such as stars, 2) the biological existence of life forms, both plants and animals, including humans, and 3) the sanity of humans. Humans could not adapt, assuming they would have even come into existence, if, for example, gravity winked on and off every several feet at random places and intervals. It would have been impossible to walk, breathe, eat… any of the actions that require confidence that one’s body has all that it needs to function from moment to moment.

So it’s not like “rules” and supernatural forces “allow” life to exist. Science is the discovery of the facts and how constancy of results explains just about any life or other phenomenon that one experiences or observes. The sun shines and it makes surfaces warm; the sun is hidden and thus surfaces receive less heat. The constancy of results is that stars generate wavelengths that are known as “heat.” Humans can observe and learn how this works, and even invent rules to describe it (the gradations of the thermometer for example). Heat and coolness exist no matter where one goes in the universe because they are part of the basic infrastructure of existence. However, the conditions of coolness or heat, whether it is enough at the right times and places determine if life can arise in those locations. In other words, you may take a thermometer out into the middle of space and it can tell you how absolute cold it is and you know that without protection of a space suit it is “too cold” for a human to exist. That is because it is not that the painted number on the dial of the thermometer has “magic power” and only when it gives the “magic number” is it “OK” to live. The thermometer works because it is a human tool for measuring the constancy of results, which is that the principles of heat and cold are the same everywhere. If you rubbed out the number on the thermometer that said it is like a thousand degrees below zero or something like that and painted on a different number, that it is a nice 80 degrees Fahrenheit, you better not step out of that space suit expecting it to now be warm enough just because you painted different numbers on the thermometer!

The principle of the constancy of results is the origin of the old saying that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” Obviously that is not the definition of insanity, but a pithy old folk saying to describe that there are certain constancies of results that allow life to exist and that it is crazy to expect otherwise.

Suppose that you have a slippery spot in the lobby of your office building and every once in a while someone slips and falls. Sane people recognize that this is a risk that the building management is either willing to live with (and possibly get sued by an injured visitor) or not risk, and therefore they fix that problem spot. There is a whole slew of constancy of results principles at work in that example. First we hat tip our old friend gravity, since gravity both allows walking to even occur, but is also the mechanism by which people fall. Gravity is working just fine, the way it always does, whether you are passing over the slippery spot or not. Second the whole idea of a slippery spot refers to constancy of materials, which is that certain molecular structures allow more or less impeded movement of another surface over them. This is why marble floors that become wet can become very slippery, because there is a constancy of results that water molecules easily insert themselves, clinging to the surface, and then the sole of your shoe, made of other materials such as leather, can more easily glide over the marble and hence perhaps slip. Scientists know why people slip and fall (and it’s not because ghosts push them).

If one starts to believe that one lives in a world where both material science and human behavior are not the result of constancy of results, one rapidly loses perspective and sanity. For example, if building managers in NYC did not recognize that it is a good idea to put mats in the lobby when it is raining or snowing outside so that their lobbies are not so slippery, then we would have a building management and safety problem, one that can be remediated by education and investment. If, however, people start to think that there is no connection between the marble floor, the rain outside, the soles of people’s shoes and their slipping, but instead think that the people “were meant to fall” because “it was their unlucky day,” then we have a real sanity problem.

When humans progress in science they do very well for themselves except for two problems. One is the lapse between science and technology development and morals or ethics, which is something all humans have had to grapple with. The other problem is the perversity of humans which is an almost paranoid self destruction instinct that comes with becoming grandiose. This can be summarized like this: as people learn more science, they start to think that “not” science becomes “more glamorous.” Humans have always been troubled by what psychologists call in certain patients “oppositional defiance disorder.” Humans just want to say “no” all the time because they feel it gives them power. Saying “no” becomes just about the favorite word of many children when they reach the “terrible twos.” A child will say “no” to doing even something he or she wants to do, just to stick it to mommy or daddy. That’s normal and fine and this is how children learn choices and boundaries. However we all know defiant children, teenagers and adults who are defiant to the point of self harm and harm of others. Well, I am using that mental health diagnosis as a parallel to explain to you one of the problems of modern thinking (and faith), which is why I am writing this particular essay.

The Bible explains this in terms of God, where there is the great temptation to say “no” to God, even when it is for one’s own good. Lucifer, the fallen angel, is the obvious example. Well, the desire to say “no” is part of human nature, and a good one when it is part of, as mentioned above, normal childhood and adult development. But there is a very strange and disturbing modern affectation of wanting to say no to mundane, prosaic scientific facts just so that one can indulge in paranoid or self inflating “searches” for the “real” reasons. As recently as fifty years ago humans were eager to learn the scientific facts and principles of constancy and thus engineering and other scientific activities flourished. The motivation of science was not just curiosity but more important to discover ways to improve human life and survivability. However, many modern humans have lost interest in science and reality since they don’t worry about where their next supper comes from. With prosperity has come a lessening of interest in science and reality and it is replaced with 1) an almost entertainment perspective rather than one that is fact finding and 2) research that is agenda driven and niche oriented.

Let’s use the gravity example and I’m going to be a little bit silly with it, but just so you can see the thought process I am describing to you. An entertainment oriented modern might think, “Well, so there is something called ‘gravity.’ But no one can yet describe how it actually works. What if aliens have put invisible Velcro hooks on the bottom of the shoes of the people they like, and that is why gravity works really well on earth?” Scientists used to (and hopefully some still do) “peel the onion” of research, which is to use logic based on facts and sound, defensible observations and suppositions to posit theories and hopefully prove them or not in a step by step basis. So I hope that those scientists who are working to better understand gravity, for example, are still doing so using the scientific method and sound logic that builds upon real facts and discoveries. The problem is that many of the funders of “research” and the consumers of research (corporations, governments and the public) have a lot of that loony “entertainment” thought process, where without any genuine logic or education they have an almost “let’s slap a theory against the wall and see if it sticks because this is fun and crazy” approach. Reality is boring and science is boring because improving human survivability and making genuine advances in humanitarian projects is boring. For example, no one seems to care about affordable latrines and toilets for the billion or so people who don’t have them (and thus there is an environmental crisis of extreme importance) but scads of people want to be the first to give poor children a laptop. Science used to be pursued because it was urgent, important and humanitarian, not because someone got their kicks from it. So you see a crisis in, for example, students majoring in entymology (insects) and plant diseases in the area of food production (read about that crisis of talent in California, for example) but thousands of students want to use computer graphics to design bug shaped alien invaders for the entertainment industry.

When I was growing up one of the favorite wished for toys of children was a microscope. I grew up among the generation of children who all wanted to learn about science and how to save the world. The green movement is an example of where that has gone dreadfully wrong. I’ve written about that before where a genuine science, the conservation of natural resources, has been pre-empted by a very anti-human and anti-life New Age ethos that is illogical and counterproductive in both the long and short run, since it is not based on science tempered with morality. It is based on entertainment and fear tempered by a presumption of ethos.

That leads me quite neatly into the second example, which is agenda driven research. We all know that virtually all research is now funded by people pushing either their commercial product or their personal societal agendas. Research in pharmaceutical drugs and food items has been funded by those who seek to benefit from “good results.” There is nothing wrong with that except when it gets to the point it has today which is that funding of research for the greater good has dried up since the money is directed toward the niches and the more obvious problem of increasingly meaningless individual research projects since each one is funded for one product or purpose and thus is out of context. We see this constantly with the “magic food” research, which hopes to identify those foods that are “best” at some “purpose” such as “fighting cancer.” Ironically the society that claims to be so “holistic” is anything but holistic as it single mindedly pursues one after the other of isolated agenda driven projects and purposes. No one notices the inconsistencies. For example, many people promote, wisely, an “eat your locally grown food” perspective, arguing that it is most natural to eat the types of natural foods that are fresh and common to your area. Yet another group then studies some Amazonian berry for its almost “magic” qualities and pushes it around the world for both nutrition and weight loss. How does that jibe? Do you believe that you should eat what is abundant, fresh and natural in your area? Or do you create an artificial diet that is constructed of the “best” “wonder foods?”

The problem is that humans have forgotten that science and reality are about day to day life. They have developed agenda driven isolationist (regarding the human body) viewpoints that just are erroneous and unsatisfactory from both a nutritional, for example, and a spiritual context. I am almost speechless when I read the anti-meat cow belching and farting global warming “threat” on one hand, but then a total lack of understanding the role that eating meat has had in the survivability and thriving of the human species on the other. I am constantly astounded at the “instant experts” who know nothing about the fields from whose realities they freely draw and distort. Modern humans have fallen into a crisis of compartmentalization.

It is one thing to be a specialist, where one selects, for example, one field of medicine for one’s specialty. However, being a compartmentalizer is something else. A compartmentalizer thinks that he or she is being holistic but is in fact being the opposite of holistic. A compartmentalizer tries to form theories and “realities” about one “thing” at a time. They visualize it as being “above” (hence the holistic delusion) “previous” and “old fashioned” thinking. I saw one of the first warning signs of it with the popularity of “thinking out of the box” riddles and puzzles. The implication is that one solves the riddle or puzzle only by thinking of something really “liberating” that one has “not thought of before.” I had a former intimate friend who loved these riddles and I could not solve a single one of them. Why? A good riddle or joke relies on genuine facts and reality but with a twist. “Out of the box” or “lateral thinking” relies on alternate realities to make their point that one just would not think of logically. Thus logic and facts are made to be seen as insufficient, limiting and inferior, and a truly “open mind” would not be “bound” by “the box” of “old fashioned thinking and assumptions.”

A specialist used to become a very well educated generalist first, who then studies further their specialty and adds that knowledge onto their firm general foundation. A medical specialist, for example, would be first a good general doctor and then gain education and internship in his or her practice. While that may be still the process today the mindset is no longer as systematic. Thus I met around twenty years ago a “female gynecologist” (that holy grail for women self conscious around men) who did not know that a doctor must use a tongue depressor in order to look at a sore throat. (Makes me wonder to this day if she was ever a patient herself, because even lay people know that the muscles force the tongue upward and the doctor must use a depressor to push the tongue down and see the throat and tonsils). To this day I am astonished that a Park Avenue gynecologist was angry at me (yelling that I should “keep my tongue down” when she tried to look at my sore throat and yes, I had to use my finger as a tongue depressor). Even specialists are at risk of modern thinking and lack of education rendering them to be less effective and often erroneous.

Compartmentalizers are even worse than the weakened specialists, however, since they do not attempt to gain the grounding education and experience in the areas in which they pontificate. Sometimes it does done innocently due to the slippery slope of expertise. Thus you have people with degrees in meteorology (the weather) think they are qualified to comment on global climate change. They genuinely do not realize that they need much more education and information from other fields such as paleontology and geology (to better understand the climate of the earth's historic epochs). Modern people are not humble enough to recognize when they have stepped outside of their specialized areas of expertise (and how limited even those may be). But more to the point are those who deliberately present themselves as experts in a modern so called "enlightened" sense. They have come to believe that traditional education and the scientific method of proof, logic and deduction are “unnecessary” and “limiting.” One of the reasons they are so led astray by themselves and each other is that they do not understand the constancy of results.

When compartmentalizers see the “same thing” “happen” twice in row, for example, they believe they have “discovered” a “connection,” rather than recognize that they are part of a sane, normal and ordered world where similar activities yield similar results. For example if someone painted a painting today that looks a lot like one painted by someone five hundred years ago, the modern deluded will wonder if they were “reincarnated” from the previous painter or one of the painters cohorts. I am only slightly exaggerating. Sane humans used to realize that all people are alike, generation after generation, and that given canvas and paint some will paint landscapes, some will paint still life settings, and there will always be people who are inspired by and attracted to the same things using the same techniques. I mean, duh. But a compartmentalizer takes an event totally out of the human context and immediately inflates its own importance (and his or her “power of observation”) to incredible degrees. I've noticed that an astonishing number of people look for some "connections" between the most ordinary of repeatable events, such as two people having the same taste in art, food, books, decor, etc. If two people in a row walk into a magazine shop and buy the same magazine, I swear some people will think that it is an "alien message," a "sign from a deceased loved one" or "a past life experience." It would never occur to them that maybe the first person walked down the street with the magazine visible, and the second person sees it and thinks, "How interesting that cover story looks, I will buy one too." It's called free advertising. Or a plethora of other reasons (a class was just dismissed where that magazine was discussed, or people heard about it on a news show, etc) but usually it is just one of those things: people buy magazines and sometimes people with the same taste walk into a store one after the other. I mean, duh.

I’ve written about this before under my “debunking cults” label, especially in relationship to numbers. I mean, there are only ten digits and there are an infinite number of things that can be measured or counted, yet day after day a large segment of people drive themselves and everyone else crazy over “matching numbers.” I don’t even want to go into the whole astrology and numerology nightmare anymore, as I’ve already written all I have to say on the subject and what a mess it has become. But these are the classic examples of people no longer understanding the constancy of results in a real and factual world and compartmentalizing two events or pieces of information and forcing an “out of the box” connection.

That’s what I meant with my “maybe gravity is caused by aliens putting invisible Velcro on the soles of the shoes of people they like” example. Rather that just plodding along in science discoveries and research, building upon and revising as necessary the theories of before and the established body of facts, compartmentalizers see the universe as a jumble of individual things that are connected in ways that must be contrary to the mainstream belief and reality. Yes, smoking marijuana has been a great factor in this development. The generation that views weed as a creativity enhancer and relaxant did not recognize that by definition weed is also a disconnection from reality. One does not have to ingest weed to be part of the weed mindset, by the way. Even if you yourself do not smoke weed, if you “recognize” that it “enhances creativity” and “relaxes” other people, you are buying into a mindset that is less based on facts and reality within a genuine holistic context and instead, one that is more based on compartmentalizing.

A reality based scientist, for example, would in reply to the creativity claim reply with a dozen ways other than weed to develop one’s creativity. Compartmentalizers buy into the first or second thing that they hear without examining alternatives in a reality based context. A reality based scientist would also reply to the relaxation claim with wise advice to examine the causes of the stress and deal with them rather than trying to mask and cope with weed. Again a compartmentalizer immediately assumes, without even realizing it, that if the weed user says that he or she must use it to relax that their stressful condition and lack of better options is a given.

Lawyers too used to have much in common with fact and reality based scientists, and they also used to have a great appreciation for the constancy of results. However many lawyers are also compartmentalizers for a practical reason “they immediately focus on a tactic that works” and the more unsavory one that we’ve been discussing, stemming from them thinking they are social engineers and “agents of change.” The grandiose thinking of many lawyers is a temptation toward that compartmentalizing that I’ve described, where they have become less wise students of human nature and more enchanted with “noticing two things in a row that must be connected in some metaphysical or social justice way.”

What is frustrating is that once compartmentalized and grandiose thinking takes over it is very hard to make someone aware of it and eradicate it even with proof. For example, suppose a lawyer gets two cases in a row that makes him or her tingle with the thought that these cases “came to him” due to a “greater purpose and truth” and that it has numinous meaning. Suppose I went into a library and found a book written by a lawyer five hundred years ago who had the same types of cases come to him, and he just recorded them and what he did and thought nothing else of it. I would point out that documentation to the modern compartmentalizing lawyer and say, “See, there is nothing strange about the two cases you got, because Giovanni here had a similar set of cases five hundred years ago.” Stuff just happens in human history that is due to constancies of results, in this case, people tend to get in trouble and litigate over the same old issues generation after generation. So against the backdrop of the constancy of human behavior over centuries, even if two really strange cases in a row popped up, looking at the holistic totality of litigation in human history, that would not be so unusual at all. Probably every lawyer in history would have an example in his or her career of two weird similar cases in a row being handled. However, with the mindset I am complaining about and exposing here, even with this proof the odds are that the modern compartmentalizing lawyer, rather than allow him or her self to be deflated back to reality would then claim that he or she is the reincarnated Giovanni, LOL. Not really LOL because it’s scary and not funny.

Those of us of a certain age knew what women through the centuries have known, which is that fads and taste skip a generation. Thus grandchildren tend to have tastes in fashion and décor like their grandmothers, while the mothers would be disapproving. We saw that with some in the hippy generation, where when they had children some of their children wanted more of the tradition of the grandmothers. Nowadays if a child has the same interests as their grandmother, rather than realizing this is the constancy of results, some moderns say “the child is mawmaw reincarnated” or is “channeling granny.” I wish I was joking.

Moderns have parsed and compartmentalized every event and behavior by every person (and even animals), magnifying every minutiae independent of its context. These type of people have become some sort of strange combination of a blender set on “dice” (chopping up everything into small pieces) and “jigsaw puzzle assembler” where they then ignore all previous established realities and look for the “real connections” between the diced pieces of what people are, what they say and what they do. They have driven themselves crazy and also much of society and commerce around them. They would throw TNT around in a public theater and yet tell you if you objected to chill out and not worry because TNT is not really an explosive because “Mars is in an astrology sign that doesn’t favor explosions right now” or that TNT is the number “nine” in “numerology” and therefore nine sounds like the German for no which is “nein” and therefore it is not going to explode. I wish I was joking but I am not. If it did explode and kill a baby they would tell you that the baby must have had their natal Mars in a “bad position.”

What is really scary is that this thinking infects engineering projects and other things that desperately rely on reality and facts based on a sound education and honest use of high quality materials, not on imaginary compartmentalized pseudo-relationships.

The worst that has happened is when like a cyborg these compartmentalized “thinkers” meld their crazy pseudo-relationship seeking to Holy Scriptures. Holy Scripture cannot be understood by compartmentalists. Holy Scripture is meant to be about the holistic constancy human life (both their virtues and their sins) through the ages, since that is what the Bible, specifically, and the Qur’an records. Real people had real babies, grew real crops, fought real wars, had real conversations with God’s messengers, and faced the same problems (and potential results) and sinned the same ways generation after generation. Thus when God gave the Law to the Israelites, even though God gave the Law to them, the human behavior that is referenced is the same constancy of human reality that is everywhere, among all cultures and individuals. This is why the Bible, as every scholar realizes along with all the thoughtful laity, always has two messages in parallel: what happened then and how to apply that to future generations. Thus one can read about a one and only event in the Bible, yet see how it can apply and guide to similar circumstances in the present, remaining fruitful and meaningful for each generation.

Compartmentalizers read parts of the Bible and then look for “the same thing to happen again” and then apply their crazy pseudo-relationship glue to derive some insane “out of the box” linkage in hidden meaning. They don’t recognize that the Bible and the Qur’an (together with the rest of the history of Islam) records natural life events within the steady background of generation after generation of life where there is continual constancy of results. A huge stumbling block for them is their lack of understanding that the Bible records one and only events, but it is meant to be relevant to the continuum of human experience.

I mean, it’s not like the results of a battle, for example, are much different in one century than the next. Oh wait, there’s that one battle where after it was fought gravity suddenly turned off and the aliens applied Velcro hooks to the soles of the losers feet because they felt sorry for them and the bodies might float away while the gravity is off. I wish I was joking about the extent of the lunacy, but I’m not, and if anything I’m understating its insidiousness, its error, its danger, and the great toll it has taken to date on everyone. But let's look at a battle for example. The Bible may record a battle that takes place where God favors one side and that side wins. Someone who uses the Bible properly will try to discern from that example several things 1) why God favored one group over the other 2) guidance about morality or wisdom in the context of the battle event and its aftermath and 3) recognition that conflict is part of the human condition. Thus if nothing else one understands that conflict and its suffering is not new upon any generation, but part of the panoply of the human condition. Compartmentalizers, however, "look" for the battle to "happen again" by expecting repeating and replicable "signs" such as names, numbers, places and so forth. With their slice and dice compartmentalizing they view the Bible as being a bunch of clues, cues and signs about "what will happen next."

For example, far too many people try to take a bad event that happens today and compare it to an event described in Biblical prophecy, such as the Apocalypse, and say, "Is that event or is it not one of the signs of the end?" But here is what they forget. The end is comprised of the same old dreadful human events that have always happened, except when it is really the end there will be no way out and the destruction of the world and the Second Coming will take place. So the error in logic is that people don't realize that many of the events described as tribulations may take place without it being the actual Second Coming and end of days yet. For example, how do people not know that maybe there is a dreadful fulfillment of one of the tribulations in that such an event occurs, but it is not the one that is part of the tribulation itself? The earth might suffer several earthquakes and catastrophes that look like they are the ones described in Revelation, but are simply forerunners. The Bible is not a textbook listing every time that an earthquake or some other disaster might destroy one third of the world's population. So it is not unrealistic to understand that humanity might undergo at their own hands one disaster after the other, seeming to follow the order described in Revelation, yet it is not the actual Apocalypse yet at all.

More to the point, it is entirely possible that God will warn (and is now warning humans) by taking them through their own self inflicated mini versions of the tribulations. The more people war and hate monger for occult reasons the more likely that they will bring down upon themselves continual implications of their presumption, which will be like preliminary seals being broken. History repeats itself because of the constancy of results; humans behave the same way and life has the same continuing risks and also humanity's doubting and ungrateful relationship to God also repeats itself. Thus in modern times, just as in Biblical times, living in a world where there is much goodness, but there is also much need for grace and good behavior, while in a life that is limited and does have perils, it is not a good idea to stick a thumb in God's eye when God is needed more, not less, than ever. That is reality and that is constancy, not the linking together of goofy delusions based on some sort of version of Hollywood Squares.

This is the only generation, these past two, who cannot understand that reality really is exactly as it appears. As former President Bill Clinton said, “It depends on what ‘is’ is.” Only these past two generations have trouble discerning day to day reality that is all around them and that they are part of. That is because, to use that analogy again, they have abandoned real life and used a dicing machine to make little square blocks of everything a human being says, does or even “is.” It is terrifying, not because it scares me personally (disgust and immense pain is more accurate to say), but because I am terrified for the survivability, sanity, ruination and damnation of every man, woman and child.

This generation thinks that if they check the fire extinguisher on one side of the world that they don’t need to check the fire extinguisher on the other side of the world because it all “balances out.”

Satan loved the "Left Behind" series, but...

... here's the problem when Satan is your fan (to say nothing of when he whispers in your ear when you are writing).

Bible readers know that Satan is intellectual and well versed, since he even quotes by memory from the scripture. Believers also know that one of Satan's main "jobs," in his eyes, is to raise and encourage false prophets (puffed up false spiritual pride is one of his best TOOLS).

Well, the "Left Behind" series was just his cup of tea. For those of you who, fortunately, have not read it, the basic premise is that Protestant "dispensationalists" believe they know what God "really" is prophesying in the Bible, and so only they will be "saved" in the "Rapture." Not only are Muslims s*** out of luck (doomed) but so are Catholics, and the Pope even becomes the busy little Antichrist helper.

Many behind the scenes supporters of President Bush are BIG "Left Behind" fans by the way. Think about that and Iraq (site of the Antichrist according to "Left Behind.")

Well, here's a juicy one.

The opening premise of "Left Behind" (written over ten years ago) is that Israel discovers some great formula for agricultural prosperity, which everyone wants, especially that bad old Russia. Russia sneak attacks Israel using their mighty jet bombers, but LO AND BEHOLD, since God is "prophesied" to "protect Israel" "against Russia" (according to their "understanding" of "scripture), God actually intervenes and burns those bad planes (and pilots) with no loss of life in Israel, except those Rooskies who deserve it (Orthodox Christians aren't raptured either, apparently). This is the "sign" of the coming "tribulation."

Well, not so much. Satan loves to tempt the false prophets, but then give them "just what they were asking for." Enjoy. Meanwhile, the sane of us offer prayers to all who died and are suffering in this crash.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728229459&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

snip

Eyewitnesses on Wednesday appeared to back reports that a race between two tour bus drivers was to blame for one of the buses tumbling into a ravine near Eilat the previous day, killing 25 Russian travel agents.

snip

Two planes carrying medical staff and relatives of the Russian casualties arrived in Israel from Russia on Wednesday. Defense officials said an IAF plane would fly the dead and wounded back to Russia.
Twenty-four people died Tuesday when the bus carrying Russian travel agents overturned and rolled into a ravine near Eilat. Dozens more were injured. It was the deadliest traffic accident in the nation's history.
Earlier tolls put the number of dead at 25 and 26, but the Russian embassy said Wednesday the final number was 24.

Well, so the first wave of planes, the Russian travel agents, sure crashed and burned, but it wasn't because of God. Took maniac bus driver(s) to do that.

Now the second wave of planes from Russia just brings doctors and grieving relatives.

And only Satan is laughing. And Israel, who takes money from dispensationalists, now has on the "record book" their deadliest traffic accident in the nation's history.

God expects humans to work for the best

I'm interrupting my late evening dinner (pasta with fresh tomatoes and cheese) because I just remembered something I wanted to point out to those who often worry and ponder about the End of Times.

Remember what happened when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and found himself in Egypt under the Pharaoh. Joseph became elevated due to the Pharaoh recognizing that Joseph received authentic dream interpretation charism directly from God. Most notably Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh to know that seven years of famine will afflict the entire region and that it cannot be survived unless it is prepared for years in advance. Joseph was put in charge and saved the people of the region by putting aside the surplus of the food that was grown each year so that they had enough stored to take them through the seven years of famine. They saved not only themselves in Egypt but also the Israelites who were starved out of their land and sought food in Egypt.

Here is the interesting point that I'm not sure people have properly pondered. The Egyptians were notorious unbelievers. They not only were pagans, believing in multiple gods and idols, but they had an elaborate death cult. Yet two curious things happened. One is that the Pharaoh believed in the message of the one God without converting or being a believer himself. Thus the Pharaoh trusted Joseph and acknowledged God, turning the welfare of the kingdom into his hands, yet God did not choose to force Pharaoh to be a believer or, to put it another way, Pharaoh served God's purpose as he was, where faith in the God of Joseph was enough. A very targeted and narrow commonality of faith was sufficient to please God and bind them in purpose.

The second point is related to the first. Notice that God did not take that opportunity to have Joseph say, "Well, I will tell you what the dream means and what to do only if all Egyptians renounce pagan gods and their cult of death and accept worship of only Yahweh." Why do you think that is? Why would God not "demonstrate his power" and force very superstitious and culture of death prone (even Apocalyptic) mindset people into knowing him and acknowledging him as the one and only God? Remember, this is before Moses and so the Exodus, the theophany, and the Law giving by God had not yet happened, yet God had a clear identity that he could have used the famine to force upon the Egyptians.

There is one answer that can be viewed from a multiple of facets. The one answer is that God gave humans free will, a free choice to believe, love, know and obey him, and God has never reneged on that gift, even when it seems that imposing his will would have been for the betterment of those who lost for that time their freedom of choice. That is the whole point of free will as God's gift to humans, despite how often they use that gift to throw it back into God's face, so to speak.

And so God expected those to whom he revealed the truth of the impending famine to work together without being forced into common faith first, even though the pagan beliefs of the Pharaoh were repugnant. God permitted Pharaoh to have a dream, and gave Pharaoh enough kingly concern for the welfare of his people that the dream troubled him enough to seek the correct interpretation and what warning it contained. Joseph in his demeanor and humility set the example of how pious men and women draw other men and women to God without force, threats, terror or disaster. Imagine the leap of faith that all the people had in order to follow Joseph's instructions to conserve food for years and how things must have seemed very odd and even frightening, yet they all followed Joseph, at Pharaoh's orders. Pious and earnest believers set a continual example without drama, without force, and that is ultimately in emulation of God's true way.

Even much later when God had to send afflictions in order to force the Pharaoh in the time of Moses to release the Israelites from slavery God did not use the force of Armageddon type of terror that he well could have. As bad as each plague was, God never terrorized the people so that they believed that they were in the End of Times where their very country and all the people would be destroyed. Each plague was dreadful, but God, again, did not force people to believe in him, to fall and abase before him, to be terrorized that all will end. God continues to give people their gift of freedom of choice and discernment, even when they continually make the wrong choice.

Too many fundamentalists of various extremes, notably Christians that are not Catholic or Orthodox, openly expect God to terrorize countries or the entire planet as expression of wrath, impatience with sin, and to herald the "Second Coming." As a result these humans with that erroneous mindset are willing to "throw in the towel" at each and every hardship that humans face, thinking these are opening salvos in the times of tribulation and wrath of God before the final judgment. But sheesh, calm down and read the Bible, will you? Is it God's style to just rain terror upon a people, when he did not even do that with the Egyptians who had purchased Joseph in slavery? Instead, God gifted Pharaoh with a dream and the wisdom to seek out Joseph and listen to him. Even later God applied only the pressure in the plagues that people needed in order to finally make the right decision on their own. So why would the troubling times that humans are in now make people only focus on darkly hoping that God is "smiting" (or getting ready to smite in overture for the final judgment?) And of course I am not speaking of those of you who have engaged in occult practices, who have guilty consciences that you now see God brings right back at you the consequences of your occult beliefs and activities. (I'll bet that smiting has finally dawned on you as a possibility, but on a personal scale, not on the worldly context.) No, I wonder why so many Christians for the past twenty years have sat on their hands instead of helping to work in companionship for the best outcome of all human problems. I've mentioned before how dismayed I am at the suffering that has been secretly egged on by those who actually "want" the Apocalypse, particularly in the Middle East. This is exactly why Jesus warned that there will be many false prophets.

Some who anticipate the Mahdi predict that first there will be sixty false prophets claiming to be him. Gosh, can we count Christian false prophets too? We must surely have had six hundred false prophets at least in the past several decades, ugh.

My point is that if you read and comprehend the Bible (I'm addressing these cultists and extreme fundamentalist, dispensationalist Christians) you will observe that God expects humans to work together for the common good right up until the end, and not withholding good will because you somehow have decided that "it's time." Even Jesus did not claim to know the time and trust me, you'll know with absolutely no uncertainty when it is actually arriving. So I hope that this is helpful and once again, read the Bible and stop imposing depressive wishes and delusions onto the clean and truthful prophecy of God. If you understand God and truly follow Jesus, you know that it is mutual good will and charity that is expected until people "drop in their places in mid stride" (just a colorful image, ex-Biblical *wink*) at the Second Coming.

Understanding God: why "the end" is not near

Regular readers know that I am constantly trying to "detox" people from Apocalyptic, dispensationalist and "rapture" obsession and misunderstandings. I hope I am not being too optimistic but I do think I see people cooling off on their wild and erroneous beliefs and worse, "hoping for the end of times." So it's time for another detox and educational session!

After giving this much thought I've noticed that one reason there is such willful misunderstanding on these subjects and also well meaning misunderstanding of scripture is that some people have not been discerning enough in understanding the difference between what the Apostles discussed with Jesus Christ and what God's ultimate knowledge and will is regarding "his plan" for humanity.

Now, here is how to regain some of this nuance and discernment. Jesus came as Messiah and Savior with two natures, divine and human. So while Jesus brought God to humankind to behold and understand, Jesus constantly reminded people that he was bringing the Father to them, that when they look at him they see the Father, that he is doing the Father's work, but that he is not the Father standing there in totality to be worshipped and to be all knowing. For example, Jesus constantly prayed to God the Father, including for guidance. Jesus would use concepts to explain that God "reveals" something to him. So God is clearly the all knowing and all powerful who is still in charge, even as Jesus brings a face of God to humanity. Another example is one directly relevant to the concerns of those I am addressing now, which is that Jesus said that he himself did not know when the end of times would come, and that only God knows.

Thus, faith and reasoning skills both help you to see that Jesus had one mission, one ministry (salvation and the New Covenant), but God continues to have the fullness of his "mission," or to put it more accurately, the full knowledge of his "greater plan" for not only humanity but also the universe, etc. Thus the focus of Jesus was on humanity and their salvation, and indeed, Jesus himself was focused on converting the Jews during the time of his mission, while the Apostles are the ones to approach the Gentiles (who also sought out Jesus directly) with the Gospel. So Jesus was here to show the face of God in a way that humans could understand, but not to explain all of God's will and plans.

Now, this does not mean that God is "keeping secrets." He is not, for through his long relationship with the Chosen People, the Jews, through sending his Son, Jesus for salvation, and also through his prophet to the other people of Abraham, the Muslims, God has made his message loud, clear, repeatable and consistent for thousands of years. So God is not keeping a "secret." But simply because God is clear and repetitive to humans over and over, this does not mean that humans can begin to understand his sense of time frames, the dimensions of his mercy, and how God perceives humans. This is where there is a disconnect with some, especially in this modern society, where people have become even more distorted in their assumptions and even hubris about "understanding God." So here is the gist of my point.

Many moderns think that the "end game" is what is important. In other words, they view religions as being "right" or "wrong," "winners" or "losers," and they forget what Jesus himself came to do, which is save each soul in each generation. So people who are hoping for and "rooting" for the end of times are actually in direct contradiction of God's priorities. God wants many, many generations of humans to live well, joyously, come to know him and be saved. It's not a final scoreboard mentality that so many of you have. For example, look at Iraq. There were generations of Christians there who lived, worshipped and died over the past centuries. Those are "wins" in God's eyes. So it is easy to think that the number of Christians in Iraq now, which has been reduced by half because of the war, somehow is "the status" of "salvation" in a country. God does not care about the "stats" and human entities such as "numbers of the faithful per country." God cares about each soul, wanting them to have a good life, and then wanting them to be saved due to their grace and their charitable living. So you cannot look at Iraq and think in terms of "how many Christians now" and so forth. Now, I am not saying the persecutions are OK, because they are far from OK. What I am saying is that Christianity comes and goes in cycles and each generation is a "success" in God's eyes because God is always biased toward wanting more to be born, more to live, more to love and serve him, and more to be saved.

Thus, people who actually "want" the end of times to come soon are being un-Christian and selfish. They don't want hundreds more years of babies being born, souls being saved, and humanity being served. But that is what God wants. God wants "the end of times" to be far, far, far in the future. God wants the monotheistic faiths, the children of Abraham, to demonstrate generation after generation that the Kingdom of God IS at hand, by living, not by hoping for some big Armageddon for one's own personal "expected" reward and gratification, and thus erasing the possibility of many more generations being born and enjoying life and coming to know God.

So Jesus was very careful to not speak for God on this subject. This is why Jesus truthfully said that he didn't know when the end of times would occur, and that only God knows. By truthfully I mean obviously Jesus always told the truth, but he wasn't hiding some knowledge. God really IS the only one who knows when the end of times will occur, but God is not pushing for it to happen soon. Unfortunately, it is humans who are hoping for it soon (and many of those who hope and agitate would find they would not get a thank you note from God for their efforts). Jesus taught to live your life as if you were always ready, and that is obvious because anyone can see throughout history that both individual and community human life is unpredictable. This is especially true as human technology outstrips their wisdom and compassion.

Here's another way to understand God on this point. When God appeared to Moses God had "two priorities." One was to guide the Israelites out of slavery and into their new land in Canaan, and the other was to teach them the Law. So God will "focus" on objectives at the time when humans need to have them. This does not mean he doesn't care about the future. But it's not like God would tell Moses "someday people will fly in airplanes" or "someday people will speak Russian" because God has a relationship with humans that is meaningful to humans in the context of the times they are in AND is consistent with God's greater plan. So Jesus would constantly tell the faithful how to live their lives and how to be ready should the time come because that is what God wants humans to focus on. Humans are not supposed to have a depressive and Gotterdammerung mindset that hopes to see chaos and Apocalypse and thus cheats future generations of their chances to be born and live. This is, by the way, one of the horrible symptoms of the culture of death and abortion mentality. Humans have self induced a "rapture" where the innocent are booted right out of earth and to heaven before they even are naturally born in full term from the womb.

I hope that you understand what I am saying. The end of times is not something that should be viewed as the last move in a game or a "spiritual war" or a competition. Nothing would make God "happier" (to use a human term) than many, many, MANY generations of humans being born, welcomed into life, living decent, loving and God fearing lives, full of the goodness of what life offers, and the courage to handle the hardships that comes with a life that is not limitless, and then coming to know and love God, being received into eternal bliss.

Those who "root" for the end of times are like mean adults who want to end a fun and pleasant game or activity that children are enjoying before the children can win, or before new children can join in. Why would anyone in their right mind "hope" for the end of times to "happen soon," so that children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and generations in the future would not even be born? As long as I've lived among humans this is one thing I really do not understand. I find that mindset to be shocking and scandalous.

I mean, would any of you sit there and say, "Oh, I hope the end of times happens before my neighbor grows up, marries, has children, and those children grow up and have children of their own, and their children have great lives and know God and have children of their own" and so on and so on? Well, admit it. Is that not what those who "hope for" and "agitate" for the Apocalypse are actually saying? If you were honest, would you not be saying out loud, "Hey, I hope you and your children never have a chance to have offspring who love and serve God, and I hope that things only get worse instead of better?" That is what God hears when he hears and knows the thoughts of those who agitate and hope for "the rapture," "the Apocalypse," or the "end of times." God hears thus, that people are hoping for the end to come before billions of future people have a chance to live and love, to love both being alive and each other, and also to love God. Who in their right mind thinks that way? I was shocked to find that far too many do. But I will wrap up this comment with repeating that I am hopeful that I'm seeing some balance and sanity return and less fondness for this negative, disturbing and vindictive, selfish mindset.

I hope that you find this helpful. Stop thinking like robbers who want to steal the chance to live, love and know God from future generations. Praise God that the Catholic Church maintains its stability away from such erroneous thoughts (despite efforts to undermine and infiltrate it with such) and also Islam, which does not presume to "accelerate" God's will.