The False Prophet

Submitted by Michael S (United States), May 12, 2015 at 00:16

Hi, Waz.

This is a little bizarre. I really enjoy talking with you, because you're intellectually at least my equal, so what we are doing is definitely fun. On the other hand, we are talking about various stages of Doomsday, speaking about them as they are -- events that will probably start coming in earnest during our lifetimes, if God has it that we should live so long. We're like a woman pregnant in her ninth month, expounding on the joys of childbirth -- in the pre-antiseptic days when there was a good chance that she or the baby or both would die in the process. This gives me pause; nevertheless, you and I are both a bit Sherlockian, full of mischief in our minds. What an awesome life this is! and if you will pardon my religiosity, what an awesome God we have!

"Yes, move over, Adolph Hitler, you plagiarer!)" PlagiarIST!!

Thank you for noticing my "mistake". Sometimes, I wonder if anyone is paying attention! Actually, I had looked up the word; and indeed, it is, as you say, "Plagiarist". It didn't look right, though. Just think about it: What do we have, that are "__ists"? Baptists, Communists, Buddhists... they're all followers of some sort of "ism", some philosophy or religion. Is "Plagiarism" an ideology or religion? I rest my case. I thought it better, that it should be in the category of bakers, fakers, makers and shakers. I like to coin words now and then, like the writers of the Bible: They wrote, I am told, in "Coinonea".

You went on,

That is definitely not my understanding at all. Islam pilfered bits of Judaism and Christianity and most likely bits of Zoroastrianism- but it is apart from that the product of the febrile but clever mind of a borderlne insane bedouin.

I don't have to disagree with everything you say: Muhammed was either a charlatan or a nut case, or a little of both; but so were Shabbetai Zvi, Joseph Smith and, in the eyes of some Jews, John the Baptist and Jesus. Regardless of his mental or spiritual condition, though, Muhammed (speaking as Gabriel, who supposedly speaking for Allah), claimed to be the true preserver of Torah; and in a peculiar way, it is actually Torah that is at fault for the turmoil in the Middle East: The God of Torah claims to be unique, having no equal; so it's no wonder that those who claim to speak for him are... well, you find the most reverent word. I can't. "Plagiarist" wouldn't do here. "Originalist"? "Uniquist"? Let's just say, they tend to be one of a kind, in one sense, and just like one another in another.

Ah, you say so yourself:

There always have been deluded but very persuasive and charismatic miscreants preying on people's spiritual sensibilities in order to usurp and maintain power. We see this all the time - Rasputin, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, David Koresh and irrelevant idiots such as our very own latest reincarnation of Jesus, living in rural Queensland...

I never heard of your Queensland messiah; you must tell me about him sometime. I met the YHWH in the forest, in Mendocino County, California. I was on the Pacific Coast at the time, while Jim Jones was across the mountains in the Ukiah Valley. As a consequense, I didn't get connected with him and his group, but instead joined with a more orthodox group that didn't drink cool-aid. About a year before that experience, in which I didn't actually "see" God with my eyes, I did walk and talk with a fellow who claimed to BE God. I questioned him thoroughly; and even with my limited understanding of these things, concluded that he was not Who he thought he was: He was a former taxi driver from U. C. Berkeley.

On to quantum physics... You said,

""..For instance, the world has been shifting its worldview from one controlled by unseen, mysterious spirits to one presumably controlly by forces we fully understand and control. ..." Quantum physicists will tell you the opposite and say that fundamentally we live in an exceedingly strange reality.. The more that is understood - more questions arise."

I have suspected, all along, that you are a Physicist type. I'm a Chemist type, and I was among those who thought the Large Hadron Collider was a collossal waste of money. Its proponents KNEW they would just find more questions; but they bilked tens of billions of dollars out of hapless taxpayers, convincing them that the knowledge they gained could somehow be put to use in taming the world around them.

Physicists might be just big kids with runaway, expensive curiosities; but less lofty fellows like chemists and engineers actually DO want to control nature by understanding its rules. That's how we stay in business, and how our professors manage to get grant money and keep grad students fed. I don't fault any of them for this: "It's a living". God, on the other hand, plans to sternly deal with those who put their trust in scientists instead of in Him. Meanwhile, those who do trust in God, such as Yours Truly (with a degree in Chemistry, but not overly serious about it all), live in peace -- knowing that the One who created me and everything around me, loves me and cares for me. Ahhhhhhhh! And I don't even need a large hadron collider to tell me this!

Our current infatuation with our "sauber und effizient" technology gives us the delusion of understanding and control - but this quickly unravels in the face of any natural or manmade extremes - where we're brought back to our senses with a sudden shock. We're still very human and very limited without our tech toys.

Indeed. There is a scripture which I think describes our infatuation with technology:

Rev 13:
[11] And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
[12] And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
[13] And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
[14] And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
[15] And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
[17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
[18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

You judge that one for yourself, and get back to me about it. This beast is like a riddle:

• He looks like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon. In Bible lingo, this means he's a false prophet -- in fact, he's THE false prophet found elsewhere in Rev.
• When it says he exercises his power "before" the first beast (the political monster aka the US, in my opinion), it means he does do "in front of" it; because both beasts live at the same time.
• The false prophet's great wonders, including causing fire to rain down frm heaven (A-bombs, etc), are tools of his craft -- then end of which, is to cause people to worship the first beast (the US & friends)
• "image to the beast.. that can speak". Television, of course. TV and its kin are great vehicles of false prophecy

I think you can get the drift. This "beast" may be a visible creature in heaven, where John sees him; but on earth, he/she/it is an invisible spirit, a world-view in people's minds. God seems to be against this world-view, which is full of false pride and mischief.

Pizza's here. Gottarun.

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