It is Armageddon week on the History channel. This series and quite a bit of our culture tends to think that Armageddon is a byword for natural disasters... random acts of God. This is not at all what is written in scripture. God is not going about this with reckless abandon, there's much more method than madness involved. Remember how Moses pleaded with pharaoh? He made demands first, the plagues were not willy nilly, they were methodical, they were ordered up one at a time, and they were part of an overall bargaining process to free the Israelites. Look at the final seven years in the apocalypse... same thing happening there, this time in Jerusalem, the two witnesses for Jesus are haggling with the two witnesses for world empire, and again, the two witnesses have power to shut up heaven (it doesn't rain for the whole 42 months, repeats the testimony of Elijah) and they have complete power over all the plagues.

This may not be a face to face confrontation like Moses and the pharaoh was, but it will be face to face in the media in Jerusalem. And what is the bargaining over? Same thing Moses wanted, free the people of God from the oppression of empire.

Human rule enslaves the masses. It seperates society into castes and oppresses the impoverished, fights wars over materials, takes from the laborer and gives to the ruler. The revealing of Jesus wipes away human rule, it has a purpose and a desire, the goal is to set up heavenly rule on earth and put a stop to human rule. This is accomplished by simply removing the Beast from power and taking over his seat of authority. Since human rule is executed from top down (unless you really think that your vote does anything more than rotate the marbles between positions of power) God changes the whole system by taking over the top position. Change the money and you stop the oppression, teach the nations peace and stop the inclination toward war with an iron fist. Obliterate the old system, set up the new. It is a total repeat of the time of Moses and Joshua. It is a political battle between Jesus and Lucifer played out on earth. The real war is in heaven prior to the end, and the real solution is in locking up the fallen angel and silencing his voice from reaching human ears. Only Lucifer is locked up, his principalities and powers fall in line under Jesus ... life continues on earth and human government continues, the nations continue, but the rulership over the whole system turns to the saints chosen to engage in the kingdom government. The two witnesses and their disciples are not dead four years and they are right back in Jerusalem, living in the palaces of the Beast, taking the reins of human government.

Armageddon is a political battle. Not a series of natural calamities.

DaysLight:

... life continues on earth and human government continues, the nations continue, but the rulership over the whole system turns to the saints chosen to engage in the kingdom government.

Sounds like Iran.

No thanks.

Iran is a singular nation... the kingdom of Christ is not on the national level, it just takes over the seat of the Beast, the emperorship if you will, or what do they call the chancellor of the European Union? ...this position controls finance, trade, and war. It doesn't reside within the governments of the nations, it sits on top of the nations... and teaches them to grow up. First the Beast will take them all to war, and oppress them through money, but when Christ sets up his return, he obliterates the political status quo, (not the physical earth) and stands in the same seat of authority... but does a lot better job of leading the nations... for their benefit and for the benefit of their people. In fact, you could say the difference in rulership is night and day. Iran is not a good picture to use to envision the coming kingdom.

You're not exactly the brightest bulb in the chandelier, are you?

Your Christ sounds just like the Ayatollah Khomeini. Except for being fictional.

"The lesson is: Our God is vengeful! O spiteful one, show me who to smite and they shall be smoten!"

So Sayeth Homer Simpson.

His aim sucks.

is according to your warped political perspective... which you aptly name Schadenfreude. My inability to penetrate your darkness does indeed reflect a lack of illumination on my part, but I hope to receive a power boost from the holy spirit before I ever take part in the 2nd coming. The time is at hand, the Roman Empire is reformed and expanded, and steadily rising to full control of earth's trade and finance... the next inevitable step will come when someone steps up to claim the emperor ship... a post always resurfacing in the Roman Empire web of nations.

And hey, if that doesn't work, you can always get a purple shroud, some nike shoes, and wait for the next comet to come by.

Schad has this little problem with devil worship that blocks his vision of the events of the apocalypse. Your attempt at humor shows a lack of discretion on a par with Homer Simpson... I seem to remember a Chad who was full blown right wing nut with an attitude... I'm hoping it isn't you returned with a cynical twist.

*Wink*

Hail Satan!

Ever notice the parallels between Epimetheus and Pandora vs. Adam and Eve?

The devil i worship is knowledge.

angel worship by any name is still going to puff up. Knowledge puffs up. Being puffed up is not a state to admire. Solomon knew everything you know, yet he called it all vanity... he certainly sought it out at one point in his life.

I'll trade in knowledge for humility any day.

those supply side economics in light of the present market crash? You do realize that the market crashed on the supply side?

Dear boobus:

I do not worship angels.

I will state as a certain fact that I possess knowledge orders of magnitude greater than Solomon's.

knowledge of a matter is the entering of that thing... knowledge means "to come into" ... something. You could call knowledge the entry of something. I'm certain Solomon entered more matters than you have, I'm positive he entered more women.

You do not comprehend the angels, but they play with you, never the less. When the Bible says all the world worshipped the Beast... that just means commerce followed his standards. Worship means "to follow" ... remember Jesus said to his disciples, "follow me". Although you may knot know it, when you worship knowledge, you worship angels. When you believe that intellect unlocks all the mysteries of creation and human existance, you are following something older and baser than the knowledge Solomon possessed.