Solvet sæclum in favilla:
Teste David cum Sibylla !
Well the End is neigh and a Day neigher than it was yesterday, but the proof is certain, says Harold Camping, even though he formerly had 'proof' 1994 was the big one; the Dies Irae, the End time.
But he has proof that God is allowing us to have gay pride parades and same sex marriage as a set up for the fall and the proof is in something called the Book of Jude, which I'd never heard of, my Bible ending somewhere around the book of Daniel or so and being in various Semitic dialects, not Greek. Anyway Camping says God all gaybashing mighty explains it in Jude 7 which is funny because although the Bible has at least two names for God ( and two versions of the stories to go with them) Jude isn't one of them. The real Tanach doesn't tell us that the elder Yahweh or the somewhat later Elohim wrote it either. That was Moses, it supposes -- nor did the prophets claim to actually be God, but that's a long road I won't go down today, you'll be pleased to hear.
But seriously -- it's important now in these last days before John the Revelator's ( also not God) psychotic episodes come true, to be familiar with the words of God, speaking through Jude and Camping (the least godlike of all) of course, so I looked it up to see just who this fellow was, but although I did find a site that explains it all, I had to stop reading the explanation when the writer accused Theologians ( as to be distinguished from believers) of incompetence.
" This subject is under constant dispute by many theologians. The trouble with them is they can't read English."Stunning and in the interest of brevity I could quit right here -- but I won't.
I certainly can read English, but I can't claim to be an authority on this questionable early second century book, since I can't read Greek, so score one for The Bible Study Page. I'll even overlook the gaseous certainty that whoever the author claimed to be, he must then be, and the ubiquitous practice of naming anonymous religious texts for long dead prophets. I'm just not in an argumentative mood.
So I'll have to believe them when they say that God himself guarantees that Jude, like James, the Upright, was the brother of Jesus, but as the English language was more than a thousand years away in the future and out of respect for Mrs. Christ, or Miriam as poor old impotent Joseph ( who none the less made other kids with her) called her, let's call them Jehudi and Jacov just like their mother did. Not nice to contradict Jewish mothers, I can tell you -- I mean you want to talk about days of wrath?
So then -- just what does Jude 7 give us as the WORD OF GOD that can't be attributed to Jehudi son of Miriam or some other writer in another country?
"In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire."Well I guess Jehudi would know, being the half brother of the son of God or maybe the full brother - who the hell knows, but it's funny that neither of the real Gods, Yahweh and the Elohim mentioned this a thousand years and a half earlier and what they did mention didn't need some adopted son to relay the message. I thought it mentioned something about inhospitable treatment of strangers, and condoned tossing your virgin daughter to a crowd to be gang raped, but as the book was likely written quite a long time after these cities disappeared, who the hell could possibly know?
Anyway, since neither Lot nor his daughters were blasted to hell for incest, I think we can dismiss the sex thing entirely, OK? If Mrs. Lot was fossilized for looking over her shoulder, but Lot gets off for free (yes, that's a double entendre - aren't I wicked?) the whole God-hates-perverts thing came right out of Jude's ass and into Camping's mouth.
As far as I can gather from Bereshit, or Genesis, Gay Pride wasn't the problem with the cities of the plain at all, and as far as we know, ancient Greece wasn't blown to hell by a firestorm like Gomorrah, nor was Egypt whose kings made Oedipus look like a prude, but who am I to argue and point out contradictions?
Like the Wrong Reverend Phelps, Camping believes "God hates fags" and is going to kill most of us for allowing them to live in peace like other people, just like he killed the Sodomites and Gomorrans for their gay pride parades and same sex marriages. And he'll find proof somewhere whether it makes sense or not, and since none of his followers are really quite sane, it doesn't matter.
The real proof of Camping's high fecal content will come at the International Date Line ( no, not the phone sex number) on 6:00 PM Saturday when nothing at all happens and the Repo men will begin to pick up all those vans, The leases on the billboards will expire, his followers will stand around like fools looking at them and wonder how they're going to get their property back and the 18 million dollars Camping has raised will likely disappear into various "good works." Perhaps he'll rapture himself to Marbella or Monte Carlo.
Anyway, Even though there are two sets of commandments given in two slightly different settings by Gods with two different names in the Bible, it's obvious to me that God doesn't like having words put in his mouth and for those who believe Jesus was Divine ( no, not the Drag Queen) I think Jesus didn't think much of you putting hate speech or damnation in there either. Of course in my personal religion, God not only speaks through our mouths, he speaks only through our mouths and thus nobody can be certain of what he's all about. Certainly for those like me who escaped out the back door during those weekend religious study classes and actually read it in its entirety, Psalm 77:19 comes to mind.
"Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. "Like the Poet said: nobody knows where God is going or where he has been and his wake is long lost in the waves, so stop pretending you know.
Of course, given the randomness of the universe, sooner or later there will be a cataclysmic prediction that will come true on or near the day predicted.
ReplyDeleteA discussion about this came up today at a business meeting no less. What struck me was how many of those who identify themselves as faithful Christians were really upset over this prediction. They felt that not only did it cast a poor light on Christianity but that it flew in the face of Biblical teaching about no one knowing the day nor hour.
I told them my philosophy of simply living every day until I die. That gave them pause.
I think the thing that bothers me most about the faithful followers, is that when the day comes and goes with no one being sucked up into the sky, it won't cause their brains to come unwashed, they'll simply shift belief to some convenient excuse, probably that their efforts had been successful and saved the world from entering into the tribulations.
ReplyDeleteGreat article on Mother Jones that mentions another doomsday cult, The Seekers, whose predicted end of the world failed to materialize. Psychologists were on hand to witness the aftermath:
"At first, the group struggled for an explanation. But then rationalization set in. A new message arrived, announcing that they'd all been spared at the last minute. Festinger summarized the extraterrestrials' new pronouncement: 'The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction.' Their willingness to believe in the prophecy had saved Earth from the prophecy!
From that day forward, the Seekers, previously shy of the press and indifferent toward evangelizing, began to proselytize. 'Their sense of urgency was enormous,' wrote Festinger. The devastation of all they had believed had made them even more certain of their beliefs."
So we can expect Camping's deluded followers to continue, possibly with renewed fervor.
And that's just so sad.
Rocky,
ReplyDeleteI would expect anyone who identifies with Christianity to be a bit uncomfortable, to say the least, with Camping and his disciples. As God lizard says, we can expect these passionate people to rewrite or reinterpret and recalculate like a GPS unit and set themselves on a new course.
I've read many authors for whom the fate of frustrated apocalyptic cults, and not only Christian ones, is seminal to understanding that Jewish first century cult whose leader taught that the end times were in process and that God would crush the Romans and redeem Judea restoring the line of David.
Having the leader ignominiously killed without divine intervention didn't kill it off, they simply denied that he was dead -- but we all know that story. Of course Camping has no compelling message other than hatred worth preserving.
I experienced the "End Times" when I was thrown off of its website after meeting my limit on number of free hits.
ReplyDeleteLike a good little Capitalist, I paid and was saved.
Praise Arthur!
There's still time for all of you to be saved. I take all major credit cards through PayPal.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm still here; guess this means that I still have to go to work on Monday.
ReplyDelete