As often happens, two things converged to give me the idea for this blog. One: I have been back at the “End Time” books again, like a diabetic going for candy (it is written in popular action form); and two, I have been going over a collection of my essays to (finally) publish this spring or early summer. Of the former, the reader probably knows: the End Time series, by LaHaye and Jenkins, is a fictional account of the last days of earth before the coming of Christ, as envisioned in the Book of Revelations from the Bible, in our current era. People are first hit with the “rapture,” where the faithful are taken up in body to heaven, counting in the millions, to avoid the “tribulations” of the next 7 years’ battle between Satan and God for the remaining souls on earth. After that, the earth is subjected to plague, pestilence, earthquakes and the rise of the anti-Christ, who at first appears to be a handsome, wise and wonderful humanitarian. Along the way, a body of people who have been “left behind” because of lackadaisical faith, convert completely, and then attempt to convince others to become faithful followers of Christ before it is too late and they lose their souls.
Of the latter, I re-read the essay “Needle Park,” where some friends and I attended a peace rally in New York during the Vietnam War in Needle Park, and found a man preaching the End Times. He had a body of disciples around him who clearly worshiped him, and I was left with the question: could he be the returning Christ? It was not that it was probable, but possible; and the biggest question remaining was: how would anyone know? We are warned in the scriptures of false prophets, but how would we know for sure who is and who isn’t real?
In the End Time books, it is clear to the faithful, because events follow precisely what Revelations tells us, right down to mystical sword-carrying horsemen slaying unbelievers. Even so, the majority of humanity continued to disbelieve, despite such clear supernatural disasters, thus falling into the Antichrist trap. How could that be, we wonder? Who could disbelieve after the rapture and the pestilence and the dimming of the sun and so on?
One could say that Revelations was only symbolic of other disasters, so that the REAL signs of the second coming would be more subtle. The horsemen could be tanks, the covering of the sun could be from pollution, the plagues and pestilence could be smaller but widespread catastrophes caused by poor ecological management, and so on. All would be described by science, and all would seem normal in its own way. The Antichrist would be a world leader calling for one currency and so forth, and most of us, even those who knew scripture, would be taken unawares. Those preaching the truth to us (let us assume it is happening) would be deemed delusional at best, just as the prophet in Needle Park seemed to be. Yes, I believe that would be so.
But let’s say it DID happen as this action series tells us – would we still not believe? It seems incredible, but I think that the authors are correct here. I think that science would remain science and that our boys in the lab would come up with certain theories that could somehow describe the supernatural (which is what happens in the books) and that most of us would believe science. We would, for one, not want to be seen by others as superstitious fools. We would also not want to be deluded, tricked by a paranoid interpretation of events. Finally, we would desperately not want our reality exploded as such. Such a mind-shattering change of conceptions could bring us to the point of madness, which we would avoid at all costs.
Those who dabble in UFO’s (yes, Cal, I will get to them again shortly in the blog section) tell us that the government – or a shadow government – keeps information of aliens from us because they know the world order, as messy as it is, would collapse into chaos with such a revelation from a trusted source. I have come to believe that they are at least partially correct. When Pizarro and his conquistadors defeated the Inca god-king, a feat thought impossible by his subjects, thousands threw themselves from cliffs and houses. Death was preferable to the end of the world as they knew it, and it could happen again. It probably would happen again.
So, if the End Times did begin today or tomorrow, most of us would hide even from the obvious. At the very least, we would not want to appear to be fools; and in the end, we would not want to go mad. How, then, could we know the truth, without falling for every charlatan or drug-crazed schizophrenic on the street?
In the New Testament, Jesus is always alluding to the old prophesies, to convince those who knew them that he was, indeed, the Messiah. But scholars tell us that the New Testament was written well after the death of Jesus, and could have been (for some, almost certainly was) doctored to make Jesus fit neatly into the scriptures. Who, then, are we to believe? Who, then, do we WANT to believe, for in the end, it comes down to how we wish to fashion certain aspects of our reality. But even for most of those who wish to believe, the End Times would simply be too much. They would resist that final leap into the Christian myth.
Caution and sanity – they are not bad things. False prophets there are, and fanaticism often creates the unhinged, like the Muslim suicide bombers. Where and how do we draw the line, and when do we leap across it? The questions remain open, ready to be filled. FK
Of the latter, I re-read the essay “Needle Park,” where some friends and I attended a peace rally in New York during the Vietnam War in Needle Park, and found a man preaching the End Times. He had a body of disciples around him who clearly worshiped him, and I was left with the question: could he be the returning Christ? It was not that it was probable, but possible; and the biggest question remaining was: how would anyone know? We are warned in the scriptures of false prophets, but how would we know for sure who is and who isn’t real?
In the End Time books, it is clear to the faithful, because events follow precisely what Revelations tells us, right down to mystical sword-carrying horsemen slaying unbelievers. Even so, the majority of humanity continued to disbelieve, despite such clear supernatural disasters, thus falling into the Antichrist trap. How could that be, we wonder? Who could disbelieve after the rapture and the pestilence and the dimming of the sun and so on?
One could say that Revelations was only symbolic of other disasters, so that the REAL signs of the second coming would be more subtle. The horsemen could be tanks, the covering of the sun could be from pollution, the plagues and pestilence could be smaller but widespread catastrophes caused by poor ecological management, and so on. All would be described by science, and all would seem normal in its own way. The Antichrist would be a world leader calling for one currency and so forth, and most of us, even those who knew scripture, would be taken unawares. Those preaching the truth to us (let us assume it is happening) would be deemed delusional at best, just as the prophet in Needle Park seemed to be. Yes, I believe that would be so.
But let’s say it DID happen as this action series tells us – would we still not believe? It seems incredible, but I think that the authors are correct here. I think that science would remain science and that our boys in the lab would come up with certain theories that could somehow describe the supernatural (which is what happens in the books) and that most of us would believe science. We would, for one, not want to be seen by others as superstitious fools. We would also not want to be deluded, tricked by a paranoid interpretation of events. Finally, we would desperately not want our reality exploded as such. Such a mind-shattering change of conceptions could bring us to the point of madness, which we would avoid at all costs.
Those who dabble in UFO’s (yes, Cal, I will get to them again shortly in the blog section) tell us that the government – or a shadow government – keeps information of aliens from us because they know the world order, as messy as it is, would collapse into chaos with such a revelation from a trusted source. I have come to believe that they are at least partially correct. When Pizarro and his conquistadors defeated the Inca god-king, a feat thought impossible by his subjects, thousands threw themselves from cliffs and houses. Death was preferable to the end of the world as they knew it, and it could happen again. It probably would happen again.
So, if the End Times did begin today or tomorrow, most of us would hide even from the obvious. At the very least, we would not want to appear to be fools; and in the end, we would not want to go mad. How, then, could we know the truth, without falling for every charlatan or drug-crazed schizophrenic on the street?
In the New Testament, Jesus is always alluding to the old prophesies, to convince those who knew them that he was, indeed, the Messiah. But scholars tell us that the New Testament was written well after the death of Jesus, and could have been (for some, almost certainly was) doctored to make Jesus fit neatly into the scriptures. Who, then, are we to believe? Who, then, do we WANT to believe, for in the end, it comes down to how we wish to fashion certain aspects of our reality. But even for most of those who wish to believe, the End Times would simply be too much. They would resist that final leap into the Christian myth.
Caution and sanity – they are not bad things. False prophets there are, and fanaticism often creates the unhinged, like the Muslim suicide bombers. Where and how do we draw the line, and when do we leap across it? The questions remain open, ready to be filled. FK
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