Do any of you listen to Glenn Beck on CNN?
I don't agree with his politics and often disagree with him on other significant issues but he is the one commentator who can literally make me laugh out loud ~ multiple times during a single show. There's something about his authenticity that also appeals, even though I'm quite aware that he's basically a propagandist, just like most of them.
Last night, he interviewed Pastor John Hagee who wants to warn all of us that we are living in the End Times.
With all respect, I believe End Times theology is a real crock but admit to a morbid fascination with it at the same time. I've been reading End Times books since Hal Lindsey wrote "The Late Great Planet Earth" in the 70s.
I also read the "Left Behind" series of books.
It's science fiction.
Anyway, Pastor Hagee cited the following as evidence that we are living in the (Jaws music cued here) Final Days.
1) The knowledge explosion (loosely defined as instantaneous access to information, 24 hour news channels and such)
2) Rebirth of Israel
3) Matt 24:3 - When the fig tree blooms out of season (referring, I believe, to global warming although Hagee dismissed the legitimacy of it)
4) Birth of nuclear weaponry
5) Universal deception (loosely again... political correctness, moral relativism and such)
6) Famines
7) Pestilence (he cited bird flu)
8) Earthquakes
9) International television (this is the means by which the Antichrist will appear within an hour)
10) Skepticism
Personally, I believe the majority of these indicators could be differently framed in any generation. If I recall correctly, nearly every generation has claimed to be in the final days.
What do you think?
Are we in the (Jaws music again) Final Days?
~*
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Glenn Beck.....
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22 comments:
I was raised believing we are most certainly in the end times. i've often thought of it as the height of ego, to lay claim to something of such magnitude.
but then i wonder about those pesky Mayans - they show the world ending in 2012.
"It's the end of the world as we know it / and I feel fine..."
At the rate humankind is going, who knows? We overpopulate, we pollute, we use and abuse. We may not be headed for our final days, but we damn well better be headed for an attitude adjustment.
Yes, we are always in the end times. We can fear the angel of death, or use its presence to make ourselves aware that every moment is precious.
I agree with your thoughts, Chani, that the end-times talk is a bit of a stretch, but of course there are a lot of people on TBN and other religious channels that willingly accept kind donations from folks who are willing to listen and support these theologies.
Interestingly, it was the same Glenn Beck who was in August of last year, saying that the world would end on August 22nd. Strange that everyone who has said that the world would end on x date has always been wrong, no?
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
I have always been fascinated with End Times theories, too, despite having been raised in a family that did not subscribe to it.
Many of the "proofs" that this is occurring have occurred in other times, perhaps in ALL other times, but the immediate dissemination of information now can make us believe that our time is unique.
Incidentally, it saddens me that despite the technological advances over the centuries, mankind seems not to have improved very much and is still waging war wherever an advantage is sought. We still have the stronger among us exploiting the weaker, or not caring about them which is almost worse, and we are no closer to godliness now than our cave dwelling ancestors were.
If we survive the remainder of George Bush's term, I will feel that we have stepped back from the precipice of oblivion and have a chance to rebuild our cities and ourselves, and to Finally learn that we are here to help one another.
If there really is an Anti-Christ, though, Bush would qualify.
I think it's a crock, too.
I expect my final days will be in 40 years or so, and at that time, some fool will be clucking about it being THE final days.
Some things don't change.
Does anyone know about the December 21, 2012 doomsday predictions? Apparently Nostradamus, the ancient Mayans, the famous Chinese book of Changes (I think called the I Ching), Merlin (the historical figure who wrote ancient Celtic books, not the legend), ancient Native Americans, and others in the ancient world all picked that date as the end - and science is now showing that something extremely rare is happening astrologically on that date. Or, so the History channel tells me. I'm not a conspiracy theorist myself, but ancient wisdom and science agreeing with each other does make my ears perk. Any thoughts?
I don't believe any of it. ;) But I try to follow the philosophy of Bon Jovi - Gonna live while I'm alive, sleep when I'm dead. ;)
I've never seen this show on CNN at all - I think we get a different CNN here unlike Fox News where we get exactly the same as the US.
At least his forehead doesn't look all botoxed like Colmes.. :) I think Colmes's forehead is what science should be investigating.. it does not move! there are no wrinkles in it, not a one! What is going ON there?!?!
Snoskred
www.snoskred.org
I think it's a crock connected with Biblical apocalypse. But I do think the choices humans are making may destroy the earth and the way we live. But I think it's stupid to attribute it to Divine judgment or whatever.
i don't buy into the end times stuff either... I think that Jesus was deliberately vague, and that was so that we would, at ALL TIMES be alert. He says we will not expect it. This is to make us aware and always live as if it could be tomorrow. He warned us NOT to be trying to guess it, but rather expect it at any time.
Revelation was written for the persecuted church AT THAT TIME and although we can learn a lot from it, it is not a strict story of what will happen during the "end times" I have refused to read The Left Behind series because I think the "rapture" is complete baloney.
So who ever this Glenn Beck guy is... well, I think he's full of baloney to. We may very well be in end times, but not because he says so. ;)
I'm inclined to believe that it's a crock.
However, I hadn't heard about the 2012 predictions. I'll have to do a little reading up on that. It's curious, but only, for me, in an academic sense. I'm not particularly worried.
Whenever I think of The Rapture, I imagine all these people floating off to heaven like Mary Poppins with her umbrella, or a lot of helium balloons.
I guess I don't have the proper fundamentalist reverence for such beliefs, which makes it hard to take people who do seriously.
All this talk of end-times or final days is predicated on belief. Believing something to be true does not make it true. Once you begin to question the premise of any belief things begin to look different.
All things change, that's a fact. This world is a much different place from what it was a million years ago. There were final days for dinosaurs (unless you believe the earth is only 6,000 years old and fossils were just planted by a tricksy deity). It stands to reason there will be final days for the current masters. We may kill ourselves off or some external cataclysmic event may destroy the neighborhood.
Maybe a gang of crusaders from another galaxy will come and force us to believe in their god, or else. Who knows?
I think people always feel this way. Sometimes, I think now is no worse than other times. Then I remember that we re-elected George Q.
ha! Reverend Hagee is on a mission to "help" send the all the Jews back to Israel. He gets donations in daily assisting in the aide for that movement. He preaches at a church that is around the corner from where I used to live. Scary stuff. I suppose they believe that once all the Jews are in Isreal, God will end our time on Earth and all the good Christian souls can go to Heaven. Gotta love religion.
Oh, as I went to a funeral today, I guess it is the final days for some of us. I just don't thing its all of us yet.
I see you have a Great Big Sea fan among your readers (Thomas: "It's the end of the world as we know it / and I feel fine...").
The answer is no. For an explanation, see
http://cecilieaux.blogspot.com/2007/06/crisis.html
I know that if a fig(or any other fruit) tree blooms out of season, it means that the tree is about to die so I guess that is the end of its time.
Let's take up a collection and buy Heart's neighbor a one way ticket to some place far away. Oh, I know! Let's tell Rev. Hagee that she is a Jew or that she wants to minister to the Jews and that she needs to be the next one he sends to Isreal. At least that will be the end of the time Heart & Flip have to listen to her. I don't know what that will do to aour country's relationship with Isreal or with the Jewish community, though.
I'm fascinated with these theories as well.
Who knows. One day it could all just blow up in our faces....
Personally, I think the end of the world is just a slow dissolve.
we can only hope...
Let us not forget that the real Antichrist will, when he comes on to the world scene will be very popular. He will be very charismatic. So the point is when we look for the “Antichrist” we shouldn’t be looking for a villain. We shouldn’t be looking for a bad guy, for that is not how he is going to appear, not to most people, at least not at first.
In fact he is going to appear as an hero. He is going to appear as an humanitarian. He is going to appear as a savior. He is actually going to be responsible or seem to be responsible in solving some of humanity’s most intractable problems. Perhaps he is going to be responsible for curing some disease, or develop ways to make things grow on barren land.
This is why I am guessing that he will be an industrialist because only an industrialist could have the infrastructures to develop such technology. Obviously what pushes this guy into the world stage would be the continuing success of his company.
And from there his success and charisma is going to pull him into politics. I say pull but it was his plan all along, though like the best of politicians he will make it look like he only begrudgingly entered the political sphere.
I believe he will become the head of the European Union, an entity that right now isn’t that strong, but since I see see this as happening from 30-50 years from now I see that by then the organization will have grown in strength
I still believe we have a generation or two before he arises, but in the term of human history a generation or two isn’t that long from now.
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