Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Tue, May 23 2006
A warning or a promise?
Someone forwarded a prophecy to me via email, and I suppose we're now in the window of possibilities, for those who choose to pay attention to such things. Of course, the alert exercise that Mr. Julien speaks of will not be taking place anywhere near the Atlantic Ocean, where he predicts the actual strike to occur, but will instead be operating under the title of Pacific Peril, and will take place at Camp Rilea in Oregon.
I suppose one could presume that those conducting the exercise take no stock in Mr. Julien's prediction. Of course, one could also presume that those conducting the exercise are taking his prediction very seriously and have purposely planned to be nowhere near the Atlantic Ocean for the next few days, as in—the tsunami is coming—look busy!
Mr. Julien isn't alone in his predictions. CBN founder Pat Robertson recently spoke of the possibility of a tsunami on the West Coast. I don't think he included the extraterrestrial element in his prophecy, but I haven't heard him exclude it either, so I'm not certain which way his prophetical antennae are pointing for further guidance.
I've never been able to quite tell the difference between run-of-the-mill catastrophes and eschatological catastrophes. If the Bible was written for both believers and non-believers, as I think it was, it would seem to me that there might be a danger in believers delivering up "the end is near" comments over every natural disaster. The Bible seems to speak of these things as a matter of course and progression after The Fall, rather than some sudden, unholy heaving of the balance of nature. I think this is where Christians, and other spiritual-minded people, get into trouble with scientists and with non-believers. We come across like bratty children, crying wolf every few minutes, rather than seeing disasters as opportunities to remember that the real task, for most of us, is not to predict earthquakes and other calamities, but to expect them as part of a sinful world, and to show compassion to fellow humans affected by such disasters. This business of us running about giving sermons to humans to either clean up their act or get zapped by an increasingly pissed-off Creator hardly gives God credit for knowing the end from the beginning. And if we believers really want to encourage non-believers to see the Bible as good news, we'll remember that we're all vulnerable to injury, illness and death. The difference should be that believers choose to recognize disasters as opportunities to receive, and to reflect, God's character. It's not the apocalypse that matters. It's the paradox of love that transcends it.
posted at: 12:09 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
Someone forwarded a prophecy to me via email, and I suppose we're now in the window of possibilities, for those who choose to pay attention to such things. Of course, the alert exercise that Mr. Julien speaks of will not be taking place anywhere near the Atlantic Ocean, where he predicts the actual strike to occur, but will instead be operating under the title of Pacific Peril, and will take place at Camp Rilea in Oregon.
I suppose one could presume that those conducting the exercise take no stock in Mr. Julien's prediction. Of course, one could also presume that those conducting the exercise are taking his prediction very seriously and have purposely planned to be nowhere near the Atlantic Ocean for the next few days, as in—the tsunami is coming—look busy!
Mr. Julien isn't alone in his predictions. CBN founder Pat Robertson recently spoke of the possibility of a tsunami on the West Coast. I don't think he included the extraterrestrial element in his prophecy, but I haven't heard him exclude it either, so I'm not certain which way his prophetical antennae are pointing for further guidance.
I've never been able to quite tell the difference between run-of-the-mill catastrophes and eschatological catastrophes. If the Bible was written for both believers and non-believers, as I think it was, it would seem to me that there might be a danger in believers delivering up "the end is near" comments over every natural disaster. The Bible seems to speak of these things as a matter of course and progression after The Fall, rather than some sudden, unholy heaving of the balance of nature. I think this is where Christians, and other spiritual-minded people, get into trouble with scientists and with non-believers. We come across like bratty children, crying wolf every few minutes, rather than seeing disasters as opportunities to remember that the real task, for most of us, is not to predict earthquakes and other calamities, but to expect them as part of a sinful world, and to show compassion to fellow humans affected by such disasters. This business of us running about giving sermons to humans to either clean up their act or get zapped by an increasingly pissed-off Creator hardly gives God credit for knowing the end from the beginning. And if we believers really want to encourage non-believers to see the Bible as good news, we'll remember that we're all vulnerable to injury, illness and death. The difference should be that believers choose to recognize disasters as opportunities to receive, and to reflect, God's character. It's not the apocalypse that matters. It's the paradox of love that transcends it.
posted at: 12:09 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
