Hurricane Sandy's Real Revelation

[deutsey]

Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand. Mark Twain

I first became aware of the Bible’s “end times” prophecies through Hal Lindsey’s bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth back in the ‘70s.

In the book (which went on to become a movie narrated by Orson Wells), Lindsey laid out how he believed current events at the time were fulfilling predictions about the end of the world in the Book of Revelation, the Bible’s mysterious and controversial grand finale.

As a 12-year-old with an overactive imagination, I remember reading and re-reading Revelation once I finished Lindsey’s book, poring over the strange and obscure text and searching for hidden clues that would reveal what the future had in store for us.

The clues I found were as scary and titillating as they were baffling. The Four Horsemen…Gog and Magog…the ominous figure of the Antichrist…the final battle between Good and Evil at Armageddon. What did it all mean for us? Are these events unfolding now in our lifetime?

I suppose a lot of people are still intrigued by such questions and are still searching for whatever glimpse into the future that may lurk in Revelation’s murky depths.

Hal Lindsey is still around offering what his website describes as “news analysis of current events from the perspective of Bible prophecy.” The Left Behind series, a dramatization of the Rapture and its apocalyptic aftermath, was hugely popular a decade ago. Today some evangelicals even suggest the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 portends Revelation’s ultimate fulfillment at the end of this year.

Not surprisingly, there are a few who also see last week’s catastrophic “superstorm” Sandy as further revelation of the impending end times. http://endtimesforecaster.blogspot.com/2012/10/alert-hurricane-sandy-haarping-on.html

As intriguing as such ethereal speculations may be, I’m not interested anymore in trying to match current events like Sandy with ancient prophecies that were probably never intended as literal predictions of the future in the first place.

Echoing Mark Twain, I’m not as bothered by these scriptural passages that I never really understood anyway as I am bothered by simple biblical passages that I do understand.

more: http://www.midshorelife.com/blog/dwayne/sandy%E2%80%99s-real-revelation

[northoftheborder]

1. I read your link, really agree with your interpretations of scripture.

Unfortunately, I live in an area where the "End Times" are discussed and other strange lessons are taught about the Trade Center and NY City. I need to find an intellectual discussion group in my area; I get depressed when I hear this stuff which I disagree with, but I'm not the confrontational type.

[deutsey]

2. It's difficult to have a discussion with people who insist that prophetic writings

are literal predictions of specific future events.

It always devolves into a circular argument, with me defining what the genre of apocalyptic literature is really about (encouraging persecuted groups with the deep symbolic assurance that God is in control and Good will ultimately prevail), and them spouting out-of-context scripture.

I don't know if you've ever seen Jack Van Impe on TV, but he has a weekly show where he connects prophetic scripture with contemporary events (one of his loopier claims was that UFOs are "spirits of the air" driven by demons). He's been doing this now for over 30 years.

Van Impe also likes to rattle off rapidly book/chapter/verse numbers (i.e., Revelation 4:10) as he claims it foretold some current event. Whenever I've watched him, I have looked up the chapter and verse numbers he cites and more often than not, it means something entirely different than he said it did.