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Food For Thought
Copyright Ó 1997, Dorian
Scott Cole *
Prophecy: Hysteria or Certain Doom?
During the 60's and 70's I was
a proponent of the apocalyptic fervor that was sweeping the US and other
countries. Many people, including those in high military and government
offices, were (are) convinced that we are living in the last days of this
world - this world will be destroyed and another more perfect world will
emerge.
Hal Lindsay's books in the '70's gained immediate favor
among religious fundamentalists and soon became favorites of a wide audience
including those of many religious persuasions and even those without religion. Hal Lindsay's books generally delivered the same message: the
beast would |
enter the world in the form of
a political leader, then the world would enter a tribulation period during
which horrible wars and destruction would take place.
Finally Jesus Christ would step foot on the earth and
restore peace and bring a new age. The root message seems to be that human
beings are not capable of living in peace and our doom is inevitable. Is
it true?
People have also turned to other prophets - the seers
who are somehow able to look into the Cosmos and foretell great events
in mankind's future. From Nostradamus to Edgar Cayce, to the more recent proliferation of people gazing into crystal balls, the |
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message seems to be the same.
Prophets see major natural and man-made cataclysmic destruction in our
future. War. Earthquakes. Ouch! The more recent prophets seem to corroborate
the ancient prophets. But is it true?
Well, I'm not a fundamentalist. But I've been a fundamentalist. And I'm not a follower of modern prophets. But I have been a devotee of the more modern prophets - particularly Cayce, whose accuracy has been uncanny and who didn't leave his work in the mess that Nostradamus did, although Nostradamus seems equally accurate. I'm sure I don't have any magic answers. (I'm a Pisces, which according to astrologers, if you can believe any of that stuff, it's my lot to be "spiritual.") |
What I have struggled to know
is the "truth," at least so far as prophecy is concerned. My foray into
the fields of both religious and non-sectarian prophecy made me deeply
motivated to ferret out the truth and not be misled. Using the holy writings
of the Israelites (Bible Old Testament), I studied and researched the role
of the prophet and prophecy. I studied and researched the role of symbolism.
I studied and researched the basic messages of the old and new testaments
and asked how prophecy fit into those basic messages. "Hmmm," concludes
I, "it ain't all what it appears."
Briefly, I concluded that prophecies are wake up calls.
The events foretold are not empty threats - they can happen. |
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The foretelling creates a crisis
during which we can either decide to address the problems or we can continue
to ignore problems and bring about our inevitable demise.
This is best exemplified by one of the later prophets
in Ancient Israel - Jonah. God told Jonah to go and tell a city that God
would destroy it. But Jonah, a prophet to the King, had caught on to God's
ways - Jonah knew if the city changed its ways God would not destroy it.
But a prophet's word was supposed to be absolutely right or the
prophet was discredited.
So rather than face the humiliation of being wrong, Jonah
went to sea. But |
finding that running from your
duties only brings greater trouble for everyone, Jonah finally went to
Nineveh and delivered the message. Of course the people changed their ways
and the city wasn't destroyed. Jonah got over it.
The basics of prophecy and of God's messages
are encompassed in this one little story. You can substitute any evil person, group, city, or nation for Nineveh. You can substitute any person, group, city, or nation for Jonah. You can substitute any evil in place of the evil. Hitler and Musolini are perfect examples of an evil that reached
apocalyptic proportions but was countered by a group of vigilant nations
which ultimately had to stop the cancer of hate and murder from |
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growing. God has established both
the messengers and the means of stopping evil. (Not that the opposing nations
were holy or that this was a holy war - not any more than a snake or an
earthquake is "holy." God can work through any means.)
What I derived from my study of prophecy is that every
person, group, city, or nation, must be eternally vigilant (always watching)
for evil and
must take responsibility for opposing it. If we run from
our responsibilities, we bring trouble on everyone and the problem gets
worse. If we hide from our responsibilities for too long, then the worst
will happen - even the end may come. |
What I fear most is evil disguised
as holiness. That is, individuals, groups, or nations that do evil while
masquerading as agents of God. For example, small groups of terrorists
in Northern Ireland who continue one hate crime after another, drawing
not just the region into conflict, but people from all over the world are
drawn into it and finance it. Yet over 90% of the people who live in Northern
Ireland want an end to the violence and want to live together in peace.
You can trace back to who threw the first bomb and who conquered who -
there is no end to the reasons to hate. But people are organized in the
name of religion (Protestants and Catholics) - hating each other. |
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In Bosnia it's the Christians
and Moslems - different cultures and religions. In Nazi Germany it was
a government against the Jews. In the Middle-East it's Jews against Muslims
and Muslim fundamentalists against Muslim non-fundamentalists. In the Middle-East,
hate has continued from antiquity.
And in the last 1000 years, Christians wiped out native
peoples on several continents... in the name of God. Crusades to conquer
and convert soon turned internal - the Inquisition - people killed for
not believing quite correctly. Holy war.
Holy war. The Israelites, the Christians, and the Muslims
are all guilty of declaring war on others in the name of |
God. So which one is right? Crusades.
Is the desire to colonize others and make them just as we are so strong
that it can't be overcome? Are we any less guilty of colonizing now than
in the past? Whose flag is on the moon?
Do the Americans own the moon any more than the Spanish,
French, English, Italians, or Portuguese owned the Americas when they first
stepped foot on them and raised their flags? We all march around waving
our flags and singing God is on our side - regardless of nationality or
culture or religion. But in reality, God is on all of our sides. |
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What is this holy war business
really about? Self protection. Protecting a way of life and declaring God
is the author of it. It's the natural withdrawal that people do when confronted
with differences and change.
Add a few zealots and fanatics and you have an out of
control mob. I think even the US involvement in the Vietnam war was to
some extent a holy war. I don't believe communism works, and it should
have been opposed.
But when troops went in and fought the communists in Vietnam,
it was to protect the US way of life for others. Some called it protecting
freedom.
I think freedom is valuable and should be protected -
people shouldn't own slaves |
and men shouldn't own wives and
kids. But I'm not sure it is a God-given right for every nation and something we should impose at gun-point.
I think freedom is earned. Communism fell from within
and is almost extinct, but not because of the US crusade against communism
in Vietnam. The US has been much smarter about which wars it has gotten
involved in since Vietnam, and in the war against Sadam, the entire world
was against the takeover and extermination of a nation - something worth
opposing. But only Sadam was thinking holy war. |
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How close are we to the apocalypse
- the end of all things? We are always standing on the brink. Hate always
has a foothold, and the moment we let down our guard and let evil take
over, that's when it will blow up in our face.
Hate and evil have always masqueraded as holiness. People
who hate do it in the name of God - fooling everyone who will listen. The
Spirit of God is in many peoples in this world. When we fail to oppose
evil, that's when the Spirit of God will be gone, and when the Spirit of
God has left the world then evil will reign.
What do you think? |
If you found this an interesting topic and would like to
read more about the meaning of prophecy, watch this site for my book,The
Last Prophet. It will be put up in chapters as I get time, as a free
download. I wrote this book in 1980. |
Story ideas - Concepts for plots and subplots:
People immersed in hate have all the reason in the world to hate. It's
usually because of some injustice done to them, so they are going to have
an eye for an eye. Sometimes there are thousands of years of distrust and
hate. At a gut level, it makes sense. You have to show them they can't
get away with it. You can even point to holy writings - the "Law of God."
But what really happens is in inflicting the repraisal kind of justice
even more people get hurt, and they have to retaliate to even the score.
Retaliation can only escalate. And when different cultures are involved,
suspicion is already high and hatred can easily be generalized to encompass
everyone in the other culture. Terrorists thrive on polarizing people with
this kind of tactic.
What is it that makes people stop retaliating, lay down their weapons,
accept each other, and stop hating? Following are several ideas for stories:
¤ Two opposing groups are forced
by a common enemy, possibly a natural disaster, to temporarily work together
in order to survive. They discover ways they are alike, but the bonds of
hate are not broken. Both sides have leaders and strong groups who push
them to remain separate because of past injustices.
One person in the opposition makes some self-sacrificing act to save
someone on the other side. The bond of hate is broken for a few more. Then
something extremely valuable to each party (like water in the desert) becomes
hostage between the two warring parties. If the fighting continues to escalate,
the "water" may be destroyed. At the climax, both parties are face to face
ready to destroy the "water" rather than make peace. They remember working
together, and the sacrifice of one man, and consider what they are about
to lose so they can continue hating each other. One by one individuals
leave the quarrel until only the opposing leaders are left. When the two
leaders begin to fight, putting them all at risk, the people return, take
the two away, and throw them in prison.
¤ !People are tired of the hatred
and killing in their community. Two brothers stand at opposite extremes
of the problem, but they are best of friends and love each other. One campaigns
for peace and tries to bring people together. The other campaigns for never
surrender until the enemy is gone. The warring brother starts a terror
campaign that causes the murder of his brother. He realizes that he could
have prevented his brother's death, so he is the cause of his murder. Both
brothers are well known on both sides.
The warring brother takes two friends into the enemies community and
enters a tavern. The tavern is occupied by several men from the enemy faction.
Believing the brother is on a suicide revenge mission for his brother's
death, they prepare to battle. The warring brother buys a round of drinks
for all. The enemy stares at the drinks, then pours them on the floor.
He buys another, then another, until the floor is covered in brew, then
the enemy leader screams at him, telling him to stop and asking for what
insane reason he is covering their floor with brew. He replies, that he
has lost his brother and he wants to drink in his honor with men who are
truly able to share his grief.
Several of the men start to leave, but the leader stops them. They have
a drink, and make passionate speeches remembering their brothers and the
friends they have lost, and talk about the dreams of those people and what
they could have done with their lives. And when one person accuses another
of doing the killing, the brother orders another round, but only for those
who have taken a life, or caused a life to be taken. And they all drink
again. Then another drink. And the bonds of hate begin to crumble.
¤ A community (or group) once known
for its tolerance and progressiveness is now building a reputation for
its intolerance. People are becoming reclusive. Outsiders are no longer
welcome. They have cut themselves off from other communities. People rally
around "family values" when any different value is expressed. People wrap
themselves in the flag and wear it to religious services. Anything different
is examined in the light of "religious" teachings (actually only excerpts
that suit their way of life) and "different" is usually found unfit. The
local librarian and her friends frequently sneak "bad" books from the library
and schools to get rid of them, and a "committee" oversees the books and
videos that the local stores can carry without causing a protest line outside.
A young reporter comes to town whose ideas are "different." He is rejected,
beaten, thrown out of town, and almost killed. The people who beat the
young man, on learning that he is fighting for life, make big sacrifices
to keep him alive. Then they realize that their attitudes were the same
as his when they were younger. Instead of wisdom focusing their vision,
ignorance and fear has narrowed it to self serving interests. They have
ceased to enjoy life and instead have become slaves to incessant demands
on them for "social values" they thought would protect them.
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From an idea by (name).
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