A-list message, Re: [A-List] Gary North's two essays

Michael, I'm glad you enjoyed the North essays - they really are the best, most concise explanation of the rapture folk's beliefs I've encountered. I was struck dumb when I learned about those beliefs as - you rightly noted - they turn the essential message of Christianity upsidedown, i.e. a Christian seeks redemption in the Redeemer (Christ) not in the deaths of anyone, much less 2/3 of the Jews in Israel! It's akin to faith in the sacrificial slaughters of the ancients and downright Satanic in my book, not merely pagan. How sick and macabre are those congregations that fund "settlers" - and how peculiar and dangerous are those Israeli cynics who encourage them! As if the world didn't have a big enough mess as is in Palestine. The Trinity Broadcasting Network has to be seen to be believed - there's some "Jan" who's a Tammy Faye type and apparently she's gotten most of the staff to her plastic surgeon as their appearances continually change. Really, really bizarre (though I will grant I have seen several interesting and quality documentaries on the Holy Land and the life of Christ broadcast via Trinity - but they were produced elsewhere.)

Re: Riker's Island. Revelations was always considered controversial, and was not included in the Bible until the fourth century. I can't recall all the details now, but inclusion was accepted at some monastic council. But the important point is that early Christians did not recognize the Lord as its provenance. The raptors' focus on the eschatalogical really just galls me. The Bible gives us rules for living our lives - that's the entire point really and what the majority of the Book addresses. None of us can know the mysteries of death, or of "the end of history" until we are there! But we can control our conduct, we can live our lives - but we can't control our dying which is in God's hands. One commits the sin of pride when presuming to know the mind of God, which is what these flailing politicians who fall upon scripture to justify US aggression and bellicosity in the Middle East are doing. Nauseating.

Regarding political comedy, a writer at lewrockwell.com has a funny "Monty Python and the WsMD" bit up today - I'll send it along after this post. A-List Brits will have to judge whether it passes muster, but I thought it rather good.

Anne

----- Original Message -----

From: Hudsonmi@xxxxxxx

To: a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 7:32 AM

Subject: [A-List] Gary North's two essays

Two GREAT essays, Anne. I bet that the readers of A-list, like me, had to read it to believe it!
I can only add the following thought to your posting of Gary North's excellent essays.
Late in the Middle Ages, I was told many years ago, mathematicians sought to calculate the timing of the Day of Judgment by figuring out (1) the area of the earth, in square miles, and (2) the growth of the Christian population throughout history, so as to figure out (3) at what point, when the dead were raised and stood shoulder to shoulder, they would fill out the entire area of the earth.
This would be the latest time the Day of Judgment would arrive, if they all were to stand shoulder to shoulder. Of course, it assumed that being "incorruptible," they all would take up the same space as a living human (rather than fitting conveniently onto a pinhead).
This is the kind of mathematics of exponential growth one gets into if one is drawn into literalism.
By the way, a prison guard at Riker's Island mental hospital here in New York once told me that once the prisoners or patients begin talking about the Book of Revelation the guards know that they've gone over to the Dark Side.
(Sorry if I've offended anyone, I'm only repeating what I've heard.)
My only conclusion is that all fundamentalism is evil, whether it be Christian, Jewish, Islamic or Stalinist. North makes clear how anti-social, selfish, and basically anti-Christian the fundamentalist movement is. It's obvious to me that those who identify themselves the people who were plucked out in the movie actually should be sent to hell.
The best attitude, though, is the Buddhist one. This must be their first human incarnation up from the lower animal world, and they have plenty more lifetimes to go around before they get fully humanized.
My conclusion, Anne, is that we've got to begin writing a political comedy show.

Michael Hudson