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The End Of Days
buddhafoot
Veteran
The End Of Days
You know, we've had a lot of End of Days, just within the last 100 years or so.
It seems like there is always this thought process that happens with the turn of a century. The ending of this last century was even more pronounced with people worrying about everything shutting down because of the Y2K issue. Most programmers knew that this wouldn't be the case and most consultants knew that the time was ripe for income due to people's fear. Not to mention people buying food to store in their basements, generator sales, etc.
But now, with the tsunami that hit recently, earthquakes in Pakistan and India, hurricanes blowing off the east coast of the US - people are starting to work themselves up into a frenzy regarding the end of the world.
For those of you with a Christian background - what do you think of these things? Is your belief strong enough? Do you find yourself waffling between "I am a Buddhist - these things happen because of the Earth and our impact on it." or "Oh crap! I'd better get back on the Jesus Bus!"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509130004
mediamatter.org
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46148
World Net Daily
http://www.revelation13.net/KingJames8d.html
Some sort of Bible code page
http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/
Escape All These Things
If you didn't have enough paranoia in your life, I just thought I'd add grist for the mill.
-bf
You know, we've had a lot of End of Days, just within the last 100 years or so.
It seems like there is always this thought process that happens with the turn of a century. The ending of this last century was even more pronounced with people worrying about everything shutting down because of the Y2K issue. Most programmers knew that this wouldn't be the case and most consultants knew that the time was ripe for income due to people's fear. Not to mention people buying food to store in their basements, generator sales, etc.
But now, with the tsunami that hit recently, earthquakes in Pakistan and India, hurricanes blowing off the east coast of the US - people are starting to work themselves up into a frenzy regarding the end of the world.
For those of you with a Christian background - what do you think of these things? Is your belief strong enough? Do you find yourself waffling between "I am a Buddhist - these things happen because of the Earth and our impact on it." or "Oh crap! I'd better get back on the Jesus Bus!"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509130004
mediamatter.org
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46148
World Net Daily
http://www.revelation13.net/KingJames8d.html
Some sort of Bible code page
http://www.escapeallthesethings.com/
Escape All These Things
If you didn't have enough paranoia in your life, I just thought I'd add grist for the mill.
-bf
0
Comments
Buddhism has 'prophecies' about ages/eons/kalpas which were taken over from even more ancient, Vedic texts.
Because every generation thinks it is "the best of times, the worst of times", how can we imagine that all this will continue without us? Obviously, the degeneracy of this age as against a golden past proves that this must be the end! And then, in another generation, that will be the end, and then another....
Where does she get all of these....?!?
What you say is true, but as these things happen, do people lose or change their faith?
Back in the 40's, I think it was readily taught (and in following years) that Hitler was the Anti-Christ.
I don't know much about stories from India, but I don't know of many stories that have such a horrific ending as those written by John on that lonely little island.
-bf
I know what a pessimist you are.
I can totally see you standing at the pearly gates getting into an argument with Peter - pointing out some loophole that God forgot about...
-bf
When I was learning about Deep Ecology, I got roundly told off when I said that, at the level of deep ecology, the disappearance of human beings might actually be an advantage. Even if it were not positively beneficial to the planet, human extinction would only be one more event on the long history of extinctions: life would continue. Not a popular view, I discovered. That's where the neologism "speciesist" stopped being a silly joke.
The problem with Judaeo-Christian apocalypses is their judgmental nature. Henry James said that good Americans went to Paris when they died but the Rapture does not seem to have as amusing a destination. And then there's all the death and destruction for those who are left (nice God! kind God!) and, finally, a general judgment with sheep and goats (what they are going to do with all that livestock, I have never understood, unless buggery will be the rule in this version of heaven - good for some populations, one understands. Will wide wellies be provided?)
Give me a good pessimistic Ragnarok. Much more fun!
I had of have a friend of mine in Scotland tell me about the whole Wellies thing. We're a bit more "natural" here in our lovemaking - being the Wild West and all.
He also told me about using a "cliff" to make your "partner" a little more "active"...
You English are sick!
-bf
FIRST: the Scots are not English!
SECOND: euh....euh....! Probably no "second" 'cos I live near the Forest of Dean and foresters will tell you that sheep have feelings, too.
I did not mean to infer that.
I've heard Irish and Scottish say, "You may get away with calling us British. But never English."
I assume all the livestock are of "legal age"?
-bf
"...Raging howls from Garmr before Gnipahellir,
The fetters will burst, the beast will run:
Many charms I know, further in the future afar I behold
The judgement of the gods who give victory.
Brother shall strike brother and both fall,
Parents shall defile their kin;
Evil be on earth, an age of adultery,
Axe time, sword time,
Of split shields,
A wind-age, a wolf-age till the world caves in;
No man shall show mercy to another..."
- Taken from the Völuspá
Reino Perakorpi (a.k.a. Me :rarr: )
By the way, there's absolutely nothing about the so-called "Rapture" in the Bible. It's just a fiction made up by Christian extremists, sort of holy wishful thinking.
You're right, this is a topic that never seems to go away in Christian circles. If you want some real insight into just how ill some of these folks are got to prophecywatchers.com (or .org). A lot of the problem is, as usual, egocentrism. Most of the apocalyptic passages in the Christian scripture deal with the sacking of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman army, in my opinion. A good example of this is in Matthew 24, the passage a lot people use to support their claims of imenent destruction preceded by a sudden evacuation of Christians. The context of the prophetic declarations of Jesus are based on the disciples pointing out the grandeur of the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus says, basically, pretty soon there won't be much left of it. They are kind of put off by this and ask him later what the signs of this event getting ready to happen are, as well as the end of the age and his coming. In my view, the age that is ending is the age of Mosaic law and the rule of the current priesthood and Jesus 'coming' occured as a real event in the sense he came against Jerusalem in judgement. The point I am making is that all of the who, what, when, and wheres are largly ignored and scripture is applied to 'us now' in every generation. There are also a number of verses poorly translated from the original that give the impression of global events, when really a regional happening with a definitive time that effects a determined group of people is being promoted. There are intersting things like 666 being an acrostic for Nero in both Greek and Hebrew and various other internal and external evidences to support this view. The view is called partial preterist.
I have said all of that basically so I could say this. I get just as frustrated, and amused, by all the hype. Over on praize a lot of people were talking about "Is (insert natural disiaster) judgement from God and is that the horsemen of the apocolypse's hoofbeats I hear?" to the point I posted the question "Who would Jesus kill?" just so they would have to own their statements if they were going to make them. That did not endear me to very many folks.
I do believe that there will be a second coming of Jesus on this earth, but I feel it will take place as spiritual people come together in love and his character is manifested on a large scale. I remember reading a Buddhist teacher who wrote something like the next incarnation of the Dali Lama could be a corporate manifistation of the Sangha, something like that. That kind of thinking, in my opinion, puts the emphasis right where it should be, on the practice of mindfullness and loving kindness.
By the way, after reading the posts following the original, it may be of help to some folks to know that there is a phenomena that is known as 'goat boots' back home. If you put a goats hind feet in a pair of boots he becomes, reportably, immobilized and agitated. I think they left that one out of the farmers almanac.
Peace and Light, David
http://users.wolfcrews.com/toys/vikings/
-bf
Jesus will appear in the sky and all believers will float up to him? Tcha...as if.
There was a funny opener to Six Feet Under, where a pickup truck carrying inflatable love-dolls crashes and they all start floating skyward. A woman driver (with a bumper sticker that says "I brake for the rapture") see them, dashes excitedly into traffic yelling "wait for me!"...and is promptly run over.
If you want to be notified by email that the rapture has come and you are left behind, go to:
http://www.raptureletters.com/
My idea is that 'meeting Jesus in the air' is best understood in the context of the Biblical teaching of three heavens. The first being the atmosphere we breath, the second being the realm of spiritual beings (both positive and negative, call them what you like), and the third heaven which is described as the paradise of God. Point is, the paradise of God manifests in this diminsion or realm. This seems in line with other Biblical teaching concerning the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God upon earth. It does not involve Jesus killing anybody or even being upset about the vowel sounds you used when you talked to God. It does involve ressurections and grace.
I'm not trying to sell this. I'm just attempting to present the idea that all Christians don't feel the same way as Tim LaHaye and the "Left Behind" crowd.
Peace and Light, David
David
With all that has been happening in the world, I thought of the apocalypse once. And then I realized that many other people of many other times thought their disasters were the coming of Jesus. Since I can no longer believe the Bible or most of Christian doctrine, I have absolutely no plans of returning to my former church. But if there are Christians visiting this site with a really cool car, can I have it if the rapture occurs?
See!? That's what I like about you. Always thinking ahead.
Excellent plan.
-bf
If I recall correctly, you are in France. Are the people there very spiritualy minded or is the mindset mostly material? The folks here in the U.S all seem to have some concept of God or spirituality that influences their actions.
Blessings, David
Dave
I'll be straight with you, I have never, ever met such a non-christian Christian society as the French....! Church and State are very separate, and people almost dare not mention religion or discuss it because it simply doesn't form a part of their make-up.
When I first arrived here, I innocently suggested that maybe the primary school could organise a nativity pageant and I might as well have suggested we ritualistically disembowel the children - the staff were horrified and stated quite emphatically that anything religious was the parish Church's department and strictly taboo!!
* OFF TOPIC*
Nick and I want to get married next year.... (he just looked over my shoulder and said: "Do we?" I pseudo- panic-stricken replied, "Don't we?!" at which point he walked off....!)
I'm Buddhist, he's Atheist, but all ceremonies are based around marriage being sacred before God. But here's the thing: A church marriage on its own in France, is not legally binding. You have to be married in a civil ceremony first, by the Town Mayor. But it's still the 'Before God' bit.... go figure.....!!
Dave,
Please forgive my little joke. It's taken me many years to even make a joke about Christianity. You seem to be a person who is sincerely seeking and that is the kind of person I can respect. I've seen too many people carry a Bible and not know a thing about it or what's in it or how to even read it. And I was one of them a long time ago. You may keep your Mazda cuz you probably look very cool in it!
Have you ever read The Cloud of Unknowing or any of the other Christian mystic writings, such as by St. John of the Cross? The similarity to Buddhist mystic writings is, of course, obvious. I really loved The Cloud of Unknowing when I read it many long years ago.
Palzang
Fede,
That was funny about the nativity pageant
As for getting married - I believe the same things applies here in the states. You can have all the church ceremonies you want - but, at least in the state I'm in - you have to get married by the State.
-bf
Yes, it's a contract before the state. I am not against the ceremony, but since Americans are in such an uproar of the sanctity of marriage (in which 50% fail), I think it should all be done in front of a justice of the peace or however it's done. And also, taking a test might not be a bad idea either. My brother has been married twice and divorced twice. I don't think he knows how to be married. OOPS, I feel anger rising up in me. I better embrace it and let it go.
BTW, still married to that wonderful girl.
"Whither thou goest, I will go; And where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."
Ruth 1:16
Beautiful words.
and the rest, verse 17:
There are still some "churches" in the US that use the King James version. I do like the writing of the King James version - but had a hard time with it for quite awhile.
Like the part about how one of Noah's sons knew Noah's wife.
Of course Noah's son knew Noah's wife! She was his mom for God's sake!
-bf
David
David
I don't know how long it's been since your wife's passing, but my sincerest condolences on your loss. There are no words I can say that even would describe what you've been through. Reading the words of Ruth and Naomi were perfect. I caught a tear in my eye as I read the posts related to it. That was extremely touching.
Adiana:usflag:
My condolences on the loss of your husband. There are no words that can describe what you're going through. I lost my twin sister in 2001 and I still want to pick up the phone and call her and see how she's doing. I still cry now and then about her passing. But I hope sheis happy whatever happens after death. Again, my condolences on your loss.