COMensarations

TO: All
RE: People Like ‘yazzel’....

...don’t really care what they say, let alone believe it. All they want to do is obfuscate and denigrate. Hence, all their comments at Megan McArdle’s site on The Atlantic.

Seriously....

....look at their posts. See what I mean. It’s all ad hom and so much, “I don’t care to consider what you have to say.”

As I see it, typical ‘Progressive’.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Progressive is a one-word oxymoron.]

Hi Chuck,
Thanks for the support. I know it’s like talking to a wall, but one hopes that there are readers out there who just might learn a thing or two.

TO: Renee
RE: Talking to a What?

“Thanks for the support.”—Renee

You’re welcome.

“I know it’s like talking to a wall....”—Renee

More like talking to a herd of noisy ‘swine’, as I mentioned over at MM’s AI. And adolescent ones at that, based on the level of commentary. I suspect that not one of them is above the age of 17. Either that or the public education system is REALLY slipping.

RE: The Hope

“....but one hopes that there are readers out there who just might learn a thing or two.”—Renee

True. True. I tend towards that myself. But instead of addressing such as their ilk I’ll address a matter to someone else. Perhaps the author of the original piece. But I try to avoid feeding gems to these sorts.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

TO: Renee
RE: The Revelation of St. John

“....I am on my way to....take part in the Revelation of St. John....”—Renee

An interesting thought that. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

From my understanding that would include doing something on a par with releasing a swarm of very strange ‘locust’, followed by starting a war in Iraq five months later. Or perhaps causing a nuclear reactor to melt down in the Ukraine, at a town named Wormwood; or Chernobyl in their native tongue.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

"From my understanding that would include doing something on a par with releasing a swarm of very strange ‘locust’, followed by starting a war in Iraq five months later. Or perhaps causing a nuclear reactor to melt down in the Ukraine, at a town named Wormwood; or Chernobyl in their native tongue.”

LOL! I guess you could say that.

Rev 8:3

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.
Rev 8:4

The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand.
Rev 8:5

Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Your description of the first part of the Iraq war is intriguing. Most people will either classify themselves as post-, pre-, or a- millenial. As a lit major who is used to reading multiple meanings in one text, I am inclined to agree with them all.

TO: Renee
RE: Rev 9, Part 1

“Your description of the first part of the Iraq war is intriguing.”—Renee

It is VERY accurate.

RE: Rev 9, Part 2

That’s very accurate as well. The ‘horses’ with the tails like ‘snakes’ were the Main Battle Tanks pulling a trailer with the newly developed minefield breaching equipment; a long, explosive-filled, rocket-propelled hose that would fly over the MBT to lay itself out on the minefield. Once deployed and detonated, it left a path through which the tank could safely pass.

In deployment it looked like a flying snake coming off the back of the tank. And it is called the ‘snake’.

RE: Premies, Posties and Ammies

“Most people will either classify themselves as post-, pre-, or a- millenial. As a lit major who is used to reading multiple meanings in one text, I am inclined to agree with them all.”—Renee

All of them have interesting arguments to support their position. But the Premies come closest to accuracy. The others, as I see it, just lost patience with the Lord taking His own sweet time.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[God grant me patience......]

TO: Renee
RE: This One…

“Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”—Renee, citing Rev 8:5

...gives me cause for concern.

Ever read Niven and Pournelle’s classic, Lucifer’s Hammer?

How would a man of the 1st Century describe a major cometary impact on the earth?

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Chuck,

I cannot subscribe to pretrib theology, but I have no problem with a literal interpretation of St. John’s imagery. Is there a website you can direct me to to read more about the Iraq war in prophecy?

Renee

TO: Renee
RE: Premies, Posties and Ammies, Part 2

“I cannot subscribe to pretrib theology...”—Renee

It’s not my problem. You’re welcome to believe what you will. I merely point out the facts that these events were described almost 2000 years ago and are now happening, just as described. And according to that book, He’s supposed to return, physically, after all of those described events have taken place.

And I say, “Interesting stuff, that.”

What people do with the information is between themselves and God.

RE: What John Described

“....but I have no problem with a literal interpretation of St. John’s imagery.”—Renee

It’s a start. And a good one, compared to so many others’ approach to that information.

Another thing is what happened in the Ukraine. I take it that you are already aware that Chernobyl translates into English as Wormwood. Note the use of the proper noun form in Rev 8. Consider how a man of the 1st Century might describe a vision of a runaway nuclear reactor. Anything like a star burning on the Earth? And as for the poisoning of waters, the radioactive materials are in the ground water, working their way towards the Black Sea.

Oh. Yes. Lest I forget, an associate of mine is an emigre from the Ukraine. He says the village was founded before they started naming towns for people. So it’s named for the most striking aspect of the area....in this case the abundance of wormwood that grows in the area.

RE: Corroboration

“Is there a website you can direct me to to read more about the Iraq war in prophecy?”—Renee

Not that I’m aware of. The ministers that I’ve shown or told this too tend to shy away. I was just given this information while sitting in an office discussing the invasion of Iraq two days later with an armor officer of the Mormon persuasion.

Tankers like pictures of hardware. He and I were discussing what had happened and I sort of blanked out. When I came back into focus, I was starring at a picture of an AH64 and that still small voice whispered in my mind’s ear, “This is the locust.” [Note: This occurred seven months AFTER I became a REAL Christian.]

So, he and I broke out that Old Book and began to analyze the passages. We applied Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) techniques on the first half of 9 and knowing the 82d Airborne Division’s play-book—having served two tours with them—we did the correlation of Named Areas of Interest against anticipated events, i.e., major war in the Euphrates, five months after the AH64s are flying in the Arabian Peninsula. And we came up with mid-January 1991. The rest is history.

I’ve been following all of this very closely ever since.

RE: Other Sources

You mentioned Nostradamus over at Megan’s site.

I had not paid much attention to him until seven years after I became a real Christian. Then, I started noticing things he had written and and applying IPB techniques to them as well. There ARE some interesting possibilities.

One of them is a close encounter of the third kind....with a comet. One interpretation of Mr. N is a cometary impact that knockes the US to its knees, cripples Europe and begins a war of conquest by Russia attacking the nearly defenseless western Europeans. Just like Russia is trying to conquer Georgia just now.

Time will tell. In the meantime, as that closing line in the 1950s scifi classic The Thing goes, “Keep watching the skies.” But not for flying saucers, rather for comic spitballs.....

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Chuck,

Thank you for sharing your insight and analysis. You are right; it is very interesting stuff, especially the resemblance of the imagery to MBTs and the timing that you mentioned. Can you explain how you used the IBP?

I am (have been for quite a while) persuaded that there is imagery in Revelation that speaks of our world today and we are called to watch and know the times and season.

And I completely agree with this statement that you made:

And according to that book, He’s supposed to return, physically, after all of those described events have taken place.

But don’t let that encourage you.;¬) Where my views are now is not the start but nearing the end of a long journey. I studied this stuff fifteen years ago, but my theology has developed quite a bit since then, and I have become Catholic. We have issues with date setting and a pretribulation rapture followed by a thousand year reign of Christ on Earth, and I am persuaded that most of Revalation was fulfilled in the 1st century, but that does not exclude some future fulfillment also. I would really encourage you to take a look at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and compare it to John’s vision.

TO: Renee
RE: Watching It All Happen

“Thank you for sharing your insight and analysis. You are right; it is very interesting stuff, especially the resemblance of the imagery to MBTs and the timing that you mentioned.”—Renee

Yes. Watching prophecy unfold before your eyes IS ‘interesting’. And, akin to that ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” But on the other hand it offers confidence in the hope of the fulfilled promises.

RE: IPB

“Can you explain how you used the IBP?”—Renee

Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) is a technique developed by the US Army during the Cold War in order to anticipate what opponent forces were attempting to do. After all, one can hardly expect an enemy, in combat, to tell you the truth about their intentions. So we had to try to figure it out for ourselves.

The technique consists of several steps that start with a careful analysis of the terrain over which the battle is supposedly going to occur. At the end of the analysis the commanders and staffs have a good idea of what they think they should expect to see happening in certain locations, known as Named Areas of Interest, at certain times if the enemy is attempting to one thing or another.

For example, if the enemy is going to attack, the staff have identified various locations (NAIs) where they would expect to see enemy artillery units setting up. If the enemy is going to withdraw, there are various NAIs that the staff would expect to see certain support units disappear from, i.e., field hospitals would displace back from current known locations.

I’ve learned how to apply these techniques to other venues where the situation is ‘cloudy’, e.g., politics, corporate business, prophecy. [Note: Not that God is my enemy, but rather He doesn’t tell me exactly what is going on. Case in point prophecy.]

So, how does one apply this technique to prophecy?

First off you need to know information. In the case of Gulf War I (GWI), it was a NAI of the Euphrates River Valley, an activity, i.e., major war, and when, i.e., five months after the flight of the ‘locust’.

The next situation spoken of in that Old Book has an NAI of Jerusalem. The event being the two witnesses stirring things up.

However, as I stated above, there are other sources of information that might be useful. I mentioned Mr. N.

Shortly before Independence Day 1999, I noticed some passages that were brought to my attention. Some things about a special event that happens on July 4, 1999. One passage talked about an event that occurred on the “day the Eagle celebrates its feast”. The other mentioned a “king of terror from the sky”.

On the Fourth of July 1999, Russian paratroopers invaded Kosovo, much like they are doing in Georgia now. Most people wouldn’t know it, but paratroopers are a form of ‘terror from the sky’. My own regiment, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, has a motto of ‘Fury from the Sky’.

This juxtaposition of his writings and reality that I saw coming several weeks before it happened has caught my attention. And although I didn’t know it would happen in Kosovo or that paratroopers were involved until later, it still seemed very indicative that he knows a lot more than most people give him credit for. How he knows it is another matter, but I don’t think he got it from Satan. Satan can’t predict the future. Otherwise, he’d have given up his struggle against God LONG ago. He’d know that he cannot win.

RE: Imagery in Revelation

“I am (have been for quite a while) persuaded that there is imagery in Revelation that speaks of our world today and we are called to watch and know the times and season.”—Renee

Exactly.

RE: Views of the Day

“Where my views are now is not the start but nearing the end of a long journey. I studied this stuff fifteen years ago, but my theology has developed quite a bit since then, and I have become Catholic.”—Renee

I study it continually. But then I’ve been a bit more motivated.

“We have issues with date setting and a pretribulation rapture followed by a thousand year reign of Christ on Earth....”—Renee

There is that one date that God alone knows. And I’m not trying to fathom it. I’m just watching for it. Something about knowing the signs of the times. And that’s perfectly legit, as Christ rebuked the people of that generation over their ignorance and failure to be diligent.

“....I am persuaded that most of Revalation was fulfilled in the 1st century, but that does not exclude some future fulfillment also. I would really encourage you to take a look at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and compare it to John’s vision.”—Renee

I’m very much familiar with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD.

However, let me point out something.....

....the West [Wailing] Wall. Isn’t it STILL standing? And that’s a few more than ‘one stone standing upon another’.

Then there’s the business of Chernobyl. And likewise those ‘locust’. Also the war in the Euphrates River valley with very strange horses. None of those had happened during the 1st Century. But they’re happening NOW.

RE: Signs & Times

As I understand it, we’re in the midst of the period referred to in Revelation as the Seven Thunders. I think we’re about item five or six of the seven; as I see wars as being forms of ‘thunder’ and beginning the time frame from the end of GWI.

I’m apprehensive for the seventh thunder. My concern stems from this thought that keeps cropping up that the seventh thunder is that comet I mentioned earlier and your citation of that passage about censor of burning coals being hurled upon the earth. If you read Lucifer’s Hammer, a great novel by two giants of the science fiction community, you’ll understand how closely that passage equates to such an event. The excitement begins around page 150, 30 hours before the comet ‘passes’ Earth on its way back out from perihelion. Before that is all scenario and character development. But the italics parts, of the history of the comet—from before the formation of the Solar System—is interesting stuff too.

RE: Additional Thoughts....

....on the use of reading the confusing parts of that Old Book through the eyes of the writer.

This also can be applied to every other passage where things get a bit odd in that Old Book. Especially Genesis. For instance the Creation and the Great Flood.

The latter is EXACTLY how Niven and Pournelle describe what happens in Los Angeles after the major cometary strike in the Pacific. And, based on recent discoveries, there appears to have been a major cometary strike on the Earth about that time in history; Early Bronze Age civilizations went into the tank, BIG TIME. They all fell down. Not to forget radar imagery has detected craters in Iraq and the Indian Ocean that date back to that period.

So....

....how would a man of that time report a major tsunami rolling up the Euphrates River valley that wipes out all life he knew of? Or the 40 days it would take for all the vaporized ocean water to rain out of the sky? 

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Intersting discussion here…

Just curious about something - “This occurred seven months AFTER I became a REAL Christian.”

Would you mind defining “REAL Christian” just for my Kravitz-like curiosity?

Also, I think we were involved in a discussion about photographing children in public recently.

TO: Jeff
RE: [OT] Photographing Children in the Public Venue

“...I think we were involved in a discussion about photographing children in public recently.”—Jeff

Could have been. Are you the same who was accused by some feminist of being a pervert for mentioning how scantily clad were the girls hanging out at a mall?

RE: What Is a REAL Christian

In the ‘Beginning’

I thought I’d been Christian all my adult life. I went to church. I sang in the choir; baritone. I did good deeds. I participated in Bible study groups. I read my Bible every night.

But I was ignorant.

The ‘Process’

There’s a passage in that Old Book about being ‘born again of the Spirit’. It goes....

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

For me, I occasioned upon a Southern Baptist minister and during our discussions he asked me if I had been ‘born again’. I told him that I had not done anything that could be taken as such, but I was ignorant. He educated me by pointing out that passage.

After more discussion and his pointing out a couple of other passages, pointing out the logic of not being a REAL Christian until one has stopped thinking they can do it by themselves and recognizing that God and Christ are your only hope for being saved.

So, we prayed about that to that affect.

The ‘Effort’

After that, I continued my nightly readings in that book. But a month or so later, passages that didn’t make much sense to me became understandable.

And then the ‘understandings’ became useful in dealing with various situations, including bordering on the prophetic, that GWI business.

Then the really strange stuff started happening. But I’ve seen it all as evidence that I’ve been on the right track after all those years of being ignorant.

What It Is...

....from my understanding, is letting Christ be my guide in everything I can think of...if I have the wits to think of it. And, admittedly, sometimes I don’t.

As the Wayne Watson song goes....Finally out of my mind.....Finally out of control...

Regards,

Chuck(le)

"Could have been. Are you the same who was accused by some feminist of being a pervert for mentioning how scantily clad were the girls hanging out at a mall? “

That would be me.

TO: Renee
RE: Additional Thoughts On...Premies, Posties and Ammies

Specifically on Premies.

I’ve been pondering what other evidence there is that the Premie understanding is better than the other two.

Here are the items I’ve come up with of late:

[1] There have only been, historically, TWO of the three Abominations that Make Desolation as described by Daniel; Antiochus Epiphanes and the Roman general Titus who besieged the city in 68 AD.
[2] The third Abomination that Makes Desolation is described as appearing the the “latter days”.
[3] The third Abomination that Makes Desolation only has control of the Holy Mount for three and a half years; according to Daniel. The Romans did not give up control of Jerusalem, or what was left of it, for centuries after seige of 70 AD.
[4] The third Abomination that Makes Desolation is resisted and destroyed by Christ, as represented by Michael in Daniel. Michael, i.e., Christ, did not destroy the Romans.
[5] Daniel mentions that a great naval power comes to resist and embarrass the third Abomination that Makes Desolation, before he overruns Jerusalem. How is it that the Romans would resist and embarrass themselves?
[6] Reports I’ve seen indicate that Revelation was written AFTER the destruction of Jerusalem. Not prophetically, and yet we witness the prophetic aspects occurring the modern world over the last 30 years.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Chuck(le)