Thursday, January 12, 2012

For Dawn

Answer to a reply at CBS Denver about Tebow

Here’s the reply I couldn’t post over there. Click on “MORE”.

But don’t necessarily reply here. Let’s keep the discussion out in the open. BUT if you have a lengthy reply, it might have to go here instead of there. We’ll have to play it by ‘ear’.....

TO: Dawn
RE: The Citation

Revelation 8:10-11 reads, “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”—Dawn

Good of you to cite the verbiage I was getting at.

RE: Out of Context?

You are taking scripture out of context in order to make it say something YOU want it to say. —Dawn

Hardly. I’m citing all the passage you’re referenced above. If you think taking all the text about a specific event out of context, where the rest of the text on either side of it deals with other distinctly separate events, you’re very wrong. Or are you demanding we cite ALL of that Old Book in this discussion?

That’ll take a LONG TIME. I recommend you join our Mens’ Bible Study Group. We meet Friday mornings at 0645 hrs (Mountain Time). You can call in.

But, I’m not saying something I want it to say. Others said it before me. Specifically, I heard it first on a PBS special about the Chernobyl Incident. The narrator came on and in his opening statement said....

Chernobyl. Wormwood. That star of apocalyptic import.

Please pardon my slipping back into a Life where I wore nothing but ‘green’, but that set off a red star-cluster—a pyrotechnic device used to signal ‘WARNING!’.

So I began checking around. And I found several reliable sources, e.g., the linguist at the Denver Public Library and an Ukrainian emigre who grew up in the area. They both confirmed that the name of the town where the accident occurred translates from its native Ukrainian to English as “Wormwood”.

Please note the use of the proper noun form for the name of the ‘star’ in the passage you quoted.

The emigre says the town was established before the Russians started applying names of famous persons to towns, e.g., St. Petersburg, Stalingrad, etc. Chernobyl is named for the most common plant growing in the area, a kind of ‘wormwood’.

RE: A Third of the Waters

These verses say that a third of the waters on earth would become wormwood. When did this happen because of Chernobyl?—Dawn

First off, you ASSUME [NOTE: When you ASSUME, you make an ASS out of U and ME.] John’s vision showed the whole Earth. More on that later.

But, for the most part, what do you know about how the Russians built the final sarcophagus?

I suppose you know the poured thousands of tons of concrete on the remains of the melted pile of radioactive materials.

What do you know about how to sealed the bottom of that radioactive slag-heap? Do you know if they dug under it to seal the radioactive materials from leaching into the ground water?

I don’t believe they did. If they did and you know about it, please point me to the reliable reference.

So, if they didn’t seal the bottom. That radioactive material is going to get into the water table. And that water table flows through the Pripet Marshes towards the Black Sea.  When it gets there—it will take a while—it will contaminate all of the Black Sea. And likely the Bosphorus and western Med, in the fullness of time.

After all. All John knew as to his world was the Black Sea, and the Med. He may have heard of other waters, but he’d have no idea of the scope. Again, more on that a bit farther on.

RE: I Only Know What Has Been Given To Me To Know

Another way you take these verses out of context is that the prophecies in the previous verses had to be fulfilled first before the third one was fulfilled.—Dawn

As I said earlier, I’m dealing with a distinct event that is separate from those other events. My knowledge is limited to this event and the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets.

Maybe someone else has better understanding of the First, Second and Fourth Trumpets. All I can do is conjecture.

But I will give you a clue on how to appreciate any of these events....

....you have to look at them from the perspective and knowledge of the man who was given these visions of future events. Walk in his shoes. Use his understanding of the world.

How would a man of the First Century describe to his contemporaries, a vision of an advanced technology, e.g., a runaway nuclear reactor or an AH64 Apache attack helicopter flying in the Arabian Desert sun?

Wouldn’t you think he’d use terms that they would understand. He wouldn’t use terms like ‘attack helicopter’ or ‘nuclear reactor’. He and they wouldn’t know what such things meant. He’s use ‘metaphor’.

If you had such a vision of something you’d never seen before, a technology so advanced—you’d never seen it in the weirdest scifi movie—you’d have to make up words to describe it to others, wouldn’t you use terms your contemporaries would use? Rather than words they’d throw you in the looney bin if you used them. I’ll be dollars to donuts you would.

Furthermore, he’d refer to the geographical references they would all appreciate, in the scope that the vision allowed. A third of the waters being poisoned. Perhaps the vision only showed the area of the Pripet Marshes and the western Med. After all, the vision apparently didn’t give away the idea that the world was actually ROUND! Or that there was a huge land mass a ways beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Otherwise the Romans might have discovered America, given such a tip.

What I do know, and you cannot refute, is that John nailed the name of the place and gave a reasonably—for his era—description of what took place there. TWO THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE EVENT.

That’s ‘prophecy fulfilled’. And THAT is proof to the Truth of God’s Word.

Hope that helps.....

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[The difference between heresy and prophecy is often one of sequence. Heresy often turns out to have been prophecy when properly aged.—Hubert H. Humphrey]

P.S. I suspect that atheists think ALL prophecy, especially that fulfilled, is heresy to their beliefs. Well, that’s a shame. Chernobyl and Operations DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM are fact.

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