The Second Coming of Christ

"When do you think Jesus is coming again?  What's your view on the rapture?  Are you pre-tribulation or post-tribulation?"

There is great trouble in our world.  Nation against nation.  Mothers killing their own children.  People who normally are peaceful and loving are becoming angry, hateful, and violent.

And millions of Christians are loving it.  Because they think it means that any day now they will suddenly disappear, "raptured" into the sky, where they will have no more problems.

I realize that I am taking on one of the favorite sacred cows of the modern neo-fundamentalist movement.  Millions of readers have made a fictionalized series on the pre-tribulation rapture into a runaway bestseller.  Millions more attend their weekly "church" for news of the end of the world.

I am writing this as a part of my extended "frequently asked questions" series.  I do not delight in these types of things.  There are much, much more important things to deal with.  But the sheer quantity of inquiries I get about this has "forced" me to this document.  Many, MANY people are deeply concerned about this.

The Mythology

You are probably familiar with the whole end-of-the-world scenario being touted by the neo-fundamentalists.  With minor variations, it goes basically like this:

The tensions in the middle east will escalate.  Someone will appear on the world stage who will seemingly create peace.  All of the Christians will suddenly disappear from the earth.  This is called the rapture.  Then, the guy who caused the peace will show his true colors, being evil, requiring that everyone worship him.  No one will be able to buy or sell anything without his special barcode lasered into their hand or forehead.  Then 3 1/2 years of horrid tribulation will happen, when disease & war will happen like they never have before.  Then, Jesus will float down from the sky, landing on the earth, when he will get rid of all the bad guys & start his kingdom on the earth, which will last 1000 years.

Well, there are all kinds of schemes, sub-plots & variations to the above, but that's the primary idea.

The purpose, then, of this little writing, is to explain as simply as I can my objections to the "pre-tribulation-rapture," "end of the world," "Book of Revelations is a roadmap for the near future" hysteria.

The End of The World Cult 

In my earliest days as a Christian (circa 1974-1976) I was a card-carrying member of the End of The World Cult.  I attended the local branch, known as Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.  Chuck Smith was, and is, the head pastor.  He was good friends with Hal Lindsey, who wrote the best selling "Late Great Plant Earth."

I became utterly convinced, as I have written elsewhere, that it was physically, theoretically, Biblically impossible for me to live past December 31, 1980.  This was how God had (allegedly) laid-out the plans to all of the false prophets who made millions of dollars touting this message.

So, you see, you must know 2 things:

1. I do, I really DO understand.  I understand the fear and panic looking at the world can cause.  I understand the fear and panic of not knowing what to do with your life.  I understand the almost innate desire to have all the pain taken away, so we don't have to deal with these problems.  I understand.
2. It is, really, not your fault.  You are being mislead by a clerical system that finds it very financially profitable to keep you terrified, and looking for signs of hope in the message they sell you.

I remember so clearly in the mid 1970's the Sunday morning services that would have between 1000 and 2000 people attending.  Yes, Calvary Chapel is a very large church.  But when Chuck Smith announced he was going to do a special Monday night review of "The End Times," the traffic jam started 2 hours in advance.  Every seat, the floor, the stage, the overflow rooms, even the grass outside were crowded with the faithful, as 9,000 people advanced on Calvary Chapel to hear a word of terror.

And I was there, in the main hall, because I did leave 2 hours ahead of time.  And I listened to a recitation of all the evils happening in the world, and how it could only mean that we were going to disappear at any time, perhaps even tonight (great howls of applause on that one), and how you'd best believe in Jesus or you would be left behind for the locus to eat your eyes out.  And I certainly didn't want locus to eat my eyes out, so I was glad I had my ticket out of the Great Tribulation.

Scripture Out of Context - The Fig Tree

And, being the studious type, I wanted to get the whole end-of-the-world-thing down tight, memorizing every single chapter and verse.  So, I got my Bible and began a diligent effort to memorize the pertinent passages, enabling me to present this material to anyone.

And I am grateful I did, because it literally saved and changed my life.

Because I found, with my own eyes, that they were either utterly ignorant of the Bible, what it actually says, or they were lying to me.  I didn't know which, but it didn't matter.  

The more I got into it, the more I realized, with my own eyes and mind, that WHAT THEY SAID IT SAID, IT JUST DID NOT SAY.

As is my want these days, I cannot /will not do an exhaustive treatment here.  It is, ultimately, just a waste of time.  I do not want anyone to just take my word for things.  And if one example will not inspire you to do more digging, then neither will 100.

But I will give you one very important example.

Again, a review, this time with numbers.  I was told:

"The Generation that saw Israel restored to being a nation will see the return of Christ, according to the Bible. This we know from Mt 24:32: "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; even so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door."  The fig tree represents the Nation of Israel.  So, Jesus is saying, the generation that sees Israel restored to a nation will see His return.

"Israel was reformed in 1948.  A generation, Biblically speaking, was exactly 40 years.  1948 + 40 = 1988.  Now you have to subtract 7 years for the Great Tribulation, the horrid time when all hell will break loose on earth and Satan will rule without constraint.  The Antichrist will be revealed, the great World Leader who will make himself out to be God, appearing to bring peace to the Middle East, but require everyone to take his mark on their forehead.  And 3 ½ years into his reign God’s wrath will be poured out, and practically every living thing will suffer and die before Jesus comes floating down out of the sky.

"But before those 7 years happen, God will “rapture” all the good Christians out of the earth, meaning that they will suddenly disappear.  God wouldn’t leave them down here while Satan runs rampant through the earth.  No, never.  He just wouldn’t do that, being a loving God.  So, 1988 will see Jesus return, and the Christians will be raptured 7 years before that: 1988 – 7 = 1981.

"No one knows the day of his coming, as in whether it is a Monday or a Wednesday.  But we do know the signs, the times and the seasons."

Notice that his ENTIRE STRUCTURE stands on the Mt 24:32 passage.  The fig tree is Israel.

I was already starting to become a Bible student, and knew that the same passages were often included in different Gospels.  They present basically the same material, but from slightly different perspectives.

So I looked in the liner notes of my cross-referenced New Testament, and it told me to see Luke 21:29.  The context is the same, Jesus talking about the signs in the sky heralding His return.  I could (and still can) easily see this was the same material.

And then I read, with my own eyes, Luke 21:29

And He told them a parable: "Behold the fig tree, AND ALL THE TREES(!)...."

Look it up yourself.

The entire mythology of the 1981 rapture stood on the shoulders of the Mt 24:32 passage.  Yet here in the parallel Luke passage, ALL THE TREES are referred to.  And it is clearly a parable.

And if the Holy Son of God really meant, "2000 years from now the Nation of Israel will be reformed, and I will rapture you away 33 years after that," well, then why didn't He just come out and say it?!?

I had not been told the whole truth.  In the light of the Matthew / Luke Synoptic parallels, the bit about the fig tree was, at best, an over-exaggeration.  And the fact that it is placed so clearly in a parable meant, plainly, that they were either ignorant or lying.

That's what I saw.  That's what I knew with my own mind.  16 years old, and I simply, objectively, rationally, knew that I had a better grasp on the Bible than my so-called leaders and teachers, and that WHAT THEY SAID IT SAID IT JUST DID NOT SAY.

Perhaps you, too, will be inspired to do the research yourself.  With an open, honest mind, I am confident we will come to the same conclusions.

The deeper I dug the more I found (at best) materials taken out of their historical context, and (at worst) blatantly misquoted & mangled to suit the purposes of the false prophets who were attempting to mislead me.  

What follows, then, is a sketch of some of the greatest errors the End of The World Cult leads people into.

"Take No Thought For Tomorrow, For Every Day Has Trouble Enough of Its Own" - Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago (Mt 6:34)

This is absolutely, positively, the greatest abuse of the End of The World Cult.  

You are on this earth for a reason.  Some of these reasons we share communally, some of them are unique for each of us individually.  But regardless of the details, you have work to do, lessons to learn.

And sitting around, doing essentially nothing with your life in terms of growth, learning, ministering to others, is often (not always, there is no "always") a direct result of waiting for Jesus to come & take you away.

What is more, there is an entire mindset here.  Jesus was quite clear about, and lived utterly in keeping with, the idea of Living Here and Now.  Wherever you are, be there.  All the hippy-type things people used to say in the 60's.  

Simply put, the End of The World Cult violates God's guidance on how we should live.

Prayer For Evil

If The Cult could somehow see itself, how it really acts and talks, it would be appalled.  "Did you hear about the bombings in Israel?  And the 3,000 dead in the World Trade Center?  And the woman who killed her 5 children?  Praise JESUS!  I know He's coming soon!"  And, as disgusting as it (hopefully) is to the reader, I actually heard (and shamefully participated in) this type of speech many, many, many times.

You see, things need to get really, really bad (in The Cult's way of thinking) just before the end of the world.  And the end of the world is a good thing, 'cause that means Jesus is near.  So, not only do they stop working for good or change in this world, but often become obsessed with looking for, praying for, hoping for EVIL.

This is very sad.

"4,000 more dead last night.  Praise Jesus!"

Am I the only one paying attention here?

Abdicating Personal Responsibility

You see, once we are convinced we are getting ready to junk our old car, there's no reason to wash it or change the oil or do anything to improve it.  Or even bother to put gas in it.  And The Cult treats this world like it is a car about to be junked.

So, there's no reason to go to school.  Yes, I knew many in The Cult who refused to stretch, to learn, to grow in any way.  Why bother?

There's no reason to hold jobs, get married, or be decent people.  Why bother?

And there's certainly no reason to get involved in any kind of cause or ministry to try to make this world a better place.  It's all crap and about to be junked anyway.  Why bother?

In The Cult there was more illicit sex, drug use, and all-around being-a-bum per capita than anywhere else I have personally ever witnessed.

Your experience may be different.  YOU may be different.  But once we become convinced this world is about to be junked, and our association with it about to be terminated, it is easy to descend into the "F@#%-It-All" mentality.

And, do you ever actually stop to think about this?  There are at present over 1 BILLION (that's 1,000 MILLION) people in this world who "claim" to be Christian.  Yet the violence, hatred, abortions, drug abuse, debt, pollution (etc etc etc) continue to grow.  Where can you find the indication of the POSITIVE INFLUENCE these 1,000 Million "christians" are having?  Well, a large part of the problem is, in fact, The Cult.  On the whole you can make a very good point that the church no longer cares about making the world a better place, and is content to watch it go to hell on their Super High Resolution, Surround Sound Home Theater Systems.

Self Fulfilling Prophesy

This world is, in short, ONE MASSIVE SELF-FULFILLING PROPHESY.  It Will Be What We Will It To Be.  That is the one and only operative force shaping the world today: Our Communal Will.

And The Cult, convinced the world is about to be scrapped, IS ONE OF THE PRIMARY FORCES CREATING THE VERY HELL THEY SEEK TO BECOME SAVED FROM.  That's why they pray for it, seek it, rejoice in it.  "Evil, be thou my good" is the Satanic Lord's prayer.

This World is Not Meant to be Hell

The Fruit of Yhwh's Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  THAT is the world we are MEANT to inhabit.  THAT is the world we CAN inhabit, once we are willing to start applying our energies toward it.

And Yhwh saw ALL that He had made, and behold, it was very, VERY good.  And can be again.

Ignoring the Historical Significance of The Book of Revelations

"But still, the wars, the rumors of wars, it all seems to fit Revelations too well.  This can't all be coincidence, can it?"

No, it is not coincidence, but its significance is not what you think it is.

If you haven't yet, please read my paper on Biblical Inerrancy.  There you will see, among other things, that there were many different "Apocalypses" written in the ancient word.  Many have survived to this day.  It was a very popular style of writing.

So, why did the Revelation of John become Canonized?  Simply, because it was VERY POPULAR.  It spoke to people back then, 2000 years ago, with a message they could relate to.  Most people do not know this.  But it is very true, and it is the primary reason John's Revelation was preserved by the people - They liked it, it spoke to them, and they could relate to it.

John's Apocalypse was written as an underground text, during Roman persecutions of the early Christian Church.  It contains a very specific message, couched in symbolic language, about the present living conditions as encountered by the Christians circa 100 A.D.

And what is that message?  Stripped of its cloaking, it boils down to this:

That, my friends, is what the Revelation really says.  That is, if you will, the moral of the story.

And the people in Rome 1900 years ago saw themselves and their current lives in every word.  Certificates were issued that permitted people to buy & sell, without which they would die.  The hills and the bowls and the trumpets all spoke to them, symbolically, about things they were experiencing.  

The Apocalypse even TELLS you it has codes in it.  Rev 13:18 "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."  In other words, "If you catch my drift, hint, hint, the number of this jerk is 666."  The Jews had their own way (they still do) of relating numbers to letters.  This is true both for Hebrew and Greek.  And the plain fact is that Caesar Nero, the emperor who started the whole "throw the Christians to the lions" thing, was the 666.   

Misunderstood Symbolism 

It is certainly understandable that today's modern reader is hard pressed to comprehend all this.  We are dealing with a text 1900 years old, embedded with a symbolism we can (most of us) only relate to in our frame of reference.  

But to the serious Bible scholar, the Revelation takes on a whole new dimension.  278 of the 440 verses refer to images and symbols we encounter in other Old & New Testament Books.  To detail it all is an involved, fascinating study.

But today, we really don't "get it."  If someone writes today "The horrors of 9/11," we know (because of the historical CONTEXT) what they are referring to.  But in two thousand years, someone unfamiliar with the history may come to the conclusion that this is somehow a mystical, numerological warning against the number .8181 (9 divided by 11).  See how this happens?  

Folks, most of you are not even able to understand a Shakespearian play, let alone the symbolism in a 1900 year old Greek Apocalypse.

But here is another example.  A lot of modern mythology has been made out of the 144,000 (Rev 7:4) who are "sealed," protected by God from the tribulation.  Some groups go so far (in their well-intended but misunderstood interpretations) as to take this as the literal number of souls that will live with God in heaven.

The truth is that 144,000 was, essentially, the largest conceivable number 1900 years ago.  Numbers like "million" and "billion" and "trillion" had not been invented.  The largest "regular" number was 1000.  But the author knew there were 12 Hebrew tribes, and the number 12 has been symbolic for completeness (as in 12 months, 12 signs of the Zodiac, etc).  So, 12 X 12 X 1000 = 144,000.  The number was meant (in context) to refer to UNCOUNTABLE MULTITUDES, not an infinitesimal fraction of the billions of souls who would ever live. 

The Receding Eschatological Horizon

"Eschatology" is the study of the End Times.

The whole field of Biblical Eschatology has undergone radical transformations over the centuries.  People starting in 30 A. D. were convinced that Jesus' return was immanent - any day now.  They knew for a fact that they were the last generation, and would not even die, as they experienced the 2nd Coming.

But days slipped into years, and then centuries.  Still, apparently, no return.

This is known as the Receding Eschatological Horizon: The timeframe when people expect Jesus to return.

Still, though, in times of trouble, each and every single generation for the last 2000 years has been convinced that it really, really is the last one.  They have all seen themselves in The Book of Revelation.  They have all been convinced that theirs are the Last Days, and the world is about to end.  And Jesus is going to return any day now.

And you know what?

THEY HAVE ALL BEEN RIGHT!!!!!!

The Second Coming

"Say What?!?"

That's right.

Every generation has thought itself the last, and every generation has been right.

Oh, no, not externally, as in what will happen to the outside, physical world.  But internally, as in what will happen to their individual lives.

You see, when the Messiah came the first time, people did not recognize Him.  They were looking for an earthly, physical king to set up an earthly, physical kingdom, and rule the physical earth with physical, earthly power.

They were wrong.  The Messiah came and said, quite simply, "The Kingdom of Yhwh is within you!"  Luke 17:21.   

And as soon as He left, what did they look for?  His return.  To do what?  To set up an earthly, physical kingdom, and rule the physical earth with physical, earthly power!

Am I the only one paying attention here?

Simply put, Jesus DOES come a second time.  To each of us.  When we die.  The sun is darkened, the moon turns to blood and, like a thief in the night, we are caught-up (raptured) into the "sky," where we will reign with Messiah forever.

The message of The Revelation is true, for each of us, forever.  That is part of its Miraculous inspiration, that it can speak loudly and clearly to all generations, for those who have understanding and an ear to hear.

Because these are The Last Days.  And we have very little time left to do good.

That's why John's Revelation starts (Rev 1:9) with the profound words: "I, John, your brother and fellow-partaker in THE Tribulation and Kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus...."

The Kingdom of Yhwh is within you.

John was there, in The Tribulation, 1900 years ago.

So are you, 1900 years later.

The Eschatological horizon is right here, right now, to live THIS DAY for all it is worth.  To work to make the Earth and the life of all the people on it the best it can be.

The End of The World Cult sits by, doing nothing, praying for terror to reign, waiting for Jesus to return to establish a physical kingdom, so they do not have to do any work.

The Truth is that WE are supposed to be the ones doing the physical work, and Jesus will return to take us, one by one, to His eternal Kingdom.

The good news?  Yes, you will be raptured away.  You do not know the day or the hour.  But it will happen sooner than you think.

The bad news?  You will not escape The Tribulation.  

It is already here.

Pastor Ahyh, Thursday, April 4, 2002, in the Valley of The Center, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus.

Email:

Subject: Your 2nd Coming Article
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 22:10:12 +0200
From: "Jan H. Nes" <jan@yhwh.no>  
Organization: YHWH.NO  [That's the Norwegian branch of The Church of Yahweh]
To: <Ahyh>

Well, here's the verdict (for what its worth) :

To be honest and sincere, I think this a great article with a great message.  I cant find anything wrong with it at all.  In fact, I think I will translate this article [into Norwegian] after I'm finished with "The Revealing Science of God". Not kidding.

In fact, you did put the words right in (or out) my mouth here. These are very much my own thoughts and how I feel about it, too - that the rapture-theory can ruin many people mentally.  In fact, it could bring more bad to it than good.  Especially if you try to predict when He's coming back and stuff.  It can become a new worshiping idol.  People are not longer following Jesus, but the rapture-theory.  They begin worshiping the "rapture-idolism" instead of God's will. But enough - I have to ask you :

1. If (and only if) - it becomes obligatory to receive this "mark of the beast" on your forehead or right hand to be able to buy or sell - will you take it?

2. Do you think the Earth will always be around? If not - what do you think Jesus means with the "signs of times"?

Jan H.Nes
www.yhwh.no

1. If (and only if) - it becomes obligatory to receive this "mark of the beast" on your forehead or right hand to be able to buy or sell - will you take it?

I have a mystical, living appreciation for the Scriptures.  They are, in fact, more real to me than to most people I know.

The odd, disturbing, yet simple fact is, that I was BORN with the Mark of The Beast.

I never had a say in the matter.  On practically the day I was born I was assigned a Social Security Number.  I do not know about the rest of the world, but certainly in America this number fits exactly the Biblical warnings about The Mark of The Beast:

For me, the Scripture contains the seeds of all advice and all warnings, across all times, regardless of technology, politics, or language.  It is incomprehensibly prescient and powerful in that way.  I cannot explain it, but I know, feel, and smell it to be true.

And what else is done with my Number?  Well, many things.  But among the most helpful is that (on average) 40% to 50% of every dollar that passes through me is automatically redirected to The System in the form of "fair, just, and equitable" taxation.

And what does The System do with my (aka God's) money?  Many things.  Here's just one example, from Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists, http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1991/s91/s91lopez.html

There have been no precise estimates of civilian casualties during the 1991 Gulf war. The most intelligent guesses have been broad ranging: "5,000--15,000 Iraqi civilians died during the war, and 4,000-6,000 civilians died since the end of the war due to wounds, lack of medical care, or malnutrition," according to Greenpeace. The bitter reality is that the numbers of civilians who die in the war's broadening wake will soon dwarf the number of Iraqis, Kurds, and other refugees who died in the civil strife after March 1. And the United Nations estimated in July that 50-80 thousand infants are at risk of severe malnutrition because of the war. 

The after-effects of the war are all too easy to understand.  Nevertheless, growing evidence indicates that thousands of civilians also died during the war. How did this happen, if there were so few accidents, and if U.S. bombers were able to target so carefully? Several elements of the allied war plan contributed directly to civilian deaths:

• The bombing of cities. The military necessity of waging war against first-order military and industrial-military support targets meant that targets within cities would be heavily bombed, and that civilians would die. This was particularly the case for Basra, which served as a major military communications and supply center, and to a lesser extent for Ramadi, Diwaniya, and Mosul. In Baghdad, precision-guided munitions were almost always used in attacks on command-and-control centers, but we do not know what occurred in other cities. The extent of bombing destruction in those areas is still unclear as well.

Targets within cities were bombed at different periods during the war. Baghdad command-and-control facilities and Basra military installations were attacked almost hourly during the first two weeks. Then attention turned to dismantling Iraqi fighting positions in Kuwait and along the border, and to the air force units that had fled from the southern to the northern portion of the country.

But it is curious that the United States bombed Baghdad heavily again after February 12, destroying new civilian targets such as the ministries of Justice and Municipal Affairs. This happened even though Baghdad's command-and-control facilities were so damaged that it was taking Saddam Hussein more than a week to get orders to a vanishing leadership in Kuwait. Later, as the ground phase of the war got under way, Baghdad came under its heaviest attack since the first two days of the war. 

• The bombing of highways and bridges. Among the early major targets were bridges and highways leading south of Baghdad and Basra and from other Iraqi cities toward the Iranian and Jordanian borders. Some of the heaviest civilian casualties appeared to be among those taking these routes to flee the bombing of Baghdad. American spokesmen claimed that they had reason to believe that Saddam Hussein was moving Scud missiles and possibly chemical and biological weapons in civilian trucks and buses, and that the roads and bridges were being used to resupply units in Kuwait. Many claimed that fiber-optic materials important to communication were also strung across bridges.

On January 30 the United States claimed "air supremacy." General Schwarzkopf revealed that 33 of 36 key Iraqi bridges had been bombed, that 75 percent of Iraqi command-and-control systems had been attacked, and that at least a third were "destroyed or inoperative."  Yet allied planes continued to pound highways and bridges until the final day of the war, increasing the territory of the attack deep into the northern sectors of the country.

This was partly to prevent pilots from dumping their bombs at random or at will when they found their primary targets-missiles and planes, for example-either already destroyed or obscured by weather. American commanders placed bridges around the country, especially in Baghdad and the northern provinces, on a secondary hit list for these fliers.

• Other infrastructure attacks. The attacks that have come under the severest criticism were those launched after mid-February on electrical, water, and sewage facilities in Iraqi cities. These attacks are responsible for much of the continuing death and hardship among Iraqi civilians. The United States did not resort to terror-bombing in the Gulf, as it did in World War II or even in the Christmas 1972 bombings of North Vietnam. Yet the allies managed to inflict what a U.N. observer team would later call "near apocalyptic" damage to Iraq's infrastructure, leaving, by June 1, 70,000 homeless and as many as 20,000 others sick and dying in a state that had been bombed back to the "preindustrial age."

But I want to make another point here.  Despite how it may appear, I am not just "America-bashing" here.  "The System" is, in fact, world-wide.  Terrorism exists everywhere.  The Beast roams everywhere, seeking whom It may devour, waging universal war against all holiness and decency.  40,000 people died of starvation again last night.  From The Think Library, http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

The world hunger problem: Facts, figures and statistics

In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million
people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty"

Every year 15 million children die of hunger

For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children could eat lunch
every day for 5 years

Throughout the 1990's more than 100 million children will die from illness
and starvation. Those 100 million deaths could be prevented for the price of
ten Stealth bombers, or what the world spends on its military in two days!

The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is
well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- Since you've entered
this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die
this year.

One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million
children under the age of 5. United Nations Food and Agriculture

The Indian subcontinent has nearly half the world's hungry people. Africa
and the rest of Asia together have approximately 40%, and the remaining
hungry people are found in Latin America and other parts of the world.
Hunger in Global Economy

Nearly one in four people, 1.3 billion - a majority of humanity - live on less
than $1 per day, while the world's 358 billionaires have assets exceeding
the combined annual incomes of countries with 45 percent of the world's
people. UNICEF

3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day. 

In 1994 the Urban Institute in Washington DC estimated that one out of 6
elderly people in the U.S. has an inadequate diet.

In the U.S. hunger and race are related. In 1991 46% of African-American
children were chronically hungry, and 40% of Latino children were
chronically hungry compared to 16% of white children. 

The infant mortality rate is closely linked to inadequate nutrition among
pregnant women. The U.S. ranks 23rd among industrial nations in infant
mortality. African-American infants die at nearly twice the rate of white
infants.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to
bed hungry every night.

Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of
those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished. 

In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 young children were saved by
vitamin A supplementation programmes in developing countries.

Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide - a
proportion unmatched by any infectious disease since the Black Death

About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age

To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only
US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union
spend on perfume each year. 

The assets of the world's three richest men are more than the combined
GNP of all the least developed countries on the planet. 

Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger

It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger
and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it
each year. 

THAT, my friends, is what The World-Wide Beast does.  It spends $1,000,000,000,000 per year on its war machines, always morally and justifiably in the name of Defense.  It wouldn't be necessary, except that the Other Guys are such assholes.

And while it spends that money, the rest of the world dies of starvation and disease.

If you haven't, please read Painting By Numbers.

I was born with the Mark of this Beast forever burnt, not on my hand or forehead, but into my very soul.

2. Do you think the Earth will always be around? If not - what do you think Jesus means with the "signs of times"?

No, the physical earth will not always be here.  It may get swallowed when the Sun explodes into a supernova.  Or we may blow it up in a moral, just war.

The Signs of the Times are best understood, it seems to me, as key elements of the language of symbolism.  The Sun represents the presence of God.  The moon represents the soul / ego of man.  And so on.  These are ancient archetypes.  I have written most extensively about this in The Truth About Tarot Cards.  

The Sun turns dark means that God can no longer be seen.

The Moon turns to blood means that man lives only for war & bloodshed.

It sounds like today, if you ask me.

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