We're Still Living Out the Old Testament

-


Do we really want to believe that judaism is god's message to the world, or Islam is way to peace, or Christianity is Love and Understanding, or America is the Defender of Freedom, or we are the center of the Universe?

Here's a brief script I borrowed from wikipedia not wilileaks illustrating the fact we are still living in the middle ages where all this became a reality rather than a story, just a story that Men used to rape, kill, and maim.

1500 B.CE  (approx.)

Zoroaster 

Many historians trace the apocalyptic world view back to 

                        the Persian prophet Zoroaster, who spoke of a cosmic 

                        battle between good and evil ending in a new, perfect 

                        world for humanity. The Zoroastrian tradition survives 

                        today in Iran and as the basis of Parsiism in India. 

 592 BCE to 586 BCE

The Book of Ezekiel, one of the major 

                        prophetical books of the Old Testament, is written in 

                        response to the invasion and capture of Jerusalem by the 

                        Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent exile 

                        of the Jews to Babylon. The Book of Ezekiel foretells 

                        the return of the Jews to their homeland and the violent 

                        destruction of future enemies. The book ends with God's 

                        admonition to the Jews reminding them that their 

                        suffering and exile resulted from their lack of faith 

                        and trespassing against Him, but foretells that after 

                        the return to the homeland, proper worship will resume 

                        and God will no longer turn away from them. 

485 BCE 

Probably inspired by the sack of Babylon by 

                        Xerxes, the Book of Isaiah is a prime example of the 

                        pre-apocalyptic Jewish prophetic tradition. The prophets 

                        were professionals who spoke to contemporary problems 

                        through poetry, often including a small amount of future 

                        prediction to enhance their authority. With its cosmic 

                        symbolism and introduction of the resurrection of the 

                        dead, Isaiah reveals important elements of the 

                        apocalyptic world view falling into place. 

250 BCE 

The series of books collectively called First 

                        Enoch, written during a period when the Jews were under 

                        the rule of the Greek Empire, see a further shift from 

                        the ancient prophetic tradition to a new apocalyptic 

                        tradition. The books take as their subject Enoch, the 

                        seventh patriarch of the Book of Genesis who, as a 

                        visionary, was reputed to have received secret knowledge 

                        from God. Many of the standard elements of the distinct 

                        literary genre of Jewish apocalyotic first emerge in 

                        these texts. The "Book of Watchers" provides the first 

                        example of the judgment of the dead in the Jewish 

                        tradition; the distinctively historical "Apocalypse of 

                        Weeks" is the first to envisage the end of the world in 

                        a literal sense. Within the series, the perspective 

                        shifts from the cosmic to the concretely historical. 



                        167 BCE 


                              The Book of Daniel 



                        The Book of Daniel is written as a product of the Jewish 

                        Maccabean revolt agaisnst persecution by the Syro-Greek 

                        dynasty of the Seleucids. After the New Testament Book 

                        of Revelation, it is the scripture most often studied 

                        and cited by contemporary prophecy believers. Daniel's 

                        dream holds that Israel will inherit "the greatness of 

                        the kingdom under the whole heaven" when God has 

                        overthrown the last of the four evil kingdoms, first 

                        represented by four metals, then by four beasts. In many 

                        ways, Daniel represents the emergence of revolutionary 

                        eschatology. In it, the world is dominated by an evil 

                        power, and the suffering of its victims--the intended 

                        audience--becomes increasingly intolerable. But at some 

                        appointed time the saints of God will rise up and 

                        overthrow the oppressor, and the sufferers will inherit 

                        the earth. 



                        63 BCE 


                              Romans capture Jerusalem 



                        With the capture of Jerusalem, the Romans make Judea an 

                        outpost of their empire. Their oppressive rule makes 

                        Rome the locus of evil in apocalyptic literature until 

                        the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the early 4th 

                        century A.D. 



                        4 BCE 


                        Jesus Christ is born in the area of Nazareth. 



                        30 CE Jesus is put to death by Roman officials. His 

                        followers--the first Christians--would use an 

                        apocalyptic framework to make sense of this unthinkable 

                        development, casting him in the role of Messiah and 

                        reasoning that he would return soon to finish his work. 



                        70 CE A Jewish rebellion against Rome ends in failure 

                        with the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the 

                        Temple.

                        The Gospel of Mark is believed to have been written 

                        around this time. It includes the "Little Apocalypse" 

                        (Mark 13), Jesus' eschatological discourse to his 

                        disciples, in which he both fueled expectations of an 

                        imminent end ("This generation shall not pass, till all 

                        these things be fulfilled") and cautioned against date 

                        speculation ("But of that day and hour knoweth no man 

                        ... but my Father only."). 



                        mid-to-late

                        first century The Essene movement reaches its peak. The 

                        1947 discovery of their sacred library, known as the 

                        Dead Sea Scrolls, would reveal much about this highly 

                        apocalyptic Jewish sect. The Essenes called themselves 

                        the "sons of light," in opposition to the Jewish 

                        majority, or "sons of darkness." In texts like the 

                        so-called "War Scroll," they essentially recast the 

                        history of Israel in terms of a cosmic war between good 

                        and evil. Highly critical of all outsiders, the Essenes 

                        looked forward to the day of judgment, when they 

                        expected God to send an army to destroy their enemies. 

                        The Essenes demonstrate that the early Christians were 

                        but one of many Jewish sects animated by apocalyptic 

                        beliefs. 



                        90 CE 


                              The Book of Revelation 



                        Biblical scholars believe that around this time the 

                        Revelation of John, or the Book of Revelation was 

                        written. Destined to become the only apocalypse in the 

                        New Testament and the final Book of the Christian Bible, 

                        Revelation is the paramount source for Christian 

                        prophecy believers. Scholars are skeptical of the claim, 

                        made by those who argued for its inclusion in the canon, 

                        that the author is the same man who wrote the Gospel of 

                        John. Whatever its authorship, Revelation has had 

                        tremendous influence on our culture and history, not 

                        only motivating millions of believers but contributing 

                        vivid images and phrases to popular culture, from the 

                        "four horsemen of the Apocalypse" to the "mark of the 

                        beast." 

                        Borrowing much of its imagery from the Book of Daniel, 

                        Revelation is fairly typical of the revolutionary 

                        eschatology of the time. Addressing "the scattered 

                        Christians of Asia Minor in their hour of affliction," 

                        the author describes in vivid detail the means through 

                        which God will save his people from their suffering at 

                        the hands of Satan. "God shall wipe away all tears from 

                        their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither 

                        sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more 

                        pain; for the former things are passed away." 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Money and Other News

-
Latest News- Assad goes away, so is another afghanistan on the way? More on that later but now, it's mostly about money Liberals and progressives are again in a self-created conumdrum. The trump presidency which includes his appointments are about to attempt to dismantle the federal government we love to hate but its like rescuing your drunken parent from further harm but with no cure insight. We'd rather continue on with not a wounded beast which america likes to imagine itself but a really, nearly worthless concept that has been perverted, corrupted, self-destructive, and downright a lying, sociopathic nation for hundreds of years, ever since it rewrote the rules for genocide (supremacy) and slavery (ownership). But i come to bury Caesar, not to kill it. Recently, i experienced the death of my sister. Other than my parents, no one in my immediate family had experienced a long term terminal illness as her disease progressed through two years of treatme...
Read more

No Forgiveness

-
Why i cant forgive america although i am a white man and have never experienced any of the terrible events in my lifetime that were precipitated by the false, faked, infallibility of the american dream. Yes, some may see me from the outside in, middle class, retired, comfortable but inside, a complex mixture of guilt, anger, fear, isolation, and a resounding moral standoff between my natural world and americas unnatural world that all of us are exposed to and manipulated by. Its toxicity on everyones minds, hearts, and souls is all encompassing. After much introspection, ive concluded some things that i have played out during the course of my life. There are three historical events that stand out for me in which america, as a nation, manifested. This manifestation goes beyond americas supposed principles of rights for all turned out to be for some and none, especially if whatever ethnic, race, gender group, or other nation anyone belonged to.   Those t...
Read more

Fwd: Two state solution

-
Two state solution Well, G azans are the ones living in dangerous times but not us. We have the choice and no matter how many chose the two-state solution over the last seventy years, no one here did enough to make that possible. It's always been dangerous times there. Always been evident that there would not ever be a two-state solution. Zionism believes in Israel for Jews, and not anyone else. All americans have been suckered into the idea zionism is judaism, and have fallen even further to believe anti-zionism is anti-semitism. The Holocaust was only an anomaly because it happened in the history of the modern western nations who have always ruled the world wherever they found it with slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing, immigrant hating. It's a culture of violence, patriarchy, oligarchy that is prevalent in every corner of the world. It is the "evil" of which we all speak. It's controlled by profit and greed and manufactured by the people who have been stripp...
Read more

Freedom Will Win

-
  It's a wonder the lengths progressives will have to go through to explain their beliefs. To have to explain that Zionism does not represent Judaism to every god-fearing soul who wants to believe that what's happening in Gaza is an act of Jews defending themselves from a hateful, terroristic people, who, in reality, are people just like the Jews who live ordinary lives in Israel and in the rest of the world. Equating Zionism to Judaism is like equating Isis or the Taliban or even Saudi Princes to Islam. Yes, those terroristic examples use Islam in the same way Zionism uses Judaism. All that is not to say that religion itself, in all it's various forms, has not been the main harbinger of not always hate but a disguise for oppression, war, and the renunciation of freedom everywhere.  Let's face it. All the problems, worldwide, relating to the status of non-believers, the status of women, the status of freedom are connected to religious beliefs, which, of themselves, are ...
Read more

Genetics Don't Make Change

-
  ( This was written right after the election of Joe Biden in 2020) Dangerous Women “Lizzie Borden took an axe, then she gave her mother forty whacks.” Children’s Nursery Rhyme Perusing upcoming books recently I was suddenly struck by the notion that History has become a resource goldfield for liars and naïve opportunists who use it as a “Eureka” moment for disseminating false or arbitrary knowledge or knowledge for confusing the truth. I guess there some usefulness as well. Every now and then we all do need to be reminded that there is nothing new on this the most precious realm of God’s green earth except as some scientists report, five new genus (not genius’) of newts and salamanders. Take the book-Dangerous Women- a book I did not read. It could actually be called anything else as long as it promised women a tete a tete (in this case between an author and the reader) of titillation, especially for the remnants of women who either forgot or have been isolated in librarie...
Read more

UnitedHealth Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Patients’ Treatment at Risk

-
(Here's some info about united health from truthout) Neither Truthout nor any other news source is not responsible for anything I might say about anything. They try their best to be as reliable a news source any of us on the progressive side of things might want. But after reading this article which was written back in mid-november before the ceo of united heath was assassinated a week or so ago, i asked myself if we all will start dealing with a new (and old) phenomenon of progressives with a gun, or a former mental health patient of united health, or anyone with a gun who will shoot down anybody, or a turned republican with a misinformed grudge against obamacare, Nevertheless, he is causing quite a stir with the CEO healthcorp executive branches.  https://truthout.org/articles/unitedhealth-limiting-mental-health-coverage-puts-patients-treatment-at-risk/?utm_campaign=Truthout+Share+Buttons Sent from my iPad
Read more

The New America

-
The New America this time will be the better America. Now that we know who the enemy is because the enemy has legitimately taken over all the institutions we have suspected of being not in our interests, the interests of peace, love, and understanding. All the political philosophies from Marxism to Fascism try and direct our lives in such a way that we always have to leave something behind, some integral piece of the puzzle of living in any society, a society that represents the best of us and the worst of us. We are not perfect by any means but in a society where humility isn't even considered a positive trait because the humble get erased by those who outwardly seek power and money. In a society where seeking peace is the ultimate in futility because we are a society of weapons makers, users, and abusers. In a society where wanting to be free from hate is asking too much as the hate rises to the top of the political heap. No, we are not perfect by any means. One of the goo...
Read more

The new blind men

-
 It appears that for the first time the content you can't read is a prose poem/rant that was written long ago about the stifling of life by the armies of the night, our own governments, taking our freedoms from the moment we are born. A complaint was made by one of those lessor blind men, or I suppose, a woman, who are trying to pretend we are a nation of freedom loving souls but first we have to cull out what freedoms we want to promote. I am an anti-fascist, an anti-authoritarian, and ever since i was seventeen standing around in the war room of intelligence/op-plans i have not recognized the right of the United States to be the Supreme Leader of the world. Today it fosters genocide and colonialism in the mid-east. Two centuries ago, it fostered genocide and colonialism (both forms of slavery and white supremacy) within its own changing borderlines. In between centuries, America.
Read more

Those who believe

-
Those who believe they're successful because of the powerful and inspiring voices of their parents saying, "you can be whatever you want," appealing to magical incantations of hope, to become the chosen ones. Immigrants are nothing but new settlers, new plymouth rocks or jamestowns, bringing not hope but old religions and false beliefs to the country that wishes it could be free but isnt. The little country that could try evolving to the glutton that would grow beyond its borders, to expand beyond the simplicity of peace and prosperity, to lose everything to the belief might makes right and right is mighty blind, deaf, and mean. Welcome you all to hell on earth. Come and appeal your cause. Politics is nothing but the management of resources through working for what you can pay for as determined by the owners of those resources. That's all. Not about what fools think god wants, what presidents want, what billionaires want. It's about wha...
Read more