To some chrisTian fundamentalists, the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico heralds the apocalypse.

[Ian David]

Blood in the Water
To some chrisTian fundamentalists, the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico heralds the apocalypse.

A growing conversation among Christian fundamentalists asks the question that may have been inevitable: is the oil spill in the gulf a sign of the coming apocalypse?

About 60 million white evangelicals live in America, and about one third of them believe that the world will end in their lifetime, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. Broadly speaking, these Christians subscribe to a theology called "premillennial dispensationalism." In this world view, they are warriors on the side of God: a cosmic battle—culminating in apocalypse, judgment, and, finally, the reign of Jesus in “a new heaven and a new earth”—will come soon. The most determined of these believers mine the Book of Revelation for signs that the end is near. A text of terrifying and mysterious prophesy, Revelation forecasts the apocalypse in coded language; Christians have spent lifetimes trying to break that code by correlating its verses to current events. (A New York minister named William Miller used Revelation and other sources to predict that the world would end on Oct. 22, 1844. He had previously predicted—wrongly, obviously—that the date would be March 21, 1843. The Millerites, once a powerful and fast-growing sect, quickly became extinct.)

Now blogs on the Christian fringe are abuzz with possibility that the oil spill is the realization of Revelation 8:8–11. “The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed … A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.” According to Revelation, in other words, something terrible happens to the world’s water, a punishment to those of insufficient faith. The foul water, according to the New Oxford Annotated Bible, mirrors one of the plagues God called upon Egypt on behalf of his people Israel.

Though maybe it’s Revelation 16:3: “The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.”

More:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/04/blood-in-the-water.html#

See also:

Immanentize the eschaton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
To immanentize the eschaton means trying to bring about the eschaton (the final, heaven-like stage of history) in the immanent world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanentize_the_eschaton

America's Roadmap to The Apocalypse
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2747646

The Foreign Policy of 20 Million Would-Be Immortals
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2751351&mesg_id=2751351

[FiveGoodMen]

1. To me, the rise of fundamentalist xtianity in America heralds the apocalypse.

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. The Millerites didn't become extinct. They split into the Seventh Day Adventists and the Jehovah's

Witnesses.

Doesn't anyone do research anymore before pounding out a story om their computer?

Even I knew that.

[RagAss]

3. Please get these people some Thorazine.

[Liberation Angel]

4. OK - Here we Go

I tend to generally stay away from theological arguments or discussions here on DU because the hate is so heavy and the ridicule of anyone with any spirituality is really obonxious and even sorta toxic.

But I happen to have to wonder myself.

I happen to believe in Einstein's theories (most of them) That past present and future are all relative and in some ways an illusion because of our limitations of perception.

But prophecy has always intrigued me. All prophecy and especially prophets from ancient traditions and even more modern ones like Nostradamus.

IF the limitations of our perception of reality are only an artificial construct (meaning an illusion due to our inability to perceive outside a very limited range) ) or physical limitation, isn't it possible that some persons may have greater perceptive abilitiee and/or that substances can alter that perception and permit visual awareness or perception of things the rest of us can't usually see? Isn't it conceivable that someone may NOT have the same limitations as the rest of us and that they actually have the ability to perceive beyond the illusion of relativity in a nonlinear way.

(I think of hummingbirds and other birds who can visually see a MUCH wider range of color and luminosity than we can; or elephants and whales who communicate at vibratory levels of sound and language way below what humans can perceive without machines and amplifiers)

Synchronicity and ESP are examples of things which many believe are just fairy tale while others believe they are part of the woof and warp of existence.

I have worked for many years in/with the Native peoples of North America where dreaming is a fundamental part of "learning" what is going to happen or to gain insights and where it is believed that people can foretell and foresee events. It is mysterious. It is spiritual. But it is not magic or crazy. People found that sometimes their dreams come true. Being aware of synchronicities often leads one to tuning in to the spiritual energy of the universal matrix of energy (maybe... or not). or seems that way when meangful coincidences occur and help you out when you least expect it.

That said, obviously Jesus was, if real and if what he is repouted to have said is accurate, a prophet of "the last days" (i.e. the end if times or the "second coming, of the Messiah.

Now St John who is said to have recorded Z"Revelations" while in exile(?) on the Greek Island og Patmos.

I happen to be an herbalist and somewhat of a healer in that I know a lot about and inform folks about useful herbs and medicinal plants which I have studied for decades as did my father before me.

Now, St John's Wort, which I believe may have been named for this same revelation dude is a DREAMING plant BECAUSE it contains one of the highest concentrations of melatonin (the sleep/dream hormone) in the plant kingdom.

I suspect that manty prophets were ingesting medicinals in Israel/Judaiah/Palestine and all over (like the Mescaleros in Colorado and Yaqui eating Peyote in the West. There is plenty of data for that: faating, eating flowwers, wild plants (Jimson weed anyone?) all Moses and the Burning Bush???Cedar (which has. I believe, thujone the active psychoactive phytochemical as in absinthe) which may well have contributed to the intensity of their visions.

SO

I have often wondered if the use of such plants or herbs or hallucinogens or intense fasting or sleeplessness (as in Kabballah) and meditation MIGHT lead one to ALTER one's doors of percepttion so that the limitations of the human brain that LIMIT the perception of things outside our normal range of perception might be reduced, eliminated temporarily, or modified so that we actually CAN perceive areas or events in the space-time continuum outside of the immediate present OR we can communicate or hear or see things which are not available to a normal waking consciousness.

NOW

There are things which have led me to shudder at realization of the synchronistic resonance of Revelations of John.

One was Chernobyl - which translates into English as WORMWOOD.

I grew up in a nuclear community and even worked in the industry briefly and most of my friends have or still do. I worked in an environmental health unit which studied the impact of radiation on the environment in the plants and on the community. The poison radiation from Chernobyl blew globally and probably dropped radiation on a third of the earth at least (but it sure as hell didn't turn the waters red - but it did poison them).

Two was NYC and 9-11: the description of the destruction of the Great City Babylon in one hour while the ship captains cried and watched from their ships far offshore as the city of merchants who had fiornicated with the great whore (Mammon/the Beast) burned with great billowing clouds of smoke at the financial center of global capitalism : THAT gave me pause. I had read it before and read it again WHILE the towers were falling down to see what the hell it said and I was just stunned.

Now we have a thrid of the earths waters turning red and killing the creatures of the sea.

Call me craxy: but I think this Joihn dude, whatever he was smoking or inahling or drinking in his soma mix or little tea, may have nailed it again.

I alwass figured that Bush II fit the bill for the Nostradman-described (George Walker BushJr =666 in name numerology) antiChrist (but if you read scripture it is pretty clear there is not just one "super" antiChrist there are many so if you like Hitler or Stalin or Mussolini, or Pol Pot or Rumsfeld or Cheney you might not be too far wrong)

So to ascribe this fear of the evangelists or anyone to lunacy and suggest thorazine is missing the point: this is some apocalyptic.end of the world shit WHETHER or NOT you think it was predicted. IF you have a document, a prophet, who pretty much nailed a good piece of the scary picture with his (one third of the waters turn blood red)) prediction and this is killing the life therein, and they are ALREADY believers in such prophecies (as ALL Chrsitians and Jews of faith MUST be according to their teachings) then I'd say you have to at least say: your boy seems to have got THIS one kinda sorta right, maybe.

Lucky guess?

How should I know.

But I do NOT pretend I know he was wrong. Nor can I say he is even real.

But that description of shit is dead on. Scary.

I shudder once again. John seems to be kinda three for three by my count. And I am not even sure i buy it.

[Odin2005]

5. LOL!

:rofl:

[Liberation Angel]

6. Figures someone named for a Nordic God of War would LOL

Odin LOL

It would be funnier if you described WHY you are laughing (without being insulting).

If Einstein is right then just because YOU can't see it doesn't mean someone else can't. Whales and elephants see things you can't see. Some animals hear and see things we can't at all because it is outside our range. Just cause its outside of YOUR range doesn't mean that's true for others.

Just sayin'.

Laugh all you want. But it is a pretty vivid description of what is happening. Coincidence? whatever...

Those who have the ears which can hear and the eyes that can see can hear and will hear and will see and those who won't shan't