http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/03/07_armageddon.html
Profiles in Prophecy: Which Armageddon Angle is Right for You? BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY by Maureen Farrell Four years ago, the magazine I write for featured a synopsis of a book by an author who predicted the end of days. I don't recall the author's name or the book's title, mind you, but clearly remember Doomsday's date: December 21, 2012. This was based mostly on Mayan prophecy, I learned, but also involved mysteries surrounding Stonehenge, the Temple at Angor Wat and the annual appearance of a serpentine illusion on the Kukulkan pyramid. I'm not certain of the significance of any of this, however, because though I admittedly googled "Dec. 21, 2012" to understand how the author came to his conclusions (apparently the Mayan calendar, which is decoded from Mayan text using precise mathematical equations, abruptly ends), I was too busy rolling my eyes to do further research. Why-oh-why, I wondered, do people believe superstition? That was then, this is now. This week, articles entitled "Armageddon Anxiety," http://www.counterpunch.com/cook02222003.html,"When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy" http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=15221, "Bush, Drawing on the Divine," http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/030310/usnews/10bush.b.htm and "Bush and God" http://www.msnbc.com/news/878520.asp?cp1=1#BODY have graced everything from alternative web sites to the cover of Newsweek. Gene Lyons has tried to decode Bush's messianic message http://www.bartcop.com/022603lyons.htm, while New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff, though agreeing that "there may be an element of messianic vision in the plan to invade Iraq and 'remake' the Middle East," argued that more evangelical Christians should deliver the nightly news. http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/03/04/opinion/04KRIS.html. Um, isn't it bad enough that they're shaping foreign policy? Of course, various mainstream sources, from the BBC to the Christian Science Monitor, have long been reporting on ways Biblical prophecy is influencing political reality. The Christian Zionists' campaign to oust the Palestinians in order to make way for the Second Coming of Christ, for example, has been extensively covered -- as has Israeli reaction. As historian Paul S. Boyer writes, "The most hard-line and expansionist groups in Israel today, including Likud Party leaders, have gratefully welcomed this unwavering support. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States in 1998, he called first on [Jerry] Falwell, and only then met with President Clinton." Though Christians are funding Jewish settlers' treks to Israel to facilitate End Times prophecy, the Antichrist's slaughter of Jews and the conversion of survivors to Christianity is rarely mentioned. Then, too, the secretive Council for National Policy, which ABC News deemed "the most powerful conservative group you've never heard of," (John Ashcroft, Ralph Reed and "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye have all hung their hats there), has also been spotlighted -- most notably for the rumored "king-making" speech G.W gave before the group in 1999, which fueled speculation that the council was responsible for his presidential nomination. Though the Bush campaign refused to release the tape of that speech, it was already clear by December 2001, as the Washington Post reported, "For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the president of the United States has become the movement's de facto leader." These days, however, the movement's agenda appears to have become our president's vision for the country. "Bush's flirtation with End Times rhetoric makes some suspect that he actually perceives himself as God's instrument," Gene Lyons recently noted, and his sentiment was echoed in former Nixon aide Charles Colson's observation that, "Some wonder if the president might be influenced by evangelical teachings that envision an end-of-the-world battle between Israel and its enemies. It would be dangerous for a president to take a particular theology like that and apply it to world events." One only need recall Richard the Lionheart's 12th Century/Third Holy Crusade tussle with Saladin to understand how deadly it might be. Although leaders of nearly every religious denomination, save the Southern Baptist Convention and some evangelical and Pentecostal leaders, have condemned America's impending attack on Iraq, Bush's Crusade is unlikely to be postponed. As Catholics vacillate between allegiance to the Pope and to the Commander in Chief, and arguments over separation of church and state become worthless, who will speak for citizens with evangelical qualms? (After all, wouldn't expelling Palestinians from their land and forcefully converting Jews negate the whole "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you" philosophy?) Moreover, if Bush careens this bus towards the apocalyptic edge, shouldn't citizens be given a choice of guidelines more reflective of their own worldviews? Here then, for your consideration, are four alternate profiles in prophecy: I. Prophecy for Math Geeks: The BIBLE CODE: Like the Mayans, Orthodox Jewish mathematicians have attempted to prophesize through science. Based on the premise that hidden messages are embedded within the Torah, as a sort of in a crossword puzzle of world events, their decoding method was brought to the public attention in 1997, when Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code became a New York Times bestseller. Using a letter-based numerological system created by Jewish mystics and facilitated by computer technology, Drosnin concluded that the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Kennedy killings were among major events foretold in the first five books of the Bible. He also used the code to predict the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (whom he personally warned) and searched the Mezuzah scroll for signs of the Apocalypse. Last year, Drosnin released The Bible Code II, which, despite massive debunking of his first book (even among scientists who endorse the Bible code) also hit the New York Time's bestseller list. Here's a sampling what Drosnin found hidden in the Bible: * "Afarafat," Sharon" and "Bush" align with "the end of days." * "War of Bush," coincides with "the nations under heaven" and "the evil that will befall you in the end of days." * "Economic crisis" is encoded with "from 5762" (2002). * "New York" and "fire from a missile" appear with 5761 (2001) and 5764" (2004). * "Terrorism," aligns with "plague," "New York," "Jerusalem and "smallpox." * "World war" and "atomic holocaust" are linked with 2006. Downside: One mathematician used Drosnin's technique to decode Moby Dick, and found hidden messages regarding the assassination of Gandhi, Leon Trostsky and Martin Luther King, while another used Drosnin's method to discover the phrase, "the code is bogus" embedded in Genesis. II. Prophecy for the Mystical-Minded: NOSTRADAMUS: "Anticipating George W. Bush," historian Paul S. Boyer wrote, "prophecy writers in the late 20th century also quickly zeroed in on Saddam Hussein. If not the Antichrist himself, they suggested, Saddam could well be a forerunner of the Evil One. In full-page newspaper s during the Persian Gulf war of 1991, the organization Jews for Jesus declared that Saddam "represents the spirit of Antichrist about which the Bible warns us." Disciples of Nostradamus have found similar evidence that Saddam is the third and final antichrist. Believing Nostradamus' "Mabus" to be a mirror reflection of the Iraqi pronunciation of Saddam (Sudam), many see evidence of Hussein's Gulf War villainy in the lines: "He will enter, wicked, unpleasant, infamous; Tyrannizing over Mesopotania, All friends made by the adulterous woman." But if Saddam is the antichrist, (and perhaps George Bush Sr.'s America is "the adulterous woman") Nostradamus' apocalyptic prediction that "Mabus will soon die and there will happen a dreadful destruction of people and animals" doesn't bode well for the aftermath of Bush Jr.'s war. Sound ridiculous? Of course. But then again, the Rapture does, too. Other interpretations of Nostradamus' prophecies include predictions that: * A "King of Terror" will descend from the skies and usher in a devastating global war. (Though Nostradamus predicted this would occur in 1999, one quatrain referred to "hollow mountains" and the "new city" which, in retrospect, sound like New York skyscrapers. As author Francis X. King explained in 1994: "After the descent of the 'King of Terror, "the world [will] be ravaged by conflict of a previously unknown ferocity"). * There will be a nuclear attack on New York and perhaps a coinciding event in the Middle East, as evidence by the quatrain: "The heaven will broil at forty-five degrees; Fire approaches the great new city: An enormous, widespread flame leaps up; When they want to have proof of the Normans." (Hopefully, "wanting proof of the Normans" won't lead to more French-bashing). * The Russian-U.S alliance will dissolve and fester: "The two will not remain allied for long; within thirteen years they give into barbarian power." * A world leader aligned with a necromantic cult would be responsible for "setting the East aflame." (Anyone familiar with Skull and Bones should understand why believers see George Bush's role in this apocalyptic vision). Downside: In the winter of 1939-1940, Magda Goebbels urged her husband to consider to Nostradamus' prediction that in 1939, Germany would go to war with France and Britain over Poland. Believing that Nostradamus foretold Germany's triumph, Joseph Goebbels used Nostradmus' predictions as pro-Nazi propaganda. Blindly believing interpretations of Notradamus is as risky as allowing evangelicals to dictate U.S. foreign policy. III. Prophecy for Rebels: PHOENIX RISING In 1982, a Native American woman interviewed a blind Indian shaman about the future. While the shaman predicted plagues, economic disaster and ghastly wars, she also predicted, in effect, a second American revolution. Some of her more interesting predictions include that: * The Supreme Court will make decisions that go against the will of the people. * America will eventually become a police state. * Several undeclared wars will be waged simultaneously. * Propaganda and terrorism will increase. * There will be high-level secrecy and more clandestine agreements between nations. * There will be a nuclear interchange in which "one will strike New York City" and the other will strike the arsenal and blow it way." * The draft will be reinstated. * The American public will discover information about government duplicity and cover-ups. * There will be widespread rebellion, including tax evasion and draft resistance. Downside: Phoenix Rising, in which these predictions appear, is an obscure book from an obscure publishing house. The shaman also talks like Bob Dole. IV: Prophecy for Realists: 'RIPPED FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES!': "A Vatican envoy who met with President Bush. . . said he "clearly and forcefully" conveyed a message from Pope John Paul II that a war against Iraq would be a "disaster." - CNN http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/05/sprj.irq.bush.vatican/index.html 'Apocalypse is nigh, Buffett tells Berkshire faithful' -- The London Telegraph http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml;$sessionid$H5PZNC0BNKQBRQFI QMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/money/2003/03/04/cnbuff04.xml&_requestid=326294 "Military action to topple Saddam Hussein would 'open the gates of hell'. -- Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2238568.stm "[Saddam] might succeed, provoking Israel to respond, perhaps with nuclear weapons, unleashing an Armageddon in the Middle East," General Brent Scowcroft http://www.ciponline.org/iraq/experts.htm Should Saddam conclude that an attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions." -- CIA October Threat Letter http://www.ciponline.org/iraq/experts.htm "Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security."...Career diplomat and State Department official, John Brady Kiesling http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/02/27/international/27WEB-TNAT.html "In the end, if America doesn't restrain itself, [it's] going to provoke groupings of countries which will restrain America instead." -- Jamie Dettmer, Insight Magazine (Crossfire, Sept., 2002) Downside: The president considers citizens "a focus group" and isn't likely to listen. So there you have it. Whether or not you believe in prophecy, one thing is certain: We are at the most pivotal point in our nation's history since the unleashing the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. One moment in time; one world forever changed. Some take comfort in George Bush's relationship with God. Others see it as hypocrisy. But as the world unites against us, perhaps we could use a little less Messianic Bush and a little more Candidate Bush. "If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us; but if we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us," Bush once said, in a galaxy far, far away. Today he instead insists that, "We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of this great country and rid the world of evil." As war looms, Bob Woodward's observation that, "The President [is] casting his mission and that of the country in the grand vision of God's Master Plan" has never seemed more frightening. But, as God only knows (and to paraphrase Shakespeare), "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Mr. Bush." _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
