I have seen the enemy and it is (in) us.

I have seen the enemy and it is (in) us.

Rulers of the darkness, aka satan. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

The scripture is relevant. As a end time or apocalyptic Christian minister that is keenly interested in world events its obvious that something big is afoot. A titanic so called paradigm shift of both the spiritual and physical realm. Since this is a message/debate board I will not go into my usual detail only to say there are symptoms of the coming change visible in world events and other venues.

However, before our world slides closer towards what we will call the abyss or upward to what some spiritualists (or more modern form of spiritualist ie a metaphysics) call a higher plane of enlightenment maybe we could stack the odds in humanities favor by recognizing, then softening the enemy. Our collective soul seems to be on a slow progressive downward slide. Just look at the news for confirmation. What has humanity by the short and curlies, where nearly everyone has a undercurrent of depression at a time we should be joyous and hopeful?

What indeed?

To know the above we must realize the biggest the most lethal enemy of man is NOT ISIS, its not Iran, Russia, Israel, the USA (lol), its not radical Islam, its not even a tangible thing. The thing that is driving all bad things on earth is GREED. Greed drives everything above and more.

Greed is a symptom of Satan’s meddling, and its contagious to man. Greed is the symptom of a virulent demonic disease, a disease with one foot in the supernatural realm and one foot in our physical universe. If the human race does not evolve greed out of our primitive vestiges, aka our common ancestor. Failing genetic engineering or evolution of the human race we must at least learn to recognize the enemy, and then we may be able to defeat it. Anything less will lead to Armageddon and death.

reva


Abaddon

Hebrew name for Satan meaning “Destruction”. “And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.” Revelation 9:11

 

Greed is good, pay closer attention to Michael Douglas.

Seems to me the greatest threat to humanity is that in an effort to provide for our own safety and longevity we'll make life grey and uniform. So I guess in a sense greed is the threat - in that we'll desire continued life to such an extent that we'll make it not worth living.

 

actually greed is an easy one to defeat (in oneself). it's commensurate with childhood, so yeah. just grow up

 

there is a deeply strange and obscure, but oddly loveable late 90's german/Canadian sci fi tv series named "LEXX", which has an episode entirely played out as musical theatre (don't ask). one of the songs refers to just such as you mention here. it refers to a particular race's quest for immortality (via science), and all the things lost when it was found. the primary loss being fearlessness - because while they could easily live a couple of thousand years, they could still be killed via accident. if I can find a yootoob of the song I'll link it.

 

The man who knows everything and lives forever still asks "why?".

 

indeed. incidentally, I just found that song, but it's with a 10 minute excerpt (most of which is about the cost of immortality) and would be a challenging watch for anyone not familiar with the school of absurdity practiced by the makers of this show. ie, no link

 

What IS an Apocalypse? And what is it for, if it is for anything at all?

 

because yahweh can't figure out how to stock take his inventory (his skill set has diminished to effectively zip since the glory days of thinking entire universes into existence and flooding planets etc), he has to sort of sub-contract a commercial clean and reboot, and it'll be really messy. What with having lost the power to just think stuff into happening.

 

Hey RevA... Good post... good information (for the believers) to be mindful of. On the other hand, that is also the primary reason that so many people do not like to do any of that introspection. I believe some people have attempted such introspection and have seen their true image and subsequently discourage others from making such an introspection. Of course that is just another one of my many beliefs.

 

Naturally, you'll take a "love offering" if the collection plate is passed around, right?

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Prove that.

 

Now you are demanding PROOF of beliefs? Interesting. Is there a scientific method that can be used to 'prove' a belief?

 

Per the story of the bible and revelations. It has to happen and nothing humanity can do about it. So why fret it?
It has been planned since before the beginning.

 

What 'revelations' are you speaking about?

 

Seems he makes a living out of scaring the crap out of people.
End time minister?

 

Now we are faced with an appeal to emotions,, presented by: none other than dairyair.

 

I agree that greed is wreaking havoc, and it doesn't help when American culture has changed to actually see greed as positive, as good, and necessary so that capitalism might work to its optimum. I have even heard many people in high positions claim of the merits of greed. Yet when I was growing up, the society I live in here, the school teachers, the parents, the neighbors all spoke out strongly against greed. Much of that was due to the Christian ethics that permeated the society I lived in, back in those days, long ago. But also there was something else that we all had drove into our heads, when I was growing up. And it was basically a barbed question, "who in the hell do you think you are? You are no better than the other person, so get down off of your damned high horse, before someone knocks you off of it." This was the attitude that conditioned us back in the 50s. And what it really centered on, and which greed came from, was our self image, our ego.

Today, the egos of people are much larger than they ever were, for we no longer teach against it. Humility, being humble is not in fashion. And the more powerful, the stronger the ego is, in society, the greater the evil that will come. Now, you can attribute evil to dark forces, to malignant malevolent spirits, but in reality, its the actions of egos. To self gratify. And greed really is a tremendous tool of self gratification.

When Christ spoke of the poor in spirit, the meek, he was speaking of those people who had small egos, who didn't glorify their own self images. And he favored those people. And you know you are in deep (*)(*)(*)(*), when the organized religions feature a multitude of people with tremendous egos, for where a big ego dwells, evil, immorality, will always manifest. And you can set your clock by it.

 

Greed can (and does) lead to bad things. But without it, we would likely not even be having this conversation, as much of the technological infrastructure that enables it would probably not exist without profit motive (greed) and competitive pressures that require innovation and improvement over time. If Samsung wasn't eating Apple's marketshare in huge chunks, there's little reason for Apple to continue to innovate and create better and better phones.

 

Well, concerning the „end times“, don’t you think it’s rather vain to assume to have knowledge on the end’s time or hour when even our Lord Jesus Christ hadn’t (Mark 13,32)? As far as I can tell we’ve probably been living in the end times for the past 2000+ years. Only our Heavenly Father knows for how much longer they’ll go on.

However close to the end we may be, we should certainly always be alert and live our life as best as possible. Even if the sun still rises in another ten-thousand years, we might be hit by a bus tomorrow or die of a heart attack in five minutes. Every single one of us could meet our Maker at any second, and be held accountable.

And I certainly agree with you when you identify “greed” as a vice that God doesn’t approve of.
The clue for this is already in the Old Testament in which the Israelites are to take only as much Manna as they need (Exodus 16). And the New Testament makes it abundantly clear:

“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” (1. Timothy 6:6-10)

Sadly a lot of Christians, especially in the US, proclaim Christ with their lips but truly worship Capitalism - a system entirely based on greed and love of money. May the Lord have mercy.

 

You make a weak case for greed being 'good'. As I have said in the past the USAs system of government is a bastion to greed. Its good for those of us that have, but its not good for those that we stand on the backs of. The case can be made that industrial nations enjoy the equivalent of slave labor. We use resources and engines in lieu of slavery and slaves. If there were no machines and resources such a oil I would wager that the northern states would be slave-less. Greed is evil.

reva

 

It's exceedingly difficult to defeat 'greed' IMO. Third world people would no doubt say you and your family are beyond greedy and they world be correct, even if they were referencing not you or yours but the poorest of Americans. You are wrong in your assessment IMO. Do you have any sourcing that lends evidence to your claims? Again greed is a subjective, but I am using the standard definition that Jesus and Gandhi was referencing.

reva

 

If the man knows everything he knows the answer to his own question, eh?

reva

 

Since its obvious that I erred in not defining greed (only that it gives some an excuse to disagree), I will define what I mean by 'Greed'. One way to look at it is from the bible where it says the love of money is the root of all evil. Or this; From the web;

Covetousness, Greed [N] [T] [E]

Strong desire to have that which belongs to another. It is considered to be a very grievous offense in Scripture. The tenth commandment forbids coveting anything that belongs to a neighbor, including his house, his wife, his servants, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to him ( Exod 20:17 ). Jesus listed covetousness or greed along with many of the sins from within, including adultery, theft, and murder, which make a person unclean ( Mr 7:22 ). Paul reminded the Ephesians that greed or covetousness is equated with immorality and impurity, so that these must be put away ( 5:3 ). A covetous or greedy person is an idolator ( 5:5 ) and covetousness is idolatry ( Col 3:5 ). James warns that people kill and covet because they cannot have what they want ( 4:2 ).

Covetousness, therefore, is basic to the commandments against murder, adultery, stealing, and lying. Those who accept bribes are coveting, leading to murder ( Eze 22:12 ). Coveting a neighbor's wife is a form of adultery ( Exod 20:17 ). Achan admitted to coveting a robe and silver and gold, so he stole them, which was a sin against the Lord ( Jos 7:20-22 ). Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, coveted the property of Naaman so much that he lied to get what he wanted from Naaman the leper ( 2 Ki 5:19-25 ) and was struck with leprosy. Proverbs warns that a covetous person brings trouble to his family ( 15:27 ). Thus covetousness is the root of all kinds of sins, so that Jesus gave the warning, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed" ( Luke 12:15 ).

reva

 

Yes sorry. It's an academic term that is common in my line of work. Like many words in a specific discipline it is used interchangeably so I will give you the defination as I used it in the quote you pasted ; ie "As a end time or apocalyptic Christian minister that is keenly interested in world events its obvious that something big is afoot".

The bible which means 'a collection of texts ' is a lot of 'books' written in several styles one being 'apocalyptic'. That just means books like Revelation where John according to many interpretations is writing about things in the future, sometimes thousands of years in the future. We apocalyptic Christians believe that near the end of time before Jesus comes back there will be a last world war called armgeddion/apocalypse. Most theologians like scientists, or lawyers study a part of the bible etc because advanced study is difficult and involved. So in seminary/college my specialty was the bibles books that dealt with end time prophesy etc.

Thanks for asking that is a mark of intelligence.

reva

 

Not so. Like quantum physics the free will of a particle being either a particle or a wave or both so is the future of man (not predestined in the classical view). We humans can change things lol, however God knows the same way a scientist knows what a particle is going to do, even though the scientist can not be 100% sure, he knows via probabilities. Science tells us the past future and present are all one thing, and God can know the events of the future by exceedingly accurate probabilities, so our future is not set in stone.Theology is not that far off what science tells us about the nature of time.

reva

 

Only unrepentant
sinners need fear and even they shouldn't fear hell for it does not exist as a lake of fire etc for we humans (maybe).

reva