Left Behind Is A Lie (Rationalizing Themselves Into Revelation, One.)

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

~Revelation 6, King James Version.

...

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

I saw this right before I went to the store.

Massive swarms of Crows in Tel Aviv...traditionally this is considered a sign of impending disaster.

Oops.

Well then, when I got home I also saw that Glenn Beck apparently thinks we're living in the End Times.

As I've said many times (especially lately) I pretty much believe the same thing. But I believe that it won't work out the way he thinks it will, at least not for him and his fellow "Believers" in the Right-Wing false religion. Jesus Christ wishes Republicans believed in Him as much as they did in Ayn Rand...and Ayn Rand got herself tossed off the fantail of the ship for *Checks Notes* Donald Trump.

But the Truth is a lot worse.

The true "god" of Christian Nationalism and Evangelicalism is (apparently) Baal.

And honestly, I believe the people who know that are gonna go public with it soon.

When, as abysmal as Trump's polling is, between 29% and 36% of Americans are just fine with all this garbage, with bullshit wars, the Epstein cult, rising cost of living and all that, why not??

What do they have to lose, really??

I'm not much of one for seeking after Signs And Wonders, but when it's just "What's on the News" that's a whole different matter.

"I didn't want to do it,'' he hears himself saying. "I didn't want to leave them behind.''

The void laughs at him. There are miles of empty air beneath his dangling feet. "You had no choice.''

"Yes I did! I didn't have to come here.'' He pauses. "I didn't have to do anything,'' he says quietly, and inhales another lungful of death. "It was all automatic. Maybe it was inevitable.''

"-- Evitable,'' echoes the distant horizon. Something dark and angular skims across the stars, like an echo of extinct pterosaurs. Turbofans whirring within its belly, the F-117A hunts on: patrolling to keep at bay the ancient evil, unaware that the battle is already lost. "Your family could still be alive, you know.''

He looks up. "They could?'' Andrea? Jason? "Alive?''

The void laughs again, unfriendly: "There is life eternal within the eater of souls. Nobody is ever forgotten or allowed to rest in peace. They populate the simulation spaces of its mind, exploring all the possible alternative endings to their life. There is a fate worse than death, you know.'' 

~From A Colder War, a novella by Charles Stross.

Does anybody actually find it likely that if their churches were suddenly festooned with golden idols to Baal and Mammon that all these Evangelicals...especially rich white Evangelicals...would suddenly have a literal "Come To Jesus" moment and tear that shit down and start over??

It's not just that a third of America openly hates the Lord's Word and anybody who actually preaches it. It's that those fucking people are the ones most loudly claiming to be the "Believers."

I'd ask that ya'll stop and think about that for a second.

A third of America would pretty much worship actual named Biblical-grade Demons to "Own The Libs" (Whatever that even means.)

I mean, if we're being honest there's very little that I've heard from James Talarico that doesn't mesh fairly well with what I was taught as a conservative mainstream Baptist back in the day and I *Was* pretty Evangelical or Fundamentalist-adjacent.

Not that I think either of those words even means the same things now as they did 40 years ago.

And it's not just that I think these fucking people have forgotten that. I think they wanted to.

More than that, I think it was pretty deliberate. I honestly think a lot of this bullshit is deliberate stupidity, people acting dumb so they can manipulate others and think they'll get what they want.

I'm not sure if it's hubris or yes, just plain stupidity but I think these assholes think they're going to try to lie to and manipulate God.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

I think at least a lot of them think they've found a new "Savior" in Donald Trump.

I not only don't think any of this works that way, I think Trump is (bare minimum) a test-run for the Antichrist of Revelation. Certainly he is Antichrist...although I doubt he is the Beast of Revelations (AKA The Antichrist) in the flesh.

Shit, maybe I just think God deserves a better class of enemies?

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

I think a lot of these people have fallen a pretty damned long way since I was being taught this stuff as a young person.

I think when, fundamentally, the basis of these fucking people's beliefs could be summed up as "Anything BUT Love Thy Neighbor" Republicans have a lot of nerve calling anybody else crazy.

I think these fucking people have brought God's judgment on this country.

Not "Are bringing it." No, have already.

Perhaps worse, I think they bumble-fucked their way into doing it. I think they had a plan...it may have been a pretty half-baked plain, but it was a plan...to do this in such a way that it might hit other people harder than it hit them.

But then I think they screwed that up, because they couldn't remember how to talk to other people anymore or stop mainlining Frank Miller's "300" long enough to remember not even everybody on their own side is impressed with that crap.

They fucked it up, saw that they fucked it up, and decided to just roll with it anyway.

And it's a safe bet...has been one for years...that a third of America will look at that and either just shrug or actively end up cheering for whatever happens.

In case you wonder why I think these monsters would gladly worship demons.

At this point, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

You either believe in your own right to have a life or you don't.

It's going to come down to a fight if you want to keep one or both.

And keep in mind, as I've been saying for almost six years now, all that "Left Behind" crap is a lie.

We're going to have to face this shit, and fix it, ourselves.

Слава Україна!

I put no stock in religion. By the word religion, I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the "Will of God". I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. And goodness - what God desires - [pointing at his head then heart] is here and here. And what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man...or not. ~The Hospitaler, from the film Kingdom Of Heaven.

Prequel

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he strikes a man.

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. ~Revelation 9, King James Version.