Many of you have, no doubt, read the book by Hal Lindsey - the title of which I swiped for this post. The reason I so titled it is in response to a question I’ve been asking myself for years, “How could the premise of Lindsey’s books come to pass?”
As a teen in the 70s I read about things like a one world government, one world currency and one world religion and scoffed. While I could see some of the links Lindsey made, I couldn’t see how some of his premises could come to pass. A one world government would require the US to surrender its sovereignty and I couldn’t imagine that happening. One world religion? Traditional wisdom says more people have been killed over religion than over anything else. How is it possible they could lay aside their differences and agree to a single creed.
Moving into my 20s, I became less convinced that Lindsey’s pre-millenial view of the End Times was going to be the way it all wrapped up. I’m still skeptical. But recent events give one pause.
The European Union and the Euro were interesting steps forward in the Government and Currency arenas. The interest and anger over the Security and Prosperity Partnership here in the US, NAFTA and CAFTA, talk about an Amero, the Trans-Whatever Corridor and other events over the last decade bring such discussions about Government and Currency back home. But there still remains that sticky One World Religion aspect. Haven’t seen any progress there.
Until yesterday morning, that is. Jon Henke tweeted this link as perhaps the most ostentatious (or maybe it was pretentious) thing he’d ever seen. I clicked through and the hair stood up on the back of my neck.
Do I think this is some sign? Not really. For one thing, the Golden Rule is not a universally accepted religious tenet. In many religions there is a different version and the metal analogy used contains cold, hard steel. But I’ve been wrong before. And it holds promise as a preliminary effort sort of thing around which later efforts coalesce, becoming more serious and effective.
Thus, I’m not concluding … but I am saying …
Blue Collar Muse
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Tags: Eschatology, Hal Lindsey, Pre-Millenialism, Prophecy, The End Times, The Late Great Planet Earth
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November 16th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
…A website run by technology folks and “Hollywood elites” attempting to build a framework for harmony between religions is a far cry from an attempt to craft a single religion for the entirety of the world.
And, even if it was, the fact that it’s being run by technology folks and Hollywood elites should make it pretty clear that it isn’t going to actually do much. If the approach of the end of the world and the Anti-Christ involves Google and George Clooney, I’m going to be so disappointed.
(Likewise, all the potential “signs” of one world government or currency are still pretty silly, too. The EU’s been more famous for its in-fighting than for its harmonious unity, thus far, NAFTA and CAFTA aren’t exactly a move towards a great, peaceful, American union.)
November 16th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
@N.S. Allen -
Excellent points and granted to all of them.
However, my point is not that these things are the steps that immediately precede the end of the world.
My point is, 35 years ago, as with many Sci-Fi accomplishments that are reality today, these things didn’t exist outside someone’s imagination. Now that we see these fledgling efforts in this area, one wonders what the next 35 years will bring.
The Environmental movement was tiny and unobtrusive at one time. Now Global Warming is a part of every discussion we have from what fuel to use when BBQing in the back yard to what military tactics and strategies to utilize on distant battlefields.
While any of these events and issues on their own are insignificant, their existence is not. And what that existence may look like in another 10, 20 or 30 years is going to be interesting.
Good observations. Thanks for the contribution …
Blue
November 16th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I had pretty much the same reaction as you when I read this article a couple days ago, it would seem that that all of End Times dots are slowly being connected and in the not too distance future all may be revealed.
As one who has lived his life by the “Golden Rule” (because Christ has compelled me to against my own selfish, carnal nature), I’ll bet you everything I own that these compassionate “Tedizens” will determine that the blood soaked cross of the Messiah and His “Great Commission” to be a detriment to the global religious “peace and harmony” that they so earnestly seek establish. (And actually they’ll be right, but not for the reasons they’ll think)
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matt. 10:34
November 17th, 2008 at 10:47 am
End Times? Do people actually think that there is any validity to this stuff? Honestly… This is why I am delighted that Obama won. People who honestly believe magic-sky-father is coming to end the world and Rapture us all have no reason to actually try to fix the ‘real’ world that the rest of us live in, and that quietly terrifies me.
The European Union and the Euro are hardly apocaliptic portents… but the fact that anyone actually thinks this stuff is real is a powerful statement about the way some people view the world.
Let’s all stop believing in magic and start thinking about the future in secular, rational terms, huh? Seems like a far better bet for long-term survival of the species to me…
- BB
November 17th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
[…] Blue Collar Muse: The Late, Great Planet Earth … Many of you have, no doubt, read the book by Hal Lindsey - the title of which I swiped for this post. The reason I so titled it is in response to a question I’ve been asking myself for years, “How could the premise of Lindsey’s books come to pass?” As […] […]
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I agree with you about the whole “one world government”. This is a good blog, and thanks for sharing the info.