Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

Read Revelation: the Beast makes a pact with Israel (so Israel must
exist) and then sets up the Abomination of Desolation in the temple
(so the temple must exist).

No Israel, no fulfillment of Revelation in their (I should say "our"
but I am not willing to associate with them) time: they will have to
die instead of being raptured.

I did read Revelation. Then I read several annotations of the book, one written by expert theologians from Yale, one written by a semiliterate Southern preacher. Then I read the JW commentary on the book. And yes,
I read Asimov's take on it.

And what I came away with was the notion that nobody had any idea what
this was actually about and that it was pretty much incomprehensible and impenetrable because so much of the context around it no longer exists.

Which made me think that John Ashcroft was a gullible fool but that was
one of the few understandings that I received from the book.

Hey, at least they aren't out bombing places they don't like. Insane
beliefs are, if not better, then preferable to insane acts.

One has an unfortunate tendency to lead to the other, though.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- PyGate Linux v1.0
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 10/7/25 06:09, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

Read Revelation: the Beast makes a pact with Israel (so Israel must
exist) and then sets up the Abomination of Desolation in the temple
(so the temple must exist).

No Israel, no fulfillment of Revelation in their (I should say "our"
but I am not willing to associate with them) time: they will have to
die instead of being raptured.

I did read Revelation. Then I read several annotations of the book, one written by expert theologians from Yale, one written by a semiliterate Southern preacher. Then I read the JW commentary on the book. And yes,
I read Asimov's take on it.

And what I came away with was the notion that nobody had any idea what
this was actually about and that it was pretty much incomprehensible and impenetrable because so much of the context around it no longer exists.

We know a lot of the context and how it applied in those early years as
Rome was
the enemy of the Judeans people and of their religion. Apparently Jesus
and his followers expected the rapid coming of the End of Days, the
Apocalyse and it did not
happen in year 100, year 1000 which they felt strongly about and so on.

Which made me think that John Ashcroft was a gullible fool but that was
one of the few understandings that I received from the book.

No shortages of gullible fools and the population surges at times.>

Hey, at least they aren't out bombing places they don't like. Insane
beliefs are, if not better, then preferable to insane acts.

One has an unfortunate tendency to lead to the other, though.
--scott

Look at Gaza to see how silly beliefs with a push lead to pointless and self-defeating actions. Israel will be lucky to survive the current
government
terrorist generating activities and the vengeance game will go on for quite
a while.

bliss


--- PyGate Linux v1.0
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On Tue, 7 Oct 2025 09:09:04 -0400 (EDT), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:

Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

Read Revelation: the Beast makes a pact with Israel (so Israel must
exist) and then sets up the Abomination of Desolation in the temple
(so the temple must exist).

No Israel, no fulfillment of Revelation in their (I should say "our"
but I am not willing to associate with them) time: they will have to
die instead of being raptured.

I did read Revelation. Then I read several annotations of the book, one

written by expert theologians from Yale, one written by a semiliterate >Southern preacher. Then I read the JW commentary on the book. And yes,
I read Asimov's take on it.

And what I came away with was the notion that nobody had any idea what
this was actually about and that it was pretty much incomprehensible and >impenetrable because so much of the context around it no longer exists.

Not a bad summary, actually. Some of the ones I read made some
interesting points, but, taken as a whole, the context is, indeed,
missing.

Did you happen to read Ellul's /Apocalypse/? I re-read it recently,
and, if nothing else, it is a /very/ high-level intellectual tome.

It turned out that, as with two Heinlein juveniles, my memory of the
book was not quite accurate. IOW, I got to read again for the very
first time.

Which made me think that John Ashcroft was a gullible fool but that was
one of the few understandings that I received from the book.

Hey, at least they aren't out bombing places they don't like. Insane >>beliefs are, if not better, then preferable to insane acts.

One has an unfortunate tendency to lead to the other, though.

But not always. And it can take years for things to reach that point.
During which they can have encounters that change the course of their
thinking.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

--- PyGate Linux v1.0
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 30 Sep 2025 22:41:24 +0000, John Savard wrote:

On Tue, 30 Sep 2025 17:20:25 -0400, Scott Dorsey wrote:

There's a lot of Trump craziness, but this doesn't sound familiar or
very much like Trump. That sounds more like something to come out of
the Bush, Jr.
white house to be honest.

This was a very recent news item.

I finally saw another reference in the news. The Trump official in
question was Peter Thiel.

John Savard

--- PyGate Linux v1.0
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 11 Oct 2025 04:08:48 -0000 (UTC), John Savard wrote:

On Tue, 30 Sep 2025 22:41:24 +0000, John Savard wrote:

On Tue, 30 Sep 2025 17:20:25 -0400, Scott Dorsey wrote:

There's a lot of Trump craziness, but this doesn't sound familiar or
very much like Trump. That sounds more like something to come out of
the Bush, Jr.
white house to be honest.

This was a very recent news item.

I finally saw another reference in the news. The Trump official in
question was Peter Thiel.

John Savard

I found a Google News article about this from the Washington Post
that so far hasn't been published in its print edition. Thanks
for tipping us off about this.

--- PyGate Linux v1.0
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)