Geoff has determined this is now the end time timeline:
Confirmation Satan (Jupiter) seems to be behind lightning that struck Vatican after Pope resigned (USA Today)
Jupiter--symbolizing Satan as the largest planet (Greek=wandering star),
was the chief god of the ancient pagan Babylonians, and Romans,
who destroyed the first two Temples of God in Jerusalem.
The Greeks (who called him Zeus), had the greatest of the 7 Wonders
of the Ancient World--the Temple of Jupiter with its enormous image of this god.
Whose face became the image the world adores as that of Jesus,
according to at least two of Britain's leading experts.
In that context, and because of the fact that the Worldwide Church of God
began to disintergrate shortly after the unusual
War in Heaven against Jupiter in 1994,
and the subsequent first indecent 'lawless New Covenant'
proposal to the betrothed Bride of Christ, 163 days later,
the following article is interesting.
And seems to suggest Satan is signaling his hand in the resignation of Pope Benedict
--and the election of the next Pope. The favorite of the experts for next Pope
is the black Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana.
16 comments:
So many Armstrongists seem to (sadly) be suffering from a type of pareidolia I think it is called as everything that happens has some cosmic significance to them. So a simple lightning strike on a building automatically means destruction and doom! It's kind of like those addicted to astrology as I know of some Armstrongists in UCG for instance and they believe in following the signs like if you were to see the name of a girl on a streetsign that you like then you have to read it as a sign that God is trying to tell you that you should go out with her; or you have to buy/rent a house that is located on a street or suburb that has some synchronous meaning to you, etc It seriously is a form of superstition! So if a guy got struck by lightning it means he must be in league with the devil?!?! Get real!! I actually know of 1 guy who got struck by lightning, had a NDE & then after regaining consciousness automatically knew how to play the piano & has since quit his old job & is now a pianist--even though he never had an interest in music before or learned to play the piano. So it just shows that these Armstrongists seem to focus heavily on doom & gloom as if everything that happens--even innocuous events--must be a sign of the "end of the world"!!!!' Now if the Vatican had blown up to pieces from that ligtning strike then I probably would've thought there was something more to it, but a simple lightning strike...come on!
Eric Hoffer wrote, "A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrines and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence." These movements dope their followers with hope of the future while cheating them of the enjoyment of the present. "People allow themselves to be swept up in larger causes in order to be freed of responsibility for their lives, and to escape the banality or misery of the present." Does this sound familiar to former WCG members? It sounds familiar to me (AC Class of 73).
"Jupiter--symbolizing Satan as the largest planet (Greek=wandering star),
was the chief god of the ancient pagan Babylonians, and Romans,
who destroyed the first two Temples of God in Jerusalem."
A critical modern thinker would realize that Jupiter is neither a star nor wanders so that ends that. One might also observe that this admits to other gods, over which YHVH expressed jealousy of and forbid them to be brought into his presense in the Big Ten. It also shows that the Planet Jupiter, as a war god (pffffft) is stronger than the God of the Jerusalem Temple and bested YHVH twice.
I imagine since YHVH says he does not live in houses made with hands, the place was never his to begin with and he didn't live there. Kinda like the House for God, you know where.....
Anon: That would sound familiar to all fundamentalists and religions. Religion springs from everyone's absolute fear of death and need for meaning
Like Chemosh, the god who routed Israel in the OT, YHVH has problems holding it all together. If Satan can use lightening, why can't YHVH shower the Vatican with flowers or doves? Come on! Use your power ring.
Armstrongists aren't just stitious, they're superstitious: The leaders make members crazy and create the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of individual existence.
The solution seems to be to lock the leaders up, either in a mental institution or prison (one down and 699 to go).
As a rational person, I guess all I can say is, good job Satan. Everyone down here got the message! Or not.
Q: How many times does the lighting strike the earth in one day?
A: A number of studies have been done using lightning detection networks located in some countries and using a couple of satellites that have optical detectors designed to recognize lightning flashes. The most recent data suggests that the long used statistic of around 100 flashes per second globally is close to being correct, of which 80% are in-cloud flashes and 20% are cloud-to-ground flashes. This gives us approximately 20 flashes to the ground per second globally and therefore 1,728,000 flashes to the ground per day. This seems like a huge number, but it is necessary to maintain an electrical balance between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere.
David R. Cook
Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry Section
Environmental Research Division
Argonne National Laboratory
So, to be consistent, that means that Satan is pretty busy communicating, because he's sending 1,728,000 messages per day. Also, I'm pretty sure he's wrong about all those lighting strikes maintaining electrical balance between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Isn't it obvious they're all messages from supernatural beings?
It's called a lightning rod, Geoff. Installed in 2005. Right there on the roof of St Peter's.
Get over yourself.
COGer's are often ardent and fanatical case studies of confirmation bias on steriods. They see many ordinary events and then, fueled by the belief that they are living in the end-times and therefore disastrous events are about to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting humanity, interpret them as confirmation that the ideology is indeed true, and that prophecy is about to be fulfilled, etc.
Such dramatic soap opera-like episodes is the bread and butter of the COG's. It's what motivates them, and is very instrumental in keeping their destructive yet exciting ideology alive and thriving.
COG minor-leaguers like Bob Thiel, James Malm and E.W. King are perhaps among the most pathetic examples of this phenomenon in action - but virtually all COG leaders (and wanna-be leaders) are caught up in this cycle of superstition to one degree or another.
A commenter above said "These movements dope their followers with hope of the future while cheating them of the enjoyment of the present." This is EXACTLY what happens! Such fundamentalist ideologies keep followers in a constant state of anxiety and therefore a continual state of willingness to devote their resources (financial or otherwise) to the cause of warning the world of impending doom, etc.
HWA was a master practitioner of this strategy. Objective observers can look back over his ministry and see that this is precisely what his strategy was. And he turned it into an art form. He had the capacity to highly exaggerate virtually any world event or common experience of life, build a dramatic, ideology-confirming cosmic narrative around it, which was then turned it into a reason to whip his followers into a frenzied state of mind that he could exploit in one way or another. Just go back and read some of the numerous member/co-worker letters he wrote over the decades, which are out there on many internet websites now. The obvious and well-documented fact that literally NONE of the hundreds and hundreds of dogmatic assertions he frantically made over the decades ever came to pass is totally overlooked and brushed aside by true believers. And the frenzy continued by yet the next drama to occur, which was never far behind.
One of the more tragic and reality-denying things to behold is how fanatical present day HWA-supporters try to somehow spin this blatant record of failure into evidence that he was indeed "God's Apostle." It's simply mind-boggling how easy a human mind can remain in a constant state of delusion when it desperately WANTS to continue clinging to the deception!
Remember, a recent survey conducted in America revealed that roughly 25% of Americans still believe that the sun orbits around the earth! Such is the level of mind-numbing ignorance of basic scientific facts still prevalent in the 21st century.
Behold the impact of fundamentalist religious belief on a culture! So let's not be all that surprised that natural occurrences like this are interpreted in the way they are by mindsets still in the Middle Ages.
Are you serious? They only got around to making that cross atop the dome lantern to serve also as a lightning rod in 2005? Since the basilica was completed in 1626, it must have been struck by lightning quite a few times...
LOL, holy smoke, there seems to be no end of "final Popes"!
The parade of Popes marches on, rather oblivious to and insulated from the proclamations of the nutcases declaring, "It's the final Pope!"
-Norm
PS: If there are people Jesus needs to save, it's the people who are caught up in prophecy bullshit.
Anon, the cross and the lightning rod are two separate things up there, the lightning rod having been added in '05.
Maybe they even have a machine that generates lightning.......
Asst. Deacon,
Did a little bit of research...
Archbishop Comastri said part of the restoration project includes putting up a new lightning rod "since a lot of lightning bolts hit the basilica."
...
A large cross adorns the sphere, atop of which will be affixed the Vatican's hi-tech lightning rod, which marks the highest point of the basilica at almost 450 feet, he said.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503533.htm
You are correct. The lightning rod is very thin and not very easy to see from the courtyard. The high res pictures I took of the dome from the courtyard in 2009 are inconclusive as to whether there is a lighting rod there or not. The language here in this article is, in fact, quite vague. It makes it sound probable that the lightning rod was replaced, not put up for the first time. Also, it could be read to mean the lightning rod is affixed to the sphere, or affixed to the cross, but other sources say it is to the side of the cross, which is where the lightning bolt is seen to terminate anyway, off to the viewer's right.
It's all so kooky. I'm sure there will be no shortage of preachers attributing the meteor in Russia to supernatural forces.
And people around the globe today will attribute finding their lost car or house keys to supernatural forces.
Funny, how it's sometimes seen as a lesson or punishment from God, and sometimes seen as done by Satan.
(But of course, all criticism of preachers' teachings and doings are declared by the preachers as being "attacks by Satan", lol!)
-Norm
-Norm
"the Worldwide Church of God
began to disintergrate shortly after the unusual
War in Heaven against Jupiter in 1994,"
The what in the which now ??
And why are these yokels so consistently racist, these days? That came in with the Evangelicals, it certainly wasn't present in the Church when I was growing up! Although interracial marriage was a no-no, we members regarded all brethren as equal. The ministers, not so much, but that was part of the sin that led to the Church ending up how it has.
Then again, maybe the Toronto East congregation was a multicultural anomaly or something; the Victoria congregation was visibly white as the driven snow....
I see someone has thoughtfully provided the numbers on lightning strikes for us. So I say a hearty thhhhhbbbbpppppffffffffftt to all these wackos and their inane babblings.
"those addicted to astrology as I know of some Armstrongists in UCG"
Charming. What is it they're holding fast to, again? Because it certainly isn't "the faith once delivered to the saints"!!
" "People allow themselves to be swept up in larger causes in order to be freed of responsibility for their lives, and to escape the banality or misery of the present." Does this sound familiar to former WCG members? It sounds familiar to me (AC Class of 73)."
I dunno, anon, replace "responsibility" in that quote with "accountability," and I might agree; but you certainly cannot say the faithful in the Church were "freed of responsibility," when the called-out ones had (and have) more responsibility to love God and love neighbour, than those who are not called in this age. JMO.
Post a Comment