My reaction to Armageddon

by dudeson 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • dudeson
    dudeson

    I was baptized when I was 15. Mainly because it was the next logical step in my "theocratic progess". I lived the double life throughout high school. I watched porn, masturbated, made out with a girl after the last class of the day and cursed like a fucking sailor with my "worldy" friends.

    This made me feel extremely guilty. I knew that when armageddon came, I would be destroyed. I would be a corpse picked at by the ever increasing number of scavengers dotting the sky. These were literally the images that came to mind during my teen years when a thunderstorm rolled through. I was terrified.

    It hit me the other day that I had a plan for when amrageddon hit.

    I lived with my grandfather during my teens and was no stranger to guns and ammo. My plan was to run upstairs and use his 12 gauge to kill myself before God had the chance to hit me with fireballs, or suck me into a crack in the ground. If you are familiar with the Revelation, Grand Climax at Hand book you know what I'm talking about. The thought of seeing others being killed also made me sick.

    Has anyone else had a similar feeling and/or experience with thinking about their fate at the BIG A? Other than the obvious fact of istilling FEAR into people, was there really any need to put those pictures in publications that they knew children would see?

  • MrFreeze
    MrFreeze

    I always knew I was going to die at Armageddon. Eventually I just learned to accept it. Now I just know I'm going to die at some point and I just sort of accept that too.

  • agonus
    agonus

    I've been through Armageddon, buddy. Don't quite feel the same guilt I used to when I drink, swear, or look at naked chicks...

  • dudeson
    dudeson

    I've long since shed any guilt that was instilled in me. It's amazing to me now that I used to think that my "sins" had some sort of significance in the universe.

    It feels so good to be free.

  • Aussie Oz
    Aussie Oz

    yep, guilt is loooong gone!

    but yes, i figured i would be bird food too and planned to go down cursing god with my last breath while giving the finger!

    ...actually IF i turn out to be wrong and armageddon really did come at gods hand i would still do exactly that!

    oz

  • ProdigalSon
    ProdigalSon

    The Great Master known as Jesus summed up the entire Bible in the parable of the Prodigal Son. There is no "judgment", only "pass" and "fail". If you pass, you have the option of staying in the fourth plane and working your way upward, never having to come back to some God-forsaken world if you don't want to. Or you can volunteer to come back to any evolving world to try and help it, knowing that you will get the cup of forgetfullness but betting that you will remember at some point that if and when you die your place is always reserved. If you fail, you have no choice but to come back again, for as many times as it takes.

    During the "thousand year reign", which seems to be the coming Age of Aquarius, while "Satan" is "abyssed" (it is not a literal thousand years but probably much longer), only fully evolved souls will be allowed to incarnate on earth. Won't that be nice, a world with no assholes.

    Edgar Cayce's interpretation of the Book of Revelation is quite interesting and is strikingly similar to the Gnostic interpretation, where the seven churches are the seven chakras.

    http://www.near-death.com/experiences/cayce10.html

    ~PS

  • Cold Steel
    Cold Steel

    After completely misinterpreting Armegeddon, you guys sure take it seriously, even those of you who have fallen away!

    For your information, Armegeddon is a battle to be waged by the nations of Europe and Asia (then considered "the world") against Jerusalem. So unless you have plans to become Jewish and move to Israel, I don't think you're going to be directly involved.

    "The Beast" of Revelation, known as "Gog" to Ezekiel, is a vast power that will arise in Europe. Through alliances with the nations "round about" Jerusalem, they will attack the holy city, only to be stopped by two prophets whom the Lord will call to resist them.

    One source puts it:

    The Jews, or many of them, will gather back to Jerusalem in a state of unbelief in the true Messiah, believing in the prophets but rejecting the New Testament, and looking for the Messiah to come, honest-hearted no doubt, many of them. And they will rebuild Jerusalem after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. While in that state of unbelief Gog and Magog, the inhabitants of Russia and all those nations in northern Europe and northern Asia, a great multitude, will gather against the Jews before Jesus comes, and they will fill up the great valley of Armageddon, the great valley of Jehosaphat and all the surrounding valleys; they will be like a cloud covering the land. Horses and chariots and horsemen, a very great army, will gather up there to take a spoil. For you know when the Rothschilds and the great bankers among the Jewish nation shall return back to their own land to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, carrying their capital with them, it will almost ruin some of the nations, and the latter will go up against Jerusalem to take a spoil. And they will succeed in taking half the city captive; and when they are in the act of destroying that city, behold the Lord will come with all his Saints, and he shall stand his feet on the Mount of Olives, "And in that day," says the Prophet Zachariah, "shall the Lord go forth and fight against all those nations that have fought against Jerusalem, and their flesh shall consume away upon their bones, their eyes in their sockets.

    Another states:

    The name Armageddon is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew har megiddo, mountain of Megiddo, and is used by John the Revelator to describe the assembling of a vast world army in the last days (Rev. 16:16). Sixty miles north of Jerusalem, the site of the ancient city of Har Megiddo overlooks the Plain of Esdraelon or the valley of Jezreel, forming a natural entrance to the heart of the land from the Mediterranean Sea. Anciently the valley was the scene of violent and crucial battles. It was here, during the period of the Judges, that Deborah and Barak defeated the Canaanite general Sisera and delivered Israel from Canaanite rule (Judg. 4-5). Around 640 B.C., King Josiah of Judah was killed at Har Megiddo by the army of Pharaoh Necho, resulting in Judah's subjugation to Egypt (2 Chr. 35:20-23; 2 Kgs. 23:29).

    And:

    Some 60 air miles north of Jerusalem lies the ancient city of Megiddo (now called Tell el-Mutesellim). In its north-central Palestinian location, Megiddo overlooks the great plain of Esdraelon, an area of some 20 by 14 miles in which many great battles took place anciently. Megiddo is the older Hebrew form of Armageddon or Har-Magedon meaning the Mount or Hill of Megiddo, or the Hill of Battles; it is "the valley of Megiddon" mentioned in Zechariah. (Zech. 12:11.) At the very moment of the Second Coming of our Lord, "all nations" shall be gathered "against Jerusalem to battle" (Zech. 11; 12; 13; 14), and the battle of Armageddon (obviously covering the entire area from Jerusalem to Megiddo, and perhaps more) will be in progress. As John expressed it, "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" will be gathered "to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Then Christ will "come as a thief," meaning unexpectedly and the dramatic upheavals promised to accompany his return will take place. (Rev. 16:14-21.) It is incident to this battle of Armageddon that the Supper of the Great God shall take place (Rev. 19:11-18), and it is the same battle described by Ezekiel as the war with Gog and Magog. (Ezek. 38; 39)

    Just do a Google search on the topic and you'll see that the JW interpretation of Armageddon is completely different than that of early Christian tradition. The Jews also have a knowledge of this battle, which was the motivating idea behind the revolt against the Romans and earlier, against the Greeks by the Macabees. See the references cited above.

    See also Revelation 11, where it is stated:

    And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

    Please note that these cannot be symbols because they are symbolized by the two candlesticks (Zechariah 4:3). Who could believe that they are symbols of a symbol? John the Baptist was referred to as a "burning and a shining light" (John 5:35), such as a candlestick might give. So a prophet being symbolized by such is more likely a literal prophet, and not a symbolic one. But the Witnesses, and others, symbolize everything they can't explain. An "invisible" return is about the same as the "miracle" of transubstantiation. You can't see it, so it must be there.

    Bottom line: the Battle of Armageddon will not be fought in the skies above Bethel, but in the hills and valleys just north of Jerusalem.

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