So logically....
I just deleeted a long sleep deprived bumbling attempt to basically say that since I'm in the true church, the Orthodox church, and since all the persecutions of the past have been physical ones aimed at torturing and or murduring every Christian arround, I might just be both spared the temptation (as Christ says one of His churches will be as a reward for keeping His traditions), and I might not be put on a torture rack, since the final persecution will be one "Such as the world has never seen". Does this mean the Antichrist will somehow convince everyone that slaughtering Christians is OK, and having done so be a thousand times worse than even the comunists? Or does it mean that Antichrist has figured out that being subtle beats the heck out of being obvious and that if he never actually goes medieval on anyone but just wages psychological and sociological war, he'll sucker a lot more people out of the true faith than he could ever torture out of it.
My guess is that you'd get a lot more mercy for breaking under extreme torture than you would for being fooled by Antichrist somewhere along the line. So lets for the sake of argument allow that Antichrist (who's goal is our destruction) is aware of this. Now I could be giving him more credit than he deserves because I'm afraid of torture, but what if there isn't any? Torture that is.
The "author" Tim LaHay who has penned the sooooo sucky "Left Behind" series, has "informed" about a bajillion people that the persecution will be one of violence and slaughter (physical). So....wouldn't a crapload of fundamentalist right wingers spot it if that actually happened? Wouldn't the whole damn thing have to be really subtle from start to almost the finish? Because if it wasn't, wouldn't most of the world spot it? I need to read revelation again. But I think it's highly possible that we won't actually have our backs up against a wall physically. The difficulty of our times will be surviving the deception, and weathering the war of ideas, and the persecution of "liberalism" and "inclusiveness" etc... It will be harder for us to achieve salvation, because we probably won't actually die from torture or in a firing line which might as well be a direct ticket provided we are being killed for God. Only the really really faithful will be able to resist the social pressure, the societological torture to abandon our faith. A persecution such as the world has never seen. One where Christians are bombarded with universally accepted ideas that are so slick, and so wrong, but so totally un-opposed by the world, that they are actually in far more peril than any Christians before them, who were merely under the physical gun. I could be wrong, but I also could be right. I'm not sure what scares me more. Intellectualy I understand that I should be so blessed as to be tortured to death for God. Physically I'm scared of that but it would be the best possible of all deaths.
The possibility of a non-physical persecution is attractive from the "I'm scared of the torture rack" angle, but in reality, it probably puts my soul in a great deal more peril of eternal hell. So I don't know what to think. IT would be most comforting to think that it's going to be the latter (the non-physical torture) and that my church is the church form Revelation which is spared the temptation, which would be relatively smooth sailing. Going and hiding in the desert probably but more than likely no six week George Orwell's 1984 style torture sessions. What do you ask for? I'm scared of the physical torture which means I probably understand it better than I understand the psychological/societal torture and would be better off there, however afraid I am.
So God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, direct me to whichever end is better for me to bring me to an eternal fellowship with you. For I love you Lord, I would not intentionally abandon you or betray you, though I do so often by sinning, I do regret it all and ask your forgiveness. Lead me down a path of alms giving and charity, chastity untill marage and contrite thinking. Make my path a smooth one that I might not stumble, and stumbling over my own feet might right myself again in your strength and not stray into the fire, but walk upon the straight and narrow path unto salvation and eternal joy.
Amen.
My guess is that you'd get a lot more mercy for breaking under extreme torture than you would for being fooled by Antichrist somewhere along the line. So lets for the sake of argument allow that Antichrist (who's goal is our destruction) is aware of this. Now I could be giving him more credit than he deserves because I'm afraid of torture, but what if there isn't any? Torture that is.
The "author" Tim LaHay who has penned the sooooo sucky "Left Behind" series, has "informed" about a bajillion people that the persecution will be one of violence and slaughter (physical). So....wouldn't a crapload of fundamentalist right wingers spot it if that actually happened? Wouldn't the whole damn thing have to be really subtle from start to almost the finish? Because if it wasn't, wouldn't most of the world spot it? I need to read revelation again. But I think it's highly possible that we won't actually have our backs up against a wall physically. The difficulty of our times will be surviving the deception, and weathering the war of ideas, and the persecution of "liberalism" and "inclusiveness" etc... It will be harder for us to achieve salvation, because we probably won't actually die from torture or in a firing line which might as well be a direct ticket provided we are being killed for God. Only the really really faithful will be able to resist the social pressure, the societological torture to abandon our faith. A persecution such as the world has never seen. One where Christians are bombarded with universally accepted ideas that are so slick, and so wrong, but so totally un-opposed by the world, that they are actually in far more peril than any Christians before them, who were merely under the physical gun. I could be wrong, but I also could be right. I'm not sure what scares me more. Intellectualy I understand that I should be so blessed as to be tortured to death for God. Physically I'm scared of that but it would be the best possible of all deaths.
The possibility of a non-physical persecution is attractive from the "I'm scared of the torture rack" angle, but in reality, it probably puts my soul in a great deal more peril of eternal hell. So I don't know what to think. IT would be most comforting to think that it's going to be the latter (the non-physical torture) and that my church is the church form Revelation which is spared the temptation, which would be relatively smooth sailing. Going and hiding in the desert probably but more than likely no six week George Orwell's 1984 style torture sessions. What do you ask for? I'm scared of the physical torture which means I probably understand it better than I understand the psychological/societal torture and would be better off there, however afraid I am.
So God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, direct me to whichever end is better for me to bring me to an eternal fellowship with you. For I love you Lord, I would not intentionally abandon you or betray you, though I do so often by sinning, I do regret it all and ask your forgiveness. Lead me down a path of alms giving and charity, chastity untill marage and contrite thinking. Make my path a smooth one that I might not stumble, and stumbling over my own feet might right myself again in your strength and not stray into the fire, but walk upon the straight and narrow path unto salvation and eternal joy.
Amen.
posted by Alexios at 1:36 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home