Isaiah 21

[HeXp£Øi±]

A Prophecy Against Babylon

1 An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
an invader comes from the desert,
from a land of terror.

2 A dire vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

3 At this my body is racked with pain,
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildered by what I see.
4 My heart falters,
fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
has become a horror to me.

5 They set the tables,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields!

6 This is what the Lord says to me:

"Go, post a lookout
and have him report what he sees.
7 When he sees chariots
with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
fully alert."

8 And the lookout [1] shouted,

"Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
every night I stay at my post.
9 Look, here comes a man in a chariot
with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
'Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
lie shattered on the ground!' "

10 O my people, crushed on the threshing floor,
I tell you what I have heard
from the LORD Almighty,
from the God of Israel.

 

[unclehobart]

Your point being?

 

[Shadowfax]

mmmmmkay......

 

[freako104]

ok so now what does this have to do with anything?

 

[chcr]

"It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine."

 

[Ardsgaine]

And the Bizan shall be huge, and black, and the eyes thereof RED with
the blood of living creatures! And the whore of Babylon shall ride
forth on a grey headed serpant, and throughout the lands there shall
be a great rubbing of parts. Yeah.

And the demon shall bear a nine bladed sword. Nine bladed! Not two,
or five, or seven but NINE! Which he shall wield on all wretched
sinners, sinners just like you, sir there. And the horns shall be on
the head

Bediah, his servants. There shall in that time be rumours of
things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to
where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth
those little things wi-with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an
attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friends hammer,
and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by
their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night
before, about eight O'clock.

 

[unclehobart]

My horoscope said as much yesterday... damn those 9 bladed swords.

 

[Shadowfax]

 

[HeXp£Øi±]

Wow! I haven't felt so mocked since the fifth grade. Are we all five now? You've made your point and i'm neither distracted nor detained.
Now, if anyone's actually interested in this verse...

This one screamed at me from the page
so i couldn't help but post it. Please take note that i took none of this out of context, it's verse for verse.

I provided the link to Websters incase you wanted to lookup Babylon which was 55 miles south of Baghdad.

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
an invader comes from the desert,
from a land of terror.

There's another verse in Isaiah(forget where) that says that the people from the 'land of terror' come from a land between two waters.
In case you're wondering the US did enter Baghdad(Babylon) from the south by Kuwait and through the desert.

The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
I thought this was most interesting because some translations say "The destroyer will destroy". In Arabic the literal translation of the word 'Saddam' is "Destroyer". Look it up if you want.

5 They set the tables,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields!

I laughed when i read this last night. It reminded me of Iraqs information minister, "there's no Americans in Baghdad" as he holds his press conference in the middle of the street because the ministry of information was destroyed by us bombs.

Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
Some verses, 'Surround the city'.
All the images of its gods
lie shattered on the ground!' "

I rather enjoyed watching all those statues of Saddam being destroyed.

If anyone's interested i can give you some links to some good reading on this subject. You don't have to subject yourself to this abuse though, just PM me.

EDIT:I don't say any of this is absolute only that it's compelling.

 

[Q]

It is kinda sad that ya'all decided to mock Hex. While I don't follow organized religion myself, I know HE does...and the point he was making was pretty obvious.

 

[unclehobart]

I mocked it because he posted a bit of scripture and didn't follow it up as to intent, direction... or anything. There has to be some kind of explanation of what were supposed to be looking for. We don't automatically know what the point is. Heck... merely bolding a central idea line or two would have been at last some help.

 

[Ardsgaine]

You mean he was serious? ?(

 

[chcr]

You mean he was serious?

You didn't think so. Lots of people think the final battle between good and evil has been joined. Armageddon. I've been an atheist for thirty years now, and the world has been going to end (as nearly as I can remember) 14 times. Hex, I didn't mean to mock you, I was mocking the concept of Armaggedon. The world ends every day, for someone.

 

[HeXp£Øi±]

This thread had nothing to do with Armageddon. Not like the mocking or blowing it out of proportion comes as any surprise though. People everywhere have these same issues, it's nothing new. From now on if i post a piece of scripture it will be clearly posted in the title just as this one was so none of you need waste time clicking on it. And really no one need apologize to me. I was an athiest for most of my life and I understand the athiest views and mentality as well as any of you. Insults are not put on me and neither was christianity. If people want to act like children it's up to them although hopefully i can salvage some intelligent conversation from this thread.

 

[Ardsgaine]

You didn't think so. Lots of people think the final battle between good and evil has been joined. Armageddon.

Those people give me the heebie-jeebies.

I've been an atheist for thirty years now, and the world has been going to end (as nearly as I can remember) 14 times.

Yeah... Can you imagine how many times it's ended since those verses were written? How many times was Babylon sacked before it was finally abandoned? And even though the city did finally fall once and for all, now you've got people reinterpreting the verse so that the part of Babylon is played by Baghdad and the prophecy gets to be true all over again-- for the third time at least, because the Mongols already sacked Baghdad twice. There's no limit to the ways you can interpret a poetic verse like that, and given enough time you'll be able to match it to the events that occur many times over.

 

[chcr]

From now on if i post a piece of scripture it will be clearly posted in the title

It was clearly posted in the title. I just read part of the verse, withouth paying much attention to where it was from. I took it out of context because I've been hearing all about the "final battle" around here for months. A frightening number of people believe it around here. I went off half-cocked. I shall try to pay better attention from now on, but can give no promises.

Now, you are the first reformed atheist I have ever met (well, we've sort of met). This is probably not the right place for a discussion, but I wouldn't mind discussing that with you at length. Understand that I'm what's referred to as a "strong" atheist (if you're familiar with the different grades, seems like bullshit to me) and I'm not looking to change my mind, but I am curious. Up to you though.

 

[unclehobart]

hopefully i can salvage some intelligent conversation from this thread.

If you wanted intelligent comversation, you should have provided a starting point... just a small kernel or idea that would at least have gotten it rolling in a given direction.

 

[HeXp£Øi±]

Well Unc, if i was someone that commonly posted garbage i would expect it. It so happens that i wanted it to rest alone for a time so that anyone who wished to could ponder it before i gave any input. I'd like to think most people know that the majority of what i post has some thought behind it even if it's not for everyone.

Ards-

There's no limit to the ways you can interpret a poetic verse like that, and given enough time you'll be able to match it to the events that occur many times over.

Which exactly why i stay away from generalities and point to specifics all the while keeping it in context. But you probably didn't stop to even think about it because you already had your mind made up that i'm a ranting fundamentalist.

chcr-I'll discuss whatever wherever.

 

[unclehobart]

Which exactly why i stay away from generalities and point to specifics all the while keeping it in context. But you probably didn't stop to even think about it because you already had your mind made up that i'm a ranting fundamentalist.

Swell. You say that you stay away from generalities with your first breath, and then you proceed to make a generalization about me with the next.

 

[HeXp£Øi±]

Unc that line was for Ards. Sorry, i forgot to address it.