You know they’ve been lurking there all along. Here’s Ray Comfort, using the ongoing war in Gaza to justify his loony beliefs.
After the horrific attack of Hamas on Israel and the devastating response, it would be easier to floss the back teeth of the lions at the LA Zoo at feeding time than broker peace between Israel and Hamas.
Anyone who could do that would certainly work a miracle. And so, some would say the stage is set for that one man of sin, the Antichrist, who will bring temporary peace between the Arab and the Jew.
Many Christians believe that Daniel 9:27 is a key prophetic verse that speaks of the Antichrist establishing a peace treaty with Israel, which he then breaks.
The twisty part of all this is that the ghouls want a peacemaker to emerge, but only because he will have to betray any resolution. That’s the important part. Their desire is to see the chaos spawning the apocalypse, leading to the extermination of non-Christians. Isn’t it nice that Ray Comfort has cause to find glee in a war?
For once, I’ll not beg forgiveness after, but instead ask permission first.
I’ve a friend in the IDF. I’ll ask permission to have Ray Comfort loaded onto a bomber, to be dropped on the Palestinians. With or without a parachute is the choice of any who give permission.
I know, I know, it’s cruelty bordering on a war crime to drop shit onto people who have been bombed nearly into oblivion, but honestly, it’s the best place for him to leave his mark on the world.
Obviously, I recommend no parachute.
So to be clear…he believes the PEACEMAKER will be Satan, and the current warmonger is God? And this is a good thing?
At least he’s admitting that Satan has our best interests at heart and God is a bloodthirsty lunatic. Most bible-thumpers seem to have an issue wraping their brains around that simple point but their Bible is very clear on that point. After all, nobody can show me ONCE in the Bible where Satan lied to anyone or hurt anyone or even tricked anyone…but lots of God’s wrath and judgement and pettiness.
Will the AntiChrist then smite his enemies with a banana?
Does this guy really want to talk about Daniel? There’s lots of good bits in there that clearly describe the Antichrist as someone very much like Donald Trump; including, but not limited to, the breaking his own promises bit.
At least he’s admitting that Satan has our best interests at heart and God is a bloodthirsty lunatic.
What’s more pathetic than having an imaginary friend? Having an imaginary enemy.
What’s even more pathetic than that? When your imaginary enemy is ore decent and reliable than your imaginary friend.
“MORE decent and reliable…” Damn, another typo helping the errorists win…
wzrd1@1, yeah, dropping Comfort on anyone is definitely a war crime.
Dropping Comfort probably violates a number of environmental laws as well.
If a fundie xian refers to a bible verse, almost always it doesn’t say what they claim it says.
The he here refers to the rulers of Babylon after 587 BCE when they invaded and conquered Israel.
It doesn’t say what Ray Comfort and the fundies say it does.
.1. There is no end to sacrifice and offering.
The Jews no longer sacrifice animals but they still support their synagogues and temples with money and labor. Not to mention a lot of their taxes in Israel going to the IDF.
.2. There is no Temple in Jerusalem and hasn’t been since the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE.
.3. Who knows what the abomination at the Temple is?
It sounds like something inanimate, maybe a statue of a foreign god.
.4. Then this guy, a ruler of Babylon gets killed.
You will notice that Comfort doesn’t bother to explain how Daniel 9:27 has any parallels or relevance. Because he can’t without sounding even more clueless.
Ahh the apocalypse. A war between God and Satan that kills everybody. Do away with the Jews, Muslims, and especially the non-believers, so only the faithful get their reward in heaven. Selfish, greedy and arrogant are all traits of the Xian faith nowhere stronger then as described in the apocalypse.
Ray Comfort would be better off using Tarot cards or casting the I Ching.
They have the same level of accuracy as the bible but are at least more understandable.
Strange factoid.
Daniel was actually one of the last books of the OT written, late in the BCE era.
It’s a known work of fiction, not even written in Hebrew, but in Aramaic.
The author pretends to be writing much earlier, the 5th century BCE, when the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple and send a lot of Israelis off to exile in Babylon itself.
None of the prophecies in the book after it was written ever happened.
Adding to raven’s point above, it is quite clear that all of the vision in Daniel 9 will happen within seventy weeks…it’s not subtle. Daniel laments the seventy years of desolation God has condemned the Israelites to and prays to God for mercy. After begging forgiveness for his people, Daniel receives a vision of rebuilding Jerusalem in seventy weeks instead of seventy years, but in the last week a prince’s people will destroy the city, and he will make covenants and sacrifices early in the week that he breaks later in the same week, leading to more desolation and his own destruction. Even if you take the current conflict to be part of the prophesied desolation, the oath-breaking part of the story was finished over 2000 years ago.
That has to be the creepiest picture of Ray Comfort that I’ve ever seen. It looks like he’s turning into a werewolf!
@3
Monty Python taught me how to defend against banana-armed opponents long ago.
Mamba @ 2
If you have watched many Christian end-time films you will recognise common themes.
The antichrist will usher in a world government and a lot of policies liberals would consider benign but the MAGA hats consider utterly un-American.
-The films do not have the courage to bring up the weird stuff from the Book of Revelation, so you will wait in vain for the fire-breathing Jews and the spider-horse-locusts.
Jesus wept…
[Daniel] … here refers to the rulers of Babylon after 587 BCE when they invaded and conquered Israel…It doesn’t say what Ray Comfort and the fundies say it does.
Actually, that vague blithering can say whatever the demagogue with the loudest voice on a given day says it says (subject to change without notice). I wonder how many different End Times predictions throughout history have been based on that same passage, before being quietly forgotten when said predictions failed to come true.
@17–
Daniel 9 is perfect fodder for doomsayers because, as you say, it is so non-specific. But I would argue (and I think raven would too), that the few elements that are specific, such as the seventy-week timetable, show that Ray Comfort’s version is complete BS even within a Biblical literalist framework.
@15. birgerjohansson
Fred Clark, progressive Christian over at Slacktivist has an awesome deconstruction of the Left behind books which do try toinclude both of those albeit there’s two very special retrun appearance fir e-breathing Jews in the nonsense being deconstructed. Read :
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/11/05/left-behind-index-the-whole-thing/
^ Specifically this bit :
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2011/01/19/tf-sweet-fire-breathing-moses/
Then, hmm.. nope the locust stingy critters were from a later book lessee .. arrgh. This is proving much harder to find than Ithought it would .. Aha! Here :
https://nathandickey.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/a-critical-analysis-of-the-left-behind-series-5-biblical-pornography/
From the later Apollyon bad excuse for a novel by LaHaye & jenkins nicley torn to bits by Fred Clark.
Then there’s the short section on them here :
https://thebrickbible.com/legacy/revelation/god_tortures_everyone_except_144000_jews/rv09_01a.html
From the (lego) BrickTestament which is pretty classic too – click those arrows to follow the story / bad shrooms trip on Patmos / Bible precog myth.
Or rtaher by Nathan Dickey for that second link actually.. Dóh! Mea culpa.
StevoR, I had a look. Mere opinion, very Wonkette stylistically.
Meh.
(Have you compared his opinion with the actual text?)
This doesn’t present the Antichrist as a “peacemaker” but rather as the treacherous leader of whatever state or faction is at war with Israel. There is no particular expectation that any peace would be ever brokered by third parties.
Therefore, presumably, the Evangelicals never seriously considered that Donald Trump might succeed at brokering peace in Israel/Palestine.
Mamba @ 2 – If you have watched many Christian end-time films you will recognise common themes.
The antichrist will usher in a world government and a lot of policies liberals would consider benign but the MAGA hats consider utterly un-American.
This was always a major theme of the whole “born-again” movement of the ’70s, and of their favorite book, “The Late Great Planet Earth” — the Antichrist will be a lefty-liberal, taking power over a ten-nation European confederation, and will try to create utopia on Earth, and it will all end in horrific bloodshed and tribulation because he was trying to be “good without God” which of course is impossible. So, lots of longstanding right-wing boogeymen rolled into their “prophecy,” from anti-progressivism all the way back to their old hatred of Europe and its multi-culti cosmopolitanism.
@15
I would say it was due to a lack of “courage” so much as a lack of budget.
I thought Jared Kushner solved the Middle East. Thats what TFG appointed him to do, right? To solve the Middle East? Because only the best people, right?
rrhain @ 26 and one more term by Trump would fix the remainder of the world in precisely the same way.
Way back around y2k, I met Trump at a Chamber of Commerce function, where he the invited guest of honor. I swiftly realized that he defined success differently from well, humanity. He was flush with his latest success in bankrupting yet another company, resulting eventually in his being permanently prohibited owning any casinos.
To him, success = failure. The only real success that he achieved was breaking even, by shafting every one of his coinvestors.
@22. John Morales : “Have you compared his opinion with the actual text?”
Nah. Tht’d be comapring ancient parchment (dead sea scrolls?) to lego bricks & Ican’t read ancient aramaic anyhow. Or modern or any Aramaic for that matter either..