Pale Horse
War, Disasters, Economic Collapse & Biblical Prophecy
“How dreadful it will be in those days for
pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress
in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by
the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations.
Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of
the Gentiles are fulfilled.
—Luke Chapter 21
Only an idiot could deny these are, in fact, the last days.
But, to God, how long is a day? The argument over the Creation
story seems to be how ludicrous an idea it is that God could
create the universe in six days. But how long is a day to God?
God exists outside of time [Romans 1:20]. He created time and
controls it. He is not subject to it the way we are. St.
Augustine wrote that time exists only within the created
universe, so that God exists outside time; for God there is no
past or future, but only an eternal present.
Paul Mizzi wrote, “We conceive of God only under the finite
fashion of first purposing and then acting, of first promising
or threatening and then fulfilling his word, and so on. This is
not strictly correct, for He who inhabits eternity infinitely
transcends our understanding (Isaiah 57:15). His eternity,
therefore, implies his immensity and infinity, his altogether
different nature from us.”
There was no earth to revolve on its axis while God was creating
it, so how long was a day? Why, then, is the Creation story
incompatible with the Big Bang theory? Why couldn’t that
biblical day have lasted forty thousand years? When Jesus speaks
about the end of days, why couldn’t the earthquakes and natural
disasters have been about La Nina, the gulf stream effect that
causes extreme weather? Why couldn’t biblical prophecy refer to
solar flares or
a slowing or shifting of the earth’s magnetic core, which would
screw up the globe’s magnetic lines which interferes with bird
migrations and could confuse sea life, causing seals and whales
to beach themselves?
It seems like we’re all looking for some larger-than-life,
magical event as a sign of the end times, but much of the
climatic, political and economic phenomena the world is
struggling with today fits hand-in-glove with biblical prophecy.
We are looking for a literal pale (or green) horseman to signify
pestilence and death, to be given dominion over a quarter of the
planet [Revelation 6], when AIDS continues to devastate an
entire continent, while infecting every corner of the earth. We’re looking for some preacher or some
prophet to interpret these events for us and tell us what to do.
During the turn of the century, from 1899 to 1900, many were
absolutely convinced Jesus was returning and the world would
end. Three percent of the world’s population, some 75 million
people, died as a result of the 1918 flu pandemic. The 1929 U.S.
economic collapse and The Great Depression, the second World
War, the atom bomb. Many, many times we’ve believed things
were so bad, had become so awful, that Christ’s return must be
imminent. What makes today any different from previous
disasters?
The sheer, staggering ferocity, scale, and frequency of these natural
disasters is unprecedented in human history. It simply amazes me
that (mainly) political conservatives persist in denying the
theory of global warming affecting the planet, even as they see,
with their own eyes, the planet ripping itself apart. In terms
of catastrophic natural events, 2009-the present has seemed like
the first act of The Day After Tomorrow.
Is it really that implausible to stop thinking of biblical
prophecy in terms of Charlton Heston in some Dino de Laurentis
production? To stop insisting on this ridiculous separation of
spirituality and science? When Jesus spoke of the signs pointing
to the end of this age, is there a sound doctrinal reason to
exclude global warming as coessential to those events? The bible
never mentions automobiles or greenhouse gasses melting off
glaciers which, in turn, dump enormous amounts of saltwater into
the world’s Thermohaline (large-scale ocean) circulation,
affecting the overall density of the oceans which, in turn,
impact (and in some cases stall) the gulf stream which controls
our climate? Over-salination of the oceans, decimation of the
ozone layer—these are major contributing factors to massive and
devastating climate events. Which cause catastrophe, famine and
disease, which cause economic collapse, which increases global
tensions, which foments unrest, which leads to war. Scoff all
you want: this is what’s happening.
Religious nuts seek religious signs and wonders. But signs and
wonders are here. Snow in Hawaii. A heat wave in Alaska.
Tsunamis in Indonesia (2004) and Japan
(2011),
Hurricane Katrina (2005), the devastating earthquake in
Haiti (2010). Unprecedented flooding in China and
Mississippi. Little to no rain,
for years, here in Colorado. Signs and wonders. Biblical
prophecy can be viewed within the context of provable,
observable scientific phenomena which can be both quantified and
explained. Who is to say Jesus wasn’t taking about global
warming? About solar flares or a slowing of the earth’s core,
which would affect magnetic fields and cause navigation errors
in birds and sea life? How do we know, for sure, these ancient
prophecies weren’t talking about reasonable, empirical
scientific phenomena?
Breakfast In Sodom
There can be no doubt that today’s world, and certainly today’s America, meets or exceeds the biblical criteria for the Last Days. We are, most of us, like so many Sarah Palins: vain, self-centered, vapid, uninformed and arrogant. We are, so many of us, lovers of ourselves. And we, so many of us, continually make deals with our integrity, allowing what is, by any objective moral standard, immoral and antichrist music, movies and media into our homes. Not only allowing it in but paying for it. Paying the devil to come in and rape our children, steal their innocence and indoctrinate them to worship, value, and lust after immorality and evil. And we do this without blinking, without hesitation. Oh, my we’re so very Glen Beck today. I’m just trying to make my point:
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” —Luke Chapter 21
The true lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah has almost nothing
to do with homosexuality per se. The story is about
indoctrination. In Genesis Chapter 13, Lot is living on the
Jordan plain outside of the city. But, by Chapter 19, Lot is
living inside Sodom. He has accepted the city, its culture and
its values. They are all a matter of routine for Lot, so much so
that, when an angry mob arrived at Lot’s house seeking to
violently rape angels who’d come to rescue him, Lot offered up
his virgin teenage daughters—girls likely aged 14-16—to this
angry mob to, “do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto
these men do nothing…” [19:8]
Like Lot, we are living in a time of appeasement, of accepting
sin as normal and calling it “balance.” Offering your young
daughters to be violently gang raped is beyond unthinkable, but Lot
had grown so accustomed, so indoctrinated to the ways of Sodom,
that handing the girls over seemed both right and reasonable to
him. You'd never think of handing your daughters over, but you
hand them over every single day when you let this garbage—this
over-sexed, drug-infested, profanity-ridden, phony "culture"
into their lives. This culture that demands girls run around
half-naked and teenage boys wear platinum jewelry and drive
luxury cars. Mother, father, you are handing your daughters, your
sons, over to be violently raped by a mob of people who do not
know God, who despise God. and you're calling this "normal."
You're calling me, calling your pastor, extreme.
Later, after God delivered them from death that claimed the
city and their mother, these very same young girls conspired to
get their father drunk and have sex with him [19:30-38]. The
children had grown up in Sodom and were thus accustomed and
indoctrinated to the ways of the city. Committing incest with
their father seemed both right and reasonable to them.
It's what they'd seen on BET. On the Incest Reality Show.
And, what are we doing today? Your kid’s bible—if he can even
find it—is buried under some laundry or tossed in a corner while
Beyoncé wiggles around half naked on his TV screen and he’s
sexting with some girl (or boy) and rolling joints. Well, that’s
just part of growing up. Nonsense. You’re a coward and an
appeaser. The Nazis have overrun your village and you’re
bringing them tea. Your son, your daughter, is being completely
corrupted by things you pay for, and you lack the courage of
your convictions to put a stop to it.
The reason we can’t see the signs of the times, the reason
people would find this teaching extreme, is because we no longer
live outside the city. We’ve moved in, We’ve accepted this
teaching, this demonic, antichrist philosophy, as “normal.” We
let it into our homes. We buy the
premium channels. Meanwhile,
right before our eyes are the signs—changes in our child's
habits, they grow distant and secretive, they won't come to
church, they smell like reefer or worse, they're fighting with us
all the time now. Oh that's just normal teenage rebellion.
And
you just go on buying the poison that is killing them. You've
adapted to the culture of Sodom, where all of this seems
reasonable and normal.
I could be wrong.
The truth is, things could get worse.
Much, much worse before they get even a little better. And if
the rapture does not occur next week, don’t write me hate mail—I
never said it would. The economy could improve, we could find a
cure for AIDS and other massive pandemics and make peace with
everybody. There is no indication, at this writing, of any of
that happening. Anybody with any knowledge whatsoever of
biblical prophecy who could spend even a few minutes listening
to a news broadcast should find it hard to deny that these are,
in fact, the end times as described by the bible.
I believe a huge part of the problem is my discovery, to my shock and dismay, that many black
churches do not actually lead anybody
to Christ. When people come forward, nobody teaches them how
to pray. Nobody leads them in a sinner’s prayer. Nobody walks
them through scripture of repentance and salvation, the way most
white evangelicals do. Us black folk, we don’t pray with them,
we pray over them—which is entirely different. No pastor can
pray you into heaven. The minister or altar worker shouldn’t be
praying for you but should be leading you in praying for
yourself. This is not happening. Instead, we are selling you a
church membership. Dragging you downstairs to fill out
paperwork.
“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” —Luke Chapter 21
This is the root cause of our having only a form of godliness [I Timothy 3]. Many Church Folk, having spent their entire lives in the institution, demonstrably do not know Christ. There is absolutely nothing about them, about the way they live, that indicates they have any clue Who Jesus Christ is, or that Christ’s Spirit dwells within them. They are not, in fact, Christians. They are Church Folk. Lost. Hollering and clowning on Sunday morning, but they’ve got the devil’s immorality piped into their home for $120 a month.
Is the end near?
Absolutely. The struggle is to define what “near” means. These
are terms useful to us, to humankind, but are useless to God.
For all we know, things could improve, like, tomorrow. It’s
unlikely that they will. My personal observation is not a great
concern for the big, showy events—the tornadoes and tsunami and
earthquakes—nor the political situation or economic collapse. I
believe the surest evidence that this dispensation is coming to
a close is on your child’s “smart” phone. The vile music loaded
with cussing, sexual innuendo and pagan symbolism. The
pornography and sexting images exchanged even among grade
schoolers. Forget the earthquakes and tornadoes, the best evidence this age is drawing to a close is
our own unbelief, what the bible calls a great “falling away” [Matthew
24:4].
We are raising a generation of lost children, children growing
up to believe that the vile and disgusting antichrist media they
immerse themselves in 24-7 is “normal” and that it provides
“balance” between their church life and “regular” life, as if
the two should be mutually exclusive. It’s not normal. You think
it’s normal because this is what you’ve grown up with. This is
what you’re accustomed to. But this is how your parents failed
you, just as our parents failed us. If you were in Iran, playing
those nasty, violent, over-sexed music videos with those pagan
symbols in them, you’d be arrested and jailed, likely tortured
if not stoned to death. They don’t play that. Unlike us, they
take their religion seriously.
It’s just us, catching vapors and
turning cartwheels, talking about how holy, how “saved” we are,
who allow this evil to infest our homes, to rape our children
and lead them away from God. This is how I know this age is
drawing to a close: our popular culture, among our young people
most especially, is beginning to resemble that of ancient Rome.
Of ancient Persia and pagan nations. We are, as a society,
descending into idolatry and apostasy. These days, I could walk
into the bedroom of a teen in a Christian home, then walk into
the bedroom of a teen in a non-Christian home, and would not be
able to tell the difference. Most every show they watch, every
video game they play, every website they visit, every song they
listen to entices them to sin and teaches them to despise God.
And you parents keep forking over cash for this stuff. We should
know the difference. We should know the truth. We should be
parents of our children, not buddies, not absentee landlords,
not simply content to keep the peace. There should be lines not
crossed. Christ is only as real to your children as you make
Him.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.” —2 Timothy 3
The greatest evidence of the end of this age is the weak, lackadaisical, half-assed, Persian bazaar commitment many of us have to Christ, and the legion of pastors who fail to call us to account for it. The clearest evidence that we are living in the last days is the ugly and reprehensible appeasement going on, the deal you make with your Christian integrity by allowing Lady Gaga, Lil’ Wayne, Kanye, Rick Ross, "reality" TV, video games featuring rape, sodomy, and unimaginably graphic violence—the most vile, hateful, antichrist paganism and witchcraft—into your child’s life and calling that “balance.” Calling that “normal.” Forget the earthquakes and the economy. For me, the most obvious sign of the End of Days is us.
Christopher J. Priest
19 June 2011
editor@praisenet.org
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