Blog 410 – 09.20.2016

At the conclusion of the movie Terminator: The Rise of the Machines, John Connors, the hero and future hope of the survival of man over the machines says, “There is no fate but what we make.” That is so opposite the fatalistic vision of the previous movies in the franchise and runs contrary to the view that many have today of a fearsome future because of some dire predictions they have read which are based mostly on a particular interpretation of the books of Daniel and The Revelation, books in the Christian Bible from the Old and New Testaments respectively.

That particular interpretation of some very symbolic imagery in the scriptures is called Pre millennialism which takes its name from the belief that there will be a thousand year reign of Christ on the earth and before that some pretty horrendous things occurring like a fierce battle of Armageddon between all the good guys and the bad guys. Former President George W. Bush believed that stuff and it informed his decision to invade Iraq and many of us know how well that worked out. A great deal of political support for modern Israel in this country and around the word comes from Pre millennialists who believe that the mosque in Jerusalem will be torn down and Solomon’s Temple rebuilt with animal sacrifices begun again and they think they see these things in Daniel and The Revelation. Sounds like the name of a Rock band to me and about as likely to happen as finding the lost Ark, either one Noah’s or the one
Indiana Jones found in the movie that the Nazis were looking for.

It must be a fearful world to live in where you think your fate is sealed and there is nothing you can do about it. Pre millennialists are also mostly Calvinists. That is another Bible interpretation group that believes in all or some of the points of theologian John Calvin who believed the Bible teaches that man has no free will and is predestined to whatever fate that God has preset or predetermined, heaven for some and hell for others.

We are all tempted at times to believe that we have no say, that the cards are stacked against us, that somebody else is responsible for our lot in life. And I do not say this to excuse anyone’s or any group’s mistreatment of others in the past or now. But I do believe that we are individually most responsible for the world that we create around us and that we create it by the thoughts we think, the words we say, and the follow up actions that mirror our thoughts and words.

Our ultimate fate is, I think, set. We win, we awake to the full knowledge of Who and Whose we are, we get to all go Home. I do not believe some us are good or chosen while others of us are bad or damned. Hell as a concept comes from a place out side Jerusalem for burning the trash. God, the Universe, has no trash, everyone and everything is recycled and re-purposed. We are collectively and individually all of us the apple of His eye, precious and beyond price. We are everyone His prodigals allowed to chose our own path, find ourselves, and when we come to ourselves we will come home realizing all this has been but a dream we were allowed to dream by a loving Father.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
Living the dream,
David White