July 27, 2006
Reporting the Apocalypse,
Mercy, CNN has just brought us NINE full minutes of Apocalypse Coverage.
And the precipitating news occasion? The surfacing of an ancient gospel from the depths of an Irish bog. The early medieval book of psalms is thought to have been written, in Latin, between 800 to 1000 A.D. Fine. An interesting scientific discovery -- those ancient texts are turning up all over the place lately.
Now here's the part where CNN goes Dakota on us. There was a perceived "message" involved in the discovery. Wouldn't you just know it, the mucky little book was open to Psalm 83, the one where god hears complaints that other nations are trying to smite the state of Israel.
The science and anthropology department over at CNN got busy fleshing out the story, and what experts did they chose to interview? Ann Coulter? (Oh, I forgot, this blog is shunning her).
No.
Authors, and we use the term loosely, Jerry Jenkins and Joel C. Rosenberg -- "who share the view that the Rapture is nigh" -- Kyra Phillips, the CNN "reporter", throws her whole self into it.
ROSENBERG: Well, this is -- this is about -- this is the prophecy that says that God is going to cause the nations of the world -- the leaders of the nation almost get drunk with the dream of recapturing Jerusalem. Now, the Bible says that Jerusalem will come back under Jewish control in the last days. That'll be one of the indicators. Well, that's where we are today. But, what are we watching? Saddam Hussein or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Hezbollah leader [Hassan] Nasrallah, they're all drunk with the dream of capturing Jerusalem. That's what The Copper Scroll novel is about, which is this battle, this intense battle to liquidate the Jewish people and liberate Jerusalem. I mean, are we seeing that happen? It's hard not to say that we are. I mean, that's why I've gotten invited over to the CIA and the White House and Capitol Hill, because people -- it's not that they necessarily believe the prophecies, but they want to understand the prophecies in the Bible in light of what's going on right now.PHILLIPS: Do you think they're taking what you're saying and incorporating it into foreign policy?
ROSENBERG: I wouldn't go that far. But I would say -- I would say that Bible prophecy is an intercept from the mind of God. It's actually fairly remarkable intelligence, and that's why my novels keep coming true, because mine are on this side of the Rapture, leading up to Jerry and Tim's books, but they suggest events that the Bible does lay out that will get us closer to those events. And, in fact, one by one in The Last Jihad, my book The Last Days, The Ezekiel Option, and now The Copper Scroll, have this feeling of coming true. I think that's why a million copies have sold. They're New York Times best-sellers, because they're based on Bible prophecy, and they are coming true bit by bit, day by day.
PHILLIPS: Jerry, what do you think about what Joel wrote, about watching the Russian-Iranian alliance seeking to wipe out Israel?
JENKINS: Well, I find it very fascinating, and of course, Joel is a real geopolitical watcher. You know, compared to him, I'm just a novelist. But as he said, we're talking -- you know, Dr. LaHaye and I are writing about things that are yet to come in the far future. But one of our takes is that nothing else has to happen before Jesus returns. He could do it at any time. And regardless who's in charge or what the state of the temple is, we feel all the prophecies have been fulfilled leading up to the return of Christ, which means it could be today, tomorrow, next week, or a hundred years from now. I'm fascinated by all the stuff that Joel is watching and seeing and just love hearing him talk t it.
PHILLIPS: Joel, do I need to start taking care of unfinished business and telling people that I love them and I'm sorry for all the evil things I've done?
ROSENBERG: Well, I think that would be a good start. I mean, Jesus loves the people of the Middle East. Matthew 15 -- Jesus was in southern Lebanon. Why? Telling the people of Lebanon that he loved them, that God loved them. What's interesting is I was just at the Iraqi prime minister's speech today. You know, the Bible taught in Jewish theology and Christian that Iraq will be reborn as a country and be phenomenally peaceful and prosperous, and then a huge dictator known as the Antichrist will arise. Watching this speech today in the House of Representatives, the first speech by an Iraqi prime minister to a joint session of Congress, bit by bit we're watching Revelation and the other prophecies get closer and closer to fulfillment.
Ah, CNN, just puttin' two and two together again to better serve the public. As Alexander Hamilton warned us years ago, the masses are asses (47% of Americans approve of how Bush is handling the Israeli- Hezbollah conflict), and CNN is actively contributing to their ignorance.
I know, I know, all of us here at Dakota do this kind of stuff alot, but we promise to stop when we become a national news source.
As a summer reading alternative to the Left Behind Series, so that we can all develop a little more critical paranoia, may I suggest "The Zombie Survival Guide: Compete Protection from The Living Dead. I wonder if Max Brooks will get an invitation to the White House.
Photo note: An apocalypticesque shot of a chimney brush
Addendum: Real wisdom
Posted by Dakota at July 27, 2006 06:24 PM