You Can’t Fight Evil from the Belly of the Beast

Eventually I will go through Revelation verse by verse in audio form with a podcast, but I thought I would mention chapter 12 and relate it to our modern situation. Revelation 12-13, if I am correct regarding the structure of the book, is the climax of the book. Here is where “the dragon” is described:

12:9  The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Chapter 13:1-4 then tells us what the dragon did:

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

This is John’s reusing of the various beasts in Daniel. This beast is drawn from the sea, and the sea in prophecy represents the Gentiles. So Satan is drawing out his servant, human government, to oppress the people. At the time Revelation was written this was Rome. Today it is a different government; it is the same oppression with a different face. 

As Paul tells us in Romans 8, Christians who are martyred do not struggle against human governments alone, but against the secret demons that influence them. He clarifies this in Ephesians 6.

 ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So how does this relate to Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party?  

It seems to me that both are making the same mistake. They think they can fight the beast from the inside. They will be co-opted. While Jesus expected us to be in the world, he did not expect us to be of the world. He expects us to be as self-reliant as we can. 

Jesus wants us to do something.  Revelation 18 tells us what He wants:

   Come out of her, my people,
   so that you will not share in her sins, 
   so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 
⁵ for her sins are piled up to heaven, 
   and God has remembered her crimes. 
⁶ Give back to her as she has given; 
   pay her back double for what she has done. 
   Pour her a double portion from her own cup. 
⁷ Give her as much torment and grief 
   as the glory and luxury she gave herself. 
In her heart she boasts, 
   ‘I sit enthroned as queen. 
I am not a widow;
   I will never mourn.’ 
⁸ Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: 
   death, mourning and famine. 
She will be consumed by fire, 
   for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

I am not advocating that we need to "go" someplace-there is really no place to go. Instead I am proposing that each of us individually leave the system as best we can. We need to be more self reliant to prepare for the troubling times ahead. Are you ready? 

Calling Evil Good

Coach Paterno "retired" at Penn State due to a serial child molester being a coach at the University's football program. The problem was that Paterno did not follow up to see that the man was arrested, even when he was caught in the act in the school shower with a ten year old. (To be fair to Paterno, he could not have had the man arrested, but he could have shown his concern to the police more agressively.) 

Paterno said this, "with the benefit of hind site, I wish I had done more." What? A man is caught in the shower sodomizing a 10 year old and this is the best he can do? It looks like he is only sorry he got caught. Again to be fair to Paterno he also said this: "This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life." Yet at the same time he seemed surprized that he was forced to "retire." 

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5. Here is the relevent section:

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good 
   and good evil, 
who put darkness for light 
   and light for darkness, 
who put bitter for sweet 
   and sweet for bitter.

Naturally the students were upset with the coverup  er, well no, they did riot–in support of Coach Paterno. 

How is it that we who believe in the Bible can look at the punishments given to anceint Israel and Judah, but yet think we can do the same things without any consequences? 

Branson Landing: Seduced By The Dark Side

I am sitting on a hard metal bench wondering what Jesus would think. The episode where he drove the moneychangers from the temple comes to mind. This is our modern religion—shopping. Branson Landing is an open-air mall along Lake Taneycomo in Branson, Missouri. 

Being an on-again, off-again local, I know the story of Branson Landing's construction. The huge government sponsored bond issue, the special sales taxes, and the promise of increased business for local businessmen. Of course, they lied. Most of the stores are big chains. Business dropped when the mall was completed—there are only so many tourists. 

There is just so much money in a tourist’s pocket, and whatever falls out in the Mall is not available for country music shows. Attendance at those is down 20% I am told. Yakov Smirnov actually had to come out of retirement and star in a show in his own theater. Poor man. 

My guess is that eventually it did provide more of a “destination” like they promised, but not for the locals. Unless you are Paris Hilton or a Marriott heir. 

While it is pretty to sit and look at the lake, building the Mall in the flood plain without the proper permit might not have been the smartest thing for the City Fathers to do.

The choo-choo train is running down the middle of the street, but I doubt most of us shoppers, myself included, could fit inside the cars—not with all the funnel cakes we just ate. 

My wife complained that she could not find me in the crowds doing our religious duty. People are actually buying custom Teddy bears, and buying gourmet olive oil at Devo Olive Oil Co, fighting the crowds all the way.

I know I sound like an old curmudgeon, but don’t misunderstand what I am saying. There is nothing wrong with shopping. Stacy bought a fun hat and her first perfume! It is the whole system that is corrupt. From our shopping intensity to the profit mania that depopulated our industrial areas, from the top to the bottom it is corrupt. 

Again I wonder what Jesus ...

Oh wait, the musical dancing fountain show with the lights and fireworks and the igniting of propane is starting—never mind. 

Get the Hell Out of Dodge?

I posted this on facebook and deicde to blog on it as well:

In the US, for example, the government does not collect enough tax revenue to cover even the most basic services that society deems sacrosanct: defense [offense], social security, and Medicare.
In 2010, the federal government collected $2.2 trillion in tax revenue and spent north of $2.5 trillion just on those three programs– already $300 billion in the hole. Everything else– the post office, Homeland Security, the FAA, the FDIC, even the light bill at the White House– is funded by debt"

This fact is why I tend toward the pessimistic side of things. It is not too late, but since Republicans and Democrats are in denial, it will take another crisis to force action. What will that crisis be? I would guess an inability to find purchasers for our bonds. If nothing changes, this is 5 to 7 years away. 

The author of the above quote expects chaos and asset seizure. I doubt this. He recommends immigration. I doubt this is a viable option for most people. 

Leave Dodge behind?Do you have the needed linguistic skills? Most Americans do not. Do you have a connection with a foreign country? If you do not, and there is a crisis, the gringo will be the first target. 

While the adventure of foreign living appeals to me, for most Americans this would be worse than just remaining in America and riding the crisis out with the support of friends and family. 

Yes a crisis is coming. But the hard money types have predicted 5 of the last 1 depressions. 

Getting out of debt and building a cash reserve is the best way to prepare for the prolonged crisis I am expecting. 

The Hollywood Mafia

I have been advocating that one should consider "cutting the cable." When you have 100 channels on cable TV, and there is "nothing" on, the conclusion I reach is that there is a lot of bad cable TV. Because of this I have been a big Netflix user. Netflix is a DVD rental-by-mail company with added streaming. It is becoming a movie streaming company with a DVD rental company on the side. I have heard it estimated that 40% of all internet activity is related to Netflix streaming.

Netflix has recently raised its prices for the package I have by 60%. Not long after the price increase we received notification that they planned to split Netflix in two. This will result in a lot more work for me as a consumer as I will have to maintain two different lists of movies I want to watch-very annoying. After writing this Netflick changed their mind and will not split the company in two. 

At first I just assumed that Netflix was being stupid. Now I realize that while this is possible, it seems more likely that something we can not see is going on. Here is one commentator's suggestion:

So here is what I think happened with Netflix’s recent price change (for the record, I have no inside data here, this is just an educated guess). Netflix has for the past several years been negotiating with Hollywood for the digital rights to stream movies and TV series as a single price subscription to users. Their first few deals were simply $X million dollars for one year of rights to stream this particular library of films. As the years passed, the deals became more elaborate, and the studios began to ask for a % of the revenues. This likely started with a “percentage-rake” type discussion, but then evolved into a simple $/user discussion (just like the cable business). Hollywood wanted a price/month/user. 

What this means is that Netflix had to separate the streaming and DVD rental, they had no choice. It would be impossible for them to publicly say that the Movie Studios were racking them over the coals. How could they and still remain on good terms with Hollywood? Both the music industry and the movie industry are doomed because the marginal cost of their product is close to zero. All the expense is in the creation of the product. The marginal cost to the studios is about $1 to make a DVD from the already created product. While there is a cost to streaming, it is very low. 

I am not sure what this means in the long run, but eventually the power of the Hollywood mafia will shift from them to the consumer, and not getting cable is a part of that process.