The Conservative Cat

Vince Diehl is the prophet of an apocalyptic cult that believes the End Times are near, primarily because his electronics business was shut down by Federal regulators.

The truth is that the End Times have been near ever since the Babylonians sacked the First Temple and carried the Jews into exile.

The Exile in Babylon was a religious singularity. God had allowed His house to be defiled by heathens, and that made him look bad. It was common for prophets during the exile to proclaim that God would have an ultimate victory and that afterward the righteous will triumph. The comment spammer refers specifically to a passage from Zechariah 13 in which the prophet talks about refining and testing the righteous and separating them from the unrighteous. It's pretty vague, but I think it's more interesting to take a look at Zechariah 12, which begins with this:

I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.

He could be proclaiming a great Armageddon, or he could be telling us that America is going to win the War on Terror. After all, the root of the whole terrorism movement is getting the Jews out of Jerusalem. Even though nations like Pakistan and Britain are helping us, the people of those nations are constantly demonstrating against Bush, so in a very real sense every nation is against us. And of course, the United Arab Emirates is only the most recent nation of the many that have injured themselves by professing anti-Zionists principles.

This is the thing with prophecies. They are wrapped in thick symbolism that permits hundreds of perfectly sensible interpretations. You can't tell which one is correct until it's all over. The Bible is full of prophecies that promise deliverance to the just and torment for the wicked. We have no idea how many of these deliverances have already happened or even how many are redundant. When Christ talks about separating the sheep from the goats, he could be talking about a single Judgement Day, or he could be describing the correct way to view the afterlife. We just don't know.

Until we do know, the best tactic is to try your best to do good in the world. That way, if the end times come, you'll be put with the sheep, and if they don't, you'll have lived a life you can be proud of.

I think God would want it that way.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat