Sunday 9 October 2022

Armageddon

 The first time I ever heard the word mentioned in my life (Armageddon)....was some Baptist revival in the early 1970s, and the visiting minister had chosen to use the book of Revelation (last book of the New Testament).

To be honest, it is the most untouchable book of the entire Bible (Old and New Testament).  I should note that it's original language is Greek....not from the tribal language of the Judah region.  The guy who wrote the piece?  'John' is mentioned but most don't think it's the John that most folks thought of.  

Why untouched?  It describes future events, and is a pretty dismal projection of the future to come.  

Armageddon as a word?  It was some place where the battle of all battles was to be fought, and leaving a lot of people in misery and woes.  It was supposed to be the moment where good people came to fight evil people.....with the good winning in the end.  You usually get some wordy piece where the wicked folks all die off in the Armageddon.....with only good folks standing around.

This week, President Biden used the word....trying to assign it to the Russians and Putin.  Without really saying it.....you got the impression that the Russians can only be the bad and wicked folks, in the end.

I should note here that Norse folks (Vikings, Icelandic folks and Danes)....also have a word for use in this manner....called 'Ragnarok'.  It typically means this great battle or disaster has occurred, and a 'cleansing' action is underway afterwards.....where the good people (survivors of course) go forth and repopulate the world (meaning partying, lusty women, and things return to normal).  

The difference between Armageddon and Ragnarok?   Most folks are negative about Armageddon.....seeing it as a ordeal and bunch of dead folks at the end, while the Viking got excited about Ragnarok because boozing-up and partying were part of the end-result.  Kinda funny how the two groups saw things.