April 21 2018
WORLD WAR FOREVER.
Very few people will share my opinion that we have been engaged in a WORLD WAR against creation ever since Adam and Eve, a total war which I label WORLD WAR FOREVER. The reason that it started almost totally unnoticed, as a mere skirmish, is its innocuous beginning: no more than picking a fruit.
Nevertheless this conflict is now so intense that it threatens everybody and everything in the world and will lead to a total environmental collapse in a few years.
That WORLD WAR FOREVER was the immediate consequence of our disobedience, manifest in the growth of thorns and thistles sprouting everywhere – see Genesis 3: 18.
Why was and is this a global war? It is because all of creation, everything that existed including humanity, became defiled.
That’s the main reason why I see original sin in a different way: I perceive it as an attack against the totality of creation, symbolized in the first chapters of Genesis, by a fruit tree. There, I believe, the human pair plucked an apple or pear or peach or whatever, without asking the tree for permission.
That first act of defiance basically amounted to placing ourselves above creation. Rather than being its servant, we acted contrary to Jesus’ words, Mark 10: 45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” That ‘many’ includes part of humanity and trees. That the Bible uses trees as examples indicates their importance in the Bible.
The Bible often refers to trees as symbols of perfection. In Psalm 1, for instance, an upright person is “like a tree planted by streams of water.”
And then there is the Tree of Life which indicates to me that the Tree represents Life.
When God gives the human pair a tour of the Garden of Eden he personally singles out some specific tree species, emphasizing first their beauty and then their usefulness. Later when the Satan follows the same route, he switches the order, mentioning first the utilitarian aspects of the fruit – good to eat – and as a second thought its aesthetic function.
Taking the fruit without permission marks the beginning of capitalism, which, from its very inception, has exploited the earth for human benefit, and so initiated WAR against creation, which has grown in intensity in exponential proportion to the growth of human numbers.
Jesus, growing up in a carpenter’s shop, was acquainted with wood from an early age. Luke 13: 7 shows Jesus’ practical bent, “So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”
I think Jesus saw soil also as important, because he made us from soil, “Soil you are and to soil you will return”, is a famous quote.
Jesus, grown up with trees, died on one as well. His flesh and blood were hammered first into the tree before it reached the soil: forever blessing them both.
In the very last Bible chapter there is that beautifully poetic line: “The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations”, which to me suggests that the sin against trees is at the root of sin in the beginning, because the destruction of trees heralded the demise of the earth: the absence of trees signifies the death of creation, robs us of a cure.
Universal War.
My point is that our war against trees and earth is the real WORLD WAR that has raged from the very beginning of human history and find its culmination today, spelling the End of civilization as we know it: that war began with a tree, will end with the tree, while the Tree of Calvary stands at its very centre to restore it all.
Politicians and generals love wars because it detracts from problems at home. That may over-simplify the situation but looking at what is called World War I – 1914-18, even now people wonder why it ever happened. But it did take place and changed the world, another hasty step toward the End.
In CATASTROPHE 1914 EUROPE GOES TO WAR, the author, Max Hastings, writes in his recent book that “It is a conceit of our own times to suppose that we are obliged to live, and national leadership to make decisions, amid unprecedentedly rapid change. Yet between 1900 and 1914, technological, social and political advances swept Europe and America on a scale unknown in any such previous timespan, the blink of an eye in human experience. Einstein promulgated his special theory of relatively. Marie Curie isolated radium and Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first synthetic polymer. Telephones, gramophones, motor vehicles, cinema performances and electrified homes became commonplace among affluent people in the world’s richest societies. Mass circulation newspapers soared to unprecedented social influence and political power.”
True, World War II – 1939-45 – was necessary: Hitler was a force for evil, which had to be removed, an outgrowth of the World War I.
Wars usually are unnecessary. There was no reason for the USA and Britain to go to war with Iraq in 2003. There was no reason for Germany and France to fight in 1870, beyond newly formed Germany to prove its military power. There was no reason for war in 1914, beyond the murder of an archduke in Bosnia. As A.J.P Taylor said of 1914, “Nowhere was there a conscious determination to provoke a war. Statesmen miscalculated and became prisoners of their own weapons. The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight”.
Anno 2018 we again are in an era of immense change, with the prospect that the world of WORK will see tremendous upheaval as Robots and Artificial Intelligence start to deeply influence – and perhaps mostly eliminate – work for a large segment of society, especially the male portion.
Our family often walks on a nearby old railroad track, made more than a century ago, all hills and valleys made smooth by shovel and pick, requiring enormous muscle power to accomplish it.
To finish the Cross-Canada-Railway thousands of Chinese were imported. Today, thanks to Carbon Power, physical labor is no longer needed, as the use of OIL has given each of us 100 slaves 24/7. Slavery always is an abomination, as we are discovering.
When politicians run stuck – and today they do – they become aggressive and talk war. With lunatics increasingly in the driver’s seat, the world situation looks grim. Both the state of the economy and the environment are precarious. The explosion of global debt is beyond anything ever recorded: the global debt is now $237 Trillion, or $30,000 for every living being on earth, including the 3 billion people who live on less than $1,000 per year. That amount grew $21 Trillion globally over the last year, roughly 10%, while global growth was a mere 2-3%, an impossible situation. That simply means global bankruptcy and that very soon. What will be the consequences? The current monetary situation reminds me of Paul, the apostle, writing to his friend Timothy (1 Timothy 6: 10), “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”
Behind this crazy borrowing of money, now such an immense amount that it never ever can be repaid, looms the human future, one of strife, conflict, war, revolution, of which the Syrian situation is but a prelude. If the weather so far in 2018 is any indication, we are in for a most perilous year there too. As yet missing are severe earthquakes. Be prepared!
Additional perils
Basically the Syrian war is a result of
(1) Climate Change, where drought and desertification has threatened the livelihood of millions of farmers in the Middle East. This is poised to become a world-wide phenomenon, either too much water or not enough, and
(2) religious, a conflict between Muslims: Sunni versus Shias, between the supporters of kings, democracies, and secular governments, versus the Sunni arm of Islam, and the Alawites, Iran and Iraq. As such, it is extended across the entire Middle East, encompassing Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies on one side and Iran and its Shiite allies including the Washington supported government in Baghdad, the Washington demonized government in Damascus and the Hezbollah faction of Lebanon, on the other.
In one form or another, this clash has been going on for 1300 years, and is centered on the Middle East, far, far away from Toronto, New York, Paris, Melbourne and London. Geographically it has nothing to do with us, but since OIL is buried there, and OIL lubricates our wasteful lifestyle, we have an intimate interest in the region. That’s why the USA Fifth Fleet is there: the Trillion Dollar deficit in the USA annual budget mainly comes from its military expenditure, not really priced in into the world Oil price.
Just as in the period 1900-14, now 100 years ago, the nations are armed to the teeth, with the immense difference that the weapons are a thousand times more lethal.
And then there is the computer scare: the next war may simply be a war of wits: who can neutralize the other party first by sabotaging the entire Internet network.
The new face of war.
That means that “war” may mean anything from a trade war to cyber-attacks to an actual shooting war. Due to that broad definition of war we must be prepared all the time, because the overriding war is THE WORLD WAR FOREVER.
Our precaution must include everything from the basics (food, water, fuel) to holding some cash out of the banks (in case they stop working for some reason), to having a certain amount of physical gold and/or silver bullion handy.
The base level preparations we should have in place regardless of what sort of war comes along:
• A minimum of three months of food for your family plus others. You decide how many others that might be. A couple of close friends? Half your church?
• Water filtration devices capable of filtering one gallon per person, per day, for three months. You may have to buy extra devices and/or filters to accomplish this. If you do not have access to your own water (well, nearby pond, lake or stream), then stored water sufficient to last several weeks.
• Cash out of the bank that can cover three months of living expenses.
• A bug out bag pre-loaded with your most valuable documents, irreplaceable pictures, medicines, perhaps a cross bow and arrows, some cash and some gold/silver bullion. As the natural disasters of late have shown, you never know when you might have to pick up and flee with little/no warning.
• All the basics in case of a nuclear exchange or a grid-down event that causes nuclear plants to overheat and explode as happened in Fukushima. Dosimeters/Geiger counters, plastic sheeting, tape, and disposable coveralls and facemasks.
I installed a frost-free hand pump on our well. It came in handy when the pole carrying the electricity from the highway to our house, snapped and we were without power for three days.
A different world.
Today we live in a different world, where World Wars are waged simultaneously: today WW FOREVER is intensifying, to the point where this ancient war, started aeons ago, is the immediate consequence of our disobedience.
It started modestly, beginning with the growth of thorns and thistles sprouting everywhere, but is now threatening our very existence thanks to ABRUPT AND SUDDEN Climate Change.
All other wars – cyber and economic, even nuclear – pale into insignificance compared to the dangers of Methane Hydrates exploding in the Arctic: once this happens, we have less than a decade of life left.
Be always prepared to meet your Maker because that ancient, but enduring WORLD WAR FOREVER can suddenly intensify to total destruction thanks to the melting ARCTIC.
Post Script.
My mistake: a mere zero!
Last week I made an error: the debt per person in the world is $31,000. But, based on GDP per person, it is $300,000 for us Westerners, with a Gross Domestic Product of more than $30,000 per person, while in poorer regions it is a less than $1,000 per person, still a considerable sum for the average dweller in much of China, India and Africa.