Armageddon?

Revelation 16: And the seven angels were instructed:

"Go your ways

and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth"

And so to the battle of Armageddon

Man's final, mortal struggle on this planet between good and evil

Biblical beginning

{1} Did it start with Abraham, the Biblical patriarch whom Hebrews, Christians and Muslims claim to be their progenitor? By moral standards, neither he nor Sarah, his wife, were paragons of virtue. While they were in Egypt, in order to diminish the risk of Pharaoh killing him to covet his wife, Abraham passed Sarah off as his sister. And so, while Pharaoh frolicked with her, qualmless Abraham busily occupied himself acquiring wealth. When Pharaoh discovered the deception, he drove both of them out of Egypt in abject disgrace.

{2} When Abraham was 86 and still childless, his wife suggested he lay with Hagar, his Egyptian concubine. Ishmael was born of that union. When the lad reached adulthood, people saw him as being "a wild ass of a man; his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him." He and his 12 tribal chieftains raided and then populated much of the land that later fell under Arabic dominion. At age 100, Abraham slept with Sarah and they begot Isaac. He was their favored son and from him Hebrews traced their descent. Later, even King David proclaimed himself to be directly descended from Abraham. The Gospels and certain OT Psalms make the same claim for Jesus.

{3} A curious parallel between the fates of Isaac and Jesus can be discerned. The Bible notes that God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. But just as Abraham was about to slit his son's throat, God stopped him! However, when Christ was crucified, God did not intervene. But He did restore his Son to life by resurrecting him.

{4} Suffice it to say: Abraham, who lived 175 years, spawned all three religions of the "Book." But not one of those religions has ever really coexisted peacefully with the other two.

Medieval maelstrom

{5} When the Roman Emperor Constantine announced "In hoc signo vinces" Rome became Christian and the Empire soon disintegrated. Then, while Europe slumbered restlessly through the dark and middle ages, Islam flowed rapidly into the vacuum created by the absence of Roman structure and authority. With exponential rapidity, Islam swirled through northern Africa, the Mediterranean, Portugal, Spain, Central Europe and of course, the Middle East. Subsequently, except for a few brief periods of fruitful coexistence, Muslims, Christians and Jews have remained bitterly hostile and unreconciled towards each other. Five Crusades were mounted by Christians in their futile effort to recapture the Holy Land from Islam. On the other hand, because it searched the seas for unblocked routes to the distant Indies, the Christian West became invigorated by its accidental discovery of the American continents. Stimulated also by the Renaissance, it found itself no longer seriously affected by Islam. In the meantime however, Jews and Muslims have drifted a semitic infinity apart.

Contemporary chaos

{6} Whereas the West continues to prosper, Islam continues to dwell in unremitting poverty and debilitating decadence. Muslim extremists believe they are the victims of pernicious and unceasing Western exploitation. To lay waste to the West, particularly to the USA, appeals to them as their most expeditious solution. And now, fully embarked on that course they are even slaughtering some of their own people whom they distrust. Untroubled by guilt or remorse, they are sustained by the belief that they are doing God's will. But while the West actively defends itself, it endeavors to enlighten the moderates among its many Islamic assailants. It seeks people who can be persuaded to tread more rational paths to peaceful growth and development.

{7} But even if terrorists were to succeed in bringing the West to its knees, what then? Are they prepared to define a vision of how the world should function? Have they the courage to say who they are and whom they represent? Have they spelled out specific policies they espouse? And has it not yet occurred to them that were they eventually to prevail, they would be subject to an equally, unremitting violent counter-terrorism? Is their madness not apparent to them?

Future foretold

{8} If we are already hopelessly into Armageddon, then La Divina Commedia e veramente finita! If this is indeed the case, perhaps with fervent prayer, God may be importuned to give us one last reprieve. If He does, it would not be illogical to predict that the shape of the world to come would be fashioned ultimately, not by misguided religions but by economics, by communications, and by radical social development. Globalization could become the amalgamating force and the pattern of the future. But the world must first become free, peaceful and unequivocally good-willed.

{9} Diversity must not be stifled, it must be seen and utilized as one of humanity's most vital resources. Who knows, perhaps, as our fear of change diminishes, we might begin to consider discarding the atavisms of nationhood. Would we not welcome a world comprised of ungoverned people free to live, move and relate to each other without having to cross archaic borders and irrational barriers? Think of it, does not all other life on this planet survive in that manner? Let us dare to hope that governments, tyrants, political blocs and perhaps even religions, will some day be fossilized relics on display in our museums. Would that not be the world as God must really wish it to be?