418: The Pandemic, Power, & the Apocalypse

Back in 2016, Donald Trump gave a campaign speech promising that if elected “Christianity will have power.” The Holy Post crew discusses why this message has so much appeal to some Christians today, the way fear has come to mark our faith, and what we can do to counteract the trend. After the podcast is interrupted by a tornado, Christian asks if we’re seeing signs of the apocalypse. Skye says, “No” and shares his idea for a sermon titled “How Stupid Do We Think God Is?” Plus, listener mail.
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[@Yeshua888Lord]

Jesus Christ is our hope not man or government nor institution. I my identity is in Christ and I belong to the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Jesus loves you ❤️

[@TheYellowKazoo]

OMG IT'S PHIL VISCHER! I've been deep diving into VeggieTales and Big Idea's history lately. It's very interesting.

[@SanctifiedPunk]

Did you watch the Saberspark video on Veggie Tales? That's what brought me here too!! :D

[@TheYellowKazoo]

Sanctified Punk yep lol. That and Christian Nutrition.

[@SuperpopeGaming]

Great episode! The discussion about Christians thinking God is stupid reminded me of J.B. Phillips' book, "Your God Is Too Small." I think often we just don't follow our uninformed beliefs about who God is through to their logical conclusions or we would see how weak, petty, and stupid he would have to be for our beliefs to be correct. And two things about the mark of the beast: 1) Any belief about what it is that would nullify the gospel definitely has to be wrong, as you guys were humorously illustrating. 2) Why do people think the mark of the beast is literal, but the mark of Christ in the VERY NEXT VERSE is figurative? Or are people planning on tattooing the name of the Father and Son on their foreheads sometime soon?

[@tempestvenator9809]

Yeah, I actually read some preterist articles on revelation, (note: I totally disagree with full-preterism, Jesus did promise He would return and that there would be a resurrection) and one thing they brought up is that the Mark of the Beast is the dark parallel to the Mark of God in Ezekiel, where those who cried for Israel because they sinned (A.K.A. those who still followed God) were given a mark on their foreheads by an angel so that they would be spared from the destruction of Jerusalem... at the hands of Babylon. Basically one those people who were marked at that time would be the prophet Daniel since he was spared (at least he survived). If you look at the symbolism of what is described in revelation, I.E. Satan being red with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns, with seven heads being seven kings (there are a total of ten kings but only seven are legitimate) and the sixth head was the sixth king who was currently ruling when John was writing Revelation, and the fact that 666 or 616 transliterates in Hebrew into Nero. Meaning the Seven headed dragon that Satan takes the form of is none other than Rome (also, well, RED!). So, the Mark of the Beast must be Caesar worship (kind of obvious since when you look at history, if you didn't worship Caesar you would be killed since you as a Christian would be an affront to the Roman Pax Deiorum).

[@fjohnson3002]

I agree with her!

[@fjohnson3002]

But the 21st century has started rough! But Phil is correct too.

[@MarkRidlen]

Fortunately, the mark of the beast has a great little riddle associated with it which does a fantastic job at weeding out the false positives. Not that anybody panicking is actually reading the bible. ----- 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.

[@SongSwan]

They seek to muddy the waters and deceive people

[@Cyrribrae]

This is a really great discussion. Don't agree with everything said, but I enjoyed listening to it.