Thank you for the response. It is interesting that you suggest I read the Bible, because, because of your last post, that is exactly what I have been doing.
You see, when I last replied I said I was going to get the newspaper with the headline "AMAGEDDON". Well, I had to turn the trailer upside down and shake it to find that thing. Wouldn't you know it was in the last place I looked? Well, it was in a cardboard box labeled "Important Junk". There was also a slightly older newspaper with the headline "NEW SMALLS PLEASE" as well as a really old one with the headline "EMPIRE TROOPS LAND IN IRAK" (I spent a lot of time rereading this one).
To my surprise, when I found it, the newspaper I was referring to read "APOCALYPSE" and I remembered that that day I had the choice between the two and I selected that one because I had seen a movie with Marlon Brando with that word in it. Both had a similar picture on the front from what I remember but I bet my memory is as bad on the picture as it was on the headline. I had the choice because unfortunately, either I am too cheap or too poor to have got both. The picture on the front of this one is what looks like a dark cloud.
It made me wonder what is the difference between Apocalypse and Armageddon. I asked my wife and she said "I don't know." I said, "It seems to me they are more or less the same thing, what do you think?" She said, "I don't really know." I said, "I bet its got something to do with religion." She said, "Maybe, why don't you look it up?" I said, "In the OED?, I can't read that thang and the puters not on." She said, "Why don't you use the magnifying glass?" I said, "Don't you have a smaller dictionary?" She said, "Maybe." And I thought, "Well, she can't never remember where stuff is and I already turned the trailer upside down and I knew where the OED was so I decided to look them up in there."
Well, in the OED it says Apocalypse means more or less the prophesy of the book of Revelation. And to my surprise, the word Armageddon was not in there. I first wondered if I was spelling it wrong, so I triple checked, then I let my wife know they had left that word out. She suggested I check in the back cause they have a list of proper names back there. Well, that was another great big heavy book to have to squint through, and after much difficulty it was not in there either. So I sat and scratched my head awhile, then figured out I had best look in a teeny tiny puter I have that works in WiFi and somehow or another it lets me search the wide world over for any kind of stuff I may be interested in.
Well, it came right up and said that Armageddon was a particular place, a field somewhere in the Holy Land where the Israelites used to like to go to fight when they felt like fighting. It also said that it was mentioned in the Bible only once and that was in the book of Revelation, Chapter 16, Verse 16.
OT: (As I am typing this my wife is yelling at me telling me that Bezos is funding a rocket ship in Texas, and that some Iranian woman who is going to blast off from Cape Canaveral soon is a co-funder, like I didn't alread know that! I told her that I did not know the Iranian woman was a co-funder but I did know she was going to space plus I knew that Bezos was funding that thang and I also know like everybody else that he has a laugh like a hyena.)
So I decided that I had better get out a Bible and start perusing it.
This is exactly what it said: "And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon".
I pondered that awhile. I thought that is pretty straight forward. It reminded me that we Westerners do seem to have a problem spelling words. But, and theres always that but in there, isn't there?
But, I wondered who is "they" and who is "them". So I started reading the parts before and after.
This is when I found out "they" is "three frogs."
And "them" is "kings of the whole world."
Needless to say, there was a considerable amount of head scratching after that revelation.
I did a fair amount of rereading an reading more previous parts to try to get a better context. I did some more pondering.
I have to admit it was bewildering.
The onliest thing I could come up with was that Chapter 17 verse 1-2 somehow made me think of Monica.
I showed it to my wife and asked her what she thought about it. She said, "It sounds like a dream."
I said, "Well, it is. It is a dream John had one time and he wrote it down. It sounds like a nightmare. I wonder what it all means?"
She said, "Beats me, it is a dream."
Now this is not the first time I have read this. I will admit that I know less of what it means today than what I may have known in the past. I was told this was a dream that is supposed to foretell the future. But it seems that I am unable myself to interpret this dream (I have twice typed "dread" and changed it to "dream", I hope that doesn't mean anything).
A long time ago I had a book, it was a religious book, and I carried it around with me everywhere I went, and from time to time, I would pull it out and open it and read a little bit at random and I would say to myself, "I can't make head nor tales of this" and I would put the book back in my pocket or bag or somewhere. Then, after several years of this, one time, I pulled it out and I read a little bit and I said to myself, "This makes perfect sense and explains everything." Then I read the whole book from the beginning and wondered why I had not been unable to understand it before, because it made perfect sense. That book has been sitting on my shelf a long time and I have not read any of it. I read some this weekend to compare it with Revelation.
I am going to quote one little bit for you:
"
Deathless, birthless,
Unchanging forever,
How can It die
The death of the body ?
"
Reading this and interpreting this seems easy to me today as contrasted to what the dream of John means.
I am not sure if I have enough years left to be able to figure out what the Revelation means.
I dare to ask if you can shed any light upon this question?
HERE ARE SOME QUOTES FROM THE BIBLE: REV 16:
MY PERSONAL PRINT EDITION
Revised Version
16: And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon.
According to ONLINE EDITIONS
etext.lib.virginia.edu
Revised Standard Version
16: And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armaged'don.
King James
16: And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
NEXT TWO VERSES:
17: The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"
18: And there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as had never been since men were on the earth, so great was that earthquake.
PREVIOUS FOUR VERSES
12: The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphra'tes, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.
13: And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs;
14: for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
15: ("Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!")
NEXT CHAPTER
Revelation, chapter 17
1: Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters,
2: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk."
3: And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
4: The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication;
5: and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations."
6: And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her I marveled greatly.
7: But the angel said to me, "Why marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
8: The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition; and the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will marvel to behold the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
9: This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
10: they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain only a little while.
11: As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to perdition.
12: And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.
13: These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast;
14: they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."
15: And he said to me, "The waters that you saw, where the harlot is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
16: And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire,
17: for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18: And the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth."
ACCORDING TO OTHERS
Paramahamsa Yogananda, writer of the famous "Autobiography of a Yogi," viewed the Bhagavad Gita as one of the world's two most divine scriptures, along with the Four Gospels of Jesus.
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