Someone named Emerald Robinson recently went on television to inform her viewers about the deleterious effects of getting the Covid vaccine. She also let the Twitterverse know of her insights:
Dear Christians: The vaccines contain a bioluminescent marker called Luciferase so that you can be tracked. Read the last book of the New Testament to see how this ends.
It’s disturbing that so many absurd
rumors, conspiracy theories, and otherwise inane “thoughts” and “ideas” are
promoted, not only among their adherents, but over the public airwaves to be
consumed and often believed by people. It appears that fear and a sense of
powerlessness, or the supposed threat of powerlessness, are the ruling mindsets
among a high percentage of the population.
One thing I never understood was why some people are so fascinated by the “last book of the New Testament,” AKA Revelation.
First of all, the images used by the
writer are practically indecipherable by people of our time/place/culture/worldview. Secondly, readers of Revelation have, through the ages, leapt
to the conclusion that the “prophecies” were directly related to the times in
which they lived. Someone always pointed
to people, events, trends, etc., no matter their own century, that “fulfilled”
what they read in the text. And, as Emerald Robinson demonstrates, (two
can play at this game!) it still happens. (One theory I heard, giving me pause,
though, was that the 666 designation of the “Anti-Christ” could apply to a name
with the corresponding number of letters:
Ronald Wilson Reagan. Yeah, I voted for Carter and Mondale.) Thirdly, I
am of the opinion that Revelation was
an attempt by John to provide hope and comfort to First Century Christians who
suffered under the thumb of Rome. I
could, believe it or not, be wrong about that, but I think it makes a lot of
sense.
From Rudy Giuliani saying “It’s not my job”
to verify the “facts” of his election fraud claim; to the My Pillow guy holding
conferences to “prove” that Biden was fraudulently installed as president, and
that Trump would be “re-instated” (supposedly last August); to Rand Paul
blaming Dr. Fauci for the pandemic, we are bombarded with imaginative and
fear-producing nonsense.
A new level of absurdity (not sure if it’s
a high or low level) was attained recently as hundreds of people gathered at
Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of the JFK assassination, because they were
convinced JFK, Jr., who died in a plane crash in 1999, would show up. Some apparently thought his father would
accompany him.
It’s a convoluted notion, but some claim
that Jr. is Q of QAnon, and that he has been hiding out, or assuming another
identity (several are suggested) for the last couple of decades, only to
finally be revealed as the vice president for Trump who “is lying in wait to
destroy a secret cabal of blood-drinking, child-sex-trafficking members of the
liberal elite,” according to a Rolling
Stone online article by E.J. Dickson and Steven Monacelli. It also seems many of the devotees of this “mindset”
believe that every election and law passed since the late 1800’s will be invalidated,
Trump will be the true 19th President of the United States, and John
John will be V.P. until Trump vacates the office to become the “King of Kings.” This again, is a Revelation reference, from Chapter 17.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people find
all of this to be true. Unfortunately
for them, JFK, Jr. rudely failed to show in Dallas even though throngs stood in
the rain waiting for him.
We’ve come a long way from the days of
people denying the Holocaust, asserting that the moon landing in 1969 was
nothing but an event staged on a Hollywood back lot, and insisting (and hoping!) that Elvis, sideburns
and all, still lives.
Personally, the value in Revelation for me comes from Chapter
21. After all the dragons, beasts,
plagues, riders on horses, and other scary stuff John paraphrases the Old
Testament prophet Isaiah (near the end of his
“revelation” in Chapter 65):
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the
first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And
I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said,
“See, I am making all things new.” (NRSV)
One day, long ago and far
away, I was in the library at my seminary lamenting some forgotten ill. I concluded my diatribe with a sigh and the
observation, “It’s a crazy world.”
My friend Bill Harris, with
whom I was speaking, said without hesitation, “I’m looking for a better one.”
