Comments on: Seigneur des Arm

By: Levi Peterson

Levi Peterson — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 16:30:48 +0000

As I reread my comment above, I wish I could get back into it and change it. Since I don’t know how, I will add that I see that I have implied that Jonathan endorses the idea of a vengeful deity. I am sure he doesn’t.

I will also add that I too visited battlefields and military cemeteries while a missionary in Belgium during the mid-1950s. I remember particularly the cemetery behind the citadel at Liege where the Germans buried citizens executed in retaliation for acts of the Resistance, a place very sobering, very evocative of regret.

By: Levi Peterson

Levi Peterson — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 15:45:12 +0000

Jonathan, I read the ending of your initial statement as accepting the inevitability of Armageddon. I can accept the inevitability of such a war, given the overpopulation of an earth with limited resources and given the fact that human beings, particularly young males, prefer violence to boredom and passive waiting.

What I can’t accept is the prophecies of the Book of Revelations that imply that a vengeful God will hasten the conflict and, indeed, assist in the destruction: “I saw the heaven opened and beheld a white horse. He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God.”

Many, many Christian, Latter-day Saints among them, believe that the figure on that white horse is the same person who spoke the Beatitudes.

No way.

By: Splendid Sun

Splendid Sun — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 05:33:25 +0000

[...] There are poignant stories of the quick and the brave and I feel very much as I did five months ago. I also have this hope – that the Lord shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. [...]

By: Zerin Hood

Zerin Hood — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:06:28 +0000

I served in France too. I was most struck by the photographs of the WWI battlefields at the museum near where the armistice was signed. I’ve never seen such utter desolation wrought by the hand of man –not mere destruction, but actual desolation.

By: Justin H

Justin H — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 15:08:20 +0000

I see, JNS. I appreciate you taking the time to clarify.

By: JNS

JNS — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 00:32:32 +0000

Justin H. There is a monument In France so obnoxiously (no retort intended) enormous that one is drawn to it out of sheer curiosity There is nothing estheticly pleasing about the structure. What is it is an arched edifice with column after column with thousands and thousands of names graven in the marble. These are those who died in a battle in that place who were never found. The monument is a colossus of ugliness. Its purpose, however is magnificent.

The purpose of the dollar store flowers, if a bit tacky, may have been a decent gesture, and yes something is better than nothing. I had done next to nothing.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:28:14 +0000

John H., you hit on the sentiment that I was feeling.

By: Justin H

Justin H — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:08:06 +0000

J., you write:

Some flavors of our eschatology require a great and final war.

I wonder sometimes if it isn’t precisely these sorts of requirements that will end up fulfilling their own prophecies. If so, may God indeed have mercy on our souls.

By: Justin H

Justin H — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:04:32 +0000

JNS–I haven’t, but certainly almost any gesture is better than none? Or is that what you’re trying to say?

I don’t mean to be obnoxious. I really enjoyed the beginning of your post, then felt a bit perplexed by the end. Is the sentence “Surely something better…” a quote of what you were thinking as you felt smug?

By: JNS

JNS — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 19:44:14 +0000

Justin H. Have you ever seen the flowers ar the dollar store?