Is Democracy a short-termer?

Catholicism hasn't insisted on biblical literalism in historical memory. The Vatican would just as soon Revelations was left out of the text entirely, for all the attention that's paid to it in Catholic theology, which is almost none.
And, I confess, I do not understand this sentence -- "Does the issue of the Antichrist in the New Testament apply as a religious issue, whether he/she/it is or not?" -- at all.

 

Never mind. I re-read you comment from a previous post and withdraw that. You weren't saying that the antichrist as separate from religion. I think the secular equivalent of the antichrist is the essence of evil, period.

And I think it is dangerous for a church body to be selective of what books of the Bible to disregard. Just my opinion. Biblical literalism would treat a dragon or beast as a literal beast. The mark of the beast being as a stamp on a forehead is biblical literacy, the connnection of the antichrist to people isn't. In other words, contextual truth is a different matter. These people were trying to be descriptive in communicating revelations (not just the book named that) with the language of then. Missiles weren't used by the Romans.

 

I am lost even further now.
By that standard, we should all keep kosher homes.

 

I really can't add anything to the Antichrist discussion, sorry.

I read a quote once that "the only thing worse than a democracy are all the other alternatives."

 

Churchill, I think.

 

I have two people in my life who are rather religious and they're both convinced what's going on in the world are signs of the fast-approaching end.

Remember how a lot of people felt in the early 1980s, worried the missiles could start flying any moment? It seems some of those same people are fretting now.

Is there reason to be concerned? Certainly. There's the potential for global conflagration around the corner. But life is too short (and too good) to spend it worrying about the end. If it comes, it comes and there's not a damn thing the average joe could do to stop it. How about we put that fear and worry to better use, helping our children learn how to read or throw a baseball. Or just give them a hug and quit bitching about the Catholic Church and the antichrist.

 

Let me add a little to what I said previously. I worry more about my son and his growth, development and well-being than I do about the situation in the Middle East, for the simple reason that I can do something about my son. And to be honest, if I lost him, I really wouldn't give a flip about the rest of the world, let alone the Middle East.

 

I just saw a show on EWTN, a Catholic cable station, and whoa, they were talking about Revelation and the current world situation. Didn't seem like they were tearing that portion of the Bible out and tossing it in the plastic file in the corner.

 

These types of people have been around forever. Paranoia is old hat.

 

Well, it only takes one ending to end the world.

Up until then, it's like thunderstorm watches that don't produce.

And when it does, as was said by another poster, there ain't a whole lot we're going to do about it - debate or otherwise.

 

I'm sure they were, EWTN being a rightist it-all-went-to-hell-after-Vatican-II mouthpiece. I'm telling you that, in 16 years of Catholic education, including 16 hours of college theology, we never discussed Revelations except as a mythological and historical artifact. And, if they were talking literally about it on EWTN, they were not dealing in Catholic theology. Period.

 

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/q/

The Raleigh News and Observer just used its Sunday "Q" section to discuss the possibility that the end is near. It's a fairly interesting read.