Monthly Archives: October 2015

¿¿ SECOND COMING in 1st CENTURY ??

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APOCALYPSE VIII: Le quatrieme Ange sonne de la trompette, image at El Escorial (Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo) uploaded to Wikimedia by Cnb.

APOCALYPSE VIII: Le quatrieme Ange sonne de la trompette, image at El Escorial (Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo) uploaded to Wikimedia by Cnb.

Book Review.

What if “The Second Coming” of Jesus, the Messiah, already happened during the span of his own generation, as he himself predicted?  

That it has, is the hypothesis of a rigorous, engaging book which deserves consideration by deeply thoughtful Christians, and anyone who enjoys church history.  I, for one, have long suspected there is merit to such a project.  And the author, Charles S. Meek, has made a superb presentation of this rare position, termed preterism (over-against futurism, and variants of millenialism) which deserves to be more widely pondered.  Be prepared to be effectively disabused of scriptural fantasy if you happen to have read any of the popular “Left Behind” series. And clergy might wish to keep an eye on this book, as it seeds their audiences with focused, pertinent questions.

While the title of the book, Christian Hope through Fulfilled Prophesy is rather bland (and the subtitle is rendered in obscurantist grad-school speak: An Exposition of Evangelical Preterism) — the topic is quite edgy, the writing is logical, compelling, and accessible, if a bit repetitious at times; and the author has done a thorough job of defending his thesis with rigorous examination of scripture, and historical material:  “…we will show that a strong case can be made that fulfillment of the entire prophecy of Revelation occurred in association with the Jewish-Roman War of AD 66-70 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.”

Normally I avoid books on “End Times” as they are filled with unreasonable speculation and nonsense.  This book intrigued me, as it argues from history, illustrating that we are beyond the era of the promised Parousia (second coming of Christ).  While I’m unfamiliar with the author, and until now was not aware that anyone was working seriously on this topic, this book seems important, as it effectively refutes much that has damaged Christianity.  But perhaps the book needs a new title?  Maybe something like:  

JESUS RETURNED.  Christians Slept:

First-Century Prophetic Fulfillment.

Yes, the book deserves to be repackaged somewhat for the general audience it claims to seek: “this book is written for the informed laymen…”  And, if repackaged, I would hope the author would adjust a few things, like inclusive language (instead of referring to theologians as “men” while several times quoting women from that field).  Mr. Meek also reveals bias against liberal Christians, yet many of his detractors would seem to be his fellow conservatives.  (He appropriately holds the feet of those critics to the fire by diligently focusing on the text.)  And we can suspect that he is liberal-minded in the best sense, due to the controversial nature of his thesis — conservatives putatively being more inclined to hew to the status quo regarding such a topic.  But his bias against “liberals” is often vague, unwarranted, and mostly unfortunate.  

His utilization of pertinent quotes shows us that he has read widely — Tolstoy, Ratzinger, Augustine, Eusebius.  And his end notes are superb in marshaling the history and resources from his research on eschatology regarding his thesis.  He also takes a good shot at careerism among the clergy by formulating questions for parishioners to ask their pastors regarding scriptural positions in tension with an expected second coming of Jesus.  (Heads up. This author is not afraid to stir the pot!)  I’m reminded of a quote from CS Pierce, saying those who love truth are destined to agree – which would seem to characterize the spirit of his effort.  How refreshing!

We are now able to dispense with waiting for search lights to converge on the Temple Mount, scanning the skies for a bearded guy on a white horse, descending in a cloud.  The prophetic promises have been fulfilled, if we are able to agree with the author. Said promises are carefully detailed and examined in this edifying book.  

 

¡¡ C#EMICA[ WAR£ARE !!

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Portrait of a mosquito, emerging from her pupa. Laboratory culture at Rockefeller University

Portrait of a mosquito, emerging from her pupa. Laboratory culture at Rockefeller University

(Sorry. My keyboard is suddenly missing letters.)  But I must write about mosquito spraying.  There is dengue fever in town.  And the city is spraying heavily, thinking this will solve the problem.  I’m no biologist, but I notice that the early results seems to be a sudden increase in mosquitoes, perhaps due to a vanishing of dragonflies, their best predator.

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Cgy01

 When we arrived (early September) the dragonflies were plentiful  around our pool, probably because they were attracted by the scent of water during a drought.  (They consume huge numbers of mosquitoes, and are a good sign of control.)  The city sprayed in early October, and suddenly the dragonflies were gone. Then the mosquito population exploded.  (Immediately after the spraying, the pool surface was littered with dead mosquitoes; but I saw no dead dragonflies.)  However, I’ve seen no living dragonflies lately.  Yet absence of evidence (of dragonfly corpses) is not evidence of absence, so I can’t claim the spraying killed the dragonflies. Yet, the mosquitoes are worse than ever, and I’ve not seen dragonflies lunching lately. 

The problem with poison is that it kills indiscriminately, and won’t quit: mosquitoes, dragonflies, bats, people(?) — yes, it’s toxic to mosquitos, but perhaps not wise, especially if it executes natural predators doing a good job for free. 

The spray truck went down our street tonight, twice.  (I know the city cares about the citizens and tourists, but they may have a mistaken notion of how to fix this problem.) I immediately closed our windows.  Worse, this morning I had noticed that a neighbor has an old concrete tinaco without a lid, and there is a foot of water in it, which I saw by tiptoeing across their roof.  I wonder how many of these failed structures are hatching little bloodsuckers in this town while we sleep? Look up!  

¿Best control, no toxicity to us:

51F-PdCsSiL

Amazon de|ivers some products to buyers in Mexico, but I’m unsure about dunx.  I suggest reading the reviews at Amazon.  I’ve used this product for the past two years, and am impressed, but have done no scientific assessment.  My experience is that the first year it controlled for larvae beyond my imagining. Year one, our property manager had tossed a dunk into the pool at least once per month.  When we arrived in September 2014, I found no presence of larvae whatsoever.  (The pool had been drained before leaving in April, but had accumulated some rainwater and leaves; it contained no pool chemistry.)  I entered the pool wearing boots and shorts, no camisa. I didn’t get bit even once.

This year, under the same regimen, some larvae were present.  The product, which contains a biological aspect called bacillus thurengensis israeli, would appear to have a shelf life. But maybe the presence of dragonflies had kept the population low. And the bats help in the evenings. (Bats are notoriously susceptible to pesticides, and we’ve also seen far fewer of them in October than we did in September, before the spraying.)  

Full disclosure: I have no commercial interest in the dunks product.  I am merely a customer (and a Vine Voice reviewer) at Amazon.  But I was not invited to review the dunks product, finding it on my own.