Monday, May 28, 2012

Apology... I’m sorry, but I have no regrets

“Apology... I’m sorry, but I have no regrets”
The Go-Gos
God Bless the Go-Gos


I would like to make an apology to all of my blog readers. From the whack jobs who still can’t believe Nibiru never showed up, to the dark energy cosmologists, who find new ways to say that you don’t know what the hell is going on... let alone what went on.

I would like to apologize and say, I’m sorry. I make no apologies.

Specifically, this pseudo-skeptical blog has tried to address some findings in the world of science and politics with an eye toward Biblical prophecy. Unlike the 666,666 other blogs out there that say “The Bible said this, and here’s where it’s happening on earth”, I tried to look at it from the other direction. I look around and I see things in plain sight, and I explore how they may or may not have been described in Bible prophecy, especially, of course, The Book of the Revelation.

I tried, and I feel I succeeded, to present this not as the “stretch of the week” like many religious prophecy peddlers have done over, lo, these last 50 years. For example, when they said that the “10 nations of the EU are in Revelation”, but then the EU grew to 16 and then more... rather than admitting they were wrong, they morphed the interpretation. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror if I did that. If they had lived in the Old Testament days, they’d have been stoned.

Instead, I kept it terse. I presented just the facts. I took a snapshot of the world, and I pointed to where I thought it matched Revelation. I kept the verbiage to a minimum, I tried not to preach. I showed the two pictures and asked... are these portraying the same things?

For example, one of my first blog posts showed an image of the 7 visible planets, named after Roman Gods & Goddesses all hovering around the head of the constellation Cetus the Sea Beast and Aries the Ram. I compared this image point by point with Revelation 13’s description of the beast rising out of the sea with 7 heads with names of blasphemy... and another beast with two horns like a lamb.

Here’s the URL: http://glidingstars.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-4th-2000-ad-astronomicalogical.html

It pointed to a single day. Some interesting things happened on or around that day. It was either a Bible prophecy before our eyes, or the Grand Planetary Coincidence. If that was a coincidence, then I quit.

I showed another that presented Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter (followed by Hell/Pluto) as portraying Revelation 6’s 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Each of them in a Zodiac sign matching what each Horseman carried. Bow = Sagittarius, Scales = Libra, etc. etc. etc.

Here’s that post if you haven’t seen it: http://glidingstars.blogspot.com/2012/05/four-horsemen-of-apocalypse-literally.html

It pointed to a single day. Some interesting things happened on or around that day. It was either a Bible prophecy before our eyes, or the Grand Planetary Coincidence II. If that was a coincidence, then I quit, again.

If they were BOTH coincidences, than I Double Secret Probation quit!


And I’m sorry that so many of my posts feature the book of the Revelation.


There’s a reason for that. One can say, “there is no such thing as prophecy.” But then I would have asked you to explain to me how a 1st Century fisherman could describe a global database, including the “Primary Key”, the aggregate COUNT, BOOLEAN operators when the man didn’t even know what a ZERO was?

I would ask you to explain why, I could literally ‘count the number of a man’s name’ with a simple SQL statement:


SELECT TOP 666 DISTINCT NAME from tblBibleNames where SEX=’M’ ORDER BY id ASC

http://glidingstars.blogspot.com/2012/05/count-number-of-beast-literally.html

And explain why, when I listed the unique names of the men in the Bible, the 666th name ended up being... well, indeterminate. The result VARIED!!! It was either Adino, Yosheb Bashebeth or IshBaal, depending on which version of the Bible you looked up the verse 2 Samuel 23:8. If that is merely a coincidence that the single greatest discrepancy in Bible translation should just HAPPEN to be man’s name #666... then I quit.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20samuel%2023:8&version=NIV

“I was quit when I came in, I’m thrice as quit now.”

Apologies to Bladerunner.

And finally, I’m sorry that I have been so quiet in trying to figure out who this Beast, this Antichrist, this Mr. 666 is. I used to. I used to comb the news and the Bible, looking for who that bad mopho might be. I would embarrass myself if I released my data on that query. I’m sorry, I was an idiot. At best, naïve. Thank God that blogs weren’t the rage yet. I’d be in hiding.

But then, one day, something happened. I saw Gulf War I in Daniel, Chapter 8 (previous blog), and I realized that it wouldn’t be long until this legendary dictator would be revealed, and I asked myself... “What if I’m right? What am I going to do about it?”

I realized that standing up and saying “So and So is the Antichrist” would be not only stupid, dangerous, and just plain whacko... but treason. So, I sat and watched... and it went away.

So, to recap, I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry.

That being said, I have a prediction that I want to make. GASP!


My prediction is not who the Antichrist is. I can tell you flat out who that is. Yes, that’s what I said. The Antichrist is the person, persons, or group of nations who present Israel with what they want... and then turn their back on them. Betray them, if you will. It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter what this person’s name adds up to in some ancient gematria that you don’t understand anyway. That’s not the mark of the beast, it’s not the 666. Sorry, you’ve been chasing your tail on that one.

Again, when someone whom Israel believes is their supporter turns on them, THAT is the Antichrist, and all of Revelation will break loose. I have to be honest here. I was deathly afraid that it would be The Dub. If he had applied the same “War on Terror” criteria to Israel as he did to Iraq, we would have troops in Bethlehem searching for WMDs, only this time, they’d find them. If the UN had applied the same criteria to Israel as they did Iraq, UN Peacekeepers would be setting up roadblocks around Jerusalem. And if that had happened, we’d be in the midst of the Seven Trumpets right now.

Here is my prediction.


As best as I can from here, I have been watching Sabah and this international man of mystery, Hamad. With the Saudi King recently gone, and with all that has happened in Israel, especially with the Ark (see my previous rant here), the time is ripe. Here is my prediction:


The grass roots are crying out, and the tree stands ready.

“Sabah, with the help of Hamad, will assert his might and take the reign and the reins in the former Saudi Arabia, forming a new government and an alliance with Israel. Soon, and very soon.”


There, I’ve said it. I am not saying that he will do what I said above, and turn on Israel. If not, then hamdallah! Peace and Security! If he does, Bingo! 666!

I’m sorry. I make no apologies.


StarGlider29a
5/28/2012

The preceding was a fictitious blogpost, an excerpt from the upcoming novel, Judas Christ by Christopher P. Simmons.
Any similarity to real persons living or dead is purely a coincidence.

The Gulf War in Daniel 8

I promised this blog post in May 2012. It's January 5, 2016... long past time to reveal this. Here goes:

Preamble:
In 1990, war was beginning. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait. Operation Desert Shield (not yet Desert Storm) had mobilized troops in response. As I was wont to do in those days, I read my bible. I happened upon a chapter long-studied, and for as long not understood. At that time, the meaning became eminently clear to me. I was seeing it on CNN. I sat down and typed a document outlining my findings, citing chapter, verse, and news of the day. I printed it, and since we didn't have the Interwebs in those days, I showed it to some friends, my pastor at the time. And it sat. Since The Cloud hadn't been invented yet, and floppies are fleeting, the original electronic version has been lost, but I still retain the hardcopy. On October 8, 2001 21:20 EDT, I scanned it, and I have included a copy at the bottom of this blog entry. That image serves only as evidence that I originally wrote this in 1990. It was an IBM PC-XT on WordPerfect 5.1. The paper is Parchtone Gunmetal. The printer, and HP LaserJet II, one step up from Ugaritic clay cuneiform tablets.

Disclosure:
In the missive of October 1990, I made observations of ancient writings, comparisons to current events, correlations between interpretations of the writings and those current events, and finally, prediction, or rather extrapolations for how the near future would proceed. Some of the predictions were pretty darn accurate, albeit no-brainers in hindsight. One prediction ended up being glaringly incorrect, or at least it fulfillment was delayed YEARS beyond the scope of my extrapolation. Because this post documents a past document, I am retaining the content of the original writing, without 'correcting' my predictions. Read; warts and all. Commentary, revision, abrogation will be handled on a separate blog post. This is an historic post, not speculative.

If my analysis from those days is accurate, neither the gist, nor the thrust, not the future has changed.


One more thing... The original document was formatted into two columns. I will try to mimic the two columns with HTML tables. Because of the limitations of this blogpost platform, it may not work perfectly.


Begin...


Daniel, Chapter 8


{3}...Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the [Karkheh] river [in Western Iran] a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.a


Current & Imminent World Events

The Present...
Daniel 8:20 says explicitly that the ram is the "kingdoms" of the Medes & Persians. The ancient kingdoms are now called Iran [Persia] and Iraq [Media]. The horns always represent their power, or specifically, their leaders. aIn the late 70's Iran was the thorn in the side of the west, but now Iraq has the entire world in its clutches, through oil and the 4th largest military, as well as Bio/Chemical weapons.

{4} I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southwardb; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.c

The invasion of Kuwait, August 2, 1990 made the countries of Iraq's bwestern, northern and southern borders, which were Arabic allies and brothers, now his enemies. cOvernight, Saddam Hussein's powerful sway, 'charm' and defiance made him the front runner for Time Magazine's 1990 Man-of-the-Year.

{5} And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground:d and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.e

{6} And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.f

But, dthe world under the United Nations direction instituted broad sanctions against Iraq, including Iraq's greatest trading partners, Jordan and Turkey. Even the Soviets and the Chinese condemned the invation. Without touching the ground, Operation Desert Shield airlifted over 150,000 American troops, jets and ships into the Saudi Arabian Desert. Even Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia arrayed their force against Saddam Hussein. But the e,fdriving force was George Bust and the American Military, the backbone of the anti-Iraqi operation, despite the unease of the Arabs at the presence of the US in an "Arab situation."

The Future... [As of October 11, 1990]
{7} And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns:gand there was no power in the ram to stand before [the he goat], but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.h

gThe President, driven by anger and pressure from the rest of the world will strike out at the Iraqi's and possibly the Iranians, if they decide to step in on the side of Hussein. hUnder the superiority of the massed forces, Baghdad is dusted off and Saddam Hussein will be defeated, probably killed.

{8} Therefore the he goat waxed very greati: and when he was strong, the great horn was brokenj; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heavenk.

{9} And out of one of them came forth a little hornl, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.m

{10} And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.n

{11} Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the hosto, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away,p and the place of his (the Prince's) sanctuary was cast down.

{12} And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.

Note: in verse 11, I turned to the NKJV for clarification of the pronouns. KJV everywhere else, including old spelling.

iThe forces of Operation Desert Shield plus the new Arab Allies (perhaps numbering a total of 1 million-ish) take Iraq. However, jthe welcome of the US troops on Arabic soil is worn out, and the Americans go home. The occupation of Iraq is left either to a coalition of Iraq's neighbors, or kIraq is literally split into 4 pieces in the tradition of the former East/West Berlin. (Or event he Quarters of Jerusalem.) These caretakers would probably be Turkey (north), Saudi Arabia (south), Iran? (east) and Syria (and/or Jordan) to the west. lOne of these 4 countries brings forth a popular leader who becomes very powerful. mHis greatness spreads to the south, east and west, which would have him either be from Turkey, or more probably, Syria. (This hints at the prospect of Lebanon falling to Syrian occupiers.) This person becomes so popular (and pridefully self-enamored) that he fulfills nRevelation 12:4 & 7 (somehow) and imagines himself equal to oJesus and God [Joshua 5:14, Exekiel 28:2, I Thessalonians 2:4-5, pDaniel 9:27] This makes him, by Biblical axiom, The AntiChrist, literally. He will spread his long-prophesied reign of terror, false-wonders and miracles, and deceit. But the End is not yet...


The original...


...End.

That's it. Presentation of the document is complete. Comment and conjecture on future blog posts. Clearly this was written before I discovered the miracle of an 'editor'. Spelling, punctuation, and lack of Oxford commas betray the green-ness of my writing.

Cheers!
--
Starglider29a
1/5/2016 14:03 EST

Sunday, May 27, 2012

"Count the number of the Beast... LITERALLY!"

To compute requires a computer

What if one were to "count" the numbers of a man's name?  We tried to do that, and when it came time to get to the 666th name, we were not prepared for what name we found at #666. 20 years later, it still puzzles us. See why...


Many years ago, I once again re-read the best known, yet least understood Bible verse in the New Testament. No, not John 3:16, since a child can understand that. And not "Let there be light!" because I said the New Testament. If you don't know what that verse is, ask some of its commentators:
  • Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath
  • Iron Maiden
  • Slayer
  • Avenged Sevenfold
  • Motley Crüe 
  • Let me pause and note that the classic rock station is playing the #1 Classic Rock song of all time. Stairway to Heaven, in which is alleged the backward masking of "666" :))
  • Anyone under the age of 44 who is named Damien
  • Nearly ANYONE playing on KNAC.com at any time
Even if they only know the last 3 digits, certainly the best-known, least-understood Bible verse is: 

"This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has wisdom calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666." -- Revelation 13:18

Somehow or another, this points to "the Beast", the Antichrist (at least for the purposes of the this discussion.) And since about 95 A.D., people have been trying to figure out what that means. I won't bore you with the history of that search. Google it.

But as I re-read that verse, very slowly (in Greek), a thought came to me. The word "calculate" in the NIV is the word "count" in the KJV, and is translated from the Greek "psephizo." They are "counting stones" which could be actually individual stones, or stones of an abacus. Either way, the idea came to me: What if one were to LITERALLY count the number of a man.
  • Take a stone, write the first man's name: Adam. 
  • Take a second stone, write the second man's name: Cain
  • Take a third stone, write the third man's name: Abel
  • Take a fourth stone, write the fourth man's name: Seth
  • Etc., etc., etc.
  • Take a six-hundred sixty-sixth stone, write the six-hundred sixty-sixth man's name: Ta-da!!!
Simple, right? So that's what we decided to do. I and my friend, Eomerica427, sat down at a computer, created a database, and entered the people's names in the order in which they appeared int eh Bible. We indicated whether the person was male or female, and also indicated if we had seen this name before (this was a LONG time ago, before we had access to SQL and the DISTINCT syntax.) We each had a Bible, checking each other as we went. I had a King James, and he had I think a Revised American Standard Bible. I know... what difference does it make if we are reading the "inerrant Word of God", right?

We carried on as carefully as astronomers. We kept track of the Bible verse, in case we needed to check our math. We debated what to do about 'Pharaoh', whether it was a name or a title. We considered it prudent to follow the Jewish Bible order of book, as that's what John would have done. As we approached the #660th name, we backtracked to check our counting. And we moved ahead, very slowly, very seriously. Realize, we teetered on a discovery that had eluded scholars for millennia. We didn't even know if this had been done.  

And if we were correct, we would be fulfilling a Bible prophecy!

We found ourselves in II Samuel Chapter 23. Ignoring Pharaoh as a name, we found:
#660 Armoni,
#661 Ishbibenob,
#662 Sibbechai,
#663 Saph
#664 Elhanan
#665 Jaareoregim (If we didn't ignore Pharaoh, this was our man!)
We paused, breathless, grinned at each other. I remember this moment like it was yesterday. He read II Samuel 23:8 and the next name, the 666th name:
"Number 666... Josheb-basshebeth!"
"NO IT'S NOT!" I said.
"Yes it is."
"No, it's not. It's Adino, the Tachmonite..."
We looked at each others' Bibles, and sure enough... there was a DIFFERENCE! He grabbed his Catholic Bible, and there was a THIRD NAME, Ish-Baal.What was going on? Isn't this the Bible? The Word of God?Did God STUTTER?! Was God bad with names?

We did some homework, and found yet a FOURTH name in another version. Here is the rundown:
  • Josheb-Basshebeth... NIV: These are the names of David’s mighty men: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed[d] in one encounter.
    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel%2023:8&version=NIV1984
  • Adino... KJV: These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.
    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel%2023:8&version=KJV
  • Jesbaham... Douay-Rheims 1899: These are the names of the valiant men of David. Jesbaham sitting in the chair was the wisest chief among the three, he was like the most tender little worm of the wood, who killed eight hundred men at one onset.
    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel%2023:8&version=DRA
  • Ishbaal... Catholic.org: These are the names of David's champions: Ishbaal the Hachmonite leader of the Three; it was he who brandished his spear over eight hundred men whom he had killed at one time.
    http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=10&bible_chapter=23

Ok, I grant you that I have never heard of anyone named "Yosheb bas-Shebeth", and I don't have any expectation that every single word of every single version of the Bible will agree. It seems that the King James translated this guy's name to "he that sat in the seat", while the others left it as a proper name.

But here's the part that troubles me... to this day...

What are the odds that a fairly major discrepancy between versions of Bible translations ends up on the VERY VERSE in which we expect to find the 666th unique male name? Astronomical? Miraculous? Or is it something else?

 So we asked ourselves, "What could this possibly mean?" Is the answer not a name, but "the one who sits in the seat?" Let's consider.

Who sits in the seat?

There are several answers for this question. Here are my top 3:
  • #3: The person who sits in the seat is "The Chairman". I don't know WHICH Chairman, but here are a few to mention: Mao, Arafat, Gates/Ballmer. Even Steve Jobs. Few can deny that Chairman Mao could have been the Antichrist, with his human/deity influence. Arafat was not that charismatic, but he was also in the best position to betray Israel after a false peace. Sketchy, but possible.
  • #2: An infallible Pope speaks Ex Cathedra, which means literally, "from the Chair." The Pope "sits in the chair" of St. Peter, thus:
    "The pope is said to occupy the "chair of Peter", as Catholics hold that among the apostles Peter had a special role as the preserver of unity, so the pope as successor of Peter holds the role of spokesman for the whole church"

    "Holy See" and "Apostolic See" ...the term "see" comes from the Latin word "sedes", meaning "seat."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility
    I will quickly say that I am SLOW to point to the Pope as Antichrist, as I believe that the Pope will end up being the target of the Antichrist, but that's another blog post.
  • #1: My primary interpretation is to take the Bible literally where is should be, and realize what this verse means:
    "...and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." -- 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 NKJV
    If the "temple of God" is the temple from the Old Testament, there is only one place on which to sit in the temple, only one "seat"... The Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant!

    I realize that by the time that happens, it's too late. He'd already be here. But ask yourself... if someone is going to LITERALLY "sit in the seat", it would have to be someone who is already in position to sit in that seat.

In conclusion... I don't have a conclusion... yet!

I suspect that doing the literal "counting of a man's name", I and Eomerica427 have arrived at a clue to the identity of the Antichrist, sitting in a verse which is translated at least 4 different ways, giving 4 different names. How odd. How convenient.

On a more spiritual note, if we are correct in our methodology, then we have fulfilled a Bible prophecy. We would each be what the Bible calls, "the person who has wisdom." That's a feather in one's cap, wouldn't you agree?


Once again, I'm showing you the facts. I have toyed with the interpretation of those facts, but ultimately, as with my previous posts... you must decide...


StarGlider29a
5/27/2012

Appendix: The List of Men's Names -- 5/29/2012

Since a good skeptic will want to see our data, here is the gist:
List of Unique Men's Names of the Bible, in order of appearance

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse... LITERALLY!

The following is a repost of the page I created on 5/4/2000, regarding a then-future astronomicalogical configuration. I then add some information spotted just before the date determined. As with the previous post from that page, I have not revised the graphics or the writing style, which is from a different era in my life. Very different.



Original Post:

A few weeks ago, my sister, Laurie, sent me a link to an astrological chart site on the web that turns dates into charts. I didn't buy any of it, but i found the charts interesting, as a web developer. It also made me wonder how the ancients (especially 1st Century Christians) saw the heavens. It occurred to me as I read Revelation Chapter 6, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse may be 'someone' trying to give us a hint at a date. Here's why:
 
Horse Carrying? Bringing? Astro Analogy Interpretation?
White bow conquering white=venus, bow=sagittarius venus in sagittarius
Red sword war mars (roman god of war), the "sword" of the heavens is on Orion's belt. (Yes, orion again) mars in orion, maybe even in line with the 'sword' Nair al Saif is "tip of the Sword"
Black balances famine (no harvest) black=darkside of the moon, seriously. Balances=Libra Moon in Libra,  either very new or very old
"pale... bleached" 
(chloris, as in Clorox)
death/Hell  death/hell pale is probably jupiter, being white, but not as white as venus, and who is death and hell? Literally Hades=Pluto (I know they didn't know about Pluto back then, but God probably did.) near conjunction of jupiter & Pluto, probably just after a conjunction with jupiter ahead of Pluto. If I could get Chiron, Pluto's Ferryman in the picture, I'd earn extra credit.
Anyway... this is a date, I just haven't found it yet. I FOUND IT! This is complex, but bear with me! I will improve it. The point is, I have met the above criteria, and it's sooner than you think... New Year's Eve/Morning, 2007-2008! Party!
Thanks to www.astro.com for this chart.
All of the above criteria are met, to the letter, even with a literal translation of Hades to Pluto!
And Mars is in line with the sword of Orion!
 
But does the Bible use Zodiac for signs? Well...
 
 And God said , Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide  the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Genesis 1:14

Fast Forward to November, 2007, as the day approaches


As the end of 2007 approached, and the astrological configuration above approached, I kept my eyes open. For a plague, a new war, a new wave of famine, for massive death. Nothing seemed to be on the radar. I re-checked my data and of course, it hadn't changed. Astrological data really can't. It can be calculated to a very precise degree for eons into the past and future. How could it change? And yet, something as significant as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in literal fulfillment didn't seem to matter to the circumstances of the world.

Note: The date 1/1/2008 was astrologically correct, but that it could also occur on 1/31/2008, as the Moon came around to Libra again. Perhaps, I was looking from the wrong angle. John the Revelator didn't calculate astrology... he saw visions. Maybe this configuration was visual. So, I fired up my celestial simulators and just LOOKED. This is what I saw. (I've reconstituted some of the images in modern software, such as Celestia and Stellarium.)

The First Horseman: White Horse with a Bow

I watched as Venus moved to a visual conjunction with Jupiter. It was a CLOSE one, very close to sunrise, hard to see, but it was there:





"I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. -- Revelation 6:1 NIV '84"
Here we had Venus, the White Horse in the midst of the constellation that "held a bow." I found it a phenomenal coincidence that Venus and Jupiter formed up on the head of Sagittarius, as if a crown! But if that doesn't fit literally enough for you, look below the bow. Corona Australis, "The Crown of the South" is right there, a literal crown. This IS the First Horseman of Revelation.

The Second Horsemen: Red Horse with a Sword

Ok, if we have the First Horseman, where is the Second Horseman? The Red one with the Sword?

"Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword." -- Revelation 6:2 NIV '84"
Mars is obviously the "red" planet and zodiacally in Gemini, but Gemini doesn't have a sword. Which Zodiacal symbol has a sword? There's only one sword in the sky... Let's look.


 Mars is aligned with the Sword of Orion. Is that a stretch? Take a look at how precise the alignment is, and you decide...



That's pretty precise! That gives us two horsemen. Let's see if we can see the third.

The Third Horsemen: Black Horse with a Balances

"I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand... “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages..." -- Revelation 6:3 NIV '84
This seems tricky at first. What planet is black? Pink Floyd knows. The Dark Side of the Moon. It's the darkness of the crescent moon. Later in my studies I learned of the phrase "Dark of the Moon", referring to the Old Crone, the Old Moon. And if the black is the Old Moon, then the Balances are clearly Libra, the Scales. And there it is...


The Fourth Horsemen: Pale Horse with Death & Hell following

"I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him." -- Revelation 6:7 NIV '84

Venus is the White Horse, the brightest light in the sky besides the Sun and Moon. What's the next brightest? Jupiter... is Jupiter the 'pale planet'? I decided to test the validity of referring to Jupiter as "the Pale Rider". The Greek word there for pale is 'chloris', related to chlorophyll or sickly green. I checked the Webster's Dictionary (hardcopy) for the definition of "chloris". I was defined as "between green and yellow". I did the following steps in Adobe Photoshop 5.0.
I took the image of Jupiter from the Net (from Hubble Space Telescope)

Being a 256 color GIF, I set the Mode to 16Million color RGB

I Did a Gaussian Blur of 12 pixels
I Sampled the center of the blurred image with the "eyedropper tool"
The resulting color is shown on the color wheel as being 63°, which is literally between Yellow (60°) and green (120°) Precisely as the word chloris or "sickly green" AND the Book of the Revelation said it would be!
 

...with Death & Hell following

Ok, Jupiter is on the head of Sagittarius, and the verse from Revelation doesn't mention the Rider or the Bow. How do we know this matches the verse? Because the verse says that "Death, and Hades was following". In Roman Mythology, Pluto was the God of the Underworld, the place of the Dead. In Greek Mythology, that god was named Hades. Hades = Pluto, and the planet Pluto is "right behind Jupiter", following, having been passed by Jupiter just 40 days previous.

Let's Review:

Here are the verse which describe each "Horseman":
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”
  1. I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
  2. Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
  3. I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.
  4. I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Here are the graphics I made in 11/2007. Let them tell the tale: 









Could this REALLY be a coincidence? I don't think so.


Are you CRAZY!? You're saying the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse have occurred?

 I'm not sure. The 4 Horsemen also bring plagues: Pestilence, War, Famine, global death. The Book of Ezekiel corroborates these ("How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments —sword and famine and wild beasts and plague" -- Ezek 14:21) and Jesus warns of them in Matthew 24.

They didn't happen in 2008, not in the scale required to fulfill the prophecy. But, given the astronomicalogical configuration of the Beast From the Sea with 7 Heads caused me to wonder. I think that this configuration is similar; not a literal fulfillment, but a literal warning. It's telling us to keep our eyes open. 

I've never heard this before. Why after these centuries are YOU the only one to see this?

A mundane answer is "who else would have seen this?" Astrologers? Astronomers? Bible Prophecy scholars? Consider:
  • Astrologers don't pay attention to Bible Prophecies
  • Astronomers don't regard Astrological Symbols or Bible Prophecies
  • Bible Prophecy scholars view astrology as forbidden [sic], and view Astronomers as "secularists" (at best).
Perhaps I am the first person with enough awareness of all of the above to piece the puzzle together. I don't claim to know. The only "spiritual" answer I can give is that I once asked God for "the Truth". Maybe, this is part of that.

Ok, let's say, for the sake of argument, that this IS what you say it is. So what?

Again, I don't know. The event occurred over 4 years ago. I'd have to look into the history for a hint. Let's do that... What happened on or about the end of January 2008?

  • U.S. President George W. Bush says Israel must return to its pre-1967 borders to enable the establishment of a Palestinian state.  [War]
  • Snow falls in Baghdad, Iraq for the first time in a century. (Why does that sound familiar?)
  • Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert warns that "all options are being taken into consideration" to stop Iran from going nuclear. [War]
  • Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.  [Famine]
  • George W. Bush delivers his final State of the Union Address as President of the United States. [One decreases that the other may increase.]
  • United States presidential election, 2008: Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hold the first two-person debate. Barack Obama rises to lead the Democratic polls, as Hillary Clinton slides. [One decreases that the other may increase.]
  • A new disease, progressive inflammatory neuropathy (PIN), is found in pig slaughterhouse workers in southeastern Minnesota. As of now, this is not a threat, but I find the phrase "A new disease" intriguing. [Pestilence]
  • Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2008
  • Nothing much about Putin... Odd.

Just the facts

Those are the facts. You can check them. You can verify them. You can show me when this has happened before, or will again. Does this configuration match the Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

You decide...



StarGlider29a
5/27/2012

Thursday, May 17, 2012

I used to read...

Maybe I didn't read as much as my friends, but I read. In the last couple visits to my favorite used book store, Dawn Treader Books, in Ann Arbor, I've been looking for books I've read. Some, to re-collect to my meager bookshelf. Some, merely to recollect.

Here are a few that I've found. Not sure I'm recommending them, especially since I read some of them in 6th grade. See if you recognize any of these.

Let's start at the top:

In the "Summer of Reading '76", I sampled my first Heinlein book, thin, quick, lite, just enough to get me started. I actually have a 'door into summer' time travel story of my own. Who knows. Working title, "Really Something." This is not the edition I read. Not the last Heinlein I read, either.

After my college graduation, still unemployed, I went to Florida with my parents where the day meant nothing but the beach for 6 hours at a shot. What to do? Borrow a stack of books from my friend Michael S. Rosecrans, and try to catch up on my reading. Among the stack came:
  • Several Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
  • 3 of the Little Fuzzy series, by H. Beam Piper
  • A few of the Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer, pictured below
  • But my favorite on the was the epic A Canticle for Liebowitz, which I recently found and re-collected. Funny to think it opens with meeting an immortal wandering Jew.

In my "Summer of Reading '76", when I grabbed first, The Hobbit, later, Dune (whew), I also read these jewels:

http://judaschrist.com/blogsposts/new-adam.png

Paraphrasing from memory: The teacher yelled at me for staring out the window, and not paying attention. "You can't stare out the window and pay attention at the same time." Then, I realized that I could...  

His two halves of his brain were dual-cores. Intriguing. And he had extra knuckles on his hands, for dexterity. This is the exact edition I read.


"One man survived."

Ishmael survives the Pequod destruction, is rescued by the Rachel... which mysteriously skips forward in time to an Earth where the oceans have evaporated, and the sea life has taken to gas-bagged lighter-than-air flight. This included the whales, the sharks, and vast mats of predatory clouds miles long. He starts out falling from previous sea level to the jungle, a couple thousand meters below. Wait... did I just say "skip forward in time?


What we gonna do here is go back, way back... back into time...

If you recognize that as the opening of the Jimmy Castor Bunch hit "Troglodytes", then cut yourself a slice of Bye Bye Miss American Pie because Last Night You Didn't Get to Sleep At All. I was in 6th grade when these songs were popular, and THIS was the book I read. This is the exact edition of the "Ace Doubles". I don't remember anything about the books, but I remember the covers like they were only yesterday. And for those of you who don't know... these books were back-to-back readers.


Oh, look. Sea Seige has a big tsunami and a sea beast. Go figure!




Monday, May 14, 2012

"Well, how did I GET here?!"

The only thing stranger that the sensation of what I was seeing on May 4th, 2000 as I skried into my computer monitor, was the realization of why I was gazing that intently into that date at all. The date had been itching at the inside of my skull for at least 12 years. Here's my side of the story...

Around 1987 or so, I browsed the shelves of the ORIGINAL Border's Book Store in Ann Arbor (it's now Cosi). A book title caught my eyes for its oddness... a date: 5/5/2000 by Richard Noone. I picked it up, perused it, giggling at its premise; that a planetary alignment on 5/5/2000 of all the naked eye planets in Taurus would pull the Ice Sheet off the Arctic, or Antarctic, I don't recall. Just as it had in the past [eyeroll]. I left, scoffing because I knew that the planets didn't hold THAT much sway. But, the skeptic in me wondered. In the days before the Internet and Microsoft Office, we had these things called "books." I had an ephemeris book, but it only ranged up to January 2000, but not to May 2000. No joy, no problem. It wasn't worth doing on a slide rule, and I didn't have a spreadsheet. I let it go... for a few years.

Somewhere in 1992, I began to program in QBasic, which had the ability to display 640x480 color graphics, but I couldn't get the accuracy I required, so I delved into programming in C, a compiled, serious language (in DOS, no less!). After considerable learning curve, I wrote a simple app (we called them PROGRAMS in those days) which allowed me to do the following:
  • Choose any date using a decimal date. I reduced it to month, day, year, plus or minus Julian/Gregorian calends.
  • Display a SCALE version of the solar system. Rotate it into any orientation.
  • Calculate the distance from one planet to another at any time (or all planets from Earth)
  • Well, if you know the distance and the mass, you can know the gravitational force. I combined the force vectors into a single vector.
  • I could plot that vector as a function of time, snapping a chalkline of a force at will.
Here is a sample, running in Boxer, a DOS emulator for the Mac:

The planets are the colored spots, the rings are not orbits, but a radial grid. The cyan loop-de-loop is a few months of force vector plots, and the magenta line is a snapshot of the total forces of the planets (not including the Sun and Moon). The F(10) at right is the magnitude of that force. The earth remains centered (an option), so the vector sweeps like a radar trace.

Here is the data for May 4th, 2000. (yawn):

 Not only is it NOT very strong (because everything is on the other side of the Sun), but it's lower than nearly ALL of the rest of history! If you examine the history since I've walked the earth, May 4th, 2000 falls pretty much in the average.


When the day arrived... I was yawning

But then, I realized that maybe, just maybe... these force vectors correlated to earthquakes, as the tidal forces whipped the Earth around. And so I struck off on a pseudo-scientific (or pre-hypothesis) trek to find that correlation. Did I? You decide... Here are the top 5 earthquakes in modern history, plus the New Madrid 1811-12 and the San Francisco 1906. Does it at least SEEM like these major quakes occurred when the planetary forces were at either a maximum or a minimum? The teal ring is a Quake-Rich Zone. Does this make sense? Imagine how your body feels when you are swinging in a swing... the bottom is maximum force, and the top is minimum force. That is when things float out of your pockets, or the force pulls stuff down, even breaking the chain. Could that unsettle the tectonic plates? I don't know. I haven't been able to correlate it, and frankly attempts to use this to predict earthquakes have failed.


But maybe this exercise was for another reason. The 5-5-2000 book got me thinking about that date, and I stewed on it for 12 years. As I watched Jupiter and Saturn converge to conjunction again after about 20 years (not unlike the Star of Bethlehem conjunction of 7 B.C.), I thought of them as "The Pincers of Time." And when they came together and NOTHING happened, it was because I was WATCHING that I saw the 5/4/2000 Astronomicalogical Configuration. That never-before-seen avatar represented the Beast from the Sea with 7 heads, 10 horns, with one headed wounded and healed. And the Lamb with two horns as well. Revelation 13 in the sky.

If so, that's an amazing thought. And that's how I got here.

But wait... I just noticed something...

The NEXT time that the force vectors venture into the Quake-Rich Zone, it coincides with both a lunar eclipse AND a syzygy with Venus. SO, if you are in some very public place, say a park, celebrating a birthday on June 4th, 2012, I suggest you "hang on to your butts!"


StarGlider29a, out.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

May 4th, 2000 A.D.: The Astronomicalogical Configuration

The following is a reconstitution of a web page post made on 5/4/2000 at 04:21 EDT. At the time, I created a page on my website, which, over time, has eroded. I divided the original HTML into several separate chunks, to be posted on this blog, and have re-created the images in more modern softwares and in higher resolution.

I make no apologies for the style of writing, as it was rushed, and I was a younger, more brash, less educated person in those days.

What you are about to read will shake the foundation of much of what you believe, whether you are a Bible-thumping Fundamentalist, an astrological planet spinner, a believer in a universe made of spiritual energy, a cynical skeptic, a Carl-Saganite, or a statistics/probability whiz. Why?

Because what you are about read points to one or several of the following:
  • Complete rethinking of what the Book of Revelations is telling us, and how
  • The prospect that Astrology is a function of a god who is interested in us earthlings
  • The threshold of probability is so high that it can't be a coincidence, even though it MUST be
  • The universe is managing a project on a schedule which is kept on a calendar that mankind cannot alter, merely observe
  • Cookie-cutter interpretations of Bible prophecy are subject to a very different view, one that places a higher level of literal interpretation than ANYONE thought possible, even the Literalists.
  • The above also goes for Astrology.

Ready? Here we go...

UPDATE -- 5/18/2012: I FOUND the original images and have restored the original page. Just in case you think this stuff is FICTION!


From: Starglider29a
To: Close friends who know how twisted I am...
Date: May 4th, 2000 AD 04:21 EDT
Copyright © 2000 by Christopher P. Simmons, All Rights Reserved
 
Greetings, Programs!
You all have known me for quite a while now, and you have known that I have played on the edge, even in my Christianity. I saw something on my computer tonight that made even me stop and wonder about my own sanity... I will state what I saw, and then you all can draw straws to come and have me put into a nice white jacket. I'm doing this quickly, so forget about beauty.

I know I this is going to sound like all of those web pages that tell how Hale-Bopp is the herald of the Coming of somebody, and the the Face on Mars is really an image of the shroud of turin. (I can cite these, but I won't) And I KNOW that "no man knows the day or the hour..." and I'm not going to get to that here, but watch what DOES turn up!
I was scanning the news and I saw the image of the sun from SOHO/LASCO.



(Note: The original image is gone missing, but here's one from the day before, you get the idea.) Here's another picture from a few days later.

I knew immediately what I saw, but I also know that people have been seeing these artifacts (the CCD burn-in from bright light sources such as the planets) as "motherships". they are simply the planets closely aligned with the Sun burning out the camera pixels. I could prove that with Starry Night, so I did. I popped open Starry Night and grabbed this image (2012 images taken from Celestia):




(Menkar is a star which means, in Arabic, "the nose" More on that later)
I knew that astrologically, this was all in Taurus, but I clicked to see what constellation Menkar was in. I turned on the Constellation Art feature and saw this:



I chuckled. "Ha... it looks like he's wearing a hat!" Hey, wait a minute! I counted, zoomed back in and counted again. Sitting on top of Cetus' head was
  1. Mars
  2. Saturn
  3. Jupiter
  4. Sun
  5. Mercury
  6. Venus
  7. Moon
SEVEN! Seven astrological planets... ALL OF THEM! These were ALL of the planets they knew back then, not seeing Uranus, Neptune, Pluto or Nemesis (oops, sorry) And where were these titans? On the head of Cetus, the FREAKIN Sea Monster! Ready? You are not, I guarantee it!

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy... And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Revelation (duh) 13:1-3
Suddenly, I saw something interesting.. a DATE! TODAY! 5/4/2000 AD. I switched the location to Greece(Patmos) Now, I know that with the sun shining John couldn't "see" this, but you know how visions go...


  • The Sea Monster (Beast from the Sea)
  • Rising (in the east over the sea from John's viewpoint)
  • having 7 heads (think of them as busts in the Pantheon)
  • 10 horns and 10 crowns (diadems, laurel rings like BenHur got)
    1. Io
    2. Europa
    3. Callisto
    4. Ganymede
    5. Tethys
    6. Dione
    7. Rhea
    8. Titan
    9. Hyperion
    10. Iapetus
 

But even as I was typing this page, I saw something even more amazing... I finally understood this verse: and upon his heads the name of blasphemy
DOH! Look at the names of the planets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Mercury -- Messenger of the Gods (angellos Kyrioi -- Angel of the Lords)
  • Venus -- GODess of Love
  • Sun -- Helios. Apollo Sun God!
  • Moon -- Diana GODdess of Hunting and fertility and insanity, etc
  • Mars -- GOD of War
  • Saturn -- GOD of the Harvest (and which harvest is that?)
  • And last but not least... Jupiter -- GOD of the GODS!

How would John have taken to seeing the planets with names of Pagan Gods... as BLASPHEMY! (Yes, I am yelling)

The 7 heads with the Names of Blasphemy are the Planets on the head of the "sea beast" Cetus, named after Pagan Gods!
 
Now wait a minute... did one of the "heads receive a blow to the head? And was miraculously healed so that all the world wondered?" You betcha... July 16, 1994... Shoemaker-Levy 9!






At left, we have clear imagery of the "wounds" of Jupiter.

This image at right was taken only 14 months later... HEALED!

"The after-effects of the impacts were visible on Jupiter for nearly a year after the event." (I'd say ONLY a year!!!)







This series of images below were taken only 10/31/2000 & 11/9/2000... the wounds are gone! HEALED!





But Wait! There's More!

If this is the "beast from the sea" where is the "Beast from the land"?
 
"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon."
--Revelation 13:11
Two horns like a lamb? That sounds like Aries, the Ram. But where is Aries these days... you are NOT going to believe this!



RIGHT THERE! Both the Beast from the sea AND the Beast from the land with two horns with ALL 7 planets right between them? I couldn't have cooked up a better batch of fiction if I tried.. and believe me, I've tried! As much as I want this verse to be as literal as possible, and as little as I care or hold to astrology, still it was the calendar system back then. I think John was telling us something between the lines. Perhaps we'd better listen...

All righty, then...

OK, so what do we make of this, besides a good case to have me put away for good!?

I believe that the Bible is very literal in such things as Hell, Salvation, Deity of Jesus, Blood, Resurrection... all that stuff. I also believe that the visions are just that... visions. I do NOT expect to see a literal beast walk onto the beach. No one does. Not even Jack Van Impe! But I do believe that someone will rule the world... the AntiChrist. I suspect that the time is near. And I suspect strongly that this beast in revelation is an Icon. An avatar to represent this world leader in the vision. But IS IT POSSIBLE that John was giving us a big hint at when, by giving an astrological configuration that "he who has wisdom could compute?"

What do we do now? Keep your eyes open... expect something big or significant... a new person, the death of an old person... I honestly don't know. I don't claim a vision here... I just read and I look at the computer monitor. And I tell you what I see.

Keep your eyes open...
StarGlider29a

PS: I can't resist... I never can. Remember Menkar... the Nose of the Beast. It is the brightest star in Cetus... Ceti Alpha...
As in Ceti Alpha 6, where Khan was marooned in Star Trek ][. Remember Khan, the late 20th century genetically engineered madman who tried to rule the Earth? Now who does THAT sound like? I will give you 666 guesses!
Seeya!
Expect the unbelievable!
EMail me!
May 4th, 2000 WAY late! (reconstituted 5/13/2012)


Is this the only time that a Bible prophecy may have been indicated by an astronomical configuration? Stay tuned...

Epilogue: May 7th, 2000

Less than two days later, this happened Fulfillment of prophecy? Or coincidence? You decide...

Eight years later, he stepped aside for his Benchwarmer, Medvedev. And now, 12 years after this astonomicalogical configuration, he's back. He WAS President, then he WAS NOT, and now he IS. Where have I heard that before?
"The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come."




How this looks to an Astrologer

I used Astro.com to generate the Ascendant Chart for this configuration. To an astrologer, this would be a VERY interesting chart. The interpretation is for them to decide. I would suggest that they ignore all but the 7 planets, as they were not visible in the days of John the Revelator. With only the visible planets, there are ONLY conjunctions, no trines, quartiles, and all the planets except Mars in the the Earth Sign. That's a nail-biter.




This is the frist post of StarGlider29a, nicknamed GlidingStars. It will be the vehicle by which I publish findings on all things Astronomicalogical; a phrase which mingles the modern science and the ancient art of observing the sky, which was used for signs, for seasons, for times, and for edification and enlightenment.

I will provide as many sources as I can. Check them. Most images will be created using commonly found software, including OpenSource warez such as Celestia, Stellarium, commercial warez such as Starry Night, web-based visualizers, and a little software ditty I wrote by myself for myself. Not as accurate as the others, but well-suited to big picture and esoteric controls of time and periodicity.

In closing, I am an Aerospace Engineer, an author, a Christian (Shi'ite Baptist if you must know), and am looking for the slender crescent where science and ancient art intertwine. There is little of it, but what there is can be critical to our understanding of both. If you are wondering what I mean, consider this... two of my daily surfs include Physorg.com AND  grahamhancock.com. On one side of the spectrum, I've read Feynman, Hawking, Kip Thorne, Harm Buning, conversed face-to-face with 5 astronauts, but have also studied the astrological data of the Bible, dabbled in the spiritual journeys of Matthew Pallamary, and have a habit of checking the spiritual facts/doing the spiritual math where I can, approximating where I cannot.

I have hypotheses which are beyond my means to test, but maybe someone can. I have theories that lack data, but maybe we can find more. I have many, many suspicions, and a precious few "beliefs." My best friends range from true believers to wizened skeptics. I've heard it all. I'm somewhere in between.

There are many wonderful things to see, if you know at what you are looking. Carl Sagan was half right, John the Revelator may have been the other half. Let's see where this takes us. In short, what I plan to show you will teeter on the edges of sanity, fantasy, fact-asy, Divine Order, sublime coincidence, thresholds of probability, and raw chaos. I expect almost NO ONE of you to agree with me. I certainly expect NO TWO of you to agree with each other. But let's see what we see. See what we can discover... about the Universe, the Heavens, and ourselves. I use Occam's Razor until it can't cut any further. After that, we are on our own.

PS: Since you are too polite to ask, and since I don't believe a word of it, I'll tell you... I was born just minutes into Cancer, on a solstice, a Wiccan holiday... I'm told I'm a Moon Child, a Cusp. Those who know me would agree. I just offer the cusp of Twins and Cancer as an excuse for having 3 of me inside this shell. If they can agree, then maybe we can, too.

Peace, love, and understanding*,





StarGlider29a

*What's so funny?