Jun 26, 2007 09:30
The churches were warned by one of their sages that they should take heed to the sufferings of Israel lest they should repeat the same judgments. There is no judgment that they ought to fear more than the Mekhilta which says that only 20% of the Jews made the exodus from Egypt. The rest remained behind because they loved Egypt more than god. The remained behind dead.
"This midrash asserts that the vast, vast majority of the Jewish people -- whether 80%, 98%, 99.8%, or even more -- did not leave Egypt. Why not? Shemot Rabba explains that 'There were sinners among the Jews who had Egyptian patrons, and they had wealth and honor there, [so] they didn't want to leave.'"
The vast majority of the Jews who had lived in Egypt over the previous 200 (or 400) years didn't make it to the finish line. Of all those millions of Jews who had hoped and prayed to be freed from slavery, only one in five (or one in fifty, or one in five hundred) actually left Egypt.
The Christians also believe that darkness and many amazing judgments will come on the earth but how many of them will survive? "On the word "Chamushim" (13:18) Rashi references the Mechilta and the Tanchuma that explain it to mean 1/5 of the Jews. The remaining 4/5 died during the three days of darkness." While four-fifths of the adults died, none of the children did.
While the pastors muter and chirp about a rapture, they never noticed that the shofar is blown at the Temple and that the ascension occurs from Jerusalem. Even their fearsome image of the Beast has insufficient power to harm anyone unless somebody does what he tells them to do. It is sort of like Christians who obey every law inimical to the Law of a Jew god, whom they hate. But again, their sages warned them that the natural instincts of their minds were hostile to god.
Even The Beast becomes a metaphor for their terrifying political tyrannies rather than creatures that resemble those who entertain them in Lord of the Rings. They proclaim themselves apolitical but have a purely political prophesy about politicians gone wild with delusions of divinity. Mad because they let them.
http://www.nishmat.net/article.php?id=92&heading=1