Yes, it's been a disaster without you. Where have you been? With your atheist friends again?
Thanks, it is nice to me missed, that made my day.
Yeah, fool that I am I went back there. I cannot remember exactly what precipitated that, but it was just something that unfolded and I felt I was being drawn back there for a reason. I feel like a freaking ping-pong ball... First I am there, then I am here, now I am back there. But the forum owner could be ramping up again, so I could depart once again, we'll see. He has it in for the Baha'i Faith so I am lucky that i am tolerated at all. It is mainly an atheist forum but Jews and Christians are tolerated, Baha'is not so much because our claims are not so preposterous and refutable... Does he really think I do not know what Baha'i is singled out?
Anyway, Christians have their "apocalypse" Bad things happen then Jesus comes down out of the sky on a white horse and destroys Satan and all the evil people. So is the problem fixed? I doubt it if ordinary people aren't changed. Like you say those people don't come together until they have to. So after the calamity, and all goes peaceful, what is going to keep those people from getting too complacent?
Christians seem to think that people will be changed and they won't have Satan messing with them anymore, but Baha'is don't believe in Satan. So after a major crisis what do Baha'i think is going to happen? Considering the world has had nothing but major crisis's since Baha'u'llah has come. And after each one, there is always another problem. What is going to change?
From a Bahai pov, Satan represents the evil within ourselves, the lower selfish materialistic nature of man. We all have it and we have to fight against it. Christians have this dreamy idea that Satan is a being exterior to themselves making them do bad stuff, so once we get rid of him, we are home free and good to do....
Which belief makes more sense to you?
Nobody knows what the future holds and I don't ever think about it unless someone like you brings it up. Baha'is do not know if there is going to be a major calamity, and if there is we do not know what it will be or when it will be or where it will be, so I see no point thinking about it. Christians all believe in different things and they have no evidence that anything is going to happen.
What would happen in the aftermath of a
major calamity is that I think people would have finally wake up and realize that God is the only thing that matters and God is our only hope. Also, they would look to the religion that has the answers to the world's problems, and that religion IS the Bahai' Faith, hands down. Is this what it is going to take? I don't know, but there are certain indications that it is likely...
“The world is in travail, and its agitation waxeth day by day. Its face is turned towards waywardness and unbelief. Such shall be its plight, that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly. Its perversity will long continue. And when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake.Then, and only then, will the Divine Standard be unfurled, and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 118-119
“He Who is the Eternal Truth knoweth well what the breasts of men conceal. His long forbearance hath emboldened His creatures, for not until the appointed time is come will He rend any veil asunder. His surpassing mercy hath restrained the fury of His wrath, and caused most people to imagine that the one true God is unaware of the things they have privily committed. By Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Informed! The mirror of His knowledge reflecteth, with complete distinctness, precision and fidelity, the doings of all men.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 204
“We have a fixed time for you, O peoples. If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every direction. How severe, indeed, is the chastisement with which your Lord will then chastise you!”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 214
But I do not need a calamity to know that God is my only hope, as my life IS a series of calamities, one right after another or running alongside each other, as is going on now. If there is no Loving God, there is no hope for me. I will just crash and burn. Apparently, this is what it takes for God to get my attention; well He has it already so He can let up a little on the accelerator.
Did you hear about our major snowstorm up here in Washington? It was unprecedented. That was a week ago and the internet phone and TV were down for three days... The car has not moved since. There is still snow on the ground but we could probably get it out of the driveway now. We walked to the bus stop to get groceries last night. The septic backed up, the whole nine yards. I think that is unrelated to the weather, but I don't know since I don't have time to deal with it right now. We cannot use much water till we find out what is going on, but our other two houses that are rentals have bigger emergencies to deal with so I can live without doing laundry and taking fewer showers.
What would happen to most people if there was a real calamity? The woman at the septic company who I know well said that people cannot even handle not being able to flush a toilet so they call her in the middle of the night. We have had a blocked drain in the kitchen sink for three years so we do dishes in the bathtub, but we are both Baha'is so we understand the insignificance of the material world. The only thing we care about are our 10 cats so if there was a calamity that is all we would be thinking of.
Americans are so freaking spoiled and materialistic, I guess Christianity has not helped them that much. Maybe it will take a calamity to wake them up. I am up for it as long as I have plenty of cat food and water.
Don't become a stranger. If you send me a post I will get a notification. I will be checking.