Tuesday, October 19, 2021

"END OF TIMES" IS TRENDING


Situations that smack of the "End Times" are trending and I see the irony.  

Have you seen the MASSIVE Netflix #1 hit series "SQUID GAME?"

The week of this post, Squid Game topped the charts in 94 countries. With this dystopian drama series Netflix says they have "pierced the cultural zeitgeist. "

So what is the defining spirit of culture at this point in world history? What is the mood of people in the 194 million households that are tuning in?  In a phrase - "End of Days."

Squid Games is a "thought-provoking, emotional viewpoint about society, showing how wealth disparity can often lead people to do the unthinkable for money—even at the expense of their own lives."

The Korean show creator said "Squid Game" was inspired by a game he used to play when he was younger as a child in the schoolyard or the streets of the neighborhood.  He felt that this game could "represent the kind of society we live in today.”

The Holocaust desensitized people. The public, the soldiers, and even the victims. To perform or to experience the actions of the Nazi monsters, people's normal emotions and morals were stripped away or buried. There are so many ways that the entertainment industry is doing this today. From games to TV series to hit movies, we are desensitizing young adults.

I wonder if in some prophetic sense, people are being prepared for what is to come?  "What" the elite call "The Event" -- The thinking that some major crisis triggers a series of other cascading events, together which lead to the breakdown of civilization. 

There are many very wealthy "preppers" who are going to significant lengths to prepare for an apocalyptic like world.  An article from the New Yorker speaks to this.

The writer of this article says "In recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort."

The wealthiest in society who can afford to are taking "prepping" to higher levels.  Examples include buying up land in New Zealand, getting Lasik eye surgery and "hardening" their homes into secure compounds. 

The super rich aren't the only ones who are actively "Doomsday prepping" -- preparing for a political, social, or natural global emergency by stockpiling food, weaponry, and other supplies. Survivalism has been edging deeper into mainstream culture. 

A survey commissioned by National Geographic found that 40% of Americans believed that stocking up on supplies or building a bomb shelter was a wiser investment than a 401(k). 

In 2012, National Geographic Channel launched “Doomsday Preppers,” a reality show featuring a series of Americans bracing for what they called S.H.T.F. (when the “shit hits the fan”). The première drew more than four million viewers, and, by the end of the first season, it was the most popular show in the channel’s history. 

There is no doubt that the Covid pandemic has contributed to the fear that something much worse is on the horizon. But much of [this] predates the outbreak. The divisive political climate has also contributed to what has become increasingly uncertain times. 

The theme of extreme wealth disparity and the desperate lengths humans will go to is played out in Squid Game. Some find the show uncomfortably close to the horror that Jews faced in the ghettos and concentration camps before and during WWII. 

Squid Game isn't Anti-semitiic per say. But it is representative of a trend in thinking that is especially frightening to Jews. Jews know too well that when society breaks down, the Jews are likely to suffer. For thousands of years, the Jew has been the scapegoat. 

For those who believe in God and the Messiah all of this is rather ironic. If "Armageddon" is ahead, and we are truly in the "end times," the way to prepare is with something far more simple and less expensive  - a Bible.  A well stocked pantry is nice, but it WILL run out and then you will have to go outside.

Isaiah 55:11-13 -- "so My word will be that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to Me in vain, but will accomplish what I intend, and will succeed in what I sent it for. “Yes, you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth before you singing, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands! Instead of the thorn bush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to Adonai, as an everlasting sign that will never be cut off.”

🙏PSALM 91🙏