There are several countries mentioned specifically in the end times propheies. And in those places where they are mentioned and described every country and/or region can be identified EXCEPT the United States. Nowhere in the scriptures you are quoting is any specific country mentioned except the target of the AC, Israel. Add to that the fact that no respected bible scholar admits to finding the United States mentioned specifically in scripture. In fact the whole of the North American continent is missing from scripture and I don't remember seeing the South American continent mentioned either.
There are any number of very good reasons for the Americas being missing from end times prophecy. The most imminent and obvious is the nuking of one or more American cities. If you think a couple of airplanes and a few buildings caused chaos in the economy just think what a couple of nukes, or dirty bombs, hitting wall street, Washington D C, the Port of New York, and maybe a couple of industrial centers would do to us. All it will take for that to happen is for our leaders to keep their heads buried deeply in their butts like they already seem to be. It was said about 9/11 that it wasn't a lack of inteligence that allowed it to happen but rather a lack of immagination. I haven't seen any proof that that has changed since 9/11.
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"There are any number of very good reasons for the Americas being missing from end times prophecy."
Like the fact that the people who wrote it had never heard of the Americas, because they hadn't been discovered yet?
EDIT: Splunker beat me to it. Oh well.
N.A. and S.A. weren't mentioned because a bunch of pre-iron age story tellers didn't know they existed.
For a bunch of passively suicidal people, you are awfully worried about the state of money and economies.
First, what Splunker said. America wasn't known.
Second, uh, if you're talking about Gog and Magog... no one's particularly convinced exactly *where* they were supposed to be, Chick tracts about Russia notwithstanding. That's only one idea, and the others range from the western shores of England to the easternmost points of the Eurasian steppes. So, uh, fail.
Third, is China mentioned? How about any part of non-Mediterranean Africa? Australia? India? No? I hope you get the picture.
Fourth, the "most imminent [which either doesn't mean what you think it is OR is a semantic non sequitur] and obvious" reason isn't a nuclear attack. If I were able to convince myself to be charitable to your mythology, I'd argue that the simplest explanation would be that the US isn't a major player in Armageddon, or something else is misidentified. However, I'm not feeling very charitable, so I'll just say this: the most obvious conclusion that comes from the realization that Bible descriptions don't match reality is "HEY, MAYBE THIS IS ALL A BIG STICKY PILE OF HORSE PUCKEY!"
Yes, the shouting was necessary. :-P
The most imminent and obvious is the nuking of one or more American cities.
Oh, I can think of far more obvious. Imminence has really nothing to do with it.
Look. Its the same reason India and China are not involved in the bible. Because the authors did not know they exist.
1. Where do the bad guys get nukes. Unless the US uses a nuke they are not going to get nuked back.
2. Dirty bombs while terrifying are not all that lethal since we have the ability to control the spread of the disease. The mere name alone scares people enough to count as a terror weapon.
North and South America, Australia, most of Africa, Europe and Asia were all unknown to the authors.
That and the lack of any actual prophecy anywhere in the bible makes for a damning mix.
But nukes aren't mentioned in the bible are they? So it can't be that. After all, bible prophesy is 100% accurate and infallible. If nuclear fission was to play a part in the apocolypse, then the bible would use the words 'nuclear fission'. As it doesn't, we know that it won't. So you need a new theory.
Isn't literalism fun?
So the first paragraph made sense, and it was fine right up until he said:
"most imminent and obvious is the nuking of one or more American cities"
To which I say, fack you man!
America is not mentioned because in the first century NOT EVEN THE ROMANS, the most advanced people of the time, under whose authority they were, knew of its existence. Second, the economy is bad because of a series of bad management decisions, not because 9/11.
"every country and/or region can be identified EXCEPT the United States. "
WTF does this mean?
(1) That every country in the present world was mentioned in the bible except the US? Clearly untrue.
(2) That the references to the US in the bible cannot be identified? Um, I guess that's self-evident. But you have to prove they exist before you claim they 'cannot be identified'. Oh I forgot, fundie logic, the burden of proof lies on the person questioning the insane oracle.
"In fact the whole of the North American continent is missing from scripture and I don't remember seeing the South American continent mentioned either."
Because bronze-age Arab goat herders didn't know about them.
"It was said about 9/11 that it wasn't a lack of inteligence that allowed it to happen but rather a lack of immagination."
Yes... What? How could imagination help? Imagine that attacks will happen?
Actually, the reason the US isn't mentioned is because world view was very narrow back then and no one could comprehend the existence of another continent.
America as a country, and North America as a continent, simply didn't exist to those who wrote the bible.
"There are any number of very good reasons for the Americas being missing from end times prophecy.
NO. There is only one good reason: The authors didn't know about it when they made it up.
What is wrong with these people?
"In fact the whole of the North American continent is missing from scripture and I don't remember seeing the South American continent mentioned either."
That's because the goat-herders who wrote the myth weren't even aware that those continents existed....sheesh
"There are any number of very good reasons for the Americas being missing from end times prophecy"
yes, the main one being that it wasn't discovered then. (Not counting the vikings, probably the chinese, and also the natives who lived there.) Not-so-omniscient then, eh? (Incidentally, the mormons believed that Jesus visited America, but they're just fucking nuts.)
Actually, the best reason for the Americas not being mentioned in the bible is that the bible was written by men, not inspired by god, and that those men were unaware of the exitence of the Americas. This is the most logical, rational, and common sense answer there is. You're answer shows a lack of these.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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