Here is a NEW intellectual exercise I am working on.  
Remember my original "intellectual exercise" page?

I start with a paraphrase of a recent news article about Kosovo...

"The Clinton administration is publicly saying that no ground troops will be used
in Kosovo, while sending 20,000 troops to the region for "humanitarian aid"
purposes, and also increasing the number of US aircraft, especially our most
advanced "weapons of mass destruction" the F-111a Stealth fighters and the Apache
helicopters.   The number of airstrikes has been increased.  The weapons are
laser guided to home in on their target to attempt to make pinpoint strikes and
minimize "collateral damage" but that can not be totally avoided in a wartime
situation.  Every effort is being made to target only military- identified by the
insignia on their helmets.  On CNN nightly, they show the video of the night
vision camera from the pilot cockpits of the latest "smart weapon" attacks.  The
air war could continue for some time (months)."

NOW... following a similar format to the other intellectual exercise, I will ask
you to translate this into a foreign language other than English.  You should
eliminate all adverbs, prepositions, etc, just speak in simple terms, nouns and
verbs mostly.  I will add a new requirement- you must explain this to someone
living in the past- 100 years ago, before the airplane was invented.  Before
heavier than air flight was accepted as even being possible. Modern technological
terms can not be used in your explanation.  You should attempt to get the main
concepts across in as simple language as possible.

Your answer might go something like this...

"There will be a war... both sides will use propaganda to confuse the other
side... like a "smokescreen"... the war will be fought in the air mostly... there
will be flying machines made of metal (really!) that can hover like an insect,
and shoot missiles... er um... fire weapons from their tails... like stingers
(one of the missiles in the inventory is a "stinger" missile)... they will be
really LOUD...  but they won't  attack indiscriminately... er um... they will be
very careful about who they attack.. they will try to only target military
soldiers with some identifiable insignia on their hats or helmets... sometimes
civilians may get hurt if they get caught in the wrong place...

Now try to explain it to someone living 2000 years ago!   

Here is another way to look at this exercise... suppose someone from 2000 years
ago was brought to the future and tried to make sense out of what is going on?

Suppose it is the year 66 A.D., and John of Patmos has a dream in which he
is shown VIDEOTAPE from the FUTURE of the war in the Balkans... images of Apache
helicopters hovering above the tree line firing missiles at tanks right from the
evening  news... the tapes of the night vision camera shots of the laser guided
missiles hitting their targets ("great wonders... calling fire to come down from
the hevens...") shown around the world on CNN ("in the full sight of men")!  All
these images rush by him in an overwhelming waterfall... when he wakes up, he
tries to write it all down.. he tries to explain what he saw in terms that the
other people of his time would understand.  He writes...

REVELATION CHAPTER NINE (9):

[Rev 9:3] And there came out of the smoke* locusts* upon the earth: and
unto them was given power, as the scorpions* of the earth have power.


Out of the "smoke" ... propaganda, Clinton double speak... or the literal smoke
of refinery fires in Serbia ?!?

[Rev 9:4] And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass
of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those
men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

The night vision display appears GREEN (as seen around the world on
CNN... "in the full sight of men").  The human forms on the screen
appear bright due to the heat- so the targeting systems zoom in on the
HEAT signal, the part that is NOT GREEN!  The "seal of God" will come
into play when we are engaged in hand to hand combat- the US troops have
the "microchip implant" that causes the targeting computer to identify
them as the FRIENDLY troops, and only targets the ENEMY!  This is all TRUE!



[Rev 9:5] And to them it was given that they should not kill* them, but
that they should be tormented five months*:  and their torment was as
the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh* a man.

Linda pointed out... this could mean NERVE AGENTS.  Any "NBC" warfare
agents would kill the enemy essentially by POISONING them!  There have
been many reports in the past few days about the Serbian chemical
warfare capacity (probably mostly propaganda) but what is the chance
that chemical agents will be used once we have troops on the ground?  
If we decimate the Yugoslav army's conventional warface capacity, what
other choice do we leave them??  Don't forget that the US also has
"Sarin" and other nerve agents in production.  Before you go into a
Kosovo village, you hit it with a Sarin canister.... wait a few hours
for the poison to dissipate, then you walk in... the enemy troops 
are lying on the ground like they are asleep.

Five months... President Clinton has just asked Congress to authorize 
$6 billion in funds to keep the NATO campaign going until September...
[this message was updated on April 19 1999!]


[Rev 9:6] And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it;
and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Seeing the faces of  fleeing refugees makes you think that sometimes... although
this is the biggest crisis since WW II it is hard to imagine it is any where near
as bad... YET...

[Rev 9:7] And the shapes* of the locusts were like unto horses* prepared
unto battle; and on their heads were as it were* crowns* like gold*, and
their faces were as the faces of men*.


Apache helicopters... hovering... firing missiles... shiny crew canopy  made of
glasslike composites... I just saw that on the news last night.

HMMMMMMM.

Chris Mastrangelo wrote:

> Found this text from Rev Ch 9 on the web at http://biblestudies.org/rev9.htm
> I don't agree with all the guy's footnotes but the text is accurate.


[Rev 13:13] "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down 
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, "

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