A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.

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[–] 85 points 7 months ago (24 children)

Even the Bible says no human will know the hour or the day.

Who an I kidding, no one involved here read the Bible.

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  • [–] 27 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    It's okay lots of people who believe in God believe they can trick god.

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  • [–] 23 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    When I reflect back on my evangelical upbringing this always stands out. Somehow they think their omnipotent deity can be tricked by a loophole in his own rules which in and of itself would at least prove he’s not omnipotent

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  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    My evangelical parents got wrapped up in this line of thinking in the 90s right around the time teenage me was becoming disillusioned with the indoctrination I’d been raised in. Classic “end of the Millennium” fears and the hope they could jumpstart Armageddon convinced them to send money to Christian charities who supposedly then paid to move poor Jewish people in former Soviet states to Israel. Sure God was going to destroy the Earth in 10000 years, but oops, guess y’all forced his hand!

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago*

    There’s a story I heard from Judaism, where the rabbis were arguing about whether god was cool with something or not. One rabbi was against all of the other rabbis, and asked god to prove him right. God personally spoke up, and was like “yeah, he’s entirely correct” - but the rabbis end up telling off god. They point out that they only have the rules he sent down to work with, and having to call him for help every time they need a ruling wouldn’t be fair or reasonable.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    It happens in many faiths. Jewish people are famous for arguing god's law and finding loopholes. I used to work with a Palestinian guy, who grew up in Jordan. He told me that it was relatively common for a group of men to put liquor in a teapot and drink it out of teacups so god didn't notice.

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  • [–] -4 points 7 months ago* (15 children)

    While that's true, it did give a year. We're just over 180 years past that particular year.

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  • [+] 24 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (9 children)
  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (8 children)

    I'm referring to a specific timeline set out in numbers that most Christians totally ignore, especially apocalyptic Christians.

    The Jehovah's witnesses were set up specifically because of this prophecy, and even they decided he was late by the end of the 1800s

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    most Christians totally ignore

    There's almost certainly a reason. I can't google fu the verse but if you find it please lmk.

    I'd imagine the answer to why it's not generally accepted can be found by comparing translations. Likely it's the King James or one of the less colloquial ones being 'misinterpreted' to suggest a timeframe. But I am speculating here.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (4 children)

    The main reason is that it is really obscure. I'll see if I can find it.

    Edit: yeah, I'm not finding it. It basically says that from the time of the last great census of Jerusalem there would be a certain number of days (days mean years in this part of Numbers.) until the firmament was restored, referring to the Messiah, another number of days before it would be shattered, referring to his death, and a third number of days before the glory of God would appear. When you do the math, those years become 5BCE, 27CE, and 1844CE

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    That's what leads me to believe you read it in a specific translation. Old English does a lot of heavy lifting for those revelations folks.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Could be, I dunno. I'm not Christian, but my parents sent me to Catholic school because it had better rates of higher education among its graduates than the local public school. The Catholics took me not being a Christian personally and only let me read the Bible. So I read it, and started confronting priests and religion teachers with questions they couldn't answer because I'm an obstinate little shit like that.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    I went to a protestant private school, and a bit of a looney one at that. (Charismatic Christianity)

    So like you're 100% certain it was in the book of numbers? IIRC Catholics have other books protestants don't. "Deuterocanonical (Apocrypha) Books google says "

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    I'm certain it wasn't in the apocrypha that's a separate book at least at the school I went to. I am certain it was Old Testament, and not New Testament. Other than that, I'm pretty sure it was one of the books that got separated into parts I and II, but I couldn't tell you if it was the first or second part.

    I got turned onto that particular passage by a Baha'i I was talking to outside of the school, now that I think about it. They used it as proof that Christ had already returned and the Christians missed it as hard as the Jews missed their Messiah.

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  • [+] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    The verse I am referring to is in numbers it gives the last great census of Jerusalem as the starting year. It says x number of years would pass before the firmament was restored, referring to the Messiah, y number of years before the firmament would be shattered, referring to his death, and z number of years before the glory of God would appear.

    We know when that census occured. When you do the math those years are 5BCE, 27CE, and 1844CE.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (4 children)

    it did give a year

    Source?

    Googling seems to indicate it did no such thing.

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago*

    Former Christian here: I can confirm that no verse directly specifies a date. However Revelations folk are a special breed.

    The best one I can find is the 7000 year old earth theory.

    Basically it hinges off Genisis saying Man lives for 120 years, and if you multiply that by the amount of Jubilee years (every 50 years in Hebrew tradition) you get 6000. 4000 till Jesus, 2000, till his return, 1000 years of sabbath. Than god will remake the heavens and the earth. For a total of 7000.

    It's a bunch of conjecture that would make biblical numerologists proud.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Bibleconspiracy/comments/1buy0k5/comment/lo0vbhx/?share_id=nU1H99oezxn3FwBxTinwt

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    It's somewhere in Numbers. There's a prophecy that refers to the last great census of Jerusalem. It refers to time in days, but had previously mentioned that days in this context refer to years. There would be a certain number of years before the Messiah would appear, though they use a flowery title to refer to him, and another number of years before he would be struck down. It then goes on to say that he would return after X number of years. If you do the math, those years come out to 5BC, 27CE, and 1844CE.

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Ah yes The Great Disappointment

    Not clear what makes this particular set of assumptions about how some numbers might be the date of apocalypse any more special than the many, many others, though.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

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