The Wrath Of God: artistic commentary on Revelation 16

The plagues described in this mythic literary work are so monstrous in scope as to be inconceivable. I made an illustrated video to go along with the theme of the book of Revelation in the New Testament. You can see it by clicking the first sentence. It will take you to my Youtube channel KaliTheCosmicKitten which can be reached at the sidebar.

The laying waste to earth by extraterrestrial as well as terrestrial and spiritual forces is described with the vividness of a psychedelic experience. I attempted to make the chaos and spectacle in the words of Revelation 16 appear in the art to coincide with the text.

The most obvious feature of the plagues mentioned in the book of Revelation is their geological and ecological categories. Earthquakes, terrible storms, famines, plagues. As I was thinking about this I recalled a description of a native myth of the PNW. Ella E. Clark's collection of native stories from the Pacific Northwest "Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest" is a delightful look into an age when men must have seen horrific volcanic activity. Her book is at the link.

The entire book of Revelation is explained in terms of the 'Wrath of God'. All the horrible things we are warned about are said to be the result of the 'Wrath of God'. This is a concept that has been explained poorly for as long as I know. It stems from the idea that God is like a strict human father who favors tough love. That starting point is certain to lead to an understanding of God that is intolerable. That's how it worked for me anyhow.

The 'Wrath of God' has nothing to do with being spanked by a big Sky Daddy God. The 'Wrath of God' is more like the Buddhist concept of Karma. I say this because of the biblical principles involved. In Romans 1 the apostle Paul explains that the 'Wrath of God' is associated with not honoring the Creator.

What sticks out in my mind from this is how the 'Wrath of God' does not consist of God smacking the hell out of someone. What it does consist of is letting him go his own way and when he gets stuck and can't get out that result is evidence of the 'Wrath of God' in his life. The prophet John in the book of Revelation makes the case that the experience of the 'Wrath of God' is applicable to society as a whole.

That is how the primal scene is represented in the first book of the bible. Human history, according to the Genesis tale, is the revelation of the wrath of God over time. We can reasonably expect the process to speed up as time goes on. The link is to a discussion by physicist Tom Campbell noted consciousness researcher. He has something appropriate to say to this age. The speeding up will increasingly reveal the accumulated results of our behavior as a society and race of spiritual malcontents living in denial of the source of its being.

The 'Wrath of God' is described in the bible as God allowing man to live independently of him. There is a rub. Man must suffer the consequences.

Man's crime against heaven is not a lack of religion. Stop and think about it the major religions require the concepts of 'good and evil' to be part of their way of worship. How does a God, which, according to the myth, forbade mankind to possess the knowledge of 'good and evil' respond to this audacity of man? Man with his religions based on 'good and evil' are yet another attempt to prove God is wrong and man is right.

The crime of man against heaven is that all he tries to do shows that God is no longer relevant to him. Man expresses his degree of respect for God by the care he gives to the gifts God gives him. In the human experience that is life and awareness and all the things that go with creation.

The mythical story holds the truth of the Revelation of Christ given to Saint John. In this graphic description it is not difficult for me to see how society regards the gift of God. We treat our awareness, our bodies, and our earth pretty much the same way.

The media fills our awareness, nutritionally impoverished mass produced food is on the diner table, the water is becoming unfit to drink and the earth is going through changes that have scientists scratching their heads. Is it any wonder a sense of hopelessness is the spirit of this age?

Mankinds life choices have resulted in his becoming a spiritual desperado within a society that enables him to maintain an alternate spiritual path by offering him substitutes for the gift of God. That is one of the lessons from the story told in Revelation.

I was left wondering after I finished reading and thinking about this chapter. Try to imagine the last plague of hail with hail stones the weight of one 'talent'.

A talent weighs 34 kilograms
.
1 Kilogram = 2.20462262 Pounds

Can you imagine a worldwide plague of hail stones 34 times that size?

In this spiritual book the heavens are described as rolled up like a scroll and at the same time the earth is laid waste by geological and economic catastrophes. It's description gives one the bleak sense the photographs of Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb blast leave with the viewer.

I wonder if the universe resetting itself could explain what is happening.

The bible seconds this query and it is also the thought inside the concept of the Kali Yuga and Vedic thought. So we're in good company as far as spiritual authorities go.



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After making the initial entry above I came across the information by Thom Hartmann in the video below. The video provides some flesh and blood to the abstract notions of what might happen. Reports like this do not make the plagues of Revelation appear as mere literary hyperbole as they are often regarded.



(C) 2012 David H. Roche

a Clear Running Water state of mind