The fifth season has started and many souls are tuned in as the Apocalypse unfolds, our heroes Dean and Sam caught up among beings with powers far greater than any they possess. And we see Lucifer has taken possession of a vessel (Nick), and prepares to wreak havoc. Dean gives Sam a vote of no confidence for his foray into drawing upon demon power for strength, and it seems their friendship is endangered. They go their separate ways for the time being.
Meanwhile, the real Apocalypse takes place around us and we do not see it, lulled as we are in a sleep of death concerning the reality of such things: God, other spiritual beings, and foretold impending cataclysms. Lulled by exciting fictions, various deceptions, and of course a panoply of pleasures to soothe our angsts, and lastly (and perhaps mostly) by a natural antipathy to even the idea there is a God we shall someday stand before and give account to! The Terminator "Judgment Day" a walk in the park compared to the real item that approaches! More on this shortly.
What's going on here? We are in a skillfully orchestrated media blitz of potent disinformation. Potentially lethal disinformation! Few have the knowledge and the vision to discern it. No, this is not a media conspiracy. Writers and producers intuit from what is in the collective consciousness. But there are spiritual forces who act as "muses" to the artists of the day, giving them inspiration. There is a symbolic depiction of this in Revelation (Rev) 9:2, where smoke rises out of the abyss, "and the sun and the air were darkened" by it. We see a little later in that chapter that the "smoke" was actually a great horde of demons loosed (likened to a cloud of locusts), and they were given power to torment men. Ultimately this deception (what disinformation is) caused great torment, as it poisoned their minds to the only saving truth, resulting in devastation and destruction beyond reckoning. In Hell. The real Hell.
Back to Supernatural. We are presented with a bizarre interpretation of the 2nd "horseman of the Apocalypse" — called "War" in the show — from Revelation chapter 6 (not 8 as the show has it, and unrelated to the "Wormwood" of 8); his "horse" is a fire engine red Ford Mustang, and he does some magic spells with a ring he turns on his finger, in order to delude people into killing one another. Dean and Sam manage to get War to leave after removing his magic ring. A silly cartoon version of the actual symbolic horseman.
It seems some of the angels — particularly the supposed "archangel Raphael" — think God is dead, else "how could all the terrible things that happened in the 20th century be explained?" Castiel, a lower angel who has befriended Dean does not think so, and he goes off to search for Him. These depictions are travesties of angels!
We have some really strange stuff in this series. One of the things we are told is that it was Dean who began the countdown to the Apocalypse by breaking the first of 66 seals — and it seems he was the first seal, that being a righteous man who, after being tortured in Hell, turned to evil. Dean was surely no righteous man! (As those who follow the series know!) Nor do the righteous go to Hell. We are also told that Sam broke the last, the 66th seal, when he killed a demon who had taken over a human body. This supposedly inaugurated the Apocalypse proper by allowing Lucifer access to the world and to a human body / vessel.
This is really jive stuff! Are folks who are into this at all interested in the source material this show is riding the coattails of? I'm referring to the Book of Revelation itself, and to the accompanying writings in Jesus Christ's New Testament.
The reason I ask is because of the importance of the matter. The Apocalypse is not merely grist for the entertainment mill, but addresses our own eternal lives and deaths. Although I haven't heard His name mentioned in the show (save once when used as an expletive by Dean), it is remarkable that Jesus Christ is the central figure in the apostle John's Book of Revelation (aka, the Apocalypse), yet ignored in the TV show. In the primary and authentic source it is Jesus who opens each of the seven seals, having earned the right because of His thorough defeat of Satan, making atonement for sin for all His people (both from the Old Testament times and the New), His absolute moral perfection, pleasing the Father in everything, and fulfilling all that was needed to be the Mediator between God and men. The seals He opens signify the decree of God for the people of earth, both His church and His enemies, and the execution of this manifold plan that has been unfolding since Christ ascended into Heaven, and was seated on the Throne of power.
Each seal has profound significance, and reveals major dynamics in play upon the world stage, all of which are set in motion — and controlled, even in the minutiae — by the one who has been crowned King of all the universe by the Father almighty. Even as the Lord Jesus suffered at the hands of God's enemies, so also His people will suffer. And they are willing to do so, for their love of Him is greater than the love even of their own lives.
In Supernatural we find there a scholar of sorts, Bobby, who is given to poring over old books of arcane knowledge, seeking wisdom and understanding to help the hunters through their various trials and adventures. In the real world there are likewise scholars who have devoted much of their lives researching and pondering the difficult symbols and sayings of the Book of Revelation, a majority of which come from the Hebrew Old Testament, and are the keys to unlocking them. To list a few: G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text; William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors; Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb; Herman Hoeksema, Behold, He Cometh!; Kim Riddlebarger, The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth About the Antichrist (although this last one does not focus on Revelation in its entirety, but on one of the major players in it, and Riddlebarger goes through the Book of Daniel, Paul's 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians, John's 1st and 2nd Epistles, as well pertinent parts of Revelation in his examination. Of course Bobby in Supernatural is just a comic-book caricature of a scholar, while these others are among the best in the field worldwide. Another excellent resource is Arturo Azurdia on Revelation, 81 sermons in MP3.
In reality, angels and demons do not use humans as "vessels", though there is possession of humans by demons (angels never do this — ever), and varying degrees of infiltration into the faculties of humans, through being deceived or deliberate involvement in evil. There may also be the "channeling" of a demon, as in seances and other activities of spiritualism. The unique thing about Jesus is that God prepared a body for Him — it was His own body, not someone else's! — and He came into this world to take upon Himself human nature, He who was eternal Son in the triunity of the Godhead. (I have heard it put by Francis Beckwith, "Within the nature of the one God, there are three centers of consciousness, and these three centers are distinct and personal.")
This is really something, that the eternal God, for love of our species, and to rescue us from our vast ruination, assumed our nature, to live the lives we could not live, and die the deaths we could not die, so that His merit might be applied to us by virtue of our union with Him. Is this hard to understand? It is of the highest importance that we do so, for in it is forgiveness of sins and eternal life, free for the asking. Where can one learn of these things? Finding a true community of God's people who have sound teaching is not easy, but it can be done. However, not everything that calls itself a "Christian church" is in fact such.
At any rate, this whole vessel thing in the show is bogus. Look, I do not mind giving "the willing suspension of disbelief" (Samuel Coleridge) when hearing a good tale, but to bring falsehood into the business of our salvation or damnation is a terrible thing. Our eternal souls are on the line. Dean was right about one thing, Hell is no picnic. And any thing that heads us in that direction is bad news!
To be continued.
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