Pop Clock Update
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†. Luke 13:4-5 . . And what about the eighteen men who died when a tower
of Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I
tell you again that unless you repent, you will likewise perish.
The koiné Greek word for "tower" in that passage is purgos (poor'-gos)
which is an ambiguous word that can mean not only an isolated structure
like a skyscraper; but also a special battlement which protrudes from the
face of a castle's curtain wall-- consisting of crenellations, merlons, and
machicolations --providing occupants a tactical advantage for observing and
defending the curtain wall's exterior face. Sometimes though, purgos were
simply architectural facades that made otherwise insipid stone walls
aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Unfortunately, in the days prior to steel reinforcing bar and structural steel
beams, purgos (which were often constructed of either stones or bricks or
wood) weren't all that stable, and sometimes crumbled; thus detaching
themselves from the curtain wall like an old swallow's nest; resulting in
pieces raining down on whoever happened to be standing below. The tower
depicted in Luke was possibly a decorative part of an architectural enclosure
surrounding the pool of Siloam. (cf. John 9:7)
The people who were killed when that tower collapsed, weren't killed by the
hand of God. No, they were just simply in the wrong place at the wrong
time; viz: it was just dumb luck. It's like when people plan all month for a
camping trip in the mountains. Upon arrival, they set up camp; and after
lunch, walk a hiking trail. Just then, a tree limb, that's been silently growing
in the forest for who knows how many years, suddenly decides to snap off
and fall to earth right then; subsequently killing one of the campers just as
they walk under it.
One minute earlier and it would have missed. One minute later and it would
have missed. But no, the limb falls right on cue as if the forces of nature
conspired to hold that tree limb in place till just the right moment; waiting
for that one specific person to walk under it.
In a similar incident Friday, Feb 19, 2010 --a centuries-old Mosque minaret
in Meknes Morocco collapsed and fell into a crowd of worshippers during
prayer time, killing 41.
Saturday, June 27, 2010, a 6-month-old baby girl was killed and her mother
seriously injured when the pair were struck by a falling tree branch in New
York City's Central Park Zoo. The girl's father was taking their picture near
the sea lion exhibit when a branch above them suddenly snapped off and
fell.
On Tuesday, July 3, 2007; nineteen year-old Ramiro Gonzalez was returning
home to Nyssa Oregon from a week-end honeymoon in northern California
with his bride Idalia asleep in the back seat when their 1997 Pontiac Grand
Am hit a cow twenty miles east of Burns. The Pontiac went off the road,
through a fence, and burst into flames. Idalia escaped with only minor
injuries, but Ramiro died at the Ste. Charles Medical Center in Bend the very
next day.
Ramiro and his bride didn't get to live in a home of their own for even one
single minute of their marriage-- never had a baby, never joined the PTA,
never saved for college, never went to ballet lessons, nor to soccer or little
league, never went on family picnics, never took home movies and photos at
Christmas, Easter, or birthdays, never went to the beach and built sand
castles --no, their entire future, and all their dreams of family life, were
shattered in an instant by a lame-brained bovine; and Ramiro wasn't even
20 years old yet.
March 20, 2008; fifty-seven year old Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Michigan,
was sitting in the front seat of her father's boat going 25 knots on the
Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key in Florida, when a Spotted Eagle Ray, with a
wingspan of 5 to 6 feet; leaped up out of the water-- for who knows what
reason --and collided with Zagorski, knocking her backwards onto the deck
of the boat. She died from the impact. Judy's sister, standing next to her,
was not injured.
On a November morning in 1998, Alan Pakula climbed into his Volvo station
wagon and began the 100-mile drive from Manhattan to his Long Island
house. The acclaimed movie director of Sophie's Choice, All The President's
Men, and The Pelican Brief, had made that trip countless times with no
incident.
As the 70 year-old Pakula neared exit 49 on the Long Island Expressway just
before noon, the tires of a vehicle ahead of him flipped a 7-foot piece of
steel rod into the air. Within seconds, the rod shot through Pakula's
windshield, smashing into his forehead, killing him almost instantly.
Death often comes when people least expect it. As a rule, they don't usually
get up in the morning planning it to be their last day on earth. The 169,752
killed, and 127,294 listed as missing, in more than eleven countries by the
tsunami of 2004, were taken by surprise, and given no warning it was to be
their last day on earth.
The 2,829 people who perished in a terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center on September 11, 2001, and the 189 who died in the Pentagon,
didn't go in to work expecting their lives to end before lunch that day. No,
people's lives often end while they still have obligations and commitments,
aspirations, things to do, places to go, and people to see; when a car
accident, train wreck, act of nature, plane crash, crime, heart attack, or
stroke puts an abrupt end to every plan they ever made.
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake struck Port au Prince Haiti right out
of the blue subsequently causing the loss of more than 200,000 lives. A
similar act of nature on March 11, 2011, left 25,000 dead and/or missing in
Japan.
Okeechobee woman Dawn Johnston, 38, was killed Wednesday June 30,
2010 after part of a portable toilet crashed through her car's windshield.
Dawn was driving south on SR 15 shortly after 11 a.m. when two portable
toilets fell from the trailer of a pickup truck traveling north,. The portable
toilets shattered when they hit the road, and a piece of one of them crashed
through the woman's windshield, striking her. Johnston's car then veered off
the road and collided with a tree.
A rain-saturated hillside above the Stillaguamish River on the outskirts of the
rural town of Oso in the State of Washington gave way March 22, 2014
leaving behind a current death toll of 41 souls. The landslide happened to
suddenly and so rapidly that nobody saw it coming and/or had the slightest
chance of getting out of the way. Listed among the dead and missing was a
four-month old infant.
Freak incidents like those listed above can happen to anybody in the form of
a stray bullet from a drive-by, lightening strike, gas explosion, choking on a
piece of meat, electrocution, earthquake, a drunk driver, a fall in the bath
tub; bricks dropped from an overpass, or any number of out-of-the-blue
surprises. I don't think the Lord was saying that repentance will protect
people from dying in an unexpected incident, but rather, that if they don't
start thinking about the afterlife now, while they have the chance; then they
risk being caught off guard by sudden death where there will be no time to
think; and they'll find themselves suddenly thrust into the afterlife a lot
sooner than they ever expected.
NOTE: I was taught in catechism that repentance always means sorrow and
regret for one's sins; but I don't think that's what the Lord was getting at.
The koiné Greek word for "repent" in the Lord's statement is metanoeo
(met-an-o-eh'-o) which means: to think differently; viz: to reconsider-- in
other words: to change one's mind and/or change one's direction.
I was also taught in catechism that repentance and confession of one's sins
are joined at the hip; so to speak. But confession of sins is not the emphasis
in Luke 13:4-5; metanoeo is the emphasis.
The Lord preceded the statement recorded in Luke 13:4-5 with another like
it.
†. Luke 13:1-3 . .There were present at that season some who told Him
about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And
Jesus answered and said to them: Do you suppose that these Galileans were
worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I
tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
The record doesn't explain why Pilate executed those men in particular; nor
even where the executions took place. But just for brevity's sake, I'll assume
for now that those particular men were known insurrectionists, and the
executions took place on the grounds of the Temple compound in Jerusalem
while the men were there to worship. In other words: the men were pounced
upon in a place they would never suspect; and Pilate's soldiers sprung on
the Galileans so suddenly and so efficiently that the men had no chance to
either escape or to defend themselves.
It's at a time like that when your religion of choice had better be the right
one because you'll have neither time nor opportunity to reconsider and
switch to another one.
†. Ecc 9:10-12 . . For the time of mischance comes to all. And a man cannot
even know his time. As fishes are enmeshed in a fatal net, and as birds are
trapped in a snare, so men are caught at the time of calamity, when it
comes upon them without warning.
Pop Clock Update: 15 days have elapsed since beginning the thread. If the
figures in post #1 are within reason, then something like 878,715 new
arrivals have checked into the fiery sector of hades since December 10,
2014.
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