You understand the threat of the Islamic extremists, but you don't seem to connect it to the Bible, strange indeed, you seem very analytical. Get a good commentary on Genesis, and Revelation.
The Immortal Jews (Mark Twain)
If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?
“You understand the threat of the Islamic extremists, but you don’t seem to connect it to the Bible, strange indeed, you seem very analytical. Get a good commentary on Genesis, and Revelation.”
I also don’t connect the threat of Islamic extremism to anything written by Nostradamus, either. Yet there are folks (some of them here, even!)who will tell you that he “predicted” 9/11, too (it must be true — after all, he wrote it down, they will tell you, and since Luke, Mark, Matthew and John wrote their stuff down, ergo it’s true, too?).
Because it’s been written down makes it strictly true, and better yet, provable? If your assumption is that it must be true because otherwise no one would bother to make the effort of writing anything then I have swampland I’d like to sell you as prime, beachfront property.
Propaganda is NOT a modern invention. The idea that the written word (reproduceable, portable) helps convey a message is NOT a modern conception. It’s fairly obvious that those who wrote the Scriptures had an agenda, and naturally, what they wrote reflected what they believed and what they wanted to influence others to believe.
THAT’S why it was written down in the first place!
The idea of the Bible as “divinely inspired”, from God’s mouth to man’s ear (and pen), is a lovely little way to dodge this question of what influence the personal beliefs and intent of the writers played in what was ultimately written. The same question could be asked about the book we’re discussing; the Bible we now hold is the final result of translation from language to language, with it’s texts carefully selected, and edited, to adhere to (often) arbitrary standards of orthodoxy (which themsleves have changed over the centuries — see Henry VIII, Pelagius, Arian and Martin Luther).