Fred Clark has posted a new Left Behind post, TF: That rabbi thing, at Patheos.
This week Fred writes about pp. 386-388 of Tribulation Force.
Excerpt:
The government that commissioned this study certainly wasn’t expecting the result that Tsion Ben-Judah is about to announce, but they also could not have expected any result that would please all, or even most, of those who would be watching this broadcast. Some people are bound to disagree with him. A good many of his viewers are bound to be upset no matter what conclusions he announces. And this being Jerusalem — the holy city that has been the focus of centuries of unholy interreligious and intrareligious violence — it’s utterly predictable that some of those who will be most upset will be those who tend to get violently upset.
There’s a good chance, in other words, that some members of whatever groups are pleased by Ben-Judah’s conclusions will wind up getting shot by some members of some groups displeased by them. The broadcast of his secret conclusions is an invitation to violence and rioting. It constitutes an incitement. By airing the broadcast in this way, the government has basically hired Ben-Judah to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, or to yell “ready, aim, fire” in a crowded marketplace.
There’s a good chance, in other words, that some members of whatever groups are pleased by Ben-Judah’s conclusions will wind up getting shot by some members of some groups displeased by them. The broadcast of his secret conclusions is an invitation to violence and rioting. It constitutes an incitement. By airing the broadcast in this way, the government has basically hired Ben-Judah to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, or to yell “ready, aim, fire” in a crowded marketplace.
[Fred Clark, TF: That rabbi thing, May 17 2011, posted at Patheos.com]
Commentators who would like to share their responses to the new post with all of Fred's fans (old and new) can cross-post to both boards.
What really got me was Nicolai's nonchalant statement that Rayford believes Jesus is the Messiah.
So we now have a villain who knows someone is actually the follower/servant of his own greatest rival/enemy. And yet, that Nicolai has the guy on staff. As a pilot. In fact, Nicolai requested him for that position. And knowingly puts his life in the hands of his enemy's servant on a regular basis.
Worst. Evil. Overlord. Ever.
Then again, it's not like Rayford ever actually does anything. So maybe Nicolai just knows Rayford is a harmless lump?
Posted by: Jarred | May 17, 2011 at 04:45 PM
This:
If his English speech is thickly accented with Hebrew, his Hebrew scholarship is far more thickly accented in King James English.
from the original post deserves to be highlighted.
-
@Jarred
Someone somewhere wrote a story where Nicolae requested Ray because Ray was a Christian. Someone else might want to crash the plane to save humanity, but Ray, being a Christian who believes that Nicolae doing what Nicolae does is all a part of God's plan, will be compelled by his beliefs to do nothing to stop Nicolae.
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 17, 2011 at 05:00 PM
@chris the cynic: So basically, Nicolae knows that all RTC's are pathetic do-nothings?
That....kinda works...I guess...
Posted by: Jarred | May 17, 2011 at 05:05 PM
I found it. It was ShifterCat.
Here is the story:
-
"I am a believer in Christ," Rayford said. "I attend church. I read my Bible. I tell people what I believe."
Nicolae waved a hand. "Yes, yes, I know that. Why else would I wish to hire you?"
Rayford stared.
"It is true that I have my little ways," the Romanian went on, "And they are convenient for the faceless masses. But it would be dull, do you not think, to be surrounded by those who think and act precisely according to your will? I would have struggle. I would have humiliation. I would see my servant gritting his teeth in frustration even as he does my bidding -- yes, just like that. Very good."
With an effort, Rayford stopped gritting his teeth.
Nicolae smiled indulgently. "But I do not want an actual threat, you see. And another pilot, even one who loves me now, might well be horrified upon seeing what I will do later. He or she -- ha, look at your lip curl! Let's go with 'she', then -- she would identify with the suffering masses, rather than setting herself above them. She would not know about your precious prophecies... or if she did, she would have no interest in seeing them fulfilled."
"But you do. You believe that every ounce of power I gain, every hideous abuse of that power, is all part of your master's ultimate plan. And you, O good and faithful servant, would not do anything that might anger your master. Especially since you believe that the end result of that plan will be nothing but good... for you and yours, and that is all that matters to you, is it not?
"And so..." Nicolae leaned forward, and there was a terrible light of triumph in his eyes. "You will watch as thousands suffer and die by my word, and you will snarl and bark, but you... will... do... nothing." His voice was almost a whisper now, yet Rayford could feel the sound in his very bones. "For in your eyes, to disobey me is to disobey Him. Love is foolish and fragile, but I can always rely on your hate, can I not, Captain Steele?"
Nicolae drew in a breath and sat up straight, and suddenly was once again the foolish foreign politician, oozing bland Hollywood charm. "Ah, but now I have upset you prematurely. Come, Captain, let us go out to the airstrip and you can distract yourself with a shiny new toy."
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 17, 2011 at 05:16 PM
That's what I've been saying for years, but no one believes me. *pouts*
Posted by: Nicolae Carpathia | May 17, 2011 at 05:35 PM
Someone turned on the set and tuned it to ICNN. “You know,” Carpathia announced to all within earshot, “our captain believes Jesus was the Messiah.”
If this was a Jack Chick comic, the next words would be "HAW-haw!"
Maybe it's wrong and in poor character, but I kinda wish I knew people that actually believed the world was ending this Saturday, just so I could buy all of their possessions as payback for every time someone tried to use Pascal's Wager as a serious argument.
Posted by: Rodeobob | May 17, 2011 at 05:36 PM
Jarred: Then again, it's not like Rayford ever actually does anything. So maybe Nicolai just knows Rayford is a harmless lump?
I love the idea that Nicky knows Ray won't do anything, so he just revels in having a Christian lackey around to carry his fluffy white cat. :D
Posted by: Ruby | May 17, 2011 at 06:17 PM
Official Bruce Barnes Death Countdown: 60 pages
Unofficially Official Double Wedding Countdown: 37 pages
Officially Unofficial Meet the Bride Countdown: 21 pages
Posted by: Spalanzani | May 17, 2011 at 06:37 PM
Ruby: I revel in knowing that people remember Rayford, Designated Cat Bearer.
Posted by: Will Wildman | May 17, 2011 at 06:56 PM
The point about the King James "accent" to ben-Judah's sources makes me wonder how well LaHaye understands the problem of translation. As the forward to one translation of Dante's Divine Comedy put it, there's no such thing as a perfect translation. Because of unshared idiom, different etymology chains, etc., there's always going to be different nuance between the different linguistic versions. And yet, if LaHaye thinks that the original Hebrew and the King James perfectly map to each other (and the "accent" greatly implies this), it would appear that he thinks the nuances map perfectly as well. Quite a feat when English and Hebrew aren't even in the same linguistic family...Let's not get into the King James having its own forbears (q.v. Wycliffe and, more notably, Rheims-Douay); why couldn't either of THEM have been granted inerrancy by the heavens?
It's worth noting, by the way, that LaHaye might have been swayed to the "perfect mapping" conceit by the neologisms in the King James, both its own (e.g. the infamous "mercyseat") and anything inherited from the Rheims-Douay (I remember "prescient" and "character", at least). I can see how he might think that having to resort to neologisms would imply that before, there was no true analog in English to the original Hebrew concept, and so there couldn't possibly be any shift in meaning. That some of these neologisms were coming from LATIN versions must not have occurred to him...
Posted by: Skyknight | May 17, 2011 at 06:57 PM
OK, so Nicolae $MOUNTAIN_RANGE hiring his nemesis can be explained away with enough cleverness. But the whole idea behind Tsion Ben-Judah's study requires us to forget very basic tenets of Jewish eschatology. It's clearly written by and for people who have no desire or ability to look at theology from a Jewish point of view—which I might find insulting if it weren't just sad. It replaces intellectual curiosity* with sheltered close-mindedness. /end rant
* Too…talmudic?
Posted by: Nev | May 17, 2011 at 07:01 PM
I love the idea that Nicky knows Ray won't do anything, so he just revels in having a Christian lackey around to carry his fluffy white cat. :D
Somebody needs to make an index of all of the short pieces done here. I tried to find the thing about Rayford holding Nicolae's cat, but I could not locate it. I can almost, but not quite, remember the cat's name. It's like a whisper that's almost loud enough to make out.
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 17, 2011 at 07:04 PM
@chris--Yeah, that's the price of putting comments on a blog, rather than posts on a forum. No "see all posts by chris the cynic" option. Awhile back, I tried to find the bit where I dragooned Rayford Steele into Firefly's train job. Something about, "Now, these are all the Bibles Niska gave us in advance..."
Posted by: Ruby | May 17, 2011 at 07:14 PM
What really worries me is that patheos has a habit of posts disappearing, so as they're transferred from here to there I wonder if some might get lost in the transition. Not being able to find them without looking through post by post, page by page is bad enough, if some of them weren't there to be found at all that would be much, much worse.
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 17, 2011 at 07:27 PM
'And all the goyim say
He's pretty fly for a Rabbi!'
Posted by: Andrew Glasgow | May 17, 2011 at 07:41 PM
Given that I wrote the cat thing, I probably called it Puffington, which has been my go-to name for all animals* for a couple of years now. I can't find the exact excerpt either. I may launch a manual expedition later.
*My worgen hunter (which is to say, a hunter who is also a werewolf) on the last Warcraft beta: "I'm Canavon Grey. Preacher, protector of the weak, hunter of monsters. This is my shotgun; I call it Sam. This is my Dire Wolf, Puffington."
Posted by: Will Wildman | May 17, 2011 at 08:11 PM
@chris the cynic: What really worries me is that patheos has a habit of posts disappearing, so as they're transferred from here to there I wonder if some might get lost in the transition. Not being able to find them without looking through post by post, page by page is bad enough, if some of them weren't there to be found at all that would be much, much worse.
The people at Patheos who are doing the transition are trying to fix those glitches but be reassured that nothing is being destroyed. There are backups of all of the posts prior to the great divide and, at least for a while, if Patheos loses a post we can restore it.
Posted by: Mmy | May 17, 2011 at 08:56 PM
Posted by: Nicolae Carpathia | May 17, 2011 at 10:07 PM
It was in a Dave Barry column? I thought I heard it from the SNL Weekend Update list of canidates in the election, which (among a dozen-plus others, various being invented) included "...Senatorial candidate Michael Huffington, his former wife Ariana Huffington, the Huffingtons' former cat Puffington Huffington..."
Crosspollination, outright theft, or fabricated memories? We may never know.
---
Speaking of Patheos, I attempted to do a search on Puffington and Slacktivist and got a Google hit that included me using the name in the comments to a TF post. When I followed it through (to Patheos) I got the Fred post, but it didn't appear to have any comments. Exactly how this is possible - Google is searching through the text of comments that the Patheos post does not display - isn't clear to me, but if I have learned anything from seeing our capable TBAT wrangle this site, it's that such code is even more complicated than I imagined.
Posted by: Will Wildman | May 17, 2011 at 11:35 PM
Yeah, I distinctly remember seeing it in a Dave Barry column. Let me Google real quick...
Here it is. Wow, that was a long time ago.
Posted by: Nicolae Carpathia | May 18, 2011 at 02:28 AM
And it's still funny. Thanks for the link.
Posted by: Thalia | May 18, 2011 at 08:19 AM
Will, I also got that result. If you go to the actual link, no comments at all. If you go to google's cache of the link there are loads of comments, but not the one Google specifically claimed was there.
It often pisses me off that the text google uses in it's preview thingy will be exactly what I'm looking for, but there doesn't seem to be any way to get to that text. I'll be looking for something and google will turn up exactly what I want, but when I follow the link it's not there, when I look in the cache it says "These terms only appear in links pointing to this page:" and I can't get to it. I'll spend hours trying to find another link, no luck, and google will keep on mocking me, "Look, this is exactly what you want, we've even got out of place comma that proves this comes from the exact version of the text you are thinking of, but no matter what you do, we won't show you how we got this text."
-
@Mmy
That's good to know.
I've been part of two communities where years of posts were lost. In the first case it was a result of a simple mistake on the part of someone who actually cared (instead of using the backup to bring the posts into the new system after an upgrade, they got it in reverse and overwrote the backup with a backup of the completely empty new system.) In the second case it was the result of callousness on the part of people who had neither contact with or care for the people who used the various forums they hosted. They decided to skip importing the archives, not due to technical difficulties but because they didn't feel like it. Years of posts gone, and most of it was in use as reference material which meant that what remained was a lot of, "That's a good question, if you look here[broken link] you'll find 20 pages of in depth discussion of that topic." Of course no one knew that the archives wouldn't be moved to the new system until long after the old system was taken offline, which meant no one ever made a personal back up.
Anyway, now I tend to get nervous when years worth of posts are being fiddled with. (Even if the people doing the fiddling have the best of intentions.)
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 18, 2011 at 01:23 PM
I know what you mean, Chris. I was keeping a class-by-class aikido diary on an EZBoard site, and when a hacker wiped them out (backups and all) I was really distressed. I never did manage to restart the diary, and the board community as a whole seemed to fade away--I don't know how much was the loss of old posts and how much was other things, but it's gone now.
Posted by: MaryKaye | May 18, 2011 at 01:31 PM
@chris the cynic: Oh I hear you -- and agree with you. Which is why I get/got somewhat irritable about people saying things like "just do this - it is simple" since "just doing this" had a good chance of wiping out everything.
The very, very, very first thing I did when I got behind the wheels here was to backup the entire archive (comments included) elsewhere.
The second thing I did was to import those backed up posts/comments to a different platform -- checking the integrity of the posts and comments at every stage.
The posts/comments are backed up in a form that allows them to be reimported if disaster strikes.
I have been in communication with the people at Patheos who are trying to integrate the old stuff with the new site and I know that they have been devoting long person hours to the issue.
But, and this is the most important thing to stress -- nothing they do can cause a post from "before the great divide" to permanently disappear nor can they cause comments to permanently disappear.
Posted by: Mmy | May 18, 2011 at 02:17 PM
I wouldn't mind terribly if the comments from the first couple of months of my posting on slacktivist went poof. (-;
Posted by: Jason | May 18, 2011 at 03:48 PM
@Jason
I've definitely made my share of comments that I'd prefer no one, myself included, ever see again. I've done that pretty much everywhere I've ever gone.
What I've learned from some of those going poof is that a clean slate is never worth the collateral damage.
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 18, 2011 at 07:13 PM
If you see an old Slacktivist post on Patheos that looks like it has no comments where comments should be, try viewing the page source. You might be able to find something like this:
One of the last major events while I still lived with my parents was that, a couple of weeks after our oldest cat (who was, let’s be fair here, MADE OF HATE but we did love him so) died, we found the world’s friendliest stray in our back yard. He had recently been shaved (not enough; I spent an hour picking burrs out of his fur) but later proved to be an extremely fluffy cat who goes completely limp when held. We eventually determined that he was a specific variety of long-haired cat that had been carefully bred to be extremely docile when held (but very energetic the rest of the time) and it turns out this breed is, in fact, called the ragamuffin, it being an offshoot of the ragdoll cat. His name is Scotland (for his reddish lionishness, and because I always wanted to name a cat Scotland) but he is also commonly referred to as Puffington.
All of which is an extremely roundabout way of saying that it has some very weird connotations and mental images for me now when people are described as ragamuffins.
Posted by: Hummingwolf | May 18, 2011 at 09:19 PM
(To clarify: The preceding comment was mostly a quote of an old Will Wildman comment. I can't find anything with Nicolae and a cat.)
Posted by: Hummingwolf | May 18, 2011 at 09:21 PM
Hummingwolf--I recently was watching Animal Planet and discovered that my* sweet** kitten*** back home**** that we adopted is also mostly ragamuffin. The most recognizable thing about her is that she started out a pure fluffy white and then got all gray and striped when she grew up. Turns out there also pretty expensive, too, which is nice but it makes me kind of wish we hadn't gotten her fixed. I don't really have anything significant to say but it makes me happy to hear people talk about ragamuffins because I'd never heard of them before and I love my kitten.
*now my parents'
**not very sweet
***way too big to be a kitten
****I don't live there anymore
Posted by: Lunch Meat | May 18, 2011 at 09:35 PM
I just found this in book 3:
So apparently Nicolae keeps them around so he can spy on them. And they stick around Nicolae so they can spy on him. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. Of course the question of why anyone is doing this spying when information gathered doesn't appear to be used is probably never answered.
-
I was looking for the infamous "Wrath of the Lamb" scene so I could rewrite it. Here is the original:
A very quick alternate version:
“Captain Steele, I understand you are upset, but—”
“Nicolae,” Rayford said, his words rushing through clenched teeth, “you can explain this away any way you want, but let me be the first to tell you: You have just seen the wrath of the Lamb!”
“Mr. Steele,” Nicolae glared at Rayford, “you have a daughter. If you wish to still have a daughter come sundown you will step back now.” Rayford stepped back. “And you will never lay hands on my person again.
“Further, saying that this is, “The wrath of the lamb,' is silly and insulting. These people,” Nicolae gestured to the wreckage, human and otherwise, around them, “were not killed with sheep. They were killed by a natural disaster of unprecedented scale and you insult their memories by trying to fold it into your silly religious propaganda.”
Nicolae softened his body language and his tone, “I don't expect you to be a model employee. I have my reasons for keeping you around and they have nothing to do with your qualifications. I don't expect you to know those reasons. I've never told them to you. You don't need to know.
“I don't expect you to be a great pilot. And you certainly haven't been. I don't expect you to be courteous or respectful. I don't expect you to be well mannered. I don't expect you to play well with others or put on a happy face.
“I don't expect you to be house broken.
“I do expect you to understand what is in your own best interest, and if I ever again have to explain to you that you do not want to lose your daughter, I will do it with actions, not words.” Nicolae allowed the silence to build for a moment. “Now, do you have a working phone?”
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 18, 2011 at 09:46 PM
As a minor aside, I seem to recall that Nicolae doesn't do contractions. I tried taking them out, it just wasn't right without them.
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 18, 2011 at 09:52 PM
That whole Nicolae-doesn't-use-contractions thing is so silly.
Makes me think of him as Data.
Posted by: Ruby | May 18, 2011 at 10:10 PM
"These people [...] were not killed with sheep."
Maybe I just have a fondness for in-jokes, but I love that line.
Posted by: Brin (not Meir) | May 18, 2011 at 10:19 PM
Rayford was so disgusted he reached past Carpathia and pushed open the door. He slipped out from behind Carpathia's seat and jumped to the ground. Then he reached in, loosened Carpathia's belt, grabbed him by the lapels, and yanked him out of the chopper. Carpathia landed on his seat on the uneven ground. He jumped up quickly, as if ready to fight. Rayford pushed him back up against the helicopter.
The editor in me is crying out to rewrite this paragraph. Apart from anything else:
- "Carpathia's seat" is referring to an actual seat in one sentence, and a metaphorical one two sentences later. Cue confusion.
- Rayford "loosens Carpathia's belt". Cue slash fiction.
Posted by: Deird, who needs some freelance work, and soon | May 18, 2011 at 10:20 PM
Yeah, I read that and was trying to figure out how Carpathia's seat got out of the helicopter. And if Ray was just going to pull the whole damned helicopter seat out and let that fall on the ground, why disconnect it from Nicolae first?
It took me longer than it should have to realize that Nicky landed on his ass. (Poor donkey.)
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 18, 2011 at 10:32 PM
Wait, Rayford is qualified to fly helicopters too??? When was that fact established? Or doe the authors simply not realize that instruction and licensing to fly helicopters is a separate process from flying fixed-wing planes?
Posted by: Jarred | May 19, 2011 at 09:58 AM
Given that they can't tell the difference between Rastafarian, atheist, and Superpope, I can't say I'm shocked.
---
Has anyone done the calculations to work out whether LB-God or Nicky can actually take credit for a higher body count during the Tribulation? For the winner of the Most Evil Mortal award, he's seriously going to get outclassed; one nuclear war can't compare to flattening the world (twice!) and destroying its entire water supply.
Posted by: Will Wildman | May 19, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Rayford can fly helicopters, or could twenty years before the book takes place, but he's just a passenger there. A passenger who gets to tell the pilot what to do, but a passenger none the less:
So there is a realization on the authors' part that these are two different things.
Posted by: chris the cynic | May 19, 2011 at 11:00 AM
Rayford can fly helicopters, or could twenty years before the book takes place, but he's just a passenger there.
Really? Rayford actually curbed his ego enough to deign allow someone other than himself fly in his presence? I think I might faint.
Thanks for the explanation, though.
Posted by: Jarred | May 19, 2011 at 11:21 AM
@Jarred: I suspect it's so that later, when he *does* pilot a helicopter, it's even *more* impressive, since we've established that he's out of practice.
Posted by: Ross | May 19, 2011 at 02:31 PM
What's so offensive to Rayford about Nicolae asking for a phone in that scene, anyway? Isn't trying to contact friends/family/loved ones (for instance, by phone) so you can verify that they're still among the living a pretty normal, sympathetic reaction in the aftermath of a terrible disaster? Even if Rayford knows Nicolae is so super evil that he isn't even capable of wanting to make a phone call for a non-evil reason, you'd think he'd save his tantrum for a time when Nicolae does or says something that is despicable even if you don't know he's the antichrist.
Posted by: Rachel | May 19, 2011 at 07:51 PM
@Rachel: Knowing Ellenjay's relationship with phones, the Antichrist asking for one here is basically the same as riding the fistable pig.
Posted by: Ross | May 20, 2011 at 08:18 AM