Is mankind being driven to “the end”?
In case you haven’t heard, before the name “Carmageddon” was associated with Los Angeles’ infamous “4-or-5-hour freeway”–officially known as the 405 freeway–it Carmageddon the video game released in 1997 was “the first of a series of graphically violent vehicular combat video games,” and “was inspired by the 1975 cult classic movie Death Race 2000,” so says Wikipedia. And as much as you and I may love and respect the Supercool King of Pop–the inimitable Moonwalker; that ever glowing Gloved One–it is a little-known fact that he was a terrible driver.
For those around Michael at the time, who years ago lived just a few miles away from the 405 ground-zero construction this past weekend, it was “Carmageddon” whenever he got behind the wheel! The guy didn’t know how to drive. Brother-in-law Nathaniel Brown, who owned a driving school, finally taught the Gloved One to get a grip on driving. Whew! But what did Michael think about the real Armageddon, from which the word “Carmageddon” was derived?
“Carmageddon” in California: The reason the weekend closure of the 405 freeway to dismantle half a bridge made world news is mainly because it is the busiest in the U.S. Prior to “Carmageddon” National Public Radio (NPR) wrote: “With some predicting there will be ‘carmageddon’ when 10 miles of the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles are shut down from the evening of Friday, July 15 until 5 a.m. local time on Monday the 18th, the Los Angeles Police Department is reaching out for help in urging folks to avoid the area. Officials are asking ‘celebrities with large Twitter followings’ to spread the word, the Los Angeles Times reports. According to the newspaper: ‘The LAPD said it is making contact with representatives for Lady Gaga (nearly 11.3 million followers), Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (7 million and 3.7 million respectively) and Kim Kardashian (8 million followers). None of the celebrities have sent out warning tweets yet, but officials hope they will do so closer to the closure dates.’
The Movie: The movie Armageddon (1998) starring Bruce Willis captured the attention and imagination of millions. “There seems to be no shortage of end-of-the-world scenarios,” says the March 1, 2011, issue of The Watchtower. “Books, movies, and magazines, ranging from the comic to the scientific, portray an assortment of doomsday catastrophes. They include annihilation by nuclear war, asteroid collision, deadly virus, runaway climate change, or invaders from outer space.” But what about the Biblical Armageddon?
Authentic Armageddon: Revelation (or Apocalypse) 16:14, 16 equates Armageddon “the war of the great day of God Almighty,” and the worldwide monumental devastation of the real Armageddon will transcend by far the overblown inconvenience of a weekend “Carmageddon” in Los Angeles. But like most Biblical wars, only God’s enemies are targeted. “Consider an illustration,” encourages the above Watchtower. “Suppose you owned a beautiful home and allowed people to live in it for free. Some of the tenants lived peaceably with one another and took good care of your home. Others, however, made nothing but trouble, fought with one another, and abused the good tenants. They damaged your property and stubbornly refused to respond to your efforts to stop them. What would you do to correct matters? Would you destroy your home? Not likely.
You would probably evict the bad tenants and repair what damage had been done.
“Jehovah will act in a similar manner. He inspired the psalmist to write: ‘Evildoers themselves will be cut off, but those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth. And just a little while longer, and the wicked one will be no more; and you will certainly give attention to his place, and he will not be. But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, and they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.’–Psalm 37:9-11.”
Conclusion: They’re already calling the removal of the second half of the bridge next summer “Carmageddon II,” conveniently after the follow-up video game Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now (1998). Interestingly, according to Apocalypse (Revelation), Satan will be defeated once at Armageddon, then again a short while after the end of a 1,000-year period of earthly restoration. (Revelation 20:1-15) Several years before Michael was born Jehovah’s Witnesses published the book You May Survive Armageddon Into God’s New World (1955) MJ loved books like this. And, yes, you may survive the real Armageddon. Peace and blessings to all. Amen.
