Short answer: “Really, really bad . . . but not as bad as last time.”
Among catastrophists, Douglas Vogt probably stands as a preeminent figure in our generation. His books represent substantial research – both original and interpretive – accumulated over many decades. It is a level of scholarship that cannot be easily dismissed.
His YouTube video lectures are produced with a classroom-style format which focus on the scenario itself and the supporting facts, rather than personal aggrandizement or fear porn. He is clinical in his presentation, but it is difficult to ignore the magnitude of the catastrophe which he describes: the solar nova, magnetic field reversal, and ice age. It is the description of a global catastrophe so encompassing and devastating, it has no historical precedent. Its extent can only be appreciated from studying the geological record. Ancient mythology is merely analogical.
Absorbing and dealing with the implications of that scenario at a personal and theological level is what this website is about.
When Barry McGuire wrote his hit-song, “Eve of Destruction,” back in the 1960s, it represented an anti-war mantra railing against Vietnam and looming nuclear war. I brought him to Riverton, Wyoming many years ago to do a concert. I think he sang a verse from the song – a sanitized one appropriate for Christian audiences – but that was the era of his “Bullfrogs & Butterflies.” The kids loved him. I don’t know if he is still alive, but he might want to add a verse or two to “Eve of Destruction.”
My religious upbringing was in the traditions and beliefs of American fundamentalism. One of the five pillars of the American Fundamentalist movement from the late 1800s and onward was the belief in the “literal” and “imminent” return of Christ. If you didn’t believe in such a second coming of Christ, you were labeled a liberal compromiser, never mind that Fundamentalists are also theological heirs of the Puritans who typically did not believe in it, either.
Many people became Christians during the revival crusades of the 1960s through the 80s because they believed that the end of the world was going to happen “any day” and that world events represented “the signs of the times” pointing to the Second Coming of Christ. The doctrine of a “secret” rapture is central to it, because in this doctrinal scheme, no matter how bad it gets, you don’t want to be here on Earth during the Great Tribulation and the rule of the Antichrist. If you miss the Rapture (i.e. the secret ascension of “born-again” Christians – is there any other kind? – to Heaven to escape this 7-year period of satanic bedlam), it is almost guaranteed that you will go to Hell. To avoid Hell during the Tribulation Period, you must be beheaded or starve to death.
If you deny this prophetic scenario – as I do and have for forty years – you undermine the motivation for why a vast majority of modern Evangelicals have become Christians. For them, this peculiar, escapist Millenarianism is what proves that the Bible is true. If you doubt the Bible, they will point to Bible prophecy for proof. These people are intellectually compromised and probably cannot “grow” out of this infantile dogma.
For fear of undermining their faith, I have not stressed my views on Bible prophecy these many years. But with the approaching age of calamity now in front of us, I can be silent no more.
If these people don’t die in the nova disaster, they will quickly lose faith or not have the will to survive because they have built their faith on a fantasy Jesus: the smiling, bearded face of an invincible “big brother” who has endured all of the pain from God’s future eschaton so that they don’t have to suffer. The daunting task of rebuilding civilization from nothing with nothing is not something they are emotionally prepared to face. I fear that only the atheists will survive – the grim followers of Nietzsche.
Have I replaced one form of “apocalyptic determinism” for another?
Have I traded Dispensationalist Darbyism for an inevitable, synchronistic, secularized dogma of catastrophism? I don’t think so. I still believe in miracles. I believe this imminent scenario is actually predicted in the Bible. It just falls in a different prophetic category, which I have delineated in numerous books, articles and peshers on the 2046AD.org website.
How many calories?
In recent lectures, Vogt has tried to calculate how many BTU’s are needed to evaporate 450 feet of the oceans worldwide. That is how much the oceans must recede to expose the continental shelves like it did the last time there was an ice age.
Vogt thinks it might take longer than the day-to-week long incineration he originally envisioned. I saw this problem almost from the start when I began to listen to his lectures. I have always felt that the displacement of that much water required a multi-faceted mechanism: the heat flash, the blast wave, then a centuries-long scenario of massive volcanic action (underwater to evaporate the oceans, then above ground to cool the atmosphere to make the precipitation fall in the form of snow).
[Type in “Ice Age” in the Search function above to find the articles where I discuss the details of that, or see Robert Felix’s book, Not By Fire, But By Ice.]
Ben Davidson’s crustal displacement scenario which will require a crustal uplift is another mechanism and is really a part of the Standard Model. The Standard Model separates these events by millions of years while catastrophists measure the cycles in thousands of years. More on that in the next installment.
Regardless, the Earth is farther away from the Sun than the last nova.
It won’t be as bad as the last one. I have not fully vetted Don Patten’s description of the last nova, and intend to do so soon. But if you can’t wait, go to the Sources links above for the creationist website and read his online book on The Recent Organization of the Solar System. (His scenario will be Part Three of this series.)
When scientists look at stars that have gone nova, sometimes the flash of light will last a long time, perhaps a hundred days or more, depending upon the stellar classification. You must keep in mind that our Sun’s outburst will not be that long (Vogt identifies the Sun with a “G classification”) but it could take that long for the glowing nova cloud to dissipate or cool. In other words, if you were on another planet in a different solar system and you were to watch the Sun’s nova outburst, it may appear to last for a long time, but Earth would be behind the leading edge of the nova cloud. Consequently, the devastating flash and blast wave will have already passed us, probably in less than a week and maybe merely a day. However, to the rest of the galaxy, since we will be hidden behind the wave, it will appear to be a sustained nova when really it is not. Time and distance and the speed of light delay and prolong the observable phenomenon.
Don’t get too comfortable with this talk about mitigating effects.
None of the options are pleasant. It almost becomes a “choose your poison” scenario along the lines of, “Which is better: falling out of an airliner at 30,000 feet or standing on the tracks facing a locomotive?” If you are dressed warm, have an oxygen tank and know how to use your parachute, maybe the plane is the better option. Facing a locomotive? Maybe not, unless it is braking: How hard will it hit you?
Yeah, not a little bump in the night.
— JWS, 11/6/22
Survival Praxis is published bi-weekly (or when I get to it) only to the 2046AD.org website.
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