Field Notes: Efraim: A New Apocalyptic Movement in the Netherlands

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-91
Author(s):  
Reender Kranenborg

ABSTRACT: At the end of 2001 an unknown apocalyptic movement, Efraim, became hot news in the Netherlands. It was reported that the members expected the end of the world and the coming of the Messiah before 2002, and had changed their lives dramatically. These Field Notes report on this new group. The article first discusses what happened and the role the media played. Second, the article provides a description of the movement, including a portrait of the leader and his teachings about the end of the world, i.e., the rapture of the Bride (the faithful), the predictions on what will happen in the future, ideas concerning Elijah and the twelve tribes (““geo-theology””) and the Bride of Christ. Third, the reactions of the leader, when the rapture of the Bride did not take place, are examined. Finally some conclusions are given. It can be seen that Efraim started as a Pentecostal group, but developed into an independent Christian movement, which has a new content, due to the revelations the leader receives.

Author(s):  
Matthew Rendall

It is sometimes argued in support of discounting future costs and benefits that if we gave the same weight to the future as to the present, we would invest nearly all our income, but never spend it. Rather than enjoying the fruits of our investments, we would always do better to reinvest them. Undiscounted utilitarianism (UU), so the argument goes, is collectively self-defeating. This attempted reductio ad absurdum fails. Regardless of whether each generation successfully followed UU, or merely attempted to follow it, we could never get trapped in endless saving. The real problem is different: without the ability to foresee the end of the world, UU cannot tell us how much to save. Discounting is a defensible response, but only when coupled with a rule against risking catastrophe.


Author(s):  
Elsi Hyttinen

Anthropocene on the National Stage: Maaseudun tulevaisuus (“Future of the Countryside”, The Finnish National Theatre 2014) and the Interregnum We Live in The article argues that entering the Anthropocene has pushed us into a cultural interregnum. However, the discussions of the Anthropocene and the concept of interregnum seldom meet. In this article it is assumed that this stems from the fact that the concept of interregnum pertains to the 20th century critical epistème and as such, it is a mismatch with the current theoretical impulse of turning toward affects, ontology and becoming. However, the case is made that we should not let go of the critical legacy altogether: to analyse struggle over and between epistemologies, we need critical concepts. Research material in the article consists of the manuscript of Leea Klemola’s 2014 Finnish National theatre production “The Future of the Countryside”, and nine articles from the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat’s digital archive, published during the play’s opening week. “The Future of the Countryside” asks what could the relationship between humans and their companion species be like, were it not based on the idea that it is legitimate for humans to treat the rest of the world as resources. However, the media brouhaha surrounding the play’s opening night hardly touches upon this theme at all. Instead, the nation and the limits of national culture are repeatedly evoked as the primary explanatory framework. In this way, the “Future of the Countryside” provides an illustrative case of the interregnum we live in, understood as old epistemologies losing ground but still keeping the new from emerging.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Aurelius Fredimento ◽  
John M. Balan

The development and the progress of media communication at the present is a fact of the knowledge and the technology development that must be accepted. It presence like the flowing water which has a fast current that brings also two influences both positive and negative that must be accounted for the members of the Catholic Students Community Of St. Martinus Ende (KMK St. Martinus Ende). Both positive and negative influences the media community like a kinetic energy or a power attraction that attract  them in a tiring ambiquity. Let them walk alone without escort of a decisive compass where they should have a rightist attitude and responsible. On the point, the guidance and assistance of the church is an  offering  if the church will be born a generation  of the future  of the  church  that is mature and has a certain quality  based  on the growth  and the development  of acuteness and inner  to determine the attitude to the development of media communication. The process of sharpening of mind and the sharpeness of the participants can be realized by giving some activities such as: awareness, deepening and even  the sharpeness of the actor of  media communication as an  alternative of reporting work of the God Kingdom for human beings. It becomes the main moving spirit or activator  for the board of KMK Of St. Martinus Ende  to plan and boring  about the activity of catechism. The activity rise the method of Amos.  By this method, the participants are invited to build a deeply reflection that based on thein real experiences about the media communication, while keep on self opening to the God planning will come  to them  and  give them via  the commandment of God.  The commandment  of God  come to light, inspiration, motivate, power and critics to the  participants about the using of the media communication as a media of the commandment of the kingdom of God  to the world that is more progress and development lately.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
Victor V. Ermolaev ◽  
Julia Voroncova ◽  
Daria K. Nasonova ◽  
Alena I. Chetverikova

Background. The study of the psychological characteristics of social fears during the first wave of COVID-19 indicated that Russian citizens were massively in a state of fear. The persisting threat of a pandemic throughout the year, the inconsistency of managerial decisions in the absence of a coherent strategy to combat COVID-19, obviously create growing social tension in Russia, which is projected onto the psychological level of the state of modern society. Objective. To identify the dynamics of social fears among Russian citizens during the first and second waves of COVID-19. Hypothesis: there is a tendency for the growth of social fears among Russian citizens during the second wave of COVID-19, while the media continues to form a depressive and depressing “picture of the world”. Design. Psychodiagnostics was carried out remotely using Google forms. Sample size: 497 people. At the first stage (the first wave — March / April, 2020), 253 people were tested. At the second stage (second wave — October / November, 2020), 244 people passed testing, of which 150 took part in the periods of both the first and second waves, and 94 — only during the second wave. At the third stage, statistical analysis was carried out in order to identify the dynamics of social fears. Results. From the moment COVID-19 began to the peak of the second wave, Russian citizens showed negative dynamics, characterized by: 1) an increase in the experience of social fears associated with failure and defeat, as well as rejection and suppression; 2) an increase in the imbalance of trust caused by the growth of trust in the world and others, as trustworthy sources of information about the current danger, against the background of a steadily reduced trust in oneself; 3) a decrease in optimism and faith in the future with an increase in the intensity of emotional stress, as well as a desire to delegate responsibility for the events of one’s own life; 4) a general decrease in efficiency (based on the results of self-report). Conclusion. The information broadcast by the media about COVID-19 has a systemic psychological impact through the demonstration of a pessimistic “picture of the world”, which, creating an aggressive information field literally enveloping the psyche, destroys its self-confidence, social ties and group cohesion, and also fills it social fears, increasing the sense of social deprivation. The intended consequences will send the psychological community to develop a predictive model for overcoming this situation. In our opinion, the main thing in the work with the consequences of the pandemic is psychological assistance, the basis of which should be the methods of correction of the cognitive-affective sphere of the individual — the return of self-confidence and the transformation of the “picture of the world” of the present and future into a positive one. Particular attention should be paid to increasing collective cohesion and setting group goals that outline the future positive “picture of the world” of Russian society


2020 ◽  
pp. 45-57
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mee

Astronomy was the first science. Even in the fourteenth century, astronomers could accurately predict the date and time of an eclipse that lay one hundred years in the future. But early astronomers also developed some strange ideas which still resound today. Astrologers of the past identified conjunctions of the planets, especially the outer planets Jupiter and Saturn, with disastrous events such as floods, schisms, and pestilence. These ideas were related to the notion that world history can be understood as a series of 1,000-year cycles. This idea dates back to ancient Persian and Babylonian astrologers, but it has been perpetuated within Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity and is known today as ‘millennialism’. It is quite remarkable that the sequence of conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn was also the key that led Johannes Kepler to dedicate himself to astronomy and ultimately to transform astronomy into a modern science.


1929 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manley O. Hudson

Several important events have marked the seventh year in the history of the Permanent Court of International Justice. The court was in session at The Hague from February 6, 1928, to April 26, 1928 (thirteenth session); from June 15, 1928, to September 13, 1928 (fourteenth session); and from November 12, 1928, to November 21, 1928 (fifteenth session). It handed down two advisory opinions (Nos. 15 and 16) and two judgments (Nos. 12 and 13), and several important orders. It lost the services of two eminent judges through the resignation of Judge John Bassett Moore and the death of Judge André Weiss. A settlement was reached with the Netherlands Government of the long-standing question as to the privileges and immunities of the judges and registry officials; and, what is perhaps more important for the court’s future, the signatories of the court’s protocol of signature began the consideration of changes in the court’s statute in the light of seven years’ experience. The seventh year marks progress in the establishment of the court’s position as the chief agency in the world for the international administration of justice, as it marks also changes which will affect the future of the court.


Aethiopica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Getatchew Haile

The main themes of the text, occasionally ascribed to Ezra (Salathiel), are the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the end of the world, the future rulers of Ethiopia, and the honouring of the Sabbaths. It is cast in the spirit of 4 Ezra, quoting it and Jubilees occasionally and extensively. As in 4 Ezra, its author is interested in knowing and declaring the future to call the faithful to observe the law and the ordinances. Reckoning the time by cycles, aqmar, provides him the revelation of future events ‘with exact dates’. The text, composed before the sixteenth century, is one more source of Gǝʿǝz apocalyptic literature. The article is an edition and translation of it as preserved in EMML 6429, fols 9v–39r.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Shea

The following discussion is a critical assessment of the “Story of the End of the World: 73 Questions We Must Answer”, an exhibition at the Miraikan. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on the 11th of March 2011 created the necessity for collective catharsis regarding various threats posed by the future. I will argue that the outcome of the exhibition differs significantly in content, presentation and meaning to the more conventional visions of the future presented elsewhere in the museum.


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