So my wife and I were watching A Christmas Story last night. It’s a favorite with us. What started as a low-budget movie in 1983 has become a Christmas movie classic. And one might think that such a movie wouldn’t have anything to do with the Signposts. But embedded in the visuals and the script was a lesson about the Empire of the Iron Legs pulverizing as Daniel 2:40 says. The word for “pulverizing” or “crushing” comes from deqaq (Strong’s #1855).
Towards the end of the movie, there was Ralphie shooting with his new Red Ryder 200-shot air rifle. The BB hits the target and ricochets back to him and knocks off his glasses. Not being able to see a thing without them, there they are lying on the ground.
Ralphie’s glasses before they are “pulverized”
But his careful search for them was in vain as he steps on them, you hear the “crunch” and then you hear the narrator, the adult Ralphie, declaring “oh no, pulverized.”
*Listen here:
As he picks up what is left of his glasses, one lens is missing, the other is hopelessly cracked and one of the temples which fit over the ears is bent at a right angle to where it should be.
Ralphie’s glasses after having been pulverized
It was the “pulverized” that got my attention. Look at the first picture of the glasses, the “before.” Then look at the second picture of the glasses, the “after,” after it became pulverized. Greece, and Babylon, and Persia can each be thought of as a pair of glasses. Rome left them all untouched. Before Rome and after Rome, those empires all continued with their culture, their religion, and their language. The lens and the temples continued to function as always – the glasses being wearable and giving correction to eyesight. Babylon continued to speak Akkadian. The Greek realm continued to speak Greek. Zeus and Zoroastrianism continued.
But look at the broken glasses – the ones that are “pulverized.” That would be the Greek realms, Babylon and Persia after Islam conquered them and occupied them for centuries. According to the Bible and specifically Daniel 2:40 these empires were to all be pulverized. Look how different the glasses look afterwards. They are not wearable. Neither lens provides correction. There’s Ralphie trying to wear them and thinking of pretending that nothing is wrong.
Ralphie sees if pulverized glasses will work
One lens is missing just like the empires’ missing languages. One temple is bent so the glasses aren’t wearable juts like the empires’ change in culture. What happened to the gold head and silver chest of the statue, happened to those glasses. Rome didn’t do it. Islam did. Any questions?
Lastly, to all my readers of the book and visitors to this blog, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and may you know and experience Our Messiah’s love and presence. To Him who is able to do more than all we expect or imagine, to Him be all the glory and praise, Amen.
Categories: Signpost Theology, The Four Signposts
THE FOUR SIGNPOSTS 
Amen, brother. A joyous and blessed Christmas to you and yours as well.
Nice analogy Mark! May God continue to richly bless & use you in the coming year. I hope to see you again and am watching how the signposts appear on the road to The End.
Thanks, Rich. And thanks for letting me know you are watching the signposts.
Mark
I affixed this definition of ‘daesh’ — to crush, to trample down, etc., on your article about Iran’s navy, but I think it most appropriately should appear with the article about poor Ralphie’s crushed glasses:
http://pietervanostaeyen.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/on-the-origin-of-the-name-daesh-the-islamic-state-in-iraq-and-as-sham/
Also, in the Iran navy article of December, 2014, I sent a link to the American general who is fighting ISIS, referring to the proposed caliphate as “Daesh”, as Iran and other warriors against ISISl/ISIL so reference the bloody, brutal army that has set out to crush and trample down any one and every one and every thing that dares oppose it.
Is the 4th Beast’s army forming? One seriously wonders !!!
Judith,
The Arabic word “daesh” meaning “to crush” has been used by the French to describe the ISIS fighters. It is only appropriate and shows yet another clue that ISIS is the kickoff to a series of events involving Islam, i.e. the crushers. Islam has been a crusher for 14 centuries as the Iron Leg Empire in Daniel 2, and now in the end times will be the revived Crushing Empire as the fourth beast in the Fourth Signpost.
The army of the fourth beast will not form until after the great Confederacy nation of the Third Signpost has broken into four pieces. Thanks for the links.
Mark
There’s ample evidence also, of Iran’s use of the word ‘daesh’. For example:
http://theiranproject.com/blog/2014/12/10/fm-official-regional-countries-think-well-of-irans-anti-daesh-role/
If you click ‘daesh’ (one of the tag words) at the bottom of the article, it will take you to a page in The Iran Project with other articles including the word ‘daesh’.
Here is a staggering account of 1400 years of crushing by the religion of ‘peace’:
Dr. Bill Warner, in the youtube video, uses an animated map, picturing Islamic conquests and global mischiefs, 20 years at a time, through the centuries since Mohammed (never having conquered death and the grave), expired. As Warner goes along, he describes the millions upon millions that died. There is also the horrifying tale of enslavements and other massive destructions.
What I learned from watching this factual video — its facts in many instances carefully dug out of old historical manuscripts — made a permanent imprint upon me. I can never unlearn such shattering history.
How I look forward to the truly peaceful time spoken of in Isaiah 19 — when Israel will be the third, with Egypt and Assyria: “Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.” Isa. 19:(24), 25.
Millions of Muslims, called out from the false, bloody ideology that now deceives them, will be my brothers and sisters forever. Let our 2015 echo Jesus’ prayer and ours: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”
Judith,
Thanks for that link. I watched most of it – it is a gold mine of information. I disagreed with a few points in details, but overall a very good presentation. Notice how Dr. Warner talked about Islam trampling up to 1922 (or 1924) – that is the Iron Leg Empire of Daniel Chapter 2 which crushes and breaks. Notice how he mentions jihad since 9/11 – these jihadist acts are leading up to the time of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 – trampling and crushing.
I believe I will have to make a post about this video.
Mark
Just picking up a loose thread on my part, about January 3’s discussion of the 4th beast’s army:
I questioned whether the 4th beast’s/antichrist’s army might now be forming, in light of the fact that ‘daesh’ appears to reflect Daniel’s description (to crush, to trample down) and “Daesh” is widely ascribed by Iran and others, to the brutal force of ISIS. This, coupled with Daniel’s prediction that antichrist’s army will be a force that pulverizes, crushes, tramples down, all the earth.
You countered, correctly I believe, that antichrist’s army doesn’t form until after the Great Confederacy nation of the third signpost has broken into 4 pieces.
So I’ll try to word the question/observation differently.
It appears to me that ISIS/ISIL soldiers are in the prophetic geographical sites of Assyria, Turkey, etc. If that is the region that notably comprises the goat who will fight the aggressive Iranian ram, I’m assuming there would be left-over ISIS warriors, from our time, who would still be living in that very region, when the goat and ram butt heads. The prophetical geographical region that will spawn antichrist (with a small ‘a’ !!!). I see the divided kingdom of Daniel’s statue as Sunni goat, and Shia ram.
A Biblical example of survivors being pictured going from one historical context, into another, would be (as per Zechariah) the peoples and nations surviving the tribulation. These Tribulation nations later appear in the Millennial context, coming up to worship the Messiah in Jerusalem. (Of course, this analogy falls short. ISIS, to me, is also a group that may later be absorbed into another group. But the parallel ends here; because the Millennial-nations’ example is a transition from a bad situation, to a GOOD one).
Here’s what goes into a new question/speculation. SINCE: ……
(1) the ISIS “Daesh” crushers are in a prophetic geographical region of the goat, from which it’s expected will come a fury attack against the ram (Iran),
and
(2) ISIS is entrenched in the approximate area where four kingdoms will form after the Turkey-Iran conflagration (as per 4 signpost interpretation),
and
(3) “Daesh” now is Iran’s (and etal) describer of the army now crushing, trampling, thousands, in the very prophetic geographical region from which it is believed the antichrist will emerge,
and
(4) antichrist (with a small ‘a’ !!!) leads a fighting force to trample down the whole earth…….
—- perhaps a better worded speculation from me is:
MIGHT WE, AT PRESENT, BE SEEING SOME OF THE VERY SOLDIERS/CRUSHERS/DAESH — AS PRE-CURSOR AND SURVIVOR SOLDIERS? MAYBE ISIS SURVIVOR-SOLDIERS WILL LATER BECOME PART OF ANTICHRIST’S ARMIES? (No reply expected.)
I don’t want to belabor a small speculation, so — ‘Nuff said’!
Prophetic Bible students continue to watch ISIS and the Mideast from many perspectives.
At the least, the “Daesh” label strikes me as apocalyptically telling.
Judith,
These are good speculations. I believe both the area now occupied by ISIS is the region from where the man who will be Antichrist will originate, and currently some ISIS fighters alive today being there right now may very well end up in Antichrist’s army during the Fourth Signpost. In fact, it is altogether conceivable that one of those ISIS fighters might even be the man himself.
As far as the goat and ram are concerned, the goat is Turkey today, not one of the four nations, and the goat’s trampling of the ram will be all over the Mideast – from Turkey to eastern Iran.
Good discussion and questions.
Mark