Catching Fire

Joseph Herrin (04-11-2014)

A number of people wrote to notify me of a recent event that appears very symbolic. On Tuesday, April 8th, at the Atlanta Braves baseball team’s home opener, the pre-game fireworks struck the American flag and set it afire. It is not difficult to perceive a parable in this occurrence. Before every Major League baseball game in America the national anthem is performed. The lyrics to the song end with the words:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

In the photograph above, a person can see “the star spangled banner” and the sign denoting that this stadium is “the home of the brave(s).” Being a resident of the state of Georgia, I am familiar with the Atlanta Braves. It is quite common for Braves fans when singing the national anthem to actually say “Braves” instead of “brave” upon completion of the song. Following is a video that shows the moment of the fireworks striking the flag, and some photographs of the holes and burn marks on the flag afterwards. The fire extinguished itself as the material the flag was made from was fire retardant.

http://youtu.be/R8H5Uxrzt24



There were some other symbolic details associated with this game. First, the line “And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave” did not prove accurate for the Braves on this night. In fact, the Braves failed to score a single run. The Braves were defeated by the New York Mets 4-0. This was an inauspicious start to their home season.

On this particular night the team owners also had a special tribute planned for former Braves player, and baseball great, Hank Aaron. Forty years earlier, on the same day, Hammering Hank had belted out his 715th career home run, breaking the mark set by Babe Ruth. It was quite a reversal of fortunes for the Braves when their entire team could not score a single run forty years later. They were not merely defeated by the Mets, they were shut out. They made plenty of noise, but they came up empty.

The Atlanta Braves were one of the first Major League baseball teams to have all of their games televised. Back in 1978 Ted Turner bought the franchise and began broadcasting all of their games on his national cable network. With a nationwide audience, the Braves were promoted with the moniker “America’s Team.” Baseball is also renowned as “America’s Game.” It seems fitting then that people should see some symbolic message for America as a nation when America’s Team immolates the American flag before a packed stadium and a national audience. This was a self-inflicted injury. America’s team was setting her own house afire.

Although fireworks are common at baseball games, and the Braves have used them frequently, it was revealed after the fiasco with the flag that the team’s management had moved the pyrotechnic display to the top of the scoreboard for the first time. It did not prove to be a very auspicious night to draw attention to the scoreboard. There was no “triumph” to celebrate, not even one run to show for the home team. Perhaps in this we can see a message that God is drawing man’s attention to how empty America is as a nation. She is bankrupt spiritually, morally, and economically.

Another peculiarity of this night was that even as Hank Aaron was being honored, Aaron Harang was the Brave’s starting pitcher for the night. These names are nearly an inversion of one another. In many ways these two men symbolize opposites. Their skills equip them for opposite sides of the home plate. Hank Aaron was renowned for his hitting skills. Aaron Harang as a pitcher is called upon to prevent batters from hitting the ball, or scoring. Without question Hank Aaron has had far more success in his career. Aaron Harang has lost more games than he has won in his twelve years in the league. He was credited with one more loss Tuesday night. In a sense, these two Aaron’s typify a reversal, or decline, of fortunes.

There has been a coordinated use of signs in various movies of late that bear similar foreboding testimony. On November 22nd (11/22) of 2013, the movie Catching Fire, the second in The Hunger Games series, was released.

A Spark that Will Grow

This dystopian (as opposed to utopian) story shows a future society of impoverished people who are oppressed by a small, but wealthy ruling class who control the military and all the sources of supply.  This ruling class cunningly keep the people divided and fighting among themselves, re-creating a type of Roman gladiatorial contest where the masses are entertained by the slaughter of their fellow humans. The title Catching Fire refers to a spirit of rebellion that begins to grow among the common people as they are given hope through the defiance of two of the main gladiators who refuse to kill one another at the command of the ruling elite.

In some ways, the plot of The Hunger Games trilogy mirrors recent events in the world, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement where class warfare is the central focus. There are the haves and the have-nots, and the have-nots are tired of being oppressed and treated with injustice. The great cunning of this is that the powers that be in this fallen world system are in control of the very media that is stirring the pot and fomenting a restlessness between different classes. They have given prodigious amounts of coverage to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which demonstrates that they not only find this class warfare helpful to their aims, but they are behind it. That this was a fabricated movement to further the government’s plans was revealed in the documentary Occupy Unmasked. Following is a preview of the video.

http://youtu.be/hfnIqc2v2FE



There is a class that are beyond the 1% of the world’s wealthy. This super-elite are untouchable. These ones would like nothing better than for the world to tear itself apart in a fiery warfare between classes, races, nations, religion, and ideology. Their aim is to promote anarchy. Then when hundreds of millions, even billions, of the world population, have exhausted themselves in the slaughter of one another, they will rise up and institute a New World Order out of the ashes of the old.

Hollywood has been becoming ever more bold in proclaiming the schemes of the ruling elite. Consider for example the words of Robert Redford in the recently released Captain America - The Winter Soldier. Pay attention to what this character states approximately 35 seconds into the preview.

http://youtu.be/NLWsK1ZFunA



Captain, to build a better world, sometimes means tearing the old one down. And that makes enemies.

At about the 58 second mark in this same preview Redford’s character Alexander Pierce declares:

You know how the game works. Disorder. War. All it takes is one step.

This theme of creating a new world out of the ashes of the old is being repeated in numerous movies. In the 2013 release of Superman a rebel general from the planet Krypton appears on earth with a world engine, a great machine used for terraforming planets. The idea is to use the machine to transform the world into a new home for the remnants of Krypton, even though it will require the destruction of the present world, and the death of its people, in order to make it into something new. Interestingly, this world engine is shaped like a three pronged trident.

World Engine

The movie shows this space ship descending at high speed to the earth’s surface as if a spear is thrust into the mantle of the earth. The machine then begins its awesome work of destroying the earth to create something new out of it. As I considered this, I was reminded of the message that was contained in the most recent Super Bowl half-time show, and its associated commercials.

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/super-bowl-xlviii-satanic-omen.html

The half-time show began with a group of children singing words to Bruno Mars’song Billionaire.The last words the children sing are “I swear the world better prepare.” This is attended by the word “PREPARE” appearing in large glowing red letters behind the children. The counterpart to this message is found in a Maserati commercial that was aired during the same Super Bowl. It too featured a child as the spokesperson. The last screen shots of the Maserati commercial display the words:

WE HAVE PREPARED

NOW WE STRIKE

http://youtu.be/KmpiwU50f5w



It is not likely coincidental that the Maserati corporate symbol is a trident.

This symbol is also seen in the Batman movies such as Dark Knight Rising, which is itself a story of class warfare and the world falling into anarchy. Bruce Wayne, the alter ego of Batman, is the titular head of Wayne Enterprises whose corporate logo bears the unmistakable imprint of a trident.

Not surprisingly, this symbol was also adopted in the recent Hunger Games movie.

If we would leave the realm of fiction for a moment, and return to the realm of world events (which are equally manufactured, along with their symbols and details) we find that world transforming events have been clearly linked to this same symbol.

911 World Trade Center Memorial

These trident shaped steel beams were recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center after 911. They have been set-up in the new memorial that is located at the site. It has been noted that the events of September 11, 2001 occurred exactly a decade after President George Herbert Walker  Bush gave his New World Order speech.

http://youtu.be/AXcpI5o99x4



A great step toward the New World Order occurred precisely ten years after this speech when the son of GHW Bush was President. Out of the chaos and destruction a new world is being fashioned. The changes in American in the past 13 years have been tremendous. The Constitution is now trampled on at will. A police state has emerged. A monumental government spying apparatus has been established to invade the privacy of every man, woman and child in America and beyond. The middle class has been plundered as the government has given trillions of dollars away to banks and global corporations. The entire world system has been intentionally destabilized, overburdened with debt, while sovereign, and democratically elected governments have been toppled by covert means. The government has annexed huge swaths of the private sector, with the most recent coup being the wholesale takeover of the massive healthcare sector. The result is that centralized government under the control of a few has wrested away the freedom and autonomy of the masses.

There is an old Christian camp song whose lyrics state, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” In a symbolic sense, the world is becoming tinder dry. It will only take a spark for the world to erupt into mayhem such as it has never known before. Perhaps a country like Ukraine will be the starting point of a global conflagration. Interestingly, the coat of arms for the nation of Ukraine features a trident.

As I look at the photo of the U.S. flag set afire at the recent Braves’ baseball game, I am aware that there are interests in this country, and many other nations, who would like nothing better than to see the world erupt into the flames of civil unrest, sectarian strife, and global warfare. America has not known such a time since the Civil War. I anticipate that what is coming will be far worse.

Two days ago I had an unusual experience. It is a habit of mine to play a game of Scrabble on the computer before going to bed at night. It is a way to unwind from the day before retiring. During the game I had spelled out the word flag in the upper right hand corner of the board. Toward the end of the game, one of the few remaining open spaces was adjacent to that word. I pondered what I could add to the word flag to continue the game. The thought came to my mind that “false flag” was an option, though I knew that was actually two words. Right after considering this I drew some additional letters and found that I had the exact alphabet characters to spell the word “false” and add it to the game. Although the computer based game did not let me play these letters since it was not a single word, I found the experience unusual, and pondered whether there was a message in it.

We live in an hour when Christians should be alert and wary. We are entering into a time when the world will experience four blood red moons on Hebrew feast days, as well as two solar eclipses, in the next couple of years. The first of the blood moons will be visible this week-end coinciding with the Feast of Passover.

Joel 2:31
The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes.

I wrote about these signs nearly four years ago, and they are now upon us.

http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/sun-will-be-darkened-part-one.html
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/sun-will-be-darkened-part-two.html

Without question, many things long foretold in the Scriptures about the end of the age and the return of Christ are near at hand. I do not have any date predictions for the people of God. I would say only that we are entering a season of many fiery trials upon the earth. This fire will be for the purification of the people of God, and the perfecting of their faith.

Do not lament that it is appointed unto you to experience such things. Yahshua encouraged His disciples to have another mind.

Luke 21:25-28
"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.


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Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
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Montezuma, GA 31063