The Medusa Effect – by Jack Kinsella
In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the three Gorgon sisters, daughters of an ancient marine deity named Phorcys. Medusa became involved in an affair with the sea god, Poseidon in the temple of Athena.
Athena had a thing for Posiedon and so she cursed the beautiful Medusa, transforming her beautiful hair into serpents and her face into such a horrifying sight that one look at it would turn a man into stone.
In the Greek myths, Medusa was finally beheaded by the hero, Perseus. Perseus avoided looking on her face directly by using her reflection on a mirrored shield. He then used her decapitated head, snakes and all, as a weapon to turn his enemies to stone.
Over the centuries, the Medusa myth has been analyzed and psychoanalyzed to try and figure out both its literary and its psychological message.
Freud saw dark images involving sex, castration and motherhood, (proving once again that the craziest person Sigmund Freud ever met was Sigmund Freud) — but I digress.
Others saw the myth as being symbolic of man’s unwillingness to face harsh reality – avoiding Medusa’s gaze represented a kind of primitive ‘political correctness’ where man pretends not to see what he doesn’t like.
It amazes me that so many could spend so much time and effort on something so simple and still be so wrong. The Medusa story is really about what happens to your heart when you gaze too long upon evil.
The Apostle Paul likened it to ‘having one’s conscience seared with a hot iron.’Medusan mythology isn’t that complicated – it is probably based on a true story.
“Remember Lot’s wife.” Luke 17:32
Assessment:
I caught part of Glenn Beck’s broadcast yesterday. I only caught a small part of it, but the part I did see made me think of the Medusa.
Beck was discussing the serial health problems he had developed since he began digging into the “dark side” of American politics. He noted the deleterious effect that gazing for too long into the face of evil has on one’s physical body as well as the effect it has on the soul.
What Beck was talking about in his broadcast got my attention because it has been my experience ever since the Lord called me to be a watchman.
I recall a discussion I had with some other prophecy teachers back in the early 1990’s when we were all at a “This Week In Bible Prophecy” conference in Niagara Falls. I was getting advice from some of the giants among God’s watchmen; Chuck Missler, Dr. Dave Breese, Dave Hunt and Hal Lindsey.
I’ve related what Dave Hunt taught me on that same occasion – that was the story about the donkey. But I think it was Dave Breese who warned me about the Medusa Effect.
In the Big Picture, Bible prophecy for the last days is all good news, if one is a Christian.
The Bible predicts that for one generation, out of all the generations since Adam, death is not a certainty. One generation of Christians, out of all the generations to ever live, will be translated alive from this life into the next at the Rapture.
I’m not sure who I heard say it, but the phrase, “I’m not waiting for the undertaker, I’m waiting for the upper-taker” pretty much summarizes the Blessed Hope. And if that is as far as you take your study, Bible prophecy is certainly uplifting.
But the study of Bible prophecy as it unfolds takes one into some very dark places. That’s what Dave Breese was talking about. Bible prophecy for the last days is all about what happens when evil is totally unrestrained.
The Apostle Paul called it ‘perilous times’ – Jesus said this time would culminate in a time of tribulation and horror beyond anything mankind has ever experienced. One doesn’t learn anything of Biblical proportions by skipping tra-la-la through Happy News.
To give the warning of perilous times, one must first know of the peril. And it is this process of keeping tabs on the steady progression of evil in this generation that makes a person sick.
The other day, an 8-year old boy was playing a video game at a Dave and Buster’s restaurant in Long Island with his parents when a guy walked up to the kid and plunged a four-inch hunting knife into his back five times.
The attack was at random – it had nothing to do with this particular kid. Evan Sachs later told police he picked the boy out at random because he wanted to kill a kid. Any kid would do. He just wanted to know what it would feel like to kill a kid. (PTL, the kid lived)
Like I said, gazing head-on into the face of evil – even for a moment – can make you sick. (Just ask Glenn Beck)
This was the advice Dave Breese gave me in a Niagara Falls coffee shop almost twenty years ago. Know your enemy. And prepare yourself with prayer before going into battle.
Even with Divine protection, the peril is still present. One need use the Bible in much the same way that the mythical Perseus used his shield – viewing evil through the reflection of Bible prophecy.
The knowledge that the Bible predicts that ‘evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse’ reflects the evil by deflecting it.
The attack on an innocent little boy at Dave and Buster’s, as mind-numbingly horrifying as it is – now fits into a pattern of escalating, mindless evil that makes it part of the Big Picture.
It is an ugly part — but its ugliness is mitigated in part by the Blessed Hope it portends.
Evil is both pervasive and invasive. Strictly speaking, evil exists only in that it is a measure of the absence of good, so it is everywhere that goodness is not. The two don’t mix well; one has a tendency to crowd the other out.
The internal war between good and evil is a constant series of battles from which we already suffer battle fatigue. Battle fatigue can weaken the soul and stress the body.
Believe me, I know. It was nine years ago today, on October 14th, 2001 that the Omega Letter first went live online. Today’s Omega Letter is number 2,951.
We’ve had our own share of buffeting. What sustains us in the face of much evil is prayer. We rely on your prayers. We couldn’t continue without them.
Please allow me to take the occasion of the Omega Letter’s ninth anniversary to thank you all for being there, praying us through. (I swear, I can actually feel them sometimes as they go up.)
Thank you for praying for our protection and provision over the years. Please keep praying us through the Medusa Effect and we’ll continue to keep the watch until He comes.
Maranatha!
Written on Thursday, October 14, 2010
Jack Kinsella