Sunday Service: End Times

Then I saw the lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, is with the voice of thunder, come. I looked and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer when he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another red horse went out and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth and that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him when he broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, come. I looked and behold a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand, and heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, do not damage the oil and the wine. When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come, I looked and behold an ash and pale horse, and he who sat on it had the name death, and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to him over a fourth of the earth to kill with a sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. What does that mean? How does it apply to you? If it even does, that’s what we’ll explore today. Welcome to the Sunday service. The Book of Revelation is commonly traditionally believed to have been written by the Apostle John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. Most scholars date the writing around 95 or 96 ad during the reign of the Roman Empire Domitian. There’s some debate among scholars, with a minority suggesting it could have been written earlier during the reign of Nero. But the late first century is more widely accepted today, even as we’ve advanced technologically and sociologically, socially, the fascination with the apocalyptic scenarios persist because it encapsulates fundamental questions about what it means to live, die and to leave a legacy. So I want to dig into it. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are symbolic figures mentioned, obviously, in the book of Revelation, and they represent four calamities that are said to come at the end of the world. Each horseman rides a horse of a different color and symbolizes a specific type of catastrophe. So the white horse, the horse of conquest, the rider on the white horse is often associated with conquest or victory, carries a bone, wears a crown, symbolizing a force that conquers or takes control. The red horse is symbolic of war and bloodshed. He carries a large sword and is given power to take peace from the earth, causing people to fight one another. The rider on the Black Horse is representative of famine. He carries scales, symbolizing the scarcity of food and the wane of small portions. This horseman often reflects a time of great economic hardship and food shortages. The final horse, the pale horse, is emblematic of death itself and Hades the grave follows closely behind. This horseman symbolizes widespread death through various means, like disease, disasters and plagues. Together, these four horsemen represent the chaos and suffering believed to precede the end times, each bringing a different form of destruction upon the world. They’ve been interpreted in various ways across different cultures, religious traditions and historical contexts. When I go through some of the most popular. From a Christianity standpoint, the Four Horsemen is are seen as literal or symbolic events that will occur during the tribulation period of great suffering before the return of Christ. In this view, each horseman represents a specific calamity. The White Horse is interpreted as symbolizing the Antichrist, or false prophets, which carry with them deceit and the spread of false religion. The Red Horse signifies widespread war and conflict, foretelling global violence. The Black Horse is emblematic of economic collapse, famine and starvation, with food becoming scarce and or expensive. Pale horses representative of death by various means, war, famine, disease and Hades the underworld, following behind. Some see these four horsemen as symbols of recurring human conditions, rather than specific future events. You’ve heard this. You’ve heard the saying that history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. So in this interpretation, the horsemen represent conquest. The white horse its ambition for power, imperialism or ideologies that sweep across nations, War or the red horse talk about the inevitability of warfare and violence throughout human history. Three, famine. The black horse is the natural consequence of war, economic imbalance, which is scarcity and starvation, or hunger. Death. And the pale horse are the inevitable result of the previous three, widespread death caused by everything we’ve been talking about, war, famine and disease. Some others see these four horsemen as a reflection of actual historical events in the Roman Empire, particularly the crisis that occurred in the first and second centuries. Ad the White Horse being the Roman military conquests, the red horse being internal civil wars, the Black Horse being economic troubles. And the pale horse are the plagues that devastated the empire from a modern psychological or philosophical perspective, great thinkers like Carl Jung interpret the Four Horsemen as representing forces within the human psyche. Horsemen are viewed as symbolic of the destructive tendencies within individuals and societies. Conquest is the ego’s drive for dominance or control. War is inner conflict, anger and aggression. Famine is emotional and or spiritual deprivation. Death is symbol. Is symbolic of the ultimate reckoning with our mortality and the consequences of unchecked destructive forces. Some other modern interpretations of this are allegories for geopolitical forces that shape world events. The white horse represented imperialism, different political ideologies like nationalism or totalitarianism. The Red Horse is representative of the constant presence of warfare, violence between nations. Black Horse is economic crises, class struggle,

the impact on different resources. The Pale Horse is represented the consequences of war, of exploitation. It’s disease, it’s poverty and death on a very, very large scale, certainly in popular culture, these show up quite a bit as well. One of my one of the really famous movie is tombstone, and that was certainly a scene during tombstone, when this, this, this was referenced, but they appear in books, movies, in video games, and are representative different kind of apocalyptic events. The white horse is sometimes depicted as technological or political control, reflecting our fears of surveillance and living under a dictator. Red Horse is nuclear war, large scale conflict. The black horse is an environmental catastrophe and economic collapse. Think climate change, think unsustainable consumption of resources. Pale Horse is global, pandemic, widespread societal breakdown, chaos. Some other interpreters view the Four Horsemen is representing the moral consequences of our actions, particularly our fail to our failure to live justly and ethically. And this sense, conquest is the arrogance of unchecked ambition. War is the destructive result of anger and violence. Famine, it’s the moral responsibility of wealth distribution and caring for people that don’t have as much or are needy. Death is the representation of our overall failure to act in a moral way. So you think about all the different ways that this passage from Revelations has been interpreted and adapted by different religions and psychological thinkers, philosophical and modern pop culture, each one emphasizes a different aspect of human nature, the human experience, ranging from literal end time prophecies to symbolic representations or reflections on war and power and on morality, we human beings have, for a really long time, probably forever, been preoccupied with the idea of end times or some kind of catastrophic, catastrophic ending to the world. Think about our our love, and this is certainly me. I love post apocalyptic type movies or shows. I don’t know why we like that so much, but it’s an interesting thing for sure, and it’s it’s just it’s recurring through many cultures and time, and it’s deep seated concerns about our future. It’s concerns about survival and how there are consequences for our actions. So different apocalyptic traditions show up in Christianity, obviously what we’ve been talking about, but they also exist in Islam and Hinduism and North mythology, and all these prophecies commonly depict a world ending battle followed by a final judgment and or rebirth, there’s a moral reckoning which is taking place. Think that we all have a desire for justice and wanting to see things balanced the books to be cleared. In religious views, it is often a a moment of moral Reckoning and desire. Divine judgment, culmination of history where good and evil are ultimately resolved. We want resolution that can be a source of fear and and, or hope or people who are believers. Throughout history, we have experienced devastating wars and famines and plagues and natural disasters. It feels like these are happening all the time, and they can each one of them. You are experiencing it firsthand, certainly, and now that we’re so close to everything, just because we have such a free flowing, free flow of information, it could feel like the end. The Black Death in the 14th century wiped out a third of Europe’s population. World Wars and nuclear threats in the 20th century made us think that the world was coming to an end. Events the Cold War, a Cold War bringing existential dread of nuclear holocaust. And I think that we’re pretty close to that today as well. Each one of us as an individual, many individuals, have a fear of death. We’re acutely aware of our own mortality, of the finite nature of our existence, and that can lead to, certainly, anxiety about the end of it, for ourselves and for civilization and whole and then time narratives externalize this internal fear of death, projecting us or projecting it onto the greater world around us. And certainly uncertainty, certainly uncertainty, by fair definition, the future is uncertain, and this uncertainty drives us to speculate about how things are going to end, whether through natural disaster, human conflict, or some kind of a cosmic event and Meteor, meteor hits, hits, hits the earth. Who knows there are, if you are a thoughtful person, there are plenty of existential reflections. Uh. Martin eininger, Camus, these people have both those philosophers have deeply explored or contemplated the end of life and forcing us, individual human beings, to contemplate what the very purpose of our existence is, that focus on and time causes us, hastens us to consider our values, the way that we’re living, the significance of our life, and what would happen if things did go too far. And it also causes us to have a reflection on the impact that we human beings have on the world around us that while progress is an incredibly positive, inherently positive thing that there are, there’s a flip side to all of it, the damage that we’re doing to the natural world, all all of these things, and certainly in science fiction and popular culture, again, plenty of post apocalyptic, dystopian fiction from Mad Max The Walking Dead, like I’ve been talking about so and it’s always repeating again. History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes. Some traditions like Hinduism and some other interpretations of the Mayan cosmology see time as cyclical rather than linear. So in those views, civilizations rise and fall in a recurring cycle, and the end times are merely the end of one age and the beginning of another. This idea persists in secular thought, with historical theories suggesting that empires and civilizations follow a life cycle that include an inevitable decline. Thinking about the end forces us human beings to reflect on our actions regarding our relationship with the environment, other animals and our future generations, our kids, our grandkids, and so I think that that’s certainly a positive thing. It’s self awareness, struggling with our own humanity, and again, the finite nature of our existence, but that if we’re not careful, we’re going to leave our beneficiaries, our future generations with problems, rather than inheriting a wonderful place and wonderful situations. I think that we’re really wired to think about beginnings and endings, particularly in terms of time in existence, whether you’re looking at it from a psychological, philosophical or religious perspective, we have a hard time with and struggle with finality. So in a lot of ways, thinking about end times that can be a mere reflecting our own fears, hopes and the moral consequences of our individual and collective actions. And while we have certainly advanced technologically and socially, it doesn’t mean that we’re not still thinking about this kind of stuff. So these are really big questions. Are these things you think about? Do you ponder end times? Do you think about your own existence, the finite nature of your existence? I certainly I think, like everything else in life, the different stages of our individual lives shape the way that we look at and think about not only our day to day existence, but also our long term existence, and what legacy that we’re going to leave to our. Kids, and God willing, our grandkids. And I don’t think about legacy from perspective of what or how my children will remember me, although I certainly want them to think of me as a good person who worked hard to not only improve my life, but the the lives of the people that I came in contact with, that I that I engaged in meaningful, important work, that I took life like I meant it, but I think more about legacy as what is the world that we and I play a role in that are handing to the next generation, to the next generations, as it would be for my children, because I’ve enjoyed so many different opportunities and lived so many different wonderful experiences, and will continue to do so, and I want my kids to have that same opportunity. And in a lot of ways, I think that we are as things are progressing in a really positive fashion. They’re also progressing in a really negative way. When we’re lifting more and more people out of poverty. The majority of Americans are now overweight. We’re struggling financially. We are struggling mightily from a political standpoint and from a rule making standpoint. We are moving further away from consensus and closer to the lack of consensus and friction and conflict. And

as I get older, I have a desire to try and be more for lack of a better term involved, to be more actualized self actualized, to pursue some form or fashion of enlightenment where I am getting past and moving past my impulsive desires, my my appetites and moving towards a greater good. I don’t know that I’ve ever necessarily articulated or thought about that, at least not all the way through, but that’s probably the term that that that that makes sense, is what’s my role in the greater good. And I’m going off track here a little bit, but I know fundamentally, all that we can do is 10 to the parts of our garden that we can reach. I can’t fix everything, but I can take care of the things my locus of control so I can control myself, and I have control and influence over my family and my loved ones, and have some control and influence over my community and through the work that I do, certainly here and and other arenas of my life. I have influence there, and those are the things that I choose to focus on understanding that without question, without question, my actions have an impact. I would far prefer to have those actions result in a positive impact, then neutral and certainly not negative. But we’d love to hear what you think. Love to hear your interpretations of this and your thoughts and how you grapple, or not, with the end and rebirths and end of times, and this, that and the other thing. So, as always, do your part by doing your best. You.

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.