Avoiding False Prophets

So, I've been watching a bit of the History Channel, and right now they seem to be a bit attached to the idea of the end of the world (which is strange considering that you would think that the History Channel would be thinking about, well, you know, things that have already happened and stuff), of course completely independently of the way that ads for 2012 keep cropping up in between shows. The other day I caught a bit of them talking about the Christian end of the world, which involves the forces of Satan rising to bring anarchy, chaos, disaster, long lines at the checkout stand, boy bands, all that kind of stuff that normally comes with the end of the world.

According to the History Channel, Satan will be assisted by two men, the Antichrist, who will seize power and dominion over all nations, and the False Prophet, who will serve to turn men away from God. Now, the Antichrist is sort of a well-known factor, but it seems to me that Christians who believe that they are in the End Times should really be worrying about the False Prophet. After all, nobody trusts politicians anymore, but how do you find the False Prophet? He's not going to tell you he's false, he's going to preach like a good Christian preacher, building up a following with his charismatic sermons, while slowly and carefully twisting his teaching, confusing you until you no longer know which way is the right way. If biblical prophecy is the only way you can make it through the End Times safely, then the False Prophet is the most dangerous of them all, because he is the one who will be twisting the message of the Bible, who will be slowly darkening your path and poisoning your way. And he could be anywhere, he could be that young charismatic preacher whose sermons you watch on Sundays on TV, he could be the guest speaker who you went to see last summer, he could even be in your own church, and you will never know until you feel the tip of the knife in your back.

So how do you protect yourself from the False Prophet? Well, think of what we know about him; a man who is a great preacher, who can draw the attention and adoration of crowds, and even call down fire from heaven.

Obviously the solution is that you should only listen to churches and sermons delivered and written solely by women. After all, this excludes the False Prophet completely, if there are no men in positions of authority, he can't even begin to spread his diabolical teachings.

This solution is so obvious, yet so ignored that there must be something wrong with it. Can somebody tell me what that is?

Holding the Law Hostage

For your Friday WTF, if you thought your country had problems with its legal system, you don't have anything on Liberia, which may now be the most lawless country in the world. As in, it doesn't have any laws.

This is because, as Foreign Policy reports, Philip Banks, who has been head of the country's Justice department, has copyrighted them. Having served as head of the team who gathered and codified all laws passed in the twenty years of conflict following 1978 into a code in sync with the previous laws, Banks took the unusual step of copyrighting his work, claiming that the law of Liberia, or at least the physical version, is his intellectual property, and is refusing to let the government to which they pertain print any copies. Emails reveal that he and the team of lawyers who codified the property are willing to relinquish their copyright for a sum of money to pay their costs, somewhere between $150,000 and $360,000. The government of Liberia, at the moment, isn't paying (and may not even know if it's legal to pay). In the meantime, God only knows who's recording their current laws.

Regardless of whether he gets paid or not, Banks might want to make sure that there's a law in the set protecting him before he gives them up. Otherwise he may find his own book thrown at him.