Volcanoes, North Korea and Paganism

As I write this post, I have a volcano as the photo just below the blog title. Mount Rainier, taken south of Seattle last year when we stopped to have lunch on our way down to California. I also have a field of mostly very hot lava as my desktop background photo right now. I think it's really pretty and want to learn how to weave something like it: from HAWAIIAN LAVA DAILY Isn't that beautiful??!!

I love these mountains - volcanoes. They are beautiful. And dangerous. Rainier is still "alive" and could decide to blow it's top at any time, just like Mount St. Helens did 20+ years ago (or was it 30? I think it's 30+ years! Wow! Does time fly.)

Actually I am very well aware that that is not what happens, but it sounds good. "Blow it's top." "Decide to." Ha ha!

Volcanoes are going off all over the world right now. I read a volcano blog, (Eruptions, almost every day, reading especially the comments. I find them very interesting. It's where I find most of the stuff I've written about recently that has to do with volcanoes or the East Africa Rift. On another page at another site today I found an article that says North Korea seems to be expecting one of her volcanoes to erupt soon. Taken from The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea is this article:

N.Korea 'Preparing for Eruption of Mt. Baekdu'
North Korea has started preparing for a possible eruption of Mt. Baekdu, Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday. Quoting sources in Ryanggang Province, North Korea, the station said two geography professors of Kim Jung-suk University of Education involved in a Mt. Baekdu expedition team have recently been to Pyongyang to attend a seminar on Mt. Baekdu volcanic activity.

They said there were two evacuation drills in Samjiyon, Taehongdan and Pochon, Ryanggang Province since last fall.

The radio station said fears of an eruption were also behind the sudden suspension of the Mt. Baekdu tourism railroad project, slated for completion by 2012, and that of a mammoth tourism and athletics facility for winter sports nearby, to be completed the same year.

"Concerned about a possible eruption of Mt. Baekdu, the North Korean regime is pushing ahead with negotiations with China on the development of underground resources and urban buildings in Ryanggang and North Hamgyong Provinces," RFA said quoting a research institute official in Ryanggang Province. "The North apparently plans to secure Chinese help in reconstruction in case Mt. Baekdu erupts."

The mountain is sacred in North Korea, which claims its founder Kim Il-sung and his family were born there. In a bid to support the claim, Pyongyang has rechristened Mt. Baekdu's Jangsu Peak as "Jong-il Peak," after current leader Kim Jong-il. And his son and heir Kim Jong-un is often described as continuing "the Mt. Baekdu lineage." In fact Kim Il-sung was born in North Jeolla Province, now South Korea.

"The regime has publicized Mt. Baekdu as the symbol of the Kim Il-sung dynasty, so they are keeping quiet about a possible eruption," RFA said. "That could mean the damage will be much greater if the volcano does erupt." englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 11, 2011 13:18 KST

What I find the most interesting about this article, though, is not the volcano - it's the people of North Korea and their worship of Kim Jong-il and the mountain/volcano that represents his lineage. Wow. Am I really understanding what this is saying?? That in this communist country the people worship Kim Jong-il, and his son Kim Il-sung, as gods?!!?

I know that the persecution of Christians is terrible in North Korea. I know that the people live in indescribable misery and poverty due to the communist regime headed by this man and his son and close generals, etc. Somehow I never thought that the people would worship him - or a mountain that he associates himself with.

I hope that mountain blows it's top. I hope it has an enormous eruption. It would be wonderful if, in that eruption, anything built near it that has anything to do with this man/family who dares to compare himself/themself to Almighty God, would be totally and completely destroyed. Wiped from the face of the earth. Burned and covered in beautiful red hot lava.

Other volcanoes are erupting right now. There is a whole long list of them. The earth quakes, volcanoes spew forth lava, gas and ash, meteors graze our atmosphere, unusual clouds continue to appear more and more frequently. God speaks to man through nature - and man refuses to listen. We worship ourselves, we worship others, we worhip the created rather than the Creator.

Yes, I like volcanoes. I like earthquakes. I like nature, in all of it's wild and glorious beauty and danger. But I worship Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!