Understanding Revelation/Apocalypse

I really want to blog about Christmas, when I get back into the swing of things, as I've not blogged much, but before I do, here is a quick point. I'm raising this uncheerful topic again because people insist on bringing it up over and over again, yet with less rather than more understanding. I thought of a pithy way to put it in perspective for you, and hope that you will do so and then move on into living good, genuine, faithful and most of all believing in God mindset from here on out.

People have lost touch with something I've discussed before, so I will repeat it. We are far from seeing the Antichrist. We are, however, in the time of false prophets that Jesus spoke of, yet that does not at all mean that the Antichrist is imminent, as he is not. How do we know that? Because the Antichrist will be so terrible that he will make all of the evil humans that lived previously, such as Hitler, Pol Pot, etc look like teddy bears in comparison. His evil will be monstrous beyond current imagination. So do not waste your time further "wondering" if the Antichrist will be soon among you because he is not, nor will he be. With what people know today, no matter how depraved, brain damaged and morally challenged you have become, none of you would fail to recognize the Antichrist within one minute of viewing him.

So why did Jesus say that it will be like "a thief in the night," coming suddenly? The answer is simple. It will be sudden for the people who live during the time of the Antichrist because so many of them will be so depraved themselves that they will not recognize him as being evil. You see, at some point humans will degrade incredibly (even as their technology may continue to increase) as they increasingly surrender their own humanity. Then when he springs up he will seem like a great leader because compared to the filth of most of humanity, he will seem "effective," and "inspiring." That is because he will organize the surrendering of humanity based on the groundwork already laid in day to day degeneration.

Here are two analogies to help you understand what I am explaining. Suppose that a person today, even one of the lowest moral character, total disbelief in God, and lack of interest in charity was time traveled forward to the time of the Antichrist. That person would faint in horror at what the average person would be like and would spot the Antichrist, fear and loathe him in a New York minute. (That's just an expression, not linking NY to the Antichrist). The biggest thug of modern times if moved forward to the future would faint in horror at the sight of average people, and would of course spot the Antichrist immediately, even though few others of that time will do so.

How do I know this? That's kind of a "duh" question by now, is it not, but I want you to learn on your own how to understand the scriptures. The reason I know this and you should be able to deduce that too is that the Antichrist will have what no other human ever had, which is an indwelling of Satan. An indwelling of Satan will take the Antichrist, a human, to a point far, far FAR beyond what any evil madman of a human can or will ever achieve on his own.

But people will not recognize that of the time, and that is why the End of Days (the Apocalypse) will be a "surprise" to them. The people will have already laid the groundwork, unwittingly, for the Antichrist by accepting and adopting horrific life views and practices, ones that are being only sampled today. For example, the creation of false life by combining living humans and animals will be common and even thought to be "progressive." The road to hell is "paved with good intentions" as the saying goes, and the small steps people are taking today, if not stopped immediately, will be pathways from the laboratories into Frankenstein reality, and the Antichrist will take it to its ultimate, which will then trigger the Apocalypse.

My point is not to give you the scripture, which I of course can, to back up all I've written since I'd like to actually think about Christmas right now, thank you very much. But it's hard for me to avoid as even in Sunday school people who ought to know better are still glomming onto the Book of Revelation as if it is "about" to take place, and the news and pulpits are of course filled with it too, most inappropriately. All of that is an excuse to 1) avoid fixing the problems of today as the Bible (and the Qur'an) command otherwise and 2) total lack of understanding that while God and only God determines the Apocalypse he does so in response to the ultimate sinning and falling away of humankind in general. Only a total defeatist would think that humanity is at that point, as much as so much is horrible crap and neglect of human well being now. God triggers the Apocalypse when humans have gone way, way WAY too far, and as rotten and sinful as they are now, it's still a drop in the bucket of what the world will be like when the Antichrist arises from the corrupt soil that human nature will have made for itself.

So stop the crap and false propheting (and false profiting) and get on with the great Commission and spread the word of God, and of the Savior Jesus Christ, with genuine doctrine and understanding, and regain genuine understanding of charity.

The second analogy I want to give to you is the lobster in the slowly warming pot analogy. People who cook the shellfish called lobster know that the theory is that if you put the lobster in a lukewarm pot of water and slowly heat it, the lobster will go numb, fall asleep, become unconscious and then die. This is how disbelief will grow among humans, and how their total decay will take place. They will start out with the familiar and then gradually introduce more and more depravity and disbelief until each addition is not noticed. Each dose of depravity and disbelief will even seem comfortable and "logical." For example, more and more heinous medical "advances" will be made to "cure diseases," until people don't realize that they are creating interspecies humanity busting Frankensteins. Like the lobster they won't know that their humanity is warped, depraved and then dead and dying because each new dose will seem "compassionate," "fair," "logical" and "medical progress." That is just one example and you do not need to look far in the news to see humanity has put itself in the pot and the heat has just turned up a notch of their own doing.

The Antichrist will appear when people are at the second to last stage of this dying depravity, even though they themselves might think they are splendid, wonderful and thriving, since they've become used to the boiling water. That's why the worst thug alive today if forwarded through time to see anyone, even an average person, in that time would be horrified probably totally out of his mind. The people alive at that time won't have a clue what our theoretical thug will be so shocked, disgusted and horrified by, and they will wonder why he would in particular scream and go nuts at the sight of their superb leader, the Antichrist. Even the worst dirtbag lowlife of today who puts porn on the Internet of his or her own son or daughter would be horrified beyond his or her own capacity to endure it by what will be routinely going on the pre-End of Times "society." It is against THAT kind of backdrop that the two witnesses and others will speak up since of course not all will be deluded. There is no comparison at all between then and now except for one thing: humans refuse to understand they have put themselves into that pot and started to warm the water toward their own demise in preparation for the Antichrist in the far future.

When Jesus said to be watchful he did not mean to sit around like dumb stone heads and figure that "it's going to happen anyway." Yes, it is going to happen at some point that only God knows, but how can you ignore the mundane everyday evil, neglect and disbelief that is humanity's own created "plagues" now? You are supposed to care about how many souls of each generation hear the good news, believe and obey God, become saved and join God in eternal life, and not sit around thinking "Oh well, and I'm alright anyway." If you think that then you are NOT "alright."

Here is how to explain it. Remember how Jesus used the parable of the bride's attendants who are supposed to be ready before the wedding when the groom arrives? He points out that some are ready, but others let their wicks extinguish and are not ready. But here's the point: there IS a wedding, there IS joy and a real life. I think that some people today totally miss that Jesus is saying to be ready for collective and real life joy, in addition to the joy of his return. Otherwise the parable would be "And then they canceled the wedding because hey, after all, it was the End of Time and who cared anyway, except for their own assumed salvation?"

Are you the person who has extra oil, but figures not to share it with those who do not have it, simply because "Hey, the world's going to end anyway and 'I'm saved?'" Well, think again because with that attitude you are ignoring not only the great Commission but the example that Jesus Christ gave in the reality of good day to day life with preparedness, yes, but not "checking out" and neglecting life that is far from being ready to be extinguished.

Sheesh, I really wonder sometimes, what are people thinking. Well, unfortunately I know what they are thinking, but I find it hard to relate as to why they think that way and find it desirable to do so. A lot of it is pride and that ever craving for "specialness," where people think they "know" what is "going to happen" and that they are "OK with God," yet all they do is "phone in" their supposed faith instead of living it in a full and real life, one that is not going to be truncated by the Antichrist and his milieu to come.

If you really want to win souls for Christ then you don't want to hasten the depravity and hasten the neglect because that only increases day to day suffering of the innocent, but also loses souls rather than gains them for Christ as people lose hope in daily life as well as eternal life to come. Further, if you are not concerned with winning souls for Christ then you have to be a bit concerned if you really are supposedly "OK with God" after all.

When you die and are given individual judgment in front of God (and Satan will be the accuser, as he will know all the failings) do you think you can say "Well, I didn't care if others were comfortable and cared for in real life, nor did I care if they were saved, because I *knew* that I'd be *raptured* and that the Apocalypse is coming *soon...*" and then you look around and your mental voice trails off because after all, duh, you are there in front of God and obviously you weren't so called raptured and the Apocalypse did not happen, but you died of cancer, a heart attack, drunk driving, or whatever instead. Ooops.

For the love of Pete will you all get a grip and use this blessed Christmas season to think once again about how Jesus showed humanity how to know God, how to love and serve God, how to respectfully fear God, and how to do his will throughout one's ordinary life and in charity to others, and not how to fly in a holding pattern thinking you are "OK" and everyone's "on their own" because "the end is coming anyway?"

Whenever you think about the Antichrist remember that he will have an indwelling of Satan and that can only take place against a normalizing of the most horrific daily life attitudes and "advances" and that even the dimmest thug dim bulb alive today would be faint with horror at the sight of the real Antichrist and/or his cohort humans if he were put forward in time to see them. Like I said, even Hitler would look like a teddy bear compared to the Antichrist, but like the lobster in the pot, not because the Antichrist will outdo Hitler at being Hitler, but because he will have an indwelling of Satan within the context of a totally, totally, TOTALLY fallen humanity who think that is normal life and even admirable. We are only having bitter foretastes of that path today and that is entirely by human choices alone.

I hope this helps, especially you young people (hi my friends) who were raised with much of this error by those who should have known both their faith and their logic/common sense better than what you were given by them.

May I please get on with "Merry Christmas" now? Thank you.

End of Times or "These Times": analogy

I've thought of an analogy, using popular culture, to explain with accuracy these current times. Many people incorrectly believe that they are in and, heaven forbid, actual "enlightened" participants in the End of Times. If you read the Bible you would realize that this is such a huge "duh" that there is no way that even a fraction of the tribulations that will fall on humanity are even beginning to come to pass. It's quite plain that people will know when the End of Times is coming because you'd have to be dead not to notice the scale, magnitude and severity of the testing of the faithful and the chastisement of living sinners.

However, I totally understand the rest of the people's honest concern that there are very disconcerting events taking place that call to mind the End of Times. That is the difference and that is God's intention. You are hearing "warning shots," urging people to repent and lead good lives, not to buckle down and be even more "bad" so you can "bring on" the End of Times. The End comes when God wills it, not according to your misplaced or genuinely fearful thoughts and imaginings.

So here is the analogy. Think of these times as "sampling" of the End of Times. Sampling is a musical term, most often used in rap music, when snippets of previously recorded songs or music is used to insert into new material. So these times are just like normal times have been historically except that people have fallen dreadfully away from the purity of faith in the one God as they have been contaminated by many false prophets and idols, both religious and secular. This is why Jesus mentions most particularly that there will be continual rumors and false prophets, but to believe neither.

However, unlike what deists and others "believe," God is an activist God. He allows humans to exercise their free will, including whether to believe in him or not, and thus be saved, or not. God will and does, as both the Bible and Qur'an explain, administer earthly chastisement on occasion. He does so when he feels that humans are bringing on their own heads not only the consequences of their own disobedience, but dragging the children and others down with them. God then, according to his own Wisdom and All Knowing, will administer chastisement, or simply allow self induced negative consequences (God dries up grace, will not respond to prayers, etc if he must harden his heart). In other words, where he might have intervened to help a situation, he lets the human choice self induced "chips fall where they may."

So you are right to be uneasy that this is a sort of prelude time, but it is wrong to assume that anything humanity has experienced is anything that will be like the genuine tribulations. Just read the Bible and stop whining that every tragedy sounds anything at all like the real thing. However, be aware that because of the many false prophets and many rumors, humanity is going through a hardening of the heart phase that is resulting in many chastisements, kind of a "mini" or "sampling" of the tribulations. That ought to make you want to repent and convert your hearts back to the one true God, purely, rather than continually defying him or, worse, asking for him to "bring it on" because "you'll be saved and raptured." Not so much.

Remember that Jesus himself stated that he does not know when the End of Times will come, and that only God knows. Who are you then to interpret any of the minor sufferings of humanity (compared to the actual tribulations) as being "that time," when Jesus himself did not know? Really now, get a grip and some humility.

However, you are alert to recognize that those who filled your ears with such stuff are fulfilling the two warning signs that Jesus did advise would occur beforehand, rumors and false prophets. Remember, humanity could very well go through centuries of rumors and false prophets. God does not work in humanity's idea of "soon."

I do not understand how people can just sit there and be eager for more misery and suffering. How is that exercising Christian charity of "love of neighbor," as Jesus ordered? When God smites and chastises, or allows a "sampling" of the tribulations, or allows humans to suffer the consequences of their own falls and bad decisions, why do you think he would want you to do even more of the same, rather than stop, ponder, repent and convert? I mean, "DUH." It's like some people think that if the "End of Times" is soon, then charity goes out the window and everyone "gets what they deserve." Amen, brother, but what they deserve will be severe judgment upon one's individual death, when one's life is over and oops, the End of Times did not occur, but you allowed festering rumor and false prophecy and evil and sins and missed opportunities to just roll along and pile up on the backs of others.

So yes, heed the times, as Jesus said, and pay attention to the signs, the signs of rumors and false prophets, but do not follow them, knuckleheads. When God chastises or allows sorrow or evil to befall, especially when it is human self inflicted, its because he wants you to CHANGE, repent and mend your ways and return to him, not keep beating a dead horse, mocking God, and disobeying him in any or all things.

How to ruin a good party

So you are a 'saved' Christian, and to your delight, *BAM*, the tribulations commence, you survive them, and the Jesus Christ arrives for the End of Times and the final judgment, riding his white horse (and with a double edged sword emitting from his mouth).

Delighted, you run up to him, thrilled you were right, and before He says anything to you, you bleat out to him:

"I knew I was right, that I'd be saved, and that the End of Times would come while I'm alive. My sister, who is reincarnated Blessed Virgin Mary, and my aunt, who is reincarnated Mary Magdeline, also agreed with me! Though actually sometimes we wondered if my brother was Mary Magdeline, since we know that in reincarnation the sexual genders often change!!"

That ruins a good party for sure. And you won't even have time to get your asbestos underwear (aka "long johns") donned before you will need them ;-)

A little insight about the Second Coming

Here is something that may assuage an uneasiness or even a basis for misunderstanding in the scriptures.

It is obvious that the Apostles, both during the life of Jesus, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus, particularly Paul, spoke a great deal about the end of the world, and clearly yearned for the end of all things when Jesus would return. Why would that be, many wonder? Without understanding why, many modern people are somewhat obsessive about the Second Coming, and, as a result, are tempted into theological error in "over eager" anticipation.

Like many things I have blogged with you about before, one must remind one's self of the context of the times when the Apostles and first disciples lived. So here is the primary reason that the Apostles were so eager for and fascinated regarding the Second Coming.

In psychology there is a phenomenon called "compensation." It means that if emotionally or intellectually you cannot obtain something that you want very much, you transfer that longing to something else. Sometimes you are aware that you are doing it, and sometimes you are not.

We learn by reading the Bible that the Jewish people were desperately eager for their Messiah, the Savior, to come. But when Jesus arrived, many people were shocked and quite disappointed. They had hoped for a "warrior savior," a zealot, who would free them from the Roman Empire and fix all the problems with humanity in the world. Jesus seemed the opposite to this, and many disciples fell away from him when they thought he was not zealous or militant enough about worldly problems, such as the oppression and occupation by Rome.

Even those who understood the message that Jesus Christ brought, how he was indeed the Messiah, but one who was bringing the Kingdom of God to all humanity, rather than leading an uprising and fixing all worldly problems, still longed for that to happen. Thus they compensated and transferred that longing for all worldly problems to be fixed from happening "now," when the Messiah did indeed arrive, to "later," when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, returns. Rather than allow themselves to be disappointed in any way with Jesus Christ, the true believers, the Apostles and the disciples who stayed with Jesus, dedicated themselves to bringing the Good News, the Gospel, to all people, and eagerly anticipated the Second Coming as being the real time, instead of the hoped for time, when all the problems of the world are fixed by Jesus.

This is why the Apostles are almost giddy at times with hope that the Second Coming would occur soon. Rather than being disappointed that Jesus was not the "militant fixer Messiah" that many had imagined that he would be, they realized that Jesus was bringing the New Covenant, and they glorified in that, but they also consoled themselves that Jesus would fix all the problems of the world (such as the occupation by the Roman Empire) during the Second Coming!

This little insight is by no means a diminishing of the theology and the reality of the Second Coming, and the glory that will be brought by Christ (after the great suffering of the world at the end). I am giving you some cultural and reality based insight about why the Apostles, so recently in the presence of Jesus Christ himself, fervently hoped for the world to end and the Second Coming to occur soon, despite Jesus cautioning them that even he did not know when that would occur. There really is an element of human nature (the saints are all human, of course) and also the cultural context (as always) in understanding those times and what people, even the Apostles, yearned for, even as they had been blessed with being alive with the Messiah present. They transferred, both consciously and unconsciously, much of their hopes that the Messiah would whip the world into shape and fix all the problems "right then and now" onto what Jesus taught them would happen at the Second Coming, when not only would the world be "fixed," but it would indeed pass away into a new one that is perfected under God.

I hope that you have found this helpful!

Understanding God and the forces of evil

I was going to blog about something else, but I go where the need is greatest ;-)

People who know me know that I love the Rev Billy Graham, and am a great fan of his. When I used to post links, before I simplified this blog, his daily question column was highlighted. I urge you all to read his daily column; it's just wonderful.

He's limited by the space of the column, but I am not, ha, so I will add things to what he says, as I will today.

Today's questioner asks the Rev Graham if God is strong enough to overcome evil. Billy Graham gave a great answer, which is that yes, of course God is, and that the only thing that God "cannot do" is to lie, be false, do anything imperfect or evil since God is of course the source and thus the purity of all perfection and goodness (my words not his). I'm just doing a summary as lead in to what I want to add.

However, I spotted something that I'm used to looking for, which is any potential error in assumption that is behind the question itself. This is not criticism, as there is no bad or dumb question except for the question that goes unasked. But sometimes, in fact often, a person asks a question assuming something that is false (behind the question itself), and he or she then assumes that if the questioner answers the question that the conscious or unconscious background assumption is also true. This is an urgent case of this phenomenon in today's column.

I am quite certain, since I've heard this background assumption MANY times before, that the questioner is asking "if God is powerful enough to overcome evil" while at the same time assuming that God IS combating evil at this time. Thus the questioner logically wonders why evil seems so strong if God is combating evil, and God is all powerful. Well, here's the rub. God is not combating evil at this time, as he has left THAT to human free choice. Here is the how and the why.

Adam and Eve, through their free choice, selected evil over good. Adam and Eve had perfection of life as provided by God in the Garden of Eden, yet as soon as they were offered "more," (and the only thing that "more" is, really, is power over other humans via evil knowledge and deeds), they accepted the serpent (Satan's) offer.

Likewise, Satan appears to Jesus, offering him power over the world (which Jesus already has, but Satan means that he wants Jesus to "power share" with him, which means to gain presumably "greater power" since evil deeds, which God will not do, would be "OK.") Jesus of course not only turns down the "offer," but corrects Satan's misconception that any additional true "power" can even be offered, since it cannot. There is perfection of "power" only through God, and only in total service and obedience to God, the source of all power, both on earth and in eternity.

Now, here's where modern people are often confused (the truly older generations were not confused about this), so you young people, pay particular attention to this. Yes, Jesus was given by God to humans to redeem them from original sin, the sin of disobedience caused by Adam and Eve. We've discussed many of the "reasons" and gifts that Jesus brought, such as bringing God's face to humanity, fulfilling the role of Messiah and Savior, the New Covenant, etc.

But neither Jesus nor any of the prophets, nor any human alive has done what the questioner and many assume is actually happening, which is to lead or declare combat "against evil."

Understand this difference. There is a huge difference between refuting evil (proving that evil is wrong) and "declaring war 'against' evil.'" Neither God nor any of his holy humans, or any human that ever lived, or ever will live, is actively "combating" evil. Why? Because to combat evil means to erase humanity and bring about the end of all time. Evil is "baked into" the human condition and psyche because of their own brokenness, woundedness and continual evil choices through the generations. If God actually "declared combat 'against evil'" God would simply do what he is going to do one day, as explained in the Book of Revelation (the Apocalypse) and allow the end to all humanity, rendering the Final Judgment.

You young people have grown up with a fantasy and science fiction view of being a "hero" who is "for good and against evil," which is totally wrong headed. It's not your fault, since you were raised that way without understanding. Genuine heroes, including, and especially, the saints, live among evil infested and evil choosing humanity, and REFUTE evil by LIVING goodness as mandated by God. Evil is "combated" only through the myriad of individual and group choices that people make in normal life. It is not some "toon" with skinny superheroes "fighting evil," and with people (or aliens, or 'mutants') conveniently labeled "good or evil," "hero or villain." That's not life, that's not reality, and it's also not how evil and good work.

Remember that Jesus himself, who is all goodness, would not allow an admirer to call him good. Jesus did that to point out that only God is good. What does that mean? That means, as the Bible constantly teaches, that ALL humans carry the capacity and the active accommodation of evil, ever since, and indeed, as a consequence of, Adam and Eve's first choice to do so.

Previous generations were never under the delusion, that moderns are today, that humans are running around all full of goodness and sugar and 'light,' but fall astray due to that bad old evil. No.... not exactly. As Jesus has stated, no humans are good, only God is good, in the absolute sense. So it's not like perfectly good humans are running around then being tripped up by some 'agent of evil.' Evil is carried and nurtured and accommodated within each and every human, and all societies, generation after generation. Understand there is evil on a grand scale (such as Nazism) but also on the day to day accommodating of evil in the mendacity of the ordinary lives of average people, as they accumulated knowledge of evil, accept evil and indeed even re-label evil (fool themselves that what they are doing is normal and not evil), as regular tools in their lives. There is also the enormous evil of 'missed opportunity,' where people allow evil to happen and deny the choice of goodness and sanctity.

Remember that Adam and Eve did not help the serpent run out and do an evil deed. Adam and Eve chose to accommodate evil, by accepting its knowledge.

All humans enable evil and all generations accumulate knowledge of evil, and expand their accommodation of it, lately of an alarming degree.

So you must understand that God is not 'combating evil' because that would assume that there are "two sides" in a conflict, those who are 'good' and those who are 'evil.' Humans are not good (in the sense of being comprised entirely of goodness, or the potential for being all good), and all humans have at the very least a widespread daily accommodation of evil. For God to 'combat evil' he will allow humanity to destroy itself (under the Antichrist) and then he will send Michael to "officially" 'combat evil,' which means Satan is chained, sure, but um duh, that's because all humans are dead so it's moot whether he walks among them supposedly "causing evil," or not, since the vessels of the potential for evil, humanity, will have all perished and been judged.

So sure, God can "combat evil" with a nanosecond of his tiniest amount of will power, and he will do so, and that means the end of all things human, with the entire world where humans chose evil in the first place passing away out of existence. The resurrected who occupy the world to come, the New Jerusalem, will not have even a speck or particle of temptation to elect evil, so evil will not exist at all, since it will never be given an opportunity for 'birth,' in the world to come after this one is destroyed.

People need to stop thinking about "combating evil," and instead, combat personal and group sin and temptation, so that you can hope to be saved and achieve heaven, and the resurrected world to come, and not go, as MANY, so very many have and will go, to hell.

I hope this helps.

Bible Reading: 1 Peter 4:7-11, Revelation 22:18-9

But the end of all things is at hand. Be prudent therefore and watchful in prayers. But above all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves; for charity covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without murmuring. According to the gift that each has received, administer it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be with words of God. If anyone ministers, let it be as from the strength that God furnishes; that in all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ, to whom are the glory and the dominion forever. Amen.

[Commentary: Notice that St. Peter, the first Pope, advises how to be prepared for the "end of all things..." not by panicking or by living any differently than in normal times that seem to last forever but to be "prudent" and "watchful" IN PRAYERS. St. Peter would say the same thing today. He would not say to stockpile AK-47's so that you can "defend your family's" "hoarded food" when "there are food riots during the 'tribulation.'" He in fact says the opposite. He says to anticipate the end of times WITHIN ONE'S OWN PRAYER LIFE. It is in prayer to God that one 'prepares' for the 'end of all things,' not in a single earthly deed.

In fact, St. Peter admonishes people to continue to "above all" have constant and mutual charity. The Greek translation uses the word "earnest" instead of "mutual." St. Peter admonishes people to anticipate the end of times only in their prayer life but to continue and even accelerate the graciousness and decency of genuine (earnest and mutual) charity. St. Peter doesn't waste time explaining why charity is the right thing to do; he cuts to the chase by saying that GENUINE MUTUAL charity "covers a multitude of sins." St. Peter is thus pointing out that people will sin just as they always have right until the end of times and that they better continue to live good Christian lives right up to and through the end, with more effort, not less, as the end may or may not be nigh.

St. Peter then says that if anyone speaks at all it better be "with words of God." St. Peter certainly did not mean to make up entire conversations "with God" and sell them in book deals to mislead the faithful even more. St. Peter is, through use of the word "if" is praising prudent silence. Thus he says that "if" "anyone speaks," it better be "with" as in speaking the actual words of God. The actual words of God can only be found in the scripture.

Further, if one goes farther than speaking, but "if" "anyone ministers," St. Peter explains that the ministry should come from the strength of God. What does he mean? Not to "be strong" as in the modern idea that one has to withhold against persecution. St. Peter means with certainty, as in being strong in one's proclamation of God. God provides strength to his ministers by providing the truth to them through the scriptures.

So St. Peter summarizes that "if" one speaks and "if" one ministers, "in all things" one is to honor God. The point of speaking or ministering is to honor God and nothing else. Further, as Christians, St. Peter reminds all that the way that God is honored is through Jesus Christ, who is God's ultimate gift to humanity. One honors God by honoring and praising the gift that he has given. Thus all praise and dominion are of God's, given through Jesus Christ.

St. Peter wrote this letter while in Rome near the end of his life, a few years before his martyrdom. Thus he was writing over thirty years since the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. He's had all of this time to be the "bridge," in partnership with St. Paul, between Jesus Christ as he lived and walked, and how people are expected to develop the faith and comport themselves until the end of all things. St. Peter had no way of knowing that he and St. Paul would not be the final speakers, the final witnesses, of this bridge from the Apostles to the birthed and living, growing Church, the body of the faithful for there would be one more book several decades later: St. John's Book of Revelation (Apocalypse).

Yet St. John's book, the last of the set that comprise the Christian bible, reinforces all that St. Peter taught, summarized in one very blunt line:

Revelation 22:18

I [Jesus] testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone shall add to them, God will add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

The Apostles were fully aware that one of the greatest temptations that humans will succumb to will be to write themselves into the scripture as false prophets. Even they, however, could not have imagined that in the future people will dare to write that God and angels are chatting with them, saying non-scriptural things and weakening people's faith. However, it is because that the Apostles could never have imagined the extent that the false prophet syndrome (for money and prideful glory and celebrity, no less) Jesus certainly knows all, sees all, and this is why he dictated to St. John such a dire warning a few sentences from the end of what will be the last page of the Bible, the holy scripture. Jesus is not simply referring to "this book" as in the chapter that is Revelation. Jesus means the holy scriptures: ALL of it. No one is to add to the words of prophecy (the word of God) of THE book.

Jesus in the very next line also anticipates the power of "omission" that humans utilize, which is to skip over the parts of the Bible and the word of God that they just don't want to obey.

Revelation 22:19

If anyone shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his portion from the tree of life, and from the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book.

Friends, if I take great care to only explain and never add or omit from the Bible, I don't know how many of you in your turn dare to just pull whatever out of whatever part of your bodies and call that "messages" that you have "received" "from God" or from "angels," and then sell that in book format. I shudder, absolutely shudder at how each of you will have to answer for that.

I strongly suggest that you all go back to reading the Bible and especially following the very strong advice of the Apostles.

Worried about the 'end of all things?' Well, shut up, pray, and continue to do more and more of the day to day charity and other genuine good that you have been exhorted to do.]

Human longevity and the end of times

I was reading on the web about the passing of Maria de Jesus in Portugal who was the oldest living person for the past several months http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_de_Jesus. I do not particularly research out and follow these supercentenarians, but I enjoy reading about them and honoring them when I do come across them in the news. I like reading about them, and recommend likewise, for three reasons: it is often the only time that the media and the public at large particularly honors the elderly, they are living witnesses to what life was like over the past hundred plus years, and they often provide straightforward and powerful witness to a simple yet full life. Maria de Jesus, for example, was married, widowed, with six children and worked the fields for seventy years. She could neither read nor write, yet no one can say she didn’t have a remarkable life that was full, and with peace of mind. The oldest supercentenarian is now a lady in California, an Afro-American, the daughter of slaves. How can we not all marvel at the lives of this wonderful group of supercentenarians?

While surfing the net to find a really nice photograph of de Jesus to keep in her memory, I came across what I think is the creepy part of interest in supercentenarians, and that promoted me to have to write a blog posting today, even though I was kind of at my leisure and taking a break! But when I see something that is a grave error, and especially if it is heretical, I am highly motivated to stop what I am doing and correct it. This is because people watch where I browse with interest, and I am concerned that just rolling my eyes or throwing up a little in my mouth when I read such stuff and just moving on will result in some assuming I do not object to what I have just seen. I can’t do that with every topic because the whole world is filled with lies and garbage, but I focus on those that provide, as you know, good case studies, or are of great urgency toward healthy human thinking and behavior.

Sure, everyone asks the supercentenarians what is the secret to their long lives, and that is great. Also, it is great that people study them (with dignity I hope) to have more insight regarding the medicine of geriatrics and how to prolong healthy human life. The creepy people are those who study them in the admitted belief that there is a way to never die. The creepy site I came across quoted a creepy doctor who actually has the nerve to quote one passage from God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and claim two incredibly wrong and stupid things: 1) that use of the word “Us” means God is “admitting” there is “more than one of him” (um, read the Qur’an, moron… “Us” is used throughout as kings use it as the “imperial we” and also in reference to the immortal life of angels who abide in God) and 2) that somehow God is encouraging humans to learn how to never die and become “immortal” on earth. There’s just so much I can do about willful stupidity. However, I have had in mind a topic regarding the resurrection of the dead at the end of time so I decided to combine these two intentions here and now in this blogging.

The entire Bible and every book of faith or belief system is about two things: 1) the temporary nature of life and how to live with what one has with graciousness and goodness of heart and 2) preparation for reunion after death with the Divine. Even those traditional mainstream faiths who believe in reincarnation don’t think that it is a wonderful thing to keep “recycling” in a living body, and they teach how to break the cycle through detachment of the material and achieve nirvana in the spirit after a final death. There is absolutely no where in sacred writings, particularly not the Bible, the Torah nor the Qur’an, any notion that there exists a way to live forever. God is laughing at certain humans’ desire find such a nonexistent way, though he does so with loving sympathy, except for those who push an inflated and hubristic view on fellow humans that only accentuates their downfall of spirit and of body, eventually. God wants people to be physicians and healers, providers of food, water and shelter, educators, and protectors, so that all people can strive to live as healthy and as long a life as is possible. The author of one of the Gospels, St. Luke, was a physician. Jesus taught constantly to tend to the sick and the needy and the objective is obviously to remove their sorrow, and allow them to live as healthy and as long a life as possible. But the entire point of the Bible and the Qur’an is that humans are expected to do the best with what they have in the understanding that it will not last forever and that they should hope for mercy and bliss in union after death and within eternal life in God, just as the angels already have from their beginning of creation.

People who want to “live forever” generally have a few problems that obscures their sense of reasoning with this matter. One is that they tend not to be elderly themselves, so they do not have the internal perspective of one who has actually lived a long life. Thus these young or middle age men or women have a vision of a vibrant and healthy person full of keen interests and vitality living on and on and on. This theoretical and unrealistic image becomes overpowering in their mind of what reality is like and of how one changes one’s view of grasping onto life as one grows old. In many ways it seems that those people who are not highly motivated “Type A’s” and who have lived a long time, seeing births and deaths in their own family, and having a simple love and acceptance of that are actually the ones who live the longest and the most contented. The Bible teaches that one will lose what one holds the tightest grasp upon and life and death are like that too. Those who grow old often do so because they are not hiding from death, but instead are intimate to the cycle of life and death, often as peasant poor and farmers themselves. So people who envision living forever often have a movie running in their mind where they picture healthy and buff “Type A” personalities running around for all time “doing good.” That’s actually the opposite of what medical research and anecdotal observation reveals. Those who are the most intense about living a long time often die even before they retire, hmm?

This then leads us to the second problem with those who claim that there is a way to live “forever” and that this would be a good thing. That problem is that these people just do not understand love. Again, they have this script in their minds of buff eternal people with lots of friends, interests and good causes. But generation after generation of humans did not live only for themselves and what they want, but to make room in the world for their children and their great grandchildren. The love of the generations that come after you, including those that you don’t live to see, is part of healthy human outlook regarding the reality of life and death. No tree lives forever, nor does a polar bear or an eagle. Biology and the reality of life and death dictate that no living thing is eternal and thus plants and animals make way for the next generation even without having a sense of love and destiny. But it is the consolation of humans with the limited lifespan of all things that they are self aware enough to understand that all things pass with time, even the sun and the stars, and that out of them new life is born, life that they love here and now (their children and their children) and “in advance” for the future generations.

Related to this problem of these “researchers” not understanding love is that they do not understand the love of God and of a place that is much better than even the finest lifestyle can build among a theoretically eternal life span on earth. God has promised that one’s natural home, with him in heaven, is a far better place where one is reunited with loved ones and the saints, and where nothing ever is sad or tarnishes, or loses its beauty, glory and savor. There is nobody in heaven who would EVER come back to earthly life, nor could they even envision doing so. People in hell would come back if they could, ha, but you would not want them back, nor would you want them to live eternally either, but that’s another story. However, that is a useful aside to think about. What would you do with genuinely evil people, such as a Hitler, who like you could live forever? Do you become God and imprison him for eternity on earth, or kill him, justifying that he “lost” the right to the eternal death defying body that you yourself had provided through your research? Believe me, people have enough trouble determining fair sentencing guidelines for child abuses and armed robbers. Who would be “in charge” of sentencing to prison or executing people who like you could “live forever” and “not die?” Do you want non-God fearing people to be able to keep a person alive in a prison cell for a thousand years? Humans wish for very foolish things without thinking it through and viewing it through the lens of genuine human nature at all.

It is precisely because the faithful understand the incomprehensible bliss and reward of eternal life with God after death that these people understand that there are two types of love: love for fellow humans while alive, and the love that comes from residing within God for all eternity. Far from being “liberating,” the notion of eternal earthly life is enslaving in ways that the worst and bleakest science fiction novels could not fully portray. All earthly love dies at some point; who thinks that you can love another human being, even one’s own child, for two hundred, three hundred, a thousand years? Earthly love is a gift that like fruit has to be plucked and enjoyed at its prime, not as it’s been artificially preserved for one thousand years. To keep people alive indefinitely is to deprive them of eternal life that is within the unimaginable immensity that is God’s eternal embrace. Jesus told the disciples about a poor man who suffered much on earth, but now lies in the bosom of the Patriarch of all the monotheistic faiths, Abraham. A poor man who was a “nobody” on earth is now resting in the love of Abraham himself, in God’s presence. Why would someone imagine some thousand year old man web surfing and rocket flying until he just falls apart from lack of love as being some sort of worthy research objective? People are nuts, there is just no other way to put it. Can anyone sane imagine being kept alive indefinitely so that one cannot reach heaven by dying and achieving eternal bliss with God?

Thus God promises and delivers three things. God promises an earthly life that while filled with limitations and uncertainty, if filled with goodwill, love and charity by humans they can have much love, kindness, peace and prosperity. God promises judgment of the individual for his or her belief and his or her faithfulness to God, and his or her works, whereby upon death one is rewarded and achieves heaven or is condemned to hell. God promises at some point in the future that the world will pass away and that the dead shall resurrect for a final judgment. This means that God promises that there will be a new heaven and earth that is populated and brought to life by those who have earned it. Think of it as becoming shareholders in a new company that one cannot imagine now, but will be like the Garden of Eden without the flaw and the sin. No one can second guess how or when God will do this for after all Jesus stated that even he does not know when God intends to do this. If one does not know “when” one also cannot know “how.” For example, what will humans who died as babies be like? Will there be millions of living human souls in precocious and wise infant bodies? That is not likely. So people must trust God that it will be wonderful and one should certainly realize that if you can’t imagine what it will be like, you certainly can’t create your mini-eternal life on earth, forestalling both heaven and the passing of all and coming of the new world.

I mean, for crying out loud, you humans cannot even find a cure for people who suffer from distressing skin disorders such as psoriasis. Families cannot live in peace and goodness without abuse. Communities cannot rebuild after disasters, take care of their own poor, give hope to their young and fight crime. Wars cannot be fought without destroying more than they preserve. And yet some of you fantasize about “living forever” and even worse state that you think that this is “OK” with God?

The only people who lived for hundreds of years were some of the Patriarchs in Biblical times and that was for one simple reason. These individuals were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, not because it’s “theoretically possible to live forever.” God for his own reasons allowed a few to live an extraordinary number of years, including many centuries. If you insist on knowing a “reason” for God’s intention in this matter, you would be on safe ground to think in terms of a combination of their providing faith legacy through many generations (staying alive in order to maintain their future generations’ first hand knowledge of God when there was no writing and when oral history communication was still weak) and also that this was a backwash of residue of Spirit from when God was present in the Garden of Eden on earth. There was a superabundance of grace and the Spirit never just vanishes, no matter how much humans sin and err.

Here is something that I don’t think many people realize. The Apostles were very interested in the time the world would pass away and Jesus would have his Return in the Second Coming. It is almost as though they skip over in their minds their personal deaths and reward in heaven, so eager are they for life on earth with Jesus present. Modern readers misunderstand that keen interest of theirs, even reading into it a minimalization of their hopes and anticipation of heaven. First of all, that is not true, because if you read all that they have said and written they are very fixed on the hope of heaven when they individually die. But they are very curious and eager about the Second Coming and the end of time. Why is that? It is because as Jesus has often been called the new Adam, the one who fixed what was first broken by Adam and Eve, the Apostles were eager to see a world that was “fixed,” with Jesus in rulership. Remember that this was the hope of all Jews at the time, that the Messiah would bring honor and bliss of an earthly realm. The Apostles and disciples maintained their fervor to be part of correcting the wrongs that had been done by humans, starting in the Garden of Eden, and they realize that the Second Coming is when that will actually be achieved. Until then, no matter how great the faith and goodness of humans (and they know there’s a lot of area for improvement, as we see today), human life will always be flawed. They, knowing this, had a “wipe the slate clean” mindset, and had in their minds the image of the new, global Jerusalem as their belief, and eagerly awaited their own role in its creation. As true servants of Jesus Christ and of God, these men thought “past” their own heavenly reward at the end of life, eager to bring the new Garden of Eden, the New Jerusalem, into being with Jesus Christ and his Return. That is why there is so much about them asking Jesus about the end of times and even what seems like their hoping for its soon arrival. They were eager to be new “shareholders” in the new world of the bodily resurrected where humanity has a second chance and there is no sin.

But heaven is not gained by staying alive forever, and the New Jerusalem is not to be without first all humans passing away at the end of time, when God foresees and wills that it happens. If everyone ran around and killed each other off, it’s not like that makes God go, “Oh, OK, they’ve killed each other off so now it’s time to send Jesus back!” The end of time is when all things naturally pass away as they have now outlived their time. Sure, the weakness and the sin of humans have a part in being the “cause” of when it occurs, but humans are only a part of the larger plan. Humans certainly are not the button pushers and the promoters of how or when. Likewise, humans can try to “stay alive” individually forever, cutting off their own noses to spite their own faces, not believing in or desiring heaven, or fearing hell, and thinking that humans are emotionally and mentally fit to just go on and on and on. But they will never achieve that goal because life is life, it is a limited span and something will always arise to curtail it. I mean, look around you; young children and adults are killing themselves rather than even reaching the maturity of their years due to mental illness, drug use, disbelief, despair, ennui, and ego centric poor lifestyle choices and opportunities. Humans are limited; no living creature has the spirit to live a long time, certainly not “forever.” Biology also dictates that viruses and other agents will arise to attack human bodies who think they are “eternal.” Natural disasters do not cease, nor does the temptation to “control population” through abortion and other means. Humans are no more capable and able or emotionally fit to live forever than spider monkeys (and I like spider monkeys).

Even though this was not a Bible or Qur’an quoting blogging I hope that you have found this helpful. The biggest challenge that humans have today is to regain their perspective and balance, which they have lost in the most frightful ways in the past forty or so years. This is what I hoped to assist in with the writing of this particular blog posting. Have a good day and I hope that everyone has a New Years resolution that also includes promoting balance and sanity for themselves and others!

Old Testament Bible and heaven and hell

My ex-husband was an agnostic Jew and as he put it, "We Jews are not so much into the emphasis on heaven or hell." That is true and he is correct, although the lack of detail mention of heaven or hell in the Old Testament is not reflective of both their reality and their inevitability.

What people need to remember is that the books of the Old Testament were written while God was physically present with the Patriarchs and the Israelites. God did not "have to" provide Israelites with a lot of "after life" information because he was right there with them telling them what to do! The vast majority of the Old Testament is written faith history (events) and instructions about how to worship God and have pious lives. All the people had to do was actually obey God as he instructed them both directly and through the priests and prophets and they were going to "end up in the right place," if you get my drift.

You can contrast this with pagan works such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The ancient Egyptians had no clue regarding direct experience with God or the true nature of the after life, so they made up a huge pantheon of gods and goddesses (like the early Romans and Greeks) AND they developed what can only be described as an obsessive compulsive "cook book" for "guaranteeing" that those rich enough to perform all the rituals and requirements would "end up in the most advantageous conditions." I say cook book because they imagined quite literal activities such as upon death their organs being weighed by gods to determine virtue and so forth. So people who do not have God in an active presence such as had the Israelites often obsessed quite a bit about the after life.

In contrast, God's "chosen people," the Israelites, were instructed by God in the two fundamentals of ensuring "a good outcome." The first was the system by which they know, acknowledge and worship God, and thus always know precisely their place in his heart and in the spiritual order as a whole. The second was the commandments and laws by which they should live honorable and virtuous lives that would ensure successful living, prosperity and also avoid sin. Wisdom and praise were outputs of those two fundamental systems. That is why the Old Testament really did not focus on "what it's like on the other side" because they had God BY their side while living (and as you can read, it was a struggle to get them to obey God and avoid sin even as God was right there with them).

When Jesus Christ as Messiah and Savior performed his public ministry, that became the time when frank talk about both heaven and hell were needed. This was for several obvious reasons. One is that Jesus was bringing to the faithful God in a form that he had not yet appeared, which is the physical reality of how God as the Son of Man can dwell and speak to "fellow humans" incarnated in a human body. Therefore Jesus had a platform by which to first instruct in words and then demonstrate with his own body what happens when a person dies and is received by God in judgment. The second reason is that with the New Covenant Jesus had to make very clear to the faithful what the rewards of obedience and the consequences of sin and disbelief would be not only in life but upon death. This is because in foreseeing of the destruction of the Temple and dispersal of the chosen people a new "church" was needed that dwelled in the hearts of all people so that they would have the road map by which to live and achieve both personal and community salvation. The third reason is that while Jesus preached specifically to the Jews, many more than Jews listened to him and the Apostles were instructed to take the faith to the entire world, "the Gentiles." Thus people from all backgrounds and cultures had to have a clear understanding of what happened to each human after death. The fourth reason is that Jesus through his teachings, admonitions and parables often described the wages of sin and where someone would end up (hell) if they lived a sinful life (he even describes a person in hell asking for permission, and not receiving it, for warning his sinful brothers who are still alive about the reality of hell). Jesus also is very graphic in his warning that it is better to deprive one's self of offending and sinful body parts than to risk hell as a consequence of their action, and likewise of the consequences of hell to those who lead children into sin.

A fifth reason that Jesus described heaven and hell in more detail than in the books of the Old Testament is that as Jesus described, he is treating them as friends and not as servants. Hence, friends are entitled to know the plans and reasons for what will happen, and this includes God's still unrevealed timing of the end of the world and the resurrection of the body. God revealed as much as he did through Jesus in honor of the shifting relationship where God expects humans to be knowledgeable co-operators in their own salvation. Unlike Adam and Eve who rejected earthly paradise, only the "saved" will be part of the new world in their resurrected bodies. In other words, God is treating the faithful as friends in addition to children who are constantly tempted to sin, and God lets humans know that there will be a New Kingdom with a bodily reality at some point in the future. Thus humans are, to use a modern business term, directly invited to be knowledgeable investors in not only their own personal salvation and reward in heaven but also eligible participants when it is the End of Days and the old world passes away into the new.

The sixth reason is that human nature being as it is, society tends to become depraved and fall apart the instant humans lose sight of the reality of unbearable and eternal hell. I wish that were not true but it is what it is, and you can see that today everywhere you look. Jesus did people a favor by being a stern in his warning as he was, and soft shoeing the reality of hell is not a favor, as we can see today. Humans need to be reminded of the reality of fire and brimstone. This, incidentally, is why in the revealed book of the Qur'an over six hundred years after Jesus died and resurrected there is such vivid emphasis on the eternal punishment in hell for sinners and willful disbelievers. God is fair, just and merciful; he does not miss a chance to tell humans the truth and to try to induce as many as possible to be believing, faithful and virtuous.

I hope you have found this to be helpful.

More perspective how humans have changed

As so often happens, I thought of another angle to present to those of you who are interested in having a fuller perspective and context for thinking about religious, social and political matters. One area I focus on quite a bit is to explain how to interpret the Bible readings and admonitions of God in their correct context. For example, as I blogged a few days ago, it is important to understand that in Biblical times, having a family and offspring was the highest priority of any man or woman, including people who might have had gay tendencies, since sexual gratification was very far down the priority list when people literally lived from one meal to the next, one harvest to the next, or as nearly everyone did until recently, accumulate family sustainability through the work of one's hands, where "leisure time" and "paychecks" were completely unknown. I'd like to now provide some similar context in regard to people's attitudes toward what is called The Lord's Return, the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, the End of Days, or the End of Times.

While humans like to think that they are smarter, more sophisticated, and more imaginative than were the people during Biblical times, they are actually mistaken. Or, rather, I would be more precise to say that people during Biblical times were both more reality based AND more imaginative than modern people. Actually, the increased technology, sophistication, secularization, socialization and education had diminished modern humanity's two polar, but complimentary and necessary, talents of being reality based and imaginative. Instead of being superior in these regards, modern humans are actually inferior in both traits compared to Biblical humans (and by Biblical humans I mean those of any culture or belief system, not just the ancient Israelites or early Christians). Here is why, and how that is linked to humanity's ability to understand the Lord's Return.

As I have explained, but many people have forgotten, or cannot relate to due to poor education plus the pressures of taking modern life for granted, until the past century humans were extremely reality based. The vast majority of the population world wide worked daily in food production. They did not have jobs or receive paychecks, and industrialization had not created jobs that produced products unrelated to basic survival needs. There was no such thing as leisure time, and life was "real" all the time. "Reality" has actually come to mean cynicism, manipulation and unreality (performance art) in modern society. People have become very divorced from the reality of the formula for successful living and thriving and often have no idea where their food even comes from. So people in Biblical time were very reality based and while this is a risky terminology to use, they were "happier." I don't mean the mythical happy peasant toiling in the fields. What I mean is that they knew what dangers were (famine due to a crop failure) and didn't dream up imaginary fears (what if aliens arrive and they don't like humans). As a result people were extremely well balanced and firmly grounded. Children were respected as having a vital role in maintaining and contributing to the household's functioning and the thriving of the family. Children not only knew where bread and butter came from but they helped to make it. Staying close to biological reality is a critical survival skill and necessity for both the human mind and body, but also the spiritual life too. If one is "keeping it real," one is not easily fooled, depressed or deceived.

So if I say that Biblical people and humans in general until the past one hundred years were much more reality based than modern humans, then how can I say they were also more imaginative, if they had to have their noses to the grindstone all the time? Aren't people who dream up wild and crazy entertainment scenarios, great, sophisticated and/or "edgy" pieces of art, or musical compositions much more "imaginative" than Biblical people. Not so fast with that assumption, because I would explain to you that they are not. Modern people are not "imaginative," they are all like cows in a herd. That is because they are wild and crazy and "imaginative" within invisible boundaries and shared values and assumptions that limit rather than free them. For example, many think that "pushing boundaries in art" means the same as increasing the shock value or the novelty value. In other words, they are bounded by a hidden objective of manipulating an audience or media reaction. They have eliminated the mysterious in life, and when one does that one creates boundaries. It is like when people didn't realize that the lights they saw in the sky were planets and suns just like earth and "our" sun. Another saying that relates is that "when you are a hammer everything looks like a nail." Humans manipulate the same theories and activities over and over again and call that being imaginative.

Biblical people did not try to be "imaginative" at all, and therefore they were actually more imaginative in their potential than modern humans. How does this work? Biblical people believed that "anything is possible with God." They did not try to "imagine" the "wildest" or "most creative" thing that they could. They felt that God "had that covered." Look at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. No one could ever have "thought up a plot line" where an angel would appear to a young, pure, pious betrothed girl, in the first place, tell her that she is full of grace and chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, in the second place, and shortly after prophesy so movingly and accurately as Mary did in her canticle at her visitation to Elizabeth. And what was Mary's response to the angel? Just a single question, which is "how can that be because I do not know man" (she was committed to a life of virginity). An angel appears and announces the Messiah will be born to her, and this young girl "unimaginative" and "unsophisticated" takes it all in stride, just asking how it would be done. When one is reality based yet entirely open to the power and might of God, one does not try to create one's own "imaginative creations," but one is entirely open and receptive to whatever incredible and unheard of event that God sends. Mary is a case study and model for many virtues, but she is also a cultural marker to show how a very reality based people took in stride the most incredible and mighty divine events as they happened. This is why Mary, true Mary, should never be ignored or underestimated. In addition to her model of grace and piety, modern humans have a living snapshot of how a young religious girl reacted to the greatest salvation news, brought by an archangel, that while unique to her is also instructive as being representative of how open the ancient pious people were to incredible events that defy "imagination."

So with this in mind, consider now how modern humans are constantly seeking signs, omens, clues, indications and "opportunities" in the promised Second Coming of Christ at the End of Days. If you detect that I'm disapproving of this tendency, you are right. But, you would object, didn't the Apostles constantly ask Jesus about it and write about it themselves? Yes, indeed they did and the Second Coming (and associated Apocalyptic topics) were very important and "hot" during the time of Jesus and for some decades afterward. But here are the differences in mindset and mentality between Biblical people and modern humans.

1. Biblical people were still incredibly reality based even as they had these conversations. Remember that the apostles were fishing to feed their families within days after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Saul, who became Paul, continued to make tents while he evangelized in order to have an income to sustain his preaching. They could discuss the loftiest theology and prophecy, but they still were firmly rooted in subsistence living, just as everyone was throughout most of human history. So Mary, even bearing the Savior, hurried to help her pregnant cousin who was further along in her pregnancy by six months. There were no armchair philosophers; everyone had to work the land with the sweat of their brow even as they accompanied Jesus and spread his message. Many modern people have no clue or remainder of reality, since they get paychecks, hop into cars, have food they purchase, buy ready made clothes, buy houses and furnishings. Modern conveniences create an inevitable air of unreality in modern humans that absolutely did not exist in even the relatively wealthier families of Biblical times.

2. Modern human "creativity" and "imagination" is actually a narrowing of choices and scenarios rather than what they think, which is an expanding and broadening endeavor. Here's what I mean. St. John saw a great vision when he was brought by an angel toward heaven, which he documents in the Book of Revelation (also called The Apocalypse). He was strictly a "reporter," though he did ask the occasional question. Incredible and mysterious things are shown to him. Now, fast forward to modern times. People start digging and digging and digging at what is in this and other books trying to "match" what John saw to anything real or imaginary that people can think of, regarding people, places, timing, events and materials. But by doing that they are by definition "limiting" themselves to speculating about a small set of things that they either have knowledge of or can "imagine." In their arrogance they figure that they can "work out" what God "means." How can anyone think that? How can anyone think that trotting out the usual tired suspects of aliens, asteroids, bad Muslims, bad Catholics, war in this country or disease in that country, demonizing loud mouth politicians as being the anti-Christ brings anyone actually closer to what God in the infinite fullness of HIS time and HIS will can or will do to fulfill what is seen in these or any other prophecy? How puny is the imagination of humans compared to what God sees and knows. Biblical people did not dare assume that they can "work the angles" and "think of all the scenarios" of what God will wrought during the End of Days or any time else. So as a result, Biblical people are more imaginative in potential because they know that people cannot predict or even mimic the mindset of God in the fullness of his power and his divine will.

3. So we see the Biblical people and their descendants be able to be extremely interested in the Second Coming and End of Days, and be anxious to be "ready" (as in judged worthy to be saved and brought resurrected to the New Kingdom), yet on the other hand, "get on with positive living." What do we see modern humans doing in increasing numbers? "Give up" and almost gloat and hope for the End of Days or what I describe in my previous blog posting as "Jesus comes back to close up shop." Modern people have totally skewed what "being prepared" means. Biblical people understood that they will not know when the end comes, so they need to live worthy lives. This doesn't mean shuffling along thinking, "Ha, I'm a blameless Christian and so 'I'm covered.'" Even the Apostles who had every right to think that did not do so, and emphasized only the hope and trust in God through Christ Jesus. Modern humans are not increasingly interested in the Second Coming because they have perfected their grace and charity and are "ready to go." They are increasingly obsessed with the Second Coming because they have given up on so many of the terrible problems of the world and the failings of humanity to exercise good God given free will judiciously. So there is this odd detachment from the End of Days being what it really is THE END to thinking "Oh, this is when the fireworks begins and Jesus fixes everything." Thank God that no matter how intense the Apostles' interest was in the Second Coming that they did not draw the same conclusions as modern humans.

Instead, they could have lofty conversations about the Return of the Lord on one hand, but get on with day to day reality based life making the world a better and safer place for their children and grandchildren, and for the generations after them. They went on to build the Church. Can you imagine what would have happened if every time a bishop was martyred that the early Christians would "figure" that "this was a sign of an imminent arrival of the end of days?"

And not just Christians but people around the world in the past two thousand years have only worked to better their lives and those of their children, not "wait around" and "decode" when the miserable and glorious "end" will finally come. Every time someone is obsessing about a modern event being "part of Revelation" I want to say, "Well, Einstein, while you were doing your book promotion tour another thousand babies were aborted, and another ten thousand children died of famine, and more of the oceans have been depleted of their fish because no one's working on restocking, and etc. etc. etc." It's not like God is in a hurry to allow the end to the much loved creation that he himself has made! So why are people such depressive do nothings? Because they have lost contact with the reality of life, and they have lost their spiritual way.

Brothers and sisters, the Biblical people were much more better prepared for the Second Coming and the End of Days than these so called good modern people are today. Both Jesus and the Apostles said to live in hope. That's "live" in hope, not sit around in stagnation waiting for God to clean up the mess. "Live" in hope, not hang around waiting for the best. "Live" in hope, not figure "I'm OK, you're OK." "Live" in hope, not force bad things to happen to people thinking that will help "trigger" the Second Coming. Biblical people and indeed pious people through the centuries had it right as they retained their optimism and hopes for themselves, their families, and their children, even when the world went through a soul breaking experience such as the Holocaust. No one, not even those who had the biggest right to feel despair, sat around after surviving the Holocaust and "hoped" that the world will end and "God will fix it." They pieced together their shattered lives and families and said, "Never again," not "Oh well, this sucked, let's wait for God to destroy the world and rapture or resurrect us and our friends and family." World War II veterans and survivors had more optimism and "get going and make it better" than any generation has since then. How have modern humans become such a bunch of depressives that the end of the world sounds like "a good idea?" Well, basically they shattered the family, became a culture of death, and lost contact with the reality of biological life and how to make it thrive.

I hope this helps to provide some valuable context and perspective. God knows it is desperately needed.

Fix it Holy Spirit, not "hurry up End of Days"

I wrote the following comment in reply to a thoughtful blog posting that remarked on how many people look at current day events and increasingly wonder if "we are seeing the beginning of the Lord's return," to paraphrase a fine essay on this.

Regular readers know that I sometimes rant about people who seem to only think about the End of Days (and even seek to provoke it). Here are some of my calmer and gentler thoughts on the topic. (Calm and gentle used to be my totally preferred style. But being stalked and ignored in my teachings while forcing me to see continuing terrible behavior and decision making has forced me to rant, which I very much dislike).

...... One thing that disturbs me about those who anticipate the Lord's return is that it seems they have given up on earth. The Lord's return will be to "close shop." It is a characteristic of our times that a "fix it Jesus" mentality has overlaid, if you know what I mean, that the reality is that the Lord's return will be to close shop, not to fix the problems of the world, which remain very fixable, if only the will, the piety and the common sense will prevail.

People should be focused on the intensity of the Holy Spirit to "fix it" and not give up on the earth and life's inherent goodness, because that is close to pagan thinking. So I wish that people would view these events as you so well describe with less examining for the Lord's return and instead follow the admonitions of the Apostles, which is to be prepared for it. One is prepared by living a positive and moral life that anticipates a better future year by year for one's children and grandchildren. One does not prepare for the Lord's return by giving up on his creation and his children and their problems. One turns to the Holy Spirit to obtain guidance in how to live, without thinking the only solutions to our small and petty problems, as awful as they are, is for the Lord to return and close shop. No problem is too large for the Holy Spirit, and people should recommit to seeing a long future of improvement, rather than hoping that everything falls apart, which is an outrageous squandering of God's grace and free will given to humanity.

More about abortion

I've repeatedly tried to post this to the Ignatius Press blog as a comment to a post about whether or not pro-aborts are "Catholics" based on Canon law. I'm bored with trying and only seeing a blank screen so here it is.


It is not a question of Canon law, because pro-abortionists are not only "not Catholic", they are "not Christian." It does not matter how you choose to interpret the Canon, because ultimately the Canon is merely a way to articulate the instructions of Jesus Christ. So word-smithing and spinning whether someone is a Catholic or a Christian begs the question, "Will they be saved?" And the answer is, no.

Everyone would agree that Jesus Christ was very erudite and able to use whatever words or parables he chose in order to teach how to obtain the Kingdom of God. There are many ways he could have chosen to give the definitive summary explanation, and he chose this one:

Luke 18:16-17 Jesus, however, called the children to himself and said, "Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

Jesus had already identified himself as being the living Kingdom of God (and the Pope writes beautifully of this in his new book.) Jesus instructs "do not prevent them" from coming to him, the living Kingdom of God. Well, aborted children are prevented literally from coming to God in the sense of not being permitted to live their lives as a journey from birth through a natural life and then death. An abortion is the killing of a child. Jesus did not say, "do not prevent them from coming to me unless it is in the first two trimesters." He makes clear that children are the perfect model for gaining the kingdom by adding to his statement "whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Jesus is saying "like a child" because a child is the perfect model for entry to the kingdom of God. Jesus would be horrified (but not surprised) at the institutionalization of abortion. Moses himself had to fight the living sacrifice of babies to idols.

Another reason I say this is a Christian question rather than only Catholic is because there are two important end of times references that interest especially Evangelicals that while they may be misinterpreting it, their instincts are correct that abortion is the driving factor. The first reference is Revelation 6: 9 "When be broke open the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God." The current day martyrs, in the millions, to the word of God are aborted infants. It is not people who are irritated by secular media's suppression of Christianity, nor the painful martyrdoms that occur on a case by case basis around the world today. The martyrs are told to wait until "the number had been fulfilled" which must be interpreted to mean that this is a very, very large number, and fortunately, Christian persecution is not at that level. But there is a persecution that meets this level of rising up to heaven and that is the 47 million estimated abortion deaths to present. Later St John writes: "The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with burning coals from the altar, and hurled it down to the earth." Notice that these are ashes, and the earlier quote referred to "they bore" the word of God. It is well known the means by which aborted babies are often burned, especially when acid was used.

The other prophecy that is pertinent to abortion is the so called "rapture." Some evangelicals have interpreted the passage where some people remain and some people disappear from the field, for example, to somehow map to a particular group of saved people. That is not likely because it would not have been written to be so mysterious and open ended as it was. Rather, what I am saying is that this refers to abortion, where some people remained (living) and some people are gone that should be in their place in the field (aborted infants.) If you listen to the public discourse these days, it is exactly in such terms that the debate about illegal immigration is taking place. People are openly pointing out that a large section of the population of the USA is "missing" due to abortion. It is eerie and not at all surprising that the illegal immigration debate in the USA refers to people missing in the field to harvest the food, and that a huge reason for this is abortion. My argument is that the rapture = aborted children, who are truly sinless. Notice the Pope has cleared away the incorrect dogma about babies going to limbo (clearly never true, but it was a lame effort to understand how God's salvation works with those too young to be received in the Church.) These things are happening together for a reason. The Catholic Church does not agree with evangelicals who think the rapture is a pre-judgement and removal of people, but everyone is in agreement that something is indicated in the Bible about a mass vanishing, and the institutionalization of abortion speaks for itself as being literally the calling to heaven in the millions of those who are truly sinless.