I love this painting of Christ blessing children

http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/european_paintings/christ_blessing_the_children_lucas_cranach_the_elder/objectview_enlarge.aspx?page=103&sort=0&sortdir=asc&keyword=&fp=1&dd1=11&dd2=0&vw=0&collID=11&OID=110000469&vT=1




Here is a note for people who do not know much about sacred or devotional art (or young people, *hi there* who are just beginning to learn about it).

Don't be put off by the fact that the great artists did not even attempt to provide historically authentic costume and settings in their art. Artists for most of human history, but particularly those of sacred subjects, tried more for capturing the essence of the moment being portrayed, rather than whether Jesus, for example, was dressed poorly, average or richly, or if the people are in more of a medieval setting than in the small poor towns or ancient Jerusalem. This picture, for example, is trying to portray tenderness, and also the nobility associated with that feeling which was not, as the Bible explains, common at the time. The disciples tried to shoo the children away, while Jesus insisted they come to him to be blessed. Thus the successful artist portrays to the best of his or her ability the virtue, the teachings and the blessedness of Jesus, and how this was appreciated by the children and their parents, rather than details of authentic historic costume and setting.

So this is one reason I very much like this painting!
:-)

(2) Understanding hell, demons, and sin

Part II
Do you want to spend the rest of eternity, after you die, in hell, where in addition to eternal unbearable torment the only substance of the surroundings is the blackened burning stain of each individual sin ever committed by all previous human beings? That is what hell is “like” and the traditional pious believers understood that very well. I cannot begin to tell you how many people, immense crowds, of the modern generations who have perished are shocked and horrified to find them selves in hell, and that it is as unbearably full of eternal torment, just as the “fire and brimstone” preachers had always said.

You might say, “Well, where in the Bible does it say that all of the sins of humans, those both forgiven and those who are not, are part of the torment of the furnishings of hell?” It’s funny that many who do not believe, or have only partial or cynical belief, are the first to ask for the “Bible quote,” even as they ignore most of the rest of the Bible’s fullness of teachings. Well, in the previous section of this series I cited scripture to indicate the immensely wide range of bad human behavior, including foolish thoughts, which are considered sins. I have also cited from scripture that not only individuals but entire nations who are unrepentant of sin go to hell. That is an enormous amount of people who “qualify” for hell. So even if you do not believe in the “physics” of what I described to you of the presence of all sins in hell (and I will present more information on that regard), understand what the ancients did and pious ancestors as recently as the past few generations ago, MANY people go to hell and they truck all of those stains of sin right along with them, obviously. So every despot, his or her middlemen and women, and even the underlings (such as prison camp guards) through all of human history are there in hell, bringing along their individual litany of sins. They are the furnishings of hell, and do you want to be there with them? As I pointed out there are many human behaviors, such as not helping a specific person in need (as opposed to selected “good causes”) that are considered “normal” today, that merit hell. It’s not just the baby molesters who go to hell. As I cited in my previous post about this subject those who have foolish thoughts, who defame faith in others, who are unjust in any way (and that includes mean gossip), who are unrighteous (thus behaving in ‘bad’ ways that are beyond breaking one of the Commandments) and those who are supposedly believers but who go about their lives with only partial belief are ALL accumulating huge tolls of daily sin.

There is a gigantic spectrum of sin that people engage in today that they either don’t realize is sin or they ignore that it is. They also don’t realize that each instance “counts,” rather than being a behavior trait. I mentioned before that posting something spiteful and mean on the Internet is a sin, not an “art form” or “acting out,” and that each and every instance “counts” as a separate sin. The “statistics” of routine sin accumulation in most people in modern society today is truly appalling and I expect that since so many are of partial genuine belief and thus do not repent, many will go to hell. People of recent times who have not studied and understood what I described about the certainty of hell and the broad spectrum of behaviors that are individual sins have kidded themselves into thinking that hell is only the place that “really bad people like mass murderers or child molesters go.” The unrepentant mean bitch in the office has a very good chance of ending up in hell right next to the torturer at Auschwitz. Jesus himself made that very clear.

Matthew 25:41-46
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.’ Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, ‘Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.’ And those shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Many think these words of Jesus are a warning that is “met” or “satisfied” if one engages in some sort of charity work. That is simply not true. Jesus is stating very clearly that you are to help the least of who are in need among you, that you personally encounter, not the abstract of selective social work and charity. The next citing is probably one of my top five in most frequency that I find I must cite to people through these teachings in order to make this abundantly clear. It is the story of the poor man Lazarus (not the one of the raising from the dead miracle) who is in heaven while a rich man is in hell because he ignored that one specific poor and suffering man, who died, right outside the city gate. You can reread my previous commentary on this scripture where I describe that the rich man in hell, by virtue of being in one of Jesus parables (though this is not a parable but an actual event, since Jesus uses a specific name, so this Lazarus, the rich man and his brothers indeed existed), would have been considered a “good man” (a Jewish believer who attends Temple and so forth) and thus is astonished to find himself in hell for neglecting one specific poor man.

Luke 16:19-25
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at this gate full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried:

And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame.’

But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.’

The rich man then asks that his five brothers who are still alive be warned (obviously it has dawned on the rich man that his entire family was living this way, thinking they are pious and generous but bound for hell due to their neglect of specific people who need them). Abraham explains that Moses and the prophets were the warning, and that no further warnings will be given, and that it is on their own heads that the scripture was not believed.

Jesus thus provides a specific description of hell, and also a very specific warning of how it is not general “good deeds” or “believing” that merits heaven, but that even the least person who needs YOU specifically should not be neglected.

As an aside, to make this even more relevant to contemporary dangerous error in understanding what Jesus has said, both “conservatives” and “liberals” totally misunderstand the previous two citations by Jesus. Liberals think they are “covered” by being big social or art program donors, who participate in “good deeds,” especially their favorite, which is to dole out food to the “locals” on Thanksgiving or other times in the soup kitchen. Celebrities visit sick children in hospitals (if they are ‘modest’ they don’t allow their photographs to be taken). Other liberals figure that if they fight for social justice or have a crusade regarding an area such as Darfur, that they are “covered” in having “found Jesus in the needy.” The story of Lazarus shows how totally bogus that notion is. And conservatives are cruel and just cannot be listened to when they self righteously repeat that charity is an “individual matter” and that the Bible “says so.” Again, that is just as outrageous as the liberal view, even though it is from the totally different slant. Remember, in “Biblical times” people did not earn “paychecks” or “capital gains,” have “tax deductions for charitable purposes,” and thus decide, based on “how well they are doing and how generous they can be” to “donate as an individual” to “worthy causes.” In Biblical times the religious authorities WERE the government regarding charitable giving. God mandates in the scripture, for example, that a certain portion of food fields be left unharvested so that the poor can eat. A farmer would leave his food for whoever needed it, not the “individual choice” that he “deemed” was “worthy” and “in his budget” “out of the kindness of his or her heart.” Jesus himself ate from those fields where the food was left for the poor to glean for themselves.

While people have always been wicked and prone to sin, prior to the industrial revolution, and I guess the so called intellectual “Enlightenment” before it is also to blame, people simply did not engage in the huge categories of sin widespread, routine, unthinking sin that they have since. These sins of individual, community and institutionalized neglect of the needy simply did not occur, to say nothing of being codified and rationalized away, on the grand scale as they occur today, among the Biblical people in Biblical times, that liberals and conservatives are so fond of quoting without understanding.

Matthew 16:18
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Jesus here designates Peter the leader of the church that will be built, which is the Catholic Church, by giving Peter the keys. Jesus also uses an interesting description of the powers of hell that many of commented on and even used in art, but I think many do not understand his use of the term “gates” of hell.

Hell has gates, and it also has a road, which Jesus references in a separate citation, where he warns that the road to hell is very wide and easy to travel. Gates are by definition a device to control traffic, both entering and exiting a place. We know that once someone is in hell, whether a human who is sent to hell or a fallen angel, they cannot leave hell (except for Satan, who roams at will for now). Therefore the gates of hell obviously cannot prevail against the church by sending the damned outward. So why would Jesus use an imagery that evokes hell’s gates somehow besieging the church? That is where my discussion of hell being the sin “repository” for all individual occurrences of sin helps in this theological understanding. While neither the damned nor their sins can “leave” hell, there is a miasma, the dark draw of previous sins and despair that seeps into the minds of those who are open to such influence. In other words, those who are sensitive or partial toward sin “feel” the tempting tug of the despair and evil nihilism of hell. When these people, to use a modern term, “open a channel” in their souls toward hell, they allow the seepage of the knowledge of hell, but without its cautionary power, into their hearts and minds. If enough of it collects there that is what is known as a devil or a demon.

So what Jesus means is that the Church itself, as a body, will never succumb to allowing the despair and nihilism of hell to seep into it. That does not mean that the Church never errs or sins, either through individuals or collectively. What it means is that Jesus has promised that the Church founded by Peter will never be demonized or otherwise tainted by the miasma, the seepage from hell. The Church may struggle, the Church may, and will, being of humans, err, individuals may commit great sin and go to hell, but the Church itself will never have its doctrine or its soul sullied by the temptations, despair and nihilism of hell. Jesus has not only promised that, but it is exactly the Gospel of Jesus that comprises the “earmuffs,” the “repellent” to any such seepage. The liturgy of the Church, its Creed and its sacraments are “temptation free.”

We all know people who are just incorruptible, not because they are of high nobility, but because they are “simple” people who do not crave the things at all by which others are tempted. My stepfather was an example of such a person and they used to be very common, but no longer. To use a saying, temptation to sin was like water flowing off of a duck; it just doesn’t adhere or stick, and that is what he is like. In fact, such people do not even “notice” temptation because it simply does not register with them. That is what Jesus is stating is the Church that he founded under Peter as a whole. The Church itself, the liturgy, the Creed, the Gospel that he has given it, and the sacraments are as a whole incorruptible as they are totally dead to the temptation of the gates of hell, to paraphrase what Paul said about individual Christians having to be “dead to sin.” Jesus has promised that the Church itself is dead to the gates of hell. There is no two way street of temptation or demonic influence between the Church and the gates of hell. The Church, even if everyone is killed, leaving just the Pope and a few priests and faithful, which pray God will never happen, in and of itself will never fall to the gates of hell since it simply is immune and dead to the temptation of despair that emanates to the vulnerable from hell. Humans have the power to kill members of the Church, to tempt individuals into sin and corruption, and to destroy or marginalize the Church’s presence. But HELL does not have that power over the Church. I am astonished that people do not understand that today. They used to.

Jesus has given no other institution or powers that promise or his specific protection against the power that emanates through the gates of hell. This is not to say that only the Church members “belong to the right Church” or “can be saved.” What I am explaining is that only the Church under the pontiff, the heirs of Peter, has the promise from Jesus that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Prevail means not only the sense of having a victory but of even a meaningful struggle. In other words, hell may “think” that it is throwing a great demonic attack against the Church, but its effect is not even noticed, as if a child is throwing water balloons against a brick wall. The Church in and of itself is like having Teflon, that stick free surface, whereby the temptations of despair and evil nihilism emitted through the gates of hell have absolutely no point on which to stick or to penetrate. Again, I am not speaking of individual humans and their temptation, or even organization mistakes by the hierarchy, but I am speaking of the heir of Peter, the liturgy, the Creed and the sacraments of the Church, which are and always will be untouched and impenetrable by that which is emitted by the gates of hell.

This leads us back to what Paul has said in Timothy, cited previously, that the Gospel of Jesus is protection against the worsening condition of mankind. It also helps to develop Paul’s analogy of the righteous Christian man furnishing with perfection his interior self according to God’s doctrine. The Church itself, faithful to the doctrine of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, cannot ever be ‘furnished’ or ‘occupied’ as a whole by anything that is from the gates of hell.

Matthew 5:29-30
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that they whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast if from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body be cast into hell.

When Jesus says “offend thee” he means that it is through use of that sensory organ or limb that one is tempted to sin. That is made clear in the previous line, Matthew 5:28, where Jesus uses the example of the sin of adultery that even wishing to be adulterous in one’s mind but not acting on it is the same as having committed the actual sin. So Jesus is saying that hell is so terrible that it is better (in theory, he’s not actually wanting people to self mutilate, but making a serious point) to pull out one’s own eye than use one’s vision to allow sinful thoughts as a result! Not even doing the sin, but having the thought of it! Does that sound like “hippie” Jesus who is peddled as being a soft touch by moderns who are totally ignorant? Jesus is the one who brought specific, clear and dire warning of the dreadful and real nature of hell and the vast numbers of people who are in peril of ending up there quite easily.

You must understand that the Gospels are just encapsulation of what Jesus would have spent hours and days preaching about, and in casual conversation with the disciples. If so many mentions of hell are preserved in the Gospels, do you not understand that the Apostles and disciples would have heard the same thing explained by Jesus many, many times? No fools they.

2 Peter 2:4-9
For if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly;
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds);
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

That, my friends, is a “fire and brimstone” preaching by the first Pope, St. Peter. Yes, the same St. Peter who people like to describe as just a fisherman, who denied Christ three times, but there you have it… a lot happens after Jesus gives St. Peter the keys. This Second Epistle General of Peter was written around the year 66 AD, over thirty years after Jesus Christ had resurrected and ascended into heaven. And around thirty years after that Epistle, long after St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred, St. John, the last living Apostle, witnessed with his own eyes the Revelation of the Apocalypse, and thus is able to testify in the first hand about hell.

Revelation 1:18
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

That is Jesus who is speaking to John.

Revelation 14:10
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lord.

This is what an angel is stating will happen to those who follow the beast. This is the origin of the phrase a “fire and brimstone” sermon. Notice that just as Jesus described that Abraham could see into hell and observe the rich man’s torments, those who are idolaters and the sinners who follow the beast will be observed in their torments in hell by the holy angels and the Lord himself. Blasphemers, for example, can look forward to not only an eternity of hell, but also having the angels and the object of their blasphemy, the Lord, looking down on them in wrath and scorn as the damned suffer forever in hell. There are “No private suites in hell.”

Revelation 20:14
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

This is what John observes. I mention this because it should clear up another modern misunderstanding. Some people think, despite Jesus speaking of the reality of hell, that hell doesn’t “really happen” until the final judgment at the end of times. However, if you read Revelation 20 with a well informed background in all the New Testament references to hell, you understand that hell itself, which always exists as a place of individual punishment, no longer has a ‘purpose’ once there is no human life left. So hell is cast into a second hell, the lake of fire, which is the post-apocalyptic repose of the damned. John is observing that at the final days the dead are raised and judged a second time, along with the living who are the remnants of human life on earth. So, for example, a blasphemer who died long ago and was cast into hell upon his or her death would be given their body back, judged a second time, and then cast back into hell, which once filled to completion of the final judgment, is itself cast into the final hell of the lake of fire. I encourage everyone to avoid meriting hell in the here and now, as there is no second chance out of hell, there is only the second hell that is the final repository after all human life has passed and there is no further need for adding additional damned souls after their judgment since human life no longer exists.


So John sees with his own eyes the reality of hell, and also what happens to hell after the Apocalypse.


Now that you have seen the progression of the Old Testament affirming that hell is very real and terrible, the teachings in the New Testament regarding the many types of sin and the ease with which people go to hell, plus affirmation that hell exists by Jesus, to the first hand witnessing of St. John, you can go back and read further mentions of hell by Jesus in the gospel and have a grip that this is not abstract concepts but real and dire risk that many face and indeed incur.

Mathew 3:12
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Matthew is recording what St John the Baptist prophesied that Christ will come and will have the power to gather the righteous and cast the unrepentant sinners (the “chaff”) into hell.

Matthew 10:15
Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Here Jesus is sending his apostles out to preach and do miracles. He gives them instruction and adds that they should not be discouraged by places that reject the Gospel, but to shake the dust of that place off of their feet and move on. He then alludes to hell, saying that those who hear but reject God’s will and doctrine will be treated in hell far worse than those who died bodily death when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in fire. Notice that as I cited King David in Psalms before that, yes, entire cities place themselves in peril of being cast into hell.


Matthew 13:41-43
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. ‘Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.’


Jesus is again explaining that many people will be cast into hell because they do things that offend, they do iniquity, and they are not like the righteous. I cannot overemphasize that hell is not “just” for the “really evil people” who “break a Commandment.” Hell needs to be understood as the place where the unjust and unrighteous go, who offend God, who neglect and harm others, and who live lives that are without faith, even if with their lips they proclaim a faith. That is a LOT of people and Jesus continually warned about this grim reality, and the Apostles and disciples carried on that warning, particularly after John witnessed it himself in Revelation.

You will notice, and this is why it is important to study the Bible and progression of its themes in bulk, as a whole, and not piecemeal, that sin and hell are consequences of human actions and free choices. Humans decide to succumb to temptation, sin, repeatedly sin, spread sin, tempt others to sin also, deny that it is sin, deny that there are consequences, and ignore many warnings by prophets and the safeguards of the Church, who then go to hell. There is very little evidence of the common misguided affectations that “the devil made me do it” or that “demons and evil spirits attach themselves to people and force them to sin.” That was perfectly understood in most of the previous generations for thousands of years of study and obeying God’s revelation. But somehow in recent times people have invented excuses of Satan or demons, evil spirits, “aliens” or whatever other garbage they make up, who are the “real reason” that things “happen” to people and why they “behave” that way. When one reads the entire Bible one sees that that fiction is yet another temptation to sin, which is to declare one’s self as knowing more or better than the prophets of God who have gone before and revelation is closed and completed, and make up fictional reasons to sin.

People who then want to make up excuses for their own lots in life and their own behavior that is sinful and against God, in both the large ways and the small ways, as have been described above of neglect of doing good, fish for a few lines of scripture that they then deface into “proof” that “evil spirits,” “demons,” “angels,” and “aliens” are “really” to blame. When one reads the Bible as a whole, one is restored into sanity, as one reads page after page of God making himself known, and people leading ordinary free will lives of free will choices, and inevitably reaping the rewards or consequences of a righteous or an unrighteous life. No aliens or demons are running around controlling people. Modern society has totally lost its grip on reality and seems unable to even read the very prosaic and even mundane human happenings of page after page of scripture and understand that that IS reality.

In the entire Bible there is something like ten mentions of demons. Several of those mentions are using that name to denigrate and defame the false gods of the heathens (in three places in the Old Testament). In fact, only one instance of a demon possessing anyone (King Saul) is mentioned during the entire thousands of years of the Old Testament (1 Samuel 16). Doesn’t that tell you something? In all that happens during the Biblical Times from Creation until several hundred years before Christ, there is only one mention of a demon being responsible for someone’s sin? I mean, duh. If demons and evil spirits were running around as an active force, would not the Old Testament be loaded with examples and cautions?

In fact the most mention of demons comes about as a result of six miraculous cures by casting out of demons from men and a woman by Jesus Christ. Again, think about it. Jesus Christ performed thousands of cures during his public ministry, which we know because the Gospels report that he kind of ‘set up shop’ in an area and would cure everyone in a village or region who came to him for help. The Gospel authors recorded those miracles that were 1) particularly outstanding, such as the raising of the dead and the casting out of demons and 2) were illustrative of Jesus’ God given authority and power. Thus those that Jesus raised from the dead and those that were cured of various ailments caused by demonic possession are selected for particular reporting in the Gospel. It is a fact that incredible miracles that people would fall over in a faint to witness today, such as curing the blind, restoring limbs and the ability to use them, restoring hearing, removing diseases such as leprosy, were so common when Jesus ministered that they are just mentioned as him being busy at work, so to speak. Imagine a time when curing the blind was just as easy and unsurprising as Jesus being at work. That is how it was.

As an aside, this is one of the things that most pains and puzzles me, why more people do not love Jesus today. Jesus was not only about going to the cross and bringing the New Covenant, even though that was his mission. His ministry was day after day to cure the suffering and the ailing with incredible miracles, one after the other, any one of which if witnessed today would be a sensation. What kind of man, this Son of God, would use his ability to perform miracles to focus on healing the sick, and even raising from the dead the only son of a poor widow? How in the world can modern people today mock or marginalize Jesus, and not be overwhelmed with love for him, just on the kindness of what he chose to do with his miraculous God given abilities alone? Remember that he was curing people who, no matter what their disease or injury were viewed as having “deserved” what they had gotten because surely they or their family must be tainted and have somehow sinned. Not only was Jesus kindness and mercy and healing of God personified in human form, but he corrected that despicable error of the times that blamed the disabled, the sick, the injured, the wounded, and even the dead for their own afflictions and demises. How in the world, if you believe nothing else but that, can you not love Jesus with your whole heart and give him that respect? I think I will never understand this about these modern times.

So the six miraculous casting out of demons by Jesus have to be understood as being mentioned because of their particular profundity (such as raising the dead) and not at all representative of the majority of the human condition at any time in its history. These are six casting out of demons out of thousands of other miraculous cures, mentioned because they legitimize that Jesus has power over Satan and his influences. In fact, the demons recognize who Jesus is and his authority before Jesus even spoke a word. This is why there is this frequency of mention, as none of the Gospel authors would miss the gravity of those types of cures and would certainly record them. The purpose of the Gospel is not to fill out Jesus’ work time hourly activity report or to inventory or prioritize through the written record. The Gospels were written when people who witnessed Jesus could not travel to all places and verbally attest as fast as interest and need for a record of what happened grew. Thus the Gospels are written to transmit in writing what the disciples witnessed in person and then in turn would speak of in person to others. Just as God gave Jesus his miraculous powers and authority in order to demonstrate his authenticity and to strengthen the faith of all who witnessed and then believed, so too the Gospel authors selected those best examples of the God-given authority of Jesus. The raising of the dead, the casting out of demons, and the confrontations with the hypocritical religious authorities of the time are the life examples that are most demonstrative of how Jesus had the legitimate authority of God and acted on God’s behalf at all times.

Luke 4:33-36
And in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.”
And Jesus rebuked him, saying “Hold thy peace and come out of him.” And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, “What a word is this! For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.”

When Jesus cured the blind man the religious authorities were not amazed at this miraculous cure, but annoyed. However, when Jesus not only cast out demons but the demons recognize him as being the Holy One of God, those in the synagogue who witnessed are flabbergasted and awed. This is what you must understand about Biblical times, which were a time of great faith in God. They could be amazed yet still take in stride (and the hypocrites worry about their power) when Jesus does something incredibly miraculous as restoring sight to the blind. But it is when the demons themselves not only must obey Jesus but attest to his authentic identity and authority that people are stunned and realize that the Messiah is among them.

That is how you must understand authentic and rare evil spirits and demonic possession, as being manifestations of that miasma of sin in hell that will rarely but sometimes do attach themselves into someone open to such influence. We are not speaking of mental disorders that ancient people did not understand as being an illness of the brain and instead thought that was possession by demons or evil spirits. We are speaking of the rare (count them, six times encountered by Jesus in all his many miracles of curing) times that the collective despair and evil nihilism of hell extends its reach to latch into a person’s mind and soul. The vast majority of events in the Bible has absolutely nothing to do with demons or evil spirits and is 99.9 percent about the potentially sinful actions of human beings in their ordinary lives.

So how does one “recognize” a genuine evil spirit or demon? If there is a genuine evil spirit or demon it acknowledges God and Jesus Christ. We see that often they recognize Jesus and God’s presence before the other surrounding humans do. A human behavior that denies God and Jesus Christ is NOT, I repeat, NOT authentically demonic. The authentic and rare demons are the swiftest and totally truthful witness to the reality, authority and power of God and of Jesus Christ. Everything else that people try to blame on so called “evil spirits” or demons are the results of mental illness, having a god complex, or sinfully trying to excuse human depravity and weakness of behavior, often to “cash in” on those who can be persuaded that evil spirits roam and can be “cured” via cold hard cash. Gosh, what a surprise.

I hope that you have found this helpful. Remember, hell is real and dreadful beyond all imagining, and it is surprisingly easy to find one’s self there when it is your time.

To be continued in a Part 3.

Building on previous post, more re loving God

Here are a few more thoughts, building on my previous posting about vocations.

One of the reasons that God sent Jesus Christ was to bring God’s love to humans, in person. One of the afflictions of the age during which Jesus was born was that the Israelites had lost much of their love of God. By love of God, I mean the personal relationship of love dialogue, as I described in my previous posting in this blog.

I know that many of you assume that a personal love of God is something that really did not exist in the Old Testament times, but you would be wrong. I can explain this in several ways. One is to point out the obvious love of God that is expressed in books such as the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, and Isaiah and in many other places. You can distinguish the fervor of love from the feelings of fear of God. So many of the faithful did indeed feel a fervor of personal love for God, although it was not the focus of the law and obligations for worship as documented in the scripture. You have to read between the lines a little bit to understand where the authors are swept away in the grandeur of God, and in appeal to him for justice, or fear of his wrath, from the contemplations of the wonders of his work and also their sense of personal love for him.

Second, love tended to be expressed in parent and child terms during those times. There really is no way to describe to modern humans exactly the love between a father and his first born son, for example. So much of the personal love dialogue that I speak of is cloaked in the depth of love that a father and first born son have for each other, rather than ardent friendship, shepherd, and consoler that Jesus brought in person. So you have to remember that love for God was just as personal and ardent during Old Testament times, but tended to be expressed and felt in much more of the treasured father-first born son as it was back then. In fact, readings for the Mass from this week indicate times when God is frustrated with the hypocrisy of their ritual worship of him while at the same time sinning. It is not that the sinning “makes God mad” so he “doesn’t care about the sacrifices,” but rather, when one sins one does not love God. Sin is the expression of not-love of God. So you have to understand that from “God’s point of view,” when one sins one is acting in a way that is not indicating love of God. Trust me, people did not obey God just because he cracked the whip and threatened them with punishment or hell. Many, MANY people in Old Testament times had a fervent personal love relationship with God, but it was perceived as something that did not have to be preserved in scripture as a special point. The many allusions to father-first born son love was really the way the people of that time felt, in its nearest equivalent, their personal love relationship and dialogue with God. It has wrongly been portrayed as a time of when fear wrung obedience out of the people, but as I said, the fervent and personal love of God is evident but in a much more subtle way throughout the Old Testament.

A third point to make is that when Jesus was born there were many “distractions” from a person’s love relationship with God, much as today. The Roman occupation, the secular temptations and the corruption of the money changers and much of the priesthood were all interferences between the faithful and their personal love relationship with God. Some of it was understandable, as they kept “waiting” for God to “do something,” in the miraculous fashion to impact the political or military situation. Impatiently tapping one’s foot at God expecting an army of angry angels to whoop the butts of the Romans is not exactly conducive to the love and adoration of God, and this had a very corrosive effect on the faith of the Israelites and the fervent love of God that their forefathers had. So this is another reason that in the beauty and, to humans, mystery of God’s perfect plan, he sent “his Son.” The people still well understood the father-first born son devotion that was culturally historic, as I describe above, and so remained relevant and a way to make God again “accessible.” Through Jesus God opened that door to re-personalize the mutual love that had been blocked and corroded by the dire condition of the Israelites. This is why you can read in the Gospel that thousands responded over and over to the obvious “magnification” of God’s love onto the people through Jesus. Jesus allowed the people to overcome the corrosive times, the cynicism, and the oppression of pagan conquerors, plus their own priests’ corruption, and once again connect to God using a love metaphor that they understood of father and first born son. Jesus never had to declare God his Father to the flock who listened to him, or that he is the Son, for this love metaphor to work. You see, Jesus was acting as the loved “agent” of God, just as the first born son would for his father in family business or work. Jesus explained God to the people, demonstrated his obvious love and obedience to God in all things, and magnified his love for God so that the people could see through unspoken example. This is why people did not run around trying to worship Jesus himself on the spot. When people left one of Jesus’ “sermons,” they left feeling more fervent love for God.

This is why it is perfectly alright to love Jesus with one’s whole heart and soul, and to focus one’s love on him. However, it is not being one hundred percent true to either Jesus’ intentions or what he actually accomplished when he was here on earth to have the love “stop at Jesus” and not extend through to God. If one truly wants to imitate those who heard Jesus in person and who believed, then you must come away from an encounter with Jesus loving him, yes, but recognizing that your love is really extending through Jesus to loving God, and feeling his love in return, himself. I do worry very much about this pious generation and the parts of Christianity who have forgotten this, or never realized it. Why is it that people, even as Jesus performed incredible miracles, did not throw themselves at his feet in organized worship on the spot? Because, obviously, it was their faith in God and love of God that was refreshed and restored, and that is exactly what Jesus wanted. Jesus came in order to be the Savior and the Messiah, but this does not mean that he was not “bringing God” to the people, but only himself. I often repeat how Pope Benedict XVI wisely phrased it in his book “Jesus of Nazareth,” that he, Jesus, “brought us God.” When the son represents the father, and is his agent, for the Israelites (and many cultures of the land, including what would become the Muslim people), the son speaks for the father, and has the authority “as if the father himself is there.” But that does not mean that the son wants people to only “deal with him” and forget about the father and his authority. Jesus made God, the Father, more accessible, restoring the love dialogue between the people and God, and between the individual and God. And then he died, resurrected and “returned to the Father.” If you want to imitate “how the Church really was” “in Jesus’ time” then one must understand that exposure to Jesus resulted in more fervent and personal love of God himself.

I hope that you find this helpful. It is a source of great concern for me, especially regarding Christians who are outside of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church in its liturgy retains more of the continuity of devotion to God and this is why I am not quite as worried about those within the Church as I am for those outside of it. Here is a practical example of how to reflect on what I mean. How often does one feel an experience of loving God very deeply in gratitude for sending Jesus, compared to how often one focuses all of one's love on Jesus? I'm not talking quantity here, but giving you an exercise to see if you are truly "loving God through Jesus" or if you have stopped feeling the "follow through" through Jesus all the way to God, and thus do not really contemplate your love for God and fully extend and receive the dialogue in return from God in his fullness.

Reminder that heaven belongs to children

Jesus explicitly taught the Apostles and disciples that the Kingdom of heaven belongs to the children. While Jesus was being figurative about the innocence that is required for all who desire to be saved and achieve heaven, he was also being literal. Jesus explained that the guardian angels of children constantly face God. To put it in a modern technical term, Jesus was explaining that children, through their guardian angels and their inherent innocence, have a "seamless interface" with God. This was his way of explaining that children are sinless in the sense that they will achieve heaven should they die at a young age before they reach their ability to fully comprehend and self regulate regarding sin. Therefore it is obvious that the pre-born, the miscarried or the stillborn, babies, infants, toddlers and young children are assured of heaven, and one can be very hopeful of young teenagers also, since in this society teenagers really are not fully "men" or "women" in their maturity and discernment. However, one must not jump to conclusions about whether violent or sinful children in their late teens are saved, regardless of their hardship of background. If they are living fully aware and sinful lives as if an adult would, they have lost the childhood innocence that Jesus speaks of regarding assurance of salvation. Teenagers are not fully mature, and society must stop tempting them down violent and debauched paths. But at some point teenagers have made fully informed choices to follow those paths. However, when one reads of a tragedy about the loss of a good child, the sadness can be mitigated by the knowledge of Jesus having assured humans of their place in heaven.

A few days ago four sets of families received the terrible news that their four sons, all Boy Scouts, were killed when a tornado struck their camp. I know how heart rending it is to lose a child, and how one never really recovers. I am pleased to see that the parents of one of the Boy Scouts, Ben, have started fund raising to include underground shelters when the camp is rebuilt. This is one of my huge pet peeves: the lack of underground cellars, storm shelters or basements in both public facilities and private homes. I myself live in such a place and have been forced to live in 3 locations in the past six years that have not had an underground basement. I grew up in the generation that always had a home with a basement for shelter in not only storms such as the tornado, but also against excessive heat, in the days before air conditioning (that was a lifesaver for many generations of people and their children in sweltering heat). I am outraged at how so many homes and public facilities do not have underground storm shelters, and find this lack at scouting facilities to be astounding, frankly, astonishing and disappointing (but I've found, not surprising anymore). Prayers for their comfort and condolences.

The only comfort I can offer is that those who have lost infants and children can safely aspire to meet them again in heaven in the Lord's embrace. But I need to remind everyone that this is not automatic. Children in heaven are in a perfection of fullness and completion in God's home. It is a grace for parents to join them; they, strictly speaking, do not require any other companionship than those who they are with in heaven already. Parents must live godly lives full of belief and good works, shunning bitterness and occult practices, in order to join their children once again in heaven, for all eternity. I hope I've made that clear.

Where the Muslim Prophet foretold in the Bible

Some Muslims incorrectly believe that when Jesus said an advocate would come that he was referring to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Jesus was actually referring to the Holy Spirit, and that is clear when one reads those passages of the Bible because Jesus explains that he is sending someone to comfort the Apostles and disciples. This was achieved on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit arrived to infuse the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles and the disciples.

However, there is no reason to be unsympathetic to the Muslim desire to point to a place in the Bible that foretells the Prophet (PBUH) because their instincts in this are correct. There is a place, a very honorable place, where the Prophet (PBUH) is foretold. This is in the Book of Isaiah.

By way of background the Book of Isaiah recounts the activities and visions of the prophet Isaiah, who lived in the second half of the eighth century BC when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was under attack by Assyria and the army of Sennacherih drew up to the actual walls of Jerusalem. Isaiah received his call to prophetic office in the Temple of Jerusalem and he describes in his Book his divine summons by God in person. He is considered by Christians to be the greatest of the Old Testament prophets because he received directly from God the prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Catholics read very frequently from the Book of Isaiah as part of the celebration of Mass services. He is one of my favorites for this reason and also because his great humility demonstrated that even the most holy of men must purify themselves before being in the presence of God. That passage of his Book I have written about before because it demonstrates the Biblical source for the concept of purgatory.

The 66 chapters of the Book of Isaiah are therefore filled with enormous theological and spiritual content. And it is in this Book that if one is observant one can spot the reference to the Prophet (PBUH). In this section of scripture Isaiah is receiving from God word and vision about the upcoming fall of Babylon. One needs to understand that the Old Testament prophets tended to receive from God direct factual information about current or pending events (such as the fall of Babylon), but mixed within these prophecies are references to great salvation events to come.

Chapter 21: 6-9

For thus says my Lord to me: Go, station a watchman, let him tell what he sees. If he sees a chariot, a pair of horses, someone riding an ass, someone riding a camel, then let him pay heed, very close heed. The the watchman cried, "On the watchtower, O my Lord, I stand constantly by day; and I stay at my post through all the watches of the night. Here he comes now: a single chariot, a pair of horses; he calls out and says, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods are smashed to the ground."

The rest of the chapter and the chapter after describe specific "current events" prophecies for the Jewish refugees in Arabia, Jerusalem, Sobna and Eliaciim, and Tyre and Sidon. After those sections Isaiah then receives general apocalyptic prophecy from God.

So the passage that I reference above is self contained. Therefore you have to notice that the Lord tells him that a "watchman" would need to watch for four arrivals to closely heed. The first two, the chariot and the pair of horses, occurs in the near term and represent the fall of Babylon, which indeed happened. We know that this is the historical Babylon that falls because it is the polytheistic pagan worshipping Babylon that falls because "all the images of her gods are smashed to the ground." God, however, gives no further information about the third and fourth arrivals "someone riding an ass, someone riding a camel."

All Christians with any knowledge of their faith immediately recognize who is foretold by "someone riding as ass," because that is one of the great prophecies that is fulfilled about Jesus Christ.

St. John 12: 12-15

Now the next day, the great crowd which had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of palms and went forth to meet him. And they cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel!" And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it, as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion; behold, thy king comes, sitting upon the colt of an ass.

St. Luke 19: 29-34

And it came to pass, when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that he sent two of his disciples, saying "Go into the village opposite; on entering it you will find a colt of an ass tied, upon which no man ever yet sat; loosen it and bring it. And if anyone ask you, 'Why are you loosing it? you shall answer him thus, 'Because the Lord has need of it.'" And they who were sent went away and found the colt standing, even as he had told them. and as they were loosing the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" And they replied, "Because the Lord has need of it."

So you can see very clearly that the third event, "someone riding an ass," is fulfilled in the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for the final time. This event is celebrated in the Catholic liturgy as "Palm Sunday."

And so we are left with the fourth arrival to watch for, no further reference of which is made in the Bible, being "someone riding a camel." That is the Biblical foretelling by God to Isaiah of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Now, Christians do not need to overreact to this with worry that this has some implication for their Christian faith. It does not, and you can be assured of this because there are many events prophesied by Isaiah from God that are not representing changes in theology. That's what many Christians need to understand. The Bible is a history (both of events and of the "faith family") and not every word has to be milked to find some hidden meaning or advantage to act upon. This is why God says "a WATCHMAN." God is saying, watch for these events, for they are significant. Obviously each event must be interpreted in its own reality as it unfolds.

For example, Babylon is the fall of a city, a pagan city. Jesus is the Messiah. Each event "stands on its own" as it unfolded; they are not part of a 1-2-3... set of steps where each event is dependent on the previous. A watchman observes many travelers come and go, but each one is not necessarily connected to the previous or following visitor. God is very precise when he presents prophesy to his prophets. He uses words and images that are precise and appropriate to their meaning.

(By the way, I'm being harassed on the computer. That's why this blog posting is going up in fits and starts, has different colors and so forth. When I want to correct errors suddenly my response time gets "hung" and I'm unable to get back in to do my spiritual direction work. This is typical of the s*** that I've had to put up with for years).

Now, to try to get back to decency and matters of faith.

God tells humans through his prophets when to take action and when to watch. I can't put it much simpler than that. No matter how complicated the prophecy, the Prophets were always told by God and understood when an action must be taken (to tell the people about the Law, such as Moses, or to remind people not to sin and warn of consequences) and when just to watch but know that something is important. This section is an example of that. Knowing about the fall of Babylon does not mean that Isaiah or anyone else could run out and do something about it. It's told in prophecy so that the faithful have courage and faith knowing that justice will be rendered at some point or another. It's not their business to run out and try to hasten the fall of Babylon on God's behalf, for example. Likewise they are told to watch for someone who arrives on an ass. That doesn't mean that the people should test every newcomer to see if he is the person that God foretold. It turns out that Jesus arrived about 700 years after this prophecy. Only when the significance of the event on its own standing unfolds are the people to go "Ah, that is the meaning of the prophecy." They are not to run around looking for someone important to ride an ass. They would have wasted 700 years and raised false prophets if they did so. This is why God says that they should be like a "watchman" for these events. God does not give instructions to act.

Therefore when Isaiah is told by God that the "watchman" should take note of "someone riding a camel" then this is an example of where the prophecy will be recognized only after the fact. The event must unfold and then those who are wise look back into the scriptures and now understand. This is the process that Jesus himself taught to the Apostles and disciples. He showed many examples and told them that he will prophesy to them, they won't understand or believe, and then after the event they will go "Ah" with understanding. Prophesy is to be watched for in its own fulfillment in its own time.

So why does God even bother to give people prophesy if they are not to "act" or "take advantage of it" after "interpreting" it? The first reason is to validate that it is indeed God who is giving a prophesy to one of his authentic chosen prophets. Many throughout salvation history have pretended to be prophets. God gives prophesy, sometimes very cryptically, in order that people will not be able to imitate him or his prophets and mislead the people. Who could think of the Messiah arriving in Jerusalem on an ass seven hundred years later? This is unarguable proof when God's prophets prophesy in such as cryptic and strange way and then behold, when that prophesy is long forgotten it is fulfilled unlooked for and unmanipulated. So the first reason that God gives people prophesy at all is so that they can know they are hearing and studying "the genuine article" of prophet when it is fulfilled, often centuries after the prophet has gone to his reward in heaven.

The second reason is to strengthen and increase faith. Prophesy allows people, especially those who are suffering, to put salvation history in context and have stronger belief. The truly faithful who suffered in Babylon, for example, would take comfort in knowing that God will allow Babylon to fall, and their God to triumph over the pagan idolatry, even if that is for their future generations of grandchildren to enjoy in life. Again, prophesy from God is not meant to be "decoded" and "manipulated" or artificially "fulfilled" by humans. It backfires like you cannot believe when that is attempted. God is not giving a formula, for example, saying "Oh, to move forward in the salvation game someone important must ride an ass somewhere and a watchman notices." Of course not! God is saying, "Watch and wait for someone who is riding an ass" and let them "pay heed," "very close heed." The people who cheered Jesus as he entered Jerusalem were not flipping pages of their handy dandy prophet guide and thus cheer Jesus because he arrived on an ass. It is years later that the Apostles and disciples fully comprehend the linkage between the prophesy and the event that unfolded. Jesus, of course, knew fully well because he is the one who requested an ass to arrive on to Jerusalem. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies by his actions with full knowledge of them and their implications.

So it is for authenticity and for faith that God provides prophesy. Therefore God was alerting people to heed "someone who rides a camel." God was making a statement of authenticity and membership in the salvation and faith family regarding this "someone." Camels are animals of the desert, and Arabia was well known in those times, obviously. So it is not the animal in particular but the fact that someone will be seen by the "watchman" and will be heeded. This is the Prophet Muhammad who would be "someone who rides a camel" around one thousand and four hundred years after Isaiah received this prophesy from God.

It is only well after the event that those who are the "watchman" (those who study and heed the scripture and the word of God) can understand how an event has unfolded that is the fulfillment of a prophesy by one of God's true prophets. So I am not surprised that few people understand that this "someone" in the Book of Isaiah is God's prophesy to legitimize that the "someone who rides a camel" is an authentic part of the faith history and God's plan for humanity and salvation. God makes this clear by showing Isaiah the fulfillment of the chariot and two horsemen as being part of the strengthening of faith over the long term, not the arrival of a literal person or persons who are "someones" in faith history. So Isaiah is able to see and record that the first two "arrivals" are "observed" as being representative of the fall of Babylon and of their pagan idols, even though the events have not taken place yet. In other words, God gives him "specifics" that the chariot and the two riders indicate the fall of Babylon. God does not give Isaiah the "specifics" about the "someone riding an ass" or the "someone riding a camel." Isaiah is, however, given plenty more specifics about the details of prophesy of the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ. The "someone riding a camel" is to be heeded as being authentic in the Abrahamic family of salvation history, but is not part of the Jesus Christ set of events or a successor to Jesus Christ. God is mentioning the "someone riding a camel" so that once the events transpire around this person, people who doubt and wonder can look back and see, "Ah yes, this is God's will. This person is part of the fabric and substance of God's works."

I hope that you find this helpful. It is very important to validate that the Muslims are correct to seek a linkage of authenticity in the Bible, and that is where it is (along with, of course, the rest of the shared Adam to Abraham faith history and their knowledge of Jews and Christians). It is likewise important that in dialogue they understand the specifics of what Jesus promised regarding the helper and comforter, and that this is the Holy Spirit who continues the work of Jesus through the Apostles and disciples, and not a literal person. So validation of the Islamic part of the one true God's salvation history is important, but it is important that we all be pointing to the same correct prophesy. The other important lesson here is that God gives instructions, laws and rituals for people to act upon, not prophesies. Prophesies are to be awaited at God's all knowing will and pleasure and not to be decoded and manipulated like some inside trading commodity or, just as bad, underestimated by humans, who cannot begin to imagine what God's plans and will are in full. Like I said, no one could have envisioned either the time or the form of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and no one could have envisioned either the time or the form of God's revelation to the Prophet (PBUH). When people try to "decode" prophecy they always come up with an incredibly simple, cheap and thin version of what their limited minds can imagine that "God would do." It is an insult to God as well as being misleading of the faithful to think that any human, no matter how "smart" or "imaginative" could think of what God means in advance of a prophecy's fulfillment. As a scientific example, just to help understand this, what human given a paper and pencil and asked to imagine how life works would ever have thought of DNA? It is the same with God's prophecy of what is to come. No humans can imagine it; they can only hinder achieving the fullness of its intended goodness by misattributed and manipulating mundane events "on God's behalf." That is really horrible and it must never be done, ever again. There has been far too much of it and it has had ruinous consequences. It's as moronic as if after this prophecy people immediately ran around breeding extra asses to be sure that the "someone" would arrive. Thank GOD that the prophets and fathers, the Apostles and the disciples were pure of heart and such thoughts would never have occurred to them or to the people of those times. They could mistake someone as the Messiah or a prophet, but they did not run around trying to manipulate words and events of the holy book. Not only would that never have occurred to them but they would be stricken with dread at the thought, since they never mixed themselves up as being divine "players." It is essential that all people stop with this mindset immediately.

Soldiers must not defame the Qur'an

Not only is it wrong to deface or defame the Qur'an for general moral holy book reasons, but it is also anti-Christian to deface or defame the Qur'an.

American soldiers and others must understand that the Qur'an is full of the names of Jesus and Mary. When that idiot soldier or soldiers shot the Qur'an in Iraq they were at the same time shooting the names of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who are revered and mentioned frequently throughout the Islamic holy book.

\facepalm/

Perfection in God's dispensations

No one living knows more about the ways of the Lord than me. No brag, just fact. Yet even with all my total comprehension I cannot describe to you the perfection of how God dispenses with both mercy, and justice, when it comes to one's time to be judged. Even those people who have had very complex and mixed lives are all dealt with perfect completeness by God. Most people I have a pretty good idea "where they are going to go" when they die, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I think, "Wow, this one is a tough call," but I know that God handles every human with the severity or the mercy that is perfectly complete in its appropriateness and outcome. So what may seem a tough case to one of us looking at it as a human is dispensed and judged in total righteousness and correctness by God.

Because God is perfect he is the perfect judge. This should be of great consolation to those of you who are on the whole authentic and good, though you must rely on God's mercy for human flaws, sins and weaknesses. This should not be reassuring to those of you who have secret agendas and internal arrogance for power and control, since as I said, God renders the perfect judgment, and I must warn you, all the facts and intentions are already known to him as you do them.

Humans, understandably, find it hard to comprehend, relate to or even believe in God's perfection. It is fine not to comprehend or relate to it and in fact, that is healthy. But it is essential that you believe and trust in God's perfection. That is, after all, what "faith" really is: the trust in God's perfection to resolve all. Jesus' last words were to commend his spirit into God's hands. Jesus showed that people must trust in God's perfect dispensation of all matters, even as he expired he taught and showed people to trust and indeed, to the astonishment of all, he rose from the dead. Many wonder why God "allowed" bad things to happen to Jesus, and why Jesus "allowed" them to happen to him. It is the sin and disbelief of the people that resulted in the slaying of Jesus, not a divine script. But it was the will of God that people would see in the only way they could believe that Jesus could demonstrate to all the trust of the beloved Son even to the bitter end, and how God repairs all, in his realm. Jesus was not "just a humanitarian or philosopher." Jesus was the one and only who demonstrated that by putting one's faith in God one conquers death, both literally in the physical death, and after, in the personal judgment through which people hope (at least they should hope) that they will attain eternal life in God and not the eternal fire of punishment. As the angels correctly asked at the tomb, why do you seek him in the place of the dead? In this way the angels were not only saying that Jesus had risen from the dead, but they were saying he had achieved eternal life. All of this was done for the sake of humans, to redeem their sinful natures and point the way to grace in the hope of eternal life.

I always feel bad when people preach about "the good thief" and "the bad thief" who died on their crosses to each side of Jesus. While it is true that the good thief believed on the spot, who is truly to say that God would not have mercy on the bad thief too, who in his suffering could not believe with the swiftness of the good thief? Even the disciples took a while to convince, and it did not take place on their deathbeds, or crosses in this case. God dispenses with each human with total perfection and rather than assume the "bad thief" "was not saved," you should share in the love of God and satisfaction that I have in knowing he will treat all with perfect comprehension and completeness of their faith. So while it is natural to wonder, it is not natural or even helpful to assume that you know what will happen, when even I will not state that in every case. Bear this in mind and focus on your own goodness, rather than polishing your faults and thinking you can hide them forever. For you will not and God is the perfect accountant.

In depth discussion of a Jesus healing event

Matthew 8:28-34

When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go then!” They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

***
This is a very well known miraculous event in the life of Jesus and has been frequently been discussed and sermonized since there is a great amount of information to glean from these just seven sentences of narrative. Homilists often point out how demons recognized Christ’s true identity without him saying a word, and this is true. They also knew they would be driven out of the human sufferers by Christ, again before Christ even said a word. But I want to teach you about two observations you can make that do not receive as much emphasis or understanding in the more common preaching.

The first thing to note is that the demon’s highest priority is to stay inside a living body, and so they beg Jesus to allow them to go into the swine. Sometimes you better understand reality of the physical and spiritual world by noting what the demons did not ask for. They were subservient to Jesus yet they did not ask that they be “cured” of being demons. If God can do anything, why would not the demons ask Jesus to change them into “good spirits” or something other than demons? This is because they could not. A demon is the condition of being contrary to life as determined by God. In other words, think about the colors yellow and green. Green could not ask Jesus to now be yellow because “green is the name given to that condition of color” while “yellow is the name for that condition.” Another example is that a cold virus could not ask to be a flu virus because the name “cold virus” is given to the virus that causes colds, while a flu virus is the name given to the virus that causes flu. Calling a cold virus a flu virus would not make it any less a cold virus. Calling green yellow would not make the wavelength absorption that produces green change to the wavelength absorption that produces yellow. Now Jesus could change the object’s fundamental nature so that it changed color from green to yellow. And Jesus could change a cold virus into a flu virus. But demons are not changeable because they are not a living being that has a set of characteristics that can be changed. Demons are the “state of being demonic” in tendency and priority. Because Jesus, empowered by God, could converse with demons it is natural that humans tend to anthropomorphize demons and think of them as a living being that has a “spirit body.” But this is not true. Demons are like being cold. If a person is shivering in the cold wind and becomes cold the person is cold, but cold is not a living spirit form. Coldness is a state of being, not a living being. Coldness is real, since many people feel it, it can be measured (thermometer) and people die from it frequently. Likewise demons are real, and can be observed, measured and felt, but they are not living beings, not even a “special case” of being spirit beings. Demons are not living beings (nor are they undead beings) because they are not beings at all. They are a state of being. In other words, they are a state that a being can possess, just like being cold. So in this example, if the two homeless people had come running from the tombs (where they lived) begging Jesus to cure them of cold, Jesus could easily, and without miracle, make them warm by giving them shelter, blankets and hot soup. The difference is that the people themselves, their true character, would have been the ones requesting warmth since they would be normal people who happen to be cold. But when a demon possesses a person the demon does the speaking for the person. That does not, I repeat, mean that the demon is a living or undead being. But it is such a powerful state of being that it takes possession of and reorganizes the person’s body, mind and spirit (though not soul). Think about if “cold” was speaking on behalf of a person who was cold. “Cold” would ask Jesus to make it snow, or have the chill wind blow harder, and “cold” would not care about the body that it was killing, since it’s “job” and it’s only state of being and point of reference is to be “cold.” Cold is cold. So this is a valuable insight for you into understanding demons. Demons are not little devils, or the undead returned, or alien spirits (LOL) or mini-fallen angels or any other anthropomorphizing being you could hypothesize. Learn to recognize demons and their influence by thinking of them as being a condition or state of being such as “cold” or “green.”

The cold example is the best to use because like I said; if a person is endlessly and severely cold he or she will die of hypothermia. So cold that is unlimited is a dangerous condition.

This is one reason that non-Catholic “exorcisms” are unbelievably dangerous and wrong headed. People who think that demon possession means that a mini bad spirit is “inside” of another person are totally wrong in their perception of the problem. Just because one “drives out” a demon does not mean that it was a “being that is inside” the person, even if a person thinks they are conversing with it. The minds of humans are wonderful and clever, but limited, especially when looking at themselves or each other, because they almost have to anthropomorphize everything they see, especially if it seems to have dialogue or a set of characteristics. So while Catholics themselves, and the rituals also have the sound of, thinking of demons as “beings” they are incorrect, but understandably so because the Bible is not a complete textbook to all the universe’s manifestations and causes. When a person has a “demon” the person is under the control of the state of being demonic. The condition of being demonic does the speaking and thinking for the person, and has only continuation of being demonic as it’s only characteristic. If you get confused keep thinking back to the cold example, which is why I gave this example to you, since it gives great clarity and insight. A demon is like a person being subsumed by the condition of being “cold” so that “being cold” is the past, present and future and only “option” and “priority.” The answer is always “cold” if you tried to dialogue with a person who is possessed by “cold,” if such a thing existed, which it does not. So a demon is a state of being that is being a demon. Therefore the first thing the demons ask of Jesus, who they recognize as the Son of God, is to go on being demons but with the pigs instead of the men. It is like in our example if hypothetical “cold” state requested of Jesus that “cold” goes and makes someone else “cold” since “cold” has no choice or options because cold is the state of being cold.

Jesus agrees that the demons can “Go then!” The demons enter into the swine and the swine immediately hurl themselves over a steep bank into the sea where the pigs drown. I bet you are now recognizing something that you did not before when you’ve read this miracle. People assume that the demons drove the swine into the sea. But this is not true! Demons only care about being demons because they are not beings but the state of being. How do we know this? Let’s use again our “what if instead of this they said that” logic. Notice the demons did not ask to be sent to hell. If they are demonic beings and that is their “true home” and if they take pleasure in pain, why not ask Jesus to send them back to hell rather than expel and/or destroy them? That is because they are not beings who have “places where they live.” Demons are the state of being of the organism they control, just like being cold. So if a demon is here and recognizes that it is going to be expelled by Jesus (Jesus doing so in order to free and save the person afflicted just as warming a person freezing to death but unable to ask for help) the demon is going to “want” to go from here to there since it is simply transferring a state of being. A state of being that is transferred from a person to person, or from person to pig, would not “think” to ask to “go home to hell” or be changed because it is only a singular state of being, like on and off. So the demon would not “want” to “make” the pigs leap into the sea because demons do not desire nor manipulate circumstances other than the inevitable outcome of their being the state of “demon.” As long as a person is cold, that person is cold. The cold is “expelled” when the person is warmed up sufficiently that the person is no longer cold. A demon “exists” so long as the demon exists, and when it is expelled it is gone, just like the state of being cold.

Think about what being “cold” is by definition. Cold is the state of being where molecules of the body slow down in their vibration so much that life can no longer exist. Hot is the condition of very fast vibrating of molecules and like cold, outside of the human body’s level of tolerance, too much of being hot too can destroy, either as fever or as actual burning. There is a range of temperature, that state of being, that humans function with health within. There is no acceptable or healthy “amount” or “level of demon” that a human can contain however. True demon possession is “on” or “off” or to be precise “possessed” or “expelled.” True demon possession can be compared to the state of being deathly cold only, where the coldness is at the non-life sustaining level and that is the only option. Having an actual demon (and not just behaving very wickedly) is the same as being in the state of being so cold that life cannot take place in that body. Again, remembering I am only using an analogy and all analogies are flawed in their use to some extent, although this one is a very good and tight analogy because it leads you along to a completer understanding in its valid parallel of logic. So just as the state of being “demon” equals, in our parallel, the state of being “so cold that it will kill the body” you can now better understand what state of being the demon “measures” in its on/off way. The “state of demon being” is anti-life. I’m not making a political or moral statement; I am still being scientific here.

Just as our hypothetical “man who is possessed by cold” would be under the influence of a force that only “cares” about being too cold to live, the state of being “demon” is a state of pure reflex where all behavior is contrary to the continuation of life. See, these two guys that Jesus encountered were not robbers who had their hideout in the tombs and terrorized the community in order to rob and bully them. That would be two wicked people who perhaps commit unspeakable crimes, but are not demoniac. Demons who possess these two men by definition force them to a state of being that is “anti-life.” They are forced to “live” where only the dead live (the tombs of the town) and they exist in the continuing state of being demonic, which causes all actions to be in a demonic state, with no concern for their own welfare. Robbers sit down and have a good meal with the proceeds of what they took from people. They are wicked but still working within the boundaries of life affirming actions, at least for themselves. True demonic possession is the state of being in a condition of non-affirmation of life.

So the demons request of Jesus that he allow them to go to the pigs and possess them. Think about this. Why would they request of Jesus to go to the pigs, and not just flee from Jesus in terror into the pigs all on their own? Would that not be logical? Why do they have to ask first? The answer is that because demons cannot occupy animals. Animals, either savage or tame, are free from demons. The demons could only enter the pigs if Jesus gave them permission. If they could have entered into animals, they would have fled from Jesus with no word spoken and done so by getting the heck out of Jesus’ way and assuming that it would be OK to be in the pigs. But that is assuming a world where demons could exist in animals and we know that it is not possible or true. First of all demons are the state of being based on a consciousness that does not exist in animals. God created animals without sin or a set of values by which they must live in order to thrive. God created infrastructure (the planet, rocks, and soil), the plants and the animals to live and not to have “choice” about being in favor of their living and thriving or not. All things that God created are good, including humans in the beginning. So to use a psychology expression a demon would not find “a hook” within a plant or animal attach itself to and create that state of being since that state of being is not possible in an animal, plant or rock. Life would never have continued on this planet if demons could possess animals because you can see that a bias toward not life affirming activities in animals would have killed them off even faster than habitat loss, disease, climate change and so forth. The logic of eating, drinking water, finding shelter, mating and raising young would have been repeatedly broken. So there is no reason or ability for a demon to ever possess an animal (despite what you may think of the nasty pit bull down the street!) Seriously, even poor animals bred to be killers or trained to be vicious would on their own revert to life affirming behavior. At the very least they would try to survive. True demonic possession is the state of being in a totally non-life affirming condition. So the demons had to seek permission from Jesus in order to enter into the pigs. Obviously the swineherds were standing nearby to witness this, and you’ll notice the demons did not ask to leave the tomb living guys alone and go into the swineherds for a while instead! The demons recognize Jesus as being their anti-state and therefore know he will not permit their continued possession of the two men or any other humans before any conversation even takes place. Jesus is the opposite condition of the state of being demonic. So the only option for the state of being demonic to continue was to ask Jesus to allow them to go into the swine instead of the humans.

This is where my defense of pigs and all other animals begins, ha. Putting aside the prohibitions about clean or unclean animals, everyone understands that all animals are good because they are created by God in the beginning and all that is created by God is goodness. It is the pigs that under the possession of the two demons that throw themselves into the sea. The demons created the non-life affirming state of being in the pigs and so the pigs did the opposite of what they would naturally do (which is life affirming) and they hurled themselves into the sea. Now I am not saying they turned into conscious pig heroes and sacrificed themselves for the greater good, ha! But I am using kind of a negative hypothesis to show you that animals exist in a constant state of being life affirming, uninfluenced by demons or other spiritual pressures or dilemmas that exist among the conscious “post Garden of Eden” humans. This is another reason that animal worship and idolatry is plain wrong and strongly and consistently rebuked by God throughout both the Bible and the Qur’an. It is actually an “insult to animals” to assign a spirit, either good or demonic, awareness to animals. That is because this implies a “choice” whereby if animals are acting consciously that means they can make choices. That is an insult to them because all animals are created by God to only function in a life affirming way… they would never make a “power” or “spiritual” based choice because they already exist in a perfect state as created by God.

Since, therefore, the swine, as all animals, lack the “hook” to be demonic and continue to live, they immediately perish. As perfect “life affirming” beings, animals would perish immediately upon having a demon. This is why God does not permit it to happen and created them without that capacity to be possessed by demons or otherwise spiritually afflicted. This is why Jesus allowed the demons to go into the swine, knowing that the swine would perish (and so the demonic state would be closed in these two cases and the condition of being demoniac erased) and also so that the Apostles and other bystanders could learn from this what I am telling you about here, plus the other understandings that have traditionally been sermonized. Of course the people whose livelihood depended on the swine were not so interested in the spiritual lesson and they begged Jesus to leave their district!

Jesus is clearly seen here as, to use a popular scientific expression, anti-matter to demons. Jesus is the perfect state of not being demoniac. Demons cannot exist in the presence of true Jesus. They need his permission even to flee. Jesus gives permission during this miracle (more properly called a healing) so that the Apostles can learn and teach what they saw. Notice that Jesus did not have to do anything in this case to expel the demons. If they had not “spoken up” to “ask permission to go to the swine” Jesus would have expelled them right out and they would have been expelled into non-existence. Remember a demon is a state of being, not an entity that would pack its nasty little suitcase and go to another person or float around looking for victims. It feels that way and language in the Bible uses some of that imagery, but that is why Jesus provided examples, such as this one, where people can observe a truth that is too complicated to put into human words (yet remarkably simple to live by in the pious life).
I wrote this in order to convey two points, which I have pretty much completed, which is to teach about the true nature of demonic possession and to illuminate the goodness and “built in” life affirmation of all animals, clean or unclean, predatory or grazer, simple one cell or top of the animal kingdom in complexity. Without going into detail, perhaps to address in future blog postings, I will mention a few other points to consider. One is that there is true demonic possession but it is much rarer than people think. The second is that being insane is not the same as being possessed. Third is that when Jesus expelled demons he was really expelling demons and this was not code word for curing mental illness. When the Gospel relates that Jesus cured many people, in the thousands, this was a mixture of people with physical and mental ailments (even though mental illness was not recognized as such during those times). So Jesus did encounter and cure people with mental illnesses. However the examples related in the Gospel of demon expelling are indeed demons being expelled and not just the out of date and quaint labels put on mentally ill people. Here’s how we know that. Mental illness is not usually the stark raving running around psychotic type. It is the eroding of wellness through what we know today as post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and so forth. While it was no where near as prevalent then as it is today (since society and survival were much more straightforward then and there was not a survival reward for neurosis) it obviously still was common enough. It was common enough that it did not merit mentioning in the Gospels. Remember Jesus cured blindness and restored walking to “many” and even more dramatic cures that were not enumerated in the Gospel either! So if the Apostles and disciples grouped even dramatic cures such as those together in order to say “many throughout the region” and numbers implying the thousands, obviously they did not mention the many cures by Jesus of the mentally infirm. What they did mention was where Jesus brought their attention to true demonic possession so they would recognize and know its qualities and characteristics. The nearness of Jesus, as you can see in the example of the two demons, is often enough to effect a healing and a cure. Many who listened to Jesus were cured of their emotional and mental afflictions without him having to do a specific miraculous cure. Jesus was totally unique in this because he was born from being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s presence with the permission of God is enough to bring about many healings and cures. We know this because when Jesus designated St. Peter as his rock with the key and the Holy Spirit descended in Pentecost, even the falling of St. Peter’s shadow on someone could bring about a cure (Acts 5:15). So if St. Peter’s shadow falling on someone as he passes by could bring about a cure you know that the very presence of Jesus brought many cures of particularly the mental, emotional and spiritual kind of illnesses. So I want to make clear that there is a difference between true demoniac possession and severe mental illness.

Something else you need to think about is that people can “create demons.” This is actually where demons “come from.” Notice this is very different than saying mentally ill people or their illness cause demons. No, rather, collective wicked behavior does at some point “congeal,” for lack of a better word, into demoniac possession. There is a critical mass of mental and spiritual mindset whereby individual or group sinful, cruel or wicked actions create traction in the world of human’s perception whereby the types of demons encountered by Jesus come into being. This is a whole huge and obviously important topic that needs to be analyzed on its own, perhaps in future blogging. But people often ask, “If God is good where does evil come from?” or “Why does God ‘allow’ Satan and demons ‘into’ the world?” Both questions are totally understandable and deserve answers, but they come from a set of assumptions and understandings that are weak and invalid. Both the Bible and the Qur’an describe demons and their attributes and they know there is connection between the wickedness of man and the actions of demons. This is true, but people need to know that they are not as weak as they think and that they can expel demons and prevent their very creation if they understand how deviation from God by humans brings demons into existence and power in the first place. Remember as I explained, animals cannot be possessed by demons, so there is a billion or so years of life on earth without demon presence. Guess who is the one species of living being that is associated with the existence of demons? I think you know! Demons are not fallen angels who are running around on earth with day passes that lets them out of hell. They are permitted by God to exist because they are an “output” of humans, kind of like smog. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung came very close to understanding this. He was a Christian who hypothesized that Nazi Germany was “possessed by the Nordic god Wotan.” Now of course Jung did not believe in an actual pantheon of gods but he recognized that a national possession of some sort took place and he found the closest “match” of characteristics when comparing Nazi Germany traits to those of the mythological Wotan. Jung has been consistently “demonized” (LOL) by many Jewish psychology professionals for “excusing” or “providing an excuse” for Nazi Germany, but this was not his motivation nor where he could have gotten to if he pursued this question further. Jung came close to recognizing that a separate ruling entity had congealed in Nazi Germany that was not only the numeric total of wicked deeds, wicked “policy” and “group or gang mentality.” He was trying to get to an important and very valid observation about the origin of a collective demonic possession, but he was too distracted by his many other theories and projects to really do justice to this potential discovery. Also it was not a subject that he was rewarded for exploring. However if he had, might he have not described patterns that later one must think about with Cambodia, Rwanda, and now certain parts of Kenya and see if there had not been similar symptomology.

Just to bring the subject to a close, I know many will cite scripture that demons are spirits that are disobedient to God and/or that they exist to punish and torment humans. Yes, those are things that demons “do” as a natural outcome of their state of being. Their state of being, like being cold, can be interpreted as punishing, tormenting, and disobeying. A child who wanders out of the house in the freezing cold and dies could be viewed as meeting those criteria too, but that would be a totally inaccurate reading of the situation. The “cold” in this case would be acting contrary to God’s will and being “disobedient” (freezing and killing a child, all children being loved by God), is being “punished” by the cold (the child having wandered away from home without the parents), and being “tormented” by the cold (what a sad and awful way for a child to die). So one could say that “cold” is disobedient to God, punishes a human child, and torments a human child, yet that would be giving “cold” an agenda that it does not consciously possess and it does not address the origin of “cold.” Likewise, the fact that demons are not fulfilling God’s plan for goodness, torment, and punish humans does not mean that God created demons, nor do they exist for expressly those purposes. Those actions are inevitable outcomes of the state of being of demonic possession. So to eliminate the influence of demons and protect people from their influence in the world one needs to understand their origins and source of reinforcement, just as one needs to examine responsibility in babysitting, provision of heating, and the adverse affects of weather in the example of the cold that killed the child In the above example. The cold is a natural force. But the unheated poor person’s house, the open door and the underdressed, unsupervised child are actions that are under the influence of humans. Demons likewise come into being as a natural force that is congealed into collective dark power by the actions and spiritual attitudes of humans.

I hope you’ve found this discussion and spiritual direction useful.