In the discussion after my last post on universalism the point was made that there was something special about these times. Special as in unusual not good. Really that should be blazingly obvious but the significance is not often realised by the mainstream though many Christians regard our current world as ticking many of the boxes associated with the End Times prophesied in scripture.
What is special is the widespread spiritual apostasy. How can we explain this? We could say that the historical process in the West has led up to it with science, philosophy and human development all contributing to a greater focus on the physical world and what we can know intellectually, but I don't think that is sufficient. Of course, it is a factor, a large one, but there are still plenty of intelligent people who do believe in God so it is not enough on its own. My diagnosis is that the quality of people has changed. Putting it in its bluntest possible terms, there are more bad people incarnating in the world.
How can that be? Aren't we more moral than ever now, less violent, more concerned with the weak and the poor, more likely to see humanity as one? My response to this is that yes, very possibly all these things are true in theory but they are all counterbalanced by our monumental focus on ourselves and our rejection of our Creator. Besides we often go along with the morality of the day because we want to benefit from it or else as a means to assert our superiority or perhaps because we hate the past and its hierarchical structuring which put others over us. When we say we want equality it's because we don't want anyone over us.
Another reason for the perceived greater morality of the present day is that man is a moral creature. When he rejects the spiritual he must construct a materialistic kind of morality which inevitably will appear to a spirit-denying person as better than a morality that was centred on the reality of God. But it's not. It functions only on the horizontal axis and totally ignores the vertical. Consequently it might fulfil the moral needs of a stunted being but it does not by any means for a whole and healthy one.
The population of the world is far greater than it has ever been. This may be because many souls are being born now to experience the current world conditions. It's a time of great testing, a sifting out of sheep and goats with each group moving on to different spheres of being, higher and lower. Among those who are born today are a large number of souls who have rejected God in the past, either in this world in previous lives or in other worlds. They are being given a chance to convert using that word in its literal sense of to turn around. They are facing the wrong direction, towards themselves. They need to turn round to face God. It is not made easy for them because what is easy is not a true test and this is a test of inner motivation not outer beliefs. They are given other options to God because if you do pick God you must do so because you want to not because you have to. Otherwise you haven't really picked him.
Having said that the decision to choose God rather than self is not made easy, I should qualify that slightly. It may not be easy as in the reality of God is plainly presented to you but events are unfolding which will make the choice between God and nihilism (for really that's the only other choice) more and more stark. As the consequences of atheism actually start to manifest themselves in the real world, rather than merely intellectually or theoretically as has largely been the case up to the last 2 or 3 decades, the true significance of rejecting God becomes apparent. For after you have rejected God the rejection of Nature as creation cannot be far behind. Everything becomes open to interpretation and absolutes are meaningless. Indeed, meaning itself disappears and we have to fill the void that leaves with all sorts of artificial distractions and false realities. This is the situation we are currently faced with. The choice between God and not God will soon become as clear as one would be between black and white. Then, if we have not done so before, we must make our decision.
@William - Very good.
ReplyDeleteI have come to think of it as a 'learning experience' rather than a 'test'. We are given these experiences - for example, atheism; and also shown the consequences of atheism. God hopes that from this we will learn the stark and simple reality of our situation - and that, having understood this, we will choose Heaven instead of rejecting it.
This would mean taht the present situation is the best that can be managed for teaching us. God is, in other words, trying to make it as easy as possible. But it is difficult, nonetheless, because it is difficult to change someone's mind about such matters.
A test, by contrast, would aim at being difficult enough that the best kind of learning would result. But that deliberate testing would, I think, be too much for modern people.
I think that we are having things made clear, simple and 'easy', because even 'as easy as possible' is still too difficult for many or most moderns.
Perhaps you're right, Bruce. Perhaps it's a learning experience and a test but maybe most of all it's an opportunity. As things get more extreme and reactions to them, as in political reactions, respond in kind perhaps more people will learn to look beyond this world seeing that nothing can be resolved in the context of this world. But I suspect very many will stubbornly cling to their outmoded beliefs out of pride.
ReplyDelete'...there are more bad people incarnating in the world...'
ReplyDelete- the thing I've noticed the most is the change that has occurred in my lifetime; there seems to be a very definite deterioration in the last three decades, and not only in the difference we might expect between generations but also in individuals during their individual lives. Many people in their thirties and forties seem to have had enormous changes in their personalities/attitudes/spirit in the last, say, fifteen years particularly. The situation seems similar in most countries, which would suggest that it is the new immersion in media (which has stepped into the role of the traditional institutions it has undermined) that has to a large measure been the cause.
One difficulty seems to be, though, that a great many 'good' people are impotent against the influences they are living with, and some people who have clung to the traditional institutions have not always done so in heart, so to speak. What blame can be placed on a child born to a family or society that will stifle and deafen the conscience or voice that directs him or her to the True ? And the compounded effect of the ever-worsening conditions that are prevailing?
All sensitivity seems to be vanishing - it is almost as if a person with formerly perfect vision is losing, one by one, perception of individual colours - but what is being lost is our attunement to all the aspects of holiness and natural order.
I think you're right. As the psychic environment degenerates so people who are not sufficiently centred, for want of a better word, degenerate along with it. And yet within us all there is the voice of God. It might need a little help to come out in current conditions but it is still there. One thing I've noticed over the last few years is that there is some kind of spiritual resistance to the growing darkness and I believe those who can benefit from that will be directed towards it.
ReplyDeleteI hope that's true, when we see good people caught up and submerged in this slipstream, though, I wish that Voice would become more of a yell.
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at your pages here for a few days and they've been helpful; thanks.
Thank you. I'm glad you've found them of some interest.
ReplyDeleteOne of the interesting things to note about the present is that most of the leftist movements make moral arguments, rather than pragmatic ones. Some conservatives (secularists) still argue from realpolitik, but they are being drowned out in the mounting hysteria. Secularism was doomed because it rested on concealed or tacit principles that sooner or later had to be clarified. The confrontation we are having now is the result. And to say that leftists make moral arguments is being rather generous, for they do not so much argue as vilify. All arguments are now arguments ad hominem. Hatred of purity, of beauty, of virtue, of God appears to be the driving force of the left. This can be seen in their ubiquitous use of the "F" word, their proclivity for obscenity in every form, their equating sexual perversion with freedom, and free speech with "hate speech," which must be suppressed and criminalized. Why all this should be happening now, whether it is a sign of the end times, is something about which one may speculate. In practical terms, it seems the only way to meet it is to withdraw, as much as possible, from popular culture, for even the churches are largely corrupted. I think that for the foreseeable future, we must become our own church, drawing our strength from within, rather than seeking support in external structures. Trying to talk to most people about anything that matters poses a danger. One is likely to meet with either incomprehension of verbal violence or worse. I've always loved the Desert Fathers. Perhaps they should be our guides for now.
ReplyDeleteYou can't fight the end times nor should you try to do so because the degeneration on all levels is inevitable. What you can do is stand apart from it and speak out against its consequences in so far as these are regarded as progressive improvements. I increasingly find the idea of a Remnant who remain faithful to the inner truths of God making a lot of sense. Perhaps they constitute a seed for the future.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that a critical mass of atheism has now been reached in the West. The changes in society especially in the last 3 years have been marked by a spiritual darkness that seems to be something new within humanity.
ReplyDeleteThere are some who speak of an imminent incarnation of Ahriman. If not that, then certainly we can speak of a kind of ideological possession that has captured millions. Perhaps 48% of the population are at a special risk! But we can see that Leftists by their spiritual failure over decades have opened the gates to something worse than a Balrog.
But this must be seen as a necessary test - what else could jolt humanity out of its stupor? We can only hold on to our belief in Christ and maintain our personal discernment as to what is right and good.
In a way the worse things get the more obvious it is what is true and what is false. Doubt and uncertainty are removed.
ReplyDelete