In my last post I considered who might go to hell and concluded it could be anyone who didn't want to go to Heaven. Here I want to look at a more radical possibility. Are we actually living in hell now?
As the 19th and 20th centuries progressed human beings became increasingly separated from God. This applied even to religious people because religion became more materialistic, less centred on the sacred mysteries of God and more humanistic in focus. It was demythologised which means stripped of inner meaning and brought into line with scientific materialism. The psychic atmosphere in which everyone lived was secular and the next world was further removed from this one. Reactions sprang up with souls thirsty for the sacred looking to the East or to New Age type beliefs but these were also heavily contaminated by the materialistic ethos and there was a clear lack of genuine spiritual direction. Spirituality meant what you could get out of it more than making yourself right with God. The idea arose that all forms of spirituality were saying essentially the same thing and answering the same call, but a deeper analysis shows this was not the case and for many of them God was peripheral instead of being absolutely central as should be the case. And even if God is central the question remains what sort of God? For there are many false gods born of human imagining and projection not to mention demonic inspiration. The true God is known through revelation, through his creation and in the human heart but the heart has to be tuned to the right note, away from the key of self, to perceive him clearly.
It would be my contention that just as there is a divine plan for mankind so there is also a demonic plan. I won't waste time trying to convince people that supernatural powers of evil exist. If you are a Christian this should be a fundamental part of your belief. Indeed, most religions would acknowledge this. Their aim is to absorb the energy from human souls for their own benefit and use. They have cut themselves off from the source of life and need life energy to maintain their existence. So they seek to corrupt souls. They have been active for millennia, of course, but recently, possibly in line with cycles of existence and stages of evolutionary development, possibly as a lesson and a test, they appear to have been allowed greater influence over mankind.
What is their aim? It is still the corruption of souls as it always has been but now there is something else. I believe, and I believe this because of what I can observe around me, because of the pattern of recent history and because of intuition, that they are seeking to make hell on Earth. That is to say, they are seeking to externalise hell onto the physical plane, to extend their domain, as it were.This project, ongoing since at least the 1st World War though groundwork was laid much earlier, has clearly moved into a new phase over the last 18 months with the global health scare, a scare that is not rooted in nothing because everybody would see through that quickly, but is rooted in something that has been grossly over-exaggerated and used as an excuse to exercise a radical new level of control over the populace who accept this because of fear forced on them by politicians, the media and, perhaps worst of all, scientists who have sold their souls to the devil and exercise the intellectual authority of their position in a totally corrupt way. There are still many who don't and all praise to them but they are not given anywhere near the same level of publicity that their fallen colleagues who serve the unholy ends of the demonic agenda are allowed. I am not saying these people are aware of who or what they serve but if their hearts are not fully open to truth, beauty and goodness they can easily be co-opted, and they have been.
Modern culture is largely the creation of hell and it is creating hell on Earth. From music which has descended from concern with the beauty of melody and harmony down to the savagery of contemporary rap in which incessant beat predominates musically and violence and anger lyrically, to the well-known distortions of 20th century art, to film from which simple goodness has long since been banished and we are left with ever more sordid attempts to break taboos. The list is endless and the degeneration affects every branch of the arts. I won't labour the point other than to add that it's important to realise this is not the grumbling of an old man who complains that "Things were better in my day." They weren't as bad but the process was already in full swing when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. That process has continued on its downward path but it did not originate then. It stems from the severing of culture from the spiritual and its contamination by materialism.
If hell can be defined as separation from God then it should be obvious that we are in hell now. God is meaningless in our contemporary world even in the churches where his spiritual reality is increasingly being lost and his relevance is only acknowledged as support for the secular humanistic project so completely failing to remember the words of Christ that "My Kingdom is not of this world." For many of the modern churches, as they proved when they shut their doors last year, Christ's kingdom is of this world but it's not even a kingdom because it is subordinate to the worldly powers.
We are living in a form of hell now and it's going to get worse. The separation from God will continue. The vice will be tightened and the spiritual corruption spread. But do not despair. Never despair. It is a great privilege to be living at this time. If you are in any way aware of the reality of God and the degradation of the contemporary world this means you have been sent to play a part in a holy war. You are a soldier for Christ. Your fight is on the mental plane and therefore you should know that even your thoughts can be used by God to increase the power of the light in this world. You don't have to go out and do anything publicly but through your thoughts and prayers you can serve God and help souls struggling for truth in the spiritual quagmire of the contemporary world. This world may be turning into hell but heaven awaits those who simply wake up to that fact.
Note: To say this world is turning into hell does not mean it is fully so. Goodness, truth and beauty still remain and always will. Their power and impact is severely damaged but God will never leave us without some kind of access to them. To take just one example, we have access to much of the beauty and wisdom of the past in a way that could not be dreamed of by our ancestors who did not live in such spiritually degenerate times.
William,
ReplyDeleteThank you....more than words can say....
In fact, I literally have tears of gratitude running down my face right now, because everything you've written in this post so perfectly affirms truths which I have been 'feeling' for at least ten years now -
- "truths" I have watched unfolding in the world and even so, been plagued with self doubt as to the reality of my interpretations, all these years relentlessly questioning the validity of my intuition.
(I've actually had to pause in writing this and, actively sobbing now, thank God for leading me to your blog three years ago.)
You can't imagine what it is like to be utterly alone in understanding such things - unable to talk with anyone, because not only can those around you 'not see' these 'truths', but they would question your sanity for even alluding to them. This kind of 'aloneness' is so very wearying.
I know the above may seem extreme, but I need you to know how much the affirmation you've written in this post means to me.
Again, thank you - and God Bless you,
Carol
Thank you so much for your comment, Carol. I think all of us who are sensitive to what is going on have to support each other in these times. Sometimes it does seem as though we are alone but we are not. It may interest you to know that I wrote this piece this morning and it came out as fast as I could type it. In fact, faster as I am a mediocre typist! But what I mean to say is that it was one of those pieces which almost felt like a dictation.
ReplyDelete"Are we actually living in hell now?"
ReplyDeleteThat's reincarnation based religion if properly understood. This is hell and we want out for good. Best bet to get out and never come back: lifelong celibacy and being a monk.
Leaving out all the details and contradictions religions accumulate over centuries, that's it in a nutshell.
I don't agree, Jorgen. This world is not hell (God looked at what he had created and saw it was good) but it is currently being made hell-like. If we are here it's not just to get out but to learn the lessons and try to support others. It may be that at the end of time this world, the world of matter, will be purified and taken up into spirit to which it will then add something. That is the implication of the Ascension in which Christ took his body up into heaven. He didn't just leave it here.
ReplyDeleteTruly inspired writing William.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be living through a preview of the future Apocalypse. This last chance to spiritually orient ourselves will determine much that unfolds far into the future. This is the fork in the road where we can choose Christ's path of ascent or suffer the continued descent that is the Second Fall.
The idea that collectively we are crossing the threshold, even while we live here on Earth - seems to be correct. For those who forsake our divine inheritance, consciously or otherwise - the soul faculties of thinking, feeling and willing will degenerate into neurosis, psychosis and violence. We already can see that hellscape taking form here on Earth.
Thanks Moonsphere. I think you're right that those who reject the spiritual will by that act cease to be truly human which is an alarming thought but rejecting reality must have consequences.
ReplyDelete@William - Excellent post, which has stayed in my mind and provoked thought.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of making hell on earth makes sense. There seems to be a difference in the level of 'commitment'. Some dead Beings seem to have have chosen hell as a permanent and irreversible choice - and other Beings seem to dip into and out of hell on a daily basis - and probably there are many shades in-between.
I wonder if the motivations are similar. The convincing idea you put forward or parasitic/ vampiric demons might have subtypes of short termist and long termist power draining. The Ahrimanic plan could be to such vitality from other Beings on a long-term basis; while the Sorathic urge might be to 'annihilate' another Being, killing it by taking all its 'vital energy' at once, with no consideration for the future. And further subtypes.
This is somewhat like the scenario depicted by CS Lewis in Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a toast - Screwtape himself has a long term view and sets up a System of damnation, while some other demons (including Wormwood) tend to be overwhelmed by their short term desire to torment and kill.
Given the demonic nature of demons I think we would have to assume that the 'senior' ones exploit the juniors just as Screwtape does Wormwood. As you say, Bruce, there will be different motivations in the 'lowerarchy' as CS Lewis brilliantly calls it going from simple selfishness to the Sorathic urge. The wonderful thing though is that all this can be conquered and turned to nothing through Christ.
ReplyDelete"Your fight is on the mental plane and therefore you should know that even your thoughts can be used by God to increase the power of the light in this world."
ReplyDeleteI understand what you are saying but if you don't mind me asking, why'd you use the word mental instead of spiritual?
One of the earliest insights I received on my own spiritual path was to eschew thinking in favor of intuition, where the mind is merely a conduit for the soul.
The reasoning behind this was that by actively thinking (as opposed to passively intuiting, or semi-passively considering) you are attempting to reduce whatever it is you are thinking about to something your mind can make palatable (or "understandable") to ones ego, therefore turning what-is into what-is-not.
This might just be semantics over wording, admittedly.
PS f you are imagining I might have a background in some sort of eastern tradition, you would be (sort-of) right. The first man I looked up to as a spiritual mentor had been heavily influenced by the Tao Te Ching. I have been a Christian since 2019.
I take your point, Evan and actually agree with you. Perhaps it is just a question of semantics but words matter too. On the other hand, whilst it is a spiritual war our thoughts are important because it is thoughts that build ideas.The intuition inspires, the thoughts create. It's where those thoughts come from that is the point and you are quite right that they should be based in intuition and not, as is the case for many now, especially the intellectual type, purely mental constructs which are self-centred rather than God-centred.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I wasn't expecting such a quick response.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add that from what I discovered that day is that thoughts and thinking are two different things.
Thinking is an activity, an act of trying to have some aspect of creation "fit" into your mind.
On the other hand, thoughts can come unbidden, without any thinking required.
The utility of meditation, as far as I understand it, is to make room for intuition, which is something that comes through you, rather than something you create.