Worldenders" or "Armageddonists"

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Items about "Biblical prophecy" and Israel's place in its fulfillment appeal strongly to fundamentalists and their ilk, i.e., extremist varieties of "Christianity" and affiliated organized religions. Mystics and very spiritual types do not generally show much interest in fortune-telling via "prophecies." The history of "prophecy" rather dismally proves that the major players, and major events, are always changing--in as little time as a week. Books about "prophecy" have predicted the "end of the world" literally thousands of times since a thousand years before the birth of Jesus.

These people, called "worldenders" or "Armageddonists," are people who have given up on life-- on wisdom, skill, ability, capacity, and often, on beauty and harmony among people.

The dismal line goes something like, "Human beings have created such a mess of things that they cannot solve these problems. To 'solve' them, God is going to murder the entire human race, or most of it, at a mass-slaughter called 'Armageddon'-- a massacre so bloody that it will make all of Hitler's evil look like Mary Poppins."

This kind of negative and monstrous "solution" arises from worshipping the "monstergod" of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. The proto-Jehovic god of the ancients was violent, merciless, antiagapic in the extreme. Most human beings were his sworn enemies. So, his "solution" was often found in war-- in which he murdered the "enemies of Israel," the "bad guys." For these were also Jehovah's personal "enemies." He was a god, not of Love, but one with many enemies. The God of Love has no enemies, for She/He loves "enemies," as Jesus recommended.

Christianity under Jesus' influence rejected this god for the God of Love, Who was Love Itself. there was not a particle of room for any evil at all in this God. He/She was pure tenderness, gentleness, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, reason, tolerance, patience, wise maturity-- in a word, Love.

The God of Love is a Presence in the heart here and now, and cares nothing for history. She/He has no "chosen people," and clearly has no "special favoritism" for a nation as tiny as Israel. In fact, to the God of cosmic spacetime, the God of Spirit, there is no special planet; all beings on all inhabited planets, all sentient beings, are equally sacred to Him/Her. So, the true God has no interests in human calendars, nations, or time-tables, and no interest in murdering, slaughtering, or massacring Her children.

The "chosen people" syndrome is a pathology that proves the parochial origin of the god of most churches. This does not even resemble the true God of Love, as far from this primitive god-image as an elephant is beyond a spider.

The mystic accepts all that is good, healthy, and universal from the Scriptures of Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, native Americans, and others. But she is bound by the regulations of none. She does not buy into the quirky and odd, sometimes bizarre, theories of "prophets" promoted by particular faiths. Historically, "prophecy" has a terrible reputation and record. Ninety-nine percent plus of all prophecies ever uttered have not come to pass-- whether their origins have been traditional "prophets," channelers, psychics, or others. To check the validity of this, just go to a used-book store and purchase the book What the Psychics Predict for the Year 1988, editions also appearing for the years 1988-2006. And you will have proved beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt how false and erroneous prophesies have been. Also, carefully study the history of prophecy among Jewish, Muslim, and various Christian communities, and you will find libraries filled with prophecies of events that never happened. In modern history, as a tiny example, the "battle of Armageddon" was predicted to occur every single year since 1964, by some preacher, "inspired prophet," or some other crackpot who felt with all his/her heart that she/he had been vouchsafed a special vision from God. Similarly, dozens of books about Revelation, the last book of the Bible, have ended up on the trash-heap because they made unreliable and false prophecies. (Revelation as a symbolic allegory, not a prophecy, is studied in my The Apocalypse of Love: Mystical Symbolism in Revelation.)

The world is filled with hopeless, helpless people who have given up on life, who have given up on the world. I used to belong to precisely such a bleak cult, with a dismal view of the future. People who see themselves and others as losers often give up all hope of creating or redeeming a useful and good life. These people often see ecology as satanic, and even nuclear war as a good and welcome event. Talk about backwards values!:)

As the people of Love and freedom, we can celebrate every day our liberation from this huge collection of scary, terrifying, terrorizing false prophecies and desperate fairy-tales. We can live each day to the fullest, in full Love for ourselves and others. we celebrate each day, not as the beginning of the end, but the beginning of the beginning, the first day of eternity. We can thus afford to shrug off, ignore, neglect, and dismiss the wild-eyed predictions of those who quake with fear at the annihilation of order, and the rule of chaos in the streets. We can hold a healthy faith in the goodness of people. this means nothing more than simply that, under most conditions, most people will do most of the right things, will behave out of the deep compassion-nature, and will care for their fellow human beings. We mystics look to a future filled with God--Love, joy, and Light, and not to terror.
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