TThe point of bringing it up now is that it marks the \\\\a change in my view of things that is still with me. I'd always thought of this world as fallen and of human beings as fallen and that this is the reason for Jesus' substitutionary death on the cross to save us, but during this experience which was so personal and intense the reality of Hell and of the fallenness of this world became
Phone rang, forgot what I was saying. Something about why I told that story.
It sensitized me to the reality of Hell and the fallenness of this world in a way that has become a permanent fixture in my mind. It's always there now, coloring most of my thoguthts in a way it never was before. Almost everything I think includes the idea that it's occurring in the context of fallenness and nobody knows it and if they did they'd take it all more seriously or think of it differently in omse sense or other. When people say things that imply this world is just going to go on and on until the sun finally burns out in the distant future or takes a political position that implies things could change for the better in some way that denies the reality of our sin nautre., (I either want to tell them otherwise or I feel hopeless about anyone ever getting it.
The idea includes the fact that this world is temporary and that God has told us Jesus is going to return and that will bring it to an end. That, of course, is what so many Christians are now feeling is here right now, the End Times, the prelude to the final act of the drama of Planet Earth that I've also written so much about.
Even nonbelievers are feeling that things are far worse these days than has been the case forever. That may be an exaggeration in all our minds since there have certainly been some terrible times in history that we've not learned much about, but still, open calls for the extermination of the Jews? Really? How can that ever have occurred even on this benighted planet? How?
But a main part of the theme of fallenness is that God is judging us and that the worse things get in terms of our violations of God's :aw the more of God's wrath comes against us. People who don't believe in the Biblical God impute an increase in evil and even natural disasters to human causes which gets us insane theories about coimate change that are going only going to make it all worse. Correction: making it all worse just takes us to more of God's wrath even though we aren't caling it that.
If the terrorists had any notion at all of the true God and His Law their eager violence against the Jews and other "infidels" would get quickly dampened by the knowledge that they are facing a terrible Hell and not seventy virgins. If the people who are pushing all this transgender stuff had any notion of God's Laws they'd know that theyu too are storing up God's wrath against themselves. They'd rather blame other people for their supposed transphobia, and all that, but no, it's God who makes the rules, in fact God's Law just IS, it's not something He applies as He decides in each case, it's part of His nature and acts inexorably against every violation of it. The Eastern religions have an imperforce idea of it in the notion of Karma, but the point is that we're talking about a Law that operates in this universe that cannot be affected by any attempts we make to undo its effects. We can repent, change and do good works and then we will be accumulating better things for ourselves but that isn't going to eradicate the bad things. The only thing that can eradicate the bad things is Christ's death on the cross in our place IF WE BELIEVE IN HIM and put all ourt our trust in Him.
I rtI think of this heretic Richard Rohr whose teachings I've been listening to so avidly for a while now. He denies God's wrath, he denies the crucifixion as atonement for sin, says it's too violent to be what God intended, in these and other ways he denies the Bible as God's word although he likes to say how much he appreciates the Bible. A lot of the Bible he simply rewrites to suit his preferred idea of how things ought to be , but some of it he simply denies outright. He ridicules the idea that God is masculine, attributin gthat notion to us tribal human beings who must think in such terms, whereas in reality it is God Himself in His inerrant Word to us who identifies Himself as masculine. And much more than that. He either rewrites the whole revelation of simply pooh poohs it out of existence as he substitutes his own philsophies in its place.
And that shakes me up when I think of people actually beleiving what he is teaching and trying to live by it. Cathllic teaching is already problematic since it is few Catholics who live entirely for Jesaus or even know the gospels at all according ot the traditions that Rohr is denyhing them, so salvation for a Catholic is very iffy anyway,bbut if they follow Rorhr they are simply digging their own tunnels to Hell. AND very probably adding to the stored up ratath that is coming on this Planet even before they die.
What could save us and save the planet ? Well, believing in Christ for sure, but also taking the Law seriously and repenting of it and turning back as much of the vioollations of that Law as we can before it is too late. Gay marriage is bfiringing wrath on us, abortion is bringing wrath on us, pornographny is bringing wrath on us, anything done by our government that violates God's Law is bringing God's wrath on our nation.
When I look at it all this way I know it's all over. Nobody is going to change at this late date, or to be more accurate, not enough are going to change.
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