January 19 2022
THE ROAD TO HELL, OR….
“But something darker and deeper seems to be happening as well — a long-term loss of solidarity, a long-term rise in estrangement and hostility. This is what it feels like to live in a society that is dissolving from the bottom up as much as from the top down.”
That’s a quote from David Brooks in the New York Times January 14. He cites a wide range of facts and figures, from increases in traffic deaths, accelerating murder statistics, a rise in violent and irrational behavior, and general lawlessness. He does not understand why.
Well, I do.
It does not take much of Bible knowledge to grasp what is really happening. I call it the Matthew 24 syndrome: it makes fascinating reading. Jesus has the prophetic eye and the intrinsic insight that lends credibility to his words. He can spot the trends and, knowing human nature, directly extrapolates what sinful humanity will commit to in the future, which is now unfolding.
Today we have reached the plateau of human ingenuity, and with natural resources depleting, and all elements, air, water, land, under increasing stress, it’s downhill from here. As Seneca observed 2,000 years ago, “Increases in growth are sluggish but the road to ruin is rapid”.
Today we are on that road. C.S Lewis pinpointed it accurately when he wrote: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
That’s the road we have taken, the more traveled one, when we, 150 years ago, chose the exploitation of the earth as our gateway to prosperity. Now we are, undoubtedly, on the path to perdition.
Matthew 24.
Matthew 24: 6-8 mentions ‘wars and rumors of war, famines, earthquakes: the beginnings of birth pains.’
Look around: Today Russia threatens Ukraine. China threatens Taiwan. Iran threatens Israel. Global Heating threatens the entire world. When unity of purpose is needed to combat the pandemic and climate change, the United States is a house divided.
Matthew 24 paints a scenario that has an uncanny resemblance to today. Yet, our society, both business and politics, lives in a bubble of illusion, believing that, by tweaking here and there, we can continue our way of life as if nothing is basically off balance.
Unpredictable times?
It is said that we now are living in un-predictable times, given the pandemic and climate change. The final 2021 issue of The Economist, editorializes that “The era if predictable unpredictability is here to stay”.
Nothing is further from the truth. This assumption would have applied to the year 1900 when, after 100 years of solitude, the unfolding of the next 100 years, caused hundreds of millions of violent deaths. Now we know exactly what will be in store for us: ever worsening economic, social and climatic conditions, without any chance of improvement. As C. S. Lewis coined it 60 years ago: we are on the road to hell, and nothing can possibly deter us. Any effort to soften the impact through technology or chemical solutions, through Artificial Intelligence or military options, will simply backfire and cause more deterioration.
Brace yourself.
Already the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and South America, where the summer of 2022 has started, the heat is building up and droughts accelerates. Last year’s La Nina – supposedly having a cooling effect – still made 2021 among the hottest ever. Now, with 2022 and the onset of El Nino, hellish heat is a safe prediction. Says Matthew 24: 21:
“For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” That’s a sure prediction.
Earthquakes.
Scientists warn that, as the world heats up, to expect more earthquakes. And true: every day we read reports how the Ring of Fire around the Pacific is rumbling and roaring. Here too there are biblical predictions: Both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament repeatedly warn of an enormous earthquake, especially in Revelation 6 and 11.
What must we do?
The entire Bible has been written with this very end in mind. Matthew 5: 48 translates “teleios” as perfect: “be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”. Teleios points to the new creation, points to ‘perfection’, now not yet possible. The root of ‘teleios’ is ‘telos’, which means ‘end’ or ‘goal’. Our aim in life must reflect pure and permanent living, loving creation unconditionally: Only that prepares us for eternity. The alternative, the easy road, the prevalent one, advertised a thousand times per day, causing social conditions David Brooks does not understand, is the road to hell, now clearly outlined.
Remember the murderer next to Jesus on the cross: conversions are possible!