Are World Events Bringing About The Biblical Armageddon?

Dear Reader,

I emerged out of World War Two as a one-year-old and what I encountered in the aftermath, as I grew up in a reasonably happy family in the UK, was a note of positivity. No one wanted any more wars after 10 years of extreme suffering spread over 30 years; 10 years in which many millions were killed or maimed. These wars had been too close to home. The UK was set back on its heels having been virtually bankrupted by a war effort to - ostensibly - retain a free world.

What the UK populace called for in 1945 was peace based on social justice and opportunity for all. A General Election brought a sea change in the kind of national government wanted, a government that was committed to much-improved education open to all and a healthcare system to replace the unaffordable to most system that was previously in place. These things happened, or were initiated, but not without experiencing severe austerity to help pay for it. But the fact that these changes happened created improvements that, unfortunately, many took for granted after a while. 

The point of those opening remarks was to illustrate that, not surprisingly, people at large do not want conflict, especially when it escalates into violence which they have experienced.

Unfortunately, the Western world (essentially the USA) - being in control of the world's economic resources, and also to combat the rise of Communism - decided to create a new world order based largely on materialism, with a notion of humanitarianism. Out of this approach, the hope was that the people of the world would rise out of poverty into freedom and, with much-improved education facilities, would cooperate in the development of a prosperous and free world. The result of all that was supposed to be peace.

That approach might have been achievable but for the fact life has since been lived with the implied threat of nuclear war. Further, by the 1980s the trend towards an expanded free market led to unrestrained greed. Basic human, selfish, nature was given free rope. There were major missing ingredients in the new order: a full understanding of true human values and the lack of understanding that over-developed materialism destroys the environment. And that there are limits to growth.

Nearly 80 years on from the end of World War Two, here we are with the world possibly in greater danger than it has ever been. The developed world has created the climate change situation and Western powers have been largely responsible for the creation of the migration crisis from the Middle East and Africa, while Russia under Putin wants to be known as a true superpower with the right to claim territories it sees as its own. The war in the Ukraine has now been virtually overshadowed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, again triggered by a Western power (the UK) that 100 years ago gave the Jews the right to settle in Palestine. Since then Palestine has been the centre of severe conflict.

On top of that, Western-originated technology has produced a generation that has been induced into gadgets, social media, violent and sensuous movies, and focusing on ways of life that could destabilise societies everywhere in the humanitarian search for happiness.

The meaningful aspects of Scripture have been subjugated by materialist values. What are we to make of all this? Is there a reason for hope for the future?

While my heart bleeds at the sight of massacred children and grieving mothers, the fact that I thoroughly believe in the existence of a Creative force in the Universe (call it God or what you will) leads me to be positive that all these things that have been gathering force are bringing mankind to its spiritual fulfillment in a way that modern science cannot explain. Politicians certainly don't understand.

Our only hope is to transcend from the suffering into Divine Love: we are all One.

Science, in fact, is reaching the conclusion that this world is an illusion. If so, if we don't really exist then what are we? The answer, of course, is that our true selves are spirit. We are here to evolve and realise our spiritual selves. The physical is temporary, Divine Love is the permanency. 'God' is not merely 'out there';  we are part of 'His' creation and our task is to make choices based on the approach of 'what would love do?'.

As ably put by Walter Starcke:

We will find peace and harmony when, despite all appearances, treaties, and boundaries, the Spirit of Love permeates our hearts and until how we relate to each other becomes more important than the results of individual gain.

And by Albert Einstein:

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

The alternative to all the bad news is, in fact, good news. The media has not yet noticed that other (spiritual and heart-warming) developments are taking place and gathering force. Peace will be the real outcome, but it is we who have to make the effort to achieve it.

On the question of whether the prophecy of Armageddon is being fulfilled, this video by the Sat Yoga Institute provides a perspective.

Be that as it may be, the ultimate outcome will be peace. There was a lady that lived in the USA who travelled North America for nearly 30 years, known only as 'The Peace Pilgrim'. This is an extract from her writings and is worth contemplating on:

There is a spark of good in everybody, no matter how deeply it may be buried. It is the real you. When I say ‘you’ what am I really thinking of? Am I thinking of the clay garment, the body? No, that’s not the real you. Am I thinking of the self-centered nature? No, that’s not the real you.The real you is that divine spark. Some call this the God-centered nature, others the divine nature and the Kingdom of God within. Buddhists know it as nirvana; the Hindus refer to it as the awakened soul; the Quakers see it as the Inner Light. In other places it is known as the Christ in you, the Christ Consciousness, the hope of glory, or the indwelling spirit. Even some psychologists have a name for it, the superconscious. But it is all the same thing dressed in different words.The important thing to remember is that it dwells within you!

Travelling from darkness into light.

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Thank you for reading this.