He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                                                                        Revelation 21: 5.

TA PANTA.

Ta Panta is no baby talk, imitating a 2-years old trying to say something. If it is Greek to you, you are correct: the words appear in that precious passage of Colossians 1: 15-20, of which verse 16 says: For in him all things were created: “All things” = Ta Panta.

The same ‘Panta’ expression also appears in the above text, ‘everything’. But… yes, the eternal ‘but’: but something has changed since Jesus created ‘all things’ perfectly. Now, in describing the world situation 2,000 years later, these same ‘all things’ need total renewal: Jesus added an affirmation, such as ‘You can bet your life on this: that renewal is coming.’

Long ago, God, in his wisdom, or perhaps in his foolishness – The Bible does use that term somewhere – gave creation to humanity. Psalm 115: 16 plainly says: The highest heaven belongs to the Lord, but the earth he has given to humanity. God trusted us to do the right thing.

This text reminds me of 2 Corinthians 12, where the apostle Paul recalls an unforgettable experience: He was somehow allowed to have a glimpse of God’s abode, and, in his words, was lifted up to ‘the third heaven’.

In Paul’s understanding, the heavens consist of three parts: First ‘the air’ in which we live, that section under the ozone layer; then the second ‘heaven’ where the stars and planets play their parts, and beyond there, the third heaven, there’s where God lives in ‘inapproachable light, who nobody can see and nobody has seen’. (1 Timothy 6: 16).

That’s why the English translation of the Lord’s Prayer is incorrect: In the Greek the word ‘heaven’ is plural, correctly translated in the French, German and Dutch version of the prayer the Lord taught us. The true reading therefore, is: Our Father who art in the ‘heavens’.

Back to today, where the vexing question is: “Is AI, Good or Bad, a sign of the last days?” I wonder, what role is AI going to play in Ta Panta.

The short answer: A lot.

AI will replace God. Try to, anyway. Look at the latest: a warning that the effects of A.I. could be “larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame.”  

Actually, AI and its effects, reminds me of the New Creation, and also of Genesis, the conditions in the aftermath of the Fall.

Before the Fall, the human pair simply ate from the great variety of the fruits, available from the multitude of trees present in Paradise. Felt hungry? There is a cure for it, hanging out, begging for consumption.

BUT.

That ‘but’ again. Adam and Eve, in their impatience, in their lack of reverence, in their lapse of gratitude, in their failure to reciprocate, in their omission to respond in kind, by displaying a degree of superiority, they offended the Giver, the Creator.   

The result?

Paradise lost. Trees Gone. Their access to perfect living vanished. Agriculture ascended. First digging up the earth, now done with monstrous machines.

The glaring irony is that, before the settlers came, the prairies supported millions of buffaloes, eating prairie grass. We now ‘cultivate’ that same region to feed cattle. Stupidity in spades.

So, how will this foolishness end?

Are the indigenous Hopi people correct? These native Americans have a prophecy that the 4th world, which is us, would end in fire.

The Father, in the beginning, called Creation ‘very good, seven times. Now, in the End, in Revelation 21, surveying the world scene, Jesus discovers that everything, ta Panta, has turned from good to bad. He sees that the very air, every drop of water, each molecule of earth, has become contaminated, and need to be made new. While I am writing this, the sky is an ominous orange, due to forest fires. Is this a sign of the end?

There is hope!

Revelation 22 pictures – as in the beginning – how fruit trees each month offer a different menu. One of the most intriguing texts of the Bible, is found in this very last chapter: On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

Made New?  Not new, but re-newed. How? And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

“The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Google tells me that Earth is home to approximately 3.04 trillion trees. This breaks down to about 422 trees for every living person. However, this number has been heavily impacted by human activity, representing a 46% decrease from the roughly 6 trillion trees that existed before the dawn of human civilization.

I believe that the longevity of early humans, measuring in hundreds of years, was due to the rich air we need every few seconds. Just imagine the hundreds of trillions of leaves accumulating, doing their medicinal function.

A very good friend sent me a new book by Robin Wall Kimmerer: “The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World”.

Robin Wall is a true prophetess. She, more than almost all preachers, describes  the biblical approach to living in these last days, where war, heat, pollution, dominate.

Fortunately: He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

NEWNESS IS NEEDED.

AI versus EI

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

                                                                        Revelation 21: 5.

I am on a discovery trip this week. Exploring human wisdom, versus divine wisdom. Or, basically, God versus Satan, the perennial battle that has   dominated human history from its inception.

Already Adam and Eve were duped by this distinction. We are now witnessing the culmination of this duel, in the form of AI=Artificial Intelligence versus CI = Creational Intelligence.  Adam and Eve, in their infancy, so to say, utterly green in dealing with evil were faced with this test. They failed.

There is a striking example of this eternal battle – it never stopped – in early Genesis. There in Genesis 2: 9 trees are described: “pleasing to the eye and good for food,” aesthetics before utility. In the next chapter, Genesis 3: 6, the order is reversed: “Trees good for food, and pleasing to the eye.”

Greed has replaced beauty, or, in today’s parlance, “Artificial Intelligence has outed Creational Intelligence.” It’s that very battle that is reaching a climax today, and it started in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the world then, ruled by God’s love for Creation. How about data centres?

Caution is called for.

The warnings about AI are multiplying: “Artificial intelligence poses a “Hiroshima”-style risk to humanity if governments do not agree to curb how it is developed”, the British foreign secretary has warned. Just one of the many cries for caution. How about Data Centres?

There is a task here for the Church, and Pope Leo has made a good beginning, citing AI as the modern version of The Tower of Babel.

However, this time, in an age of human ‘maturity’, God will not intervene as he did with the Babel story: He will let matters develop, fully well knowing the End.”I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. (Deuteronomy 32: 20). That’s us he is referring to.

Back to making new.

 

I have this theory, based on the words of Augustine, that early church father, who wrote, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not”.

 

So, when Jesus categorically states that he will make everything new, he, in reality, also says, “I want you to start that renewal process!” Us? Slaves to technology?

 

AI: Good or Bad? How about Data Centres?

 

In a certain sense, I approve of AI, relying on 1 Thessalonians 5: 21: Examine all things; retain that which is good. But what really makes me tick, truly fires my adrenalin, is: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”, as the first chapter of Proverbs tell us.

 

A familiar text, I admit.  I interpret it to mean for us to be constantly awed by the intricacy of creation, and always, always, without letup, keep its wellbeing in mind, while living LIFE to the full. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous”, writes Paul in Romans. Loving Creation means Loving God.

 

However.

I also agree with Luther, when he wrote, “Human wisdom is more inclined to underwrite the Law of Moses, than the law of the Gospel”. Can you recall that law? Of course, you can! “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

I believe that finally – perhaps too late – we have learned to understand the Jesus’ summation of the law of love, and interpret it a bit more concretely. After all: There is John 3: 16, which explains God’s Love and how we must follow Jesus in loving ‘the Cosmos’.

Frankly, we tend to merely pay lip service Jesus’ sacrifice, as our entire lifestyle is wrapped up in doing the opposite. We now tend to major in minors, such as we having sexual ethics dictated by the social and political concerns of the imperial cultures among which Christianity has made its bed, rather than loving one’s neighbor, regardless.

I have been reading many commentaries on AI, and have become increasingly convinced that we are employing a force that has the potential to challenge the ultimate authority, just as the infamous Tower of Babel threatened to do.

AI has the analytical ability to infiltrate all the contents of our communications, and report back sophisticated questions about our whereabouts and activities: Just like God, it can read our most secret writings! The result will be a kind of supercharged societal level of chilling effects where fear, self-censorship and groupthink reign, and dissent, creativity and innovation become increasingly rare. Jesus sets us free. AI enslaves.

Jesus will make ‘everything’ new. We must start that process now.

Yes: Jesus makes all things new. We are simply called to be ‘followers of ‘newness’. Our openness for things new distinguishes Christians from all the established religions which are set in stone for all ages to come. We always must look for LIFE and its implications, where newness also dominates.

Even though AI is fast,

In EI race, it comes in last.

EI is Infinite. AI is finite.

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD.

Where John the Baptizer was the Pro-Christ Prophet and the outspoken Pro-Creation fighter, living on wild honey and carbon-rich locusts, and so ‘prepared the Way of the Lord’, Donald Trump is doing the same in the exact opposite way: Anti-Christ and Anti-Creation, and so rushing in what 2 Peter: 10 prophesied: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will burn with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

With our world today centered on “Football/Soccer”, I feature this week an episode from my book DAY WITHOUT END, picturing a possible sport scenario in which humans and animals interact quite concretely.

A REALLY UNIQUE ‘FOOTBALL’ GAME.

The sounds of many people and animals can no longer escape us: the roaring voices of lions, the trumpeting of elephants, the snorting sound of bears are plainly audible. Curiosity gets the better of us. What could be happening?

Ina large valley, we see animals: lions, tigers and bears. Huge bears, grizzly bears. They are all in motion, running, jumping, kicking. They are kicking a ball! Elephants are trumpeting, calling on all people who are arriving in droves. The air is electrified with excitement. I ask some people nearby what is happening.

“There is going to be a game,” they reply, “Some sort of ball competition between lions and tigers.”

Sure enough, bears wait at either end to be the goalies. Elephants extend their trunks until they touch, forming the goal-posts. Monkeys are ready to fetch the ball when it goes out of bounds or when somebody scores.

I see te animals huddle together around a man who stands in the centre, explaining the rules.

The session is over. A few lions need some clarification, but the elephants are off already, wobbling quickly to the ends of the field. The grizzlies race them for it. A pair of tigers try out the goalie who proves to be quite agile in catching the ball, standing on his hind legs. While he stretches, he almost touches the extended trunks. The elephants do not move one inch.

Who is the referee, I wonder, and who are manning the lines? Then I see some eagles overhead. One sharp-eyed bird is hovering over the centre. He holds a large ball in his claws. Other eagles are flying over the edges of the field, apparently on the watch for any out of bounds ball. I am sure that no infraction will escape their attention.

But who is the referee? Is it the person who has given the instruction to the animals?

I count twenty tigers and eighteen lions on the field. I hear a sharp whistle and promptly a number of animals leave and settle on the side lines. The others arrange themselves in a proper position, just as in the many human soccer games I have watched.

I can sense the tension. The referee? “It is Jesus,” the man next to me whispers, as Jesus walks to the centre. He places the ball, which the huge eagle has dropped in his arms, on the dotted spot. The eagle remains overhead, slowly circling above the middle of the field.

Now there is a moment of silence. Total silence to honour the Silence who made all this possible. Even the crickets are quiet. Then the birds begin to sing, one first. A nightingale, so pure, so clear, so uplifting, that soon other birds join in. Still the ball lies there, untouched.

I listen to the concert, but my eyes are locked on the ball and so are the eyes of thousands of onlookers.

How long will this last?

The animals tense up. They stand, waiting for the signal to start.

Jesus looks up to the eagle, who wags his wings.

Then the whistle blows.

The centre lion looks up. He moves his head from right to left to make doubly sure that his forwards are in place. His tail whips up and down. Then he jumps, and with his hind legs skillfully passes the ball to the lion behind him, while he runs way ahead to the goal.

The game is on. The ball sails through the sky, a long pass to the left corner.

A tiger intercepts it on his head and swiftly passes it to another teammate who lets it roll to the goalie. The grizzly throws a long, high ball to the middle of the field.

The crowd is in motion too, following the game with rapt attention. I see Jesus run up and down the field with a swiftness I had never thought him capable of, but then I had never pictured Jesus as a referee in a game such as this.

The whistle blows. The eagle on the right line has detected an offside: the tigers have been a bit too eager.

Free kick for the lions.

The tension mounts, a pleasant tension, as winning is not important. Only the sheer delight of the playing counts, the display of skill, the marvel of animals acquiring such talent. Not a circus in the old world could ever have remotely approached this extra-ordinary entertainment: so delightful are the skillful passes, the marvelous motions of running, the vaulting through the air in pursuit of an elusive ball. It all adds up to a scene of amazing cheer and amusement.

I have always been an ardent soccer fan, have even attended international soccer matches. But never a game such as this.

It makes my legs itch to go out and play soccer as well and when half time comes and the animals go to the sidelines, the eagle picks up the ball and throws it to me. How, I wonder, does he know my wish? Never mind. I dribble the ball to the centre, and, as if by magic twenty-one other players appear. We have a quick conference, the goalies are placed between the stalwart elephants, and we supply the half-time entertainment.

We don’t have the speed, the cunning, the agility the tigers and the lions have, but what fun! It is sheer joy to run the field, pass the ball, trying out new techniques, so easily done here because of our superior body condition and the unadulterated air.

What a joy, to run, to fly, to kick, to jump, to live. What a delight to do the impossible, to play against others who also do the impossible. The whole game is mathematically impossible, as we all are perfect players, kicking perfect shots, which cannot possibly be stopped, and yet are stopped, making perfect passes, which cannot possibly be intercepted, and yet are intercepted, as still some passes are more perfect than others.

What is perfect is the fun, the total abandon into sheer physical enjoyment, the outwitting of others, the rapturous pleasure of perfect co-ordination.

So far, the episode in my book, DAY WITHOUT END.

Look forward to THE Day.

PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD.

Where John the Baptizer was the Pro-Christ Prophet and the outspoken Pro-Creation fighter, living on wild honey and carbon-rich locusts, and so ‘prepared the Way of the Lord’, Donald Trump is doing the same in the exact opposite way: Anti-Christ and Anti-Creation, and so rushing in what 2 Peter: 10 prophesied: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will burn with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

With our world today centered on “Football/Soccer”, I feature this week an episode from my book DAY WITHOUT END, picturing a possible sport scenario in which humans and animals interact quite concretely.

A REALLY UNIQUE ‘FOOTBALL’ GAME.

The sounds of many people and animals can no longer escape us: the roaring voices of lions, the trumpeting of elephants, the snorting sound of bears are plainly audible. Curiosity gets the better of us. What could be happening?

Ina large valley, we see animals: lions, tigers and bears. Huge bears, grizzly bears. They are all in motion, running, jumping, kicking. They are kicking a ball! Elephants are trumpeting, calling on all people who are arriving in droves. The air is electrified with excitement. I ask some people nearby what is happening.

“There is going to be a game,” they reply, “Some sort of ball competition between lions and tigers.”

Sure enough, bears wait at either end to be the goalies. Elephants extend their trunks until they touch, forming the goal-posts. Monkeys are ready to fetch the ball when it goes out of bounds or when somebody scores.

I see te animals huddle together around a man who stands in the centre, explaining the rules.

The session is over. A few lions need some clarification, but the elephants are off already, wobbling quickly to the ends of the field. The grizzlies race them for it. A pair of tigers try out the goalie who proves to be quite agile in catching the ball, standing on his hind legs. While he stretches, he almost touches the extended trunks. The elephants do not move one inch.

Who is the referee, I wonder, and who are manning the lines? Then I see some eagles overhead. One sharp-eyed bird is hovering over the centre. He holds a large ball in his claws. Other eagles are flying over the edges of the field, apparently on the watch for any out of bounds ball. I am sure that no infraction will escape their attention.

But who is the referee? Is it the person who has given the instruction to the animals?

I count twenty tigers and eighteen lions on the field. I hear a sharp whistle and promptly a number of animals leave and settle on the side lines. The others arrange themselves in a proper position, just as in the many human soccer games I have watched.

I can sense the tension. The referee? “It is Jesus,” the man next to me whispers, as Jesus walks to the centre. He places the ball, which the huge eagle has dropped in his arms, on the dotted spot. The eagle remains overhead, slowly circling above the middle of the field.

Now there is a moment of silence. Total silence to honour the Silence who made all this possible. Even the crickets are quiet. Then the birds begin to sing, one first. A nightingale, so pure, so clear, so uplifting, that soon other birds join in. Still the ball lies there, untouched.

I listen to the concert, but my eyes are locked on the ball and so are the eyes of thousands of onlookers.

How long will this last?

The animals tense up. They stand, waiting for the signal to start.

Jesus looks up to the eagle, who wags his wings.

Then the whistle blows.

The centre lion looks up. He moves his head from right to left to make doubly sure that his forwards are in place. His tail whips up and down. Then he jumps, and with his hind legs skillfully passes the ball to the lion behind him, while he runs way ahead to the goal.

The game is on. The ball sails through the sky, a long pass to the left corner.

A tiger intercepts it on his head and swiftly passes it to another teammate who lets it roll to the goalie. The grizzly throws a long, high ball to the middle of the field.

The crowd is in motion too, following the game with rapt attention. I see Jesus run up and down the field with a swiftness I had never thought him capable of, but then I had never pictured Jesus as a referee in a game such as this.

The whistle blows. The eagle on the right line has detected an offside: the tigers have been a bit too eager.

Free kick for the lions.

The tension mounts, a pleasant tension, as winning is not important. Only the sheer delight of the playing counts, the display of skill, the marvel of animals acquiring such talent. Not a circus in the old world could ever have remotely approached this extra-ordinary entertainment: so delightful are the skillful passes, the marvelous motions of running, the vaulting through the air in pursuit of an elusive ball. It all adds up to a scene of amazing cheer and amusement.

I have always been an ardent soccer fan, have even attended international soccer matches. But never a game such as this.

It makes my legs itch to go out and play soccer as well and when half time comes and the animals go to the sidelines, the eagle picks up the ball and throws it to me. How, I wonder, does he know my wish? Never mind. I dribble the ball to the centre, and, as if by magic twenty-one other players appear. We have a quick conference, the goalies are placed between the stalwart elephants, and we supply the half-time entertainment.

We don’t have the speed, the cunning, the agility the tigers and the lions have, but what fun! It is sheer joy to run the field, pass the ball, trying out new techniques, so easily done here because of our superior body condition and the unadulterated air.

What a joy, to run, to fly, to kick, to jump, to live. What a delight to do the impossible, to play against others who also do the impossible. The whole game is mathematically impossible, as we all are perfect players, kicking perfect shots, which cannot possibly be stopped, and yet are stopped, making perfect passes, which cannot possibly be intercepted, and yet are intercepted, as still some passes are more perfect than others.

What is perfect is the fun, the total abandon into sheer physical enjoyment, the outwitting of others, the rapturous pleasure of perfect co-ordination.

So far, the episode in my book, DAY WITHOUT END.

Look forward to THE Day.

ON LIVING AND DYING AND LIVING AGAIN.

I can only write what my memory allows me to write. So, the better my recall-capacity, the more I can remember, the larger is my repertoire of recollection.

I know: with increasing age the past suffers, and, perhaps, events become selective with the favorable retained, and the not so good experiences suppressed. I admit: Homo sum: I am a fallible fellow.

Yet. I find myself in a somewhat more advantageous position than most of my contemporaries.  I am grateful that my body, soul, and spirit are in good working order, and my capacity to think back, seems unimpaired. To me, anyway. Perhaps I am deluding myself, as there are few witnesses alive to repute my past events, so you have to take my word for it.

Why do I live?

I believe that I am alive to live. LIVE in capital letters. Jesus emphatically stated this truth, recorded in John 10: 10: “I have come to bring LIFE and that to the full.” Only an alive person can fulfill that pledge, alive meaning a full orbed existence: not only in good physical shape, but in full accordance with the Latin dictum: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, a sound mind in a sound body. We are a unity. I enthusiastically endorse the totality of the human: we are not only a body: we also are a soul. The whole human soul is in the whole human body and thus in every part of the body, just as God is present in the entire universe.

The body dies, the soul lives on.

Jesus never mentioned ‘death’: he always corrected the mourners by calling ‘death’ by its proper name: ‘Sleep’.

This connotation has theological implications, because this sleep is not permanent. As a believing Christian I confess that there comes a wake-up call. That awakening comes for all who ever lived. And then there is that dreaded conclusion: Judgement.

Here is what Google tells me:

Depending on the translation, the word spelled “judgement” (with an “e”) appears approximately 100 times in the Bible (e.g., in the King James Version, it appears 112 times). If you include the American spelling “judgment” (no “e”), the word appears over 400 times in standard concordances.

There is no escape. One of the laws of ecology states: Nothing comes free.

There always is a final reckoning: That’s the wake-up call. The Bible is totally unambiguous on that score.

More about death.

The first time I saw ‘death’, was in the summer of 1940, when my mother’s farther, my Opa, suddenly died at 70. Heart attack. All his life he had worked on his farm, burning off his rich in cholesterol diet and continued this same regime in retirement.

I still can picture him in his glass-covered coffin, in the church hall where he had been an elder. A big fly buzzing about his face. He was ‘at rest’, and so was his spirit.

My wife of 67 years died close to 6 years ago, in her 93d year. Not died, but asleep. I know. In my dreams she often is a silent presence. Always in the background. It will be different for me when I will meet her again in eternity. Changed, as I too have changed physically and mentally. In eternity, men and women will be totally equal: Both of us being totally human, totally reflecting our full humanity. No more sexually different, yet distinct female and male. Any further description is mere speculation, except, in Jesus’ words, we all will be like the angels in heaven. Yes, sex-less.

And then there is hell……

Back to the ‘spirit’ angle, and more speculation: Where does hell enter the picture? With the fading away of going to heaven – the renewed earth being our eternal habitat – so a physical hell too has disappeared. Where is hell?

I am starting to believe that – in our soul-saturated afterlife – we all will rehash, recollect, be forced to review in intricate detail, the totality of our lives from beginning to end, from birth to death, and nakedly face the consequences of our actions, such as that cup of drink to a thirsty person, but also our refusal to do so. We will see where Jesus touched us, but also where we brushed him off.

I know, there also are the Hitlers, the Stalin sort, the Mother Teresa type, the God-fearing pious and the Goddam deniers.

These times from death/sleep to awakening/judgement will, for many, be a frightening intermission, confronted with their genuine self.

Jesus saw all this, and said, “Many are called, and few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). He also said, looking to our times, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Paul writes: ”Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. (Philippians 2: 12). “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”. (Ephesians 2: 8).

ETERNAL LIFE IS A GIFT.

IS IT TOO LATE TO CHANGE?                  

“Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”                         Revelation 22: 11.

So, what does his text from the very last chapter in the Bible, really tell?

To me, in my guts, these words point the finger at me, in our oil-obsessed state, in our poisonous dependence on fossil fuels, enslaving me in the process.

To me it alludes that now, anno 2026, everything has become what it is, which means that the course of life for us Westerners, has been set, and no deviation, no turn from evil to good, is no longer possible.

Yes, that sounds scary. No wonder I have been called a pessimist.

To me it suggests that we have boxed ourselves in, we have burned our bridges to the past, and have set in motion Jesus’ prophetic words, as recorded in Matthew 24.

To me it appears that, among the very last words of the Bible, there is this terrible warning, this final reminder that everything is conspiring to conceal the Truth, that the ship of salvation is leaving the shore and that the number of passengers is fixed.

Is there an ‘Unless’, is there a ‘caveat’?

Yes, the fellow next to Jesus on Calvary’s hill had a last minute ‘metanoia’, so, yes, it’s never too late to embrace the radical change that the Greek word ‘metanoia’ implies.

That word points to a sudden turn, a new ‘way of life’, the embracing of an eternal lifestyle, a clean break with our polluting and destructive modern strife for ‘convenience’ and ‘gadget’ domination.

Metanoia indicates stopping, thinking and making a U turn. Metanoia implies reconsidering traveling the easy, mechanised way of moving, and taking ‘The Road less traveled.’

The Final Battle.

A return to rude reality reveals that the terrible truth is that the battle between Good, personified in Jesus and Evil, serving Satan, is reaching a climax. What we are witnessing in living color, is ‘the Final Battle’.

The terrible truth today is God has cursed our society with insanity. The pursuit of ‘economic growth’ by means of polluting and poisonous petrol products, is pure stupidity. We are denying the ‘Christian’ truth in church and everywhere, that truth being that we have been fashioned for an eternal marriage with God’s Holy Creation, as the previous chapters in Revelation reveal.

Today, not only are wars fought to extend our carbon dominance, we are also led by a ‘madman’, vastly accelerating the coming collapse.

We now have painted ourselves in a corner, have created a carbon-dominance, from which there is no escape.  

Why has this become the case?

The reason is simple. We have become embedded in a way of life from which there is no alternative anymore. All the preaching in the world cannot change our course of life, which inadvertently leads to creational collapse. Sad to say – but it must be said – is that, by and large, (Thank God, there are exceptions) most churches are part and parcel of this path to ‘prosperity’, sticking to the Heaven Heresy. Revelation 22:11,in the last Bible chapter, refutes that claim:

“Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”                        

Want more justification?

It now is generally acknowledged that we are in an age when unfixable problems are piling up: war, tyranny, housing shortages, climate change, a looming hot summer with high forest-fire risk, just to mention a few dangers.

We have also opened the AI Pandora’s box, at a time when the earth is in disarray. Today there is no world government that can impose constraints on the for-profit corporations currently controlling AI models and research. The US has no appetite to effectively and even-handedly regulate those corporations, even as they do catastrophic damage to the environment, democracy, and society in general. The Pope called AI “The Tower of Babel”.

And then there is El Nino, no ‘little brother’ anymore.

El Nino is on the way, coming as a judge in all the earth. God often punished

his people through natural disasters. He did this in Elisha’s time through years of drought; He is doing it again today. I agree with Bonhoeffer, God and Creation are like mother and child, a connotation spelled out in El Nino – the male child, and La Nina, its female counterpart. All part of the Creation family.

No Trinity but Quartinity?

I have suggested this before: there is more than a Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit: There is, actually, a Quartinity, and, just as Trinity, also of human origin. The Quartinity consists of Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, and God’s Creation: all four reveal God’s Power. God sent Christ to redeem the world, the cosmos, and again will use Creation, the innate forces of the Universe, to show his almighty power.

It’s never too late to change: Thank God. The Spirit will make the yoke easy and the burden light when trying to, now already, live the New Creation life. John 10:10 spells it out: Christ came to bring LIFE, and that in abundance.