MARCH 9 2019
BE NOT AFRAID
Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the Lord will be at your side
and will keep your foot from being snared.
Proverbs 3: 25-26
These are wise words when everything is trapped in tragic turmoil. I cannot recall a time when there was so much uncertainty about the future.
During the 1939-45 war in Europe and the Far East, there always was hope. Having consciously lived through that period I never noticed despair: people always believed in a better future. Although it was then forbidden to listen to the BBC – it was even illegal to own a shortwave radio – nevertheless we listened to London as the German news was truly FAKE. The Dutch broadcast from England always started with the line, “Hoe moeilijk de dag, hoe zwaar ook de tijding, we zijn weer een dag dichter bij de bevrijding”, translated as “However difficult the day, however much evil in the nation, we are one day closer to liberation”. That was the hope all of occupied Europe lived by.
Today we exist in a world where hope is on the way out. Of course the politicians deny this, and so they add to the confusion, but in the bottom of their hearts they too are scared.
We, citizens, hear mixed messages. On the one hand, to avoid global disaster in the form of a catastrophic temperature rise, we are told – while everything still seems sort of normal – to enact a much more sustainable lifestyle by lowering our carbon use, by cutting back on automobile use and flying, and, in general, live so that the use of fossil fuels is drastically reduced.
On the other hand, while Governments encourage these measures, yet they still aim for economic growth, they still approve oil pipelines, because they desperately need the extra income, as the call for public assistance is growing with an aging population requiring greater medical expense and increased pension outlay.
Combine this with a complete absence of vision, and the result is that psychic diseases accelerate and physical violence flourishes.
Of course the Bible has a line on that too,
“Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint”.
Proverbs 29:18.
Confusion is not confined to personal matters.
Take Brexit.
In three weeks, at the end of March, the person in charge – PM Theresa May – has no coherent plan to execute the parting of Great Britain from the European Union.
The vote, almost three years ago, was 52/48. After three years of haggling the political class has been unable to come to any serious conclusion about what kind of Brexit it wants. The result: confusion, the clear result of lack of wisdom:
“Where there is no
vision, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s
instruction”. Proverbs 29:18.
When people see that there is no real leadership, when there is no obvious strategy, they say, “the heck with it”, and become indifferent and also uncooperative, which leads to the opposite of wisdom.
The times are fascinating, nevertheless.
Last week I did something I seldom do: watch day-time TV. I followed Michael Cohen’s dramatic appearance. One of the most revealing lines of his testimony was,
“Given my experience working for Mr. Trump I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power, and that is why I agreed to appear before you today.”
For Trump, losing is the deepest form of humiliation, and humiliation is intolerable.
Just as voting for Brexit placed Great Britain in a state of total turmoil, so too choosing Trump for president placed the Devil in charge whose sole aim is to sow dissension and force people to make the wrong choices, precisely at the very point in history, when the deepest version of wisdom is called for.
Never argue.
In the past I have argued with people who favored Trump. Since then I have refrained from doing this, because voting for Trump is not a matter of reason: it is a matter of faith, and one cannot win a dispute that is not based on logic, or on commonsense or rationality but on some sort of fanatic belief beyond my comprehension. It’s the nature of faith that it cannot be proven.
My gut feeling is that the hidden, unacknowledged reason for a person preferring Trump or choosing Brexit is that “All my life I have been screwed, have been taken advantage of by the rich and the elite and especially by the politicians. I have been treated as dirt by everybody, and now I will take revenge.”
I believe a significant section of society – 40-50 percent –realize instinctively that there is no rhyme or reason to their stance, but, seeing no hope for improvement, and no longer having faith in promises, they, with the famous economist, John Maynard Keynes, shrug their shoulders because: “in the long run we are dead anyway.” And that may happen sooner than later.
Today we encounter pure NIHILISM, also evident in the Rapture phenomenon, which also has a religious component. Most American RAPTURE proponents are convinced that “true believers” will be fetched up to heaven and leave behind the sinners on the evil earth, while, actually, the opposite is true. More about that later.
So with Trumpians and with Brexiteers it’s no use to argue: their position is beyond reason, but the sad truth is that these unstated differences are ripping two countries apart, leaving both the USA and Great Britain more polarized than ever.
And worse is to come.
“Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint.
Proverbs 29:18.
We live in different times, godless times. No wonder people have lost their footing. Having grown up without any notion of religion, having endured 12 years of public schooling where God is never mentioned, where any reference to religion is systematically avoided, where the unspoken assumption is that the future will be like the past, a continuation of wealth and welfare, there suddenly looms a darker scenario, a less rosy prospect, especially for the male portion of the population.
One hundred or more years ago, when the machine age was just starting, younger men followed in their fathers’ footsteps and looked at the future with some confidence as tomorrow would be as yesterday: there was predictable continuity.
Even 68 years ago when I arrived in Canada the outlook was encouraging: I was able to build up an insurance business, expand it to include a real estate brokerage, and round off my business career with starting a real estate appraising career in a totally different geographical location.
Now everything has changed: anybody can be an appraiser, any bank employee, thanks to Google maps and readily accessible real estate sales information, can, with a little coaching, acquire sufficient comparable sales data to arrive at a reasonable opinion of value when a mortgage is required.
Also Artificial Intelligence and versatile robots will further eat into the job market, affecting especially men, further increasing confusion and anxiety.
The Revenge of Creation
And then there looms the Mother of All future-killing elements.
There’s a catastrophe of unimaginable
proportions unfolding. Life is disappearing from the Earth and all life could
be gone within one decade. Study after study is showing the size of the threat,
yet many people seem out to hide what we’re facing.
In the Arctic alone, four tipping points look set to be crossed within a few
years, perhaps as early as this summer:
- Loss of the Arctic sea ice’s ability to act as a buffer to absorb incoming ocean heat
- Loss of Arctic sea ice’s ability to reflect sunlight back into space (albedo)
- Destabilization of sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean
- Permafrost melt
Crossing these tipping points will trigger a number of feedbacks resulting in even more absorption of heat by the Arctic Ocean.
We already experience constant changes to the Jet Stream, and in the immediate future even more extreme weather can be expected. The greatest danger, however, is the release of seafloor methane. This will cause an immediate spike in temperature and further disastrous emissions from land such as methane, nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxide.
With
the permafrost melting, with more storms and forest fires, temperatures will rise
even more over the next few years as more black carbon and brown carbon is emitted
and more wood gets burned and more forest fires occur.
Can we still change course?
In
one word: NO.
And for that answer I again rely on the Bible.
There are several passages both in both the Old and the New Testament that give us a rather accurate picture of what awaits us, not in the distant future but soon, perhaps very soon.
All of you’ve heard of Noah and the Ark. Well, once that massive vessel had touched land again, God ( see Genesis 9) said, (verse 8-10):
“I now establish my covenant with you, and all humanity, and with every living creature that was with you”.
Verse 16 reaffirms this, “an everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
A covenant is a solemn treaty between two parties considered equals, in this case between God and us. In it we promised under oath to treat all of creation as divine, as holy.
Jump to Isaiah 24: 5-6,
“The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.”
The prophet Hosea connects human behavior with creational pain. Hosea 4: 2-3 tells us that,
“There’s only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery….. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.”
Please note: The Bible sees a direct connection between human moral conduct and climatic conditions. Of course: “everything is connected to everything else!”
The New Testament records the very words of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who calls himself the Son of Man, Humanity Personified. In Matthew 24, that terrible chapter, he said: (Verse 10), “In the end many will turn away from the faith… there will be an increase of wickedness …and distress unequaled…”
Foreseeing the false gospel of RAPTURE, he also gives the answer to that LIE. (Verse 38-39): The sinners will be “Eating and drinking until the flood came and took (all the sinners) away. That’s how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man!!”
In other words: God’s People remain(!) on the Earth!! The sinners vanish! The earth is ours FOREVER.
There are plenty of other indications in the Bible pointing to the time we live in. Take 2 Peter 3: 10,
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”
Then there is Revelation, the last Bible book.
Chapter 16 has the heading, The Seven Bowls of God’s wrath. They are: (1) painful diseases (Ebola, Aids), (2) everything in the seas dies, (3) including rivers and lakes, (4) the sun becoming dangerous: (5) terrible heat, (6) utter darkness, (no electricity?)
All these all events are occurring NOW.
Then to top it all, the seventh angel (verse 17) announces, “a tremendous earthquake, unequaled ever.”
Bonhoeffer has pointed out the task of the church:
“The Church of Christ witnesses to the end of all things. It lives from the end, it thinks from the end, it acts from the end, it proclaims its message from the end.
Because the church has failed to do this, universal confusion is the reigning mind-setter today; people don’t know where to turn; Climate Change is beyond repair; economic problems, especially debt-creation, have no other remedy than bankruptcy: all human efforts have become fraught with disastrous outcomes.
Nevertheless.
Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
for the Lord will be at your side
and will keep your foot from being snared.