It feels like the end of the world is at hand

For years I believed that Jesus Christ was soon to return and destroy the earth. I lived with the hope that all the old would be destroyed and the world would be made anew. I longed for the day when evil would finally be vanquished and a just God would rule over all the earth.

When I left Christianity, some ten years ago, I had to dismiss this belief. First it certainly would not bode well for me if I believed that Christ would return, separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the chaff in eternal fire. Second, this idea of an end of the world from a Christian perspective in light of science just didn’t seem logical. I soon put down my spiritual ways and gravitated toward the realm of science and became skeptical of all things spiritual or unexplained. However, my independent study in various sciences such as biology, astronomy, and physics made me more spiritual in a sense.

No matter how far I tried to get from Christianity there was always something intuitively that did not want to forsake my original belief. One can write this off to a psychological attachment to my mother belief system but I know that this is not the case. For a long time I fought Christianity and attacked the belief I once held so dear. However, the more my understanding grew in Buddhism the more I could really appreciate and embrace the message of Christianity again. I realized that my problem was not with Jesus or God, instead it was with the rigid dogmatic adherence to the belief that the Bible is the only and infallible description of God. It was dualistic thinking, the idea that it had to be one way or the other that made me think I had to either be “for or against”

I do believe that the Bible was written and inspired by holy men and women but not all of it. Further more there is so much other literature that has been left out that does not agree with the conventional neatly packaged stuff or organized religion. How did I come to that conclusion? Intuitively and logically there are just some things that can not be reconciled with a compassionate God. Perhaps for others but for me many of the accounts, especially the whole Promised Land doctrine just didn’t sit right. There was a time in my life when I thought it was perfectly justified for Old Testament Heroes like Moses, Joshua, David, Saul, Samuel and the Judges to commit what would amount to genocide and ethnic cleansing in today’s world because they were acting under the direction of God.

That thinking, that being comfortable with the unthinkable, made me very insensitive to some of the most appalling events in my life time. I simply saw them as signs that pointed toward the end with little or no compassion for the poor beings who suffered such things. It has become clear to me that much of what is in the Bible is simply a spin campaign to justify murder, hate and division. It does not mean that the book itself is evil, that God does not exist or that there will be no “New Earth” and this is where I made the mistake. It’s not too uncommon that many Christians themselves do not accept everything that is in the Bible and in fact many have probably never read it completely through. Nevertheless, they still believe that it is the complete and only revelation of God.

I think that the over dependence on scripture to define ones spiritual experience kills the real engine of spirituality which is intuition. Certainly scriptures are good but I think they are best served to be a sort of guide. However, the real work is done in the actions of “loving your enemies” “doing for the least of these” “clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, supporting the widow, and praying without ceasing”. Now, I should say that this became very clear to me while in college studying theology. I learned that the Bible was not the Bible I thought it was. Meaning, there was certainly a lot more of man’s fingerprints than I thought for a book that was completely inspired by God. There were many instances where scribes and religious leaders clearly manipulated texts to fit in line with their own beliefs or simply just made mistakes.

The Bible is also Western Civilization’s primary source for prophecy, particularly the book of Revelation. Now, for the skeptic, Bible prophesies are nothing more than a fantastical control method imposed on believers by religious institutions. For the fundamentalist this is the hope when all the bad people are destroyed and burned for all eternity and all the good people finally get their reward. For me it simply echoes what spiritual human beings have been saying for years and intuitive people are sensing and that is a dramatic shift in consciousness.

This will not be the first time that the world as we know it will come to an end. There have been many consciousness shifts throughout human history and even in my life time I have observed quantum leaps in consciousness and the way society and the world at large think and act.

I get the sense, based on intuition and the research my intuition has led me to that the end of the world as I know and understand it is soon to come. The Mayan Calendar puts the date at the year 2012 and it would seem like we are right on schedule. A change in thinking for many people; a shift in consciousness would certainly too much to handle. I have since let go of belief in the dogmatic sense. I am learning every day that the universe is dynamic and connected and full of surprises, which are only surprises because of dualistic thinking. We are shocked by the things that do not agree with how we have convinced ourselves they are. The conscious transition from a materialistic consciousness to a spiritual one will be earth shattering and certainly feel like an eternal hell for those unable and unwilling to move with the flow.

The return of “Jesus Christ” may very well be an archetype for the return of a superior consciousness that is actually consciously co-created by all living beings. It is simply time and whether we are aware or unaware we are ending one state of consciousness to usher in another one.

I can’t give a date. I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t tell you how it will be but I feel it in the very core of my being. Perhaps the book of Revelation and its description of a New Heaven and a New Earth is a guide to what is to come. This change will be very unfortunate for many but the most fortunate thing is that all spiritual beings will be able to participate and be unified by a single consciousness that is not divisive or dogmatic or based on only one religious belief. There is hope for every body that wants a better world and is willing to live a life that centers on love and compassion for all living beings. It will be a day when there is no title for a believer; he or she will just be a more conscious spiritual being.