The VOICE of Prophecy! Final Fulfillment Edition, 20/20
PAGE 12 – Let’s Talk About DEATH!
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“Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 3:19 NIV)
BUT IS THIS RIGHT? IS “EVERYTHING MEANINGLESS?”
If “everything is meaningless,” why even bother? WHAT’S THE POINT? You might even argue, and some do, that we’re “BETTER OFF DEAD!” Sadly, for a very few, and I do mean a very few, Charlie Gard among them, THIS IS TRUE. But for the vast, overwhelming majority of us; including the downtrodden, sick, mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically and or spiritually impaired (or disabled) IT’S GOOD TO BE ALIVE – for where there is life, there’s hope! (As a former college friend and I sometimes quipped “Hope springs eternal;” and we believe it!)
DEATH IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE. It is only in our “modern,” Western, sanitised, dehumanised societies that we have been lamentably estranged and divorced from it! NOTE, I do not say that death is a “good thing,” I’m telling you that it is a REAL THING; but most of us go about our lives (blessed never to have seen famine, disease epidemics and war up-close) in a state of UNREALITY! I am thankful for many things; one is that a brother and I were at my father’s bedside when he died in hospital in 2005.
WESTERN CULTURE accepts games whose objects are to rob, kill, maim and destroy as suitable entertainment? COULD THIS “MINDSET” ALSO INURE US TO THE REAL SUFFERING OF OTHERS, whether they be near or far away? We are living in a schizophrenic age; trying to make sense of the nonsensical; and live harmoniously with a dichotomy in the fabric of our culture: our technology and philosophical outlook drives us to ever more individual “silos” (the highest goal, apparently “self-fulfilment?”), while our biological, an human nature calls us to live in interdependent, society with our “kith and kin,” and those who should be our “neighbours.” IT ‘S LIKE THE AGE OLD SPIRITUAL BATTLE OF “SELFISHNESS” vs. “SELFLESSNESS!” It’s love versus hate.
IN THIS AGE we have been convinced by “God knows who” (and He does know who), that we should place ourselves at the centre of the universe, and that the world revolves around us! This is just as dangerous of the EARLIER ERA, when we (the vast majority of plebeians) were convinced by our “betters” that we were un-worthy riff-raff who should know and keep in our place. (Of course, the infrastructure of the “old order” hasn’t disappeared, but merely morphed with modern technology. And while we have witnessed a huge rise in the “middle class,” and increases in “social mobility;” the old aristocracies and oligarchies are spectacularly richer and more powerful than they ever were before!)
DEATH OF A LOVED ONE is very often painful and BEWILDERING for the family and friends who remain. And where the death is tragic and seems both avoidable and unnecessary, it is all the more distressing, and as we witnessed with the survivors of GRENFELL TOWER (in Kensington), a source of great anger. As loving, “signed up” members of the human race, we do everything we can to help our fellow inhabitants on earth – And we saw a heart-warming out-pouring of fellow-feeling from many in proximity to Grenfell Tower; and indeed around the world; as we so often do in many a tragedy, both at home and abroad. BUT IT SHOULD BE NOTED; THOSE WITH THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY TO HELP; THOSE WITH THE POWER AND AUTHORITY, DID LITTLE OR NOTHING!
ALL THROUGH HISTORY, human social developments: religion, philosophy, government, agriculture, medicine, science, education, technology, have been a matter of trial and error – the first people who tried to fly, plumb the ocean depths, climb the highest mountains or experimented with fire probably all died in their pursuit; but over time lessons were learned, and later inventors and explorers succeeded where earlier pioneers failed. The problem for humanity is our path of progression is blind, so we often don’t know until later if we have taken a wrong direction; AND we not only don’t ALWAYS LEARN FROM LESSON, we often repeat the SAME MISTAKES!
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH:
(THE DEVELOPERS OF NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY were very apprehensive about the scientific progress they were making; they could see the potential for harm (nuclear warfare) as well as the good, abundant power. And sure enough, the first significant use of nuclear energy was to DESTROY hundreds of thousands of lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan (History says to shorten WW2, but a negotiated settlement was in hand had the US chosen that path).
I’M JUST OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER the nuclear accidents at Windscale (Sellafield) in England (1957), 3-MILE ISLAND in America (1979), and Chernobyl in Russia, 1986 (there are doubtless others I know nothing about!). The potential for accidents in the production of nuclear energy is very real: who can forget Fukushima, Japan in 2011? Even when these hugely expensive plants are running “safely,” according to plan; still no safe method for the disposal of NUCLEAR WASTE has been devised – We are simply storing up disasters for the future. YET, the building of nuclear power stations is “a part of the mix” to save us from suffocating our planet; wiping out Polynesian islands and low-lying land, and promoting floods in some regions and forest fires in others around the globe!
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2) will be in the cinemas next month. I watch the trailer last night – It looks like a very persuasive watch; but I wonder if it isn’t already to too late? The changes AL GORE (possibly one of the better presidents America never had) is advocating, many of which are being developed by China and in Europe, will not be implemented federally in the US, who since DONALD TRUMP took office has castigated America’s NATO allies, reneged on TTIP (trade deal); and perhaps most significantly withdrawn America from The Paris Accord on Climate Change. THIS, against a back-drop of a RISE IN THE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE, and an increasingly marginalised and belligerent NORTH KOREA; firing off intercontinental missiles left, right and centre in an open challenge to America in defiant pursuit of a nuclear arsenal.
AND WE CAN’T ESCAPE the fact that individually, we in the West in particular, are contributing to the destruction of our planet and the species on which we depend. As a car owning, meat-eating, computer addicted smart-phone user, I hold up my hands to casting more than an average “carbon footprint!” Cutting back (which I should do) will only slow down the inevitable – The monies have already been invested in the “industries” that will reek the next wave of environmental destruction. Electric cars won’t save the planet as there’ll never be enough renewable energy to power them.)
LIFE AND DEATH should be viewed in their “historical context.” This should never minimise our compassion for the individual and families who grieve them; but it will hopefully help us to understand the enormous privilege of being alive, and seek to make our lives even more PURPOSEFUL than we do already. Because we in the West have gone for 3 generations without a major war, which were common to most other periods in history; we have a distorted view of our mortality – THE FABULOUSLY LONG LIVES projected for many in the affluent, northern hemisphere will only be achieved if WAR, DISEASES, and FAMINES that once plagued us here and continue to assault the southern hemisphere continue to be averted.
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PAGE 12 – Let’s Talk About DEATH!