Bits and Pieces 6

As you might expect, my humble drivel regarding Aaron Swartz is far better covered by the inimitable Glenn Greenwald. I don’t walk with Greenwald on everything, but if you need more conventional reasons to think this was a crucifixion for purely political gain, he nails it. My approach was mystical, of course, seeking to expose the moral fabric of the issue.
What Greenwald could not possibly cover in his columns is the vision I saw last night. Reviewing my own words on the issue of oppression, I was still mourning the depth of evil to which we’ve sunk and I saw a tableau where a considerable number of people slid off into Hell alive. The impact was thinking of all the horror of not even the mercy of dying first, but facing Satan while still in the flesh. Naturally that would mean an unspeakably horrific death right there, then facing eternity in his clutches. You can’t hang onto some inflated sense of self-righteous justice when you see things like that during your waking moments. All you can do is shiver and quake with thanksgiving your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
We are passing into an age of clarity and polarization. Don’t read that in the sense of some vast period of time, or signaling some new stage of human existence. It’s just another aspect of every period of tribulation in human history. It’s the nature of “That Day” in Scripture. God comes in a ferocious display of wrath against sin. To the degree you cling to sin, it will hurt. To the degree you cling to righteousness, you rejoice at His appearing. Few are holy enough to simply transition directly into Heaven as did Elijah and Enoch, but the scary thing is how many are slated to translate into Hell.
I can’t pretend to have a clue what will follow, whether any of us would see a measure of penitence as better times. I rather think the cataclysms, such as they may be, will leave humans more scattered and isolated than anyone could now imagine. I have no feel for the level of death and destruction, but I seriously doubt anyone living has any idea what’s coming. That’s because everyone plotting and conspiring has no idea what they are fooling with, and things no human can comprehend, much less control, will be unleashed and it will manifest God’s fury. I remain convinced it will be the end of Western Civilization. I suppose those who lose the most are those who cling most tightly to the vision of Western Civ as somehow God’s own idea.
Sure, an apocalypse of sorts, but not the final one by any means. Sorry, no timetable from me, either. On the other hand, I keep sensing I’ll see some of it with my own eyes.