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Should I Stay or Should I Go?!

STRANGE PREACHER SUBSTACK INDEX ON SFN

It required a great power, a mighty influence, to free the thinking and living of the Western peoples from the withering grasp of a totalitarian ecclesiastical domination. Secularism did break the bonds of church control, and now in turn it threatens to establish a new and godless type of mastery over the hearts and minds of modern man. The tyrannical and dictatorial political state is the direct offspring of scientific materialism and philosophic secularism. Secularism no sooner frees man from the domination of the institutionalized church than it sells him into slavish bondage to the totalitarian state. Secularism frees man from ecclesiastical slavery only to betray him into the tyranny of political and economic slavery. [195:8.4]

We know that Machiventa was the ‘mighty influence’ referred to above and one has to wonder given that we now face GLOBAL political tyranny and economic slavery if it might be necessary for him to return to help us overcome this challenge?

The Revelators continue:

Materialism denies God, secularism simply ignores him; at least that was the earlier attitude. More recently, secularism has assumed a more militant attitude, assuming to take the place of the religion whose totalitarian bondage it onetime resisted. Twentieth-century secularism tends to affirm that man does not need God. But beware! This godless philosophy of human society will lead only to unrest, animosity, unhappiness, war, and world-wide disaster. [195:8.5]

One could say that Secularism is something of a jealous god. It has long craved and even now demands complete allegiance. It has a growing resentment towards traditional religious devotion and is lining up to make such devotions illegal. Indeed, anywhere godless secularism has acquired the balance of power one of its first goals is the eradication of the faithful, a rather peculiar proclivity.

...Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom to the future and did, on numerous occasions, intimate that such an event might appear as a part of a world crisis. [170:4.15]

I think that it is fair to say that we are witnessing the beginnings of the first man-made disaster of truly global proportions. The Melchizedeks are the Emergency Sons, always first on the scene to help salvage wayward planets from catastrophe. There certainly is room for speculation that such a global disaster, as we now face, could be sufficient to merit the attention of the Melchizedeks, and if they were to send any then why not the vice-gerent himself?

The Master told us: “And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness.” [176:2.3]

I think we can all agree that the first part of the excerpt above as being the FER itself but the second element has not yet manifested and it would not be a stretch to imagine that this could be a response to the growing global crisis. The revelators teach that, “Times of great testing and threatened defeat are always times of great revelation,” [195:9.3] and, Heaven knows, this is true. I have been frankly astounded by the revelations of the last three years.

For all the pomp and ceremony, for all the apparent decorum and delicacies, we have only the thinnest veneer of civilisation. Scratch the surface and you find a ferocious brutality and chaos bristling to be free. Truth is not loved by the majority. Presently, the majority are motivated by convenience and ease. It is the twenty first century and many are so peasant minded that they subconsciously believe that “the power to feed carries with it the right to rule,” and they unflinchingly bend the knee to those that provide the bread. They resist, with almost murderous rage, having to think their way through a proposition. What’s more ugly, is that they consider their blind acquiescence to this power a virtue, regardless of the fact that by bending the knee they are selling their children [and ours] into slavery. In this age of endless irony, the Virtue Signallers are, in fact, signalling the absence of virtue.

It is worth noting that the next age, the so-called spiritual age, will be a time in which people will strive for a quality of thought. The implication is that we are currently passing through an age during which quality thinking is not prevalent, the sufferings of the age being an indirect consequence of the lack of this. Given the recent turn of events this seems quite prophetic. It certainly seems hard to argue against.

It seems clear that western civilisations are crumbling as a result of ideological and moral subversion. This subversion, whether brought about through Machiavellian design or spiritual ambivalence, is giving birth to a global tyranny that is being spearheaded by a powerful but corrupt elite. The teachings warn that we need to protect ourselves “against the unfair and enslaving practices of unjust minorities who may be able to entrench themselves behind political, financial, or ecclesiastical power.” The cleansing of the Temple by the Master teaches that “Shrewd, wicked, and designing men” should not “be permitted to organize themselves for the exploitation and oppression...” Interestingly, “This episode also demonstrates that Jesus did not look with approval upon the refusal to employ force to protect the majority of any given human group.” [173:1.11]

It certainly seems like economics, information, and institutions are being weaponised against the public in order to reduce the general population to “economic & political slavery”. We are warned: “… an ideal society cannot be realized when either the weak or the wicked lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage of those who are chiefly actuated by devotion to the service of truth, beauty, and goodness. In such a situation only one course is practical: The "golden rulers" may establish a progressive society in which they live according to their ideals while maintaining an adequate defence against their benighted fellows who might seek either to exploit their pacific predilections or to destroy their advancing civilization.” [71:4.16]

Nor need we fear such a move, if it is God’s will, for we know that: “All the forces of evil and the hosts of sin shall not prevail against this human fraternity of the divine spirit.” [157:4:5]  (1747.3)]

So, we are faced with one of two choices: we either fight to retrieve our world from the growing gloom of tyranny and the despair and tragedy that ever follow in its wake or we find some way strike out on our own. Undoubtedly, if we do nothing we, along with our children, will be consumed by the growing darkness. But should we, or could we, withdraw and endeavour to establish a more progressive society on the fringes of the collapsing civilisation? Or should we stand our ground and fight for the establishment of a better world? That’s a tough call. Both have their merits.

We are taught that “The spiritual impetus of nominally accepting Hellenized Christianity came to Rome too late to prevent the well-started moral decline or to compensate for the already well-established and increasing racial deterioration. This new religion was a cultural necessity for imperial Rome, and it is exceedingly unfortunate that it did not become a means of spiritual salvation in a larger sense. ” [195:3.8]

Many of our current prophets assert that our current cultural pathology is distressingly similar to the final days of Rome [even Egypt]. We have allowed corrupt and venal men to occupy the seats of power in our countries, and they are – literally and figuratively – selling us out before our very eyes. Without question, this ascendancy of the corrupt is in part a response to the failing spiritual immunity of an aging religious structure whose spiritual power, allure, and influence is waning to socially dangerous levels. Consequently, “paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with the uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of the Master's life on earth. A new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to overthrow a world sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment

.” [195:9.2]

Perhaps I am making too much of this. Perhaps the phase of the kingdom we are passing through refers to the grave danger that occurs “when most men will speak well of kingdom believers and many in high places nominally accept the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. Learn to be faithful to the kingdom even in times of peace and prosperity. Tempt not the angels of your supervision to lead you in troublous ways as a loving discipline designed to save your ease-drifting souls .” [178:1.10]

Our current trials might simply be a lesson to teach us the importance of not abandoning or the dangers inherent in neglecting our spirituality and faith, as opposed to a dramatic global crisis that might merit divine intervention.

We are offered avenues wherewith to challenge the current trend: cease to sponsor the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization. This would imply not only that we should ‘cease to sponsor’ but that we should actively seek to sponsor that which is better. This presents multiple challenges in the interregnum, between abandoning the old and not yet having established the new. However, there is inspiration to be found in the Cross. The Cross reveals a tremendous light to those that have the faith to see. It is the ultimate symbol of loving service, of the bestowing of one’s life for the enhancement of all life, of an all consuming and fearless love for both the Great Father and the brotherhood of His divine children - the worship of the One expressed in service for the many, it is the great symbol of that unflinching courage which recognises its duty and dares to do it regardless of the consequences. Above all the Cross reveals the courageous abandonment of what was and the daring faith required to establish what could and should be.

The Revelators teach us that: If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master's program, thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through with this great adventure. [195:10.10]

How many times have the brethren asked “but what is the Master’s Program”? What does he prescribe?

The answer is there: cease to sponsor the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization. Reform the social contract - exalt the Great Father, Family, and Fatherland, promote justice and eschew corruption, foster and protect freedom of thought and expression, honour service, condemn and punish treason and treachery, exalt trustworthiness and reward faithfulness.

We need a community of spiritual people who: “delight in bearing one another's burdens; [who] actually desire to practice the golden rule.” Who know how and who will abundantly and knowing fully the cost willingly bear the fruits of the spirit.

We are warned that “The overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement.” [2:7.9]

The hope of modern Christianity is that it should cease to sponsor the social systems and industrial policies of Western civilization while it humbly bows itself before the cross it so valiantly extols, there to learn anew from Jesus of Nazareth the greatest truths mortal man can ever hear - the living gospel of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. [195:10.21]