How was it that the End Times were (broadly) predictable so long ago? Why was it clear that evil would (sooner or later) prevail in this world?
The basic reason could be that the demonic powers are immortal spirits while Men are mortal. And this was, of course, a fact well known to our ancestors - who drew conclusions that were, perhaps, much clearer and more obvious (at least, to the more thoughtful and insightful among them) then they are nowadays.
This fundamental asymmetry means that evil is able to plan and scheme on a timescale across the whole history of the earth and multiple human generations; whereas, by contrast, each human generation must (in a sense) start afresh with learning about the world.
Thus, the demons tend cumulatively to out-strategize Men.
Another ways of thinking about it is that this mortal world is ruled by entropy. Although we are created-creatures in a created-world, and God is still create-ing; nonetheless we are mortal incarnates, and entropy must win-out eventually.
Over time, entropy will overwhelm mortal creations.
However; evil spirits are excluded from Heaven; and in Heaven, Men are eternal incarnates: There is all-creation and no entropy.
Therefore, as this mortal earth wears-down, the odds increasingly favour evil; and the End Times were always inevitable.
But in Heaven... well, there things are very different.
6 comments:
Are the demons actively communicating with wicked men?
@Ingemar - I presume that there has also been an accumulation of 'the damned' through the centuries, some of whom are presumably increasingly able help with the demonic agenda; adding to the preponderance of darkness.
"...an accumulation of 'the damned' through the centuries..."
Sounds like a nightmare version of Riverworld, which, come to think of it, was a nightmare to begin with.
Are you saying that in some manner dead damned men are able to meddle in the affairs of the living? How might that work? And wouldn’t some Power have to grant them leave, so to speak, to return to the world - presumably incorporeally - to interfere? I don’t know what power other than God Himself could that, and I don’t know why He should wish to.
@HS - I'm not sure of this material; but I think that this phenomenon can be understood as (approximately) evil ghosts - i.e. spirits that have never left the world. I discussed it here: https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-evil-doppelgangers-in-mens-minds.html
That is quite a post! I missed it at the time. I’ll have to read it carefully. Very interesting, if discomfiting, ideas.
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