Armageddon
I have spent the past few hours listening to the audiobook edition of “Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World” by Michael Baigent. This is a just-released book. I heard the author in a radio interview Saturday night. The thesis is quite scary but I am afraid may be true. Baigent contends that there are factions in all three major religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism that are actively working to bring about the apocalypse. He develops this argument with many examples through much of the book.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian setting and learned (and read) Revelations at a fairly young age. I was taught that this was something that would happen, not something that should be helped along by the efforts of men. In the thirty-plus years I have been away from the church it seems that this may have changed, at least in some circles. There are also counterparts to this development in the other two religions of the book.
Baigent’s conclusion is that there must be a shift in our thinking about God, from an outer understanding to an inner understanding. This is something that I am very familiar with. The inner way has been my chosen path for many years. For the fundamentalist of all three religions, God is the external, punishing, exterior being. All three religions have an interior component which has been overlooked or considered heresy by fundamentalists. There are the Christian mystics, Kabbalists of Judaism and the Sufi’s of Islam, all of which have a great deal in common.
I, like many, subscribe to the theory that all paths lead to God which is in reality the life force that infuses everything. I also have a desire to respect all religions and as a result feel uncomfortable placing one above the other. For me respect for my neighbor’s path allows me to advance on my own. Dogma is not necessary and can easily get in the way of spiritual growth.
I do not think there can be an apocalypse willed by the divine. I believe that what is perceived as apocalypse is really transformation. The end of Revelation speaks of “A New Heaven and a New Earth.” Given all of the contradictory forces at work in the world it is easy to believe that destruction must precede this New Heave and New Earth. But, do we know that is the only way it can be? Can we imagine a different way?
