If we don’t look too closely, we live on an incredibly beautiful planet at an utterly amazing time in its history. We are particularly spoiled by the plethora of gadgets and devices, such as the world has never seen – at least to our knowledge. We may yet be surprised as some of the ancient civilizations had advanced abilities, far more so than we give them credit for. It’s too bad the medieval and pre-medieval societies of the Dark Ages are those that have survived in some areas of the world.
We do know ancient civilizations had advanced mathematics, astronomy and engineering calculations, along with ancient medicines and medical procedures that somehow got lost along the way in the western world. Not to mention the irreplaceable loss of knowledge that was destroyed in the fires at the Great Library of Alexandria.
The loss of knowledge was compounded during the misguided Spanish invader destruction of ancient scrolls and texts in Central America in particular. What long-established religions don’t understand and don’t want to learn about, they have always tried to destroy. The ignorant Shoot first and ask questions later approach to the world has been around for a very long time.
There are many forms of hell that exist on this otherwise amazingly beautiful earth. Even now, as Charles Dickens wrote in the 19th Century: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
The Traditional Hell
In many religions, of course, hell is a place of ever-burning fire and brimstone deep below the ground. Since brimstone is sulphur and would be burning where there is no oxygen, you would get the stench of rotten eggs to accompany the endless flames and smoke. Not a place too many people would willingly choose to go, especially after watching volcanic eruptions in the here and now.
That definition of hell may well be the place that many people deserve to go but our Lord and Savior’s Atonement for the sins of the world will not allow that to happen, regardless of our definition of hell for the next life. Jesus the Christ has already paid the unfathomable price to ransom those who believe in Him and have lived good lives, as well as those willing to repent of their evil behavior and those who won’t.
We all make mistakes we need to repent of, but anyone who chooses not to repent will receive Christ’s gift of immortality anyway. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the special sphere of misery reserved for the truly evil: After Judgement Day when we are assigned to our places to continue our existence, they will be forever separated from the presence of God.
Hell on Earth
Other forms of hell exist right now on this earth. Those desperately trying to avoid bloodshed and oppression risk their lives daily just trying to survive while they try to escape and save their children with them. I can’t grasp or understand even a percentage of the depth of suffering that they go through! I only know that God the Father is in charge of the timetable for this earth and is only too well aware of the horrors being perpetrated.
These horrors came about because most of His children used their free agency to turn against Him and/or to deny His existence. Perhaps God the Father is currently doing a slow burn but when His wrath is full, the destruction will be unimaginable. I have great Faith that He will put things right when the world has fully ripened in the iniquity that surrounds us. He will send total destruction as He has done in past ages. In the meantime, the rest of us need to do something to alleviate the suffering around us, to help our sick, starving brothers and sisters around the world and here at home.
Women, children and animals are horribly abused and I doubt anyone has the real stats on that, but I would guess every second of every day, thousands are treated abominably. We can do so much better!
What We Can Do
Millions of people are fighting daily to save this battered, beautiful planet and every breath-taking creature on it, to make it so much more alive than what we inherited, to eliminate pollutions that politicians pretend don’t even exist.
It doesn’t matter which worthy charity we support or how many of them, but we need to step up and do something. If we lack funds, we can volunteer our time. This includes blogging for and about worthy causes. It is what writers can do best, in addition to donating funds whenever they can, because the pen has always been mightier than the sword. That is the reason books get burned. Corrupt leaders don’t want knowledge out there for the common people to absorb.
Let’s use this amazing time we live in to show gratitude for where we live in this Universe and to do more of our Savior’s saving work.