Bruce Charlton's Notions

I don't think these are the result of any 'timetable' kind of prophecy - but are the result of the development of human consciousness such that many people (especially Westerners) have become capable of detaching themselves from the divine and denying the divine.

(In which the divine is defined in Christian terms.) 

This leads to a crux - where the assumption (from society, from institutions - even, implicitly, from most churches) is that there is no divine; that the divine is not really real... so each individual must choose the divine, if he is to know the divine.

Knowledge (here and now) depends on choice. Choice is the beginning of knowledge of the divine.


The End Times are when the assumption of the unreality of the divine is normal, propagandised, assumed, and imposed. When, in other words, the default is for people to choose their own damnation (choose to reject Heaven).

The End Times seems to refer to a state of positive-feedback when this becomes prevalent, and worsening.


Why? Why does it happen., Why is it allowed (by God) to happen?

The answer is perhaps because the End times are also the era of maximum clarity, of maximum differentiation between salvation and damnation; between choosing Good or evil - the dwelling in Heaven or the various personal hells.  For some incarnate Men, this is the best time to be born, the best chance.


What will end the End Times?

The best answer is that they end themselves. In the End Times, values are inverted - hence evil, death and spiritual destruction become the implicit objective of human motivation (albeit, motivation is itself severely weakened by the inversion and the consequent deep-confusion).


What comes after the end? Who knows ? It is not knowable - because we really are free agents.

Probably it depends... A new beginning, or the end to the experiment of mortal life... or both.

I have been solidly convinced that these are the End Times for about a decade; but since the global coup of early last year - and with its continued invisibility - this is an everyday reality.

My understanding of the End Times is that it references the time when evil dominates the world, and when further decline becomes inevitable. The self-correcting possibilities of negative feedback (e.g. the 'pendulum swings' of history) has failed; and positive feedback (whereby each adverse change creates further adverse changes) has set-in. 

The evils of the world have become irreversible mainly because they are invisible to the mass of people and the totality of the Establishment. The incrementally-increasing value inversion of recent decades in The West has reached such a degree and compass that a world of evil rampant is regarded as a beneficial development. 

The System built on Big Lies and elaborated from a web of dishonesty and propaganda-manipulation, has a totalizing quality such that all worldly considerations are encompassed. Every apparent this-worldly (i.e. social-political-psychological) 'dissent' or 'escape' turns-out to be a loop-back into The System. 

All apparent 'conflict' (between capital and province, political parties, media, nations...) turns-out to be stage-managed; with both sides operating as part of The System. 

For a Christian who recognizes the reality that The System is a machine for evil; there is no way of engaging with those inside The System. 

The modern world is materialist (denying the reality of God and the spirit); and The System identifies, interprets and explains all material things. Those who accept the material assumptions, cannot get outside of The System - not even in imagination; they cannot escape - even in principle. 

In these End Times there is only the material, and The System is the material; and therefore The System includes all minds, all thinking - as well as all action. 

So, any thinking outside The System is simply incomprehensible: stupid, insane and/ or evil.  

And this is how a material system ends-up by controlling the spirit: how a material-system can become (in effect) a spiritual-process leading to damnation.   

Nearly all self-identified Christians are inside The System - and their 'Christianity' operates in The System - because all institutions, organizations, corporations are (they Just Are) parts of The System because they must be in order to function. 

All actually-existing churches are System Churches; because they are a part of the economy, receive subsidies and pay taxes, have legal identities, are employers, deploy Public Relations and interact with the media, are part of the education system... Nearly-all churches sustain one, several or all of the current strategic socio-political agendas (e.g. birdemic, climate, antiracism, sexual revolution).

Thus All actual churches are components of The System. 

Therefore all 'Christians' who are 'spiritually' led-by churches are in The System; are part of System-evil; hence on the opposite side than God the creator and Jesus Christ.  

And this situation is (by now) irreversible - because invisible, because denied (even as a possibility). 

Millions upon million of ex-Christians have-been, are-being, led into The System by their churches; each endorsed by the dogma that resistance is futile, because there is no alternative because we must be part-of a System (church) and Now there is Only One System. 

This is what happens in the End Times. The principle of value inversion means that what was Good becomes evil; the churches - which were once sole-agents of Christianity, have become agents of Antichrist. 

Unless, that is... we live from a spiritual source outside of The System (including The Churches). 

The System is, in fact, a tiny and self-circumscribed part of the real world. Outside The System there is God and creation, spiritual beings, living and conscious nature; and there is each Man in his divine self.

...Man's divine self in the direct, intuitive knowing of heart-thinking.

Yet all of these are individually-known; all requires conscious knowledge of reality; all require free agency and acting by-choice; deliberately, explicitly, from the-self. 

To live this way, rooted outside The System and in the divine, is very simple. It is within the capacity of anybody who wants to do it...

But of course, hardly anybody wants to do it - and indeed most Christians regard it as evil, and Anti-Christian, to do it...

This is the nature of the End Times; and what makes them the End. 

Lies are asserted as mandatory Truth; that which is obvious is invisible; that which is Good becomes regarded as evil - and evil is the only existent 'good'. 

That which must be done to affirm God and Jesus Christ becomes regarded as self-evidently (without need for proof or refutation) crazy, dumb, nonsensical. Thus what must be done becomes regarded as precisely that which cannot and should-not be done. 

The answer to the End Time lies in our own hands, requires nobody else's permission, cannot be stopped by any power, and may be commenced immediately...

But because these are indeed the End Times: what is necessary and do-able is exactly that which will not be done. 

Back in 2010-11 especially, I was reading Father Seraphim Rose a lot - especially in relation to the End Times: that era of the world in which events move towards the end of this reality and the second coming of Christ.

The data of this is unknown and indeed unknowable - but the fact of us living in the End Times has been apparent for about 200 years, in a broad consensus across thinking Christians whom I respect.

One aspect is the corruption of human institutions, including the church; and the 'antichrist' phenomenon by which evil masquerades as Good: in other words persons and organisations that have evil motivations and intentions, deliberately and explicitly adopt and emphasise some good attributes in order to deceive Christians, and enlist their cooperation.

This is now very familiar from global political groupings, charities, NGOs and the like; but perhaps especially in the mainstream Christian churches - the current Archbishop of Canterbury (Justin Welby) is an exceptionally clear example.

But the meaning of the End Times for Christians is worth pondering - because the message is that there is no safe way to be a Christian.   

Actually, this has always been the case - because Christianity cannot go to any extreme. But the fact that the churches are corrupted, and mostly from the top down, means that they will be organised such as to do net evil. A Christian who joins a church and then does what it says will - probably - be led away from Christianity and into de facto apostasy.

Yet of course, all the old strictures against Christians going-it-alone still apply! Several major churches assert (without much conviction, sometimes) that there is no salvation to be had outside of their membership and ministrations.Yet, all honest churchmen will freely admit than being inside, in and of itself does no good either - and there have always been acknowledged exceptions when the church was not vital.

What is vital to keep in mind is that God is the creator and our loving Father - hence it is inconceivable he would leave any one of his children without the means of salvation and the ability to discern it - IF our motivations are genuine.

Motivations are (almost) everything!

That seems to be the lesson of the End Times. Surface appearances, and indeed actions - mean very little by comparison. Bad motivations will contaminate any organisation and anybody; good motivation will win salvation and theosis in the end.

But of course the problem is in discerning motivations! Especially in these latter days; the surface of things is deceptive; there is more dishonesty than honesty - and what is most deceptive is that truth is cunningly mixed with lies to be maximally misleading.

There is no escape from the absolute requirement for individual judgement as the basis for life: this seems to be the great lesson of the End Times. 

Nonetheless, if we work on the genuineness of our motivations; trying, failing and self-correcting; ensuring we learn from experience; then we have been given everything we need to navigate to where we want-and-need to be.

It strikes me that something which distinguishes these End Times is that there is a convergence between salvation and theosis. Salvation is having chosen to align with God's creation - rejecting Hell and embracing Christ's gift of Heaven. And theosis is the process of becoming more divine in our nature, more god-like, Christ-like (or saint-like, when sainthood is understood in this way).

In principle, in theory, and as a first step it is certainly possible to be saved (to attain salvation) just 'as we are' and without any change in our-selves, our behaviour, our thinking. This is - indeed - the great insight of the Reformation, and the core truth of the Evangelical movement.

But in practice, in the modern world, in these End Times; this is insufficient - or, let's say, it is only momentarily sufficient. At the moment it happens, at the born-again moment, it is true. But in the modern West almost-always, soon-or-later, salvation will be repudiated, will be rejected - unless there is theosis.

My point here is that it seems to be a feature of our time and place that salvation must (almost always; almost immediately) be followed by theosis - and theosis is a process. When these have converged, it means that in practice salvation is the process of theosis.


To put it differently, there used to be a possibility of being saved despite zero spiritual progression; but that possibility has been (all-but) closed-off by the pervasiveness of evil.

In these End Times, that which used to unconscious, passive, automatic; must become conscious and actively, explicitly chosen or else it will be lost.

It is not enough to know: we must know that we know. It is not enough to have-chosen Jesus: we must be-choosing Jesus. It is not enough to have-repented: our daily living must be-repenting.

The forces of unconscious manipulation into evil habits of thinking are so pervasive and powerful; that consciousness is the only strong defence.


So, we must do what we (anyway) ought-to do - this is yet another instance of 'things coming to a point'. Even among self-identified, born-again, sincere Christians there is a sorting and separation. The middle ground disappears and the extremes are easily distinguished.

Choices are stark, black and white - and to deny the reality of starkness is to be corrupted: moderate, grey Christians are possible in theory and have existed in some times and places; but in practice now, grey Christians are not Christians, because there are no grey areas or persons: the 'grey' are simply not-white; hence they just-are aligned with the dark powers against Christianity.

Theosis is now necessary. Yet many traditional methods of theosis are collapsing or already corrupted. This is the most urgent question for Western Christians - how can I personally, here and now, without relying on social institutions (because I must act now, yet the actual institutions are corrupt), make overall progresion in my awareness of being Christian; so that life becomes a moment-by-moment process of conscious knowing, choosing, being.


We are promised a wondrous eternal life of love and participation in God's work of creation. Our life therefore should not be mainly 'negative' - not just a defensive war focused on rejection of evil; but needs to be positive, hope-full, faith-full - based on confidence in Good.

Because how can we recognise evil to reject it, unless we already know Good? And when we do know Good, and our knowledge is explicit; then it is easy to recognise evil.

God is the creator of this world, is our father, and loves us - therefore, our trust in God to do what is ultimately right for us, each personally; is always justified. 

Theoretically, there are an unbounded number of potential possibilities for someone who chooses Not to follow Jesus Christ. 

To a certain kind of (common) modern mind, this suggests that following Jesus is just one among many possibilities 'and therefore' it cannot be the one path. 

However; another possibility is that all of those who do not follow Christ are actually making-up a single group - those who follow Satan. 

To put this more exactly in terms of our post-mortal destination - there are those who choose to follow Jesus Christ to resurrected life in Heaven. There are those who choose to oppose God the creator and to follow Satan to a spiritual existence in Hell. But are there any other alternatives?

In theory; there are several (or many) alternatives - and I have written of these in the past - there are those who want annihilation, Nirvana, paradise and so forth. I think it was the case that in the past, in various places, some of these were real possibilities. 

But if these are the End Times, the final days of this earthly and mortal manifestation - then it has been suggested that the possibilities collapse into just two: Heaven or Hell.

In other words, it may be that in 'Ragnarok' - in the Last Battle: there are only two sides. 

There are those on the side of God and Jesus Christ; and there are those who are against them - who reject creation and the divine plan for this world. 

The side of those who choose Heaven; and the side of those who choose Hell. 

And if there are only two sides, and if the battle grows to include the whole world; then everybody alive must be on one or other side. 

(To remain 'neutral' in a final and universal battle, one must remove oneself from the conflict. One must die - but then the choice will be faced after death.)

Every-body alive will be on one side or the other; but not everybody has consciously chosen their side. 

So, I would say that the characteristic of End Times is that before The End there were several or many possibilities; but during the End Times there are only two possibilities. 

Those who reject Heaven will find that they have thereby chosen Hell - even if that was not their original intention. Such is the consequence of a final and all-encompassing battle.

As war continues, and escalates, and eventually comes to include everybody, everywhere; multiple theoretical possibilities close-off: actual realities condense down into two-only. 

The real life choice is binary: yes or no, for or against, us or them. 

Is this not what we see all around us since 2020?  

Just to clarify: I believe in the End Times, which are the times when this earth and the divinely-created experience of mortal life will come to an end. And I believe that these are those End Times.

But I do Not believe in the Second Coming of Jesus. Why not, when it's 'in the Bible'?

First, because the Second Coming is not in the Fourth Gospel - which is the first hand account of Jesus by his beloved disciple written (Chapters 1-20) shortly after the ascension. Niether is it in Mark. It is only in Luke and Matthew, written some time later, based on second-hand information, and each (especially Matthew) with a definite agenda concerning the Jewish Messiah and what he would accomplish (especially politically).

The Second Coming is a stark assertion that Jesus failed to accomplish his mission during his lifetime and before his ascension - and this I reject utterly!

I assert, on the contrary, that Jesus accomplished everything he set out to do; and provided everything each person needs (principally the guidance and comfort of the Holy Ghost) to achieve salvation after death and achieve theosis during mortal life.

And - mainly - this belief I find confirmed by the Holy Ghost. 

Note added: This post is intended to explain my use of terms in this blog; and why. It is not intended to persuade others to believe as I do. That's your business. Which means yours; in these times - whatever-you-call-em - your core convictions ought not passively to be absorbed from institutions; not even churches. Institutions should not be trusted.

*
Since we are in the 'End Times' or 'Latter Days', then it is interesting to speculate when the end will come.

The Bible is clear that the time and date are not to be known in advance (even to Jesus Christ) - but what might be the principle that determines when God brings this world to an end?

The End Times (presumably) refers to dwindling of the Christian religion, in relation to Mankind as a whole - after a period of many centuries when there was growth.

The concept of End Times can therefore (perhaps) be translated into saying that the trend is established that number of souls being saved is getting fewer and fewer.

*

My speculation is that the end will come when, due to apostasy and corruption, more souls are being lost than are being saved.

This would seem to be the time to 'end the experiment' of this world; because once this point is passed, then the longer the end is delayed, the more souls will be lost.

But - no matter how bad are the conditions on earth; up until this point where losses begin to exceed gains, it is always better to delay the end - because on balance souls are being saved.

*

This (presumably) means that so long as the world has not ended - such as now, at this time of writing - the world is Good overall, or Net Good; and that although fewer souls are saved than in the past, more souls are still being saved than lost.

(Presumably due to Christianity being vibrant in places life China, Africa and South America - rather than in The West, Middle East, Asia Minor and South Asia: gains in C, A, & SA currently more-than-offsetting losses in other places.)

Which is, I think, an encouraging thought! - Overall.

*

My basic assumption is that in God's creation the default is that we need to choose damnation: that damnation is self-damnation. (A loving creator who is our father would not have set-up this reality - for his spirit children - on any other basis.)

However, we must agree to be saved. We just-are free, we have agency, we cannot be compelled to accept what is best for us. Jesus Christ has given us great possibilities, but if we do not 'believe on' him, if we do not love him; then we will not want his gift.

I guess that throughout most of history, and perhaps even now throughout most of the world, nearly everybody has chosen/ will choose to accept Christ's gifts; and do what that acceptance entails - but in the End Times this is Not the case.

The End Times are when the default state in a society is chosen damnation.

This could be for a variety of reasons; one might be the denial of any alternative - regarding the gifts of Jesus as a falsehood, a delusion, untrue.

A situation can be created and sustained in which the societal default is to choose damnation - in which expression of this choice becomes (in public discourse) normal, approved and rewarded. In which the expression of a desire for salvation is treated the opposite way: as unusual/ foolish/ insane/ evil; is condemned and punished.

Choice is - ultimately - individual and free; and cannot be compelled - but a society may embrace self-damnation and call it Good. Insofar as the individual follows mainstream, modern society - so he will choose damnation.

So we can see that The West is, indeed, here-and-now in the End Times.

*
1800 was when people began to notice that the world had changed - first in England, Scotland, Wales - then rapidly visible through Western and Central Europe and the United States.

It was the industrial revolution, it was modernity - the escalation of functional specialization in social functions; within a generation it was the permanent and progressive rise of secularism, nationalism, leftism, and the occasional temporary secular backlashes against leftism.

*

1800 was the inflection point for human biology - when birth rates (fertility) progressively became more important in population growth than death rates (mortality) - when the demographic transition began to sweep across the world, with self-suppression of fertility lower and lower, until from the 1960s it became sub-replacement.

Productivity of food and other essentials grew; trade and communications expanded in scope and speed; public health and medicine made breakthroughs upon breakthroughs which were implemented...

World population began to increase more rapidly up to seven-fold the 1800 level, and is still rising - with perhaps another 20plus additional percent to be born (whether or not they live); as the modernized world intervened in the un-modernized world to reduce mortality while fertility remains sustained above replacement.

*

In Christian terms, 1800 was the point when it became clearer and clearer that the end times had begun; the latter days.

And about 1800 was when Joseph Smith the Mormon prophet was born, and by 1830 the Book of Mormon had been discovered and translated, and the CJCLDS organized as a sign of arrival of the latter days; and the Mormon church has since waxed in size and devoutness and range of influence as mainstream Christianity has waned - a glowing beacon in these ever-more-gloomy times.

*

Of course, human free will, agency, continues to operate (at least, it operates wherever humans 'believe in' it, and do not deny its reality). So destiny is fixed - and God works to ensure that all will turn-out as prophesied; but the time-scale and specifics are not fixed - and the end times can be delayed, and even temporarily reversed, by human choices and actions.

Yet, in these times constraints are established and grow, certain possibilities dwindle and die, the mass suffers decline - the consequent features have been described and can be observed: they are indeed overwhelming in a worldly sense.  

But not overwhelming of our souls - unless we choose to allow to accept them as such.

*

For each of us as individuals, these tidal civilizational changes must be regarded as temporary and transitional; in the context of hope for, and expectation of, an eternal life of happiness.

And this eternal happiness will, if we let it, spill-over and back into this earthly mortal life - to encourage and heal and maintain courage.

So we live in a Mouse Utopia of declining fitness and capability, of existential exhaustion seen in an ageing, cowardly, hedonistic society characterized by declining marriage, near zero children, and endemic corruption, distraction and dishonesty.

All this must be recognized and repented. But that is not the whole story. For those who make the choice to accept it; there is courage, faith, hope and love germinating, growing and thriving here-and-there, even among the darkening ruins.

*

I often state that we are now "in the End Times" - and I am convinced of it. 

I do Not mean by this that the "Second Coming" of Christ is imminent, because (from my Fourth Gospel perspective) I regard the idea of the Second Coming as false - and indeed bizarre; because Jesus did his work, his work is done, it was completely successful, and there is no reason for Christ to come again. 

I do not have any very specific notion of how or when the End will come-about or what it will entail; but I think we (the human race) have gone beyond a point of no return, and have entered a positive-feedback cycle where each deleterious change leads to further harm in a compounding fashion; such that matters accelerate towards ruin. 

The main reason I have reached this conclusion is that we live - for the first and only time in history (so far as I know) - in a time of net (and increasing) value-inversion - such that the mainstream, official and high-status value-system is the opposite of reality; hence the opposite of truth. 

Because values are inverted, it means that (on average, overall) evaluations of Good and evil (beautiful and ugly/ true and false/ virtue and sin) are upside-down; so that attempts to understand and choose that which is Good will instead home-in-on evil; attempts to make things better will make them worse; attempts to create order will amplify chaos, and attempts to solve problems will make them worse. 

This has happened because sin has the upper hand among those persons, nations, institutions that have the greatest power (wealth, status, influence) - and the apparent mass majority of the populace have become hedonic and despairing - without purpose or meaning; therefore demotivated and cowardly. 

Although this value-inversion does not apply to everyone; and Men remain as free as they always have been to repent and attain salvation; they have ceased (on the whole) to desire salvation. 

Most modern Men will not be saved because they do not want to be saved - indeed they find the idea of resurrection to eternal life in Heaven to be positively aversive: dull, boring, silly, childish, or indeed itself evil.

Modern Man typically wants to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering in mortal life then either painlessly to die into total annihilation; or at least to cease to be a Man with a self and agency; or else (perhaps especially among the ruling Establishment) seeks an afterlife of (demonic) hedonic/ sadistic domination and spiteful destruction.  

Is this a hope-less perspective? No - because hope is properly located in post-mortal eternity; not in this brief and entropic mortal life. 

But is it excessively pessimistic to assume that we are beyond the point at which matters could be turned-around? After all, Men are still free to change their minds - that is not-impossible, so perhaps it may happen? 

Why then; if mass repentance could happen in principle, am I convinced that it will not happen?  

Partly because of the Biblical prophecies about End Times which seem to contain the insight that there will be a point of no return. These put the idea into my mind. 

Then the phenomenon of value-inversion. Value-inversion is so weird and unnatural and false (dissonant with reality, useless for prediction) that one would expect it to be self-correcting - IF it could be corrected. 

Yet instead of value-inversion being self-limiting, instead of it reducing in the face of - what one would suppose - is obvious; value-inversion is spreading, getting worse, and solidifying. 

Evidence for this is... everything in public discourse - the mass media, high status officialdom, large corporations. 

Apparent exceptions soon turn out to be merely apparent. 

Such a situation I find to be so strange, unprecedented, beyond logic and love; that I can only conclude that it represents the deep nature of many Men. 

Why now, why not before? 

Because things change, history is linear and does not repeat; and each Man is unique and brings to the world a nature and disposition from pre-mortal existence. 

Ultimately, I think (I don't know) that history changes due to the changing nature of incarnated Men. 

Modern Men are as-they-are substantially because that is how they were (on the whole) when incarnated. They are not predestined to damnation - because everybody is a free agent; but they (we) are overall more evil than any generations in history. 

It is (was) from this increased original and innate greater-evil, that these times are as they are. 

If it is accepted that these are the End Times (in the sense I discuss) - and if it is recognized that populations in The West are pervasively subjected to an ideology of atheist-leftist-materialism via the mass media and the totalitarian state...

Then, one might assume that the situation is hope-lessly complex and confusing; and that an individual has near-zero-chance of navigating through that ocean of untruthfulness and deception which constitutes mainstream discourse. 

Yet - I would say instead that the ultimate things of life have never been clearer and simpler to people.* 

So clear, and so simple, that all individuals are able to make the discernments they need to make, to live their lives as they need to live them - if that is they desire; and to choose salvation - if they wish for it. 

Nowadays, the deceptions, confusions, insanity etc. are all so very extreme, and their rationalizations so ridiculous, as to be self-refuting at a very deep and irresistible level. 

Whatever excuses people make to themselves; many have decided to believe that which they know, deep-down and un-ignorably, is evil nonsense. 

What we are really up-against in these End Times, is not social conditions hostile to real values... We are up-against a dawning realization that not-many people desire that which Jesus Christ offers. 

+++

*This, because these are times of mainstream, top-down, encouraged (and increasingly mandatory) value-inversion; and we all have knowledge of true values built-into us and available for guidance via the Holy Ghost. Inverted values are not just incoherent, which incoherence cannot be hidden; but also we know that these official values are false. 

Yes, excuses for embracing inverted values are not just available but positively socially approved and supported... But we know this too. 

In a nutshell; even though the external world propagates and "proves" value inversions near-universally; nonetheless, our inner and real selves cannot-help but understand that this is false. 

And when we choose to ignore our intuition and subordinate our souls to external influences - our intuition knows this too.

The unpalatable truth is that we Already know what we need to know, and we Just Are responsible for our choices. 

Yet, evil choices must be made and re-made, so long as we live; and can be changed. And that imposes its own kind of pressure.     

Unlike many Christian bloggers, I have little to say about how men and women ought to relate - here and now, in 2021, in these End Times... Or more exactly, I have almost nothing positive and advisory to say which is also generalizable. 

I feel rather like saying that the only valid generalizations are so gross as to be unhelpful in individual instances and daily life - and therefore may do considerable harm to your actual chance of having a good marriage - which is the point of it all. 

Valid and generalizable principles also tend to be negative (prohibitive) and too crude to be of value in the actual business of having and growing a permanent loving relationship. For example - 'do not commit adultery' is valid and generalizable, but is obvious. It is a bit like the prohibition on murder - well yes, of course; but not-murdering people does not get you very far in actually living life. 

The important daily realities are so much subtler and more numerous as to be impossible to list. This impossibility actually means the positive requirements are not truly categorical or law-like, but are instead the multiple and unbounded consequences of positive love. 

In sum - I think the vital matter of relationships between men and women comes under the spiritual context of this era; which is that the traditional and external forms of guidance have both lost their capacity to motivate people strongly enough to resist the prevalent evil influences of these times. And also that the external forms of general guidance are themselves corrupted by these times, and are therefore likely to be significantly wrong in significant ways. 

In a negative sense; I would say that all general behavioural and psychological advice is highly likely to do more harm than good in these times - because it will almost certainly (in order to be general) be based upon secular assumptions. 

But even when a generalization is based upon Christian assumptions then it will be derived from an attitude to guidance that is external and objectivizing - which I regard as a hazardous way to proceed in current situations. 

Thus, for example, generalizations derived from the Bible fall under the problem with all forms of scriptural guidance. We can no longer read scripture objectively and spontaneously (although this was possible in the past - in some times and places). 

This is clear from the fact that those churches and individuals who claim to be working-from objective readings of scripture have shown themselves - again and again but especially in 2020 - inadequate to resist the evil encouragements of bureaucracy and the media. Their motivations are either unclear, corrupt or simply too weak. 

Bible based churches are full of people (including pastors) who have thrown aside scripture when it was expedient in their own sexual lives - or simply to join with the prevalent social imperatives of 'affirming' and privileging all forms of sexual activity outside marriage, and the sexual mutilation and hormonal poisoning of children. The same people threw aside scripture when it came to supporting the dictates of the atheist-materialist totalitarian coup of 2020 - the birdemic and peck, climate change, antiracism...

If taking the Bible as an inerrant rule-book cannot prevent these forms of societal sin, it surely cannot prevent sexual sins where the motivations are typically more personal and immediate.   

In sum, a man and woman cannot rely upon scripture to guide and sustain their relationship. But neither can real Christians rely upon the lead of the church - whether that lead be based on traditional, theology or church authority. 

In the first place, it is likely that the guidance will not be traditional, theological or authoritative - nor will it even be Christian. 

But even when guidance is Christian and valid, such sources of external control will be jettisoned as convenient by one side of the relationship. And this rejection is unlikely to be socially-sanctioned but more likely be socially-supported. 

Nowadays, everything that is strong must come from the individual; and to be strong enough must be based upon intuitive heart-thinking of the individuals involved. So, in the case of a relationship between man and woman, the strength must come from those two individuals. 

All individual persons are different in an ultimate and deep sense - although these differences are concealed by the failure of coherence and courage; which stem from inadequate personal motivation due to mass atheism and too-feeble Christian faith. 

But once you really know somebody, for example a family member; it is clear that nobody is much like anyone else overall - each of us is truly unique, and from birth. 

No two good marriages are alike either, and partly for the same reasons, but amplified by interaction. Just as the participants is each an unique man and woman, so is the basis of a good relationship and marriage. 

In conclusion; each good marriage is unique - if you really know the participants. 

You can see why I find the apparently large quantity of relationship and marriage advice on the internet to be deeply dismaying. Apart from the fact that most of it comes from covertly evil motivations based upon false and demonic assumptions and desires; even the genuinely well-intentioned and Christian advice makes-up an irritating mixture of clumsy, negativistic, feebly-effectual - and is, in my opinion, more likely to harm than help by the kind of habits and expectations that are induced.  

What is wrong are the assumptions. We live in a demon-dominated society, by far the most evil in history - and indeed these are the End Times. Traditional advice about relationships and marriage that are based on the assumptions of a coherent Christian society where individuals are of a naturally communal type of consciousness; both cannot work and should not be striven for. 

I am sure that a good relationship and marriage must come from within the souls of the man and woman involved. With this, positive generalizations are misleading and destructive, and likely to lead to relationship failure at all stages; but lacking this, all advice is futile. 

"But why should we speak of the end of the world? Are we really living in the last times of this world? Why do we bind together the future of Russia and the end of the world?

Even secular writers speak of our “apocalyptic” times. And truly, the problems that plague the world today — the exhaustion of resources and food, overpopulation, the literal monsters created by modern technology, and especially weapons capable of destroying entire countries or even the whole civilized earth — all point to the approach of a crisis in human history quite beyond anything the world has ever seen, and perhaps to the literal end of life upon earth.

At the same time, religious thinkers point to the blossoming of non-Christian religious movements in our times and predict a “new age” in which a “new religious consciousness” will dominate men's minds and put an end to the 2000-year reign of Christianity. Astrologers refer to the “Aquarian Age’ which they think is to begin around the year 2000. And the very approach of the year 2000 is enough to inspire in many minds the idea of a new epoch, somehow different from all the rest of human history.

Among many non-Orthodox Christians these ideas take the form of a teaching called “chiliasm” or “millenarianism” — the belief that Christ is soon to come to earth and reign right here with His saints for a thousand years before the end of the world. This teaching is a heresy that was condemned by the early Church Fathers; it has its origin in a misinterpretation of the book of Revelations (the Apocalypse).

The Orthodox Church teaches that the reign of Christ with His saints, when the devil is “bound” for a thousand years [Apoc 20:3] is the period we are now living in, the whole period (1000 being a number symbolizing wholeness) between the first and second comings of Christ. In this period the saints do reign with Christ in His Church, but it is a mystical reign which is not to be defined in the outward, political sense that chiliasts give to it.

The devil is truly bound in this period — that is, restricted in the exercise of his ill will against humanity — and believers who live the life of the Church and receive the holy Mysteries of Christ live a blessed life, preparing them for the eternal heavenly Kingdom.

The non-Orthodox, who do not have holy Mysteries and have not tasted of the true life of the Church, cannot understand this mystical reign of Christ and so look for a political and outward reign."

The future of Russia by Fr. Seraphim Rose 1981


"The actual thousand years of the Apocalypse is the life in the Church which is now, that is, the life of Grace; and anyone who lives it sees that, compared to the people outside, it is indeed heaven on earth. But this is not the end. This is our preparation for the true kingdom of God which has no end."

Signs of the Times by Fr. Seraphim Rose 1980

When I venture into the mainstream mass media I expect strategic evil from the professionals - including systematically attacking Donald Trump for his virtues and his good statements and policies; but the mainstream religious/ spiritual blogs and social media are more worrying for what they reveal of stubborn, determined, deep-assumption-based adherence to the evil agenda.

In fact (from what I gather - necessarily very indirectly, via media of one sort or another), Trump is a considerably better-than-average mainstream US politician;  better in the sense of what he says and does - mainly better in terms of honesty and courage when it comes to some of the most difficult terror-enforced Leftist-pieties. For that he deserves credit.

On the other hand, nothing Trump has said or done suggests he is going to reverse the primary, deep, sin of the USA or the West: its anti-Christian materialism in public discourse (and individual subjectivity). So, we should not be misled;  Trump's leadership is only a better version of the same slow poison that has afflicted us since the early 19th century.

And it is here that the comment sections among the self-identified spiritual and religious people are so worrying. In the depth and vehemence of their TrumpPhobia they demonstrate a metaphysical commitment to the agenda of evil that undercuts all surface protestations of spirituality and religious concern.

These may well include people who spend many waking hours in meditation, prayer, reading edifying texts, doing altruistic works, conversing with others of their ilk, perhaps participating in church organisation and Christian services. They are people who seem to themselves and most others to be sincere. Yet this entire edifice is - plainly - erected upon cowardice, dishonesty and evil-intent.

I should not be surprised, since this is exactly what has been prophesied from the End Times, and I believe that we are in the End Times; but I must admit it does surprise me, recurrently.

And it emphasises that what is required of us - if we are to stop and reverse these end times - is an awakening and rebirth that is so deep, so metaphysical, so wide-ranging - that nothing of the kind has been known since the incarnation of Jesus.

We need not worry about looking for signs of such a thing, because if it were to happen it would be so obvious as to amount to a societal earthquake; although it would, inevitably, be misunderstood and misrepresented.

But unless or until something like this happens - when we will need to use all our powers of individual discernment to discriminate a real Christian rebirth from an Antichrist deception - we can and must proceed as individuals... not merely to resist (that is grossly insufficient and unsustainable) but to move-forward to the only possible counter-attack: which I term Romantic Christianity - a Christianity that encompasses and transforms our consciousness and brings The World alive, and makes its meaning and purpose a matter of direct personal experience.

These End Times aren't all bad! 

First because any time and place is right for those incarnated into them. Because God arranges it so (and we consented to embark upon this arrangement). 

So it is broadly correct to assume that our actual life is broadly the kind of life that we most need ('need' from an eternal perspective). 

Certainly (because God is good, and loves us personally), our actual life will (sooner or later) provide us with the kind of experiences that we most need to learn from for resurrected life in Heaven.

(But if, like most people, we reject the eternal choice of resurrected life in Heaven; then indeed our mortal lives will probably be just as meaningless and purposeless as most mainstream secular people believe them to be.)

More specifically; the quality of these End Times is that many traditional but obsolete, or superficially appealing, partial and false solutions are being closed-off; or actually have gone. And this is potentially A Good Thing. 

For decades we have been tempted by incomplete answers to the fundamental problems of life... Well, now these sure have lost their luster! I mean, when we see the shambolically un-Christian and this-worldly way that their adherents have responded to the birdemic-peck (and the other Litmus Test issues). 

Strategizing and planning our futures, or binding our fates to institutions, has become obviously ridiculous and foolish when the world is zealously tearing itself apart and extreme evil becomes the new normal.    

We are now saved the waste of time and effort of exploring, and getting-stuck-in, ideas and ideologies that contain some truth - but not enough to suffice: not the core and saving truths. 

What we ought to be doing therefore gets easier and easier to discern. That is; we more easily know what we ought to do: which is individually to discern and follow our individual path of divine providence. 

But, as always, choosing to follow that destined path while aware of all its probably hazards - is yet another thing.

We must dispense with optimism, and become based on trust in God (the creator and our Father) to arrange matters for our eternal benefit; but not necessarily for our benefit in this temporal life and world. 

  

Trust in God is absolutely necessary to hope; because there is zero possibility of us knowing the route of divine providence, nor its destination. (That is what we lose when we dispense with the idea of planning our future.)  

Yet we must be able to 'monitor' the spiritual outcomes in our lives to ensure that we have not strayed from destiny, by self-deception or expediency. The need for conscious choices never ends so long as life continues.  

In sum - when optimism about this-world becomes impossible, hope for the eternal world to come is the only game in town. When this World is obviously aiming at evil; to follow Jesus's commandment ultimately to be 'Not of this world' emerges almost as an essential for daily survival. 

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. 

Edited from William Wildblood writing at Albion Awakening:

In the second epistle to the Thessalonians St Paul writes of a 'strong delusion' that God will send to those who refuse to love truth... You might say that God gives you enough rope to hang yourself with if that's what you want to do...

So what is this strong delusion? Assuming we are living in the end times what could it be?

(By the way, it seems more and more likely that we are indeed living in something approximating to the end times; since however far man has fallen in the past he has always known that he has fallen whereas now he likes to think he is progressing, so much has he lost sight of his origins and destiny. It is only recently that he has sunk so low from a spiritual perspective he believes himself to be higher than ever.)

Assuming, then, that these are the end times, what is the delusion? There are several candidates ranging from general atheism to materialism to Marxism (hard or soft) to Darwinian evolution which sees intelligent conscious life as arising from dead matter through random mutation of its component parts. 

It could be any of these but today there is actually something that combines them all and that is Leftism, the popular belief system of the modern world. 

The strong delusion must be shared by many, if not most, people. It must be the accepted wisdom of the worldly elite. It must be anti-Christian in spirit. It must corrupt nature. And it must be thought of as good in the light of how we see the world. All these things apply to Leftism. 

Leftism is the strong delusion of the modern world.

More at Albion Awakening

Among the admittedly few bloggers who take notice of my comments, I have quite often been accused of not being a real reactionary; as if this was something I claimed to be, and an accusation I might be assumed to dispute...

Although wrong, this is not all that surprising, because several years ago I did go through a period when I did consider myself a reactionary; and this period included writing my book Thought Prison, and it was at this blog that the Orthosphere was devised and named (mainly by Kristor Lawson) - but it is now quite a while (probably about four years) since I was a part of this movement, or had reactionary aspirations - by which I mean the primary hope or intention of returning society to some earlier phase.

On the contrary, I believe we are in the End Times, the Letter Days - that these times are unique and that the 'destiny' (in the sense of the proper, best, intended future) is therefore qualitatively unlike any era of the past.

Part of this attitude is repulsion, part is attraction. Repulsion is that - when I try empathically to identify with any actual society of the past I find it impossible to yearn for it. There are aspects and phases - sometimes short transitional eras - that I do yearn for: some aspects of Neolithic society, of Anglo Saxon Northumbria in the Golden Age, participating in the Divine Liturgy at the Hagia Sophia during the height of the Byzantine Empire, that brief and lovely flowering of the Church of England around the time of Thomas Traherne... little bits and glimpses; but never the whole package.

In particular, I do not want anything on the lines of medieval Europe in the Age of Faith; which seems to be the staple yearning of most reactionaries (either that, or Holy Russia - which I do find preferable; or some kind of puritan commonwealth...). While there is much to admire (I read a lot of Chaucer and his contemporaries, I regard the Gothic Cathedrals as the most beautiful of all buildings) overall I don't much like the idea of Catholic Europe in the way that Chesterton and Belloc painted it. I have tried to make myself, at times; but really I don't. My aversion is solid.

In sum, I cannot regard any previously existing Christian society or type of Christianity as what was wanted or intended - all had good qualities, but all were very deeply and profoundly flawed (not always from their own fault - but usually so). In sum, I am not a traditionalist in any overall sense, nor in any sense which would enable me to point an any actual society and say that was how it was meant to be; that is what Christ intended for us.

I presume a real reactionary must be able to do this, must be able to regard some previous state of affairs as pretty-much ideal, given the constraints (although reactionaries differ greatly among themselves as to what 'that' actually is) but I cannot and do not want to be able to do tit: I am not and do not want to be a reactionary!

Not that I like these times and their trends - they are awful. I am on record of saying on multiple occasions that nowadays in the West seems to be the most evil time and place in human history - the only time when an increasingly systematic inverted morality (good as evil, evil as good) has been officially promoted and enforced in a sustained fashion.

But I am convinced we need to go through these times and out the other side; not back. My diagnosis is that we are stuck in rebellious adolescence - but the adolescence was both necessary and good - the problem was getting stuck for 200 plus years in what was meant to be a short transitional phase leading to a grown up Christianity of a type we never yet have seen.

So I am not a reactionary - I am future orientated. What I would most want is a Christian society, a theocracy - but of a type and nature as yet unseen and unknown (except in glimpses). This would - presumably - delay The End (which seems to be what God wants - he wants this world to last as long as possible, as long as it does good for salvation and theosis) ; but of course in the fullness of time the end will come; and will need to come. But that is God's business, and not even Jesus knew the timing. 

But I regard all previous and existing forms of Christian life as flawed and or stunted; i particular most serious churches are currently severely limited, stunted and distorted by continually having to fight the sexual revolution (they have to do this, it is necessary that they do this, I support them doing this - but the fact is that it takes a serious toll on what is possible for Christian churches in our era).

I am absolutely unable to predict the future in any specific way at present - except that I am sure that these are the end times, and the end is accelerating. 

I am not very sure what The End actually means; but Christians will know it when it happens. 

It is not the second coming - because that is not a real thing - by my understanding. Certainly our civilization is ending - from multiple causes: biological, psychological, socio-political - but 'our civilization' now encompasses the world (especially since early 2020) so that the end of civilization will affect every person on the planet. 

But in materialist terms everybody dies, all nations and civilizations end, and the planet will sooner or later become uninhabitable for one reason or another; so that is certain. 

However; at the primary, spiritual intuitive level is where the significant end is hastening. 

To anyone with Christian discernment, it is clear and explicit that the Establishment, the authorities, are actively destroying all that is Good - all that is part of God's creation. Virtue, beauty and truth are under accelerating attack; and anything that is natural, spontaneous, created likewise. They are even beginning to destroy The System, The Matrix upon which their own collective power depends...

This is a very comprehensive strategy of destruction. 

What convinces me that this is the end, is that this attack by the powers of purposive evil is broadly celebrated - indeed, destruction of God, creation and The Good has become the core of the mainstream and 'normal' morality - enforced by law, taught in schools, propagated in the arts and mass media and by all major institutions (including churches).

Value inversion is our value system - already overall, and ever more comprehensively. 

This, I take it, is distinctive of the end of things. 

Thus, materially speaking there is nothing constructive to be done. Any material opposition to the plans, will merely be from supporting one lesser evil part of The System and directing it against a greater evil. At best, this will only delay.

Materially reasoned; there are no grounds for optimism - and in deed no realistic grounds for hope. 

For hope we must turn to the spiritual realm, and take advantage of Mankind's recent capacity for each individual to stand spiritually alone against the world. 

At present, this ability is being used to stand alone against God - and to affiliate with Satan's agenda; but this same human capacity can be deployed on the side of God. 

It is simple and instant. 

But what use is it? Is it any use at all? 

From a materialist perspective, of course not. By mainstream metaphysics: What I think in 'my brain' has no affect outside of my body.  

But what if it does have an effect; what if my thinking has a tremendous effect - but spiritually, not materially. 

What if, for those relatively-brief and transient moments when my thinking is truly aligned with God's purposes and harmonized by love of God (and fellow Men)?... 

What if this thinking is then taken-up by God and amplified and disseminated with astonishing efficiency and strength - to produce positive spiritual effects where possible (where the hearts of others are open to it) and necessary (where the effects will do the most Good) - and by a 'process' not confined by proximity in space or by physical contact?...

I personally would be unlikely to know anything about this - at least not in any detailed or comprehensive fashion - yet I might know that it was happening, or had happened. 

Think of it in terms of causation versus motivation. 

Causation is a materialist concept - cause and effect, billiard balls colliding, chemical equations and the like... It relates to dead things without consciousness or will. 

But if 'things' are really alive, conscious and have purposes - then they don't work on each other by cause and effect; but by means such as motivations, and by acceptance (or rejection)... 

If our divinely-harmonious thinking is motivational it affects other Beings like a personal relationship; and these Beings can choose whether or not to welcome this, and be affected by it -- much as we might accept or reject the love of another person. 

Indeed love is the key. If love is welcomed then it generates more love; amplifying the love. This is a way of picturing how our divine thinking may spread and be amplified in effect; and may do Good in the spiritual realm.  

But the spiritual realm is not cut-off from the material - rather, the material is a sub-set of the wider spiritual world. So the material world will be affected by what we think. And potentially affected for the better. 

There is no need for us to have a strategy - to predict the future: God has the strategy. We 'merely' need to help God with his future. 

Of course, this is an active process of discovery, and of discernment and thinking. But we will learn about where things are going from doing it, from participation - not from material analysis of 'the facts', not from logic/ maths/ models.

These are the end times, but that has long been the case; for many generations. The end is accelerating towards us - but still we do not know what it will entail nor when exactly it will come. Nonetheless - we know what to do. 

Metaphysics refers to a person's ultimate beliefs - or more accurately his assumptions - about how reality is structured and works. 

These primary assumptions are usually implicit rather explicit; and that they are assumptions is usually denied (claiming instead that they are logically-entailed or based on overwhelming evidence). 

What I am seeing in these End Times, is that every person's superficial 'beliefs' and self-identifications are being stripped-away and his metaphysical assumptions are being revealed. 

This seems to be striking among self-identified Christians. A large number are being revealed as simply Not Christian - in the sense that they are merely using Christian language to live by mainstream atheistic, materialist, Leftist and anti-Christian assumptions. 

But among serious Christians of all denominations there is a gap opening between those whose primary loyalty is to their church - and whose core ethic is obedience to that church; and those who have taken ultimate responsibility for their own Christian faith.  

This is interesting because there are very large differences among and between the belief systems of Eastern and Western Catholics; and Protestants such as Anglicans, Methodists or Calvinists; and churches such as Mormons. 

Yet brought to a point by the events of 2020-21, in and among all of these there is this division that has opened-up between those serious Christians who are primarily obedient to the church authorities, and those who evaluate and judge their own church according to personal discernment. 

At a metaphysical level; this relates to a primary assumption concerning the nature of Man. Among those who put obedience to their church as primary; there is the assumption that the relation between each Man and God must be mediated by a church if it is to lead to salvation and theosis. 

That 'I' needs 'the' church, but the church does not need me. The church has a mystical reality and primacy that does not depend upon its 'members'. This precisely because God has made the church essential to each Man - so therefore God will sustain the integrity of the church, no matter what. 

Among those whose faith is based on personal discernment is the assumption that salvation and discernment are a matter that is primarily based on a direct and unmediated relationship between each Christian on the one hand - and God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost on the other hand. 

That 'I' do not need the church. The church may be helpful - even very helpful - but may be harmful. The church has no mystical reality distinct from its members; so that any church has the potential to become as corrupt as any other human institution.  

By this account, God's promise of the availability of salvation and the possibility of theosis is made to each individual, and not to the mystical-church. So that although churches might all fail and fall; God will ensure that every Man capable of love will always have a path open to salvation, and the potential to grow in divinity.  

What I find striking, as one of the second category who regards churches as optional extras at best and potential enemies in the spiritual war; is that those who have taken the path of the primacy of the churches are spread across all types of Christian churches of which I am aware. 

It seems to make surprisingly little difference whether a person professes to be Catholic, Protestant or Mormon. It is a person's actual metaphysical assumptions about how reality works, how salvation works, and the purpose of this mortal life  - which seem to be crucial.... No matter what their churches may say. 

This is, I think, because Christianity has been primarily church orientated, and therefore focused upon whatever happen to be the requirements of church membership - which are very varied, usually very restrictive and specific; but very detached from metaphysical assumptions. 

Churches will exclude people on the basis of their failure to endorse and/ or live by behaviours that are integral to that particular church's sustained existence - but they will take no serious notice of a person's ultimate metaphysical assumptions. As long as someone verbally agrees-with and sticks-by the rules - they are included - but fundamental matters of assumption are unknown or ignored.

It is this neglect of metaphysical assumptions that is at the heart of the current malaise, and the deep reason for the mass apostasy of Christian churches and their loyal members - because the self-identified Christians, it turns-out! - have near identical primary assumptions as the mass of atheists, non-Christians and - in particular - the Global Leadership class whose agendas are now structuring the lives of everybody, everywhere.

People (including church-loyal Christians) go-along-with the secular, Lefts (and anti-Christian) agendas of the birdemic, antiracism and the CO2-environmentalism, social justice, equity etc. because - in an ultimate sense - they regard-themselves as primarily obedient creatures - obedient to the institutions of their-church...

"I need the church, but the church does not need me" means that their core metaphysical assumption is that such Christians regard themselves as members (or 'a people') - entities whose individual personal discernment has no objective validity in relation to salvation and theosis.  

At root, they assume: If I am not a member, then I am nothing.  

Such is the metaphysical assumption that has been exposed in these End Times. And like all such assumptions it needs to be recognized, acknowledged as an assumption - and then evaluated.