The Morality of Eschatology

Do not be afraid of Christ. He takes nothing away and he gives you everything. – Pope Benedict XVI

One day you will fully realize that there is nothing in all of God’s creation to fear. That will be the moment of your liberation. – John Morton

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? – WB Yeats, The Second Coming

Recently I had the privilege to meet with the priest of my local Catholic parish. We had a lovely conversation which ranged from local parish events to metaphysical questions, the wonder of visiting Israel, and personal stories of faith and God. During our discussion the Father brought up eschatology in relation to metaphysics and the existence of God which immediately peaked my interest as I admittedly don’t often find myself thinking about such a topic. Eschatology, in case you aren’t aware, is a fancy word for the end times of the world, the universe, and humanity. It is often referred to as the Last Judgment, which is the title of the artwork by Michelangelo depicted above in this post, as well as the Second Coming, which just so happens to be the title of a poem by WB Yeats which I’ve quoted above as well. Along with being associated with the Last Judgement, eschatology is also associated with the advent of Christ or Messiah or God when miraculous and phenomenal events will occur like the resurrection of the dead, the damnation of evil, and the emergence of a transcendent order finally one with God. Eschatology is deeply rooted in the psyche of Western Civilization and therefore holds deep resonance and significance for all of us both personally as well as culturally. So it was interesting for me to hear the priest mention this to me, because in an instant the impact of the eschaton flashed upon me. It came to my awareness that there are powerful moral considerations connected to eschatology which have repercussions on other facets of life seemingly unrelated to faith. In particular how we perceive and interpret ourselves, events in our society at large, and the meaning and purpose to the lives we live all seem to be altered by varying approaches to eschatology.

One of the main reasons I wanted to speak to my local priest was to discuss my metaphysics with him and to hear his points of view and references to my ideas. If you recall the last post I wrote here on the blog was in regards to metaphysics and the shifting historical relationship between science, philosophy, and theology. You can find a link to that post here. In this post I mention that perhaps one day I would share with you my own metaphysics, and that is precisely what I have been working on ever since. Believe it or not, but building a comprehensive metaphysics is a rather time-consuming and engaging exercise! As a side-note this explains my lack of posts to the site here for the past couple months. However for whatever it’s worth I can assure you that I have been writing, reading, studying, and thinking quite a lot lately, and it is a very satisfying and enjoyable venture even if it means less time and ability to post here on this blog. It also doesn’t help that I have decided, at least for the time being, to not post the findings of my metaphysics along the way as I develop it, at least for the foreseeable future, for a number of reasons. First it is a work in process, and I would not like to post whatever ideas I am churning through currently onto the blog prematurely for it would then require me to go back and edit what I have said and update things accordingly. It seems like a more prudent approach to hold my tongue for the time being and develop my work fully and then present it to the world. Which leads me to the second point, namely the way I’d like to present this work to the world. Rather than a blog post, which frankly is just not the appropriate medium to present a metaphysics, it seems to me that a proper book is more in line for such an undertaking. So for these reasons I am refraining, as difficult as it is for me, from posting my extensive work on this front to the blog very much at all. That being said I do hope that sooner rather than later I can present a completed book to you for your reading pleasure. I don’t know when that will be – Lord knows I have many a book that needs to be written! – but I am working on this as diligently as I can. I would very much like to see a completed version, but even more than that I wish for a thoughtful and complete work rather than a hastily published one. And since I am now working on a non-fiction piece, rather than a fiction work, publishing is another practical consideration. Non-fiction is more amenable to publishers, so possible doors could be open to me with this work even before I’ve finished the book, however I really know anyone in the publishing industry at this time, and the market is very saturated and competitive, so the going is slow and perhaps unlikely. Nevertheless I would like to have a book so whether that means self-publishing or not remains to be seen. If you know of any agents or editors that may be interested in philosophical, theological, and science-based metaphysics please feel free to reach out to me to discuss this further. This then is the update on my current events and “house-keeping” of the current state of this site and my writing works. I’ll keep you posted as things develop, and I do hope to post more here though perhaps not as often for the time being.

So back to my conversation with my local priest. I wanted to hear his point of view regarding any proofs for the existence of God and how the church deals with these matters. Naturally he spoke of faith and the personal relationship one develops with Christ and God, all of which I fully agree with and participate with. But as our discussion moved over to the Second Coming we both agreed that eschatology is quite a mysterious concept and event. I mentioned to him that Jesus Christ when asked about the end times stated that he himself didn’t even know when that day would be.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. – Mark 13:31-34 NIV

What is fascinating here is that even Christ himself admits he does not know when these end times will be. Eschatology is truly a known unknown. Christ knows it will happen but does not know when. And for that very reason we must be ever ready to give all up to God, to always love God, and to treat each day, each person, each action of ours as though it were the last, sacred rite we were to ever perform. Admittedly that is no small task indeed! I think it is fair to say this is the real message and purpose behind Jesus Christ sharing the nature of the eschaton at all – to simply live life fully and to love God unceasingly. But is that the message received today? Is that the moral conclusion our society resolves itself towards? It seems we humans have a tendency to focus on claiming the end of days perennially. We regularly fixate onto whatever current events we perceive around us as once again being the “end of the world.” This phenomena of end days never ceases to tempt the human imagination and curiosity. It seems that every generation thinks they are the last, and some fatal catastrophe which they are witnessing surely marks the end. Obviously they have all been wrong and will continue to be wrong essentially forever. But even in spite of our terrible track record, humanity continues to be obsessed over this notion and knowing our human nature we will very likely keep being obsessed with it in spite of the fact that every single prediction we have ever made has always been wrong every, single time. What’s even more astonishing is that no one – not even Jesus Christ himself – knows when that time shall be. Surely then if Jesus can admit that he doesn’t know when it will be, we could at least show a similar humility as well? And this coming from the same man who knew exactly when Peter would deny Him three times among countless other miracles and visions and powers. The real purpose of eschatology it seems lies not in an attempt to pinpoint it to this or that day or seeming catastrophe but rather to harness it as a powerful motivating force and reminder to live life as hallowed as possible each and every day. To know that God is with us, and therefore we are called to some greatness, whatever it may look like, that burns deep in our hearts, that quenches a thirst lost in the depths of our Souls. It is a holy Carpe Diem for the humble, God fearing man.

Even still it doesn’t matter if the end times are coming today or tomorrow or in a million years, it matters only if we think they are coming, and frankly that matters a great deal. When a person is one with God and knows God a shift takes place in their consciousness such that life becomes more joyful, more insightful, things just make more sense, there is a deep and abiding faith and trust in the way things are as well as in whatever way things could be. No matter what God is with us, and God is good. This is an experience to be welcomed and is certainly appreciated, comforting, and enjoyable, but it can also lead to a tendency to accept things the way they are, including things that may not be very good or helpful or uplifting. It is one thing to forgive and to love one another, but it is something else altogether to allow transgression without repercussion. Or to state it another way, it is one thing to turn the other cheek but quite another to allow yourself to be forever abused. Eventually we must put our foot down, we must stand up for ourselves, declare a right and a wrong, and say not on my watch. But where is this line? And how does this transpose to our society at large? If a society is awaiting an eschaton which marks the arrival of not just climactic destruction but also the return of God to Earth, wouldn’t that society actually welcome rather than avoid whatever catastrophes they may find in their midst? Is it possible that we actually want chaos in our lives in order to be able to then proclaim with justifiable evidence that the end is nigh? Or even more subtly, is it possible that we accept or allow chaos and degradation, rather than to counter-act it, because we wish to usher in the final days? Is the eschaton the second coming of Christ or perhaps is it actually our deepest desire to return home to God? And must that return trip be riddled with chaos and destruction? It cannot be stressed enough that if the Second Coming does in fact bring destruction, it does not logically mean therefore that we can bring destruction as a means of furthering the Second Coming. The entire larger point of eschatology is that we do not control it, it controls us.

Interestingly we can even find forms of eschatology in secular, political, and economic modes of thought as well. Karl Marx for example conceived of communism as the final and highest manifestation of society. It was to transcend all the weight and pain and injustice of the world and raise up mankind to a higher order, and in typical eschatological fashion there would very likely be destruction, pain, and suffering in order to achieve the transcendent new world order. Such a notion, albeit stripped of any religious underpinnings, is still nevertheless a materialized conception of heaven and hell. Karl Marx may have rejected religion as the “opiate of the masses,” but ironically he was desperately courting the power of the masses to manifest a twisted notion of humanity’s ultimate destiny. If we look today at our political environs it is not difficult to see similar trends, anxieties, and dreams being pursued almost relentlessly. Without theology, our eschatology hardens into a materialized conception of grace that is only able to manifest itself economically, politically, and materially. In such an eschatology Heaven becomes the fulfillment of a class struggle, a political armageddon, and the domination of resources and power. But what happens when those predictions turn out false? What happens when mankind, once again fails in predicting the final day of judgment? The atrocities of communism throughout the 20th century are a testament to such a broken gospel. An eschatology that rejects the notion of God and a higher purpose beyond material existence is immediately relegated to a liberation that does not in fact transcend anything at all. Marxism offers more of the same materially determined problems as its very solution and highest end. It fails to elevate itself beyond the dynamics we already live under. An eschatology that lacks genuine transcendence is therefore only able, even at its absolute best, to condemn us to the same state of being we are already confined. It’s liberation is our prison, and our prison is our liberation. Without God there is literally no way out. Marxism illustrates that although we can take man away from religion, we still cannot take religion away from man. All men worship, that is without question. The consideration then is to whom and to what do we bow our heads and pray? To whom do we serve and worship? I am reminded of Joshua as he powerfully proclaimed to the tribes of Israel whom we shall serve.

If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. – Joshua 24:15

As Joshua notes there are indeed many forms of worship, and today we find numerous churches or systems of belief that branch off from the more traditional religions. And even there we can find versions and variations of eschatology. Concepts of reincarnation and the spiritual process of “breaking the wheel” or cycle of karma and return is one interesting example. To end the cycle of reincarnation is a type of personal eschatology, and again we find the familiar patterns and trends of thought. A person’s behavior can change or be altered in various ways out of the fear or eagerness to break the cycle, to end the reincarnation pattern. But just as Christ doesn’t know the day or hour of the end times, nor do we really know what to do or not to do in order to break the cycle. Hamlet said it best with his famous line, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” and it seems quite apt in the face of not just death, but the death of death. Is it best for me to act one way in this case or another way? Which way is the right way? Likewise with our society at large? Is it better to confront falsehood as one perceives it or to allow it to exist and fester? And if so how shall I confront that falsehood? How shall I allow it to exist? Which ways are the more virtuous? What decision affords me a greater destiny ultimately? The perceived ultimate destiny of man dictates automatically and completely the ethics and value structure of our everyday behavior and decisions. Like a puppet on a string, we become immediately aligned to some moral system which itself is organized around a particular final purpose of all existence. As humans we are designed and encoded to consider the ultimate repercussion of our actions, and it is the nature of that ultimate which directs the value judgments we relegate ourselves to and measure ourselves against. Change the eschatology and the morality shall follow accordingly. As we realize that these eschatologies need not be religious in nature but can in fact also be political, economic, even environmental, we must then assess with great care, precision, and consideration the moral implications from whatever ultimates we choose to adhere to. What advent do we wish to proclaim? Eventually an end will arrive, whatever that is exactly we may never know, but like the sword of Damocles overhead we cannot seem to escape a suspicion, anxiety, anticipation, or love for that which is, that which will be, and how exactly we will measure up against it. 

In the end eschatology is judgment. How shall we judge and be judged? What is the mark of our being? No matter what form of heaven you prescribe to, in each instance the everyday, immediate actions and decisions are a testing ground which shall determine your final resting place. But do we understand our eschatology rightly to begin with? And should we reconsider “the end” of anything altogether? Would we live our lives differently if we did so? I suppose it comes down to how we are living our lives now. If we are using all that comes to us both personally as well as at large as a society for the greatest upliftment and advancement, then it would seem to be beneficial for all involved. But if instead we are twisting things around and no longer standing up for goodness, refusing to make our lives and the lives of those around us better and more fruitful and plentiful, then perhaps we need to reconsider the application of our beliefs. Jesus Christ spoke on many things and shared many great wisdoms, so the fact that he himself doesn’t know the day or hour of judgment seems greatly significant to me. It would appear that such specifics are precisely insignificant to our faith, to the way we love the Lord, and that we serve each other together. Likewise class struggles, political dominations, and patterns of reincarnation are all ephemeral states of materiality and behavior. Jesus Christ did not live and die to put bread on everyone’s table nor to overthrow a given government, system, or leader. Nevertheless we cannot measure what is truly right or wrong until the Lord declares that final judgment. We are not the ones called upon nor able to judge. And yet if we are not to judge then how are we to determine the grounds by which God shall judge us? By what measure shall we live our lives and form the values of our society? It is better by far to plant our feet firmly in what we know and love, the truth of God, than to waste our time worrying about this event or that development. God is! Let us hold to this bedrock of life, and continue to carry forth the natural rights of man and from those rights the ethical and moral maxims which gracefully issue forth from the greatest declarations in the Bible, our nation’s founding documents, and elsewhere throughout the great literature and thought of Western Civilization – that all men are created equal and in the image of God, that individual man is a divine creation and therefore carries natural rights, that we are here to love God in all ways and to love our neighbors likewise, and to stand forth fully and truly as ourselves and with God as our witness. All else, catastrophe or blessing, passion or grace, that occur in our lives amount to momentary variations on the sacred theme of being. It is that nature of being which God intends upon us and bears witness to. We need not disregard the dilemmas and particulars we find before us. We must confront them head on, wrestle with them, resolve them, and then move on. But no matter what the event or situation, our being must remain in focus. The nature of our being is of God’s domain and God’s concern. We are not God, and just like Jesus Christ we do not know the day of our judgment, therefore let us live without fear, freely and fully manifesting the Lord’s prayer, the Lord’s blessings for ourselves and our neighbors, our own personal sacred creed. Let us live for all that is good, defend all that is great, and no matter the results of our feeble efforts, let us surrender our will to God’s, reserving for Him alone the power and the right to judge us however He sees so fit. Surely for this alone we can pray and we can hope, as we await in love for the advent of the Lord our God.