Yes, in the end, time will become one true prophecy. All things will be revealed in their true light, and this is as much a mathematic law that must come "to be" as it is a religious word that has "to be".

Often I think of numbers as the portals that will lead the way to eternity and as words as the keys that will eventually open the doors. The Greek notion of the Logos, symbolised as the fish, visualised as the glance of Apollo, suffered in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth and resurrected as Christ, is I think this divine knowledge, not of things as they are, but rather of a relationship formed between the truth and falsity of all things that come to be. This I guess is a long way of stating that I do believe in Prophecy, but not prophecies as a fact of crude prediction but rather as a “gift” or a bounty rightfully received from above, and prophecy in its true sense could not take up residence in the house of a lazy or rich person as it wouldn't have any value for them. And I mean value in the sense that one doesn't gain any material or practical adavantage from it (the so-called foolishness of the wise as seen through the eyes of those who know the facts of life as the mere "facts of life" and nothing else, those not merely dead in heart and mind, but spirit too)


Again I think you are right about time shortening or quickening near the end, which of course would be the transition to the realm of eternity, which we may imagine to be static relative to our notion of time (not unlike Aristotle’s notion of the unmoved mover). Yet as our sense of physical time eventually condenses and becomes denser, would our minds not corresponding expand too? And in moving to that point (Christ’s second coming) would we not meet Him at a place that has been determined by the activity of our divine Logos in advance? If one has never known or experienced either the Logos or Eros working deeply within oneself, then how could there ever be a meeting with Christ when time ends, and in which the mind yearns and expands to fill the fullness of His kingdom?

In this process I think it helps to see the Logos symbolised as that unique (wise or sapient) fish that eventually passes and, swims back to its source by weaving its way through these final locks. The wise fish as Christ knew, had to seek out men who were capable of understanding, and I often think perhaps this is why Greece, with its Philosophical tradition is so important to Christianity (although the Jewish element must never but ignored too, as the Jewish element ultimately allows for radiant flashes of divine "insight" into the corpus of Christianity).

Regards

Dear James,

Myself coming from a Catholic background, I understand your words and can relate to them. Know that you are not the only one to express such feelings toward our culture. More and more, I feel in the Western 'churches' an emptiness that nothing they may try, no 'participation of the faithfuls,' no loud bands and 'joyful' electrified music, no intelectualism or 'modernization,' no 'message of tolerance,' nothing indeed, will ever be able to fill that emptiness. All of these, rather, contribute to the emptiness of our faith. It seems clearer to me that the problem of the Western churches, and of Western society in general, is that they have lost sense of who He is, that He is the incarnate Logos.

Christianity here in the West, formerly known as Christendom, built upon the ruins of the Roman empire, is like the Danaids, desperatly trying to fill up barells with water, but never succeeding. Whatever we try, we will fail. Perhaps it is a punishment from our Lord for forsaking Him, who knows?

It is interesting that you arch back at philosophy, for indeed the quest of the philosopher was this Life that the Christ has revealed to us. Having made of Christianity a mere social and intelectual movement, remembering the philosophers' quest may help us rediscover the true message of Christianity.

The western man has fallen a second time, by disdainfully, out of pride, remodelling the Word of God into his desire and making himself the like of God. As I said earlier, the sorry state of our societies is perhaps a just and deserved punishment for his pride. It is all the more sorrowful that his brethren has humbly kept it intact, treasuring it and drinking of the Life that it freely offers.

I feel that there is so much to learn from those who have kept the faith intact. Christianity is not dead! Perhaps it will be lands such as Greece and Russia that will ultimately save the West from wreck.

Cordially,
Laellius.

Hello Laellius

The Lord is our shepherd and, He like every shepherd was there in order to protect us initially so that we could grow until we became Him in time. This is what I suspect is meant by His Logos becoming incarnate in the world or the word becoming flesh. In such a blaze of light, time nor death would be no more, yet our world as noted by Plato (Heidegger or Adorno in the modern tradition) has an uncanny way of obscuring this light or sense of being created in order to truly Be that is worthy of life. The banal, the crude, the rude, the importance given to a world made for mean ends rather than open ends, seems to be truly the world that is now in the ascendancy.

Yet time is not boundless or eternal and all created things came to pass in their allotted place and way. And I feel if things were to end as you suggested that it would not be so much as a punishment form our Lord but rather it would come as the end of what was possible by Him for us and that mankind had the collective choice to really listen or not to His word in the true sense. Our failure to listen is perhaps our failure to become Him and to create something permanently beyond ourselves and the sand castles that are swept away by the great forces of nature and time once again.

Again there are many good people in this world, yet if the cultural forces that mass-market man has created in his own distorted image paradoxically comes to tell us "who we are" and people believe it, then they'll never be any hope of returning to Him. It's said that that the dark forces of the world can only generate themselves but never actually create. I think this is an important distinction to draw between the image that generates yet another image (think of our times, which is image saturated) and the word (the Logos) which creates another order that transcends that mere endless reproduction of images. Yet as a man in particular I find it almost impossible to love certain people (who are simply nasty and full of malice for example) while I exist in this world and, yet I know that they really non-being, and they have their Kingdom too.

If Christ returns then so must His Kingdom, where the grain is counted as it should be, as it was, once again.

Regards