Apocalypse, Briefly Considered*

by Philip McPherson Rudisill

[Dedicated to the Memory of a Fallen Wesleyan]

[* A more elaborate exposition of this concept is found on the kantwesley home page under the title of: A Wesleyan Apocalypse.]

As a rational creature, and in accordance with the dictates of Immanuel Kant's treatise on Practical Reason, the Wesleyan demands an end to all things and likewise that there also be a rectification which is moral, i.e., justice. And at the same time, in accordance with the dictates of Jesus Christ, the Wesleyan's Lord and Master, that same Wesleyan demands mercy in all things. Here we seek and find a reconciliation of these two demands.

1. transformation = the state of preferring others more than one's self. This is the state of the Holy Trinity and that of the human in the divine intention; and it is in this state alone that enduring and unexcelled happiness, i.e., bliss, is possible. The societal system of calculated exchange is merely a perverted image of the community of the Trinity.

2. salvation = the conscious cooperation (with the work of God) in producing the transformation. The actual attainment of transformation (which is also called sanctification) is progressive, and may not be realized until after death. In its most perfect manifestation, salvation is called the acceptance of the spirit of Jesus Christ as the desired spirit for one's own life and actions.

3. damnation = the conscious resistance to the (work of God in the) production of transformation.

All persons are on a trajectory to transformation, as a reflection of the creation of the world and all that is in it. And there is no life of conscious (principled) action where there is not at least some aspect which reflects the transformed state, e.g., Hitler's surrender to decency with regard to his hidden consort, the simpleton: Eva Braun. But this trajectory is interrupted by death.

There is a judgment for all persons (of consciousness, and of deliberate actions) such that our actions and intentions are brought to light, as well as the natural effects (of those actions) in life as well, further, as the actions that God undertook in response to those effects, either to negate those effects, when detrimental to, or to amplify them, when supportive of, the New Jerusalem (which is the final realm in which no sin is to be found). All judgment is received passively, without objection,* for it is in utter truth, i.e., in conscience. Then those who are not saved are told that their memories will be affected such that all that is evil shall be removed, but with it also all possible understanding, so that while they will reflect the love that is found in the Celestial City, still, unlike the infants who are also happily present and engaged there, they will note gaps in their memories and (consequently in) their understanding, and they will further be aware that this memory lapse was necessary and imposed in order that they might be happy, too; but they will not be aware of what it is that is missing. For their evil memories (but not the good memories), and the person who existed (in consciousness and understanding) by virtue of those memories will be cast, along with hell and death, into the Lake of Fire which never stops burning, and so nothing can possibly escape. So be it!

[* Although certainly with great anguish and "gnashing of teeth" at exposure to all persons and in anticipation of the death that is coming, i.e., where death is understood in the special and terrible sense of this apocalypse.]

The infants, as suggested, will be happy without understanding, but also without being imposed upon by the awareness of any lack of understanding (in contrast to what is left of the damned). [They are like the proverbial cow maid playmates of Krishna, who are so delighted in their play with the Blue God that they are not aware of who he is.]

Finally those who are the elect, who were chosen to find salvation, i.e., the conscious cooperation in the transformation, they will retain all memory, even the bad memories, but not be imposed upon by them, for they will serve as the basis of the wonderment and love and praise that will permeate their existence and whereby alone they are able not merely to enjoy the company of Jesus, as will the infants and even the remnants of (those once called the) damned (i.e., their remaining, unselfish components), but moreover to adore him, even beyond the capacity of the angels, for these alone will be able to broadcast abroad:

I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see.

The angels will wonder and shake their heads without comprehension that this image could have been produced, and that God would even want the humans to be with him. This they can never understand; for it is too high for them.

The Lake of Fire remains in sight always as a reminder of God's justice, for in it are all persons (their sinful and selfish memories) who were damned, e.g., the hateful memories of the hateful Adolf Hitler, such that if it were possible,*** we could resurrect those memories and he, Adolf Hitler, would become the miserable reproduction of the earthly monster. Instead, in his mercy, God has made sure that no memory can ever escape, and thus no person return from, the Lake of Fire.*

[* This is an interesting conception. Adolf Hitler, as a man, is in the Celestial City and is happy again with his mother and his Eva Braun and even with the victims of his crimes, but only because Adolf Hitler, the conscious demon of earth, is destroyed and in the Lake of Fire in the sense that the memories necessary for that full creature, the full Adolf Hitler, to have existence are gone forever, and so all that is left is Adolf Hitler as he would have been had Mary been his mother**; with this one proviso: he is aware that something is missing and that he is not complete, but there is no deficiency which is apparent to him, only when he looks at the incredible Lake of Fire, a mighty sight, he resonates, but unclearly.]

[** This is the clear contribution of Jesus, the Savior of earth, for while he was led in obedience to die for Barabbas, as the icon for humanity, he, Jesus, when he spied Barabbas, also loved him, for he saw what Barabbas could have been like had Mary and Joseph been his parents, and thus he saw Barabbas as himself, but imprisoned in "sin and Nature's night."]

[*** But it is not possible, for this the "fire that shall never be quenced."

Appendix I: Is This Just?

A remaining question: is it consistent with justice that a person's punishment be a lack of understanding of the punishment itself. So Adolf Hitler is purged, via some lobotomy, of his memory so that when he sees pictures (memories) of himself he is not aware that they are of him, and he might conceivably be brought so far as to hate the person pictured and not make any connection with himself. Is this a legitimate punishment? that the evil person is destroyed in the sense that he is no longer able to even recognize himself?

It is certainly commensurate with the common notion of human justice which is satisfied if criminals of a dire sort are killed, at which point all earthly punishment ceases, for there is no longer any awareness of punishment on the part of the punished (now deceased) person.

But is that punishment or mercy? Or do they simply blend together?

Appendix II: Is This Scriptural?

In the 25th chapter of Matthew's gospel we find a division of the world into the sheep and the goats, as though a person were entirely this or that, which is meaningless except as an icon (for no person is entirely good or entirely evil with regard to their actions). This becomes meaningful, however, if the persons of the judgment are considered as memories which constitute the understanding and thus the essence of personal identity. Then we can speak of destruction of people, i.e., that portion of a person's psyche and memory which is necessary for that identity to exist. There is no further need, according to this apocalypse, for the principle of action (the sinful intention) of any individual to be destroyed, for that will find no avenue for expression and thus will lie dormant, much as the capacity to grasp spatial distinctions is dormant and unknown in a person born and continuing blind.

This is very similar to the image of Dives in hell of Luke's gospel, the 16th chapter, where we have good and evil pictured in the same person in torment. But the unprofitable desire (verses 27 and 28) to help others is totally alien to the concept of the evil and their punishment and so we see again the need, demanded by rationality itself, to divide the man and to treat of the components as separate beings. This is very similar to thinking of a body without a left hand, and then thinking of the same body but now instead without a right hand; in both cases we are dealing with the same person, but in two entirely different ways. [Thus we have an important allegory, much like that of Jesus' reference to bread and wine as flesh and blood, and even like that of the following paragraph below.]

We also have the imagery of Mark 9, where the body is to be dismembered. It is but a short step to a dismemberment of the psyche by the spiritual lobotomy of memories.* [In order that this not appear as a mere sop, it is necessary to keep in mind that the elimination of any memory effectively eliminates the personal identity of the person so mutilated, such that the person can be said to be dead and another created to take his place.]

[* And who would not be willing to cut off his memory if that were to result in his entrance into the heavenly realm as opposed to the Lake of Fire?! Thus this conception is also consistent with the wish of every human who is faced with such a choice.]

The assertion that all persons are to be found in the Celestial City (although not all with the same personal identity as exemplified on earth) is thoroughly consistent with Paul's universalist claims, e.g., Romans 5:18 and 11:26, and John's equally universalist claims in his gospel, the 32nd verse of the 12th chapter.