The empires of old took up their symbols, weapons, and shields, and went out to unsuspecting humanity with a stark proposition:
Either join the spirit of anti-goodness in hell for eternity after we cut off your head, or simply convert to our religion and submit to our empire, and you can keep your head and dwell in paradise forever.
Not surprisingly, billions of precious souls elected the “salvation” of religion and empire, over the alternative of pain, suffering, and death, both now and for eternity, that they were offered as an alternative.
The good news is that all that was a lie.
God loves you, and no one who genuinely desires to be with God will be separated.
It is true that we can create hell for ourselves. Just read a few passages from history. See how far we can take society down the pathway of deceit, corruption, and injustice. See where they lead.
The important to thing to know about hell is that it is something we co-create for ourselves. It is the inextricable and logical end of repeatedly applying the transformational Patterns of Death to the product of each previous transformation, moving farther and farther away from God into the Darkness with each step, and becoming more and more hellish creatures with each subsequent transformation.
If you wake up tomorrow, choose anti-goodness, and apply a Pattern of Death, the next day your life and your world world will be more hellish than the day before.
If you then look around, are bitter and resentful at the situation, choose anti-goodness, and apply another Pattern of Death, the next day your life and your world will be more hellish than the day before.
If you then observe the growing chaos of your situation, and become even more bitter and resentful, and apply another more powerful Pattern of Death…
You can see where that leads. Darkness will eventually envelop you, but your conscience will be so tormented by the hell you are consciously creating for yourself and those around you that you will be unable to sleep or rest.
You will gnash your teeth. You will long for escape. But the bitterness, resentfulness, and vengefulness will have corrupted your soul.
But you were the one that invented that for yourself. You were the one who believed and embodied the lie. You were the one who led yourself and all the others you could drag along with you down the pathway of suffering and death.
No one banished you to that destiny.
The One invited you up into Life, LIght, and Love. It was you that chose to accelerate yourself, Pattern of Death after Pattern of Death, down the pathway of Death.
At any moment, all you have to do is stop.
Turn around.
Look back up at Light, Life, Love, and their Source.
You may be so deep in the chaos, suffering, and darkness of the underworld you created for yourself that the it looks like the faintest light of a solitary, distant star.
Yet that is all you need. Turn around and move towards the glimmer of Light No matter how dark it gets, it will always be there in the distance. Beckoning.
All you need to do is to stop and turn around.
Assess your situation. Ask for help. Pray. Speak the name of God. Invite the Spirit of God. Invoke the name of Jesus. Ask for forgiveness. You will be saved.
Every soul genuinely oriented towards and longing for God, crying out and grasping for the Light in the Darkness, will be sought, found, and saved.
That tiny awakening of consciousness is all that is required to apply the first transformational Pattern of Life. To taste the first drop of Love.
Taste it, and see what happens.
Then look around again, assess, and apply another transformational Pattern of Life.
As you do this, two critical things are happening.
One is that your situation will begin to transform. Little by little, you will notice the Light piercing the Darkness growing stronger.
However far more importantly, you will begin to transform. With each transformational pattern, you are becoming the kind of person that transforms towards heaven rather than hell.
You are becoming, more and more, the kind of person that moves towards Life, Light, and Love, by applying the Patterns of Life, by the Power of God.
And you are becoming, less and less, the kind of person that moves towards Death, Darkness, and Fear, by applying the Patterns of Death.
The good news is that you do not need to fear being cast into hell by an arbitrary man in the sky. God is not the unjust totalitarian ruler so many unjust religions claim.
Human beings are not subject to the Meta Punishment reserved for Supreme Evil.
However God also does not violate our Free Will, and sorrowfully allows us to create Hell for our selves if we so choose.
It is an amazing gift, to be granted the freedom to choose whether we use our Creative Consciousness to co-create Heaven or Hell for our Selves as a result of Who We Are Becoming.
Choose Liberty. Choose Light. Choose Life. Choose Love.
Choose God.