The Immortality of Living Beings
The article: Primitiveness and Superstition
Chapter 6
The present modern culture's unfinished sides. No. 3: Armageddon
A society of beings that gives life to a multi-headed lifedestroying being in its own mentality must become a world of darkness; that is a matter of course. But since the beings at the same time believe it is their neighbours who give life and force to the undermining of their own happiness and well-being, and therefore have designs on his life, the entire life-area of these beings becomes, so to speak, a world of demons. Everyone is at war with everyone else. He believes that he can thereby save himself from darkness and create that peaceful existence for which those poor beings in their innermost selves begin to long. They do not understand at all that what they do to their neighbour they do to themselves. They firmly believe that their salvation is the development of the ability to murder and mutilate, tie and bind their neighbour. They have no idea that for each sabotage of their neighbour's life and well-being that they have carried out, they have created a new head on the gnawing and lifedestroying animal being in their own psychic interior. They thus give the monster they want to master life and power through their murderous and inhumane thoughts, their hatred and persecution of their neighbour. It follows from this culminating ignorance and superstition that a society of these beings cannot possibly build up a perfect culture of peace. We then also see this culture of demons as a complete contrast to the world culture of the finished human beings or the kingdom of heaven. For the human being of the future who is accustomed to living in a world culture, or that peaceful goodwill which has been promised the people of the earth and in which everyone loves everyone else, it can well be that he, with shivers or a certain feeling of "goose pimples", looks back thousands of years and finds this contrast to the kingdom of heaven in our present highly praised modern culture. He sees that in this culture millions of people die of starvation, in need and misery, while other groups of people live in abundance or in excessive possession of physical or material wealth. Some people live in luxurious palaces with the staff of servants that goes with them. They are sometimes too "distinguished" to dress and undress themselves. Other people suffer a tramp-like existence in the slum quarters of the big cities in ruins, sheds and boxes, or in whatever other discarded rubbish that can give a little shelter from the weather and the wind. It is obvious for the human being of the future that no particular neighbourly love exists in this culture's administration of the material necessities of life. The finished or completed human being becomes witness to even less understanding of the principle of neighbourly love when he sees that one, in the same culture, sees it as one's foremost and most important duty to compel all young men to be trained in warfare, to be trained in the use of the modern murder-machines by which one can multiply the ability to wipe out and destroy the life, possessions and culture of one's neighbour. This warlike attitude leaves deep tracks. Thousands upon thousands of children have lost their parents through the blood-baths of the wars and are left at random to their own devices. Thousands upon thousands of parents look for their children who have disappeared during the same blood-baths. Out of this Armageddon came millions upon millions of invalids who can experience life only with the help of artificial limbs, artificial hands, arms and legs. Nevertheless one praises this civilised milieu as "the field of glory". The gods of Valhalla and their blood-stained paradise are still praised and worshipped in wide areas of the prevailing culture we call "Christianity". But within this Christianity one has not only developed the most ingenious murder-weapons and means of destruction with which one can totally wipe out other nations, states and peoples and their culture, one has also here a tailor-made murder-system with which one believes one can promote justice within the state or nation itself. Here one murders or executes people with rifles, guillotines, electric chairs and so on in the name of the state or "in the name of the law" and in addition also in the name of him who said to his disciples: "Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Indeed, our present culture cannot avoid revealing vast areas of unfinished nature or primitiveness and superstition to him for whom it had become daily, natural behaviour rather to be crucified himself than to want to have others suffer. From his kingdom, which is not yet of this world, one cannot avoid, when looking back upon today's culture, looking into a world of Armageddon, a worshipping of Valhalla and its gods. In addition to this there has arisen intensified worship of an infinite number of golden calves. The great majority of beings are hoping for a Croesus-type existence and look with contempt on the poor inn-stable that in their Christmas gospel is referred to as the abode for him who was the way towards light. For this reason Armageddon had to come to Jerusalem. And for this reason Armageddon had to come upon every culture where upbringing, morality and concepts of honour are based on gold instead of on neighbourly love, or on the principle "rather to take than to give". To the extent that one lacks the ability "rather to give than to take", to that same extent will one's behaviour towards one's neighbour be based on primitiveness and superstition. And there one treads very cheerfully where angels fear to tread.