Wherever fear, uncertainty, terrorism, rage, intolerance, narcissism, and racism are manifested, the gates of hell break forth.1 These entry ways to hell - where terrorism reigns, where people hate because of color, where we kill with our tongue if not our gun when others don't agree exactly with us; these are the places where the elders of the land preach a soothing message of peace and prosperity despite the evil in the land.2
We cherished humanism - the elevation of man in his reason, but in the end, the allurement of our own fading beauty has seized our souls with the chains of despair. Like Narcissist, we our killing ourselves and others when they stand in our way, when we cannot immediately have the object of our desire.
At no time until now has the world been so united in fury, intolerance, and dread. We have not neglected our inner lives, but chosen to nourish our souls with anger, hate, slander, so we reap the fruit of rage, divisiveness, horror and arrogance. A Jewish rabbi taught, "If man has beheld evil, he may know that it was shown to him in order that he learn his own guilt and repent; for what is shown to him is also within him."3
If the world was described as one family,4 we are afraid of each other and those who dress and live differently from us. We channel our fear targeting authorities, governments, each other. We fear what the media tells us to fear. Like King Ahaz, we are terrorized by what is a trifle in God's eyes.5 God was crying for our return to the gently flowing waters of Shiloah,6 but we rudely asked him to leave our schools, our sex lives, and our government. “In our everyday life, we worshipped force, despised compassion, and obeyed no law but our unappeasable appetite.”7
We wait for the next terrorist attack, the next school shooting, the next parade bombing, the next police brutality and accompanying populist riot. We’re no longer horrified seeing police and soldiers in riot gear; spraying civilians with tear gas and water hoses has become commonplace on the daily news. We blame the police, racism, and white male privilege, defining ourselves as victims, but take no ownership of our own behavior. What is shocking is not so much the constant violence, but our indifference to the violence. It has become normal, and defines reality for so many.
I am consumed with the thought of what future generations will say about us. What did we do to show all humankind that God as father and mother over us is compassionate, waiting patiently to be found by us?8 He longs for each of us to come into His presence! How will future generations describe the ways we brought God back into the world? I fear they will they say our life with Christ was inconsequential, respectable but unremarkable, vapid, tyrannical.
Each side claims “the truth.” We elevate "Truth" as we define the Bible teaches truth, but don't live out communities marked by relationship with a transcendent, personal God. Protestants say they cannot fellowship with Catholics, even though we worship the same God and partake of the same Eucharist, and the world goes to hell. We put more trust in what the Gospel Coalition publishes than in God's justice and demand for righteousness from each man, woman, boy, and girl. 55,000 denominations by 2030, and we continue to divide.9
As Heschel wrote, “some are guilty, all are responsible.” We are all responsible for the millions of refugees freezing in the cold, for the women, boys, and girls being sex trafficked, for the unborn babies being murdered, for our brothers and sisters being killed in the name of Allah, for the African Christians being tortured in hidden camps in the desert. We have allowed these atrocities in our pursuit for pleasure and good coffee.
The strength of His universal Church, our nation and world is not governments, the Republican party, and military. We become strong and blessed by God when we accept Micah’s charge to see justice done, to show mercy to the orphan, the widow, the voiceless, the poor.10 “The gates of hell” will not overcome the remnant of those who are His followers, Rabbi Jesus taught. But his followers do not live life with the prophets, feeling God’s pain and His suffering at the evil we inflict on one another. “We [even us in the Church] have bartered holiness for convenience, loyalty for success, love for power, wisdom for diplomas, prayer for sermon, wisdom for information, tradition for fashion.”11
This is no time for neutrality or paralysis. Our world has been invaded by demons, and it is our duty to our children and future generations to rise up and confront the gates of hell wherever they appear in our homes, communities, even our churches. Let us rise with courage, for courage is not the absence of fear but it is doing the righteous thing even when we feel fear. Let us choose this day to manifest God’s presence in the face of evil.
We cherished humanism - the elevation of man in his reason, but in the end, the allurement of our own fading beauty has seized our souls with the chains of despair. Like Narcissist, we our killing ourselves and others when they stand in our way, when we cannot immediately have the object of our desire.
At no time until now has the world been so united in fury, intolerance, and dread. We have not neglected our inner lives, but chosen to nourish our souls with anger, hate, slander, so we reap the fruit of rage, divisiveness, horror and arrogance. A Jewish rabbi taught, "If man has beheld evil, he may know that it was shown to him in order that he learn his own guilt and repent; for what is shown to him is also within him."3
If the world was described as one family,4 we are afraid of each other and those who dress and live differently from us. We channel our fear targeting authorities, governments, each other. We fear what the media tells us to fear. Like King Ahaz, we are terrorized by what is a trifle in God's eyes.5 God was crying for our return to the gently flowing waters of Shiloah,6 but we rudely asked him to leave our schools, our sex lives, and our government. “In our everyday life, we worshipped force, despised compassion, and obeyed no law but our unappeasable appetite.”7
We wait for the next terrorist attack, the next school shooting, the next parade bombing, the next police brutality and accompanying populist riot. We’re no longer horrified seeing police and soldiers in riot gear; spraying civilians with tear gas and water hoses has become commonplace on the daily news. We blame the police, racism, and white male privilege, defining ourselves as victims, but take no ownership of our own behavior. What is shocking is not so much the constant violence, but our indifference to the violence. It has become normal, and defines reality for so many.
I am consumed with the thought of what future generations will say about us. What did we do to show all humankind that God as father and mother over us is compassionate, waiting patiently to be found by us?8 He longs for each of us to come into His presence! How will future generations describe the ways we brought God back into the world? I fear they will they say our life with Christ was inconsequential, respectable but unremarkable, vapid, tyrannical.
Each side claims “the truth.” We elevate "Truth" as we define the Bible teaches truth, but don't live out communities marked by relationship with a transcendent, personal God. Protestants say they cannot fellowship with Catholics, even though we worship the same God and partake of the same Eucharist, and the world goes to hell. We put more trust in what the Gospel Coalition publishes than in God's justice and demand for righteousness from each man, woman, boy, and girl. 55,000 denominations by 2030, and we continue to divide.9
As Heschel wrote, “some are guilty, all are responsible.” We are all responsible for the millions of refugees freezing in the cold, for the women, boys, and girls being sex trafficked, for the unborn babies being murdered, for our brothers and sisters being killed in the name of Allah, for the African Christians being tortured in hidden camps in the desert. We have allowed these atrocities in our pursuit for pleasure and good coffee.
The strength of His universal Church, our nation and world is not governments, the Republican party, and military. We become strong and blessed by God when we accept Micah’s charge to see justice done, to show mercy to the orphan, the widow, the voiceless, the poor.10 “The gates of hell” will not overcome the remnant of those who are His followers, Rabbi Jesus taught. But his followers do not live life with the prophets, feeling God’s pain and His suffering at the evil we inflict on one another. “We [even us in the Church] have bartered holiness for convenience, loyalty for success, love for power, wisdom for diplomas, prayer for sermon, wisdom for information, tradition for fashion.”11
This is no time for neutrality or paralysis. Our world has been invaded by demons, and it is our duty to our children and future generations to rise up and confront the gates of hell wherever they appear in our homes, communities, even our churches. Let us rise with courage, for courage is not the absence of fear but it is doing the righteous thing even when we feel fear. Let us choose this day to manifest God’s presence in the face of evil.
- This article based on Heschel’s “Meaning of This Hour” first written over sixty years ago.
- Ezekiel 13
- The Baal Shem Tov
- Quote from Steve Sweatman
- Isaiah 28
- Isaiah 8:6-8
- Heschel, “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity"
- God as father and mother is amply seen in Biblical motifs throughout the Old and New Testament (Exodus 25:18-22; Ruth 2:12; Psalm 17; 36; 63; 131:2; 91; Ezek 16:2; Matt 23:37; Luke 13:34; Luke 15.
- Pew Research
- Micah 6:8
- Heschel, “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity”
