| Life
writes better scripts than Hollywood. Sometimes it writes
even more tradgic ones. Often Hollywood simply copies
what life has already written. Unless you've been in a
cave the past two weeks, you've already heard of the mass
suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate community. I
purposely avoided the term "cult" because
writing this group off as simply another collection of
starry-eyed cultists causes us to miss a valuable lesson
their deaths can teach all of us; Believer and
non-Believer alike. One need only visit their Web page to find answers as to why
these misguided souls did what they did.
In a nutshell,
these folks were looking for a shortcut to resurrection.
Allow me to allow their guru, Marshall Applewhite [aka
"Do"], to explain his hope in his own words:
The final act
of metamorphosis or separation from the human kingdom is
the "disconnect" or separation from the human
physical container or body in order to be released from
the human environment and enter the "next"
world or physical environment of the Level Above Human.
We will rendezvous in the "clouds" (a giant
mothership) for our briefing and journey to the Kingdom
of the Literal Heavens.
Many say they
live only for the "Harvest Time" - the
"Last Days" - the "Second Coming."
These have all arrived! There are souls - some of you,
here now - who have received a deposit of recognition,
and that knowledge finds you desirous of connecting and
bonding with the Next Level. Those who have that deposit
of Life will believe what we say, and know who we are. If
they continue in that belief - sustain that Life (though
the opposing space alien races will do anything to
prevent them from nurturing that gift) they will be
protected and "saved" from the approaching
recycling and "spading under" of the
civilization. They will have nothing to fear, nor will
they know DEATH - even if they lose their human body.
That continued belief will one day find them a member in
the Level Above Human, in a physical body belonging to
the true Kingdom of God - the Evolutionary Level Above
Human - leaving behind this temporal and perishable world
for one that is everlasting and non-corruptible.
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This is a
picture of "Do" in what he would refer
to as his "mammalian" container: |
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This is a
picture of what "Do" and his followers
expected to be metamorphed into: |
It's easy to laugh
or shake our heads in pathetic, albeit, saddened
amusement at people who would believe such things so
strongly that they would take their own lives. Their
version of "pie in the sky by and by" was only
intensified by the advent of the Hale-Bopp comet and
their belief that the mothership coming to take them home
was traveling in the comet's tail.
So what lesson
does this warped, pseudo-Christian group teach the world
at large and Christians in particular? Simply that the
hope in and of a life beyond is still very much alive,
well, and powerful in our world today. Given that the
Heaven's Gate group did what they did at Easter only adds
emphasis and irony to this fact. It's important to note
that there are many others in our world that, though not
being members of this group, hold beliefs similar to
theirs. It speaks to peoples' need to find meaning and
purpose in our present existence via things beyond. As
Paul said; "so we fix our eyes
on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but
what is unseen is eternal."
So powerful is
this hope of resurrection, that it can blind people to
truth and drive them toward self-destructive acts.
Christians may occasionally feel almost apologetic when
telling the "old, old Story" in a world where
new, sexy, chrome-plated ideologies are rolled out much
as Detroit does with their latest models. Neverthless, it
is up to us modern day disciples of Christ to firmly and
sometimes doggedly stand by and on the "rock"
of God's Word. Standing firm may not always cause us to
appear "relevant" or in touch to our
contemporaries, but it offers those who ache with the
hope of resurrection to hear the only true Way. Jesus'
victory over death and the promise of our own
resurrection through Him remains a message just as vital
and powerful today as it was the day He rose from the
tomb. Afterall, if we aren't willing to point seekers
toward the true Gate into eternal life, there's always
someone willing to show them another one.
Jesus
said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and
whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do
YOU
believe this?" (John 11:25-26)
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