Whosoever Denies Christ Shall live in Eternal Darkness

Whosoever Denies Christ Shall live in Eternal Darkness

Electricity, the one modern element of the 18th century was the discovery of electricity.  And for this discussion its use has become the one attribute of modern life that without it we would be in total darkness most of our lives.  However, the Eternal Darkness we are looking at is not a wall switch and its ultimate illumination of light bulbs.  

Benjamin Franklin in 1752 used a kite with a wire attached during a thunderstorm and discovered that lightning was attracted to this element as electrical current could flow from a source to an element that would attract its power.  The brilliance of what we see as light comes from more than energy made from turbines being moved by the force of water-falls; as in Niagara Falls; and producing this force we call electricity.  As an electrician I was always impressed at how electrical current can suddenly travel from a source of power to many elements that require its magnitude of electrical current.  

When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  (Gn 1: 1 - 3).

Of course we are speaking about the light of eternity that always was and will always be.  It is the Light of Almighty God who always IS and will always Be.  It is a light that originated with the Holy Trinity which never had a beginning and will never have an ending.  Thus this is Eternity.  How often we hear of people who died and once they returned from what we call a Near-Death-Experience the usual experience they speak of is light; some going through a tunnel with a light ahead of them.  Fr. Cedric Pisegna, C.P. in his book, “Death the Final Surrender” details two instances where he did have such experiences.  In chapter 5 he says, “I want to continue to write about the death experience.  First there are a few quick moments of transition.  Next, before I knew it, even though I didn’t know how, I was at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly, I found myself in the presence of God himself.  At the moment of your death, there will come an immediate encounter with God.  You will meet your maker.  You will remember where you have come from.  Your soul came from and will return to God.  After the tunnel I was encountering my true self as I was bathed in light.  I wasn't allowed to see a form, but what I did see was light.  God is a pure, living luminescent light.  God is light and in God there is no darkness.  I didn’t see the light; the brightness bathed and embraced me.  I knew the light was alive.

Enter a dark room and you will be feeling for a wall switch to lighten the area you are going into.  You may not place your feeling of relief on being able to turn on the light, but your elation does become real once your eyes focus on the lighted room.  That must have been how Fr. Cedric felt even if he didn’t see a recognizable form.  This also was what the light at creation made the world appear welcoming and became a viable living entity.

Eternal Darkness is exactly what an absence of God is;  Eternal light that always Is, will become what we hear about Christ, understand his divine sacrifice for our sins, and continue to accept this as our only guarantee to live in a lightened world that is God himself. 

Existing for all eternity, which has no calculation of time for anyone who ends there will experience an unbelievable existence with nothing but complete darkness.  Go ahead scream!  Like the scream I heard during prayer and was told the scream came for the depth of hell.  I heard it but it meant nothing for the person who still lives in deep sorrow without ever finding the way to find light.   Remember, God is Light and without his presence darkness will prevail for ever.  

Ralph B. Hathaway