The Keys of Heaven

The Last Prophecy - The Cathar Prophecy of 2021

Under construction...

As you read consider that this is just a brief outline. Most issues are complex and often have legitimate exceptions or are tempered by mitigating factors. 

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Religions most likely began as a way to explain the world. From what we understand of science and hard facts, there is no God of Creation. Most religious scholars now also admit that the Genesis story is false. We know today that thunder and lightening are natural phenomena, not acts of God. So, all biblical passages speaking of a god shouting from the clouds are false. 

If we have souls or spirits that survive physical death, it is conceivable that a spirit world and an afterlife exist. Whether there is a God or not, all issues remain. We still have to get along. 

We know with certainty that all canonical gospels contain inconsistencies, fraudulent additions, exaggerations, and outright falsehoods. For scriptures to be sold as the word of God is fraudulent. 

On that basis, fundamentalism cannot be a true path. 

Non-fundamentalist views are 

also problematic as scriptures cannot be changed.

The broad picture is not that one religion is good and the others are not (i.e. religious racism) but that in each faith there are good people and bad ones and that we want to unite the good, regardless of beliefs, politics, gender, race, etc. Otherwise, as we have seen, the terrorist and criminals end up dominating. The former is rampant in most Islamic countries and organized crime dominates most democracies, governments watching passively as their youths see their lives destroyed by addiction or are being killed by tainted drugs.

Christianity holds that Peter had the keys to Heaven. Yet, rejected his gospel and have almost nothing of his teachings. The only part that survived of Peter's gospel covers the days after Jesus's arrest up to the visit of Mary to the tomb and has nothing about how to earn one's place in Heaven. 

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What We Know of Death and Dying

Near-death experiences (NDE) provides an insight into what happens after we die. It is estimated that between 5 and 10 percent of people have experienced an NDE regardless of religion and culture.

According to Rachel Nuwer, a science journalist:

They may recall separating from their body and viewing it in real time from above... pass through tunnels and see light, encounter deceased relatives or compassionate entities.... People may undergo a life review and morally evaluate the choices they have made....

Although most people describe their NDE in glowing terms, a minority recount visits to hell-like regions, encounters with demonic beings or terrifying voids. (Nuwer, Rachel. "Lifting the Veil on Near-Death Experiences: What the neuroscience of near-death experiences tells us about human consciousness." Scientific American, 14 May 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lifting-the-veil-on-near-death-experiences/.)

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Putting in the Hours

Perhaps, in trying to measure one's worth or merit, an easy question is "have you put in your time?" Have you worked a life in your lifetime or have you chosen to live off society when you were physically and mentally capable of working?

Paying One's Debts

You may have put in your time, but have you spent more than you have earned is the next question.  If that is the case, you will be leaving debts to others at the end of your life and your net value will be less than a life. 

Paying Your Taxes

If you were capable to and have worked a life in your lifespan, you have essentially met your own needs. But, that does not add up to the modern world's standards of living, especially in middle and high income countries. Think of all the social safety networks, medical services, etc. that are there for you.

Paying your taxes is therefore part of the equation.

Going Over and Beyond

Some people choose to go above the standard and support others in addition to paying their own way through life. They think above and beyond their own selves. They give a life to those who are unable support themselves. This is obviously meritorious.

Stealing as a Way of Living

There are people who choose to steal their way through life. Not only do they not earn a life (-1) in their lifetime, but they steal one (- 1) from others. That is a deficit of two lives. 

In addition they cost society a lot of money. Think of theft monitoring in shopping stores, cameras everywhere, street lights at night, locks on doors, alarm systems, safety vaults in banks, bullet-proof glass, passwords on accounts, two-step verification, guns for self defense, police services, prisons, etc.

There are also often psychological costs associated with crimes. When your house is broken into, you lose your sense of security. Someone living off theft makes dozens of victims a month, perhaps even a week. How many is that over a lifetime!

Choosing to steal your way through life is starting down a slippery slope that quickly accelerates. 

The Law of the Jungle

Violence has a severe impact on people. It can result in long-lasting suffering, whether at home, in schools, or in the streets. It gives power to bigger and more muscular people and criminals at the expense of smaller individuals (children, women, men of smaller size, etc.). Severe or prolong violence or intimidation can result in decades of suffering even after it has ended. 

Society overall has rejected violence so that life is based of fairness and justice rather than the law of the jungle. 

Physical intimidation also a way of getting what you are not entitled to, despite the lack of actual violence. Violence and intimidation give a person the power to obtain what they would not otherwise get. It is effectively stealing from others just like theft, but with significant suffering resulting. 

Children of Darkness

More to come...