Have you ever wondered what the end of the world might be like? Jesus’ disciples did. They asked Jesus about it at the Mount of Olives:
“…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:3)
To millions around the globe, Jesus’ response tells them that it will be a terrible apocalyptic scenario, but students of esoteric interpretation know that Jesus’ answer gives them a secret to the mind. Most scriptures are about the body and mind, not the literal events we read about. Let’s dissect Jesus’ answer to understand this important event and how it could one day relate to you.
First, Jesus’ response:
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take head that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places…”
Do not be deceived by a false Christ
I want to dissect the above scriptures one at a time. Jesus began by telling us that many people will come saying they are the Christ, but do not be deceived. What did he mean?
Put simply, a false Christ is the ego. The ego in man masquerades as truth, when really it is the illusion. And often it is the institutional church which reinforces the ego in man. Man, and more importantly, the ego, will always be around preaching and promoting doctrines, institutions, religious ideologies, and strongholds that keep the lower ego in man in power.
One of the major deficiencies of the church today is that nothing is preached on developing the Christ within. The Christ within is where the real power for transformation is. One of Paul’s and Jesus’ main messages was to help us birth the Christ that is an inherent, latent potential within individual consciousness.
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed within you…” (Gal. 4:19).
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of this glory of the mystery among the gentiles (non-spiritual), which is Christ in you…” (1 Col. 1:27).
“…the Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21).
Our thoughts make everything in life go round. Our thoughts make or break us. If we can’t view life through spiritually mature eyes, the most insignificant situations become gigantic problems that no salvation message is going to fix. It is the game of the ego. Drama, drama, and more drama. Religious doctrines reinforce the drama. They so often stunt our growth because it puts conscious development on hold. How? Because they cause the ego to become entrenched. Belief systems are established that don’t really serve us or our fellow man. Religious doctrines teach us to be someone which will ultimately perish. It teaches us to believe, “I am right and you are wrong!” The ego is like the Pharisee. It filters the truth into a very limited perspective. Jesus’ mission included showing us the Pharisee can easily lie within us, through the ego.
Wars and rumors of wars
Next Jesus talks about wars and rumors of wars. Wars and rumors of wars having been going on for thousands of years. Can we really believe that Jesus was giving us a literal prophecy? If this was truly one of the warning signs of Jesus, it wouldn’t be valid. Nothing’s changed. There were wars in Jesus’ days and there are wars now. It should be obvious that Jesus wasn’t referring to literal wars. The scriptures always have a deeper meaning.
Exodus 15:3 states:
“The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.”
Does it make any sense to say that the LORD of love, compassion, mercy, and longsuffering is a man of war?
This scripture is puzzling through traditional Christian interpretations. It would seem to justify events like the Inquisition, where millions of people were killed because they weren’t Christians.
Think about the Canaanites whom God asked the Israelites to eradicate from the Promised Land. All these Canaanites represent our lower thoughts and emotions of our selfish desires. Therefore, the LORD is a man of war because the LORD, as the higher self, comes in to clean house so that we can enter the Promised Land (higher states of conscious living).
Thus we can see that God is not a literal man of war; God is a man of war because he fills us so that we can end all wars within ourselves. He is the conqueror of the ego of man.
So what did Jesus really mean when he said there will be wars and rumors of wars?
Wars are symbolic of the conflict created by the ego. The wars are in our heads. Jesus was warning us about what happens in the mind of the individual. Before the death of the ego (the end of the world), the ego reigns. This ego creates conflict. When Christ returns in the individual (within you), the warring of the mind stops! Why? Because we stop identifying with the mind. We realize that the mind and the true intelligence that makes it possible is much larger than the individual ego the mind has the power to manifest. This is what it means to be resurrected.
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom
Next, Jesus says that nation will rise again nation and kingdom against kingdom. Nations and kingdoms of the world are symbolic for the characters of the lower soul; they are pride, ambition, greed, conceit, and lust. Naturally this rhetoric is a continuation of Jesus’ discourse on the state of man’s ego. First comes the development of our lower natures. But through our experiences (sometimes suffering, as even Jesus learned obedience through suffering), we have the opportunity to advance consciousness.
Consider Isaiah 2:4, another messianic prophecy:
“And he (the messiah, the Christ) shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn anymore.”
We don’t fight wars with swords or spears anymore. We fight wars with missiles, nuclear weapons, and stealth technologies. Is there really a reason to believe that this prophecy is literal if it isn’t even relevant to today?
The mystic Jews who guarded these scriptures as sacred knew this prophecy was all about the day the messiah would return within the consciousness of the individual. Only then can all wars end, internally and externally!
Many Christians believe that the Jew has rejected their true messiah, the Christ. But is this the truth? Sadly, no. The truth is that many Jews and Christians have rejected the messiah and the Christ. They are one and the same. Let us stop bickering over semantics. The ideal that is the messiah and the Christ is beyond doctrine. It is even beyond our belief systems. It is a part of the true power of consciousness itself.
Famines and pestilences
Jesus then said there will be pestilence and famines. I have wrote about these symbols in other posts. Famines represent a severe shortage in the soul; it is a lack of spiritual development in the mental-emotional state. This is perfect language for Jesus to use, because wars usually lead to famine in the natural. It’s no different with the soul and within the individual. When the ego is in charge, your soul is famished. Wars of the mind leave us empty and devoid of life. They leave us famished.
Earthquakes in divers places
Finally, Jesus states that earthquakes will appear in increasing frequency and in places we wouldn’t expect. Review history, and you will see that again this has been the case over the past thousands of years. It’s not a literal prediction of the future. Earthquakes are symbolic of all the chaos in the lower state of consciousness. It’s usually a sign of the purging of the lower qualities of the ego right before a new state of consciousness. This is established many times in scripture.
“And behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came back and rolled away the stone from the door…” (Matt. 28:2).
“And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and all the doors were opened, and everyone’s hands were loosed” (Acts. 16:26).
As you can see, the earthquake is a sign of catalyst for the individual. It is a sign of the new age of consciousness. Doors to the mind began to open. Hands (the active principle of spiritual evolution) are loosed. In short, the lower man, the man in the egoic prison, must be shaken up and dismantled so that the higher man can reign, so that the Christ can manifest on earth.
This is true of the Old Testament as well. Whenever the earth opened up to swallow someone or a group, a purging took place and the nation of Israel was able to move forward one step closer to the Promise Land and higher states of consciousness.
Endure
The final message of Jesus is that we must endure.
“But he that endure until the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).
Those who endure to the end have the promise of a new dawn, the dawn of the daystar (Christ) arising in their hearts.
“We have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts (minds)…” (1 Pet. 1:19).
Enduring is about facing the ego. It’s about realizing what the ego is, the game of life. Once we see the game for what it is, we then have more choices about how to play it. The situations in our life that were once monumental become smaller. The joys and the ups of life are more fully appreciated. Even the downs and the lows become meaningful. Life is renewed. It doesn’t mean all of the difficulties suddenly disappear during our sojourn here. It just means that we are no longer bound by the illusion that our situation is who we are. Consciousness can never be so limited.
Is the end of the world really the end of the ego?
Let’s be clear on one thing. The end of the world, at least from Jesus’ standpoint, is not the end of the ego. Ego death is sort of a misnomer. The ego doesn’t really die, just as Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. The life that was in him could never die. Instead, there was a power that resurrected him. The resurrection is symbolic of the new life that is provided when we realize what the ego truly is. It is sometimes termed “death” because it no longer has the power over us that it once did.
“Ego death” is more about a transmutation of the ego, from the lower man to the higher. It’s a transition from the lower ego to the spiritual ego. Even these words don’t do the transformation justice because they are just words. But the consciousness beneath the words is real. It can’t really be explained, only experienced.
Is the ego ultimately still there after what we term, “ego death?” Of course it is. You wouldn’t be an individual if it wasn’t. You wouldn’t have a sense of “I.” Realizing that we are one with everything doesn’t cause us to lose our individuality, but it does enable us to gain a new perspective through our individuality.
The spiritual ego is not motivated by lower thoughts and emotions. In other words, the lower ego ends when you don’t identify with your situation anymore.
So remember, the end of the world and the return of Christ happens within you. It brings new life. And it is one more step towards conscious spiritual advancement.
Source: Spirit of the scripture
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