THE 666 SYNDROME
I have recently become increasingly troubled by what I have decided to call the 666 Syndrome. This is the belief in the apparent triumph of the powers of destruction over goodness.
In six minutes a cathedral/building which has stood for 600 years can be destroyed.
In six seconds a magnificent tree of sixty years can be cut down.
In a sixth of a second a human life can be taken.
Damage can be inflicted upon human beings, lasting damage which can then haunt them and others for the rest of their lives. Whether from physical assault or mental or sexual abuse, lives can be twisted and distorted and ruined by torture and the cruelty of others. Mindless vandalism appears to rule.
Good appears powerless at the hands of evil.
One violent man can kill many: a small group can inflict disproportionate destruction upon a town or city. A determined cadre can hold a country to ransom, by bombing and killing its way into the political process, and thus apparently obtain via the bullet what it could not gain by the ballot box.
It is often those of us who are God-fearing or law-abiding -that appear to be prey to a small number of predators. We are fearful while they relish their power over us.
Where is the justice in this, I cry?
And why should the painstaking work of years of construction be so readily vulnerable to an instant moment of destruction? Why does nearly everything worthwhile seem to take so much more time than its demolition?
It takes time, love and boundless care to raise a child. Skill, patience and time are needed to sow, grow and harvest. Building and construction work requires an abundance of man-hours and materials; it needs careful planning, preparation and attention to intricate detail. And, always, time. 'Rome wasn't built in a day,' as the old adage reminds us. Nor is character an instant product. Almost anything that is worthwhile takes a while!
I've pondered these ideas over and over, and found myself in the proverbial position of banging my head against a brick wall. If we are indeed sheep in the flock, and subject to the deprivations of predators, do we need sheepdogs and are we then almost as uncomfortable with them as with the predators, because they are different from us? This is a much debated topic, albeit with different vocabulary, concerning both the police and the military.
At the philosophical heart of all this reflection is the apparent weakness of good and with it, therefore, God. The devil looks as though he is winning. The world looks rotten; our media is filled with sad news of mayhem, torture and atrocities. We hear stories of genocide, hate-filled intransigence and a widespread refusal to compromise and make concessions, of determination to obliterate opponents, whether verbally or in physical reality. Our diet is therefore one of almost unrelieved gloom.
Wait a minute! For every story of doom, how many more of good are untold?
We hear of a ghastly murder in a rural town; but all the other rural towns continue to go about their business as usual. We remember the sad deaths in July 2007 of some 50 people killed by the terrorist attacks in London; but pay little attention to the over eight million other Londoners who escaped harm. In short, there is a statistical imbalance: bad news travels while good news is not deemed to be news at all!
However, the philosophical problem still remains; and after much dialogue and debate, I think I have an answer. Human greed, short-termism and arrant stupidity do indeed often triumph over care and common sense.
Here is a true story from the 2007 Darwin Awards, which celebrates the most idiotic antics of people, and, in particular, the stupidest ways of dying.
'When his 38-calibre revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked!'
In this life, and in this world, destruction is indeed on many occasions more powerful than construction. The devil and his cohorts do indeed have many victories. It is possible that those victories will increase in both extent and frequency in the future. The Bible certainly seems to suggest this view of things to come; Jesus refers to atrocities occurring when the tree is green and how much worse it will be when brown1! And however you read the extraordinary visions and stories of the book of Revelation, it's clear that there are and will be (as well as have been) many desperate and bleak times.
Only one thing stands, and that is Eternity.
The kingdom of heaven is not entirely of this world, as Jesus said. What is done here projects into Eternity. Yet Jesus also said: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand,'2 usually interpreted to mean it is actual and present, not merely a vague hope yet to be fulfilled. Elsewhere, He speaks of the kingdom of heaven as being already given3, as here and now, and His parables indicate how it impacts and can impact right now in this time and place.
It helps if we shift our perception. The visible is merely a few bands of colour in a much larger spectrum of colours we cannot now see and will only be able to view after death. The deeds of construction, both in the heart and in relationship, project beyond the material world and are therefore safe. There is a fruit and a harvest, a reaping of that projection in heaven.
This is not a vision of good deeds as an investment in order to buy oneself into that afterlife: it is more that the things we really cherish, the acts of good and the fruits of good last, even though their earthly manifestations are subject to death and corruption. The eyes of Eternity see the world in a different way, because it sees beyond this world, and it sees that nothing of true value is lost, but waits to be found, to be rediscovered in vivid and greater reality.
C. S. Lewis makes much the same point, and rather more beautifully, in his book The Last Battle.
' "I thought that house had been destroyed," said Edmund.
"So it was," said the Faun. "But you are now looking at the England within England, the real England just as this is the real Narnia. And in that inner England no good thing is destroyed."'4
I am an earthly creature and I cannot deny my love for and indeed relationship with various landscapes and places, as well as people. I love the South Downs passionately. The wind and rain on its rolling hills, its hidden combes and dells; its coppices, its startled deer, the old badger my dogs and I encountered when out for a run: these are all crucial to me. Equally, the sunsets of Zambia and the smells of rich red African dust, baked and warm, the tastes of smoked fish from the Congo river; all these are powerful motifs in my life.
My personal revelation is that these will not be destroyed even though they are material. It is not simply a matter of my carrying them in my memory: anything that is really from our creator God, which is truly good, will be redeemed and restored in the new world; there is to be a new heaven and earth, we are told, and somehow in that place, time or state, call it a continuum if you will, all that is worthy of Him and which brings us joy will be preserved or even recreated so that nothing of value is lost.
There is a beauty and a melancholy in the transience of a butterfly's wings; yet none of it will in the end be lost because it has come from God and returns to God and we are promised that we will be in Him and with Him forever.
I suspect that all Christian martyrs have understood this at a deep visceral level. The Book of Hebrews lists men and women who understood this and of whom the world was not worthy5. Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that they were looking for someplace and somewhen better. 'Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.'6
'[For we] have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.'7
'For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.'8
And to reassure those who, like me, adore countryside and find problems with the concept of a city, the Scriptures make clear that the city is also a country, and a heavenly one at that9. John Bunyan saw this, as he made clear in his 1678 classic, The Pilgrim's Progress.
Now we see through a glass darkly10, then we shall see it clearly and indeed we shall see Him clearly11 and know, even as we are known.12
'The old, what we now see, has gone, the new has come!'13, 14
It gets better.
We are told that we are created for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to do. 15 God's works are not impermanent. They do not fail or fall. Just as we ourselves are His workmanship, and therefore eternal, so in some strange unfathomable way are the godly things we do. The eternal is far from flimsy and temporary. It endures forever, because we are empowered in God, and do the works and live the lives he has called and readied for us, and because we live and move in Him16.
We do not see into the ultraviolet or infrared elements of the light spectrum. Nor can we hear the squeaks of bats or the sound of a dog whistle. Yet we know these things exist despite our inability to naturally perceive them. Eternity exists despite our inability to perceive it, and indeed independent of our observation.
God does because He is, and we do because we are made in His image17.
This is the final answer.
There will be an end to the imperfect number of 666, the always incomplete and accursed and frustrated blockage before the full stop; the unfinished symphony.
It will become seven; the number of perfected completion; the ultimate Construct and Construction, where there is no more decay, no more death and where all will be addition with no subtraction18. All will be completion, and we shall be replete. All that is truly worthwhile shall endure, indeed be transformed into something even better, because all will be in true relation to Someone19.
666 will become 7, and this is not only a process, but in, via and because of a Person, and to His glory.
Praise God!
1 Luke 23:31
2 Matthew 3:2
3 Matthew 16:19, 19:14, Luke 6:20, 12:32
4 Lewis, C. (1956) The Last Battle.London:Bodley Head, p171
5 Hebrews 11:38
6 Hebrews 12:28
7 Hebrews 12: 22 and 23
8 Hebrews 11:10
9 Hebrews 11: 14-16.
10 I Corinthians 13:12
11 Revelation 22: 4
12 2 Corinthians 3: 18
13 2 Corinthians 5:17
14 Revelation 21:1 and 2
15 Ephesians 2:10
16 Acts 17:28
17 Genesis 1:26 and 27
18 Revelation 21: 4
19 Romans 8: 18-25
Edited by Carol Baker