In response to a Washington Post panel question posted to its website yesterday—“Are you satisfied with where you are now in your life?”—the president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, the Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, wrote, in part, “My faith in particular calls me to ask, ‘What’s next?’ I believe that what is always next is set out for us plainly in Isaiah 58.

“It is the job of human beings, the job of all of humanity, to participate with God in the healing of the world. . . I believe that Isaiah calls me, and all of us, to a holy dissatisfaction, recognition that we can restore our cities and our planet and make it ‘like a watered garden.’ ”

I found this amusing since only two days earlier I posted to my website a quote from Jordan about how Isaiah 58 consists of specific instructions to the “little flock” of believing Jews who will endure through the upcoming Tribulation and reign of the Antichrist, etc., etc.!

Rather than us today lending a helping hand to a God who’s trying to “heal the world,” we are being urged by Him in His Bible to save ourselves from the coming train wreck He’s purposely designed to decimate the earth and its inhabitants!

*****

In a visit yesterday to the Barnes & Noble here in Akron, Ohio (where I’ve been visiting my mom and step-father), I saw that Deepak Chopra has come out with yet another blockbuster book on how anybody with any intellect knows belief in hell and the devil is for brainwashed simpletons.

The jacket cover alone to Chopra’s Life After Death—The Burden of Proof gives you the in-a-nutshell New Age philosophy that has every New Ager from Oprah Winfrey (who has had Chopra on her show) to Dennis Kucinich feeling oh-so-in-control of their eternal destiny.

It reads, “Deepak Chopra has touched millions of readers by demystifying our deepest spiritual concerns while retaining their poetry and wonder. Now he turns to the most profound mystery: What happens after we die? Is this one question we were not meant to answer, a riddle whose solution the universe keeps to itself?

“Chopra tells us there is abundant evidence that ‘the world beyond’ is not separated from this world by an impassable wall; in fact, a single reality embraces all worlds, times and places. At the end of our lives we ‘cross over’ into a new phase of the same soul journey we are on right this minute.

“In Life After Death, Chopra draws on cutting edge scientific discoveries and the great wisdom traditions to provide a map of the afterlife . . . Who you meet in the afterlife and what you experience there reflect your present beliefs, expectations and level of awareness. In the here and now you can shape what happens after you die. . .

“Ultimately there is no division between life and death—there is only one continuous creative project. Chopra invites us to become cocreators in this subtle realm, and as we come to understand that one reality, we shed our irrational fears and step into a numinous sense of wonder and personal power.”

*****

Inside the book, a supremely confident Chopra condescendingly declares that “Christianity has become stuck in literal images—such as heaven that is literally a place. There’s no hint of an inward journey and no room for creative exploration of the soul. People wind up arguing fiercely over an imaginary landscape far-removed from Jesus’ actual teaching.”

He goes on, “In Christ’s conception heaven is present: It’s an inward righteousness . . . Heaven is personal: It is to be found ‘within you.’ Hell is the suffering you think you deserve.

“When connections are repaired, we no longer believe we deserve punishment: we are back in the flow of life with all its healing properties. Everything Satan stands for is included in our own self-judgment. Indeed, he is a massive reflection of self-judgment. Satan is a creation of consciousness, and as such he waxes and wanes, he evolves, and he changes in significance.”

Chopra even gives a simple breakdown for when mythical Satan is given permission in your deluded mind to be real.

He writes, “Satan is real under the following conditions:

· People believe they deserve punishment instead of healing

· A culture believes in the Satan myth

· Believers pay attention to that myth and give it value”

Among Chopra’s steps to make sure Satan is recognized for who he really is—a silly concoction of literal-minded Bible believers:

· A culture is made aware of how myths are made

· People are aware and take responsibility for their emotions

· There is a belief in forgiveness, healing and atonement

· Outlets for negative energies are found (through therapy, sports, open dialogue, healthy family dynamics, education, etc.)

· Children are not conditioned to believe in demons and other supernatural enemies

· Society promotes the evolution of consciousness

Ahh, yes, it’s the old “evolution of consciousness” lie, dating back to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

As Satan so smoothly lied in his con job on Eve, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Jordan once summed it up like this in a sermon: “Adam was in an ‘unfallen’ creation with all the potential to innately understand everything that was there and use it for God's glory. He had dominion over the beast of the field and all the things that creep in the earth, but you know what was out there in that earth? Those angels. Those gods; those fallen gods.

“And when Satan says to Eve, ‘God knows you can be like one of those gods out there,’ she'd seen those gods fly in and land—do things, marvelous things, and fly off and come back. And she said, ‘Boy, that'd be great to be able to do that!’

“You know what, though, Adam could have figured out how to do all that! That's the point! He could have said, ‘Lightening, come over here, I need a little energy.’ ”