In the beginning was GOD. And GOD breathed upon the vast and empty space of the Universe. And GOD created humanity.
And humanity could choose whether to remain subject to the Will of its Creator, or to set out upon the path of destiny by the power of its own free will.
And humanity chose free will. Humanity chose to guide its own path through the annals of time.
And GOD gave humanity a light by which to steer. GOD gave it the knowledge of right and wrong, that it might follow a path that would lead it back to the Truth from which it had set out. He gave it the concept of good and the concept of evil, and He said: "Follow in your heart the concept of good, for that is of Me, and the path that follows it will lead you back to Me, and you will find yourself in Heaven. But follow in your heart the concept of evil, and you will go further and further from Me.
For though I have created evil for your choice, evil is not of Me; it is of Satan, who is the Devil, and must for you be the Enemy so that yon do not follow Him. For the path of evil will lead you to the Devil and yon will find yourself in Hell."
And Hell is a place of darkness and misery and pain and anguish and hatred and violence and discomfort and unrest and unease and sickness and failure and death and futility and ignorance and malice and greed and envy and despair. And Hell is a place where no man should wish to be.
And humanity set off upon its journey through the annals of time, and the path of good and the path of evil lay before it. And the path of good was harsh and thorny, steep and narrow, and promised great sacrifice; but it led to the light of Heaven. And the path of evil was soft and comfortable, gentle and easy, and promised great self-indulgence; but it led to the darkness of Hell.
And humanity felt the conflict of good and evil; discomfort now with the promise of joy to come on one side, and pleasure now with the promise of agony to come on the other. And humanity found that choice was not the easy sense of power which it had imagined, but a gnawing sense of doubt and uncertainty. For the power to choose is the burden of responsibility ; there cannot be one without the other. Humanity had sought the power; now it was saddled with the burden.
But choice it had demanded, and now choose it must. To make no choice, is to take the easy way, and leads to Hell. To pretend there is no choice to be made, is to take the easy way, and leads to Hell. To accept the burden of responsibility and shoulder it, is to take the hard way, and leads to Heaven. It is the beginning of the road that leads back to GOD.
Humanity chose the road to Hell. Humanity rejected the burden of responsibility that came with the power of choice. Each man put the burden onto another. Each man claimed that another made his life for him. Each man saw himself the victim of his circumstances. Each man saw his life as the sum total of the decisions of others and the hand of fate.
And humanity's choice was manifested when each man blamed another for his own misfortunes. For blame is the ultimate rejection of responsibility.
Blame is the detonator or all evil. All sin stems from blame. All destruction stems from blame. Unless a man reels the need to blame there is no destruction in him; unless he reels the need to blame there is no hatred in him; unless he reels the need to blame there is no evil in him.
And humanity chose to blame. Humanity felt the need to blame. Each man blamed another, who blamed him in return. Humanity began to pattern the future course of the history of the world, on the basis of blame. Blame became the common factor in all events, and with it humanity set out along the road to Hell.
And blame begets ignorance, because in order to blame, a man must know the power of his choice , otherwise he will know the scope of his responsibility. If he knows that he has chosen to suffer, he cannot blame his suffering on someone else.
So humanity became blind to its own reality, for fear of having to bear the burden of responsibility and for fear of seeing the full extent of its power to choose. Humanity told itself a lie, a monstrous lie that provided the escape from the burden it was not willing to carry, and thereby it pursued the elusive comforts of the road to Hell, ignorant of the nature of its choice, and blind to the consequences.
And blame gave birth to blame, and evil was spawned all over the face of the earth. And violence and hatred were born within the hearts of men, and were hoarded in the name of peace, to be released from time to time with merciless destruction in the name of war.
And the pattern of blame was handed down from generation to generation, so that all men lived by its code, and blame became the hallmark of humanity. And though men began by using blame to pass aside the burden of responsibility, soon they were ruled by blame, their lives were dominated by it. It became the basic instinct of man; to blame.
He could suppress it, turn it upon himself, try to ignore it; it made no difference; his greatest need was to blame. And as his life became more worthless and corrupt from his pursuit of the road to Hell, so he felt a greater and greater need to blame; there was so much more for which something or someone had to be blamed.
And so it is. Man has taken the road to Hell, and steers by the lodestar of blame. Sometimes his eyes are opened for an instant, and he sees where he is going. And he cries: "We must not blame! We must all accept responsibility!" But no one listens. So he closes his eyes again, and finds someone to blame for the lack of response to his appeal. "Men will not accept responsibility," he sighs. "They continue to blame. It is the fault of our President. He is to blame for the hopeless state of our nation."
And the waters close over his head once more.
But there is no vision of the blame for what it truly is. Sometimes there is a vision of the consequences of blame, and there are many who say: "We must not fight one another!" So vast quantities of blame are suppressed, hoarded unconsciously, and built upon from lack of satisfaction through expression. Hatred is held in check, so that no violence is allowed to show above the surface. But soon the pressure of frustrated blame becomes too much; the dam bursts and violence erupts in war or riot or revolution or assassination.
But no one asks the question: "Why? Why-deep down-do we need to blame one another, and thence to hate one another, and thence to destroy one another?"
So it goes on. And if anyone WERE to ask the question: "Why?" No one would know the answer. It is buried too deep beneath the centuries.
Many would reply. Many would find countless reasons, countless rationalizations, countless justifications for humanity's compulsive need to blame. But no one would know the answer. Humanity has traveled too far along the path to be able any longer to look back and answer why it came this way. The true reason is long forgotten and cannot be recalled.
You can tell a man why he blames, and he might understand with his intellect, and he might even agree that what you tell him is so, but he will not FEEL the reality of what you say to him, he will not feel it inside himself so that his instinct to blame is plucked out by the roots and discarded. Humanity has sunk too low for that to be possible. The cancer has taken hold, and man has trapped himself irrevocably within the lies from which he blames. Nothing can save him now.
So the end of the road has been reached; the climax of the easy way, the point from which there is no return. The Devil has won. Satan has triumphed over man, and humanity is doomed. Man demanded the power to choose and man has made his choice, and nothing shall change it. For the time of the harvest is come and the Separation is already taking place.
The Judgment of mankind is now.
The Spirit of the Lord Christ is manifest upon the earth, and mighty sword is ready in His hand to strike down all who would cling to the values of humanity.
And the Lord Satan has done ms work and is free from the burdens of the Underworld, free to stalk the earth with the prowling Fiend of Hell beside Him; Tempter no longer, for the time of sin is past; Destroyer now, for the time of retribution is at hand.
And men still search for their meager sins, straining at gnats, whilst camels lie in their bellies, swallowed without a qualm. Too late; the evil now in the world is not the manifestation of men's sins, but the ultimate consequence of their choice to sin.
For the evil of the Latter Days is not of man, but of GOD. It is the retribution brought upon the world as promised time and time again; the end of the path of wrong. It is the Mighty Hand of the Lord GOD, and no man
Shall stem Its progress.
Humanity was warned, and did not heed the warning. Now comes the final settlement; the Judgment and the Devastation of the world of men.
For the world of men is a place of darkness and misery and pain and anguish and hatred and violence and discomfort and unrest and unease and sickness and failure and death and futility and ignorance and malice and greed and envy and despair. For the world of men is Hell.
The earth is Hell, and man has made it so.
Humanity chose the easy way that leads to Hell, and now its journey is ended. Humanity is In Hell, for it has created Hell around itself.
The game is over. It remains only for the Separation to be complete and Hell to be destroyed.
And Bell is the home of the Devil. And the Devil is mean and corrupt; a liar blinded by his own deception, yet cunning within the confines of his ignorance. And the Devil is weak, and yet strong in his weakness, for the Devil by his cunning can suck the strength from the truly strong and bring them down with him. And the Devil breeds death, the death of the soul, and gives life to the torturous conflicts of the mind in which the soul has trapped itself. And the Devil sustains whomever will maintain the corruption and decay which are his life-blood. And the Devil destroys all that promises to bring the spirit of purity and oust corruption. And the Devil charms with a sweet facade which hides a treacherous heart. And the Devil talks of love, and leaves the scars of hatred in his wake. And the Devil cries peace, and brings war. And the Devil speaks of glory and a magnificent destiny, and leads deeper into death and degradation. And the Devil is brimful of promises and so-called good intentions, yet behind him is a trail of abject failure and betrayal.
And the Devil is afraid, for he is steeped in evil.
And as with all things, by his fruits shall ye know the Devil. And the Devil's fruits are foul; bruised and bitter, and rotten to the core. And the Devil's home is Hell.
And humanity is mean and corrupt, a liar blinded by its own deception, yet cunning within the confines of its ignorance. And humanity is weak, and yet strong in its weakness, for humanity by its cunning can suck the strength from the truly strong and bring them down with it. And humanity breeds death, the death of the soul, and gives life to the torturous conflicts of the mind in which the soul has trapped itself. And humanity sustains whomever will maintain the corruption and decay which are its life-blood. And humanity destroys all that promises to bring the spirit of purity and oust corruption. And humanity charms with a sweet facade which hides a treacherous heart. And humanity talks of love, and leaves the scars of hatred in its wake. And humanity cries peace, and brings war. And humanity speaks of glory and a magnificent destiny, and leads deeper into death and degradation. And humanity is brimful of promises and so-called good intentions, yet behind it is a trail of abject failure and betrayal. And humanity is afraid, for it is steeped in evil.
And as with all things, by its fruits shall ye know humanity. And humanity's fruits are foul; bruised and bitter, and rotten to the core. And humanity's home is the earth, and the earth is Hell.
Satan is free for His work is done. Satan is no longer the Devil, for He has passed the poison on to that which chose to take it and become it.
Now there is nothing more evil in the universe than man.
His world is Hell, and he himself the Devil.

Copyright 1968; The Process, Church of the Final Judgment