HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 3, 2025 – In the instant before my rebirth, when I was still an atheist, God offered me the choice of two options and showed me a vision of two possible outcomes. In the first part of the vision, he showed me the outcome that would result if I chose to forgive, and in the second part, he showed me the outcome that would result if I chose not to forgive. Specifically, I was shown that if I chose to forgive, all my pain would disappear, and if I chose not to forgive, my pain would not only continue but worsen.

God offered me the choice and showed me the outcomes visually as well as by understanding. No words were spoken.

This vision has remained with me as a guide to this day.

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I mention the above because God gave me a choice that involved two options and their respective outcomes, and one of those outcomes was not good. Yet even though it wasn’t good, it also wasn’t immediate horrific death. God didn’t say: Choose this, and you’ll live forever, or choose that, and you’ll die immediately and horribly. Even with the bad outcome, I was offered the possibility of continuing my life on Earth, though in a progressively ever-worsening spiritual state and with the understanding that the opportunity I was being afforded at that time would not come around again.

Thank God I chose to forgive, but still, choosing not to forgive was also an option. I wasn’t forced to make the choice to forgive; I wasn’t threatened with immediate death if I chose not to forgive: I was simply shown the outcomes of each choice, urged to choose the option that would resolve my pain, and left to make the decision for myself.

I mention the ever-worsening spiritual state that results from choosing unforgiveness because many who have been given the same offer as I was given have chosen not to forgive, have chosen revenge. When you choose revenge over mercy, your life reflects that choice. When you take matters into your own hands, you suffer the consequences, with an emphasis on suffer. The suffering that comes to you after you exact what you think is your rightful revenge is of your own doing. In other words, you’ve brought your suffering on yourself and have no-one but yourself to blame.

Even worse, if you choose this course of action after rejecting the option that would free you of your pain, God himself can’t help you anymore. You might be mollified temporarily by earthly mollifications (booze, drugs, wealth, career success, deviant sex, and other diversions), you might even be shielded from further consequences for a time by making a deal with the devil, but your pain will never be purged like it would have been had you chosen mercy when you had the chance.

Geopolitically, nations undergo the same process as individuals, as nations are made up of individuals whose characters collectively determine the course of that nation. When the measure of righteous individuals in a nation is surpassed by the unrighteous, that nation begins an unstoppable decline into hell. Daniel writes of nations that had their dominions taken away and yet continued for thousands of years, though in a progressively humbled state. Examples include Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Lebanon, and Syria. Their glory days are long behind them as they limp through the millennia, sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and chaos despite countless efforts at reform. Fast on the heels of the historically declined nations are the newly declining ones of former Christendom (Canada, US, UK, etc.). As with individuals, once the definitive decline begins, it cannot be reversed; it can be slowed, but not reversed.

Not one nation today is on the spiritual ascendent, and we can expect this trend to continue. There is a misguided notion of a future global messianic or Golden Age, a sort of Heaven on Earth, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Since the coming of Jesus, Heaven is as close to Earth as it will ever be. The Zion foretold in scripture is here and now, in the spiritual realm of God’s Kingdom on Earth. Scriptural Zion will only ever be in the spiritual realm, which is why Jesus pointedly stated that his Kingdom is not of this world.

Every choice we make during our time on Earth has consequences. At a pivotal point in our lives, God presents each of us with the opportunity to choose righteousness over revenge. The choice we make at that time cannot be undone and will determine our place in eternity, with few exceptions. If you’re genuinely reborn, you’ve chosen righteousness. Your job now is to keep on choosing righteousness, even if it means immediate and horrific death.

[H]e that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed…. As concerning the rest, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.