Capelle aan den IJssel, March 23, 2025
Hi Reinier,
I read your new book Het einde van de hel (The End of Hell) with great recognition, and in particular the arguments against the existence of an eternal hell. What a wonderful prospect that in the end no one will be excluded!
What I find difficult about your book is that you seem to take a legal form of justice as a starting point, which leads you to the idea that after death (in the hereafter) there would still be a recovery process for perpetrators and victims, in which all wrongdoings must still be confessed, forgiven and made good, so that (legal) justice will ultimately be done.
For me, justice is more about wholeness and shalom. That is what both perpetrators and victims need and ultimately every perpetrator is also a victim of the darkened world in which we still live and every victim is also a perpetrator, because who does not make mistakes? The darkened system of thinking in good and evil (eating from the wrong tree) is the cause of all the misery in the world and as long as we think in good and evil and continue to pursue legal justice, the misery and nastiness will continue to exist in my opinion. It comes down to treating the symptoms. We will have to be delivered from the cause (our thinking in good and evil, which makes us pursue legal justice). We will have to be delivered from the prison of this darkened world and brought into the Light. Blind eyes will have to be opened, so that the broken (who isn’t?) will receive restoration and live in freedom. That was the mission of Jesus as described in Luke 4:18,19. Jesus never mentions legal justice. Reconciliation through satisfaction was not in his theological dictionary… 😉
For me, the good news of the kingdom comes down to this: we are completely redeemed from the state of consciousness in which we approach everything from a good/evil mindset (the so-called kingdom of darkness) and are transferred to a state of consciousness that we call the kingdom of Light. In my opinion, that is the transition that Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 5:16,17. In that state of Christ consciousness (“being in Christ”) we no longer know anyone according to the flesh. All the old has then passed away and the new has come. Our consciousness will then (by the Christ Light, which is now still largely covered) be illuminated/cleansed of all the misery and nastiness that we have created together from a darkened consciousness. In my opinion, this is meant to happen here and now and not in an afterlife. This process of “reconciliation” that is still ongoing (“God is in Christ reconciling the cosmos to himself”; present tense) begins with individuals, but the stronger the Christ Light shines, the more the collective consciousness will be enlightened/purified, so that the darkness will eventually (possibly at some point in time) disappear completely.
I regularly experience moments when I am in that enlightened state of (Christ) consciousness. There I experience the Love and peace (that surpasses all understanding) so strongly that no more anger, frustration, bad memories, sadness arise in me and I can love everyone sincerely, unconditionally and with complete surrender. I see those moments as the antechamber to the kingdom of God. If everyone here and now comes into this state of consciousness permanently, there will be no more need for a recovery process in the hereafter. All tears will then have been wiped from our eyes. All bad memories – which are only within the darkened consciousness (the so-called realm of darkness) – disappear in the Light of God’s Love like snow in the sun.
The NDEs confirm the above-mentioned vision. Most people who have experienced an NDE to date were in a darkened state of consciousness at the time of the NDE. Simply because all of humanity is still in that state. Although there are more and more people who are lifted up into the Christ consciousness for moments, as far as I know there are no people who are already walking in it completely 24/7. In my opinion, that is only possible once a certain ‘mass’ (of Light) has been reached; the darkened collective exerts a counterforce (anti-Christ). This explains the experience of a dark tunnel leading to the Light. This concerns the darkened consciousness (in which one was at the time the NDE began), from which one goes towards the Light. The bad memories and the life that passes them by, take place in that dark tunnel. Once in the Light, the ‘paradise’ experiences begin, without torments from the darkened past. After the NDE, one returns to the darkened world, where the individual consciousness is more enlightened than before the NDE. This explains that one has no (or much less) fear and that one perceives/experiences the world around them as ‘lighter’. As within (consciousness), so without (our outside world).
Personally, I believe that the collective breakthrough to this ‘new heaven’ and ‘new earth’ is here and now closer than we dare to dream. I believe that as soon as we begin to understand the true depth of the gospel again (as was the case in the time of Jesus through his proclamation) – and as a result Light will shine again in the collective consciousness of humanity – it will be a matter of time before the ‘darkness’ will give in. The entire New Testament testifies to this expectation. “This generation will experience it,” said Jesus. What happened on a small scale at that time is now about to happen for all of humanity. I see this as the good news of the kingdom. And I believe that the current generation will experience it.
I am curious whether you can follow my train of thought and whether you can do something with it.
Blessings!
Peter Overduin
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