Spiritual Warfare: No Escape from Agonia!

Sheep and Goats

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For Jesus, this was an intense struggle. According to the Bible, he was sweating blood, a euphemism for intense anguish, an expression of profound emotional and spiritual turmoil. A true agonia. His contest was, of course, with Satan, who was flooding his mind with doubt.

Sowing doubt always describes the eternal enemy’s initial approach. In that other garden, the one in which the human soul was first infused with the concept of agonia, Satan said to Eve, “Did God really say you could not eat of the tree of good and evil?

Each one of us struggles with one or more agonias that permeate the spiritual journey. Each serves to illustrate just how monumental and demanding the choices are that lie before us on our own spiritual paths. One such choice should be made before this existential conflict in the Middle East further escalates. And as the saying goes, the sooner the better.

"Choose this day whom you will serve," Joshua demands in the Old Testament (Joshua 24:15). The line is drawn in the sand; a test of loyalty is set before us. Just as Joshua challenged the Israelites to serve the gods of their ancestors or the Lord, we too are compelled to make a decision.

"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil," proclaims Moses in Deuteronomy 30:15. Here, too, the imperative to choose between polar opposites is clear. Spiritual inertia is not an option. And in this contest between good and evil, manifest on the ground in the Middle East, we cannot afford to be non-participants or mere spectators - the agonia requires active engagement.

In the New Testament, Jesus paints a vivid picture of the final reckoning in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46). Without diving into the full narrative, Jesus categorizes humanity into two distinct groups based on their choices - sheep, the faithful who acted compassionately, and goats, those who lived lives of selfish indifference or open hostility to Truth.

The implications are unnerving: either you stand with the sheep, representing people of faith, or you stand with the goats - those who reject Supreme Truth, as well as those who abstain from choosing.

People, even those with the most minute of spiritual commitment and personal awareness, are perfectly capable of distinguishing between the just and the unjust in the existential battle now being fought on three fronts in the Middle East. The unjust side is nihilistic, comprised of those who call for the utter destruction of a sovereign nation, Israel, and of an entire people, the Jews.

In the urgent spiritual warfare that confronts us, there is a perilous temptation to adopt a stance of moral equivalence, viewing all parties as equally culpable or justified in their actions. This is not just an intellectual misstep; it's a spiritual abdication. A clear-eyed understanding of good and evil demands discernment, and discernment obliges us to make judgments based on ethical and spiritual principles, not merely on pragmatic or superficial observations.

To equivocate in the face of evident malice or injustice is to muddy the waters of moral clarity. It confuses those striving for righteousness and provides cover for malevolent forces. In a world that desperately needs the light of spiritual wisdom, falling into the trap of moral equivalence dims that light and obstructs our collective path toward the Supreme Good.

Regardless of prior sins, recriminations, poor judgments or innumerable back stories from both sides, which sow doubt and confusion, the 1987 Hamas charter, the founding document of the group whose attack on Saturday October 7, 2023, plunged Israelis and Palestinians into their current inferno, made no attempt to mitigate their ultimate objective:

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’¹

We must acknowledge that the middle ground is both a dangerous illusion and unacceptable convenience. Apathy and indecision in spiritual matters put us in the precarious company of goats. We cannot opt-out of this cosmic struggle; spiritual neutrality is an ill afforded luxury.

We all are in this Global Agonia, whether we like it or not.

Agony in the Garden, El Greco

The choice is stark but profoundly important: we must decide to stand for the Supreme Good or side with malevolence. The battleground is our soul, and the agonia affords no escape. We are all called to engage in this spiritual warfare with the urgency it warrants, understanding that our individual choices will echo into eternity.

We have entered perilous times and must rise above geopolitics. The world is teetering on the brink of many crises - be they social, environmental² or spiritual. All demand much more from us than partisan bickering and ideological stubbornness.

A new framework has become necessary. The call now is to a higher form of engagement, one rooted in a shared understanding of our common humanity and our collective responsibility to safeguard it.

Just as Jesus faced his moment of agonizing choice in the Garden of Gethsemane, we too are in an agonia, a contest not between political factions, but between the larger forces of good and evil, love and apathy, action and complacency.

Global events should now be viewed through your innate spiritual lens, ignoring deep-rooted realpolitik, irrespective of validity and pragmatism. Those with ‘eyes to see’ will understand.

In this high-stakes spiritual battle, the cost of inaction is insurmountable. We have been warned through parables and prophecies alike about the risks of being like the goats who turn their backs on the Divine, ignoring our spiritual and ethical obligations. The parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25³ makes it abundantly clear: the choice is not a superficial one but rather a matter of eternal significance.

As in the Agonia of Jesus, we are sweating our own metaphorical drops of blood as we grapple with complex issues like inequality, social justice and moral decay. There is no middle ground here. We either stand up for what is right, aligning ourselves with the forces of good, or we slide into the abyss of indifference, becoming complicit in the triumph of evil.

Choose wisely, for the agonia will spare no one. As for me, I unwaveringly stand with Israel. Stay vigilant.

1. The Truth of Hamas in its Charter (article)

2. Environmental studies on the ubiquitous contamination of the planet and the collapse of it's life support systems are pouring in from countless science sources, the current paradigm can no longer be maintained. All the while the spraying of our skies with climate engineering elements rages on and is accelerating, is there any place left to hide? Source

3. The Sheep and the Goats, Matthew 25: 31-46

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.