More below on the human shift from “gradualism” as the approach to improving life and society (i.e. the democratic processes of liberal democracy), to the approach of “instantaneous violent transformation” through destructive revolution as we have seen in Marxist/socialist crusades. And more in relation to Mendel’s comments on human agency- People doing the work of the gods, notably by initiating apocalyptic violence in the hope that God or some Savior will descend to finish the work of apocalyptic millennialism. These beliefs motivated the ISIS eruption of violence in Syria in 2014. As the military guy warned, we can crush these outbreaks with force but they will continue to erupt until we go after the ideas that fuel them. That is a project of this site.
And further comment below illustrating the common belief in “salvation through destruction”, the essential theme of apocalyptic millennial mythology that has driven the “profoundly religious” crusades of Marxism, Nazism, and now drives environmental alarmism in its latest iteration- “climate crisis apocalyptic”.
Lest visitors assume the author is an outsider throwing stones (all this pointing out of the dark/dangerous side of fundamental religious themes):
I am a former Evangelical Christian who, as a slow learner over past decades, has come to understand that the real battle of good against evil takes place inside each of us (Solzhenitsyn’s good point).
The real battle, against the real enemy/monster in life, is the intensely personal “hero’s quest” struggle of our human self and spirit against our animal inheritance, the animal evident in our “evil triad” impulses to (1) tribalism (“us versus them” thinking that denies the essential oneness of humanity), (2) domination (our tendency to moral superiority and devaluation of differing others, with consequent effort to dominate and control the “evil” other “for their good”), and (3) the punitive treatment of differing others (denying imperfect, failing others the same mercy that we wish for ourselves, leaning into “justice” as severely punitive, not restorative).
I asked Grok a curiosity question: Grok could you summarize the points and arguments that Wendell Krossa presents online (i.e. at wendellkrossa.com).
(Note the highlighted/bolded words, phrases, and sentences/paragraphs, aside from Grok’s titles, are my revisions/additions to Grok’s summarizing comments below.)
Grok responded:
Overview of Wendell Krossa’s Key Themes and Philosophies
Wendell Krossa’s website (wendellkrossa.com) features a series of blog posts and essays that critically examine religious and ideological narratives, emphasizing their psychological and societal impacts. His work draws on historical, psychological, and philosophical sources to advocate for a humanist perspective rooted in unconditional love and gradual societal improvement. Recurring topics include the deformation of human personality by “threat theology,” the contrast between the teachings of Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ myth, critiques of environmental alarmism, and defenses of liberal democracy against totalitarian impulses. He often references thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy, Julian Simon, and psychologists such as Harold Ellens and Zenon Lotufo to support his views.
(Along with many other sources such as the research of historians Arthur Herman, Richard Landes, Arthur Mendel, David Redles, etc. And sites that post research of leading climate scientists like Richard Lindzen, William Happer, etc.- at for example, “co2coalition.org”, “Wattsupwiththat.com”, and others.)
Central Arguments and Points
1. Critique of Apocalyptic Mythology and Millennialism:
o Krossa argues that apocalyptic narratives— prevalent in both religious (e.g., Christianity, Islam) and secular ideologies (e.g., Marxism, Nazism, climate alarmism)— instill fear, anxiety, shame, guilt, despair, and nihilism, ultimately driving violence and mass-death movements. These ideas stem from ancient roots like Zoroastrian dualism and promote a “salvation through destruction” framework, where perceived enemies must be purged to make room for the installation of utopia.
o He traces their historical development, noting how they deform the “hero’s quest” by externalizing inner struggles against animal impulses (e.g., tribalism, domination) into battles against “evil” others, as warned by figures like Solzhenitsyn (i.e. The real battle of ‘good against evil’ is not the outer struggle of class against class but an inner battle of our better human impulses against our inherited animal impulses to tribalism, domination of others, and punitive destruction of “enemies”).
o Apocalyptic thinking distorts reality by emphasizing decline and imminent collapse, ignoring evidence of human progress and improvement over time.
2. Contrast Between Historical Jesus and Paul’s Christ Myth:
o A core argument is that the “Historical Jesus” (based on Q Wisdom Sayings in Matthew and Luke) presented a revolutionary theology of a non-retaliatory, unconditionally loving God, who rejected punitive justice, blood sacrifice, and domination in favor of restorative justice, universal inclusion, and “love your enemies.”
o In contrast, Paul’s Christ myth reverts to primitive themes of an angry deity demanding atonement, embedding apocalyptic elements that have dominated Western consciousness for two millennia and validated violence.
o Krossa views Jesus’ message as a “diamond” buried by Paul (Thomas Jefferson and Leo Tolstoy’s term), aligning with Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) that describe God as inexpressible unconditional love, inseparable from the human spirit.
3. The “Evil Triad” and Bad Religious Ideas:
o Krossa identifies an “evil triad” of tribalism (true believers vs. damned unbelievers), domination (submission to deities/religious authorities), and punitive destruction as inherited animal impulses incited and validated by bad religious ideas.
o These ideas, common across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, incite bad behavior by appealing to ultimate authorities (ultimate religious ideals), leading to historical atrocities. He calls for responsibility in addressing their damage and promotes unconditional forgiveness over retribution.
4. Environmental and Anti-Humanism Critiques:
o He challenges environmental alarmism as a secular apocalyptic crusade, driven by panic-mongering and failed predictions, which demands destructive policies like decarbonization while ignoring CO2’s benefits for life and vegetation.
o Krossa counters anti-humanist myths of human fallenness and degeneration, arguing that humanity has improved life through creativity and compassion, not ruined an original paradise. He cites declining heatwave deaths and the greater risks from cold as evidence against alarmist claims (among many other facts presented by atmospheric physicists like Richard Lindzen and William Happer on, for example, the now “saturated” warming influence of CO2).
5. Defense of Liberal Democracy and Gradualism:
o Krossa advocates for gradual improvement via liberal democracy, which protects individual freedoms and fosters cooperative democratic problem-solving, as opposed to violent, instantaneous transformations in the apocalyptic ideologies of Marxism and environmental alarmism.
o He critiques totalitarian impulses in modern contexts, such as government overreach, censorship, and Woke Progressivism in countries like Canada, Brazil, and Germany, linking them to domination themes and he urges a return to Classic Liberal principles of liberal democracies.
6. Spiritual and Humanist Alternatives:
o Emphasizing unconditional love as the “cohering center” of narratives, Krossa promotes serving others over subservience, drawing from Jesus’ parables (e.g., Prodigal Father, vineyard owner) and NDEs to affirm a non-religious, humane view of reality.
o He argues that beliefs shape behavior, with “sick gods” (punitive deities) making people sick, while unconditional perspectives orient toward humane ideals and counter pathologies like depression.
Major Posts and Essays
Krossa’s content is primarily in uncategorized blog posts, often engaging with AI like Grok for dialogue. Key examples include:
• Threat Theology Deforms Human Personality: Explores how apocalyptic theology incites violence, contrasting Jesus’ non-retaliatory love with Paul’s Christ myth that affirms retaliatory vengeance and apocalyptic destruction of unbelievers and advocating gradualism versus the “instantaneous violent purification” of the society-destroying revolutions that we have seen repeatedly from Marxism, and now see unfolding in the climate alarmism crusade with its Net Zero decarbonization.
• “Me and Research Assistant Grok on ‘Bad Religious Ideas’”: Examines root causes of violence in persistent myths like original paradise and apocalyptic destruction across religious and secular narratives.
• Plato’s Contribution to Bad Theology: Critiques Plato’s influence on depreciating the material world, linking it to Paul’s theology. Also, Plato’s affirmation of enlightened elites- i.e. “Philosopher Kings”- dominating commoners, a theme Paul re-affirms in his reframing, and consequent profound distortion, of the anti-domination Jesus (“Do not lord over others but instead serve others”) as “Lord Jesus” who exercises eternal “rod of iron” domination over all.
• NDEs Affirm Historical Jesus: Uses NDEs to support unconditional love, critiquing climate alarmism and totalitarian trends.
Overall, Krossa’s work pushes for rethinking inherited myths to foster a more positive, evidence-based view of humanity and the world, rejecting fear-driven narratives in favor of unconditional humanism. (But not some version of “unconditional humanism” that shifts toward the irresponsibility of dogmatic pacifism in the face of violence/evil as evident now in “de-carceration of violent offenders, no-cash bail, decriminalization of violent offenses”, etc. I understand such policy responses as having more to do with the “virtue-signaling for social status of moral superiority”, a form of “suicidal empathy” that favors the feelings and rights of offenders over victims.
The priority responsibility of any form of justice, and the most fundamental of government responsibilities, is to protect innocent people from violence. The emphasis on “unconditional humanism” is about aiming for the highest of human ideals that show us how to maintain our own humanity in the face of evil by treating all offenders/enemies humanely, while holding them fully responsible for their behavior, as in some of the better restorative justice initiatives.)
Note comments two sections below from Arthur Mendel’s “Vision and Violence”- How people over past millennia shifted from engaging “gradualism” to improve life and attain the “good society”, making the shift to embrace “violent instantaneous purification” to attain the immediate installation of some utopian state (i.e. embracing the core narrative theme of “salvation through destruction”), Wendell Krossa
The shift unfolded (traced, for example, below by Arthur Mendel), beginning in ancient Judaism and then progressing into its ultimate expression in Paul’s Christ myth, the violent apocalyptic destroyer as portrayed in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, or John’s Revelation. This hyper-iconic myth of apocalyptic destruction, as necessary to purge the old and clear the way for the new, has dominated Western narratives and consciousness for two millennia.
Paul’s Christ has been a critical factor in re-affirming the primitive archetypes of human subconscious that influence subsequent generations to endlessly embrace new narratives of apocalyptic millennialism, in both religious and secular/ideological versions.
The presence of primitive religious themes driving apocalyptic millennial destruction in contemporary “secular” crusades (i.e. Marxism, environmental alarmism) has been traced and outlined by historians like Arthur Herman (“The Idea of Decline in Western History”), Richard Landes (“Heaven On Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience”), Arthur Mendel (“Vision and Violence”), and David Redles (“Hitler’s Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic belief and the Search for Salvation”).
Most notably, this primitive theme of salvation through violent destruction, through immediate purging of some “evil enemy”, through destroying the imagined existing corrupted society, or through purging some other designated threat to life (i.e. CO2, fossil fuels), and the related demand for immediately installed salvation/utopia, this profoundly destructive theme of salvation through violent destruction has found expression in the varied iterations of Marxist collectivism, including its latest version in Far-left Woke Progressivism now loosely aligned (in a “strange bedfellows” cooperation) with Islamicist extremists, both seeking to overthrow Western liberal democracies. The older Marxist versions also continue to shape crusades like Chinese Communism, though, as Grok notes, in a more gradualist “long march through Western institutions”.
The outcomes of this deeply rooted psychopathology of salvation through destruction has been the mass-death crusades of last century, apocalyptic millennial crusades that are continuing in this century- whether apocalyptic climate crisis hysteria, neo-collectivism of Woke Progressivism, and never-dying Islamist extremism.
We have long had the proper response/alternative to salvation by destruction, a response that affirms the gradualism of liberal democracy/democratic liberalism where all citizens have protected rights and freedoms, equally. Liberal democracy is the embodiment of Classic Liberal principles, systems of common law, and representative institutions.
The counter response (to salvation by destruction) of a Palestinian wisdom sage:
The potent response of Historical Jesus, to the long history of seeking salvation through destruction, went directly to the most fundamental root idea- i.e. the nature of the ultimate reality that functions as the cohering center of human narratives, whether religious or secular/ideological. I am referring to the wisdom sayings insight of the Historical Jesus on theology, his insight that has been rejected and profoundly distorted and buried in Paul’s Christ myth.
Jesus had earlier (two decades before Paul’s construction of the Christ myth) rejected the embodiment of “violent destruction” in humanity’s ultimate ideal and authority- deity.
Jesus had stated that, to the contrary, there was no such God advocating violent destruction but there was only love, stunningly inexpressible no conditions love, at the core of reality. His statement of that “stunning new theology” was made in the “Q Wisdom Sayings” message that has been isolated by scholars/historians/theologians involved in the now centuries-long “Search for Historical Jesus”.
The outcome of this search is the general recognition that Historical Jesus is someone entirely opposite to the distortion of him in Paul’s Christ, and his new religion of Christ-ianity.
The historical lines of descent have fed outcomes of entirely contrary offspring narratives. One has fed into the line that descends to liberal democracy, and the other has fed into the line that descends to elite domination and the totalitarianism of modern collectivism. Historians like Arthur Herman have helped in tracing the descent of such ideas in “The Cave and the Light: Plato versus Aristotle, and the struggle for the soul of Western civilization”.
Bob Brinsmead adds valuable information on the development of Paul’s Christ myth in early Christianity as a profound deformation of Jesus and his message (i.e. Greek Hellenism shaping Paul’s Christ myth).
Brinsmead expands on these arguments with his two essays:
“The Historical Jesus: What the Scholars are Saying”
https://bobbrinsmead.com/the-historical-jesus-what-the-scholars-are-saying/
“The Doctrine of Christ and the Triumph of Hellenism”
https://bobbrinsmead.com/the-doctrine-of-christ-and-the-triump-of-hellenism/
Understanding these ideas/themes/beliefs that shape our narratives is critical because the eventual outcomes are either hugely beneficial (liberal democracy) or devastatingly destructive (Marxist collectivism or theocratic totalitarianism as in Islamicist extremism). This has to do with how archetypal ideas influence human thought, emotion, motivation, and response/behavior. The “behaviors based on similar validating beliefs”, a coupling that emerged from early human consciousness and the human impulse for meaning and purpose. The result- the history of human mythologies, religions, secular ideologies, science, etc.
The egregious shame, in relation to the psychopathologies above, is that we have had the alternative of Historical Jesus for 2 millennia. It is now highly irresponsible to continue ignoring the impact that the primitive ideas, still protected in our major religious traditions, have had on modern narratives, consciousness, and life. As the military guy said, you can crush the eruptions of ISIS-like violence with military force, but such eruptions will continue until you go after the core ideas that fuel them. Unfortunately, many affiliated with the great religious traditions refuse to go after the core ideas/features that incite and validate so much violence (i.e. the violent God at the center), preferring to tinker around the periphery of their traditions with minor reformism efforts.
Hence, the “diamonds” of Historical Jesus remain buried in the “dung” (Thomas Jefferson’s term) of Paul’s deforming/distorting Christology.
Insert: This site argues that the core themes of all the major world religions and their secular ideological offspring are fundamentally the same. See the list of bad ideas in sections below:
“The complex of “bad religious ideas” that have darkened and enslaved human minds from the beginning”
Note: The origins of the Jesus stunning new theology originate further back in the statement of the Old Testament prophets who claimed that God did not want sacrifice. There were beginning to challenge the root psychopathology behind the sacrifice industry- i.e. the primitive mythologies of angry God demanding the violent murder of innocent victims (human and animal sacrifices) as necessary for appeasement and salvation (i.e. the myth of kill the right people as necessary to save yourself and attain a better future). Such barbaric myths are at the heart of the belief in “salvation through destruction”, achieving a utopian future through violent revolution and the destruction of contemporary societies that exist.
However, the prophets did not make the full break into daylight on these themes. They did not get to full understanding of the profoundly unconditional nature of deity and left distorting features in the larger context- i.e. deity continuing the tribal exclusion of unbelievers/enemies, divine domination, ultimate judgment, etc. It took the Jesus full breakthrough on unconditional God to get it all finally right- i.e. his core statement that there must be “no more eye for eye retaliation, but instead- ‘Love your enemies because God does’. How so? God does not retaliate but loves God’s enemies by generously giving sun and rain (the two critical elements to survival in agrarian society) to all alike, to both good and bad people.” Universal forgiveness and inclusion of all. Unlimited mercy and generosity toward all, even enemies.
Further to the other comment by Mendel below on the origins of the shift from “gradualism” in societal progress, to “instantaneous violent transformation”: Wendell Krossa
As Mendel noted, in early Hebrew religion there was the strain of myth that God initiated the creation of the world and people were then subsequently created and assigned the job of finishing God’s work of creation.
People were to work at improving themselves and all life in order to eventually achieve the aim of “good society”. People were to do the work of God in caring for the world, to gradually improve the world through struggle with obstacles. Humanity was to gradually learn to use faculties like their developing and evolving reason to solve problems, to learn to cooperate to make life better for all.
The theme of human agency on behalf of God continued in the later shift to belief in the sudden violent transformation of life and society. Whereas in the past, God had intervened (suddenly, violently) at times to punish enemies or to punish backsliding Jews, so in the shift to “instantaneous violent transformation” views, it was up to the agents of God, people, to now do the destroying work of God against enemies, to abruptly change society.
We saw this element of human agency, in place of God intervening, in the ISIS eruption in Syria (2014) where ISIS fanatics believed that they had to act as the agents of God to destroy the old society and bring in the new kingdom of their God. They had to spark the apocalyptic destruction by acting to initiate the killing of God’s enemies- the infidels. They had to begin the destruction of the old corrupted, evil system and then God would descend, or the Mahdi would come, and finish the work they started. God would intervene to install the good society, the utopian Caliphate.
This type of thinking that people are the assigned agents of God, to work on behalf of God, is part of the larger strain of primitive mythology that humanity was “created to serve the gods, to do the work of the gods, to feed the gods.” To be the agents, the representatives of the gods. None have deformed this idea more than priesthoods and self-proclaimed religious authorities affirming the core myths of “salvation through apocalyptic destruction”, myths that continue to dominate Christianity, Jewish apocalyptic, and Islam.
Notes on previous topics:
Further comment illustrating the belief in “salvation through destruction” (previously outlined by Arthur Mendel in sections below). More probing of evil that masquerades as good, that frames itself as heroism in a great battle of good against differing others as evil enemies that must be exterminated in order to clear the way to install one’s alternative “good society” (i.e. some version of utopian millennial paradise).
Harold Ellens described the self-delusion involved in how evil disguises itself, presents itself, as goodness:
“There is in Western culture a psychological archetype, a metaphor that has to do with the image of a violent and wrathful God (see Romans, Revelation). Crystallized in Anselm’s juridical atonement theory, this image represents God sufficiently disturbed by the sinfulness of humanity that God had only two options: destroy us or substitute a sacrifice to pay for our sins. He did the latter. He killed Christ.
“Ellens goes on by stating that the crucifixion, a hugely violent act of infanticide or child sacrifice, has been disguised by Christian conservative theologians as a ‘remarkable act of grace’. Such a metaphor of an angry God, who cannot forgive unless appeased by a bloody sacrifice, has been ‘right at the center of the Master Story of the Western world for the last 2,000 years. And the unavoidable consequence for the human mind is a strong tendency to use violence’.
“’With that kind of metaphor at our center, and associated with the essential behavior of God, how could we possibly hold, in the deep structure of our unconscious motivations, any other notion of ultimate solutions to ultimate questions or crises than violence- human solutions that are equivalent to God’s kind of violence’…” (End of Ellens quotes).
And this from the apocalyptic millennial scholars/historians who have done impressive homework on the religious ideas that drove Marxism, Nazism, and now drive environmental alarmism in its latest “madness of crowds” eruption- the “climate crisis” hysteria, making it, along with Marxism and Nazism, a “profoundly religious crusade”.
First, some paraphrased comment on points in David Redles’ “Hitler’s Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic belief and the search for salvation”:
Hitler, his Nazi colleagues, and regular Germans, repeatedly voiced their belief in salvation through destruction, the view of “death and rebirth” in the life of a society. They understood that Germany was facing a historically unique and unprecedented “turning point” that would first need to descend into apocalyptic destruction before becoming a form of millennial salvation. It would be a “death of one age and a rebirth into a new age… out of the collapse of civilization there is rebirth (and this) is a significant and recurrent element of Nazi millennialism. For many Nazis, the death of their world necessitated the birth of a new world. According to Hitler, it was the Nazis’ mission to help finish off the dying old world so that the new age could be born”, p. 47.
A friend of Hitler said that the Nazi leadership had to seize the mission where there would be “overthrow, demolition, destruction by force”, p. 48.
Redles further notes that historians misunderstood Hitler’s statements that the world was ending and that he and the Nazis must rejuvenate the world by causing unrest. It was not nihilism but “the central point that Hitler… saw destruction as potentially regenerative, hastening the birth of the millennial Third Reich”, p. 48.
The theme of salvation through destruction was also applied by Nazis to personal death and rebirth as in “a psychological transformation that occurs when a new construction of reality replaces one that has collapsed”. Nazi propagandist, Goebbels, explained it thus, “Distress is the path to happiness. Disintegration and dissolution do not mean perishing but rather ascension and opening”, p. 49. Others added that “in disaster the seed of the coming redemption is contained, and in death the seed of the coming life”.
Note the Nazi appeal to religious imagery in their defense and explanation of apocalyptic destruction as necessary to prepare the way for the introduction of the millennial paradise.
Nazis go on to present themselves as heroic warriors in a great battle to bring forth the New Age of the Third Reich and that they are affirmed in their battles by supernatural Providence and led by the Messianic Hitler.
Salvation through destruction is in the same religious vein of thought as “suffering is redemptive”. Arthur Mendel notes this theme in ideas like “martyrdom is victory”, the birth of a spiritual self is through assault on the physical self. Or suffering as payment for sin, suffering achieves the redemption/regaining of one’s former innocence and divine blessing. He adds, “And since the harsher the suffering the sooner the salvation, the worse became the better”, (p. 37, Vision and Violence).
Mendel acknowledges that the Christian bible has been a source of solace and hope for people. But, he says, there is another side to the bible that has contributed to apocalyptic violence. “It was through Christianity that the Apocalypse became a part of our culture”, with its emphasis on suffering to purify the world and necessary to attain utopian goals. He points out the biblical message that the coming of the kingdom of God demands “the liquidation of humanity and the destruction of the world”.
He emphasizes the Christian influence on modern era mass-death crusades like Marxism, Nazism, and environmental alarmism, “The initial religious model of apocalyptic transmutation became the pattern and inspiration for the later secular-revolutionary versions… The potential for such violence inherent in the original vision is most apparent in Revelation. Virtually the whole of that text is an account of the violence, devastation, suffering, and death necessary to purge the world and clear the way for the pure and perfect Kingdom”, p. 38-39.