The Ever-present Past

The Ever-present Past

1989 6 June 3 The Ever-present Past (360) Mr. Tony Benn, a British Labour MP, was once dissatisfied with the way an interview for a BBC radio programme was developing and, determined that no part of the dialogue between himself and the reporter should be broadcast, he took steps to erase it from the tape which had been recording it. To the reporter’s astonishment, he reached into a cupboard, and produced a powerful electro-magnet which he duly plugged in and waved over the tape, thereby completely removing all traces of the conversation which had just taken place.

When one is caught in a difficult situation in this world, there is generally some way or other which allows one to escape from it. One can, for example, have ‘a clean record’ simply by erasing embarrassing or incriminating statements from a tape. It is just as if, originally, one had never uttered a word. Similarly, one can find loopholes in the law which permit one to escape justice, and to proceed in life as if one had never erred in any material or moral sense. All kinds of evasive tactics can, indeed, be practised so that a life of sin, immorality and crime can be completely whitewashed; that all the ugliness of corruption is thus effectively hidden from the public eye.

In the next world, however, there is no question of erasures, evasion, whitewashing and all the other tactics resorted to by wrongdoers. No new hi-tech gadgetry will be available to assist in the concealment of the truth. Neither technology, nor a clever lawyer nor the intervention of friends and relatives will be of any avail in the world of the after life where it is impossible either to practice deception or to wipe. out the events of the past. Everything that has happened is already there on God’s cosmic tape recorder. Search as one may, one will never find any instrument which will erase what is indelibly recorded on God’s tape.

Because, in many cases, our evasive tactics are successful in this world, we tend to imagine that the same will hold true of the next world. But the next world is one which is concerned only with realities.