"Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights."
"Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish. He said, "I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!"
On August 23rd, 2025, a Mennonite woman named Ruth Miller drowned her four-year-old son in Atwood Lake during a weekend getaway for her birthday. Her husband, Marcus Miller, is said to have walked into the same lake to meet the same fate. Ruth attempted to drown all of her children, a 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old twin boys, by driving a golf cart into the water with them aboard. However, the stronger children were able to survive.
When Ruth was confronted, as seen on body cam footage from Law and Crime Network, she reassured the police that God loves them and that God loves us all. She said that her son and husband were now "in the belly of the fish," at the bottom of the lake. The biblical test of Jonah is one in which God creates a large fish to swallow Jonah, essentially as a test of his faith. After three days and nights of praying and calling out to God, his wishes are answered, and he is vomited up from the belly of the beast. It seems that Ruth believed that if she sent her family to the bottom of the lake, although it appears she had no intention of joining them, that they would complete the test of God and return to the surface renewed. However, she also says of her son many times that he is now with God.
The fear-mongering around the "end of times" has heightened in the current social and political climate. Matthew 25:13 says, "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." It goes on to urge followers of God to remain alert. However, there seems to be a huge misunderstanding here. While most Christians are practically strengthening their faith, as they should if this is what they believe, some begin to struggle with Apocalyptic Eschatological Nihilism, which is essentially the belief that the earth is doomed and there is no point in embracing or even respecting earthly things. The idea is that we should just surrender to the end times. Now, this affliction isn’t seen only in Christianity, but it is definitely on the rise within Christian communities. It is a coping mechanism, regardless of how impractical and even damaging it may be.
Ruth’s story is not isolated. In the last few years, there have been several incidents of filicide. Most notorious is the Vallow/Daybell murder case. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell murdered her children, believing they were delivering them from the "hell on earth" that was to come, or so they claimed. Of course, there is much more to that, but they have been given enough attention. And in 2024 in Kenya, Paul Nthenge Mackenzie was charged with the murder of 191 children after instructing his cult followers to starve themselves and their own families to escape the wrath of the end times.
Clearly, all of these cases have a huge element of mental illness attached to them. Just yesterday, Ruth’s attorneys entered a not guilty plea for her on the grounds of insanity. But, what is not talked about nearly enough is the systematic fear that is instilled in followers of most Christian denominations from an early age. And going even deeper, the extremism of specific denominations such as Anabaptism, which is the cusp of the Amish and Mennonite communities, as well as Mormonism. While it is not completely restricted to these two paths, they are no doubt among the most historically unstable of all Christian denominations, riddled with incest, underage marriage, cult behavior, murder, and more. Just look at Josh Duggar, the "good Christian boy" who was arrested for the possession and downloading of some of the worst CSAM imaginable and whose wife still stands strongly beside him despite having multiple daughters with the man.
The women in these groups are often living an existence of "less than," going beyond the traditional gender roles that even I embrace. It is a world of domestic violence, non-consensual marital sex, and sometimes murder at the hands of their partners. This alone can lead to some serious mental health struggles, and while I am not intending to accuse Ruth’s husband of these things, I will boldly assume it (allegedly). So, it is no wonder she "went off the rocker and straight into the shit pile." This is not to excuse what she has done; whether she ends up in prison or a state hospital, she needs to go. And, to be honest, a state hospital in the United States is worse than prison; I promise you that and I know from experience.
I am an odd bird in that I am clearly a practicing spiritualist, and some may call me a witch, yet I still speak on the equal rights of Christians to practice their faith. However, this does not mean that anyone should sit idly by and not acknowledge the glaringly obvious issues here: the rampant abuse within organized Christianity. Mix in a whole lot of delusion and spiritual grooming, and it is not going to end well.
"The End of Times" has been a topic for as long as I have been alive, and if you look back in just the last century and a quarter, you will find hundreds of incidences of predictions of the last day on earth. Remember Y2K? And none of them ever came to fruition. What is happening is that human beings are pieces of shit. We destroy everything. And now, after centuries of enduring our self-indulgence, the planet is finally cracking. Not to mention, our solution to everything has always been violence. Even the church has been responsible for generations of spiritually driven conflict. So, why are we all shocked that it’s happening again? The only difference between the 11th century and the 21st is the guns are bigger. Whether or not the end is near, none of us will know until it happens. And by then, I dare say we will not have much time to react at all. It will just be.
Whether or not you are a religious person, check on your Christian friends. Check on your Wiccan friends. Check on your friends. This episode of "As the World Falls" is no doubt a scary one, and they may just need someone to talk to. You could be the reason they make a different choice today.
Be Blessed,
Dena
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