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    The Wistworth Conferences
    The Wistworth Conferences
    The Wistworth Conferences
    Ebook142 pages2 hours

    The Wistworth Conferences

    By Duane L. Ostler

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    Every ten years the demons assigned to tempt mortals in eastern Idaho gather at Hell’s Half Acre lava field for a conference on temptation. In these fictional conference talks from 1908 to the present, the region’s chief demon/temptor, Benedict Iscariot, describes how the evil plan to destroy morality, virtue, marriage and the family has gradually come to pass, all of which will lead to the enslavement and ultimate destruction of mankind.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDuane L. Ostler
    Release dateOct 26, 2018
    ISBN9780463393239
    The Wistworth Conferences
    Author

    Duane L. Ostler

    Duane L. Ostler was raised in Southern Idaho, and has lived in Australia, Mexico, Brazil, China, Utah, the big Island of Hawaii, and—most foreign of all—New Jersey. He practiced law for over 10 years and has a PhD in legal history. He and his wife have five children and two cats.

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      Book preview

      The Wistworth Conferences - Duane L. Ostler

      THE WISTWORTH CONFERENCES

      By Duane L. Ostler

      Copyright 2018 Duane L. Ostler

      All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, copied

      or distributed without the express permission of the author

      Cover art: Fissure in Hell’s Half Acre Lava Field, near Pocatello, Idaho, Aug. 28, 2010.

      Photo by Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      PRELUDE

      THE FIRST CONFERENCE (1908)

      THE SECOND CONFERENCE (1918)

      THE THIRD CONFERENCE (1928)

      THE FOURTH CONFERENCE (1938)

      THE FIFTH CONFERENCE (1948)

      THE SIXTH CONFERENCE (1958)

      THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE (1968)

      THE EIGHTH CONFERENCE (1978)

      THE NINTH CONFERENCE (1988)

      THE TENTH CONFERENCE (1998)

      THE ELEVENTH CONFERENCE (2008)

      THE TWELFTH CONFERENCE (2018)

      POSTLUDE

      NOTES

      OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

      PRELUDE

      For some strange reason, it is sometimes easier to see truth and reality when we look at them from the opposite point of view, than when we look at them directly. Considering things from a vantage point which is exactly opposite to the truth can often highlight the very points and realities we need most to perceive. In religious literature, probably the best example of this is C.S. Lewis’ classic work, ‘The Screwtape Letters.’ In that volume, an under-devil and his mentor discussed the nuances of temptation, and how to motivate foolish mortals to sin. The effect is very illuminating, prompting ideas in the minds of readers that probably they would never have considered otherwise. This method of looking at things from another viewpoint can provide a marvelous support for faithful Christians.

      Such is the intention of this volume as well. It presents a series of fictional conferences, held every ten years, among unseen devils or tempters in a remote farm community in the USA. In these conferences, larger events from across the nation and world are usually the main point of discussion, with an eye toward using these bigger trends to undermine the faith and virtue of the handful of farmers these tempters have been assigned to destroy in remote Idaho. The idea is that even far away and distant destructive events of great significance can result in more personal destruction in our own backyard.

      The setting and circumstances in this volume are a bit different from ‘The Screwtape Letters,’ but hopefully the result will be similar. The focus of this volume is primarily on the disintegration of sexual purity, virtue and fidelity and the fall from morality to madness as seen in recent history. Strangely, people today treat this recent unvirtuous history casually, as if to say, Well, that’s just the way it is, and who cares anyway? We SHOULD care, and care very much! Our very civilization is on the brink of total devastation because of this moral depravity. If we could overcome our familiarity with the current state of affairs, and instead look at ourselves from the standpoint of an outside observer or from the perspective of a typical person 110 years ago, we would view our current condition of widespread societal acceptance of sexual promiscuity with shock and horror. We would be led to exclaim, How could we have let virtue and morality fall so far and so fast, with most of the collapse taking place in a single generation?

      The way things are today is NOT the way they have always been, and likewise is NOT the way they must always remain. A series of foolish choices by individuals in different circumstances over the last 110 years have brought us where we are today. But a series of better choices in the future can lead us to a better place, and to the reestablishment of principles of morality and virtue that our society once held dear, and so badly needs to hold dear again.

      I acknowledge that the focus of these conference speeches is mostly on sexual morality and a decline in virtue, with somewhat less being said about a host of other evils that plague modern man in our day, and which also serve as the basis of temptation of the faithful. This focus is intentional, and is based primarily on my observation that there is no single aspect of our lives that has greater impact, or has the potential to cause greater pain or joy, than our relationship with the opposite sex and our involvement in families. Almost every other aspect of life is connected to these. I firmly believe that if morality and virtue and the pre-eminent status of the family as the ultimate organization of society could be re-enthroned, almost every other vice that plagues us in our modern age would be remedied as well.

      And now I must add a caveat, made necessary by our modern age in which statements are often taken by opponents out of context and twisted into something they were never intended to be. I am presenting the present volume tongue-in-cheek, with the intent of spurring thought about why morality and virtue is important, by looking at things from the opposite viewpoint—a viewpoint of which I heartily disapprove. Notwithstanding this, enemies of truth may at some point desire to quote from this volume as if I believed and encouraged evil—as if I agreed with my fictional character Benedict Iscariot in his gloating statements in favor of indecency. I therefore wish to make it very clear that I am not a student of evil, and the words of Benedict Iscariot ridiculing virtue and encouraging sin are not my advice about the way things should be. I do not favor the destruction of morality and virtue, and in fact believe that they should be reinstated. Indeed, that is the very purpose of my presenting these conference statements in this manner, to highlight the need to cherish and defend virtue and morality.

      In short, do not take any of the evil statements in the conference talks below as representing my personal sentiments. While I wrote these ideas, I did so as an expression of the OPPOSITE of what I believe. I do not agree with the ideas of the enemies of righteousness, and only present them here to show how much these enemies gloat at the insane sexual confusion we mortals have created for ourselves over the last 110 years.

      We now proceed to the Wistworth conferences, a series of speeches given by the demon Benedict Iscariot in the Lava fields of Idaho, starting in 1908. For the further enlightenment of those who are interested, footnotes have been provided in brackets [__] providing the source which supports many of the statements given (See the ‘Notes’ following the text). However, historical events which are public knowledge and generally well known are usually not cited.

      Duane L. Ostler, October 26, 2018.

      THE FIRST CONFERENCE

      October 3, 1908, Hell’s Half Acre Lava Field, Idaho.

      My fellow tempters, it is indeed a joy to see you all so animated, devoted and miserable on this glorious day. [Cheers and applause from the devilish crowd, mixed with many boos and hisses] It is now my duty and privilege, as the recently appointed head of the Eastern Idaho farm district of temptation to address you at this conference. As you all know, our district is affectionately known as the Wistworth Conference, in honor of the drunken fool, Phineas Wistworth, who a few years ago stumbled through one of the nearby lava cracks and fell to his glorious death. Following his bloody and painful demise, his imprisoned, unclean and evil spirit joined the legions of our master in his never ending quest to oppose the forces of light and truth, and seal blackness, evil and horror as the ultimate goals for all mankind! [More hisses, catcalls, boos and cheers]

      Tempters, our master and leader at the recent worldwide ‘Conference on Temptation’ unveiled new plans to ruin and destroy the human race. He gave his enslaved and faithful leadership at that conference—a leadership which happily and also unhappily includes myself, Benedict Iscariot—a marvelous vision of what the future can and must hold. He outlined a master plan of devious goals intended to enslave and bind the human race, and bring them all under the fold of the glorious misery and horror which we all so heartily enjoy and despise as devils.

      In so doing, our master seeks to undermine and completely mutilate the plans of our sworn enemy, that being of unhealthy everlasting burnings, who dwells in glory from all eternity to all eternity, and who has the audacity to call himself ‘God.’ This terrifying being who, at one time before we were freed by banishment from his oppressions, we called our ‘father’—this being has plans to build, ennoble and save the human race, through the merits of our great enemy, his son Jesus Christ.

      After our rebellion in the realms of heaven, we in our spiritual form were cast down to this earth.[1] Then our enemy started sending his children down here to gain mortal bodies. These children were the so-called ‘faithful’ ones who did not have the sense to join the side of our master in the celestial realms when he so wisely rebelled against god, Jesus Christ and the hosts of heaven.[2] Alas for us, since bodies are something these so-called ‘faithful’ ones will obtain, but we will never gain for ourselves![3] We shall remain forever as tormented spirits, never able to have a body which would allow us to progress toward the potential we once had. Of course, there is always the possibility that we can possess one of THEIR bodies—if they allow us inside, and also allow us to stay by not calling on the name of Jesus Christ to drive us out.

      God’s more ‘faithful’ children who are born into this world, these idiot mortals, live their pathetic lives in circumstances where we can and heartily do tempt them. As you all know, the statistics of our ongoing battle from the beginning of the world until now have been glorious for our side! Millions of foolish mortals have been brought to death, horror, enslavement, destruction and endless misery through our untiring efforts to lead them astray and destroy their immortal souls! [Many cheers, sneers, catcalls, and much profanity from the devilish crowd]

      But to return to the recent conference and the new plan of our leader unveiled at that august assemblage, it was no less than a plan to completely and forever alter those sickening, foolish and nonsensical things called ‘morality’ and ‘virtue’ from the relatively pure state where they are today, to a condition of total chaos. Today, marriage and sexual purity and family loyalty are far too common and accepted. Statistics show that in the year 1900 only 6% of unmarried women age 19 in the U.S. were sexually active![4] This figure is far too low! While in this year of 1908 we happily induce an occasional moron among those we tempt to indulge in self-gratification and engage in illicit sex, thereby bringing misery upon themselves and others—too few of these idiot mortals fall prey to such temptations! Just think of the glorious chaos that could ensue if the majority of the people were running around and defying god by having indiscriminate sex, with little or no regard for the consequences!

      Our leader has thought of this, and thought of it often. And he has come up with a plan to bring it to pass! And in so doing, he has determined that there are better things than tempting youth to gamble, or to swear, or to lie to their parents, or to ditch church. There are better things than tempting the grownups to swindle one another, or to fixate on property or money to the exclusion of loved ones. There are better things than to encourage the elderly to ignore the younger generation and spend their time commiserating over their

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