Eternal Retirement: Techniques on Investing

By Rev. J.J. Inserra

"Do you know where you will spend Eternity?

Where will you go when your earthly life ends?  Where you go depends on what you do now.  Why is that

so?  Because after death the only laws and ways that matter are God's, and how well we tried to live by 

them.

God wants everyone with Him, but unfortunately, not all will make it.  Are you going to eventually make it 

to Heaven or not?  This is unknown.  Anyone can change for the better or worse until he or she passes away.

If you're a Christian and think that "all I need is to believe in Jesus and do nothing more", then you are quite

mistaken.  This is because God the Son came and for all.  With that said, does God owe us anything? But how 

well we live by His rules shows God that we want to live with Him forever in Heaven.

If you are an Atheist or an Agnostic and don't believe God exists or that there is any proof of His Existence,

this book helps those with such thinking.  You have faith, just not in God.  Yet.  We need faith to believe

the things people say to us, whether it is a lie or truth.

When God Died for us, it can be seen as though He invested in us, rather than starting over.  To get to His

Eternal Retirement Home we must live lives that show Him a good return on His investment in us.  Ask

yourselves this question often: Is the way I am living a good return on God's investment in me?  There will

be a need for improvement, even for the best of us.  This book helps us to do just that."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Release date: May 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9781977264725

Rev. J.J. Inserra

Rev. J.J. Inserra was born in June, 1962.  One of eleven children, he worked his way through college and finally finished after eleven years, and received a BA degree in computers, graduating cum laude from Iona College in 1992.  In August, 1997, he entered the Saint John Fisher Seminary Residence in Stamford, CT for the diocese of Bridgeport, CT and spent two years there receiving 27 credits in philosophy studies.  Then major seminary at Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, NY and Saint John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, MA.  Ordained to the priesthood May 17, 2003 for the diocese of Bridgeport, CT.

Book preview

Eternal Retirement?!

Techniques On Investing

All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2023 Rev. J.J. Inserra

v15.0

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Outskirts Press, Inc.

http://www.outskirtspress.com

Cover Photo © 2023 Rev. J.J. Inserra. All rights reserved - used with permission.

Outskirts Press and the OP logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

If all you read is this and nothing more

Start your day making your peace with God, because you don’t know if you will die before the day ends. Before you go to bed, make peace with God, because you could die during the night. Continue to do this every day and night, and you will be ready when your time comes to pass from this world to be with God, because you invested in the one He invested in with His Son and the Holy Spirit.

Dear readers, the Lord God has given me a number of dreams over the years since I was a boy. Only a few of them had sequels the following night. God has allowed me to tell you about one that I believe refers to this book.

This was a lucid dream, so I was aware in the dream, that I was dreaming this. In the dream, I was in my parents’ house in Rhode Island. Next, I opened the front door to the house and the Grim Reaper was standing there. The next thing that I did, was that I boldly grabbed his scythe from him, broke it over my knee, and then I turned to him and pushed him to the ground. Then, while he was on the ground, I grabbed his cloak and ripped it off him. And when I did that, there was nothing to him. There was nothing there or, no one there. And then the dream ended.

Before going into its meaning, there was a sequel to that dream the following night. In that dream - a lucid one - I am in the garage of my parents’ house (no car was there) and was in the presence of four angels looking up at them (they were taller than me). As they turned to walk into the house, in a single file, I caught the last one’s attention. I told him about the Grim Reaper the night before, and then asked him what it meant. He told me that something in particular will happen to me. I will not say what it is until it happens.

So, the meaning of the Grim Reaper dream is NOT the obvious, which is not dying. No I believe it is the writing of this book. It is quite bold for me to write such a thing, if you knew me. But my concern for all souls and the possibility of a great number of them spending eternity in Hell, really grieves me. I think about it everyday. The Grim Reaper represents the Second Death (Hell), and the book is my action toward the Grim Reaper. What this means is, no Second Death for those who follow this book. They will at least make it to Purgatory, and then eventually, get to Heaven.

ETERNAL RETIREMENT

Techniques on Investing

INTRODUCTION

* Reaching out to Atheists and Agnostics because God wants them as well

KNOW YOURSELF TO INVEST IN SELF:

What We Are, How We Are and How We Think

1) Human Existence

2) Human Substance - What are we as human beings

3) The Effects of Original Sin on our being

4) Human Formation

5) Is our Will a higher power than the Intellect? (How We Think)

6) Is our Will good when it abides by Erring Reason?

7) Don’t Give Up

INVESTING IN SELF

1) The Graces God gives us

2) Techniques on Investing in self and Why should I attend Sunday Mass?

3) Defense Strategies against Satan and his demons

SECURING YOUR INVESTMENT

KEEPING THE FAITH

1) Faith and Reason

2) Comprehending the Holy Trinity

3) I Am Present

4) Wisdom Literature of Ecclesiastes

5) Introduction to/and Saint John of the Cross

TEACHING THE FAITH

1) Saint Augustine’s - Teaching Christianity - De Doctrina Christiana

2) Explaining Saint Augustine’s Tractate 122 - Interpreting Scripture

3) Observational Analysis of Pilate’s Words, Ecce Homo

4) Mary as Co-Redemptrix

DEFENDING THE FAITH

1) Defending Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary to Protestants

2) On Capital Punishment

3) What Christianity does not believe - The Heresy of Apollonarianism

MISC. WRITINGS

1) Love poem/prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, love poem for God

2) The Parable

3) The demon and the man

4) An American Easter story

5) Eternal Retirement Tidbits

6) Did God create everything that exists? Even evil? (Not My Story)

Temporary Chapter of Warning and Hope

INTRODUCTION

1) Introduction - Salvation: Financially Speaking

2) Reaching out to Atheists and Agnostics because God wants them as well

INTRODUCTION

Salvation: Financially Speaking

WHEN I WAS 8 years old, I was hit by a car while riding my bike at the elementary school I went to. It was a block and a half away from home. This happened on a Sunday afternoon in September or November. Coming out of the driveway of the school was when the incident happened. It was a hit and run. Lying there, crying, severely bruised and bleeding from my head, I saw the car go off as if nothing happened, or that I did not matter. It didn’t speed up or slow down. That would have told me that the driver of the car knew something had happened. Instead, it drove off at the same speed it was doing. I was left there, perhaps to die in the street. Fortunately for me, a friend of my bother, Paul, was there, playing basketball with his friends. He came down, picked me up, and ran me home, with me in his arms. I remember this part of the whole ordeal very vividly. We get to the front door of the house, and my mother answers the door. She was aghast when she saw me.

From that point, I don’t remember going through the front door, but the next thing I do remember is looking down at myself on the kitchen table, with my family all around me. The next thing I remember, I was lying on the lap of my second oldest brother, Russ, who was sitting in the passenger seat of my oldest brother’s car, who is Richard and was driving. I was not in my body at this time, but was looking at me on Russ’s lap, from the perspective of Richard, had he turned his head to the right to see how I was doing. It was then that Richard stopped the car at the corner of Webster Avenue and Lockwood in New Rochelle (hospital is on Lockwood), and got out to tell a police officer about the situation. I was later told that my brother went through a red light, and that was why the officer was following him. It was at this time that I was with Jesus. He was on my right side. I couldn’t turn to look at Him, but I could tell it was Him from my peripheral vision. He showed me this very large book that was opened. It was filled with names. Two columns of names on each facing page. Then He showed me my name. It was in the left column of the left page, third from the bottom. It was larger and bolder than the other names, or rather, made bigger and bolder.

Suddenly, I’m back in my body, in the hospital, being sewn up by the doctor. The great pain of all this was back. When I think back on this out-of-body experience, I am reminded that there was no pain when I was outside of the body. In fact, while writing this right now in the book, I recall that I didn’t even remember the pain I went through while this event with Jesus was happening. I stayed in the hospital two days, as my mother has told me. It seemed like a week to me, even now when I look back on it.

For decades I never told anyone about the out-of-body experience, not even my mother. I was only 8 years old when that happened, so I did not know anything about what I went through and experienced. Not until many years later when I found out that was the Book of Life that I was shown. I have looked for others who may have had a similar experience, but haven’t heard of anyone. I have heard of people seeing a light, a tunnel of light, or family members greeting them. I have even heard of stories of people who have died and were on the way to Hell. They were given another chance.

I have also learned last year, 2021, that I am a mystic as well. I started getting these dreams from God when I was 7. The first one was quite frightening. I woke up very scared and shaking with fear. It was God’s wrath, as I later learned about it reading the Book of Revelation. As this particular dream re-occurred several times, it became less intense each time I dreamed it. I have been given many other dreams from God, some more than once. Though I have never told anyone about them until last year, I always thought of them as pieces of a puzzle. When I mentioned some of them to this experienced priest, he said that I am a mystic. I didn’t know what a mystic is, but I have heard of them. So I asked him, What does a mystic do to help others? I asked this because of what St. Paul said, … if I have faith strong enough to move mountains, but do not have love (for others), then I am nothing (1 Cor. 13:2). That session with him had to end because of an important phone call. Later on, I looked up what a mystic is and found out I meet the criteria for being one. But what does God want me to do with it?

From what I have pieced together from all my experiences, education, and dreams and messages from God, it is to put this book together for everyone. The purpose of this book is to help get as many souls to Heaven as possible. It is true that God the Son came and died for everyone, but not everyone is living a life that shows God that they want to live in Heaven with Him forever. When Jesus died and rose from the dead for everyone, that means everyone is redeemed by God and called to be with Him. But how many of us choose God in return. Yes, Jesus is our Shepherd, but how many of us want to be His sheep. Do we reciprocate in some way, on a regular basis, the love that God shows us/me? If we don’t say to ourselves, I want to be one of Jesus’ sheep, then we will most likely forget the phrase The Lord (Jesus) is my Shepherd and its meaning. When we forget it, then we won’t live it. When we don’t live, then we won’t reciprocate it.

There is no one whose life is so good, that they don’t need improvement. We all need some improvement every day. Even priests and bishops. The book is designed to bring an understanding of the mechanics of salvation (how it works) and how to get there through Jesus Christ, by using a rather different and unusual metaphor. This metaphor and idea, which I got from God, is one of ‘Finance’, where we invest in our Eternal Retirement (eternal salvation) in God’s Eternal Retirement Home. First, to briefly explain it from God’s perspective, then from the human perspective, and what the responsibilities are on the part of the individual.

FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE

From God’s perspective, it is this: Since God the Father sent God the Son to come and die for us, He has basically Paid (Redeemed) our debt. He paid the price for our ransom from the devil. We owe Him everything, but we cannot pay Him back and still live. Why is that? It is because we would have to give our lives back to God in order to fully pay Him back.

Think of it rather as God investing in us. On our part, we must live lives that show Him a good return on His investment in us. We must live and conduct ourselves as Jesus did when He was here. Because at the end when we are before God for judgement, no human laws will exist, just His. Not all human laws reflect God’s law. If the life one lived reflected God’s laws in Heaven, that would be a good return on His investment in you. Then one may enter into His kingdom. If not, then one would be spiritually bankrupt to Him, or, speaking metaphorically, one’s eternal retirement fund could be bankrupt. Not a good thing either way you look at it.

Sorry, no Heaven or Purgatory for you.

If however, one has something in his or her Eternal Retirement Account that hasn’t been wiped out by pride, selfishness, and sins, then Purgatory will help amend those major deficits in character and self in order to get into a room in God’s Eternal Retirement Home.

FROM OUR HUMAN PERSPECTIVE

The question is, WHERE will you spend your eternal retirement? This does NOT mean where you WANT to spend it. Everyone wants to go to Heaven. But not many are doing much to show God that they want to belong to His Kingdom; to be accepted by Him and stay there with Him forever. Most people give very feeble reasons why they pay no attention to God or even give Him a thought during their days on Earth. They offer such excuses as: I’m busy or I don’t have time. These excuses and others like them will not work. God knows how your days are. Whether you are busy or not, He knows if you make an effort to make time for Him. Most people do not make an effort. Think about it, do you really think God would accept any of those lame excuses that really do not excuse your lack of effort? If you would not accept such excuses from others, who you know did not make an effort, then why would you expect God to accept them from you? So the questions to ask yourself are these, Would God really accept my excuse? and, Did I make a valid effort?.

If we have time to invest in our earthly retirement then we BETTER MAKE TIME to invest in our Eternal Retirement. Why? Because our earthly retirement, if we make it to that point, only lasts as long as our earthly life, and no more. But Eternal Retirement is forever. And it starts when our Earthly life ends. For some, there will be a brief stop in Purgatory. So start investing now while you can, because you can only invest in your Eternal Retirement while you are here on Earth. It is never too late to start investing in your Eternal Retirement: just look at the good thief who died along side Jesus, on the cross. But do not deliberately wait until the end, because God knows your intentions. Do not presume anything about your salvation, because there is nothing about any one of us that says that we should go to Heaven. GOD OWES US NOTHING. Even if we should be perfect in His eyes from now until death, He still owes us nothing. This is because God the Son had to come and save us.

Then what must we do on our part, to invest in ourselves, to show God a good investment on His part in us/me? Love God above all things, and care about your neighbors as you do yourselves. To do this, we must understand what we are as human beings, reflect on our existence from creation to the Fall and after. We need to know and understand the effects of Original Sin on our being, the graces God gives us that we can’t do without, good constant human formation, and to not give up on ourselves and others, just as God did not give up on us.

We must keep the faith that we have been given by Jesus, by using faith and reason together, and by looking at some of the lives of the Saints and their struggles, such as Saint John of the Cross. They can help us better ourselves. There is also teaching the faith to others and defending it, because if all we have is faith and do nothing with it for the love of God and neighbor, then we are nothing, as St. Paul says (1 Cor. 13:2). And we must also know what the Christian faith does not believe, such as the heresies of Docetism, which denied the humanity of Christ, and Arianism, which denied the Divinity of Christ. Many heresies since the beginning of Christianity (most started by clergy) have arisen and led many away from God. They go and come back again in some form. Therefore, knowledge of them is very important. Because if we go astray by following one of these heresies, then that could severely jeopardize our Eternal Retirement. So read on.

A CALLING OUT TO ATHEISTS AND AGNOSTICS TO COME TO GOD

Chapter One

YOU SAY THAT you do not believe in God, that there is no after life, and that all there is, is what we have now. From your perspective that sounds rather reasonable, since you don’t know what is beyond this life on Earth, if there is life. And I guess that is really the only question that matters to you right now, and at the initial onset of this challenge to life after Earth. Which brings quite the challenge to someone who has faith in God and would like others who do not, to come to that faith as well for their own eternal salvation with God. At the moment, you do not believe in God or even think He exists, and would most likely say there is no proof. I understand this quite well, because there was a time when I questioned, but I sought out the answers. Even having been through an ‘Out-of-body’ experience and seeing Jesus when I was 8 years old, I still questioned where I will go after this earthly life. Jesus never promised me or anyone a place in His kingdom, even for those who say they believe in Him, but do nothing more with that faith.

So how can an atheist or an agnostic come to believe in God and know Him? Though it may not matter to you, there is a difference between the two. Merriam-Webster defines an agnostic as a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is unknown and probably unknowable¹. So, such a person would say, There is no God, because there is no proof that there is one, therefore, such a thing is unknowable. An atheist is defined as a person who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods². Thus, an atheist would say, It doesn’t matter whether there is proof or not, there just isn’t an Almighty being that created everything.

Before going on to questions to meditate on, I would like to prove that you do have faith. From the laugh and doubt that you just had, you probably really want to see this. Well, consider this: from high school science you probably believe in molecules, atoms, and what they are comprised of, correct? Most likely, you will say, ‘yes’. But why? You have never seen them. And seeing is believing, right? And then you will say, It was because of the teacher. He or she told me about them. That’s correct, and that is exactly the point. You had to have faith in the teacher that he or she was telling you the truth about those things you have not seen, and most likely will never see. Now think of some of the things you have learned in your life. You will see that it took faith on your part to accept what someone else was telling you was actually true. Any truth or lie takes faith to accept. Therefore, you do have faith, just not in God. Yet.

Well, just think and wonder about these things. You may question them or you may look into them. That is up to you. But just think about them. Here is the first set of questions to wonder about.

Why are human beings different from all other creatures on the planet?

Why do human beings wear clothes and other animals and plants do not?

Animals reproduce based on instincts, but humans have a morality about it. Why is that? When the morality of this goes down among humans, then the crimes and sins against self and others rise dramatically, why?

Animals have no trouble being WHAT they are, but humans do. Why is that?

If they are better at what they are, why are we the ones put in charge of them to care for them? (Ex. Atlantic bottlenose dolphins had a disease that was killing them, some years ago. They couldn’t help themselves, but humans did.)

Why do we have the intellect to do this and no other animal, not even primates, do?

How come we don’t see any transitioning of primates to be like us as Charles Darwin thought?

Is there something more to us human beings/me than what meets the eye, or what we think of ourselves from within? Is there something about us that is beyond what we know on Earth? There is. But what?

    There must be something beyond life on Earth that transcends it, because we are so different. But what is it? What could it be?

SECOND SET OF QUESTIONS TO WONDER ABOUT

Wonderment helps in seeking wisdom. It provides the motivation to come up with questions, to ask them, and seek out their answers. Think and wonder about these questions.

There is something more to human life that is beyond this life on Earth, but what is it?

But if life on Earth is all that there is, then why strive for anything? After all, I am an atheist or an agnostic, and so there really isn’t anything else after death on Earth. Or is there?

Am I believing in a lie, or in the truth? What is the answer?

As human beings, we have this insatiable drive for happiness or contentment, to where we will not want or desire anything more, but it has never been satisfied for anyone in history. Why is that?

Can it be satisfied by something on Earth? Why can’t it?

If it can’t be satisfied by something on Earth, within one’s lifetime, then could it mean that such a desire/appetite is not of this world? Then wouldn’t that mean that the answer or final remedy for that appetite is also beyond this earthly life? Are we seeking something in which the answer to it is beyond this earthly life?

Animals do not have this drive, why do we?

Lets go to a story of a movie that was put out more than four decades ago. We know it was a made-up story, but it does have something to teach us. It is the first Star Trek movie. Perhaps you have seen it. Though it is a fictional story there is some truth to it. Vger, which was actually the Voyager 6 space probe that the United States had sent out to learn about the galaxy. It was to learn all that was learnable; to know all that was knowable. Once it learned all that was learnable, it logically concluded that it must return to it’s creator, because the creator has all the other knowledge it needs and wants. Once Vger gets to Earth it knows that it must unite with the creator to get what it needs. All logic and all that it has learned and knows causes it to ask two questions: Is this all that there is? Is this all that I am? It has to make a leap of faith to join with the creator, because all knowledge, logic and intellect have been used up and it is still wanting. This is because all knowledge and logic says there is something beyond it that it needs, but it can’t get there. Not by logic and reasoning. Not without making a leap of faith, which is quite an illogical thing to do, but there is no other way.

Faith and reason are not opposed to one another, nor is it that one has nothing to do with the other. They actually help one another in achieving what they both seek: truth, and answers to ultimate questions such as, ‘Is life on Earth all that there is?’ and, ‘Does God exist?’

Saint Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical called Faith and Reason (Fides et Ratio). In it he basically says, when faith and reason are separated in human thought, then all of humanity suffers consequences as a result. Ancient philosophers saw the connection between reason and religion. But as they progressed in thought, they no longer relied on myth to explain things, such as existence. It was through philosophical reason that religion was purified by the Church fathers to understand revelation better. Together, philosophy and reason recognized that Christianity had all the answers to the ultimate questions, and could put all things and everything into proper perspective.

However, from the 18th to the beginning of the 21st centuries, the greatest separation of faith and reason occurred. Philosophy and rationalism completely separated themselves from faith, saying that it will rely only on natural reasoning to figure out any and all truths. That any truths gotten from faith are irrelevant, because they cannot be verified. There seemed to have been a lack of trust on both sides during this time. The consequences came to its peak in the 20th century with the rise and fall of fascism and communism, that led to the killing of more than 120 million people in a seventy-year period. As it stands now, the relationship between faith and reason is getting better, but very slowly.

Pope John Paul II knew about all this, because he had lived through it when his country of Poland, was first invaded and taken over by the Nazis and then taken over by the Communists.

Even though some may not believe in Him, God wants us to use reason to the best of our abilities, along with, and never excluding, those truths He has revealed in Christ. Faith and reason desire each other as our souls desire God.

Some or most of you are still not convinced, or it may be something else, because it is hard to grasp something that does not seem to be there. That is understandable. Perhaps I can shed some light on that by saying something about someone who went through the same thing. His name is Lee Strobel. He wrote a book entitled, A Case for a Creator. There is a short video on YouTube, by him under the same title. Please take a look at it. It may just change your mind. He had become an Atheist in high school when he saw his science teacher recreate an experiment that was