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Heaven and Hell and Yin and Yang

Photo by Jben Beach Art from Pexels 

     When I was still a super-charged, Fundamental Baptist, fully unconscious and fully believing that my convictions we're correct because they were based on a book I believed to be infallible, I wrote a book. It was over five hundred pages. It was the culmination of years of Bible study. It was also the product of a lot of negative thinking due to a negative mindset I didn't know I had.

     It was titled simply A Systematic Theology, and it had all the answers for everything. This is because all of the answers were Bible-based, and when you place all of your faith into a book that you believe has no errors, it wraps all of life up in a neat little package. No loose ends. Exactly what I always wanted.

     If you are not familiar with Protestantism or Christianity altogether, I should explain why most theologians do not publish a systematic theology until they are very old, and have lots of letters at the end of their names. It's because within the framework of an infallible Bible, there is still a lot of difference in opinion and over the course of one's life, one can change his point of view.

     
This happened to me soon after publishing the book. This was just prior to my spiritual awakening mentioned in an earlier post. As my mind began to open up to the possibilities of differences of opinion, I could suddenly see multiple viewpoints. Suddenly the book I was proud of became nothing more than a chronicle of my own arrogance.

     Simultaneously, something else was happening. I found myself considering questions that truly cannot be answered to any degree of satisfaction from the pages of scripture. One of these is the question of the afterlife.

    I became involved with an NGO in South Korea that helps North Korean Refugees. This led me to read many books on the subject and watch many YouTube videos, and I gained lots of refugee friends. One of the videos I watched was of a twenty-three year old woman who was interviewed by an undercover press agent with a hidden camera.
He documents the horrible circumstances North Koreans live under. This woman was starving, and trying to sell grass in order to survive. When I looked at her in the video, my heart broke. There was no life in her eyes. I learned that she later starved to death in that very field.

     What happens to her after death? Christianity cannot give a comforting answer to this. According to the Baptist interpretation of Scripture, she was born with a sin nature and must therefore be punished in hell for all eternity. The trouble is, when I look into her eyes, I just cannot consign her to an eternal hell, no matter what she has done.

     Christianity is satisfied with God granting salvation only to His elect through Jesus Christ alone. I suppose those in North Korea are just out of luck. There exists an underground church there, but it is not widespread and most people live a life of ignorance of Christianity.

     I have found the Taoist philosophy to be much more sufficient, and much more caring. I look at this beautiful, tortured soul and see someone whose higher self chose this life, and these circumstances to learn things she needs a long her spiritual quest. Once finished with that life, her higher self will incarnate again, either in this dimension or some other, using the lessons she has learned previously. Perhaps she will have a better life. In any event, she is eternal and immortal, and able to transend her circumstances.

     It helps me as I reflect on my own life. It also emboldens me to get involved with a group that helps people who have escaped North Korea. It causes me to hope for a change in the world. I find my outlook on life to be more optimistic. Only then do I love each and every day.



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