Life, Death, and Eternity

 

It is unfortunate and misleading that our existence after death is so often presented as terrifying and dark. So much of what is believed about our state after death was fabricated in the last 500 years by those who did not understand the nature of God and the nature of his relationship with man. Jesus Christ, because of his resurrection and ascension, defeated the power of death, freeing us from its grasp.

Our state after death is based on two things. First, our life after physical death is eternal. Death was defeated so death will never overpower us. We will never cease to be. Second, the way that we choose to live our lives in this lifetime will form our souls into the state we will be for eternity. If we have chosen to serve only ourselves, if we have chosen to seek after pleasure, and if we have chosen to ignore the pursuit of holiness, we will endure an eternity in the presence of the one holy God that will feel unbearable. If we spend our mortal lives ignoring God and living in selfishness, our eternity in the immediate presence of the one holy God will be contrary to how we have formed ourselves.

When we read of an eternity in the fires of hell, it is important to remember that this is a metaphor, an illustration to help us understand how unholy men will feel in the presence of holiness. It is not literal fire, it is not suffering at the hands of demons, and it is certainly not suffering under the wrath of a vengeful God. God is love and the suffering we will endure will be because we neglected to receive the love and relationship that he offers us.

Our state after physical death is eternal life, temporary disembodied but eventually reunited body and soul. But the quality of that experience is our own responsibility. Whether our eternity feels like heaven or feels like hell our eternal state is simply the fruit of a lifetime of response to the love of God.

Self Assessment and Judgment

     Take a thorough look at your life and assess if you are growing or not. Do you see change in your life? Do you see yourself becoming stronger, smarter, wiser, or more loving? Has your thinking changed since you were in high school? Are you less judgmental and more considerate? Do you have sympathy for others and their shortcomings? Do you judge yourself more harshly than you did when you were younger?

    A life that is changing in comparison to one that is not, can be likened to a river that is flowing, shifting, changing and finding the best path versus a pond that only sits stagnant and generates scum.

Identifying Christian Belief and Practice

 

If someone said, “I believe that the rules for the NFL are “x, y, and z” and someone else says, “No, you’re wrong, they are “a, b, and c”, only one of them is correct but they could both be wrong. Why is that? Because those who are the actual authorities over how the NFL is defined have clearly articulated the rules. The understanding of and articulation of, those rules are up to just anyone but those in authority.

In the same way, when one group of people who call themselves Christians say that Christian belief and practice is “x, y, and z” and another group says, “No, you’re wrong, they are “a, b, and c”, only one of them is correct but they could both be wrong. How is this resolved?

It is certainly not resolved by appealing to “well, the Bible says this”, or “well, this is the way we have always done it.” One cannot simply appeal to the Bible because sin the Protestant Reformation, the idea of private interpretation has become the presumed right of every believer. But this, in itself, is a presumption that may or may not be correct. And as far as antiquity of practice goes, simply because one branch of Christians has believed and practiced a certain thing for a long time does not make it true.

I argue that we are approaching the question from the wrong direction. If we start at the beginning, we end up in a very different place. Beginning with the belief that Jesus Christ is a real person who actually exists, we can build an interesting argument.

1)      Jesus taught his disciples specific truths.

2)       His disciples, becoming apostles, took those teachings and began to teach others across the known world.

3)      That teaching became known as ‘Christianity’ and was embraced by some and rejected by others.

4)      That teaching, over time, began to be twisted and maligned so that the leaders of the church (a hierarchy established by the apostles), needed to articulate, and identify what actually was Christian belief. We see this in the seven ecumenical councils of the first eight centuries of the church.

5)      Jesus promised his followers that he would not leave them alone but would give them the Holy Spirit to guide and protect them.

6)      Jesus promised his followers that hell would never prevail over the church.

So, we have to ask, because Jesus said and did these things, do we believe what he taught them about faith and practice, and do we practice these things ourselves?

Why?

I'm sure we have all had to interact with the annoying child who is constantly asking "why?"  Instead of a natural curiousity that is seeking satiation, the child is simply being childish.  We, on the other hand, ought to be asking "why?" often, typically of ourselves.  There are so many things that we do, simply out of habit or convenience, to which we never give a second thought.  So ask yourself, "Why?"
We can probably classify our actions into categories.  Things we do out of necessity, eat and sleep are two examples.  Of course, these two things can be done in the wrong way.  We may eat simply because we feel like eating, which is, simply put, gluttony.  We may sleep because we are lazy, or because we are bored.  There are also things we do out of preference.  Our desires and passions move us to "do" things.  This is where the "why" question comes into place.  Why do we spend 20-30 thousand dollars on a car?  Probably out of our desire to be comfortable.  Why do we spend 300 thousand dollars on a house?  Probably out of a desire to be comfortable or to fit a particular appearance.
But these are things we ought to ask ourselves.  Why do we dress the way we do?  Why do we eat the way we do?  Why are we entertained by the things by which we are entertained?  Why do we choose the friends we do? All of these questions have answers and, unfortunately, as Americans, many of them have the same answer, we desire to be comfortable, which, again unfortunately, reveals a serious problem with selfishness.  Ask the questions.

Philosophical Baggage

Any time we make a shift in our beliefs, we will, inevitably bring with us, residual philosophical beliefs. To my mind, this is negative. We ought, as living, thinking human beings, to strive for consistency and coherence in our worldview.  Any kind of radical shift or change in our belief system ought to include a comprehensive analysis of what we previously believed in comparison to what we currently believe.

Unfortunately, many do not make this effort.  Instead, they carry into the new system, previous beliefs.  This results in two things. One, in communicating their new belief, they impose false beliefs onto their hearers.  Two, this is intellectual dishonesty. One cannot claim to believe, for instance, in election (as in Calvinism) and yet claim to be an Orthodox Christian.  These two are diametrically opposed.

It is, in my opinion, extremely important to know and understand exactly what it is that you believe and to be cognizant of beliefs from one’s past.  At a bare minimum, one can become part of a belief collective, and claim adherence to that systems beliefs. At the same time, one can also admit to embracing some aspects of that same system on “faith”.  In other words, you do not have to have a perfect understanding of each tenet in order to be faithful. But you must be aware of what you actually do believe.

Acknowledging passions

Imagine you were born in 2002.  You are male but you find yourself being attracted to other guys.  The culture at large will tell you that this is all fine and normal, you merely are oriented that way.  But at the same time, the Orthodox church is telling you that homosexuality is a sin and that one should never follow their passions, simply because they are “natural”.
This is the difference with the Orthodox church in comparison to the Evangelical/ Protestant world. The latter will tell you that homosexuality is a sinful perversion and you need to not do it.  That you need to be cured. Orthodoxy, on the other hand, will tell you that it is simply a passion that some people have, not much different that any other sexual passion. It’s mere presence means nothing. Natural or unnatural, as Christians we simply do not excuse away the passions we have a “natural” and then indulge. No, we fight against our passions and our soul tells our flesh what to do, not vice-versa.
The question here is not one of natural or unnatural, perverse or normal, but of who is in charge, one of to whom you are listening and following. When we think and act, these things are done according to the leadership of something. When we think or act, are we following the whims of our flesh, i.e., we "feel" like doing it. On the other hand, the Orthodox church would tell us, we ought to live in a way that is preparing us for an eternity of holiness. We can look back at the saints of historic Christianity and those things that the church has always believed and practiced, and align ourselves with this. We do not follow and practice something based on our feelings, but on what the church has identified as holy. We do not follow our passions, we follow the direction of the Holy Spirit. But this is not a personal, interpretive thing. It is a corporate, defined, articulate path of light and holiness.
Whatever our sins, whatever our inclinations are, are irrelevant. If our desires or inclinations are leading us away from holiness, we must fight against them. For our very life depends upon it.

Reactions and responses

All of our actions and words are responses to the situations in which we find ourselves.  An undesirable situation will elicit some sort of action on our part, the more disagreeable, the more aggressive the response.  So, when we see someone acting in some sort of desperate or extreme manner, we must realize that whatever it is they are going through, it is not according to their wishes or desires. Should we not have mercy on that person, regardless of rightness or wrongness of the action?