GOD IS NOT THE JUDGE, HE IS OUR HELPER.
WHAT IS THE ETERNAL REALITY?
When I was in my first year of college, I had a job that was convenient both to myself and to those I was working for. Peter was an architect and his wife Jane was a journalist. For most of the year they lived in Washington D.C., where I also went to school, and I was able to babysit for their one baby son by simply taking the metro over to the condominium in which they lived. We had met through a mutual friend of my parents who taught at a male prep school, in a town close to where I grew up. So, when Peter and Jane went to their nice home in the country, I also was usually home from college on vacation. They had, as it were, a traveling babysitter. And I was very happy to do it, needing the extra income and also finding the job pleasant.
One time when I was in their condo in D.C. I was perusing through their books, a tendency that has followed me all my life. Although I don't remember their lives or their library as leaning towards any type of religion or spirituality, I do recall finding a book that moved my soul to deep thought. I have no idea, now over 35 years later, what the title of the book was, but I do remember the point that stuck with me that day, and, I believe, was at least a minor part of the puzzle pieces on my journey.
The book explained that the sufferings in the next life are caused by our sinful desires in this life. If in this life we have an addiction to a certain emotional passion, like anger or violence, or a physical passion like drugs or alcohol, then if our soul dies still catering to this passion, and we find ourselves in the next life where these things can not find their fulfillment, we will inevitably suffer. (And that suffering starts in this life, we see it all around us, if not also in us.) Hence the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, both in deep remorse, and also in pain and agony over these horrible things we want, but cannot get or act out. Or, another way to understand it is, that we are stuck acting them out, but only in our own souls--we are now alone with our anger, our bitterness, our violence, our perversions, our lust and greed. For all Eternity. What a horror. That truly would be hell. And, this is of our own choosing. And, whether or not this book was completely accurate, the reality that hell is of our own choosing is the point we NEED to get.
That shook my 17-year-old self to my foundations. And rightly so. When we think of our salvation as resting on God's decision, we tend to get a skewed view. We think "Well, God is merciful, so He won't be upset with me for this." And that's exactly what the demons, as St. John of the Ladder points out, tell us before we enter into some sin. After we sin, the demons tell us "There is no mercy for you" trying to throw our souls into despair. Neither of these things is from God. Not sin, nor despair. And it is not God judging us. It is our own condition judging us.
We know it is so, even in this life. We don't feel good if we do something bad or wrong. Yes, there is a momentary pleasure, but the "hangover" is not pleasant. And when one's life is built on these decisions, one suffers very serious consequences, even here. Relationships of all kinds fall apart, with spouses, children, bosses, workers, friends, neighbors. Lying becomes a way of life, so trust is broken. We are led, as by the nose, to do things we "don't want to do but do want to do but don't want to do." This is a foretaste of hell on earth.
The only way out of this terrible suffering is repentance, that is: turning to our Saviour and begging for His help. (Why do we find such a simple thing so difficult?)
And this is where we need to contrast Western Christianity, which did get infiltrated, as we spoke about briefly in Part II, with the ancient and Orthodox knowledge of the True God, which is the fullness of revealed Truth, not a man-made collection of ideas.
In the West, the commonplace idea about "sin" is something you do against God, and then you need to do a certain amount of penance to get right with God again. This is what is called an anthropomorphism, and the West is full of them. The definition of that word is "the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal or object." And also "the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities."
Man has always had a tendency to "create gods in his own image." If we look at pagan Rome and Greece, we have an interesting collection of human passions with supposedly superhuman powers, and given the status of "deities." Cronus, for example was so notoriously jealous and greedy that he ate his baby children when they were born. Zeus "mated with many goddesses and mortals." He is described as "carefree, just, merciful, wise, sensual, jealous, unpredictable, prone to anger, destructive and vindictive." (Really, all that in one breath??) Hermes is a trickster and a thief. Mars represents war, violence, and virility. Venus is the female version of illicit relationships.
In order to have "the gods" on their side, people offered some sort of gift.
That is not Christianity, where we offer back to God ourselves, our hearts, in the most wholesome and pure of ways, to be in a loving relationship with Him.
However, because "philosophy" and "humanism" had entered (infiltrated) into the West's way of thinking, the idea that God needed to be "propitiated" crept into Christianity.
That, my friends, is another false god.
In Orthodox Christianity, the context for understanding sin, comes from a Greek word, which means "missing the mark." In Hebrew the word hata (sin) originated in archery, and literally meant to miss the gold at the center of the target. (In the West it is thought that perhaps the word sin comes from the Latin word for guilt.)
Do you see the big difference? In the West the general understanding/feeling is that you have done something wrong, you have offended God, and therefore you need to somehow offer Him something to make up for your sin, to "put Him in a better attitude towards yourself" so to speak. In this way of thinking, God is changeable, even moody, ruled by a justice above Himself, and perhaps even a bit unpredictable like the pagan deities.
This is the "idea of God" that causes a lot of sorrow and doubt, and understandably so. It is also the birthplace to much of the atheism that we have seen in the last centuries. Thankfully, this is a counterfeit created by our enemy working with the pride of limited human reason. It is not our true, loving Creator and Saviour.
In the East, if you sin, you miss the mark. There is a goal, and you missed it, as we so often do. So, you keep trying. You don't necessarily "do penance", as in the West; you "repent." What is the difference?
In Hebrew, there are two words for repentance: To feel sorrow, and to return. In Greek the word metanoia means "to think differently afterwards", a change of mind, heart and actions. In other words, the Hebrew and the Greek, which are the ancient languages revealing to us divine truths, both agree that when we sin, we "miss the mark" and when we repent, we feel sorry and turn again and ask for God's help.
God is not the judge, God is our HELPER.
And that is the very essence of what we need to understand. That is a HUGE VERY IMPORTANT Paradigm Shift with the deepest of consequences. That is the difference between joy and misery. Between hope and despair. Between running away from God, and running into His loving embrace. And that huge difference will manifest for us both in this world and in the next.
Maybe you are now asking the question: But why does it say in Scripture that God will come to judge all the earth, do you not believe that?
We believe in Christ's Second Coming, with all our hearts. We believe everything He told us in the Scriptures, and in light of the understanding the Church has always maintained, from the very time of the Incarnation. We believe that when it says "the books will be opened" that there will not be literal books, but the books of each of our consciences, hearts, minds and souls. And in that instant, it will be obvious who has become a sheep, and who has become a goat.
In other words, we will be our own judges, because now the consequences of the choices we have made throughout our one lifetime, with our one mind and soul, in our one body, will now become manifest into an eternal reality. God's role in this is that He is Unchanging Eternal Love. Our role is whether or not we have come to love Him, and are at home in His Loving Embrace.
WHAT IS THE ETERNAL REALITY?
When I was in my first year of college, I had a job that was convenient both to myself and to those I was working for. Peter was an architect and his wife Jane was a journalist. For most of the year they lived in Washington D.C., where I also went to school, and I was able to babysit for their one baby son by simply taking the metro over to the condominium in which they lived. We had met through a mutual friend of my parents who taught at a male prep school, in a town close to where I grew up. So, when Peter and Jane went to their nice home in the country, I also was usually home from college on vacation. They had, as it were, a traveling babysitter. And I was very happy to do it, needing the extra income and also finding the job pleasant.
One time when I was in their condo in D.C. I was perusing through their books, a tendency that has followed me all my life. Although I don't remember their lives or their library as leaning towards any type of religion or spirituality, I do recall finding a book that moved my soul to deep thought. I have no idea, now over 35 years later, what the title of the book was, but I do remember the point that stuck with me that day, and, I believe, was at least a minor part of the puzzle pieces on my journey.
The book explained that the sufferings in the next life are caused by our sinful desires in this life. If in this life we have an addiction to a certain emotional passion, like anger or violence, or a physical passion like drugs or alcohol, then if our soul dies still catering to this passion, and we find ourselves in the next life where these things can not find their fulfillment, we will inevitably suffer. (And that suffering starts in this life, we see it all around us, if not also in us.) Hence the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, both in deep remorse, and also in pain and agony over these horrible things we want, but cannot get or act out. Or, another way to understand it is, that we are stuck acting them out, but only in our own souls--we are now alone with our anger, our bitterness, our violence, our perversions, our lust and greed. For all Eternity. What a horror. That truly would be hell. And, this is of our own choosing. And, whether or not this book was completely accurate, the reality that hell is of our own choosing is the point we NEED to get.
That shook my 17-year-old self to my foundations. And rightly so. When we think of our salvation as resting on God's decision, we tend to get a skewed view. We think "Well, God is merciful, so He won't be upset with me for this." And that's exactly what the demons, as St. John of the Ladder points out, tell us before we enter into some sin. After we sin, the demons tell us "There is no mercy for you" trying to throw our souls into despair. Neither of these things is from God. Not sin, nor despair. And it is not God judging us. It is our own condition judging us.
We know it is so, even in this life. We don't feel good if we do something bad or wrong. Yes, there is a momentary pleasure, but the "hangover" is not pleasant. And when one's life is built on these decisions, one suffers very serious consequences, even here. Relationships of all kinds fall apart, with spouses, children, bosses, workers, friends, neighbors. Lying becomes a way of life, so trust is broken. We are led, as by the nose, to do things we "don't want to do but do want to do but don't want to do." This is a foretaste of hell on earth.
The only way out of this terrible suffering is repentance, that is: turning to our Saviour and begging for His help. (Why do we find such a simple thing so difficult?)
And this is where we need to contrast Western Christianity, which did get infiltrated, as we spoke about briefly in Part II, with the ancient and Orthodox knowledge of the True God, which is the fullness of revealed Truth, not a man-made collection of ideas.
In the West, the commonplace idea about "sin" is something you do against God, and then you need to do a certain amount of penance to get right with God again. This is what is called an anthropomorphism, and the West is full of them. The definition of that word is "the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal or object." And also "the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities."
Man has always had a tendency to "create gods in his own image." If we look at pagan Rome and Greece, we have an interesting collection of human passions with supposedly superhuman powers, and given the status of "deities." Cronus, for example was so notoriously jealous and greedy that he ate his baby children when they were born. Zeus "mated with many goddesses and mortals." He is described as "carefree, just, merciful, wise, sensual, jealous, unpredictable, prone to anger, destructive and vindictive." (Really, all that in one breath??) Hermes is a trickster and a thief. Mars represents war, violence, and virility. Venus is the female version of illicit relationships.
In order to have "the gods" on their side, people offered some sort of gift.
That is not Christianity, where we offer back to God ourselves, our hearts, in the most wholesome and pure of ways, to be in a loving relationship with Him.
However, because "philosophy" and "humanism" had entered (infiltrated) into the West's way of thinking, the idea that God needed to be "propitiated" crept into Christianity.
That, my friends, is another false god.
In Orthodox Christianity, the context for understanding sin, comes from a Greek word, which means "missing the mark." In Hebrew the word hata (sin) originated in archery, and literally meant to miss the gold at the center of the target. (In the West it is thought that perhaps the word sin comes from the Latin word for guilt.)
Do you see the big difference? In the West the general understanding/feeling is that you have done something wrong, you have offended God, and therefore you need to somehow offer Him something to make up for your sin, to "put Him in a better attitude towards yourself" so to speak. In this way of thinking, God is changeable, even moody, ruled by a justice above Himself, and perhaps even a bit unpredictable like the pagan deities.
This is the "idea of God" that causes a lot of sorrow and doubt, and understandably so. It is also the birthplace to much of the atheism that we have seen in the last centuries. Thankfully, this is a counterfeit created by our enemy working with the pride of limited human reason. It is not our true, loving Creator and Saviour.
In the East, if you sin, you miss the mark. There is a goal, and you missed it, as we so often do. So, you keep trying. You don't necessarily "do penance", as in the West; you "repent." What is the difference?
In Hebrew, there are two words for repentance: To feel sorrow, and to return. In Greek the word metanoia means "to think differently afterwards", a change of mind, heart and actions. In other words, the Hebrew and the Greek, which are the ancient languages revealing to us divine truths, both agree that when we sin, we "miss the mark" and when we repent, we feel sorry and turn again and ask for God's help.
God is not the judge, God is our HELPER.
And that is the very essence of what we need to understand. That is a HUGE VERY IMPORTANT Paradigm Shift with the deepest of consequences. That is the difference between joy and misery. Between hope and despair. Between running away from God, and running into His loving embrace. And that huge difference will manifest for us both in this world and in the next.
Maybe you are now asking the question: But why does it say in Scripture that God will come to judge all the earth, do you not believe that?
We believe in Christ's Second Coming, with all our hearts. We believe everything He told us in the Scriptures, and in light of the understanding the Church has always maintained, from the very time of the Incarnation. We believe that when it says "the books will be opened" that there will not be literal books, but the books of each of our consciences, hearts, minds and souls. And in that instant, it will be obvious who has become a sheep, and who has become a goat.
In other words, we will be our own judges, because now the consequences of the choices we have made throughout our one lifetime, with our one mind and soul, in our one body, will now become manifest into an eternal reality. God's role in this is that He is Unchanging Eternal Love. Our role is whether or not we have come to love Him, and are at home in His Loving Embrace.
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