Religion

I’d like to do a response to David’s last response to my blog about “What happens after death?”  In his response (http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/11/response-to-what-happens-after-death.html), David said “as long as everyone try’s their best to be good people it does not matter what religion you follow.” 

I agree with David’s point that “it does not matter what religion you follow.”  But I think I agree in a different way than he meant his statement.  I agree that the religion you follow does not matter, because whether you are Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Baptist, or any other religion, your religion alone is nothing.  You can be the best professing “Christian” you can be and still spend eternity in hell.  Going to church every Sunday, helping the poor, and being a good neighbor will do nothing for you in light of eternity. The Bible says “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)  Any good work we can do, or any religion we follow will not be good enough to gain God’s favor.  Man tries to earn his way to heaven through, when all we have to do is trust Christ.  Christ has already paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, and using religion or any other means to try to earn our way to heaven is an insult to God.  

Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.”       

Heaven

At the end of the first canto of Dante’s Inferno, Virgil speaks of a city and tells Dante why he unable to go there.  Virgil says…

     For the Emperor who governs from on high

     Wills I not enter His city, where none may appear

     Who lived like me in rebellion to His law.

     His empire is everything and everywhere,

    

     But that is His kingdom, His city, His seat of awe.

     Happy is the soul He chooses for that place!

This “city” that Virgil is speaking of is heaven.  Since we will be studying the darker part of the “afterlife” for the remainder of this class, I thought I would devote a blog to the alternative to hell...heaven.

Just as hell was created to punish evildoers and those that do not believe on Christ, heaven was made as a reward to those who believe on Christ and follow his commandments. 

Many have tried to express what heaven will be like, but I think William Biederwolf put it best.  He said, “Heaven would hardly be heaven if we could define it.”  I think this is very true.  The Bible says in Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Even if this was all that heaven was, than it would be a wonderful place.  Just think about no more sickness, or dying, or pain.  And there will also be streets of gold, and reuniting with loved ones who have gone on before.  But the best thing about heaven will be being in the presence of God for all eternity, and praising Him forever!

Revelation 5:9-13  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

Reincarnation and the Afterlife

In David’s blog, he talked about the afterlife (http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/11/afterlife.html).  I agree with his opening statements that death and the afterlife are things that “people have always struggled to come to terms with,” and that “there are just as many different afterlife stories’ as there are different cultures.”  It seems that everyone has their own views of death and the “afterlife.”  David also discussed the Buddhist reincarnation and the Egyptian afterlife.  I thought I would give the Biblical views on these two topics.

Buddhist reincarnation

The Bible disagrees with Buddhist’s belief of reincarnation.  The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment.”  This verse clearly states that man dies once, and there is not the never ending cycle of death and rebirth that belief of reincarnation holds.

Egyptian afterlife

The Egyptian afterlife is an interesting, because it agrees somewhat with the Biblical view of death, but then it is also different in many ways.  David said in his blog that “…everyone could have an afterlife.  Their souls would have to be pure to achieve it though.”  These two beliefs line up almost exactly with the Biblical view of death.  The Bible says that everyone will go to one of two places, heaven or hell.  Thus everyone will have an “afterlife;” it is simply up to the individual whether they will live in eternal bliss, or be eternally damned.  This is determined by whether their souls are “pure” as David said.  And the only way that a person’s soul can be pure is by trusting Christ as their Savior, and believing that His blood is the only payment for sins, and the only thing that can make their soul “pure” in the eyes of God.  There is no good works that we can do to make ourselves “pure”, because the Bible says “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)  In Ephesians 2:8-9, the Bible says “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  The only way to be viewed as “pure” by God is to trust his son, Jesus Christ, as the only path to heaven.  Then when God looks at you he sees his perfect, sinless son instead our sinful, vile beings.

Romans 3:24-25  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

What happens after death?

The question of what happens after death has been an object of many discussions, and the subject of many books and writings.  Every human has the burning desire to know what will happen to them when they die?  Will they simply cease to exist?  Or is there some kind of “after life,” where they will wonder about for eternity?  I’d like to answer this question of what happens after we die from a biblical perspective.

Hebrews 9:27 states, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”  This verse tells us that we are all “appointed” to die; thus no one will be able to escape death.  This verse also rules out the reincarnation as a possibility, because it says that men only die once.  People have only one chance at life; they don’t get multiple opportunities to “try again.”  This verse also points out a “judgment” after death.

There are actually two different judgments after death.  The judgment of the lost, and the judgment of the saved.  Those who die without trusting Jesus Christ as their Savior will go the judgment of the lost, and will be sentenced to serve eternity in the lake of fire.

The good news is, however, that if one does except Christ’s death on the cross as the payment for their sins, then they will go to the second judgment where they will be admitted into heaven to live forever with God.  These believers will also be awarded according to their deeds done on earth after they trusted Christ.

I believe this matter of life after death is a very important one, because eternity is a long time to spend in hell, wishing you had made sure that your fate was secure in Christ.  Jesus Christ paved the way to heaven with his death on the cross; all you must do is believe on him as the only way to heaven, and you can be sure of your eternal destiny.          

Another Beowulf response

In Matt’s Beowulf blog (http://lwithforce.blogspot.com/2011/10/beowulf.html) he made the point that Beowulf and Gilgamesh similar.  I like the points he made about how they both earned the title of king, and how they both “pursued” challenges.  I also agree that Beowulf maybe considered a “better” person than Gilgamesh.  I think this is the case because although both Gilgamesh and Beowulf seemed to be pursuing challenges, they seemed to be for different reasons.

Gilgamesh seemed to be pursuing his challenges on more of a self-fulfillment basis, while Beowulf’s pursuits seemed to benefit others more than himself.  Even though Beowulf did gain fame and fortune through these quests, I don’t believe he set out with those goals in mind.  In the cases of Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon, he is simply rescuing the peoples of his country, or even neighboring countries, from these beasts that are plaguing their lands.  And that’s why I agree that Beowulf is a “better” person, character, hero, than Gilgamesh.    

Small Group Response

I definitely prepared a good bit more for this class.  I made sure I read the story in depth, and that I understood completely what I was reading.  Normally when I read the stories I make sure I get the main points, and get the overall idea of them, but this class really forced me to look at the details of the story.  It also made me try to think of different ways of looking at the passages.  Normally I would probably just take the story at face value, but this class made me look for other ways of interpreting the characters actions than just what was given on the surface.

Three things I learned from the class were…

1.  You are basically going to get out of the class what you put into it

Even though I heard and been told this a thousand times, this class just seemed to reinforce this idea.  If you really prepare for class and come with a good understanding of the material than you will probably get more return on your investment, than if you don’t have a good grasp of the reading from the week, or haven’t read it at all. 

  

2.  I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be an English Lit. teacher or literary critic

I really wasn’t leaning toward this occupation anyway, but this class definitely confirmed my suspicions that I don’t want to be teaching English lit or critiquing it.  There seems to be a whole lot of subjective material in literature, and I guess I have a more objective outlook on things.  And I’m not really sure why the reasoning behind the characters actions in the story matter?  It seems like a whole lot of discussing without accomplishing a whole lot, in my opinion.  But it must have some significance because people have been studying literature for a long time.  And if studying literature is your thing, then I’m definitely not downplaying the significance of it, it’s just not one of my interests. 

  

3.  People have a whole lot of different opinions about the same topic

This idea kind of goes hand in hand with what I discussed in my last point about literature being such a subjective topic.  Ten people can read the exact same piece of literature, and have ten different interpretations on what the author meant, or what the character’s actions mean, or even what the message of the story is.  And all of them can make pretty good cases for their arguments, and thus everyone has come to their own “right” answer or interpretation.

Overall I’d say the class was a good learning experience, because it made you pay attention to the details of the story, and forced people to communicate their thoughts on the topic at hand.    

Beowulf and David (continued)

I thought I would expand on the comparison of the characters Beowulf, and the David of the Bible.  As I researched this idea of Beowulf and David being similar, I discovered many interesting things.  I think Beowulf may be largely based on the biblical story of David.  The biblical book of 1^st Samuel was written around 10^th century B.C. and the first printed copy of Beowulf was in 1815 (although it was passed down as oral tradition for many years before that).  I can’t help but wonder if Beowulf is somehow a spinoff of the biblical story of David.

I mentioned in my earlier post that David fought Goliath, and that was similar to Beowulf fighting the monsters.  But as I was thinking about this post I was reminded that David also killed a lion and a bear before he fought and killed Goliath.  Would these three victories from the story of David correspond to Beowulf’s three victories over Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon?

Both Beowulf and David also accomplished feats seemingly impossible to common man.  They both seemed to possess an almost supernatural force that they used to defeat the enemies of their people.  In fact David actually claimed that his power came from God when he said, talking to Goliath, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled.  This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45-46)  This amazing amount of power that these two men possessed continues to show the similarities between these them.  Beowulf ripped Grendel’s arm off with his bare hands, and David “caught him [the lion] by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.” (1 Samuel 17:35)  I think with these incredible parallels it would not be far-fetched to say that Beowulf was based on, or at least influenced by, the story of David in the Bible.        

Beowulf and David

In David’s blog(http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/10/was-beowulf-crazy.html), David stated that Beowulf was either “the world’s bravest man or just plain crazy,” and he seemed to lean more toward the idea that Beowulf was crazy.  I agree that some of Beowulf’s feats may have been in fact “crazy,” but I think that is one of the things that made Beowulf such a great hero.  Beowulf refused to be an ordinary man.  Instead of sitting back like the other men in the story, he took the initiative and sought out the monsters and destroyed them.

Being a Christian, I can’t seem to go through these stories without drawing some comparison or contrast to biblical stories.  And the story of Beowulf reminds me of the story of David and Goliath.  Although Goliath wasn’t a “monster,” he was a giant, and he was defeated by David just as Beowulf defeated the monsters in his story.  David also took the initiative while other ordinary men looked on in fear.

I think in this act of taking the initiative and standing up to the forces of evil, David and Beowulf are very similar.  They both preformed “crazy” acts of bravery, and I believe this is what made them great.  This idea of “living on the edge” and taking on extreme challenges others are afraid to tackle seems to be the thing that differentiates between someone who is “ordinary” in these stories, and someone who is “heroic”.