Christians with real peace and joy

Q: I would like to know what makes the difference between the very few Christians who seem to have real peace and joy in their hearts, and the ones who seem to be happy about others going to hell, and who do not bring peace and joy to those around them. F. E.

A: Perhaps your phrase "in their hearts" is the key to the answer.

The Bible says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9.)  The Bible also says, "Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23.)

Perhaps it is what is in the heart that determines the peace and joy, or lack of it.  Christian belief covers a lot of territory.  A receptive and believing person can resonate with any part of it, from heaven vs. hell to "God is love."

No belief system by itself produces the fruits of the Spirit - such qualities as love, joy, peace, kindness.  Those qualities spring from the heart, where words and beliefs do not reach.  They are the result of a life lived in balance, in the midst of the vagaries of ordinary life, where balance is required.

Jesus' third temptation

Q: My friend believes that Jesus submitted to the third temptation, which Matthew 4:8-9 tells: "Again, the devil took him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said, 'All these things will I give you if you will fall down and worship me.'"  The Bible says that Jesus resisted all the temptations.  But Christianity has thrived all over the world as if the devil DID have the power to give all these kingdoms, and did so.  Did he yield to this temptation, and the Bible was doctored to show he did not?  What bothers me most about this is that so many of the things done in the name of Christianity - abuse in churches, conquering and killing native people considered "heathen," etc. - seem to be mixed with things that a devil might do.  N. S.

A: Jesus said of the "strait and narrow way," "few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14.)  It is true that Christianity is a major world religion.  And it is true that Christianity bears the name of Christ.  Although within the fold of Christianity, many will claim that they are of the "few" who have truly found the true Christian way, while others who call themselves Christians have not.

You raise interesting questions.  At the least, by addressing this issue, you bring out the necessity for each of us to examine our own relationship to the witness within, asking ourselves if we have succumbed to the "glories" of this world, or are we true to the Spirit as described in Gal 5:22-23, following an inner path of love, joy, peace, and kindness.

Christianity's contributions to civilization

Q: Is Christianity's only contribution to civilization negative?  It claims to have brought salvation to the world, but aside from religious conquest, etc., how can we know for sure until after we die?  What is its TRUE positive contribution to the here and now, if any? H. P.

A: By way of its doctrine of salvation ONLY through Christ's blood sacrifice, Christianity has offered a way out of the prior traditions that entailed ritual human and animal sacrifice, observed in many traditions as well as in the Old Testament.  Like the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," which in the Old Testament is followed by detailed instructions for killing, both human and animal, the release from blood sacrifice has been followed by condemning all non-conforming souls to eternal torment in Christian doctrine.  Nevertheless, there is buried treasure - the pure intent for Christ's "once for all" sacrifice to end all ritual blood-letting and life-taking.

Christianity, in many of Jesus' words (such as John chapters 14-17 and the Beatitudes of Matthew 5), provides a fore-shadowing of a heavenly state, where pure love is practiced universally, to the exclusion of the sacrifice of lives other than one's own whether in actuality or by dogmatic pronouncement.

Also largely overlooked in Christianity is the coming of the Comforter, the indwelling Holy Spirit, who "shall teach you all things," bringing comfort by virtue of its label, the Comforter.  Jesus described the Kingdom of God or heaven in these terms: "My kingdom is not of this world," "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you," and "My kingdom cometh not with observation."  This inner state opens the way to a global state of comfort, rather than the judgment, fear, and terror that predominates today.  (John 18:36; Luke 17:20-21.)

To summarize this quick study of real benefits of Christianity in the here and now, theoretically, it does away with blood sacrifice by way of Christ's atonement "once for all;" it shows the way to an indwelling Comforter; and it provides a model for a love-filled world, bringing the love and comfort to precedence over sacrifice, judgment and condemnation.  "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and temperance."  (Galatians 5:22-23.)

Post-partum Depression - is it real?

Q: Our second child is two months old.  My wife suffers from "post partum depression," and I have learned that this is well-known in mothers who have just given birth.  Now I think she had it after our first child was born, but not so severe.  How can women be depressed after they have brought a beautiful new life into the world?  I want to be sympathetic to my wife but I am having a hard time understanding this.  R. O.

A: In our society we tend to deal superficially with such critical and unavoidable issues as birth and death.  Both women and men generally enter adulthood and often go through an entire lifetime with scant, and often misleading, information on these paramount human issues.  A sincere, unbiased search for understanding, such as yours, is what leads to answers.

One of the difficulties of post-partum depression in new mothers is their own lack of understanding regarding what is happening to them, and their own feelings.

Consider this:  The most intimate relationship possible in the human world is the relationship that exists between a pregnant woman and the life that is growing within her own body.  For the better part of a year, this is a 24-7 situation for her as well as for the life inside her, which is beginning to develop its own heartbeat and its own identity, while it is completely dependent on her body for its very survival.

The extreme, unparalleled intimacy of the bond between the mother and the unborn is a "secret hidden in plain view" that is key to the depression that often follows the loss of this intimacy.  The mother and her unborn child are literally one being - two in one body.  Then the baby is born, and the natural physical separation of mother and newborn occurs.

I strongly suspect that it is the loss of the unprecedented closeness of the bond between the mother and the life she carries at the center of her being that can in large part account for "post-partum depression."

The term is an accurate one - "post" meaning after, "partum" meaning separation, and "depression" - the "pressure" on the emotions that follow the separation, which are then "pressed down within."  Pressure that is pressed-down-within requires safe and healthy "EX-pression" - pressing OUT.  When we as a society do not acknowledge the loss of the oneness, expression is not encouraged, often not allowed, and depression results.

Redemption or good vs. evil?

Q:  I quit calling myself a Christian because I didn't want to be identified with the ones in my community.  They are always trying to convert people by talking about their religion and putting down others, while they are unkind and conniving.  They say I need to return to their church and be "redeemed."  Everything they don't approve of is evil to them.  There's something wrong with the picture, but I can't put my finger on it.  How can people with low morals, who put others down, know what is best for others?  B.A.

A:  These people put their best foot forward in the shoe of Christianity, the sandal of Jesus.  It works for them as it did for you, for a time.

Meanwhile, in their walk, the rear foot wears the clog of all they deem evil, which is within them as within all in the human condition - "the knowledge of good and evil."  When "good" is chosen, and that is the foot they put forward, they remain on the trajectory with that polarity - good vs. evil.  The redemption remains future while they claim it in the present.  The "evil" they warn against is not the polar opposite of redemption, but of the "good."  "Good" and "evil" are opposites in the plane of duality.  The one requires the other.

Redemption has no polar opposite, for it is beyond the plane of duality.  The "scriptures" these people espouse, which condemn and threaten with hellfire, are aligned with the good-evil polarity, not with the absolute, which is the venue of redemption, which is beyond all and encompasses all.