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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

A: You astutely noticed the omission of the actual origin of scripture in my previous journal post, and that I printed the facts later.

The only reason for this is that when I wrote the original entry on "Biblical Authenticity," I was unaware of the papal decree issued by Pope St. Damasus, which determined the books of the Bible in 382 a.d., at the Council of Rome.

During my childhood upbringing in a Conservative Baptist church and private Christian grade and high school, followed by four years at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada, this fact had never been mentioned, let alone taught.

By contrast, almost daily all students at these institutions were reminded that the Bible is the Holy Word of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost and infallible.  At the same time, the office of the Pope and all who held it were often denounced as the "antichrist."  The contradiction, of course, is enormous, for when these three factors are put together - the historical fact of the papal decree, the belief that the Pope is or represents the antichrist, and the belief in the infallibility and inspiration of the Bible - it follows that the "Holy Bible" was issued by the "antichrist."

The class at Bible school called "The Canonization of the Scriptures" was taught by a dear, gentle man with the saddest face I have ever seen.  At all times he looked like he was about to burst into tears.  Now, decades later, I wonder if he knew about the papal decree and omitted it from his teachings in a Protestant school, while adhering to the tenets of the Christian community.  That internal conflict could account for his sadness.

While writing this column and answering questions, I learn a lot.  I was recently queried about what really happened at the Council of Nicea, and while researching an answer on the internet, for the first time I stumbled across the true origin of the Christian scriptures.

A: I cannot tell you how Heaven can be a joyful place when others - loved ones or strangers - are suffering eternal torment, or how God allows it.  As you have already grasped, there is a basic flaw in the question.  Likewise, you have identified a key flaw in Christian dogma.

How can Christians accept as "gospel" (which means "good news") a doctrine that sends most of humanity - or even one person - into eternal torment?  This begs the question: Is it true that hell is a place of eternal torment for those who do not accept Christian dogma?

IF we are to accept as gospel truth a Scripture that was determined in 382 a.d. by a Pope, as the 66 books of the Bible were, we must accept the full Scripture.  What is God's will?  We are told that God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (II Peter 3:9)  Can we believe that God's will won't come to pass?  Are we so arrogant that we think we understand just what this means:  "that all should come to repentance"?  The word all leaves no exception.

There are other Scriptures that cast a different light on this important topic and bring comfort where, for many generations, countless human beings have been kept in bondage to Christian judgment and condemnation.

You can find a full exposition of this topic in my book Wings of Comfort - New Light on Old Scripture.

A:  Jesus said in John 13:35 that the way to identify a Christian is by the love that they show to one another.

You do not have to defend your faith, or convince others of it.  Just live it.  As for the Protestant Bible content having been decided by a Pope, a simple internet search using "Council of Rome Bible" will set the record straight.  In my Protestant upbringing and extensive Bible study, it's true that I never learned that the Scripture canon was decided by papal decree in 382 a.d.  Later, Martin Luther excised 7 books, but the other 66 comprise the Protestant Bible.

With the internet, much information is readily available that wasn't available a few years ago.

A:  The emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicea in 325 a.d., motivated by political concerns, for the purpose of bringing unity to the many quibbling factions of Christians in the empire.  The result of this month-long council was the Nicene Creed, which spells out the basic Christian doctrines in a single-page document.  At that time, the Bible had not yet been compiled, rather, hundreds of early writings, largely pre-Christian, were referred to by scholars.

Following the Council of Nicea, many other religious meetings were held in many different venues.

It was in 382 a.d. that Pope St. Damasus I, at the Council of Rome, settled the matter of the Scriptural canon by issuing "The Decree of Damasus," wherein he listed the documents that he had decided were to be accepted as God's inspired Word.  These books comprise the Catholic Bible to this day.

The Protestant Bible contains the same books, with the exception of seven books that were marginalized in the 16th century by Martin Luther.  As late as the year 1826, these seven books were completely removed from the Protestant canon.

A: You have stated your options.  What are his?  Is this particular job offer his only possibility for work?  Is he aware of your feelings?  Talk it over with him.  Examine all the options.

If your only option is to accept the job and move with him every two years, know these things:

In this life we have only two homes.  One is the body in which we are housed, and the other is the planet Earth.  All other domiciles are temporary and transitory, whether we inhabit them for a short period or for a long time.

And know that the future does not have to follow the patterns of the past.  You were moved around a lot as a child, during a time when you did not have the power of choice in the matter.  This time it can be different.  Choosing this path, you could enter it with a spirit of curiosity, adventure, and discovery.

I wish you the best.