In this post we’ll discuss why we truly have nothing to fear, why leaving Christianity can help us lose all fear, and how understanding the nondual nature of existence can help us find the peace that surpasses understanding.
Fear, the Ultimate Hook
When I have my live discussions on one of my social media platforms, I’m often speaking to audiences that range from 150-500 people and sometimes many more. Over and over again I’m met with the threats of hell, curses, and punishment for the sins of blasphemy, apostacy, and unbelief. Just last night I actually had one woman comment, “You’ll regret this when you’re in hell!” followed by three laughing face emojis! And, there’s the inevitable Pascal’s Wager of “What if you’re wrong?!” which means, “What if you’re wrong and end up in hell?”
Fear. Fear is why Christianity is still to this day the empire that it is.
Fear keeps one chained to the bar, not able to venture too far out into the field of questions and doubts. Christians are haunted in the back of their minds with the idea of eternal conscious torment without end after having been cast into the eternal fires of hell with Satan and the rest of his demons.
Obviously, these threats and fear tactics have no effect on someone like me. I can honestly say with 100% sincerity that I have absolutely no fear of any of these ideas whatsoever. I left fear a long time ago.
Gehenna…errr…Hell
I’ve mentioned in another post that the first major “doctrinal” domino to fall for me was the traditional doctrine of hell, a fiery place of eternal damnation for all of eternity. I discovered that hell as Christians have imagined it for hundreds and hundreds of years doesn’t exist; in fact, not only does it not exist as an actual place, but it doesn’t exist in the Bible! A fiery place of eternal conscious torment is a massive misinterpretation of the idea portrayed in the New Testament (of course, hell is nowhere to be found in the Old Testament).
As I learned more and more about the historical context out of which Christianity sprang, I began to see how so many of these doctrinal ideas could not be further from the original meaning the authors had in mind.
As far as hell goes, Gehenna (the transliteration of the Hebrew meaning “Valley of Hinnom”) was never meant to be understood as an other-worldly place where unbelievers go to burn or to be in suffering forever. Gehenna was an actual place outside the walls of Jerusalem. The place where trash burned continuously, where maggots roamed in rolling sheets across the field, and where it was believed children were sacrificed to the god Moloch.
Historical sources indicate that Gehenna was used as a garbage dump and a place where the city’s refuse was burned, including the bodies of executed criminals, animals, and other waste. The valley was considered a cursed place associated with punishment and destruction in Jewish tradition. The bodies of people who died from disease or were deemed unclean were sometimes burned in Gehenna.
This was Gehenna. This was hell.
Will the Real Hell Please Stand Up
So, what about the references to Gehenna in the Bible? Gehenna was used in the New Testament as a symbol of what unfaithful Israel had just gone through. Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. This destruction was, for the New Testament writers writing after the events, the covenantal punishment and cutting off of unfaithful Israel by their god. They were burned, they were starved (they even resorted to cannibalism), and the corpses were thrown out for the birds of the air to eat. Every reference of Gehenna in the New Testament is a reference, a warning, of the “coming” judgement of god, the destruction of Jerusalem. (Of course, you must keep in mind that these things were written after the events, and therefore, are in the genre of “prophetic hindsight”.)
The New Testament writers have Jesus speaking directly to those who were alive at the time, warning them of what was “soon” to come. The New Testament even equates the destruction of Jerusalem with his “coming” and “the end”.
“Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, ‘You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.’… The disciples came to him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?'”
Matthew 24:1-3
After describing these things with apocalyptic language not unlike what we find in the Old Testament, the New Testament has Jesus saying these very clear words,
“Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”
That generation was the generation that experienced hell. That generation was the generation that experienced his “coming” and the judgement. That generation was the generation that experienced “the end of the age”.
It Was Never About Us
It was all written after the destruction of Jerusalem as an attempt to interpret that destruction in light of the believers’ faith, theology, and Jewish scriptures. The New Testament, and in fact the entire Bible, has absolutely nothing to do with anyone outside of that immediate historical context. It’s a product of human beings trying to understand how their world had been utterly turned upside and demolished. The Bible has nothing to do with you, it has nothing to do with me, and it has nothing to do with anyone or anything in 2023.
Hell was an analogy. Hell as it’s been sold in Christianity, has never existed. That idea of hell was never the idea the writers of the New Testament had in mind! (Click here to read that, in fact, there is no separate “you” as an ego to go to hell in the first place, which makes this whole idea of hell utterly impossible.)
Freedom From Fear
Once you realize that hell doesn’t exist, that there is no coming judgement that could possibly result in your eternal damnation, and that the Bible is simply the product of human beings in their own historical contexts trying to understand existence in light of their times, cultures, events, and faith, then the weight suddenly falls from your shoulders. You sigh a great sigh of relief as you realize that all that you had been taught to fear has no reality to it at all.
You have NOTHING to fear. There is no hell, there is no coming judgement, there is no external, infinite entity of a god who is watching you ever so closely waiting to pour out his wrath for your finite, human “mistakes”. The chain is now broken, and you can fearlessly walk away without doubt.
The chain is broken, and you’re free to embark on your own path, a path of self-discovery.
Most of us live our lives never knowing who we really are. We’ve looked “out there” for god to tell us who we are, for books and pastors to tell us who we are. We’ve neglected the true source of all that we need! When we turn our attention and direct our questions not to some god, person, or book “out there”, but rather to our own selves…when we ask ourselves truly for the first time “who am I?”, we will be amazed at how all this time truth was so close, while fear projected from the outside kept us from recognizing it!
Peace That Surpasses Understanding
Although it’s dangled like a carrot by various religions, it wasn’t until I understood myself and the nature of existence, that I experienced the real “peace that surpasses understanding”. When I came to understand and experience myself as existence itself. When I discovered the illusion of separation, the illusion of the ego, and that existence is this inseparable, nondual, interrelated, organic process, and that this nondual existence is my true identity, I became the blissful peace, love, and compassion that is never possible within religion.
I’ve written an introduction to nondual existence along with three practices to experience nonduality which you can find by clicking here.
An Act of Compassion
While many see these words as some kind of blasphemy or attack or an act of disrespect, it’s honestly none of these. First, it should be clear that blasphemy is an impossibility, as there is no separate entity against whom one can blaspheme. Second, this is not an attack, and I mean no disrespect in any way whatsoever against anyone.
I write these words purely and sincerely out of compassion for those who find themselves bound, chained, and paralyzed by fear. Kept from self-realization by empty threats. Filled with anxiety over guilt, shame, and conviction that has no truth. To those who are depressed, worried, scared to question, I write these things as a help, to encourage you to break free and find yourself as the peace, love, and incredible being that you are. You are existence itself. And, as existence, EXISTENCE, what have you got to fear?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Hell-o There
Comment below or send me an email to say hello and tell me your thoughts on what you’ve just read!
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