Part 1 - Judgement
Judgment/Universal Salvation/ Reincarnation - The Trifecta in need of Rehabilitation
Painting of Jesus by Howard Storm, as seen from his NDE.
As noted before in my post The Landscape of Reality, one of the great challenges many have with Christian theology is the idea of a God who judges each of us at the end of our lives not as a form of correction, but as an evaluation for possible eternal punishment. A ruthless and transactional God such as this does not embody love, but a fearsome cruelty. To say God loves you and at the same time threaten that God might send you to endless torture is schizophrenic. And as millions have recounted over the years, such theology is emotionally and spiritually damaging to individuals.
It is also damaging societally. One way this manifests is that those who accept that God hates certain people, not surprisingly, believe they can hate certain people too. In fact, they can hate great swathes of people and wreak vengeance on them on God’s behalf. Such adherents to a transactional God need only come to believe that some category of person is lesser (the assessment of which comes through their own human limitations), and then, they believe, all Jesus’ rules of mercy, love, and forgiveness are null and void. They may subjugate, punish, and kill with impunity, and are certain God is cheering them on. Here in the US, such focus of oppression is on people of color, women, immigrants, LGBTQ+ folks, Jews, Muslims, and many others.
This is in direct violation of the understanding of the unity of all things as expressed in Sin and the Challenges of Not Recognizing our Unity. We are all connected. We are all part of the One God, the One Consciousness. To oppress someone else is to shoot ourselves in the foot. It also is in violation of Paul’s very clear instructions:
“Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’ Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” – Romans 12:16-21
At the same time, how do we avoid what theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “cheap grace?” When people engage in great evil, does God just want us to let it go? Will God simply offer forgiveness and grace at no cost to them, without them having learned a thing? Doesn’t this mean they keep doing evil? Could not some sort of judgment from God serve a purpose? And must judgment against sin necessarily entail eternal punishment? How do we balance a God of love and forgiveness who desires our healing, with a God of proportional judgment who uses that judgment to protect us and those around us from our sin? (And remember sin does not mean “evil.” In the original Greek it means “missing the mark” or making a mistake. I would further define it as “Sin means not acting out of the unity of all things.”)
How do we balance a God of love and forgiveness who desires our healing, with a God of proportional judgment who uses that judgment to protect us and those around us from our sin?
One of the common features of Near-Death Experiences (NDE) is a life review. Many who have an NDE will find they encounter God, or an angel, or other divine being, who accompanies them as they watch their entire life play out before them. This life review has some unique features, including:
We see every detail of our lives. Nothing is hidden.
We don’t just watch, but experience the life review. We feel the pain and pleasure of the event, not only from our perspective, but from the perspective of every person and being we encounter. Whatever we put out there, we will receive ourselves.
We are rarely judged by God or other Divine beings, and if we are, they are kind. Most people experience themselves as doing the judging.
The main thing by which we are evaluated is the love we shared on earth.
Here is a description of a life review by Dannion Brinkley who had an NDE in 1975 when he was struck by lightning.
“When you have a panoramic life review, you literally relive your life, in 360 degrees panorama. You see everything that’s ever happened. You even see how many leaves were on the tree when you were six years old playing in the dirt in the front yard. You literally re-live it. Next you watch your life from a second person’s point of view. ... After that, you literally will become every person that you’ve ever encountered. You will feel what it feels like to be that person and you will feel the direct results of your interaction between you and that person. You know the story of the Book of Judgment? Guess what? When you have your panoramic life review, you are the judger … You do the judging. If you doubt me, believe this: you are the toughest judge you will ever have.”
This next life review is by Howard Storm, who had an NDE in 1985 from a perforation of the stomach.
Every time I got a little upset [the Divine Beings] turned the life’s review off for awhile, and they just loved me. Their love was tangible. … The therapy was their love, because my life’s review kept tearing me down. It was pitiful to watch, just pitiful. I couldn’t believe it….
Here is a life review posted by an anonymous person on the webite of the International Association for Near-Death Studies on July 15, 2002
During the hurtful review I was so ashamed and there was no hiding. He was asking me “What different choices could you have made? What are you learning from this?” Not yelling at me and saying “How could you do that!?” or, “You’re going to Hell!” This was clearly not the punishing God I had been taught to believe in. The hardest part of this was realizing He had already forgiven me …I was having a hard time forgiving myself. He showed me how I couldn’t let His love in! without, first, forgiving myself. … God loves me the way I love my children. Even when they do something wrong I still love them. I’m not happy with their actions but that doesn’t change my love for them. I hurt for them and …I make them take responsibility for their actions.”
While there certainly are passages in scripture that indicate that God is to do the judging, there are other passages that suggest that we will.
“Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” – 1 Corinthians 6:2-3a
“Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:18-20)
Here is a life review account by a woman on the website of the International Association of Near-Death Studies from 27 August 2020.
“It was both painful and exquisitely beautiful. It was like viewing a film, filled with precise detail. Every single thought, word, deed, decision, and action was brought forth and re-experienced and re-examined. It was self-evaluation, with total transparency and honesty. Throughout, I was never judged by any of these divine beings. They simply held me in Love, with complete compassion and acceptance.
“In this review, I realized that I was every single person I’d ever encountered or thought of. As I merged with and became them, I felt exactly what they experienced as a result of my loving or unloving thoughts and actions. I saw it all from their point of view, not only how my actions affected them, but then through them affected others they encountered, as the effects kept on going.
“I saw that the love we express ripples out, creating an everlasting beauty that is often unbeknownst to us at the time. I saw this happen when I spoke a heartfelt word, thought a truly kind thought or gave undivided attention to someone. … Hell is not a place we’re banished to as punishment. There is no punitive God. Hell is the self-judgment that keeps us imprisoned. We do it to ourselves.
“Yet none of that is real. In the end, only the Love is real. The divine Love we share between us is all that truly matters, and is measured, and endures. In this process of ruthlessly honest self-reflection, nothing went unnoticed. Nothing was able to be hidden. Nothing. Not one single thing.”
As we are reminded in scripture:
“Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.” – Luke 12:2-3
Here is a life review by an Australian man as found on the website of the International Association for Near-Death Studies.
“Throughout the life review, the value and importance of LOVE was clearly highlighted to me, over and over and over again… And I now know that LOVE is far and away the most important thing in the world. It is patently obvious to me that when you hurt or deceive someone else or selfishly benefit at the expense of another, you are in reality only damaging yourself… Overall, the life review wasn’t a harsh or unpleasant experience. There was no sorrow or fear or retribution. Rather, it felt like a liberating and enlightening event. … The universe simply presented me with a broadened understanding of myself, and all of it was aimed at easing my transition over to the other side. ”
Compare the above to Bible passages about the importance of love. Love is the entire point of life on earth.
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us.” – Ephesians 5:1-2a
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” – 1 John 4:7-8
The University of Virginia Department of Perceptual Studies, which is part of their medical school, has been studying NDEs and other types of transcendent experiences for decades. In a paper published in 1995 addressing Life Reviews they make this observation about those who have had life reviews as part of their Near-Death Experiences:
Judgment about the Events Reviewed
“Among the subjects mentioning this feature, 55% of those in series I and 48% of those in series II reported experiencing some judgment of their life. In both series, two thirds of those experiencing a judgment said they conducted it themselves; the rest said they were judged by a “being of light,” “God,” or some other benign presence. These beings were never described as censorious; indeed, they were invariably perceived as loving and all-forgiving.” - University of Virginia Department of Perceptual Studies
Aftereffects of the Life Review
“Some of the subjects singled out the life review as having a profound effect on their later behavior. This was particularly likely to occur when the life review was the sole or obviously the principal feature of the experience.” - University of Virginia Department of Perceptual Studies
I wonder if in light of the insights from NDE Life Reviews we might come to a different interpretation of end-of-life judgment? Perhaps there is another way to interpret judgment which addresses both the need for God to be loving and forgiving, as well as holding us accountable for sin?
It seems that those who experience life reviews truly do experience a version of heaven and hell. Imagine the worst thing you’ve ever done to someone, and now imagine having to experience it being done to you. Imagine feeling the pain, humiliation, betrayal, neglect, rejection, and more. Then include every unpleasant thing you’ve ever done, said, or thought, to every single person, animal, or plant you have ever encountered in your life, even the thousands you cannot remember, and feeling it yourself. Pure hell.
“I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” -Matthew 12:36-37
Conversely, imagine every loving thing you have ever done, thought, or said to any person, animal, or plant, and imagine all of them being done to you. Imagine feeling yourself the tremendous joy, love, care, empathy, support, respect, and more. Imagine it then being multiplied as the love is shared and cascades forward around the globe. Pure heaven.
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” – Matthew 7:12
“Give, and it will be given to you… for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” – Luke 6:38
So rather than an image of a transactional, cruel, and avenging Christ at the end of time hurling sinners into eternal torment, we look to the image of Christ found in NDEs, a Christ who is more in keeping with a God who is love. It is an image not incompatible with scripture. It is of a God who holds us accountable for our sins; we get back what we put out there. But it is also a God who uses judgment at the end of our lives as a form of education, who allows us to see ourselves as we truly are, and learn from our mistakes (ie: “sin”). God allows us to be part of the process since we are part of God (For our status as God, see The Octopus Analogy of Reality). Sin and judgment are teaching tools.
But what use is it to learn from our mistakes if life is over? Wouldn’t this insight from judgment have been more helpful earlier in our life, to help keep us on track? Or what if we had a very short life before learning much at all? Perhaps this judgment and education at the end of life only makes sense if we have multiple lives. Stay tuned!
If you like my writing, feel free to click the ❤️ or 🔄 button on this post, or any of my posts, so more people can discover them on Substack and elsewhere.
All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
My Book of Sermons for Sale
On an entirely different note, I have book of sermons available for purchase on Amazon. It is entitled “Holy Incarnation! God Said What?: Transformational Sermons for Progressive Christians, Volume 1, Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.” The sermons follow the church year beginning with Advent (starting this week!) and concluding with Transfiguration Sunday. This is a great way to enjoy brief writings about Christian spirituality.
Endnote Links
https://near-death.com/howard-storm-nde/
https://near-death.com/life-review/
https://www.iands.org/research/nde-research/nde-archives31/newest-accounts/1579-australian-man-is-taken-on-guided-journey-of-the-universe.html?highlight=WyJsaWZlIiwibGlmZSdzIiwiJ2xpZmUiLCJsaWZlcyIsImxpZmUnLiIsImxpZmUnIiwibGlmZScuLi4iLCInbGlmZSciLCJyZXZpZXciLCJyZXZpZXdlZCIsInJldmlld3MiLCJyZXZpZXdpbmciLCJyZXZpZXdlcnMiLCJyZXZpZXdlciIsInJldmlldyciLCJsaWZlIHJldmlldyJd
https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2017/01/STE42Life-Review-NDE-paper-1995.pdf
This is the kind of writing that needs wide distribution in the church. I keep thinking Richard Rohr's daily might be a spot for them. Keep them coming!
YES! And, thank you for all the information as to sites and so forth. I will be in the "Year to Live" teaching group with Frank Ostaseski and 2 other amazing teachers/facilitators this new year. Huge commitment for a year. For me it is a deep exploratory process. Always welcoming 'beginners mind' as I move into another Way of letting go and letting God. Much love always and for the season, Gwen