On Demons, Satan, and Hell: Jenna Passing Tests
What follows is an "academic" discussion, in the words of the blogger, a brief excerpt from one of the most moving blog posts I've read yet to date, "A Comb of Stings," by Jenna on MySpace. But first, here is half of a stanza from a poem Jenna posted by Edward Taylor written 350 years ago: "Is Grace's Honeycomb a Comb of Stings? This makes me ready leave Thy Grace and run, Which if I do, I find I am undone."
... I wasn't raised to believe that in the eternal battle between God and Satan. The Baha'i Faith doesn't allow for demons--nor hell, for that matter. We believe heaven is like a sea of light, so resplendent that, if you knew its wonder, you'd cut your throat to be there now. Once, Baha'u'llah did write down a tablet that described heaven. His scribe, so overcome with desire to be there, slit his own throat. Baha'u'llah had the tablet destroyed.
We believe that, based on choices made, souls will have different connections to God. Some souls--angels, prophets, martyrs, children--will dwell in His presence without shame. For the rest, it's the life lived that determines one's nearness to Him. Baha'is believe that true hell is separation from God; we don't need demons torturing us to know that pain.
And we don't need Satan, either. We just don't believe in him. All wrong-doing, all sins are upon our own souls. When we are called to account for our trespasses, we must take full responsibility. As a Baha'i, you can't say, "The Devil made me do it." You can't say, "He tempted me, Lord."
While Christians do take responsibility for giving into temptation, the sin doesn't originate within them. It's outside them, because, in their minds, Satan preys upon them.
So I don't believe in demons, and I don't believe in hell. Hell, after all, is not even a word you can find within the Bible, except in translation. It was taken from the Norse goddess, Hel, which was also the name of her dominion. In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great sent missionaries out into Europe to preach to the pagans. He was fascinated by pagan culture and folklore and admonished his followers to accommodate their culture, not force people into the Christian Faith. And so the missionaries began translating words with very different meanings--Sheol, Hades, Gehenna--into the one word: hell.
I'm getting too academic, too distant. I can't displace the pain I'm feeling this morning with scholastic ramblings. The point is that I don't believe in the "lake of fire." I don't believe in demons, no matter how vivid my dreams are. And I don't believe that a battle is being waged for my eternal soul.
That's why Michael and I are taking time apart. We ended our relationship, over this matter of religion. I'm a Baha'i and he's a Southern Baptist. ... [Read the full story]
Jenna, "A Comb of Stings," MySpace
5 comments:
I believe there is darkness and light in everybody.
Justin is right, of course. Lots of different ways to explain it. We all have a lower nature and a higher nature, is the Baha'i explanation.
"In man there are two natures; his spiritual or higher nature and his material or lower nature. In one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the world alone. Signs of both of these natures are to be found in men.... Every good habit, every noble quality belongs to man's spiritual nature, whereas all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of his material nature.... But if on the contrary he rejects the things of God and allows his evil passions to conquer him, then he is no better than a mere animal. (`Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 60)
A word about Justin. He is a successful blogger with close to 10,000 profile views in 8 months. Here is the wiki on him:
"Justin Kreutzmann (born June 10, 1969 in San Francisco, California) is an American documentary film director.
In 1985, he interned at the Smithsonian Institution's film department, and he was later invited by Jerry Garcia to direct a "Making of" video about Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey" music video, which was Number 1 on the Billboard Video charts for a month. Justin's father Bill Kreutzmann has been The Grateful Dead's drummer for over forty years , and Justin worked as a production assistant on many of the succeeding Grateful Dead videos and records.
In 2001 Justin directed An Ox's Tale, a documentary about the late The Who bassist John Entwistle. Currently he maintains a blog called "rock and reel", which covers rock history and his current projects."
Nice to have you stop by, Justin.
It's a truly remarkable blog entry. Jenna writes beautifully and conveys her feelings and experiences so directly without asking us for pity.
Well.... this is the most recent version of my belief on Satan/evil/etc
"I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee." (obligatory prayer, short)
"in His own expression, [the Bab] regarded approach to the divine bounty and attainment of the highest degrees of perfection in the worlds of humanity as dependent on love for Him"( Abdu'l-Baha, A Traveller's Narrative, p. 32)
So pretty much my purpose is to know and to worship God, and in order to do so I must love Him.
And it seems pretty evident that evil is man's lower nature, resulting from the lack of good. It is nonexistence.
So if evil is merely nonexistence, it is not evil unto itself. But like a snake with venomous fangs is evil to the man who it bites...
..if my purpose is to worship and know God through my love for Him, then the absence of love and other virtues necessary for love are evil to me. The actions resulting from the nonexistence of love are Satanic, and the devil is in me because I have allowed myself to lack goodness.
So while I agree that there is no hell, no devil, no Satan, and no red horned devils running around trying to trick me into straying from the straight path... I know it's just me and my human compatriots in this life that are the causes of evil because we do not fill our hearts with enough love.
(but that's just what I think today... at this very moment. it could change tomorrow ;)
Christians do not believe that sin only originates from an outer source, the Devil. Christians believe that the sin often originates from within, due to our fallen nature. We do also take very seriously and realistically the power and agenda of the Devil, something which I have found most Baha'is are oblivious to in practice.
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