Here at last, after many months, is my follow up post to Hell-Fire And Damnation.  I’m sure that some of you won’t even remember the purpose of these posts; it’s been so long since the original, so I will give a quick recap.  My aim is to demonstrate that the scriptures, even though they have been written in a way that strikes fear into the average person, are not that fearful at all.  Far from it, in fact; it’s just that they were written in the language of the day and contain a great depth of symbolism.  Now, before I go any further I will add that I am of the opinion that the scriptures, especially the Bible, have been altered over the centuries by unscrupulous religious leaders and are now only a shadow of what they were meant to represent.  I also think that it’s pretty obvious that only the most tunnel-vision Christians would not agree with that statement.

Take for example the following passage from Matthew XII : 36 & 37:

But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned – Jesus Christ

That is quite a scary statement, especially if you are not aware of the symbolism contained therein, and you take it literally.  There is also the little matter of the fact that Jesus spoke in parables more often than not when he was addressing the masses.  So, I would like to offer an interpretation that will not turn the reader into a nervous wreck.

If you examine the statement carefully it seems to be a reference to the laws of karma and cause and effect and a reminder that even the things we say are subject to these very precise natural laws.  We know that creation moves in continuous cycles, and we also know that we are responsible for our own actions.  So, it stands to reason that even the things we say will one day bear fruit; and that fruit will either be positive or negative depending on what our intentions were at the time.  There is no such thing as the “day of judgement” where we will all have to stand in front of an old man with a long white beard and either be given passage into heaven or cast into the fires of hell.  “Day of judgement” in this context (and to put it in layman’s terms) is the day when our actions, be they spoken or otherwise, come back to bite us on the legs.  It will be the point in time when, in accordance with the laws of karma and cause and effect, our actions (or words) will have gone through their natural cycle and ended up back at their place of origination.

So, we can conclude by saying that Christ, in his loving nature, was simply saying “hey peeps, watch what you say because as sure as eggs is eggs your words will come back to haunt you”.  Simples!