Chapter 6: Escaping the Escapism
We continue to highlight Abdu Murray's book Grand Central Question with chapter 6 which compares pantheism with the gospel. I will
let Murray speak for himself as he sums up the chapter:
As a worldview, pantheism in all
its forms tells us that we have to work to achieve our salvation – that we have
to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. That is not exotic. We’ve heard it
all before. Pantheism, especially its Western daughters, has just told us the
same old things we’ve told ourselves for millennia, but in more mystical
language.
But consider the gospel. It is
the only worldview that tells us the sheer, stark truth that we are inherently
sinful and that we need to be saved from ourselves. True spiritual
transformation happens when our minds are renewed – perhaps even rescued – from
the illusion that our works will save us and that we can be free from suffering
if we just try hard enough. God’s
renewal of our minds into understanding that we need the unmerited grace of the
cross is unique and fresh.
The Hindu philosopher
Radhakrishnan says that a suffering God doesn’t satisfy the religious soul. But
in a pantheistic view, there really is no satisfaction for the soul that looks
for answers in the morally charged, love-ridden question of human suffering. If
we are all part of the impersonal, absolute of the universe, the Brahman, then
where is true morality? Doing good
things, working off our karma by helping others, isn’t done for their sake but
for ours, so that we can attain godhood. It is a self-help system meant to help
us achieve a state of unity with the divine, not to help the poor or
unfortunate for their sake.
He goes
on:
Our deeds portray only the
illusion of altruism, but they are really the shadows of self-interest. And so
the illusory prison of samsara (the endless cycle of death and rebirth) leads to the very real prison of
selfishness, because one is not truly free to act in someone else’s best
interests for that person’s sake. That
is ironic, because in Buddhism the only way to escape is to be free of desire.
But the entire system is set up so that every action is done out of the desire
to be free. The lack of distinctions
between God and self in Hinduism and the total denial of self in Buddhism are
what imprison the self to an existence of self-centered conundrums. Strange,
isn’t it, that pantheists try to escape the painful cycle of death and rebirth
only to be sucked into the vicious cycle of a desire to be free from desire?
In the gospel, however, neither
suffering nor good deeds are an illusion, because our minds are renewed to finally
see the reality. We see that we are not God. We see that we need God to
transform us. And we see that he dealt with suffering on Calvary’s hill.
Because he has done so, we can be free to act toward others in gratitude and
for their sakes. We do not do good to one another to escape endless suffering.
God has already rescued believers in Christ from that eternal pain by embracing
the pain of our penalty himself. The
gospel – which tells us that we give, not to get, but because we are grateful –
is what can satisfy the religious soul.
It is true that suffering and
death remain in this world. But our liberation from it is both “already” and
“not yet.” Jesus has already freed us from the ultimate consequence of eternal
pain and suffering through his self-sacrifice. We are not yet at the time when
there are no more tears and no more death (Revelation 21:4). But that is the
ultimate state for those who trust Jesus. The pain in our lives is real and may
seem relentless, but the joys of knowing that it has an end and an answer make
them bearable (pages
151 – 153).
Once
again the gospel provides an answer to a fundamental life question that is
satisfactory to the mind and heart.
Stand firm in Christ,
Chase
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