I’ve been a Christian for the last thirteen years. Yes, I grew up in a Christian home and I accepted Christ at about six years old after an end-times revival in a tiny country Pentecostal church but as many of these stories go when I moved out on my own, I fell away. I dabbled in everything. The occult, the “New Age”, Hinduism, Gnosticism, various forms of paganism, Wicca, tarot cards, astrology, etc…
I spent a decade hopping from one thing to another. I had convinced myself I was “seeking the truth” and I was sure it was anywhere but, in the church, or in scripture, even though I had stopped going to church several years before and my actual knowledge of scripture was minimal. Still, I had convinced myself there was something more, some secret or something that I needed to ferret out.
As I delved into all the various things that caught my fancy or that I could afford there were always a couple of questions that lurked in my mind the primary question was “Then what?”.
When I was looking at the New Age and Yoga there was talk of breaking the cycle of reincarnation. Then What?
When I was in the occult doing rituals and studying Enochian tablets trying to reach the 4th degree, Then What?
When I was studying Wicca and paganism, same question. Then what?
I struggled to find the eternal point of anything I was doing. Was I trying to become a god? Well…. I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I knew that I was just flesh and bone either created or evolved or both and that the chances of me becoming an all-powerful God were slim. Was I just trying to assert my will over my life and circumstances to get money or a job or whatever? That all seemed kind of vain and ultimately empty.
I knew I wasn’t going to die in a glorious battle so that ruled out a couple of different afterlifes. Was I just trying to ascend and become with the oneness or something? That’s what the gnostics and Hinduism and parts of the new age seem to promote, but what does that really mean? Complete loss of myself and absorbed into one big… something? Then what?
When I began to think about it most of the options really kind of seemed like Hell. Reincarnation, or absorption into a great oneness rare really terrible options.
For the ones that offer an actual afterlife, like Islam, or even something like Mormonism, there really isn’t a way that you guarantee that you actually make it. Islam and Mormonism are both works based on relying on your own ability to keep the law or perform certain things and in the case of Islam Allah is capricious and your works may not matter in the end anyway.
So in the end I found myself neck where I started delving into Gnosticism. It was Christianity with optional DLC or so I thought. However, as I combed the gnostic writings and the so-called lost gospels I was struck with many of the same questions. What if I don’t reach gnosis? What does this gnosis really look like and of course, then what?
I was struck by how much the Gnostic writings and other gospels disagreed with the writings of the New Testament and how some of them just straight up didn’t make any sense at all. It was like reading someone who thought they were being profound and deep and it ended up being nonsensical and shallow.
So I was faced with a choice Scripture or gnosis. It really wasn’t a hard choice. The New Testament and indeed the entirety of scripture is consistent, it tells one story and it answers my burning question.
It’s not sexy and it doesn’t feed the ego or narcissistic tendencies of the postmodern world or most seekers or the majority of false religions but the truth in Christianity is plain for all. It’s supposed to be. There are no extra secrets to ferret out, there are no levels in Christianity. There are no 4th level Master Christians. Yes, there are more and less mature Christians but there is nothing available to one Christian that isn’t available to another no matter the maturity level. That’s because Christianity isn’t an achievement it’s not something you have to earn.
What about my question? It answers it in a way that no other religion or philosophy could, directly.
You repent and follow Jesus Christ as Lord, then what? Then you have eternity. You have God in this life and the next as King, comforter, savior, and friend. You have eternity with God as yourself resurrected, immortal, imperishable, sinless.
Psalms 16:11 NKJV
[11] You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
That’s the then what. That’s what you get. You get God the creator and sustainer of the universe and he has a name, Jesus Christ. Not just some unnamed amorphous deity or some petty bickering pantheon. You get the one who sacrificed himself for man.
Calvinist Neo Blog 