The Myth of

Soul Evolution

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The meaning of the word “gospel” is “good news.” So what if I came to you and said, “I have good news for you. When you die, you will go to Heaven and spend eternity with God.”

Would this excite you? It might give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but the chances are good that you’d be a little downcast by the fact that you were going to have to wait another 10, 20, or 40 years to get there, that you still had plenty of hardships to endure in the meantime.

Well, let’s say I know you have rejected the old idea of Heaven and Hell, and I say to you, “I have good news for you. The kingdom of heaven is within you, and you only have two more lifetimes before you can bring it out.” Wouldn’t that make you feel just great?

Suppose Jesus saw the man who had been lying near the pool of Bethesda, who, for thirty eight years had been waiting for his opportunity to reach the water, and he said to him, “I have good news for you. When you die, you will walk through paradise.” Do you think that would have been information that would make a believer out of that man? In all likelihood, the man had already reached that conviction. He most likely believed that his present life of suffering was payment for former sins and that some day in the future his debt would be paid and he would be free.

This was not an uncommon belief. You might recall another Gospel incident where some disciples of Jesus presented him with a man who had been blind from birth. They asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” The answer Jesus gave contradicted current beliefs. He said it didn’t matter who had sinned, that this man’s blindness was an opportunity to demonstrate that the kingdom of God was already present and, because this was true, it was possible to erase all the effects of sin, regardless of whose sin it was. He then proceeded to heal the man of his blindness.

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