To Gain the Whole World: A Collection of Religious Writings by An Unbeliever

By Shaun Kilgore

To Gain the Whole World contains various essays on a few key topics of Christianity as well as fresh look at an older, more comprehensive study of the doctrine of Original Sin written while a believer from the perspective of an unbeliever.

 

These essays chronicle certain parts of his journey away from faith and his continuing quest for truth using far more reliable means of investigation like reason, logic, and evidence-based methods rather than faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
• Release date: Apr 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393839118

Shaun Kilgore

Shaun Kilgore is the author of various works of fantasy, science fiction, and a number of nonfiction works. His books appear in both print and ebook editions. He has also published numerous short stories and collections. Shaun is the editor of MYTHIC: A Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine. He lives in eastern Illinois.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

The Beginning and the End

Leaving the Faith Behind

The So-Called ‘Word of God’

Death’s Truth

The Fool

The Price

Jesus In Robert Powell’s Eyes

The Threat of Eternal Fire

The Sinner Revisited by An Unbeliever

Introduction

Original Sin: Pertinent Facts

Proof Texts Examined

What It Implies

Word Studies

Copyright Information

TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD

A Collection of Religious Writings by An Unbeliever

S.C. Kilgore

Introduction

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? -Matthew 16:26 (ESV)

To Gain The Whole World marks the first time I have actually put together my thoughts and musings on my own exit from Christianity. I’ve resisted the move to put the little fragments together to create a fuller work that could be published. It’s not meant to be cohesive treatise but rather a collection of essays and a longer work that I wrote in a different context when I was still a believer. While more could be said on the main topic, I would like to offer this little collection as a starting point into my personal journey from believer to nonbeliever.

The verse above from the Gospel According to Matthew is a familiar one to most Christians, I’m sure. On the surface it’s a powerful verse among several pointed statements of Christ that precede it. It has been interpreted and applied in various ways by a multitude of preachers, teachers, and other illuminaries of the faith over the centuries to exort discipleship, or to recognize the cost of following Christ in faith, or whatever might be useful to their purposes.

The verse highlights two sides or two choices and it becomes a matter of what is of greater value. It sets up the contrast between this world and the soul or life, but also the contrast between mortal life and eternal life. Christ wants to emphasize how much more one’s soul is worth than the accumulation of the things of this world. Most of us consider the soul to be an eternal aspect of ourselves, that which will transcend physical death. The soul (and its equivalent, the spirit) are assumed facts to most people.

But the real issue is that existence of the soul has not been established as a legitimate fact. It is unsubstaniated belief only. It’s an idea that while granted value, doesn’t mean it is of real value just because preachers, teachers, or even the Bible itself says it is. Or that the eternal life associated with it is any more real. It doesn’t matter how popular it is because that doesn’t make it true. So, if we cannot verify its existence how can it possibly be more valuable that the world that we live, move, and have our being in? In correct contrast, we have verified over and over again by common sense and lived experience that this world is most certainly real. We depend on it for our very survival.

In my view, the balance of this verse is skewed dangerously wrong.

Wrongly, those who believe in the soul and its greater value—and who are prompted to consider the things of the this world or experiencing and enjoying the only world we know less important because of some so-called hope of ‘eternal’ life in some world or age to come have even more to account for to those of us who are just a tad more skeptical of such claims. The same is true if you see this simply as an exhortation to focus on the message of the kingdom and be a good follower of Jesus so you’ll be rewarded with a greater, fuller life later. But, again, where’s the proof?

The soul and eternal life are nebulous concepts the begin with and most Christians cannot entirely agree on what they are exactly. The terms can be bandied (and have been) in all manner of ways to serve a variety of ends. Even a cursory examination of Christian history will bear that out for the earnest truth seeker. So, how can such ideas be more valuable than the lives we already have in the world we already know?

For all of its limitations, trials, and privations, this is real. This is what we have. Life unfolds in the context of this world. The word ‘life’ itself only makes sense when you contrast it with death. That context is pivotal and common sensical. When weighed against one another, I would gladly gain the whole world with all of it horror and its splendor and lose the flimsy notion of the soul though it also comes at the price of accepting that this world is all there. This world, this life, is far, far more valuable. It’s the only one I have after all. It’s the only one any of us have.

The Beginning and the End

"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." – Romans 10:9 (ESV)

It was probably some time in late 1997 or early 1998. That’s when I definitively accepted Jesus as my lord and savior. Things seemed so simple and so certain back then. I was only nineteen. I’d been out of high school and had already had a go at college—an art school in Savannah, Georgia no less—but was now back home in Indiana and working at a state park. I’d always been a serious kid and contemplated the big issues and had friends with whom I could actually talk about these things.

Now, the accepting Jesus part was more than a moment. It was this strange set of circumstances and I would now say peculiar coincidences. Then involved the conversion of a close friend which affected me and gave me a glimpse at the possiblity of that this Jesus and this Christianity might be the truth I’d been seeking all along. There was this mystical, experiential quality to it all. It was like the stories of the Bible were coming true in the present day. God was leading people by his Spirit and they appeared right where needed to give my friend what seemed like an answer to his prayer for help in a very dark moment. The effects of that moment were electic. I happened to be present for the event. And I witnessed the oddities that followed.

Somewhere during these weeks when my friend was on fire with a newly-minted faith and determined to draw me into the fold, I became convinced. His transformation and the earnestness of his calls were factors. My own state of being at that time being turbulent and lacking in any certain beliefs about the mysteries of God and truth was affected. In time, I responded and believed the message of the gospel as it was explained to me. I think I can say I was drawn in less by some immediate conviction of my unworthiness or sinfulness but out of a desire to have a personal relationship with the divine. (Conviction came later and a cycle of repentence started.) When the profession of faith was made I believed rather than felt like something had occurred. Lots of things changed in my life too. I had that new fervor, that fire of newborn Christian faith. I evaluated my life and removed those things that I deemed offensive to God and set about getting to know more. I’ll admit I was not a bold witness like my friend, who naturally gravitated towards evangelism and preaching. I was still a seeker and I wanted knowledge. I took my childlike belief in Jesus and went in search of more information about Christianity and read books by people who had this same faith and shared their experiences of living as believers in the God of the Bible.

But, I was rather solitary about my beliefs. Churchgoing was certainly not automatic. I had always felt awkward in those sort of social settings so I stayed away. I read. I prayed. I eventually wrote worship songs—a boon to my musician friend for sure since we co-wrote many of them. I started studying more so I could know what is true an what is false. The more that I studied the more the questions multiplied. There was a lot more