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JUDGMENT

Intro

"Fact or Myth?"

If you do what is right by your fellow man,

And keep your conscience clear,

You won't have to worry about any Judgment Day.

Tumbleweed

Is that really all there is to it? And, will there be a Judgment Day or not?

Again we consult the Wise Men of old before offering the subject as sacrifice to our Elders of Tumbleweed.

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According to Sikhism:

"After you depart this life, God shall demand a reckoning for your deeds."

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And as related in an African tradition:

"At the gates of the land of the dead you will pass before a searching Judge. His justice is true and he will examine your feet."

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This from the Mishnah of Judaism.:

"....And perforce you will die, and perforce you will in the future have to give an account and reckoning before the King of kings, the Holy One, the blessed He."

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Taoism states:

"Anything evil refrain from doing; all good deeds do! So you will be released forever from the influence of evil stars, and always be encompassed by good guardian angels."

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"The Good Spirit, who was born simultaneously with you, will come now and count out your good deeds with white pebbles, and the Evil Spirit, who was born simultaneously with you, will come and count out your evil deeds with black pebbles."

No, this is not a Native American saying, but a section out of the Buddhist Tibetan Book of the Dead.

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Here is a Hopi tradition to consider:

"....When a bad person, who is known as 'not-Hopi,' dies, his fate is very different. Witches called the 'Two Hearts' take him by the hand as soon as the breath is out of his body, and they lead him away to their own country. The country of the Two Hearts is as bad as they are themselves."

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From the Qu'ran of Islam, we have this account:

"The earth will shine through its Lord's Light and the Book will be laid open. Prophets and witnesses will be brought in, and judgment will be pronounced among them formally, and they will not be harmed. Every soul will be repaid for whatever it has done; He is quite aware of what they are doing."

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And, of course, the Christian Bible, which has a great deal to say about Judgment, gives this final account:

"And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done."

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Now let us take this subject to the Bards of the Checkerboard, shall we?

(continued)