North Korea is the only communist, Confucian, hereditary dynasty in the world. Since September 9th, 1948, North Korea has been ruled by the same family. The Kim family is the ruling dynasty of North Korea. The dynasty began with Kim Il-sung, who became the country's founding leader in 1948. After his death in 1994, his son Kim Jong-il succeeded him. Kim Jong-il ruled until his death in 2011, after which his son, Kim Jong-un, took over the leadership. The Kim dynasty has maintained power in North Korea for three generations.
In North Korea there is only one newspaper, one radio station, one television station, and they are the only country in the world that completely bans all outside broadcast. The country is a dark bubble where children are brainwashed to believe the Kim family are heroes and all the rest of the world are villians.
In the words of Gwang Il Jung, a North Korean defector, “They want people to stay deaf and blind. That’s how the regime stays in power.”
Another escapee from North Korea, a woman name Hyeonseo Lee, describes her childhood in North Korea.
“Imagine waking up one day and realizing that you were born on a completely different planet, and everything you learnt was a lie, and your country’s history was so fabricated, and everyone around you was so brainwashed, and heroes you worship are actually monstrous villians.”
In North Korea, the Kim family is worshipped. In every home their pictures are hung and bowed down to each day. The people are told that their rulers fight the enemies by making bombs from pine cones, feed the people by turning sand into rice, and can walk across the water on tree leaves. The propaganda is everywhere, informants are your friends and neighbors, and ignorance and fears are your bedfellows.
North Korea is a dark bubble, and the only road out is the Yalu River.
I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.
This is the seventh in a ten-part series on learning to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our soul. The soul is that part of you that is eternal. After death, after life, all you will be left with is your soul to carry on into eternity. If you don’t learn to love with all your soul, you won’t have any love left when life is over.
The shortest path to defect from North Korea and enter South Korea is also impossible. The border between North and South Korea is littered with an estimated one to two million land mines. To put that in perspective, that is two to three hundred land mines for every foot of border. The Korean Demilitarized Zone which separates North Korea and South Korea, is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. If you want out of North Korea, the DMZ is not an option.
Which leaves you with only one real option. The border between North Korea and China – also known as the Yalu River. The Yalu River forms a natural border between North Korea and China stretching over 800 miles across the northern edge of North Korea. Heavily patrolled on both the Korean and Chinese side and with thousands of miles to travel through several countries to reach safety even after crossing the Yalu… defection is a terrifying prospect. The risk is only outweighed by the cost of staying.
In Mark’s account of Jesus’ life, we are told of a conversation Jesus had with a crowd. A conversation about weighing risks and the cost of following Him.
And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, "If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? (Mark 8:34-37)
Jesus never said that loving Him would be easy or without risk. He in fact said the exact opposite. The cost of loving Jesus with all your soul is the denial of self. It is a harrowing journey of self-denial, loss of control, and dangerous commitment to a cause that requires all of you. The risk and the cost is only outweighed by the cost of staying. There is no gain worthy of forfeiting your soul and there is no price high enough to sell it. The journey of the soul back to God is harrowing, but you can’t afford not to make it.
Risk versus reward. In every field, from economics to psychology these two ideas are inter-related. There can be no reward without risk, and uncertainty is a necessary factor in all decision making. Investors try and minimize risk while maximizing the return on their investment… but there is no such thing as an investment with zero risk.
Every career decision involves risk – staying with a company or moving on to a new venture – both contain risks. Want to travel and see the world – from plane crashes to pickpockets and identity theft – travel involves risk. So does the use of medicine, raising children, playing sports, and making friends. There is no reward without risk. Life is risky business, and the person that does nothing is guaranteed failure.
You cannot be free without braving the Yalu River. Defecting may mean suffering and even death, but NOT defecting guarantees it. The river is swift and treacherous, the patrols are constant, and the mountains on the other side sure look steep, but what choice do you have?
If we are going to learn to love God and our neighbor with all our souls, we must accept the reality that souls are like ships, they are safest in harbor, but the harbor is not where they belong. When God made man, He breathed life into us and as Genesis 2 says,
“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
God made us “living souls” and that means we must live for Him. We cannot simply bury our talents and expect all to turn out well – that didn’t work for the man in the parable of the talents and it won’t work for us either.
We also can’t hide behind the propaganda. From family expectations, to peer pressure, to professional repercussions – loving God, and specifically, openly loving Jesus, to the exclusion of all other religious faiths, will put you at risk of social ostracism in America and abroad. More and more the line is being drawn in the sand, if your Christianity is more than just a family tradition, you will face pushback, and the world is an ever changing thing. Who knows how the culture will feel about followers of Jesus a decade or two from now.
For those fleeing North Korea, the Yalu River crossing isn’t the end of the journey, it is the beginning. The river represents a decision. There is no going back. You are a defector. You have become something different. You are no longer a citizen of North Korea, you are an escapee seeking a new homeland.
But once you’ve crossed the river, the road only continues through further enemy territory. You must climb the treacherous Changbai Mountain range through North Eastern China. You must then find some way to travel thousands of miles through other dangerous territories like Mongolia, Vietnam, or Laos. Each step of the journey you will need to find food, shelter, friendly assistance, and avoid deportation, injury, or exploitation. The truth is, there is no way to plan the entire journey perfectly. You must simply make a choice and begin.
I have never talked about the specifics of becoming a Christian on this podcast before, but baptism is the Yalu river for your soul. For those who wish to give their souls to Jesus, His teaching is simple,
"Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mar 16:15-16)
In Acts 22, Paul recounts his conversion and says, “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.”
And in Galatians 3:27 it says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)
Baptism marks the beginning of a sojourn, a life as a wanderer because you have decided this world is not good for my soul. I lived like the world says. I tried living for myself. I tried living selfishly. I tried the world’s prescription for my soul – and I ended up a sinner, miserable, tired, and unhappy.
Baptism is the Yalu River for the soul. The journey home isn’t over, but you’ve decided you aren’t going back.
And just like North Korean defectors, you can’t plot the whole course. You can’t plan the whole rest of your life and see what relationships will be strained by following Jesus, what persecution you might face, or how hard a life of “take up your cross and follow after” Jesus will actually be. There are a lot of unknowns… and they can be terrifying, especially when you recognize your own inadequacies. I’m not strong enough or good enough or I don’t know enough. Fear of failure, fear of change, fear of the unknown, and a thousand other anxieties could potentially hold you back from becoming a Christian… but procrastination is not a plan. There will always be unknowns, but Jesus tells us that He is the Way. Baptism is the beginning of a journey of following Him, and you may not know the way, but that’s okay because He does.
You cannot love the Lord with all your soul if you won’t give Him your soul. You cannot love your neighbor with all your soul, if your soul isn’t right with God. How can you expect to help other souls when your own soul isn’t healthy?
In His most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses this when He says,
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. (Mat 7:3-5 ESV)
After escaping North Korea, many defectors have been able to work from the outside to help family, friends, and loved ones escape, too… but it is hard to help others until you have had the courage to cross the river first. Once out, North Koreans have scattered across the globe to places like the United States, Canada, Australia, and neighboring South Korea to spread the word of the horrors that exist within North Korea’s borders. They have used their freedom to raise awareness and funds for the cause of their countrymen, and they’ve helped build an underground railroad throughout China, Vietnam, and Laos to find and guide escapees safely out. If you wait to flee until everyone else does, no one does.
Becoming a Christian is no different. The Bible is littered with stories of people that found Jesus and eventually led many others to freedom, too. That’s how churches grow. That’s how family trees are changed. In 1st Corinthians 7, it talks about the impact of a faithful spouse on their unbelieving spouse and the children they are raising. Does becoming a Christian guarantee your husband or wife will, too? Or that your children will eventually choose to follow Jesus? No, it doesn’t. There are no sure things when it comes to other people. They will always have to make their own choice.
But your faith can create a door for them. That’s what it means to be the light to the world and the salt of the earth. As Jesus said,
"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. (Mat 5:13-14)
You want to save souls? You want to love better? You must cross the river first. You must put on Christ through baptism. You must begin your journey of following the King. When you make your crossing, you open the door for others to see the light and taste the freedom for themselves.
Every Christian is a defector. We all must cross the river and follow the path so many others have trod before – the path of Jesus.
Learn to love better. Learn to make love’s crossing.
Thank you for listening. If you've listened this far, hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better. Would you mind returning the favor and helping us by subscribing to the podcast through your favorite platform? By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you help us reach more people.
And if you are ever in the Louisville, KY area, I’d like to invite you to worship with us at the Eastland congregation next Sunday. If you want more information about Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org. Or if you are looking for more tools to enrich your Bible study, visit my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can sign up for daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites and receive them in your email each morning, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.
And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”
