Why did God create people – to live in such a mess?
It seems ....like it's actually going to be the Almighty Himself........that owes all of humanity a great big apology.
I attended church services since a baby, - went to a Bible College, - taught Sunday school for years, - taught other bible classes, - and ministered weekly to inmates in a prison ministry..........
Yet I had wrestled with certain thoughts for over 50 years:
~ I didn’t ask to be born with such a sinful nature,…. and then I am expected to fix it somehow - by returning to God, ….despite the fact that I had absolutely no choice in the so-called ‘turning away’ from Him in the first place.
~ I am very grateful that God saved me, …but according to the orthodox teaching – they say that God expects me to chose him or go to an eternal hell.
~ But I can’t help but wonder, if He's omnipotent (all powerful) - then why couldn't He just zap away my sin nature, even before I was born…but not just me but everyone…and then, if no one WAS born into sin …. then no one would reject God or be sent to Hell, which is what it seems that God wants in the first place,
Now on top of that :
~ Why is it that God must remain invisible to mankind?
~ Why does He remain under a veil?
The established orthodox churches tell us, - that the 'lost' (1.) must exercise their free-will, and (2.) have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ during this lifetime, or (3.) else they will be damned for all eternity.
But, I am left with a question that none of these theologian can satisfactory answer.........and that is how can the masses (billions) of humanity have that relationship with the Savior - if they've never in their lifetime, heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
It's been estimated that between 90 and 120 billion people have lived or are living on this earth.......so then,
just how many of them, have actually heard the Gospel message?
How many of the ‘lost’ have had a good,........full and complete,.........clear gospel message presented unto them, about the purpose of Christ’s coming, about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ?
And remember now, we must include those who have lived from Adam until today.
And yet so many of our wonderful brother and sister in the Lord, want to eternally damn all these billions of ‘lost’ people to an eternal hell?…….Oh My!
I wonder how they would feel - if they had been born in a country that hates Jesus Christ?........and actually be one of those people that they so easily discards as rubbish.
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O.K. dear friends, may I make this very personal?
~ Lets say, you had the unfortunate circumstances of being born in the country of Iran.
~ Lets say, you....like millions of your fellowmen, were constantly being told........ that the Christian God is utterly false.
~ Lets say, that all you heard...... all your life, from your mom and dad, plus from the leaders of Iran, that the religion of Christianity is the Great Satan.
~ Lets say, that you and millions,......probably billions of your fellow countrymen, never one time, hear of the true gospel of Jesus Christ........not even once in your entire lifetime.
Now,….. you are born in a lost condition,… RIGHT?
You live your entire life as a lost person,…. RIGHT?
Then die as lost,…. RIGHT?
So at some point in the future, you'll be resurrected to stand before the great judge of all the earth.
Well now,......... according to the orthodox Christian religion of many folks,......God will look in the book of life,..........and horror of horrors........your name is NOT there.
And now according to the teaching of many Christians...........God has no choice but to damn you,...... to SEND you off to a boiling hot cauldron lake of fire, to be tormented and tortured, FOREVER and EVER and EVER.
So now, dear friends........just how would you feel about that.......if that really did happen to you?
Again I ask....... just how would you feel about that.......if you really were damned for all eternity, through virtually no fault of your own?
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Traditional Christian teaching tells us - that all unsaved people will burn in Hell, for eternity,…. not so much because they were wrong-doers (criminals) i.e. - we all are wrong doers,…. but because they were NOT right-doers (saints).
They say --- that these folks simply were not (smart enough) to make to make the wise choice of choosing Christ as their Savior before their death.
... i.e. …if people are not saved by the blood of the Lamb before their death,… they still have their old sin-nature and the wages of their sins is death – and then - that’s it for them.
It’s not that we were born perfect and then fell;….. but being a sinner - is our natural born state…. And because of that – they say, we are evil people who deserve to be eternally punished…..all because we were born sinners.
To further complicate things:
...none of us were ever ASKED or given a CHOICE about the most important things in our life:
We weren't given a choice to be conceived in the first place......
We weren't given a choice about the time of our birth - or what sex we would be......
We weren’t given a choice - about our physical characteristics.....
- about our genetic composition…..
~ eye color, ~ hair color, ~ skin color, ~ body type, ~ level of intelligence…..
~ birth defects, ~ mental illness, or retardation ~ beauty/ugliness, ~ freckles, moles, and big nose with warts…..
We weren't given a choice as to having a body of flesh..... the angels don't have flesh .....
We weren't asked to live in the nation we were born into......
We weren't ever ask to have an - inherited nature of sin.......
We weren't asked to be condemned by sin......
We all begin our life as a Mutant……
We all begin as a deformed life being, that rebels against the Living Author of all creation…..
We all begin as detached from God, ...human-beings from a strange creation…..
We didn't ask to be bound onto disobedience......
We didn't ask to be made sinners......
We didn't ask to be under the penalty of death from Adam's sin.......
We didn't ask to be under Adam’s penalty from the moment of our conception......
We didn't ask to be like sheep, constantly going astray.......
We didn't ask to be an enemy of God......
We didn't ask to be bound in stubbornness.......
We didn't ask to be tested by evil spirits.......
We didn't ask to be enticed with numerous temptations.......
We didn’t ask for the many fiery trials to tests us……
We didn't ask to live under a curse of sickness and sin.......
We didn't ask for our Class level within society and wealth acquirement or lack thereof......
We didn't ask for a life of pain, sorrows, troubles and tears.......
We didn't ask for life on this earth at all.......
The BOTTOM LINE IS THIS:
No one was ever asked ahead of time - to be born, brought up and live in the kingdom of darkness and to be temped with an invisible and cunning enemy.......and then – for some reason, be expected to be held eternally responsible for - SOMEHOW trying to find an invisible Savior.
What makes mighty man NOW think - he can just 'free-will' himself into God's Kingdom?
Frankly.......I think it is God,….. Himself who owes all mankind a great apology for planning such an environment as we have on this present earth.
And furthermore – let’s consider the actual state of the ‘lost’
-Every unregenerate person is a sinner (Rom. 3:23),
-He is dead in his sins (Eph. 2:1),
-He possessing a deceitful heart (Jer. 17:9),
-He is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23),
-unable to understand spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:14),
-He cannot nor does not seek for God (Rom. 3:11),
-He is a slave to his own sin nature (Rom. 6:14-20),
-He is hostile in mind and deed to God (Col. 1:21),
-and he naturally and rightfully are objects of God's wrath (Eph. 2:3).
And lastly:
-Because of their sinful condition (Rom. 6:14-20),
-The unregenerate do not and cannot freely choose to believe the gospel (Rom.3:10-12; Rom. 6:14-20)
-And that they cannot come to God unless it has been granted to them from the Father (John 6:65)
- It is God alone who appoints a person to eternal life (Acts 13:48 )
- A God alone who grants that they believe (Phil.1:29).
So why then,…. is MANKIND being told by slick PREACHERS that the ‘lost’ will be held ACCOUNTABLE for their SINS,
- when we ‘all’ RECEIVED against our WILL, not by our CHOOSING,
an INHERITED SIN NATURE from the first MAN ADAM in the first place?
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God creates us, by the subjection to frustration; causing us to live in a flawed, sinful, mortal, temporal, terrestrial body...
Then He gives us a huge lists of commandments – that are in direct contradiction to the evil nature He has created in us.
Can you imagine that?
God knowingly makes a creation of human beings that are extremely weak and frail….and then He gives a list of commandments - that we could not possibly keep?
And then:
Then He says through the prophet,
"No man will be justified BY OBSERVING THE LAW."
We were born to FAIL!
We were born losers!
But it was a NEEDED thing!
God uses the weak things of the world, to confound the mighty! He uses the filthy rags of our carnal self-righteousness, to buff, and polish the ark [Christ] of His TRUE righteousness! A righteousness that comes through Faith in God [Faith is the act of God enveloping us, and living IN us].
By comparing our actions [as men] to the glory of His perfect law; God shows definitively, once and for all, that He, and He alone is righteous, good, and Holy!
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THEN AGAIN --- WE DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS EITHER
We didn't ask for God to manifest Himself in THE FLESH.......
We didn't ask for Christ to appear to DO AWAY with SIN.......
We didn't ask for God to LOVE US SO MUCH as to send his Son to DIE FOR US.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to TASTE DEATH for EVERY PERSON......
We didn't ask for Jesus to be A RANSOM for ALL men.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to be the SAVIOR of the world.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to be the PROPITIATION for the sins of the WHOLE world.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to be LIFTED UP ON THE CROSS, so that He will DRAW ALL men unto Himself.......
We didn't ask for God to will, that ALL are to BE SAVED.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to be the 'LAMB OF GOD' which takes away THE SIN of the world.......
We didn't ask for God to lay upon Christ the INIQUITY of us ALL.......
We didn't ask for Christ (The Good Shepherd)to SEARCH for the LOST until He finds it.......
We didn't ask that there would be a RESTORATION of ALL THINGS.......
We didn't ask that ALL things would be RECONCILED to God.......
We didn't ask that Christ would DESTROY the WORKS of the devil.......
We didn't ask for God to REMAIN FAITHFUL even when we are not.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to DEFEAT EVERY ENEMY.......
We didn't ask for Jesus to defeat and destroy DEATH, (which must includes everyone ultimately being
released from the Lake of Fire (i.e.,) the second death).......
We didn't ask for Jesus to RESTORE EVERYTHING.......
We didn't ask for Christ to DRAW ALL men unto Himself.......
We didn't ask for God to SHOW MERCY on ALL.......
We didn't ask for God to make EACH PERSON ALIVE, each in his own order.......
We didn't ask that SOMEDAY there will be NO MORE DEATH, nor SORROW, nor TEARS, nor MOURNING,
nor PAIN, for the old order of things will pass away, and Jesus Christ will make EVERYTHING NEW.......
But my, - we sure are GLAD that God planned and purposed this for ALL of HUMANITY!!!!!
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Will the Potter utterly condemn the pots, that He is responsible for forming - just because they have impurities built into them?
Will He simply throw most of His own creations away on the rubbish heap as totally useless, or will He re-make them into worthier vessels?
Could a God of Love willingly choose to torture the majority of humankind for eternity with no purifying and constructive purpose in mind?
This might bear REPEATING:
It looks to me ....like it's actually going to be the Almighty Himself........that owes all of humanity a great big apology.
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A while back, I was visiting my brother
He is a leader in the fellowship that he attends.
His church is strong on denouncing - those that die as ‘lost’, that they are damned forever and ever…….so I asked him…….about how he’d feel if our family - was born and grew up in Iran and we all died as lost.
I then asked him, - now, if mom and dad and all our brothers (me included) and sisters die as lost,....because we had had no opportunity to hear the 'gospel message' and become saved.....could you accept that?
He assured me that he would have to leave THAT in the hands of a merciful God.
So then I asked him,
~ why can’t he leave all the ‘lost folks’ that he so easily condemns - in the hands of a merciful God?
~ why is it, that nearly every time I visit him, I have to listen to a hellfire sermon?
~ why does HE expect and hope to obtain mercy for himself, and our family from a merciful God …….yet himself and that unkind church he attends, will not extend that same kind of mercy - - - to the billions that die in that very same condition?
He had no answer.
AJS – Jan.1.09