Better than Nothing

Do you think that you could stand before God, on the day that you die, and say "I chose to believe in You, because what you gave me to live for was better than having a universe without You," and feel that He would truly understand? Could you stand before Jesus, and say "I love you because you are the best way that I was given to learn about God"? I think that, as a friend, He would accept that. 

Or would you have to say, "I don't know you, because no one ever tried to explain to me about who you are. They only told me what they wanted me to think, and that I should not read the Gospels. I was told not to trust or be friends with Christians." 

These are important questions, because we don't know whether there really is any kind of afterlife, beyond certain anecdotal stories, and promises in the Scriptures. So it seems necessary that we should ask ourselves, "Are we living the kind of life that we are satisfied to examine with equanimity? Can we evaluate our time here as being best suited to build the most happiness, and show us how best to live together in peace and harmony? Does the way I live deserve to be blessed with the love  and kindness of my peers?" Because, if this is all there is, as Socrates thought, and "you only live once," then we should be making the best of it that we can. 

Why would we base our lives on nebulous promises of Heaven, or threats of Hell, if those threats and promises come from stories that don't teach us how we can live the best possible ways for happiness and a life of goodness and virtue? We have minds, and consciences of our own, with which to measure the goodness of the world's great religions, and determine which God is worthy of our devotion. If God cares enough to reward or punish us, He should care enough to guide us correctly, and give us a chance to follow willingly. 

Some claim that God is only One, and that all gods are the same, but with different faces. But I don't think that is true. If it was, why would God insist that there are other gods, and that He must be the only one we accept and to whom we devote our lives? It makes a difference which god you want to follow and emulate. Does your God teach peace and kindness, or conquest by any and all means necessary? Does your God  allow you the freedom to choose what you want to make of yourself? Or does He demand your strict obedience to every law and order that comes from the seat of power, without any attempt to explain or justify his dictates, followed by threats of cruelty handed down to dissidents? The societies that grow from these very different worldviews have little in common, and cannot live alongside each other. If there was only One God, his prescriptions for the different cultures and societies might be a bit different, but they would not conflict to such a degree that war would be inevitable. God does not go to war with Himself. 

There is a growing movement around the world that insists that there is no God, because none of the world's religions have either the stories or the histories that would reccomend themselves as worthy to be followed by honest and conscientious people. These people are quite adamant, saying that they deserve the right to make up their own rules, according to their own ideas of what is right. But they also believe that they have no obligation to agree with each other, and that their proposed ideals can and do change, according to the times and circumstances. While it may be true that a flexible philosophy is better, a standard that is relative is no standard at all. But they demand the freedom to say that a universe with Nothing to guide them is better than one with a God, especially one who fits Himself to the capacities of the human mind. They only look at the failures of humanity, and think that they can judge God as missing, or both stupid and powerless to guide us properly. They don't want to consider that they might not be seeing the whole picture. 

The Atheists also fail to note that, when they achieve power, bringing their "elite" group to the pinnacle of politics, they cannot rule a free people. They find that they must stand their authority upon a foundation of strength, including the threat of state violence and repression, and so become a totalitarian state, belying their own insistence on the freedom to create their own ideology and the laws to build their "ideal state." Every move their citizens make, every decision and choice, even their education and desires are scrutinized for signs of dissent and rebellion. And no ideology that might suggest that the State is not the ultimate authority can be countenanced. So, the demand for freedom of thought itself becomes counterproductive. 

So, really, is a universe without God better than one with God? Perhaps so, if the god you choose is the wrong one. Wars have been fought over which God is the true God, and may be again - perhaps soon. But it isn't because God wants this to happen. The choice of how we are to understand God is up to us, even if the spiritual Powers struggle beside us in the conflicts. We have to decide whom to follow, and whether what this or that God stands for is what we want to live and die for - even if I can't fully achieve a proper imitation what He wants me to be. We have to use our own consciences and listen to our hearts, trying to discern what is truly righteous and most likely to promote a future that will build us up into the best people - virtuous, harmonious, helpful and happy - so that we can be satisfied and proud to pass such a world on to our children. We can't do that if we choose the wrong god, but I believe that we do need a God. We don't have an immobile fundamental standard within our own nature by which to measure and judge things. We have to have an external set of ideals, a lighthouse on the shore of this chaotic oceanic abyss, to guide us toward our hoped for destination. A God worthy of our choosing will give us that. 

Our prophets of ages past have recorded the ideals and standards that God has revealed to their hearts. That is why we were given the Scriptures. It is for us to read and compare them, and see which ones speak to our hearts. We cannot, in good conscience, allow others to dictate what we must believe, not even our own parents, and never those who want to wield power over us. Those Scriptures speak for the various ways that we have tried to encounter God, and how we believe that God has answered our quests to know Him. In those texts, we can find the standards and ideals that we are meant to follow. Sometimes they are given as unchanging laws, or then as perfect ideals that we must strive to reach, even though perfection is beyond us. Those ideals are the pathways to follow, the Ways to seek his approval, what we want to achieve. We know them as Truth, Freedom, Love and Wisdom, and they have always been recommended to us as desirable for a good life. 

Humanity, however is not perfect, God knows. But a truly worthy God accepts our creature limitations, and makes allowance for us, even as He demands our utmost efforts. Even though God Himself is eternal, knowing our futures even before we are born, still He grants us the power to choose our own way, and blesses us when we choose rightly. A worthy God doesn't create us unable to avoid damnation. Who would follow a God like that? A hateful God would be a Devil, and be unworthy of our devotion. 

So I challenge you: Read the Scriptures for yourself, all of them, especially the ones that your political leaders would forbid. Listen to your heart and your conscience. Use your mind to think about what they are teaching. Do they hold out a future in this world that is worthy of your efforts? If you follow, will you be building a better world for your children? If you can imagine that there is no Heaven, and no Hell, would you still think their guidance worthy of your devotions and sacrifices? If so, then follow. If not, keep searching. Read other people's Scriptures to see what they believe in. What kind of God do they follow? 

Don't just listen to teachers' interpretations, but learn for yourself. Find the best version of the God that speaks to your inner self. Maybe even go further, and see where the traditions of men fall short of the perfection of the most worthy God that you can imagine. And then remember, the real God is better. God is that than which no greater can be imagined, and no greater Love can be than that a man would lay down his life for his friends, but the real God can actually do better than both. He wants to give us the best possible expressions of Truth, Freedom, Love and Wisdom, and the best possible Way to live a truly abundant Life, with Him in eternity.

To that God I would be proud to say on my dying day, "I chose to believe in You because what You gave me to live for made my universe better than any that didn't have You in it. So yes, I put my faith in You, and I love You. Thank God for You!!"

What Good is the Threat of Hell?

Our God claims to be loving, merciful and omnipotent. So what can it mean that He says that unbelievers shall go to Hell?

If punishment in Hell means to be sentenced for eternity into a "Lake of Fire," and to be forever separated from the Love of God, is that supposed to be sufficient to inspire fear into unbelievers? 

For an eternal threat to be effective, one must assume that there will be no end to one's existence, so that one shall be forced to endure the punishment. But ... 

1. Pain is the body's warning that harm is threatening to debilitate one's capacity to survive and maintain consciousness. 

2. Suffering can be reinterpreted as an affirmation that one continues to exist, that consciousness has not been extinguished. 

3.  One's concern for personal effectiveness is due to the knowledge that one must work to insure survival of the body in this world.

If those worries are removed by the evidence of eternal conscious existence, where is the point of being anxious about pain? If there is no doubt of one's continuance in existence, that there need be no concern for sustenance, one may be at rest.

4. An unbeliever already insists on the assumption that God does not exist, and so presumes there is no all-encompassing love in which to be enfolded. 

5. Many persons perceive this existence as primarily consisting of suffering, but only as compared to occasional intervals of relief. 

Only the discovery that there actually is a real God, and that one was mistaken, can have any meaning or consequence. But one might wonder why God would insist on faith, rather than make his existence obvious. 

6. The knowledge that one has been sentenced to ultimate punishment, such that there could be nothing worse, nor any prospect of anything better, there is no point in complaining. 

7. If one comes to question why it was deemed good that one should exist only to be exiled into suffering, one could feel justified in resentment.

But there could be an alternative. By the merciful removal of the temporal everlasting aspect of eternal punishment. God can show both his power and his love.

8. If instead, one's existence remains temporary, and subject to being sustained by God, to having one's suffering prolonged, then resentment would indeed be justified, because God would have known that such would be inevitable. 

9. But, if one knows that one's existence will be some time extinguished, then there will be anticipation of relief, and no need for concern about eternity. 

10. Only the promise that one may be granted future happiness, and an eternal existence of bliss, can be an effective motivation, but one must believe in the power of the person making the promise to fulfill it.

Several times, in both the Jewish Bible and the Christian Gospels, it is recorded that God can and occasionally does restore life to a person who has died. God clearly has power over Life and Death in this world and beyond. 

11. The unique fact, that only one person in history has ever had the power to raise Himself from the dead shows that Jesus has the divine power to overcome the material world and the temporal order that binds it. 

12. The discovery that one has failed to deserve eternal reward can only lead to resentment against such a person who established one's nature in a way that made it inevitable that failure would follow. 

Predestination is not Freedom. Thus, if there is an absolutely good and omnipotent God, then Heaven must be granted to all who believe, and extinguishment allowed for all who desire it. Eternal punishment is relevant only to the anguish that mocks one's failure to accept unending happiness. 

However, if one has deliberately chosen to pronounce a deceptive message, or tried to selfishly defy God, or otherwise chosen to serve the Adversary, then one may find that such service may never end, and that its conditions include suffering with enough variability to cause a desire for extinguishment that can be denied for eternity.

If God is love, then choose Love, and desire Heaven, for it may be assured. But do not choose to be hard hearted in defiance, lest you deserve to be left to the merciless torments of the Adversary. 

The unbelievers get only what they expect, an end to the daily concerns and suffering of existence in this world. There is no further need for the holding place of shadows where the ancients awaited their opportunity to hear the Gospel from the lips of the Saviour Himself, unless they may be given one last chance to repent of unbelief. 

But will they find the capacity in their unregenerated characters, to hear that final summons and respond with gratitude? Perhaps some will find the humility to lay aside their resentment, and accept the Truth so that they can follow the Way of Life.

For God loved the world and all of its people. In His pity He chose to send his beloved and only Child to be begotten by a human woman, who distinguished herself by her love and devotion to Him. He did this so that whoever might listen and believe in her child, the Son of God, would be rightly guided into the path of Love, Truth, Wisdom and Freedom in the pursuit of God and his righteousness, and so be given eternal life. 

God did not judge us harshly with the spiritual death that we deserve for our sins, but gave us the opportunity to seek his Face and find forgiveness. As He said to the followers of Moses so long ago, "Seek Me, and live." Jesus came to call sinners to repentance, and offered us the opportunity to become friends with God. No longer must we be burdened with guilt for our failures to observe every minutia of the old Law, for we are promised forgiveness. We need only try to follow Him, and his example, and Love one another as He has loved us.

Won't you ask Jesus to let you follow Him now, so that you might be granted Heaven after this life? You don't want to be one of those cast into the Lake of Fire because you refused to believe in God's Love. Do you?