The Truth

Here’s what I know to be true.

This world and all that is in it was created by an intelligent being.  There is no other explanation about how we came to be here.  Evolutionary theory is incorrect because there is less proof to support this theory than there is proof to support the existence of a Creator.  How do I know this?  Ask any evolutionary biologist where we came from and they cannot, nay, will not, give you a definitive answer.  Even the mighty Richard Dawkins when asked “where did we come from?” he simply said “I don’t know.”  Well, if Mr. Dawkins and the rest of them are unwilling to give a definitive answer then I am unwilling to believe them.

If I was created by an intelligent being then that being must be sought out.  There is no other choice.  The One who gave me life must be found so that I can bring Him worship.  If I was created then I cannot worship myself because the creation cannot worship itself.  So who created me? Certainly the One who created me would be divine, no He would be Holy, because if He was not Holy then He would be like me and I cannot worship something that is like me. 

 I was meant for worship.   I was given a voice to sing, hands to create, the ability to love; I was not just meant to worship, I was built expressly for it.  That is why celebrities are paid so much money and adorn magazines and billboards.  That’s why the manliest of men will worship NASCAR, or football or hunting or fishing.  They may not call it worship but they give it their time and attention, their thoughts and their actions.  All of those people, all of those things want my worship.

So if I was built for worship then who do I worship?  Do I worship Muhammad?  No, he was just a person like me.  Do I worship Buddha?  No, he too was a man just like me.  Zeus? Poseidon? All the Greek and Roman gods?  No, they were not divine, they were fallible just like me.  Joseph Smith?  No, he was just a man.  Mother Nature? No, she was created just like me and the creation cannot worship another part of creation.  So I cannot worship men or religions whose central character is a person.  I cannot worship nature or other created things because they are like me.

Who is worthy of my worship?  The God of the Bible; He is the only one who is Divine and Holy and worthy of my worship.  Because I must worship, I was created for it.  But God in His divinity did not create me to be a robot. He created me to worship Him and love Him.  The only true love is love freely given, which is why God created me with free will.  He wanted so much to love His creation and for His creation to love Him that He was willing to risk the creation not loving Him back.  He gave His creation free will so that His creation would give its love freely.  Without free will there is no true love.

God does not command His creation’s love.  He gave His creation a choice from the beginning.  He told His creation to follow Him to avoid evil and man would live in perfection, as God Himself is perfect.  Man was with God face to face; face to face with the Creator of the universe with no death, no pain, no tears, no war, no hurt, just perfect peace living in fellowship with a perfect God.  This is what He intended for us; this was His plan.  If only we would have followed His plan we would still be there.  But, alas, we choose poorly.  We gave up perfection for the knowledge of evil.  We gave up heaven for the chance to taste the forbidden.  We choose poorly.

We were banished from perfection.  We were no longer perfect so we could no longer dwell with perfection, just like the darkness cannot dwell with the light.  God is Holy and we are not, so our fellowship with God was broken.  With the knowledge of evil we gained the full understanding of all that is opposite a Holy God.  Not only did we gain knowledge of evil, but we now experience the full weight of evil.  God was perfect in His promise.  He promised that by obtaining knowledge of evil, we would certainly die. So we took on corruptible flesh; flesh that gets sick and diseased.  Flesh that puts its own lusts ahead of anything else. 

God loves His creation despite our poor choice.  His plan was for us to commune with Him for eternity because He is eternal.  He is, He was and He will always be.  His plan is still for us to be with Him for eternity, but we could not be with Him because He is Holy and we are not.   

He made a way.  He is perfect and in His perfection He made a way for us, His creation, to be with Him once again.  Our poor choice, our sin, caused death and the only way for us to know the cost of our choice would be the shedding of innocent blood.  Innocent blood covers our sin.  So God set aside a people who would know Him by His nature.  They would understand their sin through His written law.  They would receive atonement for their sin through the shedding of innocent blood.  They would forever know that their sin was covered because an innocent animal would be sacrificed and their blood spilled so that man could commune with a Holy God.

Shedding of animal blood was only a shadow of what was to come.  In order for us to truly be with God again a perfect Man would have to shed His blood so the sin would once and for all be forgiven.  But who?  Once the well of human life had been poisoned it will forever be poisoned and no man is perfect.  So God in His infinite Mercy stepped from eternity into time, from His perfection and put on corruptible flesh. 

Jesus.

He was able to do what no other man could do.  Jesus, the God Man, the embodiment of perfection in human form lived as God intended.  He was perfect in word and deed.  He had to be.  In order to fulfill the law, to live as God intended us to live, Jesus had to be perfect.  And in His perfection He would right the wrong done by man.  He would bring us back into fellowship with Father God.  He demonstrated God’s perfect love of humanity.  Jesus demonstrated that above all God wants communion with His creation.  God wants communion and fellowship with us so much that He sent His only Son to walk among us and lay down His life for us.

Jesus gave his life freely.  No one took His life.  He was not surprised that the religious leaders wanted Him dead.  He was not ambushed.  He was not bamboozled, duped or tricked.  He gave His life freely.  He was beaten, bruised, nailed hands and feet to a Tree for His creation. For me.  The weight of all the sin committed against a perfect God was placed on the Son of God while He hung there.  Every sin every person has ever committed and will commit.  Murderers, rapists, tyrants, liars, thieves, fornicators, drunkards, gossipers; every person born and every sin committed, piled up Jesus’ shoulders.  The sin of the world was as much placed on Jesus as Him taking it on Himself.  His innocent blood made right all of the wrongs done to God. 

That is God; that is love.  God loves us so much. He wanted us to be where He is that He devised a plan to make us perfect once again.  He stepped down to us, did what we could not do.  He does not demand anything of us.  He has given us a gift.  He placed our salvation from this dying world within our grasp.  All we have to do is reach out and take it. Claim the gift as our own.  Accept the gift which God has given us through Jesus’ sacrifice.  Take it and we will be with Him in eternity at the end of this life.  Leave it and we will be forever separated from God.  God loves us so much that even after His Son’s sacrifice He offers free will. 

The choice is ours, we must claim this gift of salvation.  We must admit that we are hopelessly lost, condemned to die because we were born into sin, because we know evil and we have embraced evil. That makes us unclean; we are no longer Holy and perfect as God is perfect.  Only by accepting Christ’s sacrifice can we enter into God’s perfection at the end of this life.  We were meant to live with God eternally.  We are eternal beings, only this shell is dying, but the spirit inside this shell will last forever.  Christ died so that our spirits would live eternal with God in Perfection as God intended.

I have claimed that gift.  I accept what Jesus did for me. I had to.  I had to know the God who created me and in order for me to know that, I had to accept who I was.  I was a sinner.  I am a sinner.  Cut off from the God who created me.  I was cut off, until He came and took my place.  I was sentenced to die and Jesus took my place.  I owe Him my life. 

What can I do then?  Return to the prison from once I came?  Certainly not!  I must live a life which honors the life given in my place.  I must find out how Jesus lived, the things He spoke the deeds He did.  I must find them out and live my life according to His example.  Not because I must earn my way (that is already paid), but because of Love.  God’s love for me put His Son on that tree and so my love and my life is the only acceptable way to honor Him.  I will do what I was created to do.  I will worship the God who created me.  I will worship with my words and my deeds. 

And I will show all those around me that God wants to commune with them just as much as with me.  I must tell others about the gift.  That is what I am supposed to do.  I am supposed to wake the dead. I am not to condemn the dead.  Who am I to condemn the dead?  Was it I who created this world? Was it I who was perfect from the beginning?  No.  I was dead in my sin like everyone else.  Until I accepted the free gift, until I claimed Jesus’ death as my own death. 

Now I am alive, no longer dead in sin.  And because I am alive I must show those who are dead that they too can be alive.  God has shown me His compassion and therefore I must have compassion for those around me.  I was dead too.  My sin was no worse or better than theirs.  Who am I to judge their sin?  I cannot judge the sin of the dead?  I am only alive because of Jesus’ sacrifice.  But I cannot be silent.  I cannot sit by and let the dead perish without telling them about life.  I have to show them there is life, because what God gave me, He gives to all of His creation.

I know these things to be true.  God created me.  I was created to worship God.  I could not worship God because I was dead.  Jesus gave me life.  I will honor Jesus with nothing less than my life.  I will tell others about Jesus.