LIFE IS DECISIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

Life is a perpetual process of decision-making, from the moment we awake in the morning until we fall asleep at night. Mostly, that’s what life is all about. We benefit from our good choices and suffer from our bad choices.

WE ‘SIN’ WHEN WE MAKE A WRONG MORAL CHOICE

In a sense, all of our choices have an element of right and wrong, as choosing the ‘right’ tie to wear with a certain suit or taking the ‘right’ route to work. But in a deeper sense, most of our choices are morally neutral. Only some choices have moral significance.

‘Moral’ means making the distinction between right and wrong with respect to God’s standard. A wrong moral choice is called a ‘sin’ (offense against God).

The definition raises this question: How we can distinguish between what’s really right or wrong from what’s morally neutral or what’s merely cultural? In other words, how do we know for sure what is sin?

Because this is God’s world, we must defer to his definitions, even though people are constantly telling us to either limit, expand or modify what he says.

The primary way to recognize sin is to read God’s book, the Bible, because in it he specifically identifies attitudes and behaviors he calls sin.

Another way to recognize sin is to listen to our conscience, which is his Holy Spirit speaking personally to us.

To help us understand God’s point of view, the Bible identifies hundreds of sins. But they are only examples; every sin is a personal offense against God shaped by individual circumstances, knowledge and motives.

No attempt is made in this resource to list, categorize or summarize sins. The fact is that every one of us knows we’re guilty of committing sins, and each of us can name our own sins. There are some gray areas where we’re not sure, but the point IS NOT that we must identify every sin we commit but rather the point IS that we must acknowledge that we’re sinners.

Salvation (rescue from the eternal consequences of our sins) is not a matter of uprooting each and every sin but instead is the result of accepting God’s remedy (Jesus Christ) for our sin nature.

EVERYONE IS BORN WITH A SIN NATURE

The Bible says our earliest ancestors – Adam and Eve, the first man and woman – lived briefly in a wonderful environment not scarred by sin (the ‘Garden of Eden,’ an actual place between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in present day Iraq). When they disobeyed God, they were driven out into a hostile world of both good and evil. Sin had entered the human race, and because they are our progenitors, their sin nature has been passed on to all subsequent generations, even to us today.

It’s really a moot issue that their sin nature was passed on to us, because even if they hadn’t sinned, we would have sinned ourselves. There’s no escaping it, everyone does things which displease God.

FREE WILL (TO SIN) IS ESSENTIAL FOR REAL LOVE

God is LOVE (see Topic 48) and it’s essential that we have free will to decide how we will respond to him. True love can exist only when the object of love can choose whether or not to return love.

Example: A person could program his computer to print ‘I love you,’ but this wouldn’t be real love because the computer can’t do anything except to obey the command. God couldn’t really love and enjoy us if we were merely programmed to love and obey in return.

The stronger and freer we are, the better we’ll be when we go right, but the worse we’ll be when we go wrong. That’s a necessary risk of free will. (For more about free will, see Topics 48 and 60.)

SIN IS OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM

The basic problem of mankind is SIN. What do we do with our sin? How can we limit it? How will we pay the consequences for it?

Sin plagues us. It weighs us down like a heavy burden. We try to shake it off, but it won’t go. It saps our energy and robs our dignity. Often our sin pains others, and their sin pains us. Ultimately, everyone has to stand judgment before God for all unpardoned sin. It’s a very serious matter.

Most people have been carrying the heavy weight of sin for so long that they can’t even imagine what it would be like to have it lifted off. In fact, most people are unable to recognize that sin is such a serious problem because they’ve never experienced the wonderful clean, light feeling of God’s total forgiveness.

In the Topics ahead – particularly Topics 53-66 – this site explains how, and under what conditions, God gives immediate and total forgiveness of all our sins (even future sins!), without any cost on our part. When we experience this forgiveness, it’s so good and so radical that we journey toward becoming a new person! That’s why the Bible says this gift of forgiveness is new life. (See Topics 56-62.)

WORST SIN OF ALL IS CHOOSING TO IGNORE GOD

All sin is bad, but one sin is worse than all others, and it’s the only sin that’s absolutely fatal. It’s the sin of ignoring God, of living as though he doesn’t matter.

The Bible says, and common sense affirms, that the worst sin of all is telling God, by word or action, that we don’t want to have a relationship with him or that we will have a relationship only on our terms.

Refusing to listen to what God wants to say, and refusing to take the new life he wants to give, is the ultimate and catastrophic sin. Theologians sometimes call this the ‘unpardonable sin’. Actually, a better term is the ‘unpardoned sin’.

God gives blanket forgiveness for every sin a person has ever committed – and ever will commit – when that person understands and accepts what Jesus Christ did for him by substitutionary death (see Topics 54 and 55). BUT if that person has adequate knowledge of what Christ did but never responds to it by personally identifying with it and giving God recognition for it, that person has committed the one sin that is not automatically pardoned.

In other words, one sin – continuing to live without regard to what God (Holy Spirit) is saying to us – can block automatic forgiveness of all other sins, and thus it’s the one sin that’s absolutely fatal. Conversely, listening to God and accepting the new life he offers through personal faith in Jesus Christ gives automatic forgiveness of all other sins!

At first thought, it seems impossible that one simple act of faith can overcome the whole sin problem, but that’s exactly what the Bible says. This website sets this wonderful offer in full theological perspective and explains how a person can get this forgiveness and new life by one all-important act of faith.

RIGHT-AND-WRONG IS PART OF SPIRITUAL DESIGN

Something becomes obvious as we move beyond SCIENCE (how does it work?) and begin to study THEOLOGY (who made it, and why?).

We see that the world is more than just material phenomenon. In it we also find the concept of RIGHT AND WRONG, springing from an intuitive and universal sense of good and evil. Thus, we observe SPIRITUAL DESIGN in the world as well as physical design.

God wants us – but has not forced us – to act in certain ways to enhance our relationships with him and with each other. This recognition of choice between RIGHT AND WRONG, according to a built-in standard, is the foundation for all clear thinking about the spiritual design of our world.

CONSCIENCE HAS BEEN DESIGNED INTO US

All people know that there’s some instinctive standard – RIGHT AND WRONG – that constantly presses upon us. It's a moral law, operating by spiritual design as surely as gravity operates by physical design.

For example, if A pushes B from the curb into traffic, B will immediately want to know whether A's action was intentional or accidental. If A pushes B intentionally, there would be something WRONG with A's behavior. Not physically wrong, but morally wrong. Virtually everyone would agree, not only in our culture, but in all cultures of the world. It's not wrong if A pushes B by accident, even though B gets hurt. But it's wrong if A pushes B on purpose, even though B doesn't get hurt. This kind of right-and-wrong thinking is built right into us.

We instinctively know that deliberately pushing someone off the curb – like lying, stealing, murder and scores of other unacceptable behaviors – is WRONG because it violates our conscience. Not only does our conscience tell us what wrong things not to do, but it also tells us what right things to do.

GOOD VS. EVIL IS THE MAJOR HUMAN DILEMMA

If we were animals or machines, it would be meaningless to speak of good and evil, or to be concerned with spiritual accountability. For example, we don’t accuse animals for attacking one another or computers for criminal behavior. But for us, the problem of good and evil is the major human dilemma.

We're physically and socially less than perfect. Neither good nor evil dominates us completely. Our motives, judgments and actions are rarely all good and never all evil but are usually a mixture of both. Our conscience tells us the degree to which we are leaning one way or the other.

Evil is not a quality. It's lack or privation of a quality. It's like rot, rust and wounds. Nothing is totally evil because evil is a moral cancer which cannot exist alone. If you take all the bad out of something, it becomes better. If you take all the good out, nothing is left. For example, if you take all the rot out of a tree, it's a better tree. If you take all the good out, there's no tree.

We instinctively know and appreciate the good qualities of human character, but often we don't practice them, and consequently we hurt others, and they hurt us. There's no escaping from the evil within and around us; and it causes considerable human pain.

GOD TOLERATES EVIL FOR A WHILE

Critics see a problem with any view that affirms the following three propositions: (1) God is almighty, (2) God is good, and (3) evil exists.

The problem, they say, is that if evil exists, either God wants to eliminate evil and is unable to do it – and thus he’s not almighty – or that God is able to eliminate evil but doesn’t want to do it – and thus he's not good.

However, these critics overlook a third possibility: God has power to eliminate evil, but he has chosen not to eliminate it YET. That’s what the Bible says about it. Even though God hates evil, he's tolerating it while he waits for an important personal decision from each of us. There's a time aspect to his plan.

It'll become clear from the remaining topics that God's primary desire is not for us to be good but for us to have a relationship with him. (The relationship will help make us good, but that's a by-product.) He's giving each of us time to decide whether or not we want the relationship.

Evil gives definition to the relationship issue and helps us see distinctions and consequences. Evil shows the bad quality of life without God.

BEING ‘GOOD’ IS NOT THE PRIMARY ISSUE

Most people know they were designed with a spiritual side that's just as real as their physical side, and they know that life is a struggle between good and evil.

Knowing this, they usually conclude that what God wants most is for us to do right things rather than wrong things. In other words, they think, God wants us to be GOOD.

That conclusion is as superficial as saying that, by creating gravity, what God wants most is for everything to fall down. His physical design plan is much more elaborate than that, and so is his spiritual design plan much more than just wanting us to be good.

Of course, God wants us to be good. But that’s not the primary issue. The primary issue is that God is pleased when we want to have a personal relationship with him, and he’s offended when we ignore him and think we can manage life without him. He understands evil and our frail humanity and, if we ask, he’ll forgive all our offenses against him. With his forgiveness, we become as ‘good’ as if we had been perfect all along! (See Topics 54 and 59.)

What God wants most is for us to have a personal relationship with him so intimate and so radical that it's literally a new life; a new spiritual life transcending our physical life. Incredible as it may sound, we don’t have to do anything to get this new life but to take it as a free gift. (This is explained fully in Topics 53-70.)

When we accept this new life, we're not only totally forgiven (and thus made acceptable for heaven) but as this new life is lived out now, there’s more good and less evil than in our old life. This is not because of increased self-effort but because of God's power flowing through us.

The important point is not what we do for God, but what God does for us.

SCIENCE IS STUDY OF PHYSICAL WORLD

SCIENCE is the systematized knowledge of nature and the world. It’s based on observation and experimentation.

THEOLOGY IS STUDY OF GOD AND HIS PLAN FOR US

THEOLOGY is the accumulated knowledge about God and his plan for our lives. It focuses on God, not on religion.

Religion, in contrast, is a system of belief in a divine power, mode of worship, or code of conduct designed by man. Even though well-meaning and usually good, religion is man's effort to please God, often by emotional and sacrificial means. Religion creates many notions that are not true and, unfortunately, repel many objective thinkers from spiritual inquiry.

Theology is not a study to determine whether one system of belief and practice is superior to another, but it’s the gathering, study and organization of facts about God's nature, his purposes and his plan for us. This resource is about theology, not about science or religion.

SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY MAKE DIFFERENT INQUIRIES

Science stops short of theology because science limits itself only to time and space and to experimentation which can be physically measured, observed and repeated. Theology moves beyond science into the eternal/spiritual realm which has no time/space limitations.

Science asks HOW the physical world works. Theology asks WHO designed it and WHY. There's no contradiction between science and theology. They make different inquiries in different ways.

THE BIBLE WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME

The Bible is a book about theology, not about science. However, references in the Bible to physical phenomenon are accurate and have sometimes even preceded the discoveries of the scientists of the day. For example:

• The Bible says the earth is a sphere (Isaiah 40:22), but when that part of the Bible was written (about 630 B.C.) people thought the earth was flat.
• The Bible says there are billions of stars (Jeremiah 2:20), but when that was written (about 630 B.C.), people thought there were less than 2,000 stars. The Bible says every star is different (I Corinthians 15:41) but when that was written (about 55 A.D.) people thought every star was the same.
• The Bible expresses the fundamentals of science in accord with our modern-day understanding, such as gravity (Job 26:7), molecular structure (Hebrews 11:3), the conservation of mass and energy (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15), the water cycle (Isaiah 55:10), the importance of sanitation to health (Deuteronomy 23:12-13), and the effect of emotions on physical health (Proverbs 17:22).

THIS IS EXCITING TIME FOR DISCOVERY

We're living in an unprecedented age of discovery. Knowledge about our world and ourselves is accumulating at an exhilarating rate. There were as many important new scientific discoveries made in the last decade as were made in all other years of human history combined! Historical knowledge and operational knowhow are also growing rapidly, accelerated by more and better research and by excellent analysis, cataloging and communication.

Although generally not discussed as much, spiritual knowledge is also increasing due to better understanding of the Bible and open sharing and comparing of personal experiences. There’s increased interest in the spiritual side of life. More people are making exciting discoveries about God and about how to have a personal relationship with him.

In many respects, spiritual discovery is like scientific discovery. Both result from a sudden comprehension of the inter-relationship of certain facts which have always existed. Man is just discovering things that God has always known.

God allows, and seems to enjoy, a progressive revelation of his design plan in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm. One discovery leads to another, and as people share what they’ve found in their search for God, there’s a growing body of spiritual knowledge available to us. This knowledge is the foundation for personal faith, and the more knowledge we have, the easier it is to believe.

Faith is not a matter of believing what we do not know, but rather believing the evidence of what we do know. The 66 Topics within this website provide all the knowledge a person needs for a well-grounded theology and a strong personal faith.

OLD MISUNDERSTANDINGS ARE FADING AWAY

In earlier times, science and faith were often regarded as enemies. Religious people were intimidated by science and feared that it would challenge cherished beliefs. Scientists refused to deal with aspects of life which fell beyond the scope of time and space and which could not be physically measured, observed or repeated, and thus they operated only within a limited, closed system.

Increasingly, the modern world is being explained in terms of mathematical formulas, and the computer is accelerating scientific discovery by its ability to make extremely fast and complex computations. More and more, scientists who formerly dismissed the possibility of a God are now regarding him at least as the great cosmic mathematician. All around the world, especially since the collapse of communism, it's becoming increasingly untenable to say there's no God.

Scientists are realizing that design necessarily comes from intelligence, not chance. Religious people are realizing that science is just the discovery and application of God's physical laws. Today’s best educated people are students of both science and theology.

TWO BASIC VIEWS OF HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN

We live in a universe of mind-boggling intricacy and complexity. There are two basic views on how it all began:

• The universe ‘just happened’
• The universe is the result of super-human design

Many people say we just can’t know how it began, and therefore a “just happened’ view of origin is sufficient. However, that puts an end to inquiry and seems as foolish as a person refusing to acknowledge the electronic engineering in his television set unless he knows how and when it was made.

A person can recognize, appreciate and benefit from design without fully understanding it. The mere existence of the universe is evidence enough of its amazing design.

BECAUSE THERE’S DESIGN, THERE MUST BE A DESIGNER

The universe bears ample evidence of design. This conclusion does NOT come from faith, but from reason.

For most people, it takes too much faith to believe that everything, including all life forms, could be the result of mere chance. It’s by common sense – not by faith – that most people conclude that there is a master design plan.

From the conclusion that there is design in the universe, it logically follows that there must be a designer. Obviously, a designer greater than any human being.

Who? Generally people use the broad and universal name ‘GOD’ (Almighty Being).

PEOPLE INSTINCTIVELY KNOW THERE’S A GOD

It gives some assurance to know that most people have arrived at the conclusion that there's an Almighty Being. While majority opinion does not guarantee truth, it does lend support.

Believing in God is not only a logical thing to do; it’s also a natural thing to do. Most people, at all times and in all cultures, instinctively know there is a God. This knowledge seems to be built right into us.

WHO DESIGNED GOD? WHAT’S HIS BEGINNING?

To our human way of thinking, everything must have a beginning. To say that God designed the universe begs the following question: Who designed him? And that begs yet another question: Is our God a creation of – and subordinate to – a greater deity or deities. We could push these questions to infinite regress.

The fact is that we don’t know the answers and we don’t have the capacity to comprehend at that level even if we were told. What's important – and what we can comprehend now – is that there is a single God directly over us and he's told us everything we need to know at this point in time. What he's told us – recorded in the Bible – is explained and referenced in this website.

Every person must decide for himself whether to follow a humanistic way of life or a theistic way of life. It’s like a fork in the road. A person who chooses the humanistic way doesn't make room for God in his life and sees the universe as a quirk of chance. A person who chooses the theistic way desires to know God and sees the universe as part of a marvelous unfolding plan that has dimensions which exceed our present ability to understand.

We’re now limited to living and thinking in only three and a half dimensions – length, width, height and (forward only) time – but actually there are many more dimensions of reality. Eventually, in heaven, we'll have the privilege and capacity to understand these more complex dimensions and get answers to all our questions.

LIMITATIONS OF LINEAR THOUGHT PROCESS

This resource is written in the format of western analytical thought. It’s important to recognize that not everyone receives and processes information – especially spiritual information – in this way.

Most people, particularly in other parts of the world, do not think and report in a linear thought pattern (logically and systematically from A to Z, using the shortest route and fewest words). An analytical approach is efficient for conveying information to the mind but leaves much to be desired for communicating emotion to the heart.

Most people, even in the United States, think and report instead in a circular thought pattern (hovering around key ideas, expressing and re-expressing them in different ways for emphasis and retention). Most spiritual expression – including the Bible – is in circular rather than linear style.

However, this site is written in linear style because it’s the way most managerial and professional people have been trained to think.

The reader should be careful not to allow the style to filter emotion from the content. For example, it should be more than just a dispassionate observation that God designed a universe! The very thought of such wisdom and power should send shivers through us. It should arouse an intense curiosity about what God had in mind for us in this design!

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS IN LIFE

Philosophers throughout the ages have not been able to pose any questions more discerning than these three:

• Who am I?
• Why am I here?
• Where am I going?

We can never rise higher than what we believe. Our beliefs shape our attitudes, motivations and behaviors.

Our existence is essentially empty and meaningless without clear beliefs arising from a careful personal investigation into the meaning and purpose of life.

SINCERITY IS GOOD, BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH

Everyone’s betting his life on the accuracy of what he believes. Belief alone, no matter how sincere, is not enough. A person can be very sincere, yet be sincerely wrong. We need to be right, not just sincere.

WE NEED TO THINK FOR OURSELVES

Most people are not well informed or objective in spiritual matters. Their beliefs are usually little more than blind acceptance of limited, and often erroneous, information provided by family, friends and clergymen. They usually quote each other without personal investigation or critical thought, often mistaking opinion for fact.

The big issues in life – Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? – are too crucial to ignore or to defer to the thinking and conclusions of others.

Everyone should pause at least once in a lifetime to carefully examine, independently, what life is all about and to develop reasoned personal beliefs about these issues.

A wise person will be willing to alter what he has been taught to believe – or what he is expected to believe – if the evidence from his own search leads to new and more accurate understanding.

TODAY'S RESPONSE TO GOD AFFECTS US FOREVER

A measure of a person's wisdom and maturity is how far out in time he can plan and work. Here's a question that puts things in perspective:

Will what I do today make any difference to me 100 years from now?

Nothing we can think about today could possibly be more important than thinking about what's going to happen to us after we die. Over the long run, most thoughts really don't matter very much, but how we think about God – and how we respond to him – affects us forever.

The worst tragedy of all is when a person spends his life thinking and working on things that have no lasting significance, never discovering the reason for his existence and never preparing for life beyond the grave. Then accident or illness suddenly claims his life, sealing his eternal destiny, and forever he will regret never having listened to God while there was still time.

It's dangerous to let another day slip by without accepting God’s offer of new life. It's a one-time decision that will be the difference between heaven and hell. Nothing is more important.

LOOKING GOOD ON THE OUTSIDE, BUT EMPTY INSIDE

We may be able to fool others into thinking that all is going well, but we can't fool ourselves. Even when things look good on the outside, life can be empty on the inside, as illustrated by these comments:

‘I am president of the company, but I do not know who I am.’

‘I have a PhD, but I do not know what I believe.’

‘I am famous, but I am lonely.’

‘I am a millionaire, but I am not happy.’

It’s part of the human experience to be engulfed at times with feelings of restlessness and futility. This happens when we discover, sooner or later, that power, esteem and affluence cannot satisfy the real craving of the soul.

These feelings – sometimes described as spiritual hunger – can actually be good for us if they prompt spiritual inquiry, because the inquiry can lead to new life.

IT'S TIME FOR PERSONAL INQUIRY

Nearly everyone determines that at some time he’ll make a careful investigation into spiritual matters – about the purpose of life, about God, about the Bible, about the here-after – and that he will develop a solid personal theology to be the underpinning for his life.

But for most people, this never happens because such a comprehensive inquiry is pushed forward from day to day, month to month, year to year. Usually, people die without ever doing it.

The reason most people never get to the big issue is because they don’t know where to begin. Without some help and organization, swirling spiritual thoughts can become mind-boggling and inconclusive.

That’s why this resource was written. It gives an inquirer a framework for identifying and working through the issues one-by-one, and it shows the conclusions of others who have gone through the same investigation process; plus it gives citations to the Bible as an aid for personal research.

Anyone who reads and understands the 66 Topics presented within this website will, in the process, develop a strong personal theology. He’ll know who he is in relationship to God and others, and he’ll know his eternal destiny. Everything about life will become much clearer, accompanied by a heightened sense of self worth and purpose.

SPIRITUAL DISCOVERY IS EXCITING

Some people regard the spiritual dimension of life as mysterious and even frightening, something to avoid if possible. Others regard it as an exhilarating new frontier to be explored.

Actually, there are two sides of it: the dark side and the light side. This site shows both sides, including, on the dark side, the grip of sin and the horror of hell. But emphasis here is on the light side – the good news that God will forgive our sin, empower us from within, and give us heaven rather than hell… all at no cost, right now. There’s no dark side if we truly understand and accept God's gift. It’s downright exciting!

The reader should view this website as discoveries along the way on a wonderful spiritual adventure.