Well, I'm not exactly sure why I'm getting into this. I guess I feel a clarification is in order, as most people do not at all have an accurate view of Christianity. I suppose this is my interpretation of why things are the way they are. Sorry, but it's long.<br><br>I think there are a very great number of people who believe there is a God; where God is responsible for creating and setting our universe and world in motion, as well as the creation of life. My purpose here is not to debate whether or not there is a God, but more to illustrate who I think He is. The problem is that a great many people fail to trudge the the "religions of man", and even cults, in their search for who God really is, and how they can reach heaven when they leave this world, reality, or whatever you want to call it.<br><br>If you start In the beginning, God created everything that we see exists. Most scholars agree that the "days" of creation as referred to in the original Hebrew were metaphoric, and did not represent actual 24 hour rotations of our globe. Further, the original Hebrew text in the beginning of Genesis refers to a recreation or reshaping of the earth, as opposed to its first creation. It can be argued that the earth was populated before humanity, and these eras were populated with creatures. Perhaps they met their end in a way similar to the holocaust referred to in Revelation, when the earth will be purged. But I digress from my real topic.<br><br>God, being perfect, would create a self-sufficient, self-sustaining, self-replicating system. If you were perfect, would you not create something perfectly balanced, so that once set it motion it need not be tweaked or maintained ever again? You could then watch it unfold and grow for your pleasure. Well, that was how humans, Eden, and all its creatures (which are subordinate to and for the pleasure of humans) were created. Perfect health, perfect balance. Humans were created for God's pleasure and for companionship. He created intelligent, sentient beings that he could walk with, and talk to, and enjoy what decisions and thoughts they produced without His manipulation. They were to worship Him - of their free will. Of course who could not worship such a God when seen in that perfection.
Everything was about "free will". It had to be a choice to worship God - he already has ministering angels that were created just to worship Him (btw, when people die and go to heaven they do not get wings and become angels - they are a different species). Hence the Tree of "the knowledge of good and evil", and it's infamous apple. All it was was a choice. It was an opportunity for sin and failure that had to exist for humans to have free will. Satan is a whole different topic. As a quick note, Satan is not "God's evil equal", like a yin-yang thing. He is a fallen angel, who deceived and caused an additional large number of other angels to follow him and also be kicked out of heaven for eternity. That occurred before Adam and Eve, and the only real power Satan has on this earth is the power usurped or granted to him by believers.<br>Back to the topic.
After partaking of the apple, hence sinning and disobeying God, everything was compromised. As my dad likes to say "God has no plan B". In other words, what God creates is perfect, and that is the way it should be. When Adam and Eve sinned, they brought upon themselves, and unfortunately for us, a curse upon their descendants (humanity). Their bodies were compromised, and now every human is destined to die eventually. I believe their very DNA was corrupted, and we may not even look exactly the same as Adam and Eve. I also believe at that point everything created for humans was cursed as well. Thus every living thing was similarly cursed (again, as mankind had dominion over all other living things, and they were created for our pleasure, they were taken down as well). Hence that is the state of things. All is compromised. Our ancestors sinned and thus had to be removed from the grace of God, as they were unpure and with sin, and cannot exist in His perfect presence in such a state.<br>So, from that time on a sacrificial system was in place. Mankind had to sacrifice the purest things they could produce or acquire in order to attempt to bridge the gap to God. Of course nothing in this world (or perhaps universe) is pure, so there could be no perfect sacrifice to offset Adam and Eve's sin. Hence Christ. He descended from heaven to be become a common man - but he was without sin. Thus he could be that sacrifice to offset Adam and Eve's sin. Hence (most) Christianity believes that the way to heaven and righteousness, and back to our original intended place, is to proclaim what Christ is and what he did for us. That's it. No other prophet (Mohammed, etc) has ever said "I am the way". They could only say "I've been enlightened more than you - follow me to the truth", Jesus said "I am the truth".<br><br>Sooooo, the whole works-justification thing ("he was more of a good person than a bad person while he was alive - so he gets to go to heaven" ) is wrong. As unfortunate and unfair as it is, Adam and Eve did us in. God provided a
gift in what Christ did. It was - had to be - something that we did not deserve. God doesn't want humanity to fail, or for us to go to hell, but we had to be given a choice in Eden, and we choose wrong. Technically we should all go to hell, but again, Christ provided that perfect sacrifice for us, and gave us an opportunity to make things right with God.<br><br>So, I don't know what all that accomplishes for you. Religions were not created by God. Churches were not created by God. They are a institutions created on this earth by humans, in an attempt to find the truth about God and the bible, and to enlighten others with what they believe. Paul, who was one of the closest and most enlightened disciples, who wrote most of the New Testament and walked in-person with Christ, lamented how very little we see or know about the Truth and God, and what is really "behind the scenes".<br>Hmm, I guess one of my points to all of this is that Churches and religions are falliable and with error. So don't let that discourage your seeking God.<br><br>Dan East
