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TPW:
This one is for you.
Terry
Is There a God?
At one time, there was no doubt. The entire population of the world knew there was A God. The entire population of the world was Adam and Eve. Now we number in the billions. Now we are far more educated. Now the vast majority of the world believes in either a false god, or no God. The vast majority of the world is in error, and those who are in error will spend eternity in terrible pain, their bodies filled with worms squirming and gnawing on the inside, burning in flames on the outside, yet surrounded by total darkness, able to hear only the screams and cursing of other lost souls. Eternal agony , no end, ever.
That is why I am writing this letter. I have no illusions about changing the world. Most everyone will go to Hell. The Bible says so. The Bible also says that God is not pleased when this happens. He created man to be His friend, to spend eternity in Heaven, with Him. This letter is not for the whole world. This letter is for you.
As I see it, because I do not want to ever see anyone suffer as those who are lost will suffer, my job is threefold. I must convince you that there is a God, I must show you which god is the true God, and I must tell you how to avoid Hell and end up in Heaven.
Let's start by supposing that you believe in evolution. Your ancestors crawled out of the slime, and over millions of years they evolved from blobs into apes. After more millions of years, the apes evolved into cave men, then into our present form.
Why not? Hey, the covered wagon evolved into the station wagon, then the mini van, and has now become the SUV. It can happen! The SUV is proof. Want more? The dugout canoe evolved into the rowboat, and is now the ocean liner. More proof. The pitiful plane put together by the Wright brothers became the Spirit of Saint Louis, and went on to become the Jumbo Jet. Ain't that enough proof that evolution is real?
The answer is NO! All these wonderful inventions were planned by a planner. They were designed by a designer. Made by a Maker. Evolution says there was no designer so there was no design. There was no planner, so there was no plan. It just happened!
If you believe that evolution just happens, put ten bolts, ten washers, and ten nuts into a paper bag. Now, shake the bag until all the washers position themselves on all the bolts, and all the nuts screw themselves onto the threads. May I suggest that you would wear out many paper bags, and probably wear out the items inside the bag before getting the desired result? If, by chance, you do get the desired result, try it again, but do not start with a bag or bolts or washers or nuts this time. Start with nothing, the way evolution is supposed to have started.
Evolution not only contends that things just happen. Evolution contends that as things happen, they improve. Dugouts become ocean liners, blobs become men who are capable of doing without God. If you want to prove or disprove this theory, simply neglect your lawn for five years. See how much it improves.
So much for evolution. Does that mean that there were no dinosaurs, or no giant sharks, or that the earth cannot be millions of year old? The answer is no. We know from fossil records that the dinosaurs and sharks existed. It is even possible , though unlikely, that the earth could be millions of years old. No one knows how long the time lapse was between Genesis, chapter two, and chapter three. Adam and Eve were created to live forever, to spend eternity with God, just as we are. Death did not exist until they sinned, and that may have been a million years after they were created, but as I said before, not likely. The fact that these fossils were found, some of them, under many feet of earth, or embedded in stone, does not have to be the result of millions of years. It could have well happened in the one year of the flood that killed off every man and animal that was not inside the ark. Archaeologists conducting digs in the Holy land today are finding cities mentioned as thriving as little as two thousand years ago, already buried under twenty feet of earth.
So forget evolution. Look around you. Study nature. There is order everywhere you look. Things working as planned by a Master Planner, designed by a Master Designer. The earth keeps going around the sun. Summer follows spring, daylight follows darkness. Women have babies, cats have kittens, dogs produce puppies. You can depend on it. It was no accident! The sun does not fall out of position, even though no strings or wires or posts hold it in place. Dark does not follow dark. Dogs do not produce turnips. Women do not have toasters, cats do not spawn salmon. Stuff like that does not "just happen".
All right! We have a wonderful plan. We were wonderfully designed! Who did it?
Certainly not a carved idol. Idols do not create men,. Men create idols. Whether it is a golden calf or a jade Buddha or a totem pole makes no difference. To trust in such a thing is to believe a lie, and condemn yourself to Hell.
Certainly not a holy cow, or a holy monkey, or a holy rat, or any other animal that the folks in India or Africa or anywhere else may worship. They are not gods; they are God's creations. The same thing can be said for the stars and planets. People at one time worshipped the moon, maybe some still do. The moon does control the tides, so it has more effect on men's lives than say, a temple full of holy monkeys, but it is still just a big lump of dirt. It cannot hear your prayers.
That pretty much narrows it down to living gods. Certain people in certain parts of the world have recognized different gods over the ages. Thor, Diana, Mercury, the Great Spirit , to give four examples. The Greeks and Romans had a passel of them, but not many people worship them any more.
That leaves us modern day types with only two to choose from, unless you go to the funny farm, where any number of residents may assure you that they are gods.
The two are Jehovah, perhaps better known as the God of the Jews and Christians, and Allah, the god of the Muslims.
My personal choice is Jehovah. Here's why. We who believe this way have a written record that dates back to the beginning of time as man understands time. Our God has told us everything we need to know about how we began and why we began. After explaining that to us, HE also explained a good portion of HIS plan for us. To prove that all of it is true, HE sent prophets and wise men to tell us ahead of time just what was going to happen. Some of what was foretold was written hundreds of years before it came to pass, and when it came to pass, it was as GOD said it would be. No happy accidents! One grand design! In due time, GOD sent HIS only son, our LORD JESUS, and just as was foretold in the old testament, GOD , the Son, came to live among us, to explain GOD to us, to teach us, then to die in our place, to pay for our sins, to restore the relationship that Adam had with GOD, so that we could live eternally with HIM, as it was in the beginning. Not a fairy tale. A written record of the facts, witnessed by thousands of people.
One very important thing to see here is that Jesus was not someone who did not exist until the first Christmas. Jesus has always existed, as the word of GOD tells us in the book of Genesis, chapter one, in the old testament, and in the Gospel of John in the new testament.
That is why I believe in GOD, the Father, and GOD, the son. There is a written record of events, from the beginning until now, and a written plan for the future, that I can count on, because it has been proven to be true in the past.
I believe because there is evidence of a great plan and a grand design that is so obvious that it is impossible to miss it.
I believe because GOD has kept HIS promises to me. I believe because HE hears my prayers, and answers. Most of all, I believe because GOD has revealed HIMSELF to me in the form of the Holy Spirit, that third guy who was there in the beginning. The Holy Spirit lives in me, leads me, comforts me and controls me, just as HE does every true believer.
Now! I have mentioned three personalities who were there in the beginning. There was a fourth one there in the beginning. His name is Satan. When Jesus described him, HE referred to him as liar, and said the truth was not in him. Sadly, Satan was once a beautiful angel, created by GOD, but he was not content to worship GOD. He wanted to be worshipped himself. Because of this, he was cast out of heaven, along with one third of all the angels, who sided with him against GOD. Please note! Satan is not busy running Hell. Hell was created for Satan and his angels, and anyone else who dies unsaved. Satan will eventually spend some time there before being cast into the lake of fire, but for now, he is the prince of this world, he roams the earth, still lying, still defying GOD. Because he has had thousands of years of experience, He is a convincing liar. He knows what lies work and which ones do not. He will convince you that there is no God, or that a cow is God, or that a statue is God, or that Allah is God.
You already know about the cows and statues and evolution, so let me say a word about Allah. In a word, he is one of Satan's better lies. According to the Bible, the one that the Jews call Jehovah, was also known as the GOD of Abraham, the father of Isaac, the father of Jacob, the father of the nation of Israel. Yet the Muslims claim that Allah was the god of Abraham, the father of Ishmael, Isaac's bastard half brother, who became father of the Arabs. The Muslims also claim to know this because the prophet Mohammed revealed it to them. Just a couple of flaws in their thinking.
1. Mohammed did not come along until six hundred years after Jesus was resurrected.
2. God never, anywhere in the Bible, predicts Mohammed will come.
3. Allah was not there in the beginning, and is never mentioned in the Bible. 4. Jesus is risen. Mohammed is still buried.
5. As someone else pointed out, GOD sent HIS son to die for you. Allah wants you to send your son to die for him. Which one would you rather worship?
Satan is the father of lies. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. Take your pick. One is doomed to the lake of fire and wants to take you with him. One wants you to live forever in a place where there is no sin, no pain, no want . You cannot straddle the fence. You must choose a side. If you refuse to make Jesus your Lord, you automatically make Satan your Lord. That's not me making an idle threat. That is what the Bible says.
Hopefully, by now you are convinced that there is a GOD, and you now know who the true GOD is. In the third paragraph those were two of the goals of this letter. The third goal was to tell you how to avoid Hell and go to Heaven.
The Bible says that you must believe that Jesus is the Savior, the son of GOD, sacrificed in your place, to pay for your sins. Some people will tell you that that is the whole thing, nothing else required, but the Bible says that Satan believes all that, and he is going to Hell for sure, so don't stop there. The other thing you need to do is repent. Repent is not some mystical word. To repent simply means to turn and go in another direction. In the Biblical sense, you turn, from your sins, to Jesus. You stop doing wrong and start doing right. You stop doing things your way, and start doing things your Lord's way. Jesus demands that, not to show who is boss, but to show you a better way than the one you now live. Jesus wants what is best for you! You may not see it at first, but it becomes more and more obvious when you walk with HIM.
That is about all I can say to convince you. The real conviction has to come from the Holy Spirit. If something inside you is telling you that the above is true, and you need a Savior, that is the Holy Spirit at work. If you feel nothing, or see this as a bunch of garbage, there is nothing more I can add to change your mind.
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, find a quiet place where the two of you can be alone, and speak back. This is called prayer. Tell the Holy Spirit what you think. He will understand, even if you do not know quite how to put it. GOD reads the heart, not the lips.
Please do not put off your decision. No one is promised another day to think about it.
If you have any questions, the answers are in THE BOOK.
If you have trouble finding them, let me know how I can help you. If I don't know, I will ask someone who does.
Terry, the less than perfect Saint.
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