Religion: A Controversial Topic

Religion

For me it is a no-brainier that we as mankind and our universe were created. That dictates that there has to be a higher power that did the creating. What do you believe?

Belief in God is now and always has been my center. Without this belief, why are we here. Are we only here to live and die, nothing more? If so, why do we want a meaning for our existence? If we are just to be born, live a few years then die, why do we fear death? 

Some people believe that we are born, live and then die and go to heaven if we are good or hell if we are not. If this is so, why are all the good people not wanting to die? Don't we all want to be with God?

God created the earth as a place for Man to live and heaven for the spirit creatures to live. Think about this, what was the punishment for their (Adam and Eve) disobedience? It was death. So if we are to die and go to heaven to be with God, what would be the punishment in that? That sounds like a reward. 

So you say Adam and Eve went to hell.

But what about the scripture at 1 John 4:8 "He that does not love has not come to know God, because God is love." Would a loving God condemn sinners to a burning torment? It is hard to believe that a loving God would do this. As parents would we punish our children with a fiery torment because they disobey us? Do we love our children any more than God loves his creation? NO! The punishment was death, to cease to live or exist. At Genesis 2:15-17 it says the following

"And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of E′den to cultivate it and to take care of it. And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”

There is nothing there about Heaven or Hell. Consider Ecclesiastes 8:5 as it speaks of the condition of the dead.

"For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten." 

Scripturally, death is a state of nonexistence. The dead have no awareness, no feelings, no thoughts. This is something that a loving God would do to those who sin against him.

What would have happened had Adam and Eve not sinned against God? If their punishment for sin was death doesn't it stand to reason that if they had never sinned they would never have died? If they had never sinned then their offspring would not be imperfect, they would never have died either. It was their sin that made them and us imperfect. It was/is this imperfection that result in death. Where would the world of mankind be if Adam had not sinned?

Another thought, what would be the purpose of Jesus sacrifice if when we are good we go to heaven and if we are bad we go to hell. His sacrifice would be useless. But if it were as the scripture found at John 3:16 says we would have "everlasting life"...

 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."

Jesus died so that we could live forever. So why do we still die?

More to Come