The Book I read is “Why The Universe Is The Way It is” by Hugh Ross
In the book, he discusses how humans are constantly trying to recreate Eden or blot-it-out. Today, it seems getting rid of God is getting easier where people’s lifestyle or control of government have become Gods from:
1. Gender is fluid-break Eden story-no more-man and woman gender not a man-construct-biology points to a creator.
Problem: Equity Act forces religious people to produce products, hire people, teach, and go against their morals and beliefs. This Act could force churches to hire staff members who reject the church’s religious or moral beliefs
Problem: Ministries will be required to open their sex- specific facilities to members of the opposite sex which has been instituted in schools against the biological separation of boys and girls
Problem: Places like shelters threaten to force their women’s shelter for victims of domestic violence to transgender men with no separation
Problem: Children shown pornography in safe environments like school & given drugs and guidance on gender identification without consent of parents. Students making life altering decisions before mature enough to even decide it is good to drink or smoke
2. New Green Deal-save the planet from destruction but also being green means no more racism
-Problem is if government gets full control of energy then it has full control of the economy, so they demonize fossil fuels by pushing they create carbon dioxide. Easiest way to destroy a country is by taking away cheap fuel like coal. This is why America has been so successful with independence and freedoms, but if we are broken and destroyed as other countries see our government’s agenda will not follow but watch as the most industrial country’s economy is destroyed. U.S. global warming is not an environmental issue but is used as a way to redistribute wealth in the America.
3. Man’s greed and need for power and control will collapse what has made America unique which is capitalism: it is not a belief system, but economic freedom and liberty
-problem: private property-why own stuff if you object to owning private property
-problem: pricing mechanism- food vehicles vs. rationing, there is no 3rd option to allocate resources
3. Trading you labor for a wage vs. indentured servitude slave labor
Above are examples of humanity as we strive to control what we cannot. We are destructive left to our own devices. We find ways to be divided if it isn’t racism then move to mask mandates and vaccine mandates. Group identity is a powerful motivator, but the truth is humans have no power-we cannot predict our death or become full ruler over Earth or the universe. God is in control over all: antifa, black lives matter, Marxism, Socialism, etc...can destroy civilization, but in the end every person will have to decide to continue with Satan’s evil on this Earth or believe in Jesus who will come back to end life on Earth as we know it and bring us into a new kingdom.
You wake up everyday and you are in charge of your choices. Free-will means you are deliberate in choices you make. Just because you become a believer you don’t give up free will. The battle of the spirit is the most difficult challenge to overcome. I’ve always heard of “timeless eternity” but I read in this book that “time-full eternity” as being more accurate because in eternity in God’s new kingdom as new creations we will be busy. Leaving behind the laws of decay- no more death, mourning, sadness, etc….Makes me reread Revelation in a different light along with all the scriptures that mention that prediction of Jesus’ second coming last day where Jesus welcomes his followers into his new kingdom.
This book connects biblical texts with scientist’s discoveries about the universe and then looks at natural history and current events.
Interesting facts that humans seem to think they can control:
-Physical life is impossible without carbon, Earth is sufficiently carbon-rich and carbon-poor
-Physical life cannot exist in a universe with a mass density any less or any more
-Mass provides two life-essential features simultaneously: 1. just-right amounts and diversity of elements, 2. just-right expansion rates throughout cosmic history so that certain types of stars and planets form at the just-right times and in the just-right locations
-History of the universe had to be just right like the universe expanding at just-right rates at just-right times for life to be possible
-Particular laws: physics that govern the universe
-140 features of the cosmos as a whole including the laws of physics that must fall in narrow range to make life possible (life in universe)
-402 quantifiable characteristics of a planetary system and its galaxy that must fall in narrow range to make life possible (intelligent physical life)
-824 characteristics of galaxy and of a planetary system that makes physical life possible (various life forms & required for advanced life)
Earth just the right age to support humanity:
***Universe has been around 13.73 billion years
-Heavy metal rich planet like Earth took 9 billion years to to build just-right amount of heavy metal richness
-Certain elements that are even dangerous play crucial role in making Earth suitable for human habitation such as radiation which releases energy
-Balance of Earth’s continents, oceans, sun, and Earth’s strong long-lasting magnetic field-sustains Earth for habitation
-Sun had to age to 4.5-4.6 billion years old to allow for advanced life and civilization to be viable
-Fresh water separates from salted water-separation of minerals
-Advanced life on Earth needs rotation rate of 24 hours per day-Tidal interaction with the moon and sun slowed the Earth’s rotation-took 4.5 billion years to build oxygen rich planetary atmosphere and advances photosynthetic life-essential
-Universe had to build up of resources and old age for astronomers to be able to study its history and structure
-Lights in atmosphere transparent enough to observe the most distant objects in the universe
-Physics: Dark energy & gravity
-Astronomers-discovered 280 extrasolar planets orbiting more than 230 stars but none in existence capable of supporting advanced life or civilization
-Diameter of Earth: distance between Earth-Moon-Sun
***discovery: Earth does not reside at the center of the solar system, nor does the solar system reside anywhere near the center of the Milky Way
-Earth holds neither a central nor favored position in the universe-Copernicus
-Earth’s life protected behind a radiation shield
Earth is in prime location:
-Milky Way Galaxy’s spiral arms symmetrical and evenly spaced with respect to one another and approximately the same size
-no collusion or merger events so the galaxy resides no blast of radiation
-advanced life not possible in typical galaxy clusters
-Stars drive spiral arm structure
-gas & dust from dwarf galaxies is absorbed by Earth’s galaxy every 1 billion years and if not would collapse
-Galaxies reside in clusters and Earth’s location favors life’s needs
Placement of Earth:
Milky Way resides in darkest life-habitable region of its galaxy cluster
Dark Moon:
Moon must be as big as it is for humans to exist
Moon’s proximity to Earth stabilizes tilt of the Earth’s rotation axis
Moon reflects 7% of incidental light
Tides:
Cleanse coastal sea waters from toxins & enrich nutrients
Planets:
are in order for a reason
Gas planets block asteroids & comets
Solar system’s planets are fine tuned to make Earth inhabitable and provide protection for all life
Cosmic darkness: dark matter resides in large distributed halos that don’t collapse
Gravity:
matter attracts matter-matter tends to concentrate toward the center of any aggregate of mass
Design & Purpose:
-someone wanted human beings to exist and thrive
-someone wanted us to see all he had done in the universe
-Humans have an innate sense of purpose-sense of destiny
-Able to observe cosmos for a particular reason
-someone planned and prepared for humans to exist and thrive at this unique time and locale in the universe-
Innumerable conditions to support humanity and civilization:
-Earth’s rotation: Tidal forces on Earth by sun and even more by moon keeps the planet’s rotation rate to 24 hours per day-Creation of day and night-Ideal for human life
-Fossil fuels: Bacteria in crust turns into petroleum into natural gas-human life only able to thrive due to petroleum exploitation and coal formation at the exact and equal timing for Earth to support human life
-Solar stability: Sun’s radiation is consistent to sustain global human civilization, layers of life remove greenhouse gases from atmosphere in just right amounts to compensate the Sun’s heat-producing solar luminosity
-Human era coincides with the ideal surface temperature and ideal abundance and diversity of plants to support civilization
-Need of removal greenhouse gases so need plant photosynthesis for livelihood
-Carbon dioxide is necessary for efficient photosynthesis
-Less plants = less animals = affect humans
-Perfect eclipses: humanity’s arrival in the solar system coincides with eclipse window
-Plate tectonics: lifting of continental landmasses timing perfect for human life-land mass perfect size, shape, distribution, and elevation, positions of continents, islands, and oceans optimal for human civilization
-Humans arrive on Earth too early-radiation exposure of volcanoes and earthquakes would be destructive, Later- no nutrient-rich volcanic soil to sustain human life-essential
**Lineup of so many independent time windows with the brief human moment on the cosmic calendar speaks powerfully of purpose-Creator of such an environment must possess unfathomable power, genius, and resources
Drive of Preservation: Unique Human Drive
-Human: only species that internally has worth and purpose-
-Drive for preservation: Evolution tries to define life through natural selection where the strongest survive, but is debunked when not answer where the drive of life-forms to preserve its own life and that of its offspring. How and who developed the drive in the first place?
-Unique to humans: No just desire of self-preservation, but powerful drives for discerning the meaning of life, conscious decisions, value, hope, purpose, destiny, wealth, humanitarianism, spirituality, sense of fulfillment, legacy-these drives are beyond physical survival, but a sense of well-being
-Manifested motivations have not changed in humans over thousands of years
Afterlife: Physical laws of the universe serve to limit the expression of human evil and to prepare willing individuals for life in a realm where evil does not exist
Realm:
Humanity pops up in the just-right time window for astronomers to observe the universe and all of its history and virtually the only possible location within the vastness of the cosmos where these features can be seen
Decaying of the Universe:
-Same physical law that governs the decay process also makes physical life possible
-The same heat transfer from hot bodies to cold is same heat dissipation that makes life possible
-Predominance of decay, or heat dissipation, makes Earth suitable home for physical life
-Humans can’t control or stop the stars or the sun from burning out
All basic life functions depends on just enough heat flow that affects protein structures and complex metabolic rate-certain amount of hear flow must exist for physical life-essential
-A universe without protons and neutrons is a universe without atoms and molecules, physical life can’t exist
Ch. 8 Scientific Research
-universe, Milky Way Galaxy, the solar system, and Earth is perfect vehicle for humanity’s
universe’s size, mass, age, and distribution of matter all fine-tuned to allow life to exist
-universe exists for the specific purpose of providing a bountiful home for human beings and equipping them resources to launch and maintain a global high-tech civilization
-our universe’s extremely fine-tuned
**atheists and agnostics attempt to sidestep compelling evidence for a purposeful design of the universe-they argue that the universe’s extremely fine-tuned characteristics were by pure chance
Ch. 9 Cosmic Owner’s Manual
Bible:
Scripture’s capacity to accurately, consistently, and uniquely predict scientific discoveries centuries, even millennia
Gen. 1:1, 2:3-4; Ps.148:5; Isa. 40:26, 42:5, 45:18; John 1:3; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 11:3
-universe had a beginning
-infinite past
-space time dimensions
-physics of our cosmic beginning
-Hebrew verb: bard = creation, Gen. 1:1 making of that which did not previously existence
-Old Testament Moses & Prophets identified Creator as originator of matter, energy, space, & time
-New Testament Hebrews 11:3 speaks “The universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible”
-Researchers can detect matter, energy, and all the spacetime dimensions
Biblically speaking what is time?
-Time has not always existed, but began with universe’s creation
-Humans are trapped in time, where time is linear and cannot be halted or reversed, so anything could exist before time defies imagination
-Time limits of humans: uni dimensional, unstoppable, irreversible
-No human can step outside of time, freeze time, or go back in time
-Humans can only have linear relationships with each other
-Universe encompasses all matter, energy, space, and time
-Humans cannot manipulate time: we only see it in one-dimension-we can’t stop or reverse time
-Human can’t get outside the cosmic dimension and observe all properties of time
-Time can be seen through the 2nd law of Thermodynamics: law of continuously increasing entropy (means physical processes like order to disorder & heat flows from hot source to cold sources)
-Cosmic model: obeys an averaged expansion condition is required for life to be possible is traceable back within finite time to an actual beginning of space and time-full
-Time is experienced by humans: relational property of time- without time people would not have relationships-the correlation is the depth, significance, and reward or conflict experienced through time invested can be identified by humans
Proverbs 8:23-24, John 1:1-3, 1 Corinthians 2:7, 2 Timothy 1:9 refers to God’s activities “before the beginning of time”
-Einstein: Relativity theory established relationships between matter and space-time and between energy and space-time (space & time created when the universe began)
-1st Law of Thermodynamics: total amount of matter and energy within the universe can neither be increased or decreased (there is a cause & effect so from nothingness-spontaneous-produced something we could see now
Scientific Community:
-Confirmed the biblical description of the creation of the universe
-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, Zechariah, and psalmist declare the universe is expanding and has continually expanded from it beginning (Job 9:8, Psalm 104:2, Isaiah 40:22, 42:5, 44:24, 45:12, 48:13, 51:13, Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15, Zechariah 12:1)
-Jeremiah adds details that the laws of physics are fixed (Jer. 33:25)
-Old and New testament: laws governing the cosmos have not changed (Gen. 1-3, Eccles. 1:4-11 & 3:15, Romans 8:18-23, Revelation 20:7-22:5)
-Paul in Romans declares entire creation is subject to the law of decay (2nd law of thermodynamics)-(Romans 8:20-22, Psalm 104:2, Isaiah 40:22)
-Job 9:8 declares that God alone is responsible for the universe’s stretching
-Bible: laws of physics have remained constant throughout cosmic history and that the entire universes is subject to those laws (law of decay & second law of thermodynamics)-dictates that the universe must get progressively colder as it gets older
***cosmic beginning, continuous expansion from that beginning, and never-changing physical law
Bible Earth’s Feature:
-Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and earth (the universe)”
***entirely covered with water, wrapped in darkness, devoid of life, unfit for life-essential
-Deuteronomy 32:11 describes God’s giving birth and care to the Israelite nation as a mother eagle’s brooding over her hatchlings
***Scientific discoveries affirm these biblical depictions of Earth’s and life’s early history
-Gen. 1:3 Earth’s atmosphere became translucent
***Research indicates early date of life’s origin of 3.8 billion years ago, timing is constant
-Gen 1:2 Earth’s first life was marine and fits with research data
-Gen 1:6-8 water cycle, build up of landmasses,
-Gen 1:14-15 Earth’s atmosphere, oxygen, complex animal life
-Gen 1:20 stage for swarms of sea creature
-Gen 1: 20-21 1st land mammals (genetics)
-Gen 1: 24-25 describes different types of animals
-Gen 2:2 1st humans: fossil records reveal species and 1st appearance of humans
***No new animals after human created
Bible: Role of People:
-Genesis: creation narrative
-Humans given nepesh in Hebrew that refers to “soulish” quality, intelligence, emotounal endowments, and capacity to relate to people make them unique (Job 39) -
-Humans have capacity to communicate with God
-Humans (Gen 1:27) created in his own image with spiritual dimension, awareness of “self”, Imagination, thoughts, feelings, curiosity beyond what basic survival, reproduction needs, and playfulness, motivations, reflection, meditation, worship, explosion of culture
-DNA: traces back to one man and one woman who lived than 100,000 years ago
-People communicate and relate at a level that is unique among all creatures (Gen. 3)
-Humans given free will-make own decisions about good and evil
-Creator endowed creation with curiosity and capacity to investigate his clues
-Creator given 2 ways to relate to God and know he exists: Bible and Nature
Points:
-Earth is a testimony of God (Paul & Banabus remind people of 2,000 years ago creator has shown kindness by giving rain from heaven which provides crops, plenty of food, and fill hearts with joy(Acts 14:17)
-Earth given over-endowed for humanity’s survival
-Evidence from nature and Bible’s message offer a consistent answer
Imperfect Universe:
-universe’s physical laws did not change when Adam and Eve ate from the tree (Gen. 2:9, 3:22)
-Their freely choice brought about spiritual death (separation from God) invaded creation, physical death became a blessing, this is an avenue through which God could temper the outbreak of evil and suffering
-There was power in the tree of life, but God made a plan for redemption: Humans are the only creation that knows and feels good vs. evil
-God limits the spread of evil-people pursuit of virtue and love between humankind and God
-Concept of evil cannot arise in a “neutral” universe, one without a divine Maker
-Look at physics, mathematics, science, philosophy, theology (limits imposed by space, time, matter, energy, and the laws which they interact)
-Adam: Garden required maintenance(Gen. 2:15)-work the land, tend it plants, care for animals
-Natural Evils: storms, earthquakes, floods, and fires crucial role in distributing and replenishing essential nutrients for life, so as they destroy they also rebuild Earth
-Humans are created in God’s image so they have free-will
-Humans image have capacity to exercise choice in priorities, values, relationships, deep fulfillment
-Free choice leads to expressions of virtue, justice, mercy, and joy
****Gives life meaning
-Bible doesn’t leave out the story of Satan (Ezek. 28:12-19, Isa. 14:13-14, Rev. 12: 1-9)
Purpose:
1. Creator wanted Humans to exist: Humanity’s story in relation to God’s ultimate intent
2. Creator created universe and diverse life forms to support humanity’s well-being (Job 12:7,8 tells us that the animals, birds, fish, sea, and earth are teachers of God’s creation theme)
-DNA & RNA & Proteins resemble machines, computers, and interfaces humans build and use
-Cells are like factories that are organized as transportation systems, repair sites, command & control centers. Cells are efficient and reliable
-Cells: tiny molecule help demonstrate what it means to be created in the “image of God”
3. Universe reflects God’s divine nature (Psalm 8)-awe and wonder of creation’s unlimited space, time, matter, and energy – God’s handiwork
***Bible is a book of nature
4. God reveals to show us our own human nature (Job 39)
-Personal observation confirms countless stories from all parts of the globes
-Sin and evil causes devastation (ex. Extinction damage) Paul in Romans 8:22 speaks of whole creations groaning & Isaiah 59:2-15 states humanity’s treatment of Earth and its creatures exposes selfishness, greed, foolishness, and arrogance
***animals and plants reveals God, but human arrogance has caused the damage done
5. Gen 1:28 tells humans to be fruitful and multiply
-Jesus commands his disciples to go make disciples in all nations (Matt. 28:19)
-Universe physical laws, timing, and layering of life on Earth gives humans all the necessary resources for life
6. Humans are supernaturally positioned with the best possible view to observe the universe:age, extent, content, and hundreds of other features
7. Universe created in way to protect humans from a future touched by evil-humans have free will and understand how to express love which is a reflection of love by God to humanity
***universe’s physics and dimensions will conquest and remove all evil (no more suffering)
8. Humans have choice of moving from spiritual death to spiritual life (submission to God’s authority)
-Jesus reflected character traits of our creator and became our rescuer
-Angels exist (Eph. 3:10, 3: 8-11, 1 Cor. 4:49, 1 Peter 1:12, Luke 15:10, 1 Cor. 4:9, 6:3, 11:10, Heb. 1:14, 12:2,1 Peter 1:12)
***Universe’s design gives clear view and deeper understanding of God as angels serve, reveal his grace, and plans for the future
9. God’s Rescue plan from confines of earthly life in a human body in the midst of human nature-need redemption as humans are sin-marred creatures
-Jesus came to remove the confines and penalty of justice which is spiritual death
-Jesus made available individual forgiveness and redemption (1 John 1:7-10, 5:11-12, Matt. 5:16-22, 27-28)
-From Adam humanity sins against God and wrongdoing of others deserves a penalty, but Jesus brought forgiveness so humans can remove the darkness inside them-Jesus provides path the spiritual light and eternal life
10. Faith is available as a free gift
-Jesus perfect and complete sacrifice gives us the opportunity to live beyond the cosmos with him, but free-will humans can choose to go into the beyond apart from him
11. Universe equipped for human beings to vision of coming creation “heaven”
-new creation is a place where God’s people forever live in new realm
(1 Cor. 6:2-3, 1 Peter 2:9, Rev. 20:6,
-Humans assigned to carry God’s message of love, life, and truth (John 1:5, 2:17-24, 3:16-24, 4:2-12, 16-19)
-Believers teach God’s message in all ethnic groups to become followers of Christ (Matt. 28: 18-20)
-Believers teach God’s message with gentleness, respect, and clear conscience (1 Peter 3: 15-16)
12. God made universe the way to help accomplish the ultimate eternal triumph of good over evil
-Peter and Paul reveal that even the angels long to see and understand God’s new realm
-God made way to rescue fallen human creatures from themselves and any future rebellion (1 Cor. 4:9, Eph. 3:10, 1 Peter 1:12)
Questions and Curses:
-why an all-loving, all-powerful creator would subject humans to the tribulations and tragedies of this world
-Reason: Humanity’s capacity to commit evil is unique as created in his image so not make robots, but human’s with free-will and morality
-Reason: inclination to commit evil implies that such traits were not accidents of nature
-Reason: scientific evidence provides a reasonable basis for humanity’s hope that the experiences of life, good and bad, mean something and lead somewhere
-Reason: Life today (laws of physics) reveals impact on behavior and training has present and future purposes and how it relates to the paradox of evil as well as prepare individuals for life in the new creations
-Biblical descriptions of event in Eden: 1st humans chose to eat from the tree of life-natural laws expose immorality of 1st humans-enter giving into the spreader of evil
-Curses: Adam and Eve chose to rebel (Gen. 3: 17-19) and the consequences of the fall of man affects the environment
*Curse not on world as the laws of the universe not change or the physics of Earth not altered (Jer. 33: 25-26 declared the heavens and Earth are as “fixed” as God’s promises to Israel)
*Apostle Paul said the entire universe-space time realm-is subject to the law of decay (Romans 8:18-23)
Consequences: Eden-Adam worked so his efforts brought pleasure and satisfaction, but outside of Eden work became strained and frustrating and even agonizing. God told them as they left Eden they would now experience more pain and more work (Gen 3:16 Eve’s pain in childbirth & Adam would be ruler over her)
*humans practice evil, they experienced additional pain and work (ex. Child making foolish choices, strife between husband and wife, balance of authority, and sustaining harmony)
Divine Rescue: Nature:
- natural disasters “acts of God” in context with laws of physics and space time dimensions, the forces behind such disasters are all designed to deliver significant benefit for humanity
-Humans: If you build in places that are fully known to have natural disasters then how is that God’s fault
-Humans: Not appreciate nature can destroy what is productive to keep human kind fruitful
-Humans: Greed and abuse of land like over-logging which effects mountains and soils so causes worse flooding and avalanches
-Humans: Abuse of workers affects productivity and creativity, maltreatment resulted no motivation, authority abuse removes justice, offenders have no consequences
-Humans: Laws of physics teacher people how to make good choices-less deterioration means to not make poor choices, encourage right choices to take care of the Earth provided for productive life-essential
-Humans: Harder to change behavior when everything is too comfortable
-Time limitations help restrict amount of damage any one person can inflict on others (life spans)
-Humans: Years of suppressing active fire movements so human consequence wilderness overgrown and more dangerous and fire much more destructive-consequences in nature-
-Links between laws of physics & cosmic space time dimensions been in effect for 13.73 billion years, so in Bible “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:21)
-Book of Revelation (20: 11-15) redemption of God’s children, great white throne judgment
-God spoke the universe into existence he will speak it out (Psalms 33:6,9, Isa. 65:17, Rev. 20:11, 21: 1-4)
-Revelation (21: 4) describes the new creation that will one day replace the universe as a place without decay, death, or cause of grief: God will replace the universe with a realm that includes unlimited relationships, intimacy, love, pleasure, and fulfillment
-Humans: Can’t eliminate evil, every individual has gone astray (Romans 3: 8-20)- all humans have moral/spiritual shortcomings
-Old Testament: Job(9:2, 14, 33, 10:14) believed there was a redeemer for him, he concluded that unless someone interceded between him and God he would have not destiny, he also pointed to nature if carefully examined revealed a powerful wide Creator who was loving enough to provide a means of redemption (Job 9:4, 10:12, 12:10)
-Job wrote I know my redeemer lives (14:17), so he put his trust in the redemptive act by his Creator
-Earth: laws of physics and space time dimensions prove his moral perfection, model the humanity and meekness required of us, pay the full penalty for our moral failure, and prove his power over evil, death, physics, and dimensions
-OT: interventions in nature(miracles) and through words he have human spokesman(prophets)
prepared way for a fully human yet fully divine Jesus of Nazareth to accomplish what Adam and Eve could not-He resisted enticement to act on his own, departing from perfect obedience to the Father’s will, and even in midst of suffering, fatigue, hunger, ridicule, torture, rejections, and anticipation of carrying all of humanity’s sin as he was executed on the cross. Jesus
-Jesus demonstrated his power over nature’s elements and laws: turned water into wine, calmed the seas, walked on water, multiplying food, restoring sight, curing disease, and reversing decay in death
-Jesus demonstrated his power over the supernatural by commanding demons(fallen angels) to do his bidding, he used Satan as a pawn that allowed religious leaders and corrupt politicians to carry out Christ’s execution
-Jesus death fulfilled the ultimate purpose to suffer the full penalty for all humanity’s sin throughout all time and space, for eternity
-Jesus proved he is the door between the cosmos with its space, time, matter, and energy to a greater realm beyond (ex. He moved through grave clothes Matt 27:62-66)
-Jesus for 7 weeks was physically real, but unbound by space-time dimensions and laws of physics: Gravity had not hold on him by his resurrections and ascension into heaven
(Matt, 28: 1-20, Luke 24: 1-53, John 20:10-21, 23, 1 Cor. 15:3-8, Acts 1:1-11)
Destiny for Humanity:
Christianity: 2 creation model of reality: Earth is humanity’s present home, but removal of all evil will lead believers to the new creation will forever be free of evil and suffering
-this universe prepares humans for the new creations
**Humans are constantly trying to recreate Eden or Blot it out
Christianity: God is for humans, not against them; helps us cope with life’s challenges including effects of sin and evil, troubles and trials are seen as preparation of individuals to partake in his new kingdom
**Humans are limited to one dimension so hard to accept supernatural source as it is beyond human capacity to imagine
Christianity: 1st home, Earth, is temporal, but the 2nd is eternal. The old Earth and universe will be removed from existence (Romans 8: 18-25, Revelation 20-21)
How to get to new kingdom:
-turning from self rule and submitting to God as the first and final authority
-accept the terms of transformation by the Holy Spirit (John 3:16, John 14: 2, Revelation 21-22)
-receive God’s gift to enter his presence in new kingdom (Romans 8:18-25, Revelation 20-22)
**promise Jesus not coming back until whole world has chance to receive Jesus-reward in belief is an eternity free forever from sin and its consequences (Revelation 20: 12-13, John 14:1, Revelation 20-22)
-Humans have free will: It is a deliberate choice to believe in God and Jesus who gave his life to pay the penalty of death through our sins
-Satan is the most difficult challenge to overcome: every person is exposed to evil and the spiritual forces as Satan is clever, powerful and appealing (Eph. 6:12)
-Transformed will: you choose to trust and follow
**just because you are a believer you don’t give up free will
-Holy spirit will not enter a person’s heart without permission, so person must give one’s life to Christ (Romans 12: 1-2, 1 Cor. 2:14-16, Col. 3:10)
-Believer must grow in reflection of godly character: pattern of character and obedience to Christ (Romans 7:15-8:17, 12: 1-2, Eph. 1:11-14, Phil. 2: 13, Col. 1: 28-29) or captive in rejecting God to evil (Romans 7: 15-25, 2 Timothy 2: 22-26)
-Believer is a new creation and will be with Jesus beyond Earth (1 Peter 1: 3-4)
Eternal New Home:
-God prepared a new kingdom beyond imagination
**King Solomon and OT prophets used clues from nature (Eccles. 3: 11, 1 Cor. 2:9)
-Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension prepares home for believers (Mark 16: 19, Luke 24: 50-51, Acts 1:1-11)
-Bible: speaks of heaven and hell-cosmos will be rolled up like a scroll (Isa. 34: 4), disappear like a roar (2 Peter 3:10), and melt in the heat (2 Peter 3: 12)
***New creation (kingdom) will be time-full eternity
-law of decay will be defeated and not exist in new kingdom, no more death or mourning (Rev. 21:4), The old passes away and I am making everything new (Rev. 21: 4)
-New Jerusalem and Zion: Revelation 21: 10-27 contract between Earthly to Heavenly (Hebrews 12:22)
-removal of all physics that governs universe as we know it
-John 17: 21 promise that humans will have all the room they could possible imagine, but still in close proximity for intimate contact
-No more wasteful activities, but will have purpose and be fulfilling
-God’s grace and mercy fully revealed in new kingdom (1 Cor. 4:9, 1 Peter 1: 10-12) and experience the deep love of Christ (Eph. 3: 10, 18)
-removal of fatigue limits on finances & health, so there will be limitless resources in time and vitality
-we will all radiate Christian character as sin is removed so end of suffering in relationships
-time, space, matter, and energy restrictions will be gone so no more separation, but intimate closeness with God (spiritual relationship) (Rev. 19: 7-9)
Final:
Entrance into new creation/heaven has only one route-No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)
Requires: Believe, Commit heart, mind, and character to reflect Jesus’s life, and to speak up to spread the good news to make new disciples who believe in Jesus
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man
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