Understand that God exists
Our universe had a beginning, and scientist tell us that it began about 13.7 billion years ago.
Each of us had a beginning too. And a few decades later, each of us will die.
If we cease to exist after we die then our life on earth is irrelevant to us once we are dead – we will only be a memory in those who live on. Some people may remember us fondly, and some may remember us less than fondly (to put it mildly), but how they remember us won’t matter to us because we won’t be here, or there, wherever ‘there’ is.
If we do continue to exist in some form and location after we die, then things still don’t matter – unless the form we take, and location where we dwell after we die, depends on how we lived on earth, and there is a God who decides, based on criteria specified by Him, where we end up. For argument sake, let us call the good location ‘heaven’ and the ‘bad’ location ‘hell’. We don’t have to worry about the details of what they are except to know that heaven is far better than hell, and to exist forever in heaven is very much more desirable than to exist forever in hell.
If the form we take after we die depends on whether we pleased God then it becomes paramount that we find out more about that God and what pleases Him.
With all this in mind, as a young person, your first and most important decision in seeking heaven in the afterlife then is to decide whether God exists.
This is a key decision, because if God doesn’t exist then you can maximize your pleasure while on earth and be none the worse afterwards.
But if God does exist then heaven and hell become important, and you have to decide where you want to finally be.
If you want to go to hell, then I have nothing more to say to you. But if you want to go to heaven then you have to make a decision concerning the existence of God.
You have three choices.
The first is to be an atheist and decide that God doesn’t exist. Consider also the implications of a wrong decision. If you believe that God doesn’t exist but He does, then you are in big trouble.
The second is to be agnostic and decide to be undecided. This will still get you into trouble if it turns out that God does exist, especially if He requires that you believe in His existence in order to go to heaven.
The third is to believe that God exists. If God never existed then there is no eternal harm done. You missed out on some pleasures, but it won’t really matter because you cease to exist at some point, and in the eternal scheme of things, what you missed or didn’t miss is really quite irrelevant.
What’s your best bet?
Before you answer, consider this question… suppose I come to you with a pack of cards and tell you to cut it anywhere. Before I tell you turn it over, I say that if it is a red card, I will give you a dollar, but if it is a black card you must give me a million dollars. Will you take the bet?
No one in their right mind would, right?
Now suppose I turn it around and say that if it is a red card, I will give you a million dollars, but if it is a black card you must give me a dollar. Will you take the bet?
No one in their right mind wouldn’t, right?
The decision to believe in God or not is similar, except that the odds are worse than a million to one! They are infinity to a finite number.
Therefore, by just considering what is at stake if we lose the bet, I would think that our best bet it is to believe that God exists.
If you do decide to be an atheist or agnostic then you have to provide a rational explanation for several questions – questions like:
- How did the universe come to be?
- How did life come from non-life?
I say this because those who believe that God exists have an answer for these questions, the answer being, “God did it.” If you don’t have answers for what the theists have answers for, then clearly, your position is inferior. Further, if your answers cannot be proven then your position is clearly not superior to that of the theist. Therefore, no matter how you cut things out, the atheist position is both temporally inferior (because the theist has answers for what the atheist doesn’t) and eternally inferior (because the atheist stands to lose a lot more if he turns out to be wrong).
As we know from General Relativity, time (as we know it) came into being when the universe came into being. Therefore, if God created the universe then He created time as well, and thus, it must be that God exists outside of time. Therefore, to ask the question, “Who created God?” is irrelevant because the concept of creation is only meaningful when time exists. Specifically, a being that exists outside of time doesn’t need to be created!
In view of this, spare me the question, “Who created God?” In the light of General Relativity, it is a meaningless question.
Based on what I’ve said above, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to be either an atheist or agnostic.
If you do choose to believe that God exists then you have to decide on which notion of God you will subscribe to. You have many choices, but some of the major ones are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and a few others.
There are several ways that you can go about this…
For one, you can go with the majority. But that is as dicey as being an atheist in terms of consequences.
For another, you can read the foundational book of the religion e.g. the Bible or the Koran or the Vedas, and decide which religious book most clearly brings God’s message.
Let me tell you why I chose to go with the Bible…it was because I saw four things in it that really appealed to me: one, it doesn’t contradict science; two, it doesn’t contradict itself; three, it had prophecy that came true, and none that came false; and four, what it said made good sense to me.
Let’s spend a moment talking about it not contradicting science.
Consider Gen 1:1, which tells us that the universe had a beginning. Modern science only realized that the universe had a beginning in the early 20th century, which was about 3400 years after Gen 1:1 was written. Do you know of any other religious book that was written before Gen 1:1 that tells us very clearly that the universe had a beginning?
I could go on for hours about how the Bible talks about science, but I said I would take only a moment, so I will move on to the Bible not contradicting itself.
Yes, I know that there are many apparent contradictions in the Bible. But the keyword is ‘apparent’. By this I mean, that such contradictions are always resolvable. That is, there is always some way to explain it. As a result, they are not really contradictions.
And further, it is quite remarkable how a book written by many people, over a period of several thousand years still has a single story that none of the individual authors fully understood (until the very end). Clearly, another unseen Hand was at work.
Thirdly, the Bible has prophecy – the ability to predict the future before it actually happens. Prophecy (with 100% accuracy) in a book indicates that the author (i.e. the author behind the literal authors) transcends time, and therefore must be a divine being.
There were several hundred prophecies about the Messiah – the one who would come to save man from his sins. Many of these were fulfilled to the dot in the person of Jesus Christ, and the ones that remain are expected to be fulfilled when He returns.
There are prophecies in the book of Daniel describing several hundred years of events that were to come, and looking behind we can see how clearly they were fulfilled.
There are many prophecies about the future of the nation of Israel, and the nations around it, and these were also fulfilled.
Such an amazing thing cannot be ignored. Do you know of any other religious book that has clear prophecy that was fulfilled, and none that were found to be false?
Finally, my own personal testimony is that the Bible makes sense to me, more than any other religious book.
For these reasons, I chose to go with Christianity.
It is vital that you take the time to examine your options, and choose wisely. And further, just as God gives you the freedom to choose, give your fellowman the same freedom. While you urge and encourage others to choose as you do, be careful to not force anyone – friend, spouse, child, sibling, parent or co-worker – to choose as you do. Most of all, don’t persecute anyone for choosing differently from you.
If you do choose to believe that God exists, and that He is the God of the Bible then you need to understand the implications of your choice, for it is not a choice to be made lightly, and not a choice to be lived with in a mediocre way. As Jesus said, you have to sit down and count the cost.
If the God of the Bible is truly God, and He exists, then you have to honor Him as God. That is, you have to give great importance to His word (i.e. the Bible). You have to study it yourself, and seek to understand it. You have to meditate on it, believe it, and obey it. You have to align your values to its values. You have to give importance to what it says is important, and ignore what it says is not important.
The only thing worse than an atheist, is a Christian who says he believes in the God of the Bible, and yet is comfortable living a life that is contrary to the values espoused by the Bible.
Now many people might dismiss what I am saying here by saying to themselves that they do believe that God exists, and that the Bible is God’s word. But think about it a little… if you really, really believe that God exists, and that the Bible is God’s word, would you not read your Bible carefully, and study it, and obey it? Can you honestly say that you do that? If not, they you don’t really believe that God exists, and that the Bible is God’s word. If you spend more time watching TV, then what you really believe is that the broadcasting company is God, and that the TV is God’s word. If you spend more time on social media, then you really believe that your social media circle is God, and what they write is God’s word. If you spend all your time at work, then money or power is your God, not the God of the Bible. Don’t evaluate yourself based on what you think, but on how you spend your time.
Just like saving up for retirement, starting early on the right track has a lot of advantages. Don’t let such an advantage slip by. I became a Christian when I was a lad of twenty, and I have never regretted that decision.
On the other hand, if you are not young anymore, and have realized that your decision was not the right one, don’t hesitate to make the right decision now. It is better to be right at some point before you die, than to die sticking to the wrong decision, and suffering eternal consequences thereafter.
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