It's a wonderful morning! Birds are tweeting, it's fairly comfortable outside, and things are going well! The further tone of this entry is likely to be more serious than optamistic, though, so get ready!
First thing's first. Honesty is a two-way street. Be very careful to always, always be honest in your words, and say what you mean. Try and avoid jumping into a situation and responding to it with a naive lack of knowledge, information, or how seriously something should be taken. If you do, then learn later on that you ought to have taken something more seriously than you originally did, and you react accordingly and therefore, don't do as you'd originally stated, your original statement could be viewed as dishonesty. This may seem somewhat confusing, but I'll outline some events that occurred about half a month ago, or so. Again, I'm not listing any names.
On May 25, 2016, the same friend that I detailed discussions with in my previous post, wanted to ask for my forgiveness. I wasn't certain how to respond inicially, as he'd previously told me that he didn't want to hear from me in any way again. I spoke to another friend of mine, and, oddly enough, had discussed the situation with yet another friend about a week earlier. Both of them had helped me to bring things into perspective, so I decided I'd respond to this person asking for my forgiveness. Of course, I'd already forgiven him, so I told him so.
Inicially, discussions seemed to be going well. It wasn't until I really got into the Gospel message of Christ with him that things went in a different direction, and fast. If you really want to know what type of person someone is, tell them the Gospel message, and don't hold anything back in its regard! Maybe that's not the only way, but it seemed to be a good one with this person I've dealt with. Continuing to call him a friend at this point would probably demonstrate a naive stupidity, I think, and I'll explain below. It really is quite unfortunate, too.
So, the situation went like this. We had our discussions. He sent me a message that turned out to be rather concerning to me, and I told him I wanted to talk with him, because I was concerned for him. We spent quite a long time on the phone, two or three hours, I don't recall which. We spoke of quite a few things, one of which was the Gospel message of Christ. He seemed perplexed that I'd still follow Christ if there ever came a situation that caused me to choose between my family or following Christ. Christ, every time, though it wouldn't be easy, I imagine. My family doesn't save me after all, Christ does. Things seemed to go well, even later on that night. But it was the next day when he told me his unfortunate decision to reject the Gospel of Christ and go his own way. For those that don't know the Gospel message, I'll detail it below, then we'll get back to the discussions with this person. If you don't already believe this, and it makes you uncomfortable, that's good. It certainly made the person I was dealing with uncomfortable, and rather angry.
First, we have to establish that God does exist. The universe was created by design. All evidence that has been recorded throughout the years of human history indicates that nothing creates itself. Buildings have builders. Artwork was painted or drawn by artists. This article was created by me. Everything complex must have a intelligent creater behind it, or it wouldn't exist, and the universe is the most complex creation of them all. Furthermore, I don't see anything such as rocks changing into other objects, like metal or wood, and becoming something completely different, and I've never known any type of order to come from chaos. All universe creation theories that leave God out of the equation basically make the claim that the universe creates itself, somehow, spontaniusly, and despite the infinitesimal odds of such a thing creating a perfectly ballanced environment to cause our survival, and life spontaniusly generating itself from lifelessness to eventually, somehow, evolve into human beings, it just somehow works in these theories that claim God doesn't exist. I've certainly never known life to spontaniusly form from lifeless things. Life comes from life, and therefore, life must have created this universe and the life within it. It requires more faith to accept the luticrous ideas that the universe somehow came into being without God creating it, than it does to accept that God created the universe. It would be like saying to someone, the building we stand in front of appeared one day without anyone constructing it. I doubt many people would accept that, and any that do simply aren't thinking.
There are other theological questions that could come into play all throughout these examples, but I'm not going to address them here. For anyone willing to examine the situations deeply, I do believe I've established God's existance quite well. We'll proceed from the presupposition that God exists, and there is only one God, not simply one God for this world, but one God throughout all existance.
God has existed for eternity, exists now, and will exist for eternity. Because of this, offending God by violating his law will result in a punishment that is also eternal. We can examine how the punishment for a simple action goes up as you move up the chain of importance of people in this country with a simple analogy. I found this on the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry and I think it's a good one. If you were to slap me, I'm likely to simply discuss the matter with you, and hopefully, we can move on and it wouldn't be a big deal. However, if you were to slap the president, you'd quite likely be arrested and go to prison. Therefore, with God being eternal, the offense requires an eternal punishment.
Here is how you break God's law. You lie. Let's say you see a person on the street, who tells you a story to try and get you to give them money, and they want to know if you have even a dollar to give. You have five in your wallet, but since you don't want to give them money, you say you don't have any money, you're sorry, and you can't help them. You certainly could help them, you do have money that you could give them, but telling them a small, harmless thing such as this seems like an easy way to avoid the situation. There isn't any harm in that, is there? Well, it's a lie. You've stated something that isn't true. Since you've lied, you've broken God's law. The ten commandments, which are used to show what God's law is, are in the Bible in Exodus 20:2-17. In James 2:10, the Bible tells us that if you keep all of God's law and break it in just one area, then you're guilty of breaking all of God's law. We can see that this is quite serious.
The punishment for breaking God's law is death, Romans 6:23. Sin is disobeying God's law, 1John 3:4. All have sinned and none are good, Romans 3:9-10. Some could say that, since we grow old and die, we're already under the punishment of the violation of God's law, but that isn't the death that Romans 6:23 is speaking of. Plants, too, grow old and die. How can they violate God's law if they aren't capable of intelligent thought and making moral decisions? I believe the death Romans 6:23 is talking about is seperation from God, and once you die here on Earth, your eternal punishment, death, is an eternity in Hell. Isaiah 11:13 speaks of God punishing the one who does evil, which is measured by God's moral standard, not our own. God is just, Nehemiah 9:32-33, and if you're to be just, you must punish those who do evil. I'm certain that you'd agree that one who murderrs, then goes immediately free, isn't justice, especially when it's established, without a doubt, that the person being convicted committed the murder, completely conscious and fully aware of their actions.
With this now established, we should ask ourselves this question. Since everyone has sinned against God, violated his law, and done evil in his eyes, then isn't everyone deserving of Hell? The answer, of course, is yes. Not everyone will be going to Hell, however. The Gospel is outlined in 1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-4, that those who believe in Jesus Christs death on the cross for their sins and his rising three days later, and don't believe vainly, are saved from Hell, and will be in Heaven. Those are the only two available options. While Hell is eternal seperation from God, which is said to be a very unpleasant feight, Heaven is eternal life with God, which is said to be a very pleasant feight.
The reason Christ died for the sins of the elect, the true believers, was to save them from the punishment of Hell. He was crucified on the cross, and his blood paid the debt for the sins of those who truely believe in him. The good works you do don't matter, and are like filthy rags before God, ISAIAH 64:6. You must believe in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your sins, and knowing that you are a sinner and need his forgiveness, seek it, ask for it. Do so and mean it, don't do so because you've been told. Belief in the sacrifice of Christ is what gets you to Heaven, nothing else. We're saved by grace, through faith in Christ alone, EPHESIANS 2:8-9. If you think that, because you've been a good, decent person because you haven't been as bad as others, haven't killed or stolen, or been arrested, and you're going to Heaven because you're this good person, think again. That's the thinking that will lead you to Hell. If you think that, because you don't believe in Christ now you're going to Hell, you're right. This is why it's important to believe in Christ. Believing Christ is to save you from the punishment of Hell, and to justify you as being perfect in God's eyes. It won't make your life easier or better. It's likely to make it harder, which it's certainly done for me. Believe in Christ because you know you're a sinner and deserve Hell, and want to be saved from the judgement you deserve, and you'll be believing Christ for the right reasons.
Some may ask that, if I believe in Christ and am saved from Hell, can I then sin without being condemned to Hell? The answer is yes, of course. However, once you're saved, you will struggle against sin, be convicted of it. You will still sin, but from the moment you believe in Christ on, sin will have no control over you as it did before, as you have a new nature. It will make your life different, you'll feel different, and may even do things you didn't think you'd do before. As an example, before I was saved, I wouldn't have stood up for any position on God with any firm belief, and wouldn't generally get into those discussions. Now, I love discussing God and standing up for the Bible, God's inspired word.
Now that I've got the Gospel message stated and firmly grounded for everyone reading this, I'll outline what occured next between myself and this individual. We're now on the date May 26, 2016, based upon what I wrote above. After he rejected the Gospel message, we had a few more email exchanges. I don't remember exactly how everything went at this point, and I no longer have the notes I took regarding our email exchanges, as holding on to them for such a long time would be pointless. It has, in fact, been almost 9 years since I actually started writing this entry, which I've come back to and wanted to finish.
In any regard, this individual and I both established the unfortunate fact that he was using me for various things that, frankly, he did not care about. Calculating dates of certain things, and perhaps more, etc. Eventually, I got to the point of being both amused and saddened by his responses, more sad closer to the end of our message exchanges, which is perhaps what provoked him to threaten to kill me. That was a very serious message and deserved a very serious response. However, at the time of me sending messages back and forth to him, I told him that I would continue to be his friend. There's the naivety I spoke of earlier. Later on that day, after speaking with another friend of mine and gaining some perspective, I reported this individual's death threat and contact information to the police. I have never contacted him again, despite the fact that about a week after our message exchanges, he sent me more messages about how I was correct in stating there were consequences for actions. Sadly, this individual who sent me the death threat, is someone I have no intention of contacting again, nor can I ever trust this person again.
This may lead some to ask the question, what about forgiveness? Forgiveness doesn't absolve someone of the consequences of their actions. This, then, leads into the question, didn't God forgive sinners of the sins of those who believe in him by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross? The answer, of course, is yes. However, the sins of the forgiven will be remembered no more, as stated in the Bible, Jeremiah 31:34 and Hebrews 8:12. So, we can see from this that there is a great deal more to the saving grace of God than mere forgiveness. In the terminology of forgiveness so far as humans go, my view is this. Accept the situation for what it is, and let it go. Move forward, but don't forget what happened and wipe out everything if you're asked for forgiveness. Every action in the world has consequences, and the negative consequences of actions shouldn't be forgotten and removed in any relationship should someone ask for forgiveness. You risk the same things happening again, especially with someone who cannot be trusted. And someone who threatens to end someone elses life, is clearly not trustworthy in the least.
Well, that's all for this entry, folks. After almost 9 years, I finally, finally got around to finishing it.
Be well.