Let's talk about God
Whoa! Don’t skip this.
Read it.
You’ll be glad you did!
Everyone has heard of God. Some before becoming Christians. Others either never addressed the questions of God’s existence or stopped thinking about it for some reason. If you are one of these, this good news is for you!
Quite likely, few will make time to read this, or acknowledge the truth of God’s Word. Our lives today often do not allow time for studying the Bible and because of our busy lives, we find ourselves with too many other things to do.
But I want to tell you about God - to explain the existence and problem of the gap between good and evil in a form that all can understand.
God's Word
Jesus is coming soon - to call His church out of this world
There is an urgent message for all people, regardless of age, gender, colour, or nationality. The culmination of human history is approaching its end and events currently taking place in the world, just as the Bible shows us, are a clear sign that the time is near.
With great enthusiasm and joy, Christians around the world are awaiting the Rapture of the church - the fulfillment of the promise. that Jesus will soon return to take His people – the church, home. Not all who fit the world's understanding of church – people who have just followed a religious lifestyle. But all who have recognised and confessed before God that they are sinners - and we are all sinners. Those who have repented of their sin turned away from it, and who are now trusting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and have accepted His offer of eternal life.
Tribulation
Great Tribulation and terrible times coming
The world as we know it will soon come to an end because the spreading of evil and moral depravity is such that God will give mankind over to his own preference for darkness rather than light. And then, God’s Holy Spirit and His church will be removed and with it, all restraint will also be removed. This world for seven years, will fall into total corruption and collapse, being governed by a world leader the Bible calls the Antichrist.
The times on earth will be worse than have ever been seen before. To begin with, the evil one-world government will rejoice that those 'interfering doo-good Christians' have gone. And for a time, it will appear that the Antichrist is able to solve the world’s problems and many will rejoice over him. But then he will turn and demand that he is worshipped as God. This time is called the Great Tribulation and the Bible says of this time:
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-23)
Hands of Love
After the Tribulation
Immediately following that terrible and dreadful time, Jesus will return – with His church to judge the world in righteousness. In Matthew 24:29-31 it says:
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Mercy
God’s plan for the salvation of mankind.
Behind a curtain, we do not see there is a conflict between good and evil that has been going on since the creation of the world.
Satan was once an angel of light, a noble being in a high position in heaven. The Bible reveals that there was a conflict in which he rebelled against God which resulted in an open war against God’s authority.
God could have destroyed Satan immediately but he didn’t. God wanted all the inhabitants of heaven to see the consequences of his rebellion. And he was cast out of heaven and down to earth together with one-third of the angels who Satan had won over. He allowed him to tempt the first inhabitants of the earth in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve.
God has confirmed to all heavenly beings that His government is based on voluntary devotion, freedom of choice and that Adam and Eve could also voluntarily choose to listen to God's truth or Satan’s lies. As we know, they succumbed to Satan's deception, and voluntarily doing so, they chose evil. They violated God’s prohibition on eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus the first sin was seen on the then still clean and flawless Earth. The prince of the earth is Satan, who appropriated man under his rule. God’s law is unchanging and “the wages of sin is death”. (John 3:16)
Every single person must die physically, and because all are inherently sinful, God had a plan for saving mankind - to give all people, despite their sinful nature, the hope of eternal life. And so God sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, to die on a cross. On that cross, Jesus gave His own sinless life as the sacrifice for the sin of the whole world. And His blood was poured out to redeem us all. He paid the highest price for the redemption of all human life and thus defeated Satan.
But as it was at the beginning for the first inhabitants, we all have been born to our earthly parents, inheriting the original sin of the first man - Adam. But through God’s grace, love, and mercy we all have the opportunity to take advantage of God’s offer of free salvation through repentance of our sin and by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God’s plan of salvation offers every sinful person – you and me – eternal life. We have the opportunity to choose voluntarily, between good and evil. God will not force us – we have been given free will and so have the freedom to choose.