In the last blog, I left off talking about how much God really does in this world. There are plenty of people who profess to believe in God and also believe that God created everything, but that He doesn't really concern Himself in our everyday lives. This is commonly referred to as God the clockmaker. This is where it is believed that God created everything, set up rules of how it should run, set it in motion, and then went on vacation where He continues to reside leaving us to handle all matters ourselves in a completely unabated environment.
Some may say that it's illogical to say that God made something happen or stopped something from happening when there is a logical explanation for the occurrence. So, for my argument I will use logic. After all, illogical arguments are just... well... illogical.
So, for purposes of argument, I'm going to ask you to use a little imagination. There. Ready? Okay. Imagine that you are God. You decided to create mankind. But, you want to do something that you've never done before. You want to create something like yourself. See, you're God. You have free will to do whatever you want. You've created lots of things, but this is a first for you. So how do you create something eternal that has free will, all the while it being designed for a relationship with you? You're going to have to set up some rules to limit yourself. Even though you can do anything and are limitless by nature you're going to have to change that at least in relation to this new creation.
For example, you could easily make man love you. Or could you? Is it love if it is not a choice? What sort of relationship would that be? You could easily make man mind you by putting it in an environment that he couldn't mess up. But, without the choice to mess up, is there really free will? Okay, so scratch all that. For free will to be present there must be a choice. You designed them for relationship with you but they'll need to be able to choose not to have one if free will is to be a factor here. So, you create a huge planet of almost infinite variety all of which you deem good. Then, you make one lonely tree that you deem bad and instruct them not to eat from it. This is their choice.
Despite the mathematical odds against doing so, they ate from it. Now things get slightly more complicated. You are good, perfect, righteous and that has tremendous power. Now, man is bad, imperfect, sinful and cannot be in your presence. Just as light and darkness cannot coexist because light displaces darkness, neither can you and man stand face to face. Good thing that you had a plan for all this.
So you sacrifice a part of yourself to pay for what man did, ultimately punishing yourself to buy back what man sold and to reconcile your relationship with them. Now, man has it all. You've given them a complete record of the facts that you made them, you love them, you made a way for them, and all they have to do is believe that you are telling the truth. See, man didn't believe. They questioned what you told them, disbelieving who and what you are.
Okay, back to our discussion. Your beliefs change your actions. Also, your actions reveal what you truly believe. For example, you believe that dollars have a value, so you want more and you protect what you have. Belief creates action. Another example would be that you pay your federal income though neither you nor anyone you know has ever seen the law that requires you to pay them (there's another blog coming that explains why I know this to be true). You pay them because you believe that you will be in violation of the law if you don't. Action shows what you truly believe.
If you truly believe something then your actions will show it. You may be asking yourself the age-old questions right now. "If God is everything that the Bible says about him, if He truly does play a huge role in our lives and the world around us, then how come I never see Him? Why does He work in mysterious ways? How come He doesn't just show up and make it obvious?"
Let me attempt at answering these. His ways are mysterious because, simply put, He must always allow room for you not to believe. If He came and knocked on your door, all your faith would be gone the instant you locked eyes with Him. You cannot have faith in that which you also have material proof. Faith is belief without material proof. Also, upon seeing Him you would lose your free will to choose not to believe in Him. Once you knew beyond a reasonable doubt, or unreasonable for that matter, that God existed you could never go back to unbelief. Therefore, your free will would have been taken away by such an encounter. The very existence of all the talk of faith in the Bible is to say that God Himself is unseen. All we see of Him is what He does.
In order for there to be any chance of us having free will, He must remain hidden to such obviousness. He must reveal Himself to us in ways that there is at least a small possibility where one could think that it was not Him. This way, in case you want to exercise your God-given free will, you can do so. It's all a choice.
I told about my wrist getting healed in the last blog. I could have just thought that it was about time that it healed and that it did it on its own. I could have thought that it was just a coincidence that it healed while I was having it prayed for. Or, I could claim that I'm just really losing it and getting mixed up with all this God mumbo jumbo and I believed in the healing so much that my body healed psychosomatically. Mind over matter, right? But regardless of all the explanations that I could have come up with to make it a normal thing to have happened, I'm believing that God healed me. To me, it makes more sense anyway. It's the most logical explanation.
You may be asking, "Why do we have to choose to love Him then? Why does He punish us if we don't?" I'm not God and I can't answer for Him, however I imagine that He doesn't want you with Him in heaven for all eternity if, in fact, you don't really want to be with Him. I'm sure you can relate. You wouldn't be roommates with someone who doesn't like you and didn't want to be your roommate in the first place. Now add eternity to that scenario.
Forget for a second all of how you've pictured both heaven and hell to look like. Just realize that the simple truth is that heaven is eternity with God and hell is eternity without Him. We choose by our chosen beliefs and our subsequent actions whether we want to be with Him or not. And, regardless of your decision, He will respect that decision. That's what giving someone a choice is all about.
"...choose this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15
Choices
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