In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1
Through observation and study (science), humanity has come to realize that all things have a beginning and an eventual end. And, if everything has a beginning and end then something must have always existed... Because if ever there was nothing then nothing is all that there ever could be.
The Law of Causality states the CAUSE (source) must be greater than the EFFECT (what is produced). So, when we look through the Hubble Telescope or observe what an Electron Microscope reveals to us, we witness an amazingly vast and incredibly complex reality.
The Triune God (Father, Son, Spirit) brought a three-dimensional realm into existence, separate from the eternal reality in which our Creator abides.
Everything created serves a purpose. To understand Michelangelo study his art, to understand Beethoven study his compositions, and to understand God, study His handiwork.
God's invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have clearly been witnessed ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So humanity has no excuse. - Romans 1:20
MAN (male and female)
Then God said, "Let Us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness..."
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. - Genesis 1:26-27
What is God's purpose for LIFE as it is in this present age?
For those who willingly resist the objective truth and ample evidence that God has surrounded us with, life is simply "eat, drink, and have fun" until you eventually die.
But why do those who call upon His name continue this life of ebb and flow, joy and struggle? What purpose do the consequences of sin play in our lives after a confession of FAITH in Christ?
COMPONENTS:
To understand God's purpose, we first must understand how we are made and what our components are. Our Triune Creator declared, "Let Us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness", so Adam and Eve bore the FINGERPRINTS of their Triune Creator.
Mankind (male and female) were originally made complete:
They were given a SOUL, which is life and awareness.
They were given a BODY, which enabled them to interact with their surroundings.
They were given a SPIRIT, in which to connect and interact with their Creator.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Man and woman were designed and fashioned in God's image and likeness.
All that they were and all that they had was from a God of Love... Who designed them to Love as He Loves.
But to love without choice is disingenuous, which is why God provided a choice.
God explained, "All of this abundance is for you, I withhold only one thing."
CHOICE had entered into creation, to either Love God (John 14:15) OR to Love Self.
And God warned them of the consequences, "For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." - Genesis 2:17
Loving Self is what they chose.
But the God of love showed MERCY, in the form of TIME.
Time, which bears the fingerprints of its Triune Creator (its components are Past, Present, Future) became a part of Creation, and the consequences of SIN began as time took affect and Creation started to wind down like sand in an hourglass.
All of Adam and Eve did not DIE at once, but the process of complete death had begun... along with all of Creation.
PAST : Mankind died spiritually, communion was severed between "selfish people" and a loving God.
PRESENT : Human bodies began to age, wear out, and eventually die physically.
FUTURE : Which leaves a man and woman's soul to exist detached from both God and God's Creation, which is an eternal separation called damnation.
From the point of mankind's fall to the present age, humanity no longer is birthed in the image and after the likeness of its Creator. The picture above depicts NATURAL MAN, helpless and hopeless living for self and separated from God. Existing in a Creation that is wearing out.
"The natural person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." - 1 Corinthians 2:14
Disconnected from God, due to the rebellious sin of our Representatives (Adam, a perfect man; and Eve, a perfect woman) mankind moves helplessly and steadily towards an eminent future.
Love does not say, "Love Me or be destroyed."
Love does not say, "Love Me or be punished forever."
God says, "Love Me or love yourself, whichever you choose."
Because, again, love without choice is not genuine, nor is culpability without choice justified.
Creator God declares that His Creation will be restored to PERFECTION. A Kingdom where righteousness abounds in the purity of SELFLESS LOVE (as Jesus the Christ displayed; even in the midst of a selfish, self-seeking, fallen World). And if anyone chooses to REJECT His way of being redeemed (and also restored) then so be it... but NOT in His restored and eternal Creation.
Hell is merely banishment away from the Source of Love, which is God (1 John 4:7-8).
Hell is a forever state of fleeing from His presence, described as a "Bottomless Pit"
(Revelation 9:2).
But Jesus came to seek and save the LOST.
God's mercy granted time and His sacrificial love provided a way...
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