The path that God has provided for reconciliation with him. He has disclosed himself to humans through the experiences of selected people, notably Abraham and his descendants through his son Issac. These people were brought into immediate contact with God in trials and blessings so that people might come to love and trust him. The record of these experiences are recorded in the Bible. These experiences are examples and invitations for everyone.
God is tripartite: God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The penultimate event in human history was when God the Son assumed human identity in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. He lived a perfect life and then allowed himself to be crucified by the Jews and Romans then in power in Judea. Ultimately, the crucifixion was a crucial part of the original plan to redeem humans from the sin they fell into in the Garden of
Eden after God had created
perfect humans in a perfect world. Each human falls into sin himself/herself through their own choices recapitulating Adam and Eve's original sin. Jesus assumed humans' sins and paid the retributive price to God the
Father for them. Jesus was then resurrected from the dead three days later to overcome
death for all humans and to verify his divine identity to humans.
Jesus loves all people, including those who have ridiculed him on this website. He reaches out in love to them. All it takes for a relationship with him is to accept his sacrificial
death on the Cross to cover our sins from God the Father. This acceptance is a pure act of
faith that does not first require attempts to justify oneself in God's eyes. God simply requires that a person accept his Son as his/her Savior and his/her Lord.
If a person rejects God by rejecting his Son, then God
will grant the wish of the person to be left alone for eternity. But when God's presence is not manifest, then nothing good is present to be enjoyed. People in
Hell are quarantined from the rest of God's Creation which enjoys his full presence. These people receive only just punishment for their sins committed while on
Earth.
The act of
faith that reconciles the person with God is a rational act that is supported by the historical accuracy of the Bible and the verification of such miracles as Jesus' resurrection (if he did not rise from the dead, then why did not his adversaries display his dead body? If the disciples stole his body, why did they willingly allow themselves to be tortured to
death when they could have revealed what actually happened to his body and cut a deal with the
Roman and Jewish authorities?) As Pascal observed, belief is rational because it is a good bet--nothing to lose and everything to gain, while the non-believers' payoff matrix is the reverse of the believers' matrix. As William James observed, this decision is required by each of us
whatever one might decide.
If you were to die tonight and were to
come face to face with God, why should he let you into his
Heaven? The answer that Christianity provides is: Because of the
price Jesus paid for my sins on the Cross and my acceptance of this sacrifice to atone for my personal sins.
