I was raised Catholic, but after many years of partying, and doing my own thing, I got very bored and thought, “Is this ALL there is to life?!?!” I thought, “If there really is any truth to a ‘life after death’, I should at least TRY to find the answer.” I started to do some research on science and religion to see if I could come up with any TRUTH about a “meaning of life”. In school, I was taught that mankind was evolving and getting better, but it didn’t really appear that way to me. It “SEEMED” as though modern science had proven that God didn’t exist. As I did more research on my own, I found out that this just isn’t the case. Some atheists and re-incarnationists believe the Universe has ALWAYS existed in some form, but this contradicts many laws of science. I learned that most scientists believe that ALL matter had a beginning and came forth from nothing, but they don’t know what caused it. Cause and effect shows us that it is logical to believe that a non-material Supreme Being caused that beginning of the Universe. Some think that aliens and U.F.O.’s have something to do with our existence, but even if they DID exist, THEY would need a beginning as well! I learned that whatever theory we believe about our origins we must believe by FAITH because it CANNOT be repeated, tested, and observed in a controlled scientific experiment. I was taught that evolution was a FACT and the fossil record proved it, but I thought, “When something dies, I don’t see it becoming a fossil, but rotting away quickly.” I learned that fossils are formed by RAPID burial, and NOT over SUPPOSED millions of years! Scattered across mountaintops and deserts all over the world are fossils of both modern and extinct, ocean and land creatures, ALL MIXED TOGETHER! There are even fossils of creatures that were in the middle of giving birth or eating! These evidences can ONLY be explained by a RECENT Creation and a WORLDWIDE FLOOD, and NOT by supposed millions of years of random evolution! I learned there are HUNDREDS of civilizations ALL OVER THE WORLD that have recordings of a worldwide flood! I thought that evolution was true just because the majority believed it, but the majority also used to believe that the Earth was FLAT!!!
So, I decided to believe in God, but I was confused about all the different religions out there. “Which God should I serve?!?!” “Don’t all religions lead to the same God?” “Does it REALLY matter what I believe as long as I am sincere and a ‘good’ person?” Then I thought, “What if I am sincerely WRONG!?!?” I started to do some more research to try to find the TRUTH. I found that all religions have different teachings, so they could all be WRONG, but they can’t all be RIGHT. Some religions, like Hinduism believe in many gods, and some, like Buddhism, don’t believe in any God at all. The world’s second largest religion, under the Judeo/Christian belief, is Muslim/Islam. Islam was founded by the “MAN” Muhammad, who was born as late as 570 AD. Around age 40, he started having visions that his wife Khadjah had convinced him were from his god Allah. Muhammad couldn’t read or write, but others recorded the visions in the book called the Koran/Qur’an, around the time of his death in 632. All the books of The Bible have been completed about 450 years before Muhammad was even BORN! There are MANY prophecies written about Jesus before He was born, which are recorded in the Bible’s “Old Testament”, but NONE were ever recorded about Muhammad. Look at Isaiah 7:14 & Chapter 53 in the O.T. for just a couple about Jesus. Another interesting point I learned is that Muhammad CLAIMED to be a prophet, but he said that Jesus was also a prophet. A real prophet of God can NEVER be wrong! Jesus taught that He was God and THE ONLY way to get to Heaven. If Jesus was RIGHT about what He claimed, then Muhammad was WRONG. If Jesus was WRONG, then Muhammad was also WRONG because Jesus lied. Either way, this makes Muhammad a false prophet!!!
I used to think that the Bible was only a myth or merely an outdated book written by superstitious men. When I first tried to read it, I couldn’t make any sense out of it. I doubted that ANYONE could really understand it or REALLY know if it was the TRUTH. Then I found out that there are A LOT of books and websites that explain the Bible and give good, historical, scientific, archaeological, and logical reasons to believe it. These types of studies are called “APOLOGETICS”. I was VERY skeptical, but I did a TON of research! I figured ANY chance that I could spend eternity in Hell was a subject worthy of my further investigation. Here are some more of the questions that I had, and the answers that I found.
“Who wrote the Bible?” The Bible contains 66 different books which were penned by about 40 different people, while in about 13 different countries on 3 continents, during about a 1500 year time span. The Bible has an AMAZING consistency, from beginning to end, that could’ve ONLY been maintained by God! “Which Bible should I read and believe?” I learned that EVERY Holy Bible has the SAME message; it is PEOPLE who confuse it. Now, this is the main message of The Bible, and seems to be the only meaning to this CRAZY life. EVERYONE is born a sinner and separated from a relationship with God (Romans 3:23). God was born, lived, died, and raised as the only Perfect, sinless, Human being as the Person of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 9:6, Matt 1:23, John 1:1) EVERYONE who believes/trusts in Jesus Christ (John 3:16) is “BORN AGAIN” (John 3:3) and is restored to a relationship with God and has eternal life, but whoever does not believe in Jesus, will be separated from God forever in Hell. (John 3:36).
I used to think that being “BORN AGAIN” was some crazy cult, but found out it isn’t. Being born again means to have your mind, heart, and life renewed for the things that honor God, instead of selfish things. It makes NO difference whether you are Catholic, Protestant, or belong to ANY OTHER denomination. You MUST be born again into a personal, one-on-one relationship with The Lord Jesus Christ to spend eternity in Heaven with God !
“What about the Jehovah Witnesses and The Mormons/Church of Latter Day Saints?” At first, groups like these APPEAR to be just another Christian denomination, but I’ve learned that this is just NOT the case. BOTH of these groups were founded as LATE as the 1800’s by mere MEN who “claimed” that people have been misinformed for THOUSANDS of years, and that they are EACH God’s only true revelation to mankind. The Jehovah’s Witnesses even have their OWN counterfeit version of the Bible called “The New World Translation”, which they have subtly distorted to mean something completely different than every other Bible (Compare John1:1). It didn’t make any sense to me that a loving God would have His Word around for almost 2000 years, but withhold the REAL TRUTH up until NOW, like BOTH of these groups insist. The Bible doesn’t use the word, but it teaches that God is a Trinity or Tri-unity, meaning THREE separate, distinct, yet equal Persons co-existing as ONE God (Matt 28:19). These cults name The Father, Jesus-The Son, and The Holy Spirit, yet deny they are each equally God as The Bible teaches. Anything anyone says or does should be checked carefully with The Bible to make sure they are telling the truth!!!
“How do we know if Jesus even really EXISTED?” I found there are MANY references about Jesus in non-Christian historical writings from within 100 years of His death. The 15th edition of “The Encyclopedia Britannica” uses more space describing Jesus than Aristotle, Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon. “Was Jesus REALLY God, or ONLY a good man and teacher?” Jesus believed and told people that He was God, so He could either be God, a liar, or a lunatic, but never ONLY a good man and teacher.
“What about the Jewish people?” I learned that Jesus not ONLY began a new relationship between God and ANYONE who wishes to have a PERSONAL relationship with Him, He was the FULFILLMENT of the Jewish religion. The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were only a FORESHADOW pointing to the once-and-for-all, PERFECT sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53 in the O.T. PLAINLY describes Jesus as Israel’s suffering Messiah. The book of Isaiah was written about 700 years BEFORE Jesus was even born! This early recording of Isaiah has been confirmed by the amazing finding of the “Dead Sea Scrolls” from the caves of Qumran in the late 1940’s. The ONLY hope for Jewish people and ANYONE else to have a relationship with God is through Jesus the Messiah.
“Why does God let bad things happen to “good” people? Since none of us are REALLY “good”, maybe the question should be why would a good God allow ANYTHING good at all to happen to any of us bad people? People choose to use God’s gift of freewill to do evil things, but God wants us all to choose to use that freewill to love Him and others. Imagine if we ALL really loved our neighbor as ourselves like Jesus teaches? When we live for God, He promises that this life will be the worst we will ever have to experience, but for those who choose not to, then this life is nothing compared to the pain, misery, sorrow, and Hell that awaits them in the next.
“Is there REALLY a Hell?” “How could a loving God send people to Hell?” Hell is not the Devil’s playground and he isn’t the caretaker. People won’t be partying with their friends there and Hell isn’t only just for REALLY “bad” people. Hell is the state of being separated from God forever. Since GOD created us to be in a PERSONAL relationship with Him through Jesus, if you die while rejecting His love in THIS life, you will be separated from Him in the next, and all ALONE, being tormented forever with burning anguish of the fact you missed the whole meaning of life!! God loves you SOOO much !!!!! You are the ONLY you God ever made! Whatever you have done, you haven’t been so bad that Jesus won’t forgive and accept you if you ask Him !!! God gave you free will though, so He won’t FORCE you to choose to love Him and be with Him forever in His Eternal Kingdom.
I am just writing this paper because I was SO surprised that I was able to find REALLY satisfying answers to all my questions when I thought that no one could EVER really know the TRUTH for sure. I read some books on life-after-death and re-incarnation by people who have “CLAIMED” to have died, but then I thought, “If these people were REALLY dead, then they STILL would be!!” Maybe you won’t just believe this paper, but I pray that this article would at LEAST make you think about all of this on your OWN and do some of your OWN investigating to see that it’s really TRUE!!!! This article is only a small bit of all I’ve learned, but I wanted to share it and give you a head start. I know how difficult it can be to listen to someone talk about religion, I was there! It all seemed so confusing to me at first, but since I’ve done all this research, I KNOW that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, and The Bible is TRULY His Word to all mankind, and I believe it!! I pray that The Lord Jesus Christ uses this paper to open up the mind and heart of the one reading this so that you may be saved from an eternity separated from GOD and alone in Hell forever. Eternity is a loooong time for you to gamble with. There is NO Purgatory or second chances! If you died right now, do you know where YOU would go!?!?! The choice is up to YOU !!!
