The Great Patchwork
If we step back and examine humanity, it becomes clear that we are deeply misguided. In our attempt to make sense of the world, humanity has assembled a patchwork of conclusions, values, and beliefs. While most of these worldviews contain elements of truth, closer examination reveals that they are flawed and errant, with some proving not merely mistaken but destructive in their consequences.
Truth Doesn’t Bend: Navigating Uncertainty
The law of non-contradiction states that a claim “X” cannot be both X and not-X simultaneously. If a claim corresponds to reality, it is true; if it does not, it is false. It is binary. When the truth of the matter lies beyond human knowledge, the truth still exists – but the truth is unknown. It is therefore important to ask the right questions when trying to get to the truth about an unknown, as poorly framed inquiries can obscure rather than reveal. Labels such as theory, hypothesis, or idea may dress up our uncertainty, but they do not change its fundamental character: it is still a form of belief.
Evidence of confusion
The very fact that mankind’s conclusions, values, and beliefs are non-binary is evidence of the state of our confusion. This has been the state of mankind since shortly after God created man. God tells us in Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The source of these futile conclusions, values, and beliefs are religion, science, politics, academia, etc. The cause of the patchwork is the foolishness of dark hearts.
What we can’t ignore or defer
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
The wind blows, and we are gone –
as though we had never been here.
Death is weightier than just a cessation of the physical body. All of us have a soul that goes on. After the final breath here, the soul doesn’t stop at some arbitrary milestone like 10,000 years… it just keeps going, unending, into forevermore. But before the soul goes on into “forevermore” it makes a stop before God who will determine where that “forevermore” is spent.
Every article I write on this website is ultimately about avoiding an unfavorable determination in where you will spend your forevermore. I repeat myself because with all sincerity I care about where you spend eternity. I care about everyone wherever you may be. I remember the time before God opened my eyes to the truth. I would have received an unfavorable determination had I died then. So when I look at unbelievers I always think about the words of an old preacher “There but for the grace of God go I.”
The Stop Before God
Firstly:
Let me explain why I mentioned the “law of non-contradiction” and “truth.” And what I’m about to say pertains to non-Christians and Christians alike. There is a judgment that lies ahead for all of us and it cannot be avoided. God tells us in Hebrews 9:27 “just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” This is God’s claim. This is claim X in the law of non-contradiction. It cannot be contradicted. Every other claim is not-X. There is no purgatory. There is no rebirth. There is no intermediary state
Secondly:
God has only one determining factor in where you will spend eternity and that is “are you trusting Jesus as your Savior?” Again back to the law on non-contradiction – only “Yes” is claim X. If you say “Yes, and…” or “No, but…” those claim are not-X. X will go to heaven; not-X will go to hell.
John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Believing in Jesus is not just a theological concept that you hear in passing, or in a church. There is a specific reason for it. We are all sinners and the only method of paying for those sins is for Jesus (God) to have paid for them. This is where even Christians can get very mixed up.
There is NOT ONE THING that a human can do that pays the penalty for even a single one of their sins. And every single sin has a consequence that must be paid for. God will not overlook even a single sin because He is completely righteous.
Yes? “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
No? “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”