<\/p>\n
Went to church the other Sunday and listened to a sermon on the stewardship of evangelism and became convinced the hour-plus message could have been reduced down to three words: Heaven or Hell.<\/p>\n
So when I walked out I was eager to grab an associate pastor by the arm and ask him just one question: Whey are we here?<\/p>\n
I know this doesn\u2019t make much sense to you right now, so I will try to clarify it with my muddled mind.<\/p>\n
First of all, you have to assume along with me that there is a God. Even if you don\u2019t believe there is, assume along with me there is for the purpose of this writing. I happen to just not believe there is a God; by the way, I know there is. And that can\u2019t be debated with me: God does exist.<\/p>\n
That may hit you the wrong way, because it is likely you don\u2019t agree with me. And I say likely because the pastor during the above sermon produced statistics that were accumulated by a Gallup Poll that showed the Bremerton\/Silverdale area is the least religious area in Washington State, and the seventh-least religious area in all of the country (Boulder, Colorado is the least).<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t ask me how the Gallup Poll could come to such a conclusion because I don\u2019t know. But if it were true it would not surprise me. Church attendance in this country has been declining for decades, and continues a downwards spiral.<\/p>\n
If we agree just for this discussion God exists, and if I accept the pastor\u2019s sermon in which he boils stewardship of Christianity down to this: When we die we have a life review that is judged by God. If God accepts that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior, then according to the Bible (and the pastor) we will be taken into heaven. If we have not accepted Jesus, then we go to Hell. There is no other choice. It\u2019s all black and white. There is no gray area, no maybes, and no mulligans. We are either in or out.<\/p>\n
So if you live in the Bremerton\/Silverdale area I\u2019m afraid that you are probably headed for Hell. I\u2019m sorry, there are no mulligans on this.\u00a0 So you better buy some flame retardant clothing to be buried in when you die.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m probably going to Hell for just writing this. So buy some of that flame retardant material for me, also.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that I\u2019m trying to deliberately displease God. I\u2019m not. I love Him. I try to do what I believe He wants me to do. I pray to Him constantly. I ask for forgiveness whenever I do something stupid \u2013 which is more frequently than I would like.<\/p>\n
But, I do have a question: Why are we here?<\/p>\n
God invented this place \u2013 Earth \u2013 and invented the human condition so we could survive among it (remember those of you who live in Bremerton and Silverdale you have to agree God exists to come along with me on this) so He knows why He did all of this. And if God is a loving God, which I agree He is, then He would not put us in a situation where we have to make such a deadly decision \u2013 Heaven or Hell \u2013 would he?<\/p>\n
Being a loving God why not just create Earth as Heaven and leave it go at that? Whey put us in a situation where we can backslide away from His grace and do things He would not approve?<\/p>\n
And then sentence us to an eternity in Hell.<\/p>\n
So why are we here?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I think. And some of this is contrary to the World, the Bible. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m right, but it\u2019s what I believe right now and maybe I want this to be so more than having it as a belief.<\/p>\n
I think we have to come from somewhere. We just don\u2019t magically appear and then disappear just as magically and either go to Heaven or Hell. If Heaven and Hell exist, they existed before we got here.<\/p>\n
Right?<\/p>\n
God knows everything and because He does, He knows what we will do or not do during our time here on Earth. He has to, right? So He already knows who is going to Heaven and Hell before he makes that decision, right?<\/p>\n
So then, why are we here?<\/p>\n
If I\u2019m already going to Hell, what is the use? I can do everything right here and it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s been pre-determined \u2013 divined \u2013 that I\u2019m going to have a serious sunburn for eternity.<\/p>\n
So, why am I here?<\/p>\n
I do believe that we choose our parents. I believe we are already in some form of heaven before we get here. There are different levels \u2013 dimensions \u2013 and we are placed in a level based on our spiritual development. And that development has taken place over centuries \u2013 there is not time in the spiritual world, but I\u2019ll say centuries just so you can relate \u2013 in different environments, some of which could have taken place on Earth.<\/p>\n
In other words, I believe in reincarnation. Again, the Bible does not say that, so I\u2019m disagreeing at my own peril.<\/p>\n
Our time in an Earthly plane \u2013 and it could be on some other planet \u2013 is more like being in a lab. We get to experience all sorts of stuff, good and bad. It\u2019s how we confront what I will call obstacles that counts. We don\u2019t have to successfully overcome those obstacles, but it helps if we have our heart in the right place \u2013 with God \u2013 even in the worse of times. That\u2019s what counts.<\/p>\n
Because we have Free Will, we can take backward steps, tread in neutral, or advance spiritually as we face our Earthly obstacles. I will accept that if we really take a lot of backward steps here we could wind up getting a bad review and going to Hell \u2013 which is probably the lowest of the low spiritual levels.<\/p>\n
But I also think if we don\u2019t get judged by God to go to Hell, we go to Heaven, but not necessarily the highest level of Heaven. The highest level is reserved for those of us \u2013 and I think there are very few\u00a0 \u2011 that reach a high soul enlighten.<\/p>\n
The ultimate goal is to meld back into God as one.<\/p>\n
So, why are we here?<\/p>\n
The answer is to become one with God.<\/p>\n
I think the worse thing you can do is to deny the existence of God.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure where Hitler is, but I don\u2019t believe doing what he did would necessarily keep him out of Heaven somewhere if he at the end accepted Jesus Christ as his savior. After all He died for our sins.<\/p>\n
Acceptance in your heart \u2013 and not a false belief \u2013 is the righteous path. Only God is able to judge that. You can sin and still be accepted into God\u2019s Grace as long as your are pure in your belief in Him.<\/p>\n
So those of you in Bremerton and Silverdale who are not particular religious or do not attend church, I would suspect you are all right with God if you believe in His goodness and grace and accept Him as your savior.<\/p>\n
As for me, I hope God forgives me for being a little different, and I believe He knows I love Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Went to church the other Sunday and listened to a sermon on the stewardship of evangelism and became convinced…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-column","category-mosher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}