Everyone I know is unhappy. Everyone I know is stressed to the point of sickness. Everyone I know has an extremely pessimistic view of the future. Even people who have been done well in recent years seem to know that progress is unsustainable.
Everywhere I look I see people who are cold and jaded, people who's hearts have become hardened by the cruelty of modern life. It's especially true for the women. College age girls have been abused by the world, unprotected by the men in their lives. It's just sad. The men tend to take it on the chin but there's no real happiness or fulfillment there either. Many waste away playing video games. They give up on the dream of having a wife and kids and a home of their own. Some work dead-end jobs just to survive, even though they'd quietly prefer not to.
I wouldn't say I'm being overly negative here. Everything's subject to change; but this is what I see every day, over and over again. Humanity is being tortured by this system. We truly weren't meant for this.
That sums it up. The only way out of suffering is through God - always has been. Before this was realized by those at the very bottom of society. Now it's dawning on everyone.
I've thought about that a lot. I just personally really struggle to accept the notion that modern Christianity is the answer. I think religion needs to be more than just knowing about a historical event and being enthusiastic about it. We're really missing a cosmology here, something that considers everything.
Christianity is a hard thing for the dead spirit to accept.
The notion is this.
Sin is in the world.
Sin is weaved into the fabric of our existence.
Sin brought for us instant spiritual death and also brought physical decay leading to eventual physical death.
Sin is unacceptable to the nature of the Righteous and Holy Creator God.
Therefore we are separated (dead) spiritually from our Creator.
So far you may be agreeable to the above axioms.
Where our dead spirit and flesh really gets irritated is when we get to talking about solutions. God's holiness is a difficult concept to grasp and accept. We like to make God a little better than us and call that perfection and holiness, but it is a difference of incalculable magnitude. Describing his holiness vs our sinfulness as a distance so vast it is as likely for you to reach the Holy Creator God at His level as it is for you to travel yourself to the Andromeda galaxy in one of Elon Musk's rockets within your human lifetime is still far beneath an accurate description of this divide. And this chafes at the sinner's innate pride and arrogance because we want to be able to and even think we ought to be able to do something to get ourselves closer to God's holiness by making up for our shortcomings (sins). Most religions in this world have something to do with overcoming or own shortcomings through performing some how.
Now to Christianity, we see a different approach entirely. God seeing man (created in God's image) is beset by innate sin handed down the generations by Adams original sin, decides he is not content to allow His image bearer to be cursed to forever be separated from Him. Instead He sends a Savior (Jesus) to earth as a human (born of Mary who was a virgin) whom while sinless would be willingly subjected to the final penalty of sin (physical and spiritual death). His blood thus shed as the perfect sacrifice is laid over the mercy seat in heaven and acts for those who have faith (also given them by the grace of our Lord via the Holy Spirit) are redeemed spiritually and saved from the eternal punishment of being separated from God. How does this occur? Well that blood on the mercy seat in heaven is without sin but it was shed in receiving our punishment thus God can be fully holy and equate to those whom have believed and trusted the holiness and perfection of Jesus Christ (his death and resurrection) as we are covered by the blood of Christ's sacrifice.
If you look in the old testament you will see this story has been consistently foretold in the sacrificial system setup for Adam, Noah, Abraham and finally codified for Israel. It all points to someone else needing to pay the price of our sinfulness. This price was paid and the prophesies all fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
The response of the redeemed soul whom had received salvation would naturally be thankfulness and devotion. It is not the thankfulness and devotion that saves the Christian, the salvation was entirely and only Jesus work and the Holy Spirit awakening your heart to the truth wherein you believed. However these and other fruits should naturally follow along in the life of the person whom had been redeemed. As our Master should now and forever more be Christ and our life should reflect that in every aspect. This is the journey that comes after the gift of salvation for the Christian.
Christianity is not about a historical event. It is knowing the one true living God and having a personal relationship with that God who created you and wants what's best for you but you have to seek Him, not things. Prior to Christ, every god was distant, aloof, and unknowable. The Christian God asks us to be His children! Not mere creatures or things. The God of all creation wants nothing more than for you you seek and love Him, so He can bestow His gifts upon you.
It's NEOBBA...
Paul himself, writer of most of the Newer Testament, stated IF Christ is not raised, we are the biggest fools ever.
I'm not talking about Christianity itself, I just mean the form of it most people are familiar with. It seems like the way Christianity is taught makes it seem irrelevant for a lot of people. It's gotten very watered down and also not intellectually rigorous enough to compete with secular ideas.
One of, if not the best book in the world to read to help you understand Christianity, the nature of God and His word, and the validation of who Jesus Christ was and IS, is the book “ I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist”. I’ve read it about 5 times and I wish I could articulate it verbatim to those with whom I discuss God. It’s an amazing read. Available on Amazon.
Agreed! If you are not offended by the tone or title, it is a really enjoyable read!