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It is truly shocking and disheartening to me to see all the memes on the Internet that either disses, disregards, insults, or downplays Christianity, God, the Bible, Jesus, and everything in between from the book of Genesis to Revelation. There are a lot of sarcastic and rude responses that are directly insulting to me and every believer in Christ. I know God doesn’t need anyone to defend Him, but I’m here to offer up some explanations about the misconceptions of Christianity, what we believe, and the Bible itself, which is true and has been proven to be accurate.

Let me just start off by stating that the Bible has been proven to be historically accurate and true by scientists and historians all over the world. It was written over a thousand years by at least forty different authors. It’s been translated into countless languages over two-thousand years of history or more. Yet, when we look at the modern English version of the Bible and compare it to the original documents found, we don’t see many differences. For the most part, there are a few words missing here-and-there, but those don’t take from the meaning of the passages and most of them are words changes in the translations from one language to another. The Bible lines up with multiple artifacts and other trusted historical documents. It was written by men who were inspired by God and the Bible is God’s Holy Word. What it says is true.

God created the heavens and the earth. He created every living thing in it from all the plants to the water, the fish, the birds, and every animal on it. God formed Adam from the dust and then later took one of Adam’s ribs and made Eve, his wife. They were the first marriage, which was intended to be between one man and one woman for life.

The Garden that God created for them to live in was perfect. All the animals ate plants, and yes this is when dinosaurs existed and yes, they were all originally plant eaters. For anyone who may doubt that because of some dinosaurs’ sharp teeth, there are plenty of animals alive today with sharp teeth that are vegetarians. Take Pandas for example. Everything was perfect.

Yet, God didn’t want Adam and Eve to be robots with no choices. He gave them free will. This free will meant that He gave them the right to choose between good and evil. So, He strictly forbade them from eating of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve ate and then gave it to Adam and he ate.

They both sinned. Sin entered their lives for the first time and God cast them from the garden. As a result, humans now would eventually die. Childbirth became painful, some animals (and dinosaurs) began to eat meat. They had to work for the food and everything that they had. Life was hard, because of the fall, because of the bad choices that Adam and Eve made. God didn’t want humans to be robots. He wants us to worship and love Him willingly which means He gave us the choice.

We chose evil. We chose sin and Satan and death. That’s not God’s fault. It’s ours. Our choice to sin sends us to Hell, NOT God. He didn’t create Hell for us. Hell was intended as a place for Satan and his fallen angels. Satan was once an angel, but he wanted to be God and was cast out of heaven because of it. Because we chose sin, now we are heading toward Hell.

Yet God created us. He loves us. He doesn’t want us to suffer and endure Hell. So, He had a plan to save us, to spare us from the suffering of Hell. God sent His Only Son Jesus Christ to earth, born to the virgin Mary. Jesus was fully God and yet fully man, but he never sinned. He was perfect and because the price of sin is death, Jesus had to die on the cross. He suffered so that we didn’t have to suffer. He took our punishment for us on the cross. Jesus and God love us that much. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

God had every right to condemn us to Hell. We chose sin and the price of that is death. Yet He didn’t condemn us to Hell. Now, all we must do is believe in His Son Jesus Christ, that He lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross, and three days later rose from the dead, for us, for our sin and we will be forgiven and saved!

We can have a relationship with Jesus and with God Himself. We can speak to the Creator of the Universe, the God who breathed stars into existence, who breathed the breath of life into your lungs, who gave you everything that you have. That is truly amazing!

And yet… people insult it. People refuse to believe it. They question it. “Why did God make death the price of sin? Why did God create sin? Why does God let bad things happen? Why did He create me if He knew I would choose to go to Hell anyway?”

Those are all good questions. Why did God make death the price of sin? The tree that they ate from was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It wasn’t the tree of good and evil, but of knowledge of good and evil. Before this, they had no knowledge of good or evil. God strictly forbade them from eating it, but when Satan tempted them, they wanted to be like God. Sin is a direct rebellion against God and His righteousness and holiness. Adam and Eve easily could have chosen to trust God, to trust their Creator, to eat any other fruit in the Garden, to rely on Him, to believe in Him, but they chose to sin. The result of this is death, which is the measure of the enormity of the sin. Sin itself, no matter what the act of it is – lying, cheating, stealing, disobeying, etc. – is an affront to God and His holiness. Without it, we cannot live as God lives and we will be sent to Hell.

Yet God offered us a way out because Jesus paid the price for our sin. Now, all we have to do is believe in our hearts that Jesus lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again, and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and we will be saved and our sins forgiven. A quote from an online article states, “We should not think that these consequences were arbitrary or something that God thought up in a fit of angry disappointment. Rather, they spell out what it means for man to put himself out of fellowship with God. Consider a deep-sea diver who feels frustrated at the restriction imposed on his movements by the hose that connects him to the air pump in the boat at the surface of the water and cuts the line… So Adam cut his spiritual lifeline to the One who is the source of all peace and goodness and life, and found in the process that all of creation was against him. Sin is always a perversion of God’s best and brings all of life under judgement – the judgement of futility and death” (Grigg, Russel).

Why did God create sin? Why did He create me if He knew I would choose to go to Hell anyway? God wanted us to have free will. If you created something, you wouldn’t want it to be robotic with no mind or will of its own. God loves you so much He wanted you to be able to choose for yourself the life you wanted to live. Yes, He knows what choice you’ll eventually make, which means, if you choose Hell, He knows that too, but He wanted you to be able to live! He gave you life and He wants you to live it! Besides, if you know Hell is a terrible place, why would you willingly choose to go there?

If you choose to believe in Jesus, that God is real, that He created you and everything in this universe, what have you got to lose? If you’re wrong, you have lost nothing, but if you’re right, you will have gained everything – eternal life, Heaven, glory. Everything.

Why does God let bad things happen? Bad things happen in this life because of sin and the consequences of sin. Our choices have consequences, sometimes good, sometimes bad. We have to face them. God gave us free will, remember, so when we make those bad choices, we have to face the consequences that come from it. And sometimes God allows us to go through bad things to make us stronger. Just like if my parents hadn’t divorced, which left my family devasted, I never would have had so many issues with my dad. And without that, then when I met my husband, I never would have learned what a real man is. Our love wouldn’t be the same without it.

God created you and He knows everything. He knows what He’s doing. He knows best. Wouldn’t life be better if you would just kick back, relax, and let God handle everything for you? Why live in fear and stress, why face the unknown alone, when you can rely on God to give you strength and help you through it?

I’ve heard a lot of people online say that atheists are “tough enough to face reality without a made up story to hide behind” (or variations thereof). You may see yourself that way, but how important is being tough? I’d rather be loving and kind and encouraging and inspiring to other people! I’d rather share God with them, share the gospel, and Jesus’ love for them, to give them hope and love and joy and laughter, than nothing at all. Without God, there is no hope. Without Him, there is no joy, not true joy. Whatever you do here on life may give you happiness and joy, but it’s temporary. Eventually, it will fade, because there will always be a hole in your heart without God. There will always be an emptiness you can’t fill.

I would much rather spend all my time and effort believing in Someone who Loves me than spend that same amount of time and effort believing in nothing.

Whether you believe in God or not, He loves you. Whether you care or not, He loves you. Whether you know it or not, you need Him. We all do. It’s okay to need others, to need help. It’s okay to rely on Someone far above and beyond ourselves. It’s okay to look to Someone Higher, to see God’s Creation and be in awe. It’s okay to let go and let God. It’s okay to give yourself to Him. He created you. He knows you. He knows everything about you. He would never do anything to hurt you. He has a special plan for your life and He wants to give you so many wonderful blessings. He wants to show you so much than you ever knew before.

All you have to do is believe and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. It may sound scary, and it may seem like you have to give up everything good in your life, but Jesus has something better in store for you. Far above all that you can imagine. He sees your hopes, your dreams, your goals, your aspirations. With Him and through Him you can do so much more than you ever could without Him. You can have so much more with Him. You can feel so much more with Him.

Don’t waste another second of your life without Him.

Resources:

Why Did God Impose the Death of Penalty For Sin? Russel Grigg. https://creation.com.