Reviving Faith: The Search for God in Today’s World

The Times Magazine cover from April 1966 asking if God was dead stirred much debate at the time.  Secularists ascended the mountain of social opinion in American culture and atheism rose markedly, especially among the youth.  As a result, God was displaced from the public square, even as a concept let alone an object of worship.  “Separation of church and state” became a rally cry for progressives of that time and all references to God were removed from public display, hence the Times article.

During those turbulent Sixties’ days some sociologists seeing the loosening of moral standards and the rise of individualism/humanism, predicted that civil society and the rule of law would eventually breakdown under the weight of our self-centered idealism.  Without God there would be no unifying moral standard and every individual would adopt their own standard of ethics.  Eventually, this could do no other than to drive people apart and create division, especially as new cultures from other lands assimilated into the US.

Today we are seeing the division that was predicted back in the 60’s for having lost the moral compass of the Judeo-Christian ethic, which was pushed out of our lives along with God.  The rise of radical extremism, the proliferation of hate related crime and the emotional numbing of a violence-saturated society has filled the void created by abandoning God.  From the drug littered streets of San Francisco to the nightly death watch in Chicago to the activist virtue signalers mobbing the streets of the East coast, the anger and unrest is extraordinary; perhaps supernaturally so.

Fortunately, there are indications that we may be experiencing a revival among our youth, as we did back in the Jesus Movement of the 70’s. There is a rise of interest in God once again.  Many discerning youths are recognizing a society adrift culturally and are looking for stability; for something better than a world governed by base human desires.  However, many who might turn to God for these reasons are hesitant to do so because of concerns about giving their lives over to a supreme authority.  There are basic questions people need answered before entering a relationship with God, even accepting of His existence.

What follows are some questions that seekers of truth often have regarding God along with answers intended to satisfy the concerns they raise.  The answers are based on Biblical truths shared by the Spirit of the Lord over many years of worship and study. Blessings to those who find these words and open their hearts and minds to the recognition of God and the reality of His deepest love.  There is such a thing as Absolute Truth and to find it brings Perfect Freedom into the believer’s life.  Seek truth earnestly and may God bless you richly on your spirit quest.

Okay, so what and who is God anyway?

Why did God create us?  Why are we here if there is a divine purpose?

How can a God who is all-powerful and all-good allow pain and suffering?

How can God advocate the sacredness of life, but also command genocide?

How could God kill His Son?  What kind of God allows Himself to be tortured?

What happens to us right after we die?

Is there really a Hell and what is it like?

Will God really punish the unsaved for eternity in the Lake of Fire?

Is there really a Heaven and what’s it like?

Will we be able to see our loved ones in Heaven and what will they look like to us?

Is there any hope at all for loved ones who didn’t know Christ before they died?

Will we see our pets in Heaven?  Are there animals in Paradise?

Okay, so what and who is God anyway?

• God is a distinct person Who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent (all-knowing, all-places and all-powerful).  He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things.
• “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”  – 1 Chronicles 29:11
• With God there is a moral standard through which all humans can be objectively viewed; without God, there is no standard and each human subjectively assumes that authority.

Why did God create us?  Why are we really here if there is in fact a divine purpose?

• God created mankind to be a mirror through which He could admire the reflection of His greatest Majesty, the radiant Glory of His Pure and Selfless Love.
• “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:26-27
• To find God, is to connect with Him so that we can be in His presence.  However, for us to face Him and to be a reflection of His Glory we must be unblemished by sin and filled with His radiance.  Jesus has made this possible by providing a way that all our blemishes can be removed and the Glory of His radiance can be reflected in us to God, the Father.

How can a God who is all-powerful and all-good allow pain and suffering?

• God created man to be vessels in which He could store the overflow of His Love for us to share.  However, love is a gift that can only be given through free will, it cannot be commanded or programmed.  So, God gave us free will, including knowledge of good and evil, which created in us the capacity for both.  Our capacity for evil is what brings suffering into the world, while our capacity for good brings love, the love God sought to instill in us to reflect His Glory.
• “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  – Romans 8:17-19
• God not only realized the love He sought to instill in us would let evil loose, He also knew the suffering it would cause.  However, in His Righteousness, He could not rightfully ask us to suffer for love if He was unwilling to do so Himself in seeking a relationship with us.  So, the Son of the Living God condescended to come down to Earth to live among us and to serve, and to suffer.  God saw the price of Love and was willing to share in that cost.

How can God advocate the sacredness of life, but also command genocide?

• Perhaps more than anything, God is Holy.  What is that?  Holiness is God’s recognition of His own Glory, in that He chose Love, Light and Purity to represent His nature and to be the essence of His Kingdom.  Therefore, to maintain Holiness, all things counter to its nature must be eliminated; namely sin, with all its impacts and manifestations.  As a result, God has on occasion wiped out individuals, whole armies and kingdoms that were too great an affront to His Holiness due to the extremes of their depravity.
• “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
      or shown the dawn its place,
   that it might take the earth by the edges
      and shake the wicked out of it?
   The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
      its features stand out like those of a garment.
   The wicked are denied their light,
      and their upraised arm is broken.”  Job 38:12-15
• Apart from God’s Holiness, His unimaginable Power also entitles him to do as He pleases in our regard.  God is much further above us than humans are above the ants.  Yet, He doesn’t stride through our world like we do through parking lots, crushing ants under foot obliviously as we go about our business.  No.  He is mindful of every single human and our fragility and is careful never to crush us inadvertently.  There is no collateral damage in God’s wake, just His Righteousness and our very, deserved judgement.

How could God kill His Son?  What kind of God allows Himself to be tortured?

• God is known as the essence of love or Love itself to those who believe in Him.  Yet, His love is not the selfish, worldly… “what can you do for me that I love so much” kind of love we feel for each other, but rather the selfless…” what can I do for you to show how special you are to me” kind of love that comes from pure, Holiness.  God’s love is Holy and demonstrates its authenticity by being a call to love others more than oneself.  This is counter to the natural laws of self-preservation and survival that fuel this worlds perspective.  As a result, learning to love others more than oneself is the hardest thing for a human to do.  That is why the concept of sacrificial love is so alien to us, but not to God who demonstrates its power through His own sacrifice of love.
• “But he was pierced for our transgressions,
      he was crushed for our iniquities;
  the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
      and by his wounds we are healed.”  Isaiah 53:5
• God knew we could never be with Him as we are due to our sinfulness.  Neither did we have any way to remove the stain of our sin from our souls.  No matter what good things we do they just add to the list of all our deeds, good and bad, but both are still there, written on our souls.  However, the evil and sin in us must be removed from that list altogether for us to commune with God’s perfection.  Jesus wanted us to be Children of God so much, He was willing to do the one thing that would remove the debts in our soul created by our sin, pay the debt Himself.  And since He was the Son of the Living God and His intent was to make us Children of God, He was in essence our “big brother” willing to sacrifice Himself to save His younger brothers and sisters.  Jesus said no love was greater than one that would cause a person to lay down his life for a friend.  How much more so for a brother or sister?

What happens to us right after we die?

• After we die, we will find ourselves in the Spiritual Plane facing judgement.  This will happen immediately when our spirits are separated from our bodies.  Our bodies act as vessels intended to contain our souls.  When we die, our spirits leave the body and also the physical plane of existence.  As a result, we have no “physical” form in the worldly sense and therefore are no longer subject to time and space.  Like the card in the game of Monopoly that instructs, “Go straight to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200,” the spaces and die non longer factor in to the move and we go straight to judgement.
• ^“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”  -Hebrews 9:27-28
• The Bible tells of two different forms of judgement that will be done to mankind.  Those who belong to God through the Blood of the Lamb will be taken to the Judgement Seat of Christ to be given “Crowns” or rewards for the good things they did for Christ in His service.  Those who refused the gift of salvation offered by Christ, will go before the White Throne of Judgement to be sentenced for the evil they did in their lifetime.  In the same way the evil done by those who are saved is not considered in judgement (because Christ has removed it), the good done by those who are not saved won’t be considered, because it does not remove the sin that is also still there.

Is there really a Hell and what is it like?

• Yes.  There is a place we know as Hell.  Apart from the metaphor of “going through hell” as we say during bad times, there is a location in the Spirit World, outside of time and space, that has been purposefully crafted to accommodate rejects, much like a trash bin.  God created it to remove parts of His creation that were no good and not worth keeping, like badly burnt cookies.  What artist or creator does not reject some of their works and disposes of them accordingly?
• “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Matt 25:41
• Hell is essentially the complete absence of God.  That means, among other things, the absence of light, warmth, comfort and anything that made you happy in life.  What remains is torment and regret.  It will “feel” so bad to those that find themselves there, the human mind cannot even conceive of an agony sufficient to even register on Hell’s scale of torment.  It is a place of incredible cold, darkness and hurt, and no more than we truly deserve for the least of our sins.

Will God really punish the unsaved for eternity in the Lake of Fire?

• The Bible does mention a Lake of Fire, which God had prepared for Satan and the fallen angels who rebelled with him.  It is a place where they will meet their final doom after Christ’s Millennial Reign.  God has also assigned it for the removal of the damned souls of human beings who were not saved by the Blood of Christ. It is essentially God’s incinerator to eradicate the damned from existence.
• “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”  Rev 20:11-14
• The Bible says that each man is appointed to die when his time on Earth is up.  That is the physical death that we all go through.  However, our spirits go on after physical death, and our souls are then subject to judgement.  If we are not saved, ultimately, our very souls will also be destroyed in the “Second Death.”  It seems that there is a place of punishment known as Hell, which will impact “damned” souls that are later destroyed completely in the Lake of Fire.  In His great Mercy, God may at least bring an end to the torment of the condemned, but he will also bring an end to their very memory.  It will be as if they never existed.

Is there really a Heaven and what’s it like?

• Yes, there is a Heaven and it is generally considered to be a place of peace and happiness; devoid of trouble and sorrow.  While this is certainly true, it is a feeble expectation grounded in the limitations of our senses.  The very type of happiness we receive will be completely new to us, because it will be related to things we are unable to perceive with our senses and therefore cannot even begin to imagine.
• “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matt 6:19-21
• More than anything, Heaven will be an intimacy with God we cannot experience in our worldly form.  As a result, our “heart” or our ability to feel in some sense will come with us and be elevated to a plane of happiness that we cannot imagine.  Freed from our physical form, with enhanced intelligence, the least in Heaven will have minds far more advanced than the most powerful computers ever build.  We may be able to hold thousands of conversations with different people, in different places, all at the same “time”, while registering and remembering every word from each conversation.  And no doubt our ability to “feel” (our joy) will be just as amplified as our intelligence, bringing about an amazing level of pleasure in things that are as of now incomprehensible to us. And while there may be degrees of Heaven or levels of bliss, no one will harbor any envy or jealousy, because each soul will be filled to fullness.  It will be like a banquet where some can just receive more than others, but all are filled to capacity.

Will we be able to see our loved ones in Heaven and what will they look like to us?

• The Bible tells us that people will still be individual persons after they die and will be recognizable based on their former lives.  During the transfiguration, Jesus took on His Glorified form and met with two ancient prophets in the company of three Apostles.  It is key that they not only still recognized Jesus in His Heavenly state, but also recognized Moses and Elijah as well.  There’s no way the disciples could have ever known what the prophets looked like, yet they just knew who they were…they were still recognizable as the persons they had been on Earth.
• “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³ Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.⁴ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  -Matt 17:1-4
• Certainly, if we retain our individuality in Heaven and can recognize people we had never met, we will be able to recognize those we have known, especially ones we cared about, like family and friends.  How will they look to us?  The Bible does not say specifically, but it is reasonable to believe they will look both familiar and also “better” than they ever did before, just as we will to them.

Is there any hope for our loved ones who didn’t know Christ before they died?

• Christians understand that the only way to God is through the Christ.  Jesus Himself said so in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father, except though Me.”  It is also widely believed that you have up until your last breath to accept Jesus’ gift of salvation and after that there is no hope for it.  However, in the furthest reaches of God’s Love and Mercy, perhaps there is more to it than that.   Take for instance what I refer to as the Promise of the Generations.
• “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”  -Exodus 20:4-6
• In this passage of Scripture, God is telling us that He may punish several generations of children for the offenses of their parents.  However, He also states that conversely, He may bless a thousand generations of a person’s offspring who truly loves Him.  This notion is evident in the Old Testament in a number of places where God says He would have punished Israel if not for His servant David; “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.” -2Kings 19:34.  Also, who is to say Jesus is not capable of intercepting any soul He pleases as they pass during death, not unlike the way He intercepted Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damacus?  Plus, if God exists outside of time and space, what constriction can time place on His reception of our prayers?  You see, hope is one of those things that remain, especially for those who mourn, for “they shall be comforted.”

Will we see our pets in Heaven?  Are there animals in Paradise?

• While the Bible does not specifically say pets will be in Heaven, many theologians cite a passage of scripture that says “the lion will lay down with the lamb” (Isa 11:6) as an indication that animals will be in Heaven and by extension, the ones we loved, our pets.  Though others say that verse is meant to be taken figuratively to mean there will be no aggression in Heaven or predators of any kind.  Still, the Bible has more to say on animals.  In Genesis, the Bible makes it clear that animals will face judgement for taking human life.  The Word actually differentiates between humans and animals in this regard, specifically.
• ⁴ “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. ⁵ And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.”  -Gen 9:4-5
• If animals are subject to judgement, then they must exist in the spirit realm where the accounting will occur.  Therefore, it appears animals will be present in the afterlife.  If that is the case, those animals who are not “judged” for aggression will alternatively find Grace through their Shepherd, the Lion of Judah and join His flock in Heaven.  Moreover, the love between people and their beloved pets is very real.  In 1Corinthians 13 the Lord says, “In the end three things will remain, Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is Love.”  If love is what remains, then surely it will be ready to greet us in Heaven in all its varied and marvelous forms, even with excitedly, wagging tails.

Author’s endnote:
Spirit Quest Garden was created to shine a light on something that darkness seeks to conceal. There is something greater than mankind. There is a Creator God who is inviting those who hunger for more than what man can give. Through His Son Jesus, a way has been made for us to come to Him, where He waits to give us the gifts of the Spirit and begin a unique relationship with each of us. There is wonder, magic, glory and inexpressible joy to be found in the mighty arms of the Lord. May you be blessed as you continue your spirit quest. There is much to discover of a personal nature in God’s Holy Word, as well as in this and many websites reaching out with love in His name. May peace and enlightenment find you on your way.

Resources

• The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
  https://billygraham.org/
  (24/7 prayer line is available at (888) 388-2683)
• He Gets Us (real help with real issues from someone who knows all about it)
  https://hegetsus.com/en
• Bible Gateway (the Holy Word of God in many translations)
  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201&version=NIV
• Key Life (Life lessons and short, daily teachings on grace and a very, very loving God)
  https://www.keylife.org/