Christian World Destiny

Sometimes discussions about purpose in life gets quite messy. Sometimes certain statements that we mention makes God look unfair. Sometimes it seems that everything is fate. This article will cover very briefly human origin, human destiny, the destiny of the world, and how all these relate to us and God. It is a summary of what Christians in general believe as far as the Bible reveals:

In the beginning, there was nothing at all, except God. God was there from eternity, He is the "I AM", the ever present one, the Uncreated One - the Creator of all things. He created the world and everything in it, including man.

It is not exactly known why God created man, but definitely all things in the world (including mankind) is created to reflect God's glory. Everything find their meaning in God's design - the way a ladder would find meaning in the design of the house. Without the first and second level, a ladder is meaningless.

The main purpose of man's creation would be that of worship. Worship, i.e. adoring God would appear in various forms, being summed up in a Bible verse "whether you eat or you drink, do it to the glory of God". For example: a good Christian would honor God in his finances, relationships, recreation, and every aspect of his life - that would be the scope of worship.

One important part in the creation of man was that man was given responsibility to abide in God. This would mean to remain in a good relationship with God, this would basically also mean obedience to God - since He would be the best person to control everything for every reason.

After the creation of mankind, God gave mankind the world to rule and to enjoy. Woman was created as the equal companion of man. So somewhere along the line - Adam and Eve initiated the first human rebellion against God by disobeying God at one instant. That incident caused mankind to suffer a severed relationship - by which they are guilty of eternal condemntation since they went against God's Laws.

After the Adam and Eve incident, humans patterned themselves after their deeds and continued the legacy of disobedience. So much so that it would not be wrong at all to say that going against God's Laws is our innate ability. God's Laws - not to mention any technicalities, in the simplest definition would be to live in a way that does not place God as the highest priority.

For example, as much as a husband ought to love a wife - when he places the wife above God (finite versus infinite worth) he is making a gross miscalculation. In that sense, if he makes an idol out of anything, he is not walking in a direction that is against God - and joins mankind in their eternal condemnation.

God later solves the problem by sending Jesus. In the most simplistic terms, Jesus death was the price of our redemption. It could be summed up in the verse "While we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly".

The Bible teaches that the price of our sins was not something we could afford to pay and still stay alive - this life or the next. Jesus paid the price, so that all who receives His offer would be forgiven, and therefore "saved from God's judgement". The process of believing in Jesus would involve repentance and trusting in Jesus on our side.

So in simplistic terms, this world is not all that is. In fact, this world is less than a fraction compared to eternity - therefore, Christians assume responsibility to steward the earth well, however we do not place our priorities on earth. I.e. protecting animal rights is good, right, and important, but to let others know of the path to God - by believing in Jesus, would have a higher priority.

So according to the Bible, the world will continue to become worse and worse with all mankind becoming more and more wicked. Education is great and important, but education will not save the world - it might slow down the decay in the world, but it wont reverse it.

However, at one appointed day, Jesus will come back to the earth - the judge the earth. This will be the time where God will settle every single account. The Bible teaches that God is always in control over everything - not that He is directly controlling us as though we are mindless slaves - but that everything is within His plan an control.

When the judgement is over, there will be people sent to heaven, others to hell. The basis of going to heaven would be our believing in Jesus. Note: not believe in His existence. i.e. when we tell somebody "I believe in you", we are not saying merely that we believe he exists.

Therefore, the human destiny can be summed up as:
1) Our eternal destination and dwelling place
In heaven, with God and angels and others who are like us, enjoying an eternity of fellowship with one another
Or in hell, a place of despair and loneliness and of torture

2) Our final condition
Completed human beings - restored to who we really are.
Destroyed human beings - lifeless and without anything good left

3) Our final analysis
Our deeds will be judged, according to how much we have been given. The Bible is clear that we will be judged according to how much God Himself has given us -" to him whom much has been given, much mroe will be expected"

World's destiny:
Countries and nations are temporal and serves very useful purposes for the meantime, however, they will all be dissolved as the end of the world comes. God will recreate the world. and God will be the ruling monarch who is just and loving. The new world will not contain death nor sickness nor death or anything like it.

Issues that will be put into perspective:
Present suffering of the world
Political state of the world
How we live our lives