What do I believe?

I had some interesting chats over the EIFF weekend about life, the Universe and everything. I was particularly interested in the conclusions Ross has reached - an epiphany in a poky hostel room in Edinburgh - but also in some of the views of the others. I ended up going to a church in Edinburgh which I hadn’t been in for over ten years and one of the points made was that very few people really understand what Christianity is. Very few folk understand what it is I actually believe. I suppose this is probably true, as I certainly don’t feel comfortable talking at length about Christianity and my faith when I know it makes others feel uncomfortable or awkward.

But I reckon a blog would be impersonal enough to be safe!

So what do I believe?

God exists - the infinite personal Spirit who is the author of all time and space, of all matter and energy, of mind and soul. God made the world in six days several thousand years ago. He formed Adam, the first man, and made him the steward or manager of the Universe. He formed Eve to be a wife for Adam and the two lived together in a full and free relationship with both each other and God. God gave them one law: don’t eat the fruit from one particular tree. The law was arguably a little random, but was a test of their obedience and loyalty to God. But becoming convinced that God was keeping something extra special from them, they ate the fruit of that tree and in doing so rebelled against God, broke away from his kingdom and declared themselves independent. They separated themselves from God.

As a result God - being truly just - had no choice but to put them under the curse of law-breakers. The Universe was also cursed with them and the full array of natural disasters, of violence in the animal kingdom, of poisonous plants, parasites, sickness and death is the result of this.

From these two, Adam and Eve, all the way down through our generations right to the present, we have all been tainted by the same mindset that Adam and Eve got. We naturally put ourselves first, distrust God and value others only for feelings they stir within us or for benefits they can bring to us.

None of us, by natural power, can ever make ourselves “good” in God’s sight. To make this point clearer, God gave rules (the 10 Commandments) as a guide to what moral perfection looks like: (Put God first; Never idolise another; Honour even the name of God; Honour one day a week for God; Honour your parents and all authority figures; Do not kill, commit adultery, steal, lie or desire another’s possessions). As Jesus pointed out, the commandments cover even our thoughts and fantasies, so nobody in the world is truly “good“, or can even be “good” for a day.

With all of us dirty and impure we are all equally unfit for Heaven and unfit to stand in God’s presence. Nothing is left for us after death but to be plunged into Hell. We know very little about Hell, but the metaphors in the Bible give us an idea (unquenchable fire, outer darkenss, the place of the eternal worm, of gnashing teeth and of torment). It is perfectly just for a soul to enter Hell. It would be perfectly just of God to throw the whole race of humanity into Hell. But God is not merely a just God: he is a God of love. He has not left us to perish.

Two thousand years ago Jesus was born in the Middle-East. He grew up, trained as a joiner, and eventually did a three year speaking tour of the Roman provinces of Judea and Galilee. This man was both fully human and fully divine. He lived in complete harmony with the laws of God but was put to death for his outrageous claims to be the Son of God. But this death was itself part of the plan - indeed the crowning part of the plan - for why he had come in the first place. This was the death of the only truly innocent life the world has ever seen.

In a way that is too deep to go into here, Jesus took the sin of the world on his shoulders as he died, and paid the price for it. If we accept him as our personal Saviour and King, that payment is extended to cover our sins also. If we don't bother with him, that payment will be required of us personally.

Three days after Jesus died, he rose again. There is very strong historical evidence that this is indeed the case. This is a guarantee to the rest of us that those who are in him will also be raised from the dead and will not end up being cursed to Hell but will go to Heaven after they die.

I realise I'm beginning to ramble. It's intensely difficult to compress down an entire way of viewing life and death into a couple of paragraphs. It's far better explained in the Bible... but there again, they've got a few more pages than I do! Either way - that's what I believe to be true. It's not just a story. It's as true as the fact that if you stand in the rain you get wet.