So we found out that we have free will, and there is more to life than just life on earth. What if there only would be one God, and he would force you to listen to Him, and that wouldn’t give any other ideas any chance? Like there would be every evening a bible verse in your language in the clouds and you would be supposed to read it and memorise it. God is able to do this.
But would that be free will? Not. Would it be free will if God would allow you not to believe in anything else than Him? Not… So the fact that there are believed to be different Gods in this world, is quite in line with the fact that there is one true God for whom free will is very important.
My own search on which God
From my personal life I was raised as a Christian, but as I have free will, during my student time I asked myself the question, if I would be born somewhere else, would I also believe in Jesus Christ, or in the faith of that country? I read several books on this matter, and a book that really helped me was: The universe next door: A basic world view catalog by James W. Sire | Goodreads.
It gives a nice summary of all kinds of world views like Theism, Deism, Naturalism, Nihilism, Existentialism, eastern religions and the new age. But what is a worldview? According to James, (and I agree) it is the answer to 7 questions, which are:
- What is the prime reality, what is really real?
- What is the nature of the world around us?
- what is mankind?
- What happens when we die?
- Why is it possible to know anything at all?
- How do we know what is right or wrong?
- What is the meaning of human history?
In this book, he will measure all the world views with these 7 questions in mind, giving a good overview. It convinced me that indeed yes I want to know God from the bible. My summary: We are created in God’s image, and by the fall we came to know good and evil. As God has free will, so have we, and finding out that we fall short of God’s moral standard we find out we need God to be more like God on the ethical side of life. God knows that and gave his Son.
But what about you? What is your worldview? Where do you think you will spend eternity and why?
The Bible
OK, there I was, I believe in Theism. But many answers about our Christian faith come from a book called “The Bible”. One beautiful verse is in the book of Isaiah:
Isa 45:18-19 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
But why are there different versions of the Bible, and who wrote these 66 books? The Bible became the next subject I studied in my life.