I'm a little confused on the redemption point. If God is the creator of all things, why would redemption be necessary? Also, if God created all things, doesn't that entail the creation of evil? You could say that Lucifer turned away from God, and that evil can be traced to that character...but if God is infallible and all-knowing, wouldn't He have had the foresight to expect Lucifer's fall from grace? I mean, we could attribute this whole article to blind, unfounded faith (which is bliss), or we could use our human ability to rationalize. This argument isn't convincing, at least not to me. No one seems to be able to answer these questions, nor the question of why we are here. If God had created humanity to serve him, then we're merely no more than slaves, correct? So we should be thankful for this? Plus, do we really have any chance of making into "heaven?" What's the point? If we don't have free will, why do we need to exist in the first place, or at least, why do we need to live a life on Earth? Like I said, if God is all-knowing, then He knows whether we'll be redeemed or not, long before that time comes. If this is so, then our paths have been set and free will does not exist. If we don't have free will, are we really to blame for any sinful acts?

You make a lot of good points, and Christians have many different beliefs about the issues you raised. I'm going to share what I strongly believe to be the correct responses to the issues you raised. Some of my beliefs regarding these issues aren't very popular among Christians, but I believe them to be the most Biblically and logically correct anyway.

You're actually very right with a lot of the points you make. First of all, yes, Lucifer turned away from God and evil is indeed traced to Satan. And yes, God did know from the beginning of time that this would happen (as in fact he knows everything that will happen)! God certainly had the ability to prevent evil and bad things from happening, but he has a greater purpose in allowing them to happen. Ultimately everything works toward His glory, and a time will come when God and his chosen people will live in perfect peace and harmony, free of evil. Everything that happens in human history is a pre-determined step toward reaching that goal. In the end God will ultimately be more glorified as a result of having permitted evil to exist than if he hadn't; evil is essentially just a pawn in his great plan. God doesn't actively wish that anyone would perish, but he does have a greater purpose for it. He basically has an active will and a passive will. He actively wills that some things happen (such as someone accepting Christ as Savior), and they do. Other things he doesn't actively wish for (such as pain and suffering), but he passively allows it for his greater purposes.

All this doesn't change the fact that we do indeed live our lives and have freedom, but God works it all together toward His purposes. This doesn't mean we sit around trying to figure out if what we're doing is part of God's plan or whatever; we just leave that to God and try to obey his commands; he'll do the rest. It's not my place to figure out if God has chosen a particular person to be "saved" or not, I just do what he's commanded (which is to tell that person about Jesus, because I genuinely want to see that person come to know Christ), and let God do the rest. Even if I witness to someone and that person doesn't accept Jesus, God has some purpose for my witnessing anyway, whether I ever realize it or not. Also, just because our paths are already set before us, that doesn't change the moral right/wrong of our sins; we still have freedom regardless of whether God knew beforehand what our decisions would be, and hence consequences for our sinful actions. Again, we need to be redeemed because we're stained by sin and therefore unworthy for heaven.

For Christians, our purpose on earth is to serve God, but it's a very joyful thing! It may be hard for an unbeliever to see how not living for his/her self and living for Christ instead can be a good thing, but it's a great thing; God fills the Christian with so much joy, much more than living a life for self! And sadly, a person who never accepts Christ as Savior ultimately has no answer to the question of "why are we here;" he/she ends up in hell instead. That's why God cultivates a heart in Christians to reach a lost world. But again, everything happens for a reason, so I don't worry that somehow something will happen that God didn't intend to happen. And to answer the question "do we really have any chance of making into heaven?" Not on our own, but by God's grace and accepting Jesus as our Savior (again that's what the article was about). Just because God knows who will go to heaven and who won't doesn't change the fact that those whom God calls still have to make that profession of faith in order to be saved (and they will eventually, even if they resist at first). Bottom line, putting aside all rhetoric and talk, anyone who professes Jesus as Savior and Lord and repents of their sins will go to heaven.

So I think I addressed all the issues raised in your reply. The point of my article was to let a person know how he/she can be saved, but your concerns are obviously much deeper. Normally I wouldn't even discuss the points I made in this reply, because a lot of Christians don't fully believe the way I do and I don't want to cause controversy within the Christian community (even though my beliefs really make no practical difference than another Christian who doesn't believe that exact way). But I had to make these points to address your needs (b/c again, I do fully believe they're right; it's Biblical and logical). Please keep bouncing your thoughts off me, and I'll keep doing the same. I don't care if this reply section is a hundred comments long.

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

The majority of that doesn't fall in with what I'd call logic, but I guess that's where faith comes into play. Either way, I commend you for attempting to answer in a pleasant and timely fashion.

Now, let me pose another question to you, if you don't mind:

Let's take a scenario in which one dies without having ever been to exposed to Christianity. Let's say...tribes of people who are disconnected from what Westerners consider to be "civilization." A society in which its inhabitants are ignorant of any type of singular deity; God in this case. We'll call it pre-colonization America. Now, the various indigenous peoples of North America who died before Europeans attempted to convert their people to Christianity...what happens to them? Are they destined to an eternity in the fires of hell because they never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior? Given the circumstances, these people were never given a chance to learn about the Bible. Does this make them sinners in the eyes of God, on a one way trip to the gates of the underworld? These are the questions that don't seem to be answerable, to me at least. We can call morality into question, whether its of the relativist or absolutist strain, yet how does a group of innocent people fail to reach Heaven when they've never been shown an alternative to a polytheistic religious [spiritual] lifestyle? And to reiterate the points of the former post, are we all just pawns in the cosmos, being moved across a board at the whims of a divine being?

BTW that last post that was "removed by the author" was a test post I did when my other post wasn't loading up. I'm definitely not deleting anyone's posts.

I also wanted to clarify your first question "If God is the creator of all things, why would redemption be necessary?" It goes back to the garden. Though we were originally created sin-free, Adam and Eve's first sin brought sin into the world, which is why we need to be redeemed and need God's love. But again, even that was part of God's plan.

"are we all just pawns in the cosmos, being moved across a board at the whims of a divine being?"

If you are referring to fate/free will, I've always believed that we as people have free will - we can choose Pepsi at the grocery store or we can choose Coke but the thing is that what decision we make was already known since the beginning of time by the Lord.

"I'm definitely not deleting anyone's posts."

Only I have that power being the Admin of this site, bwhahahaha! (And I have rarely had to do it which is great!)

Hey I've been busy, and I'm still a little busy now but I'll dedicate time tomorrow afternoon to respond to your last response. Have a good one.

Ray, your point about free will is basically what I believe and I couldn't have said it any better myself.

Now about the "tribes of people who have never heard of Jesus" issue. My answer comes straight from the Bible, so if you don't believe the Bible to reflect absolute truth then my answer probably won't satisfy you completely. BTW in the coming weeks my posts will be about historical evidences and such that show the Bible to be historically accurate and true, as well as Jesus' deity.

In Romans 1:18-32 and Romans 2:12-16 it's clear that God makes himself known to everyone, even those who have never heard the Word, through A. nature itself, and B. writing it directly on people's hearts (conscience); hence there's no excuse for not knowing God. Some of these "tribes of people" choose to reject God anyway despite knowing him (as is the case with people who have heard the Gospel), while others worship God in their limited knowlege of Him (those will be saved). People will in fact be judged based on what they know about God, not what they don't know. So those who have never heard of Jesus and the Gospel won't be judged on not knowing those things, but rather what they did with the natural knowledge God gave them of himself (those verses say that many of these choose to worship things in nature, like idols, instead).

I guess you could then ask what's the point of missionaries if everyone has a natural knowledge of God, but those who reject God anyway need to be witnessed to, plus everyone needs to hear about the awesome love and joy of knowing Jesus; their lives are much better knowing Him.

Please keep the questions coming, I'm happy to answer them the best way I know how. Of course I hope you wan't base your decision to accept Jesus or not soley on the answers I give; I'm just human after all. However I will do my very best to point you to the right answers; I want to help in any way I can.