What is reality?
There are two realities in this earthly life: one is the life we all experience daily on the earth; the other one is in the outer space without gravity which only astronauts can go on the adventure. We cannot deny the existence of the outer space even though it’s unseen and intangible to our ordinary life.
Likewise, the visible reality in this finite life is temporary and partially real. Another unseen reality after death is eternal according to the Bible. We as mortal humans, cannot understand God’s eternity by our limited human senses. We cannot rely on any other man-made resources like religions, philosophy or even fortune tellers to prove our final destiny. Therefore, there’s only one way we can know about God: God needs to send a messenger directly from His heaven coming to earth and reveal the truth about Himself.
How is Christianity proved to be true?
No humans in the history ever predicted and fulfilled what they once said in their time. Only one man, prophesied with many signs in the Bible and all of the prophecy related to Jesus Christ were fulfilled (see more information) from Jesus Christ’s birth from a virgin, His preaching and miracles, to His death on the cross. After Jesus Christ was resurrected from death, which was seen by hundreds of people in the historical time (see more information), His disciples were empowered by the promised Holy Spirit, who was sent to their hearts to give testimony and spread the gospel to the end of the world until today. It’s the victory Jesus Christ has done in the human history: destroy the devil and take back the lost souls to God.
How did the first human fall in the beginning?
Adam and Eve wanted to know the good and evil, the forbidden knowledge. They are created with a will to desire the tree of God’s life or choose to have the forbidden knowledge. Their desire of being like God is tempted and seduced by satan’s lie and they took the first bite of the fruit on the forbidden tree. Since then, their rebellious pride subjected themselves to satan’s dominion.
Along all the years, Adam and Eve’s descendants, all humans who inherit their DNA still reject God’s authority and want to gain the knowledge by their own power. They don’t know they are giving satan a legal foothold to dominate them. When they voluntarily walk away from the Kingdom of God’s Light of truth, they are in the kingdom of darkness whose main ruler is satan, the archangel.
What does the reality of living in satan’s kingdom look like?
Under satan’s illegitimate authority, a man/woman is like living in the prison. He may feel very comfortable with what he needs in his little cell. He can work hard, make a good living, enjoy earthly entertainment, look smart, have good reputation, manage a big firm, behave good virtues, religious, kind to the poor, successful in whatever he wants, etc. But he never feels satisfied with what he has. He needs to drive himself to pursue a dream or achievement. Even though he seems to give up pursuing anything, he longs for something deep in his heart, which makes him to crave, covet, envy, compare, regret, complain, etc. He may try to believe certain religion or philosophy to persuade himself to accept whatever reality he is faced with. He cannot tell what he is thinking is right or wrong because his feeling is controlling his thoughts: If he feels right, he believes it. If he feels wrong, he rejects it.
It’s like no one want to be deceived by the fraudster, who is so good at making things up to fool people to give up their possession. However, since he doesn’t know how to tell the truth, he either doesn’t believe at all, or believe partially. He thinks he is smart to guard his heart from being deceived by the fraudster. But in reality, he is insecure and uncertain. When everything is going well, he does not want to bother himself with questions about God and the meaning of life. But when the crisis comes suddenly like tsunami, he is panic and either complains about why he deserves such bad luck or demands to know where God is. He may seek some temporary relief in gambling, alcohol, drug or sex to numb his conscience. Or he may try to empty his mind by giving up the earthly desires to escape from the reality. No matter what he does, he never tastes the sweetness of genuine peace and joy.
When can a fallen human being be reversed?
Until one day, the gospel of good news comes to him: God sent His own son Jesus Christ to come to pay off his debt—his sin of rebelling God which causes him to come under Satan’s control and the wrath of God’s righteousness to punish sins. When he hears the truth from God’s word, God’s breath of life breathed into his spiritual nostril like oxygen to the body. His dead bone is awaken by the Holy Spirit’s breath of life. His conscience is clear and knows there’s Someone speaking to his heart. He feels God’s word is true and undeniable. However, the next step is critical for him: he either uses his will to believe or disbelieve, just like Adam and Eve were given a choice between the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of evil and good, being their own god to control.
When he wants to accept this truth, God gives him a gift of faith and he shall turn to the Light by walking away from the dark. And God’s Light gives life like sun to the plants and creature. However, if he doesn’t want to say yes to the truth, his heart automatically rejects the truth and he still remains in the darkness, just where he was.
Jesus Christ said he comes to save, not to judge. All sinful humans are in the hell of darkness. Without coming to the Light, they automatically stay where they are after death. But whoever wants to walk away from the darkness and receive Jesus Christ’s saving payment for his debt will ascend to God’s heavenly realm in eternity. Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross to bear the man’s sins so that satan cannot accuse him anymore. Meanwhile, satan lost his power over this acquitted man. God sees Jesus Christ’s blood on the sinner and give him forgiveness because Jesus absorbs all the wrath and punishment falling on the sinner.
God pursues us.
Out of His mercy and patience, God may come back again and again to knock on the man’s door of heart and want to save him from the eternal death. However, the more he rejects, the harder his heart will become. Until the heart is hard like a stone, there’s no chance for him to want to leave darkness and satan is very comfortable to leave him alone because his destiny is for sure to be with satan and his companions, one third of angels, who all will be thrown into the lake of fire when Jesus Christ comes back (refer to Revelation 20:10).
What is happening with the new man after he believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord of his life?
God will start His reversing process in this man. In his old life, he is in the darkness. So is his heart blinded. His conscience is guilty and impure. His spirit is dead. His heart deceives himself by agreeing with satan’s lies. Consequently, his heart influences his thought with false reasoning from the secular standard of values and against godly truth. His emotion is dark and cause him to feel gloomy, negative, depressed, obsessed, etc. He has no will of freedom to control his emotion but his will is controlled by his feeling. He is trapped and imprisoned.
When God starts the reversing process in him, God sends the Spirit of His Son into his heart to empower his spirit to obey God. Then his heart learns from the truth which sets his imprisoned will free. Then he can make up his mind to take captive his thought to obey the truth and the truth transforms his thought to think in God’s way. His emotion is healthy related to his godly thought. His old stronghold of ungodly thinking habit is broken and the Truth builds in him a new thinking pattern. This godly thought produces right emotion and bears the fruit of Holy Spirit such as peace, joy, love, gentleness, kindness, goodness, patience, faithfulness and self control (refer to Galatians 5:22-23).
You are transformed and victorious!
As a result, these fruits revive his spirit, restore his soul and nurture his body. He is healed and strengthened as a whole being, just like the one God created in His image in the first place. The whole process is reinforced daily and renewing his inner being until he receives a new body when Jesus Christ comes back.