My Beliefs
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Updated on Dec 24, 2019
Nowadays, religion is one of the most important components of human existence. A great variety of people tends to think that religion is the only way of salvation. That is why they believe that with the help of God it is possible to lead righteous life on this planet. Without doubt, mankind always believed in various gods, because they thought that they ruled the world and created it as well. Even in ancient times there existed the god of the sun, the god of earth and the god of death. All these gods were idols and people prayed to them and offered sacrifices. Nevertheless, time changed and new religion came – Christianity. All Christians believe that God is the only one who can answer the following questions. Who are we as humans? What is our place in this world? Is there anything wrong with us? If so, can we do anything about it?. They find the right answer in the Bible, and try to follow God’s advice. Unfortunately, there is a wide range of people who even do not understand what Christianity is. They simply follow the orders of the existing power. Even nowadays, some human beings go to church because of obligation, not the beliefs. That is why it is paramount to make a clear explanation of every aspect of religion, especially the Christian one. The aim of this paper is to analyze the most important notions of the religion, namely creation, image of God, sin and the problem of evil. Let us look precisely at each notion mentioned in the list above. Creation. What Does It Mean? There exists the statement that every Christian lives in the universe that has once been created by God. He is considered to be the creator of the heaven as well as the earth. Nevertheless, each Christian him/herself is the creator of his/her life; it is better to say the ruler of his/her life. God creates humans and gives them an opportunity to live in a proper and right way. Nevertheless, the problem of creation is quite controversial. People do not always know what the creation means. That is why they find the answers in the Holy Scripture. So let us analyze the problem of creation by considering each aspect. Firstly, one should understand what the creation means. We can use this term to define the creation of the world as well as the creation of the universe. A great variety of people understands creation as something that happened in the past. According to the Bible, firstly God creates the heaven and the earth. In fact, if to read this statement objectively, we may indeed consider creation as the notion related to the past. Nevertheless, we can understand it as the process of development that still continues. What is more, it is believed that the universe was created with God’s help and exists under the rule of God. We may see this opinion in the apostle John’s writing, namely he admits that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. That is why we understand that the word “creation” is related to the deeds of God. Moreover, we can understand the process of creation as a natural order, namely including the stars and seasons, changes in the weather, changes in time, and the whole life circle. Everything is connected with his creations and we also are a part of them. Secondly, we should determine if there existed the life before our God created the universe. There are different thoughts and ideas concerning this problem. Some ancient scholar believed that God created the world of the previously existing primary matter. Plato stated that there were two main principles that underlie the world, namely God and primary matter. Nevertheless, Scripture's doctrine of creation totally denies this statement, admitting that God is the sole creator of the world. Moreover, other scholars insisted that God created a world of nothing. They have interpreted the very formula 'creation out of nothing' to imply that 'nothing' was an entity, an original negative which God 'overcame' in his work of creation. This unwarranted speculation finds no support in the biblical texts on creation. Moreover, the world is not the elongation of God’s existence. It was given its true independence of existence by God. That is why the world exists only due to God’s grace and it will exist till God wants it to. We can say without doubt, that even if the life had existed before God created the universe it will be totally different compared to the world we live in. Moreover, God did not want to show us the life before that is why he created better on for the mankind. All in all, creation is the process of development that started in the deepest past and still continues to progress. Moreover, God is the only one who governs the world being its creator and he is the only master of humans’ lives. The prolongation of the world from one moment to the next one is a great miracle made by God. That is why we all live only by the grace of God. The Image of God and Man The problem of existence of God is one of the most vital in the modern society. People try to explain, give the best definition and find an appropriate shape of the existence of God. In fact, the debates concerning the problem of the existence of God are the oldest and the most common among human beings. As God is an incomprehensible phenomenon so that it is too difficult to say exactly what God is. There is a great range of methods regarding the problem of existence, namely scientific, philosophical and theological ones. Each of these methods offers its own description of the existence of God. Nevertheless, they do not describe the connection of the God and man. Let us analyze the problem of the image of God and man respectively. First of all, the main task is to determine what God is and how human beings understand his existence. Some scholars and scientists claim that God is a personal being, who has basic powers and purposes. God is considered to be similar to a common human being who has beliefs and purposes, but they differ from ours. It is known that humans are of two sexes, namely male or female. However, the representatives of this approach admitted that God was neither male nor female. Speaking about all possible powers that God has, Richard Swinburne says that God’s power is infinite, namely he can perform any action without bones or muscles. He can bring objects into existence and keep them there for an appropriate momen. Human beings actually also have power to create objects and make them come into existence, but there is not the supposition to this point of view, and certainly no human has such kind of power. Moreover, the representatives of this approach claim that God has the power to create, preserve, or destroy anything. God has immense power to do anything in the universe. Furthermore, he is not limited by the law he makes them, and he can also change them. One more relevant issue that should be taken into consideration is the existence of God in the Trinity. One God exists in three Persons and it is a way how God has revealed himself to us. The Bible presents God in the form of three powers, namely Father, Son and Spirit. Nevertheless, Christians use the word “God” in the meaning of Father in particular, and at other times, the entire Godhead. The subordination of Son and Spirit to the Father becomes imminent if “God” is believed to refer only to the Father. That is why a vast majority of sects misses this significant distinction and finds some incongruities in the biblical teaching of the Godhead of the Son and the Spirit. In fact, Christians understand these persons in unity. They know exactly that God consists of three persons and each person is a part of God. And the three members of the Godhead work together in harmony. Not in unison but in harmony. “Unison” expresses a form of unity, yet it has no structure and richness. “Harmony”, however, communicates the idea of unified expression but only through differing yet complementary parts. To sum up, the problem of existence of God has gained great popularity among modern scientists and philosophers. While studying the problem of existence, we also determine for ourselves what God is. It is known that God is the master of the universe; he helps us to understand the universe in general and our acts in particular. We found out that God must exist because without his presence, the world would not subsist and we will not be alive. Sin – What Is It? One more interesting topic that should be discussed is the definition of sin. In fact, sin is everything that is contrary to the God’s will. Moreover, it is a breaking of God’s law. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. During the whole life, people do everything to achieve the desirable goal without paying attention to certain moral rules and principles. They lie, steal and even kill in order to get something. All of this is a kind of sin that people commit every day and even do not realize its seriousness. The first sin was committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They forgot about their duties and fellowship with God. Eve took the prohibited fruit and gave it to her husband to eat. That was the way how people stood against God’s law. Nevertheless, God helps to overcome sinfulness by giving us the certainty that we will not be seduced above our ability to overcome it. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to men, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be temped above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. That is why God gives us the possibility to repent and have access to the blood of Christ, which will keep on cleansing our sins. Nevertheless, there exists the problem of the distinction between what is wrong and what is right. In fact, God gives us Ten Commandments to follow and they are considered as a life guide for every Christian. Furthermore, people should decide for themselves what other rules they should follow in order to live a righteous life. That is to say that it is extremely difficult to choose the right way in life. Every person is an individual that is why he/she has his/her own vision of the right and wrong things respectively. Nowadays people even forget not only about Ten Commandments but also about their own moral principles. They forget about sins. Once Plantinga said: “Sin is any act … that displeases God and deserves blame. Sin is both fatal and fertile … tends both to kill and reproduce … like cancer sin kills because it reproduces. ” Sin destroys inner life of every person and ruins him or her from inside. Nevertheless, sin is universal. There is no one righteous in the universe, except Jesus Christ. In fact, sin drastically influences the life of human beings: the mind, the will, the emotions, the speech and behavior and even social positions. Moreover, sin affects human relationships and it can completely ruin them. That is why everyone should make it possible to live according to God’s rules and try to avoid sins. It is difficult enough because the whole world seduces us every minute, but we have to resist it. There are different ways of manifestation of sins. The most common one is pride. We often forget about God and set ourselves up as our own lord. Moreover, we consider ourselves to be the standard of reality and claim that only our experience is truthful. We claim mastery of the world and assume responsibility for the destiny of the race. Its ultimate expression takes the form of a titanism in which we climb Babel-like towards heaven to thrust God down. All in all, sin is a total rejection of God. It is the way how people deny God’s rules. Human beings do not understand the fact that they will never escape God’s judgment. He is the creator of the universe. That is why, we all live only due to his grace. Consequently, we have to follow his rules and lead a righteous life because one day God will ask everyone about every sin he or she has once committed. Evil The problem of the definition of evil gained a great popularity in the modern society. People around the world find it difficult enough to explain what evil is. The vast majority of them believe that evil is a severe objection to the existence of God. Very often they raise such questions: If God is so good, why Is his world so bad? If an all-good, all-wise, all-loving, all-just, and all-powerful God is running the show, why does he seem to be doing such a miserable job of it? Why do bad things happen to good people? Let us find appropriate answers to these questions and suggest new ideas and thoughts for understanding the notion of evil. It is believed that goodness and evil coexist with each other. If the world consists only of goodness it will be difficult for anyone to recognize it. It means that without an evil one would not be able to compare good to anything because in this case, evil is good’s double, therefore, one would not have a chance to recognize it. In this case, we can speak about attitude of individuals towards evil and goodness. They determine for themselves what way they wish to choose – good or evil. However, it is difficult to identify whether one acts in a good or bad way. If someone commits an evil act in order to survive, will this act be really evil? Sometimes it is not evil for one to have more than another if one can evenly share their facilities. All this leads to more complicated issues of morality and the task for humanity is to draw an exact line between goodness and evil. As we can see good and evil cannot exist without each other, as they must coexist. However, another problem emerges. That is, if good and evil must coexist, how can peaceful society exist itself? In fact, it all depends on individuals, who should decide for themselves what way to chose and here we can speak about moral values of the individual. There is one more way of understanding and description of the notion of evil. Some people consider evil to be a kind of being. God is the creator of the universe and different beings as well, but according to the Genesis, all that God creates is good things. Sometimes people tend to depict evil as a thing, for example, a black cloud or dangerous hurricane, but these things misguide us. If God is the creator of all beings and things, it is obvious that he is the creator of evil as well. However, this is not so easy to determine using analogy that evil is not a thing, but a choice or some kind of damage caused by this choice. Those who believe in this theory point that evil is not a thing, but is also not an illusion. Another point of view should be considered in terms of modern society; it is the definition of the evil concerning different sins. There is a thought that if we can take away all sins and selfishness, we will have paradise on the earth. Even keeping physical evils will no longer torment and acerbate us. A great number of saints suffered, and they did not embrace sin. Physical evil is caused by spiritual evils; meanwhile the cause of suffering is sin. God is our life, but when the human soul arises against God, it loses its life. In fact, a human being is a soul as well as body. Our body must share the punishment that has been the cause by the rebellious soul. This punishment is inevitable; if one is against God, he/she will suffer anyway. God gave us a tremendous example of evil; the crucifixion of Christ. It was the greatest spiritual evil and the greatest physical evil as well. Moreover, it was one of the most terrible sins and sufferings in the world – the deicide. Christ was crucified for the sake of humans and Saint Paul called this action as the righteousness of God. The main way to save our lives and protect ourselves from evil is to love. Love can save us, though it is difficult and tricky, but it needs to be trusted. To sum up, there are a lot of definitions of evil in the modern world. Most of us try to distinguish for themselves between goodness and evil. God gave us the chance to choose a desirable way in life depending on our moral values. He gave us an example of the dreadful evil that had ever happened in the world, which was the crucifixion of Christ, thus showing all mankind that he sacrificed his life for the salvation of everyone on the earth. In fact, modern society forgets about Christian morality, as people are too busy with a hectic way of live, and even do not notice that they fulfill evil deeds in order to enrich their incomes. Nevertheless, we should remember that every bad act or evil deed will sooner or later result in suffering. It is up to us what decision to make. Overall, we can say without doubt that religion is considered to be one of the most difficult studies to comprehend. There is a great variety of problems that should be analyzed while studying religion. Nowadays, human beings believe in God and trust religion because it helps them to live and overcome difficulties. Religion is the study that helps to find the sense of life and teaches how to live properly. That is why it is crucial to learn every aspect of this study in order to live in a righteous way. Susan Moor, writer at https://qualitycustomessays.com
