Before Jesus, who came as God in the flesh, we had to transfer our guilt and shame to a blameless animal and give it the death sentence we deserved for every count of sin against us. God knew we could never earn our way into eternal life in His presence. Nor could the counts of sin against us be written off without a perfect (complete and sufficient) sacrifice. The imperfect blood of even the purest animals was not enough to cover a multitude of human sins. They were, instead, a prophetic substitute for the sacrifice that would end all others.
The folly behind other religions is they assume that good deeds will make their followers worthy to enter a perfect kingdom, but here’s news for you. Those who do not meet a perfect standard will not enter a perfect Kingdom. Once imperfect, always imperfect. Consider the following example; even if someone could earn a score of 100% on every test, they ever took except one. Even if they took thousands of tests, they could only be 99.9% perfect. We could add more 9s, but they could never be perfect. Likewise, it doesn’t matter how good we think we are. All have sinned (even the “best” among us), and we are not worthy to enter the Kingdom of God on our own even if we achieved a so-called “Nirvana.” However, God made a way for us to write off any score lower than 100%. With His help, we could be made perfect.
Put another way, we are not able to withstand His perfect and Holy presence on our own. Therefore, how can we ever dwell with Him? How can we ever behold the splendor of a God whose overflowing power manifests itself as the brightest fire and light which we could never dream of comprehending with blemished minds and impure eyes? If His perfect light is incompatible and even hostile to the smallest ounce of sin and darkness within us, then what hope do we have without His grace and mercy?
He will undoubtedly provide us with more than enough of those if we will only accept Him and seek to draw ever nearer to Him. He blesses those who choose to accept Him and earnestly try to keep His commandments by relying on His strength and guidance. Though life won’t always be easier (per se), believers in the very same Christ who died about 2000 years ago (specifically for our sin), will enjoy their development and the nearness of our Creator. When we give Him the chance He deserves, we always realize that when we were living in spiritual separation from Him, we were missing out on the greatest love that has ever existed! After all, God has loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), and before He formed us in our mothers’ wombs, He knew us (Jeremiah 1:5).
People often reject God because of a heart that they refuse to admit is broken and missing an important piece. Perhaps an abusive relationship tainted their hope of a loving and trustworthy being. Maybe a tragic loss of someone near and dear to them made them angry with the One who has power over death. Unforgiveness in our hearts can cause us to build walls. Past hurts can make us defensive. Past disappointments can make us unwilling to try something that we feel might be another dead end.
Additionally, misperceptions of ourselves and God make us feel as though His laws are standards we can not meet. I’ve got great news for anyone reading this! God is love! Not in the way unbelievers and part-time Christian flip-floppers might say it, but He embodies love in many ways such as His patience and gentleness with us (despite His incredible fear-inducing power). He also laid down His life for us, so that we would never have to offer another sacrifice to Him or any false god ever again! We do not have to try and meet an excellent standard on our own. His blood washed all sin so that we don’t have to hit an imagined quota of “good deeds” to try and earn salvation. Remember, we’ll never be good enough on our own, but when we accept Jesus Christ, He makes us better than “good enough,” and while we live our lives in this dark world full of lost souls in oblivious need of Him, He keeps us hopeful.
That is why the Bible is different from other religious texts. Though many will not readily admit it, it has indeed become mankind’s missing link to our extraordinary past. As a result of rejecting Biblical truth, we have no other ancient record with an equal wealth of information. As a consequence, we misuse and misinterpret evidence, not just mistaking it for proof (evidence is certainly NOT proof), but also, we give it precedence where it should only supplement our understanding. Where there are voids in our knowledge, we fill them with new and redacted speculations. In other words, we simply imagine things. Prehistory, therefore, does not exist except before all of creation, in the day when our all-powerful God existed solo and outside the very time, space, and material world He created.
If you still want to find missing links, then good luck to you. No one will ever see them outside of the Bible. Not only would truly prehistoric links be absent from the fossil records, but prehistoric knowledge is a secret that may never be revealed. Either way, whether you’re a believer or not, if you aren’t satisfied with the existence of God, it will only lead you to a never-ending quest for more imagined answers. Just keep in mind one path makes more sense and leads all who follow it to the truth. 😉
SOUL HAVEN 