Lines of Reasoning Concerning God, Pt. 2

I realize that with this post I am proceeding from the assumption that God is the Christian God. Although I have not researched the theologies of other religions I do believe that the central theme throughout all organized religions is that God is good, and that we need to live a certain way to reach him. I have the advantage of having been raised in a Christian home and am familiar with Christianity's teachings, so it was natural for me to start by examining the God of the Bible. Every religion tells us certain things about who God is, and I would like to learn about other religions, but personally I wanted to see if the faith of my childhood made sense.

If God is good, then there are absolutes. There is good and evil, a right and a wrong way to live. God is also just, and rewards good behavior and punishes bad behavior. Does God change our circumstances to do this? Life experience shows us that this is not (usually) the case.

Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it. Belief in God may not affect the 10%, but it does change the 90% of how you react.

The only logical reason a perfectly good, all powerful God would create a world outside His full control, giving beings the ability to choose between good and evil is that God created us for a purpose. Which is to freely choose Him.

Choosing God involves believing that we need to be saved from sin which leads to death. Distinct from other religions which have enlightenment as a means of overcoming our sinful nature, Christianity asserts that we cannot save ourselves or do enough good works to please God.

Instead, Christians believe that God had to send His Son, who was perfect and innocent, to die in our place, taking punishment we deserve. By doing this He defeated death through His resurrection, removing the barrier of sin between us and God. This was His gift of supreme love, and all that is necessary for salvation is belief that Christ died for our sins and repentance, accepting the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we are spiritually reborn.

When we invite the Holy Spirit to take over our lives, symbolized in baptism, God lives in and through us. He will guide us according to His will, and begin to change us into the people He meant us to be: His children. If our sinful nature has died in order for our spiritual rebirth and Christ lives in us, we will be perfected and united with God after death.