Consider the following parable Jesus taught about forgiveness. (Below, Scripture is italicized, and the emphasis in square brackets, bold font, and subtitles is added by us)…

Matthew 18:21-35

^“ …Peter came and said to [Jesus], “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIcSK2EqRVM

Jesus continued by sharing the following parable with Peter…

“For this reason [forgiveness] the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.

A Very Large Debt

So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 

But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii [around $622.75 today], and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 

So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 

Slave’s Forgiveness Not Extended to Neighbors

Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 

And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 

My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Each of Us Sins and Needs Forgiveness

Jesus’s teaching about enslavement does not focus on people groups but on spiritual principles. Jesus taught us that we are all enslaved to something or someone, and if we walk without forgiveness, we are a slave to that unforgiveness. We can’t be free.

In this parable, the king is God, and we are the slaves. We owe our lives for our sins and are enslaved to sin until we practice forgiveness. The debt is sin against the king [God] or sin against our “fellow slaves”, that is, our neighbors.

Jesus commanded us: “The foremost [commandment] is, ‘…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 5:43, Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:33, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:8, Romans 13:9, Romans 13:10, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8 repeat this teaching. Its repetition shows the importance of the message. The commandment is so important that Jesus points out it leads to severe punishment if we don’t forgive. We practice forgiveness to love.

In Matthew 6:12, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” If we aren’t forgiving, we cannot truly love.

God forgives us and expects us to forgive all others.

The Original Sin and the Consequences

And God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of one tree in the garden. God called that tree the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.

Genesis 2:16-17 says,

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Adam and Eve had a good relationship with God, and they were companions of God. They enjoyed eternal life and fellowship with God until the serpent (the devil) got to Eve.

The Devil’s Original Temptation

Genesis 3:1-7

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”   

Notice that the devil got the woman to overthink and over-analyze the situation. This is the tactic the devil uses most often with people. “Oh, God didn’t mean that…are you sure He said that? He just doesn’t want you to be like Him!”

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

The Consequences of Disobeying God (Sinning)

God told Adam and Eve that they would surely die the day they ate from the tree. They obviously didn’t fall over dead after eating the fruit. They actually lived on for a long time after that. God’s message meant something else. The death God spoke of was spiritual. Spiritual death is “separation from God“. The curse God pronounced happened because they disobeyed God, and that began at the point they sinned.

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

(Genesis 3:17-19)

They died spiritually. Humanity became separated from God, and our nature changed.

Then, God banished them from the Garden of Eden. “…He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24).

All people descended from Adam and Eve, and consequently, we are all born into sin. We refer to this as “the fallen state”. And after that point, every human being has died. We went from complete harmony with God to being alienated from God.

God is Love and We Started Out That Way Too

God is love (1 John 4:8). He created us in His image (Genesis 1:27). This means we were the definition of love until we sinned, and our nature stopped being like God’s. We needed reconciled back to God. Because of sin, we no longer had a connection with God. We needed God’s forgiveness.

Dealing With Sin

We don’t know much about how God dealt with sin from Adam to Moses. God provided details about important events that happened before Moses. Jewish Scripture records these events. We have some clues from stories about Abraham, Noah, Job, and others. There is a connection to God throughout the stories about these people. However, most people perished in sin in those days because there was no mechanism for forgiveness.

But we know that God loves all of His creation and wants us all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” We believe, in that time between Abraham and Moses, that God made a way for people to cover their sins and have some semblance of a relationship with Him.

When people followed this process, God forgave their sins. But it didn’t reconcile them back to God. Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

We all have a need for forgiveness.

God’s Solution to Sin and Reconciliation

“The righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets [the Jewish Scriptures] … through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. [We] are justified as a gift by [God’s] grace through the redemption [through] Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a [payment] in His blood through faith.”  (Romans 3:21-24).

This could only be accomplished by a human being. “Just as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come...” [Jesus] (Romans 5:12,14). “If by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. ” (Romans 5:15).

Life Will Reign in Those Who Receive Jesus Christ

“The gift [Jesus paying the penalty for our sin with His life] is not like that which came through the one who sinned [Adam, and all people since Adam]; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through [people], much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:15-17).

This is Paul’s first-century language (translated from another language) telling us that God made it possible, through faith that Jesus Christ paid the cost of sin, for us to be reconciled back to God. God forgave it all so we could enjoy a reconciled life with Him once again!

The Four Words Used in Scripture for Sin

• Iniquity = gross injustice: wickedness. A wicked act or thing: sin
• Transgression = infringement or violation of a law, command, or duty
• Sin = offense against religious or moral law
• Tresspass = an unlawful act committed on the person, property, or rights of another. A violation of moral ethics.

These all amount to disobedience to God and wrong treatment of our neighbors, which goes against God and His nature. To be right with God, we need forgiveness for anything we do that fits these definitions.

Jesus’s Mission Is to Share the Kingdom of God and Make it Possible For Us To Be Reconciled Back to God

“…God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:17).

Salvation (and forgiveness) is a free gift from God. Not a single thing can be done to earn salvation. Asking forgiveness is an act of repentance for the sins we have committed. Being forgiven is a gift that God gives us in response to our repentance. It must be a sincere motive in our hearts and minds for God to accept it as repentance.

To receive this free gift of forgiveness and salvation, we have to believe that we have sinned against God. To believe that, you have to know God and understand his nature. If God is love, there is no evil in Him.

Sin is, therefore, anything that goes against God’s perfect, loving nature.

What is God’s nature, then?

Habakkuk 1:13 says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing…”.

Because God is pure, sin and a sinful nature do not belong in Heaven. The Garden of Eden was a type and shadow of heaven.

Judgment day

In our fallen state, we cannot live in heaven or be reconciled to God. And Judgment Day is about reviewing our lives in the physical universe to determine if we accept God or reject Him. How we live this physical life is our testimony. And our testimony is the only thing we take with us when we pass from this life.

Even if you have lived your life to this point devoid of God, there is still hope! The beauty of repentance is that you have salvation whenever you change your heart and mind and commit to God. But it has to be genuine. Turning to God and then turning back away again is not sincerity or genuineness of heart.

Jesus said, “…No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.“

Just make sure your decision to follow God is genuine and fully committed to Jesus.

God is love

“…God is love” (1 John 4:8). Paul describes Love in 1 Corinthians 13:

“…Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…Love never fails…“

We traded God’s image for the devil’s when we sinned. We have to repent of our self-centeredness and take on God’s image again.

Heaven is God’s Dwelling Place

It would be as foolish as what the devil did that got him kicked out of heaven. Without forgiveness, we don’t belong in heaven and can’t get in.

Once we understand that we are eternal beings, everyone wants to spend eternity in the best place. The best place is in heaven with God.

We are eternal beings that temporarily inhabit a physical body, and after this physical body perishes, we move to higher dimensions and live eternally there. James 2:26 says: “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead“.

We are composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit according to Scripture. A Full sense of our composition comes from studying all of Scripture. This physical body is a temporary dwelling place for our spirits. Our spirits are eternal.

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3).

And that is exactly what God the Father sent Jesus to be a man to do. He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins that alienated us from God. And that makes it possible for us to be reconciled to God once again so we can know God.

Commit to Relationship With Jesus/God

Jesus’s Calling

“…Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me…” (Matthew 16:24).

Following Jesus is a recurring theme in Christian Scripture. He asked all of the disciples to follow Him. In Matthew 16:24, we see the process of following Him.

Deny yourself

We first have to deny ourselves. Remember, we are born into sin and alienated from God. We grow up not knowing God, and we put false identity on. It’s a facade we carry around, telling ourselves, “This is who I am”. Those who aren’t called when they are small take on this identity. But God created us with a purpose—to reflect His image and to give Him glory in our identity. When we deny ourselves, we are giving up this old identity and surrendering it and our lives to God.

take up your cross

Many American believers, and consequently believers worldwide who pattern after Americans, come to be “Christians” by praying what is known as “The Sinner’s Prayer”, made famous at Billy Graham Crusades. The Sinner’s Prayer is part of the process but is just the beginning. And actually, the Sinner’s Prayer is pretty young. It is far younger than Christianity.

Scripture doesn’t call out the “Sinner’s Prayer”. It is a device created to quickly get many people (at a Crusade, Revival, or church service) to give their lives to God. The disciples and early Christians would call for people to “repent and be baptized”.

“…Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…“

The Problem With The Sinner’s Prayer

Billy Graham was a good man and a great evangelist. His heart was in the right place when he endeavored to conduct his “Crusades for Christ”. He wanted people to be saved and not perish in their sins, experiencing forgiveness, which all Christians are commissioned to do.

However, when Billy made a call for people to receive forgiveness and deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus (an “Alter Call”), he would ask things like, “If you were to die in a car accident on the way home tonight, do you know where you would spend eternity?”

Jesus spoke about seeking “things” rather than a relationship with Him. In Matthew 6:31-34, Jesus said: “…Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’  For the [non-believers] eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek His kingdom and righteousness first, and all these things will be added to you…“

Many Christians have viewed Christianity as a kind of Christian Social Club exclusive to its members. Its members having a certificate of membership in their “Eternal Life Assurance Policies”. They skip the part where Jesus says, “Follow me.” Or worse, they believe they are following Him because they are church members.

Following Jesus

Those on the outside who are seeking God see this hypocritical behavior and don’t want to be a part of it. Instead of seeing Jesus being reflected, they see self-seeking people who belong to a religious club that excludes them.

To do that, we have to study Jesus, and there are two ways we can study Him: 1) through the Scripture journaled for us and 2) by becoming sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Remember, Peter, an eyewitness to Jesus, said we were to repent and be baptized, and we would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Many churches today barely recognize the Holy Spirit, including the Christian denomination that recognizes the importance of water baptism—the Baptists. Yet the Holy Spirit has been the inspiration for the Old and New Testament writings, and even which of the many writings about God throughout Christian church history were included in the compilation of Scriptures. And the Holy Spirit took the place of Jesus walking through life with each of us.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Jesus said this as He was preparing to ascend to heaven after His resurrection. This was not something intended only for those who were on earth when Jesus was, but for all who believe from that point going forward.

Role of the Holy spirit in our lives

Paul said: “…Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven…” (Colossians 1:21-22).

The Holy Spirit has the same role for us today that Jesus had with those He walked the earth with. This is how we stay established and steadfast in the faith.

We walk believing Jesus has reconciled us and presents us to the Father as “holy, blameless, and above reproach”. From the moment we first believe, until the day God calls us home, we view ourselves in this way, and we can wake up each morning believing this is who we are. It motivates us to avoid sinful behavior and to seek conduct that reflects and glorifies Jesus.

Conclusion

Jesus’s mission was to bring us the opportunity for forgiveness so that we could be reconciled to Him. We need reconciliation to have a relationship with God. Jesus told us to practice forgiveness with others because it was one way we love others. Forgiveness is a choice we make with eternal ramifications.

It is impossible to enter heaven and have a reconciled relationship with God unless we forgive.

It seems that perennially, with every new generation coming of age (becoming adults responsible for running civilization), this question surfaces: Did God create evil?

It’s a terrifying prospect that the one who created all things might be evil. But if that were the case, we would see more of that, and there would be no good.

There is a perennial anecdote that goes with this question, which we think illustrates the answer about whether God is evil or not:

An Anecdote To Illustrate Why God Isn’t Evil

A Professor of Philosophy at a university asked his students the following question:

Professor: Everything that exists was created by God?

Student: Yes, created by God.

Professor: Did God create everything?

Student: Yes, sir

Professor:
If God created everything, then God created evil since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define us, then God is evil.

The student became silent after hearing this answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to the students that he had once again proved faith in God is futile.

Another student raised his hand and said:
Student: Can I ask you a question, professor?

Professor: “Of course”.

The student stood up and asked:
Student: Professor, is cold a thing?

Proffesor: What kind of question is that? Of course, it exists. Have you ever been cold?
(Students laughed at the young man’s question)

Student: Actually, sir, cold doesn’t exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied to determine whether it has or transmits energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.

The student continued:
Student: Professor, does darkness exist?

Professor: Of course, it exists.

Student: You’re mistaken again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can’t measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a particular space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn’t it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.

In the end, the young man asked the professor:
Student: Sir, does evil exist?

This time, not as certain as he was before, the professor answered:
Professor: Of course, as I said before, we see it every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes, and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.

To this, the student answered:
Student: Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of something. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exists as light and warmth. Evil results from the lack of Divine love in the human heart. It’s the cold that comes when there is no heat or the kind of darkness that comes when there’s no light.

This story is often attributed to Albert Einstein’s experience with a professor. We find no concrete evidence that this is true, but the story nonetheless makes valid points concerning evil, good, and God.

Did God create evil? It seems that evil is the absence of good. But God created a physical universe that is rife with the absence of good. Why would God create a world like that? We will answer below.

More Questions Than Answers

The professor in this story made several assumptions based on his own biases. Evil is not a created thing, so it doesn’t follow that God created evil.

Behavior Choices Do Not Define Who We Are

The professor in the story above assumed that there is a principle that says our behavior defines who we are, which is incorrect.

Actually, our behavior only defines the pattern of choices we have made. While there is merit to the idea that our choices are guided by what is in our hearts and minds, the fact that we can change our minds proves that our behavior choices don’t define who we are. So much of our behavior choice depends on our environment and the external inputs influencing decisions.

We may want to make different choices than we do under given circumstances, but the circumstances preclude making a better choice. Or, due to inexperience, we may make a poor choice that we later regret and wish we had made a different choice.

Experience brings wisdom, and both bring maturity and, thus, better choices. This is not always the case. Some people never develop maturity.

Our Choices Have Ramifications

The fact that some of our choices bother us indicates what we are genuinely like underneath. Our choices don’t define us, but what lies underneath, deep in our hearts and minds—the part of us that isn’t easily exposed or understood (to others and ourselves) defines us. If we are drawn toward evil, that may define us more than making evil choices.

We are more drawn to God if we prefer goodness, love, and light. And aren’t these the things we all universally seek? The street minister Lonnie Frisbee once observed, “People are looking for all of the right things in all the wrong places” (referring to the fact that God supplies all of these things, not “drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll”).

God Gave People Free Will and Independent Ability to Make Choices

We see evil in the world because people sometimes make bad choices. Scripture tells us it has been that way since Adam and Eve committed the original sin. Does that mean people are all evil? We have to make that conclusion if we make the wrong assumption, like the professor in the anecdote above. But there is a better way to look at this.

The professor in our story assumed that God created evil. But God created people with free will and the ability to make their own decisions. People make decisions to be evil.

God is faithful to Himself; He is all good and perfect love.

There is a reason God set up our environment where the potential for evil exists. It’s linked to why God chose to remain invisible to us—unless we seek Him. See this link for a full explanation.

As the anecdote asserts, Evil is the absence of God. People without God in their hearts and minds commit evil acts, so yes, evil exists, but God neither created it nor is He a part of evil. He merely set up the physical universe so it was possible for people to make evil choices.

You may want to know why God made it possible for evil choices to be made in our environment. That’s a good, honest question.

For those having trouble imagining that we are eternal beings from a higher dimension temporarily housed in physical bodies in this temporal situation, we will ask you to suspend disbelief for discussion so that you might understand this perspective. Just pretend this is a fact for now.

Godless Decisions Sometimes Lead to Evil Circumstances

Did God create evil? No. Did He allow evil to exist? No. Evil is the absence of God. People can make the choice to have God absent in their lives. In such a case, there is nothing governing their choices or their consceince except their moral conscience (or the absencse of a moral conscience). In a case like that, we can make decisions that lead to evil outcomes. God didn’t create that evil, but He allowed for it by creating a universe we live in where people make up their own minds how to behave. When God is not present, sometimes evil is the outcome.

Possible Reason For This Life’s Temporal Nature

Now, imagine that we are temporarily living in this physical universe for the sole purpose of building a testimony about our thoughts and inner feelings guided by our mind and heart. God wouldn’t want us influenced by His presence, so He allowed us to make our own choices without being directly involved with us by default.

It is easy to be unaware of God’s presence. It sets up an environment where people always make candid choices.

If our testimony were to be used to answer the question, “Why should I allow you to dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven?” we can readily see that how we lived our lives reveals the absolute truth in our hearts and minds and exposes the answer to that question.

Suppose we take the testimony of how we lived our lives with us when we die, and then we face God on Judgment Day, where God judges us based on our testimony (to answer the question above). Since we made our own choices, our lives testify to whether or not we accepted God.

It’s an ingenious way for God to demonstrate to us what our hearts and minds are and whether we want God in our lives for eternity. God knew us before we were even born so that the judgment process would be for our benefit (or our detriment, depending on how we lived our lives). It’s so we can see who we are through how we choose to live our physical lives; there is no denying the truth. There is no hiding from the facts.

Choosing God Over Temporal Distractions

Whether we choose God or not is essential where eternity is concerned. Choosing God means we will dwell with Him forever. Choosing evil means we spend eternity (a very long time) in outer darkness where, according to Scripture, there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. We associate those things with resentment and despondent sorrow. And that describes a place where those in it understand they made a very bad choice.

God, being the opposite of evil, doesn’t want evil in His Kingdom. That seems reasonable. He doesn’t want anyone to make the choice for evil, but He gives us each the opportunity to make the choices we will make.

The trouble is, people make choices they will regret—some permanent. Scripture tells us that God’s people are perishing because of their lack of knowledge. It goes on to say that He gave that knowledge to them but they rejected it.

God Is Not Evil

God didn’t create evil. It isn’t in His nature. Evil exists because we make bad choices and sin. This is just a spiritual reality. God wants companionship—family. It’s why He created us. God opposes evil; it’s not even in His nature. If we want to dwell with God eternally, we can’t have an evil nature. With God, all things are possible—including changing our nature.

God is good. Since He didn’t create evil, it is not a part of who He is.

But God doesn’t want companionship with puppets or beings who are slaved to His will. He wants it to be of our own volition. That’s why we have free will and the independent ability to make our own choices.

Evil is within the possible choices for human (and angel) behavior. This means those things must be bred out of us to enjoy God’s good and love for eternity.

If you would like to know how to ensure that your life is on track and that you are close to God, visit this page.

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It takes faith to believe in an invisible God. It also takes faith to believe that the physical universe and all that exists came out of nothing without intelligent design—without God. More faith is needed to believe something came out of nothing than it does to believe some intelligence influenced our creation.

Nobody has witnessed our origins throughout human history, and we all believe what we believe in faith. Just because we believe an “origin story” doesn’t make it fact.

There might be a mechanism that created the physical universe without intelligent design, but Hawking’s ideas are just an unprovable theory.

It is possible that Stephen Hawking was bitter at having this disease and blocked out the idea that a God who is supposed to be all-loving and kind would inflict Him this way—he couldn’t accept that a God that cruel could exist and be described as “all loving”. He threw out the idea of a loving God because he started with a false premise—that God inflicted him.

It probably wasn’t God who afflicted him. After all, things also happen because of sin, evil, and human will—not because God inflicts us. Did you know that, according to Judeo-Christian doctrine, sin can actually mutate genes?

The point is that we must be on guard that we don’t miss the truth because of bitterness and misplaced resentment.

Questions About Hawking’s Assertions Remain

Hawking asserted that gravity existed in the beginning and pulled together “matter clouds” to create the Big Bang. However, he could never explain where the “matter clouds” or gravity came from. Without the use of a creator, how do you explain the existence of these things? After all, the matter clouds contained the code for everything in the physical universe, and gravity somehow instigated the release of that power. It’s unfathomable to imagine those things were just there without help of some kind.

When asked, “What happened to put these things in space?” He said they were at the beginning of time, and there was no “before that”.

Where did the “matter clouds” and gravity come from? Why did they “just exist”? Why not more than that? Did no one put them there? Suppose someone from a higher dimension outside the physical universe’s timeline put them there. Why does the physical universe seem to have intelligent design?

He never attempted to explain how the physical universe could interface with higher dimensions, which is also a science.

The God Who Exists Outside of Time

One of God’s Hebrew names is El Olam, which means “The everlasting God without beginning or end“. That means He existed outside of physical time. Science only examines what has happened inside of the physical timeline. What about things outside of the physical universe?

Can you see how Stephen Hawking heavily relied on faith? There’s nothing wrong with believing things on faith. We all rely on faith. But some things can distract us to the point of missing the important things.

The point is that nobody can prove beyond a doubt their ideas about what did and didn’t happen at the beginning of our origins.

Many scholarly people have found God by attempting to disprove God’s existence. (Explore Josh McDowell, Nicky Gumble, Jim Wallace, and Lee Strobble.)

Christopher Hitchens, well known atheist who wrote a book called, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything“, is said to have had a deathbed conversion to Christianity. Some leftwing media outlets dispute this claim, but first-hand, eye-witness accounts suggest that he did convert in the end.

It takes faith to believe something one has not witnessed firsthand. Nobody witnessed the beginnings of the universe.

So, what is faith?

Faith Defined From the Christian Bible

According to the Christian Bible, “…Faith is the substance of things hoped for, [and] the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Substance is “practical importance”, and evidence is “something that furnishes proof—testimony“.

So, “Faith is the practical importance of things hoped for, and the testimony of things not seen“.

So God can be sought! This sounds like God invites us to seek Him! He chooses to remain invisible to people in general, but He wants us to seek Him—and find Him! What better way to demonstrate devotion to God?

In a previous blog post below, we showed how an invisible God can exist. Since He is invisible, it makes sense that He is ordinarily not seen—unless we look for Him.

We find a promise in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures that “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). If we search for God in faith and belief, He will let Himself be found!

Science Versus Religion

We would postulate that Richard Dawkins doesn’t find God because he doesn’t seek God in faith. Rather he rejects the idea of God out-of-hand. It’s sad. But you can seek God!

If this is all new to you, then you have something new to consider! Science offers some comprehensive ideas that seem to make sense, though they don’t consider all aspects of science. Those aspects explain an invisible God. Science doesn’t cover why the physical universe has so much intelligence built into it. A creator does.

Science cannot even study higher universes so how can science that incomplete be enough to omit possible eternal life?

Consider what Christian Scripture says about God: “He who believes in [God] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [Jesus]“

Judgment refers to what happens at the end of physical life when our spirits are resurrected and stand before God to account for our lives. If we believe in God, we will dwell with God; if we don’t, we will dwell for all of eternity in a dark place where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth—not because God punishes us for not believing in Him, but because in eternity, God is the source of light, and God is Love, which translates into all kinds of benefits like peace, joy, contentment, etc.

Knowing that those condemned are locked out of an eternity like that is what causes some to mournfully cry, and others to get so angry they shake their fist at God and gnash their teeth.

What’s That Inner Urging?

Have you ever felt an inner compulsion to investigate something? We’re betting you did, and that’s how you found this website. We believe God is speaking to you through your inner compulsion—not that you found this website, but that you felt an inner urge to seek information about life’s questions. Keep listening to those inner compulsions and develop sensitivity to them. If they lead to God, you are listening to God.

If they lead you to something evil, it isn’t God because God is good in nature.

We believe we have sought God enough to find Him, so we put together this website. You have to discern whether this is truth for yourself. We only ask that you consider our information and see if it is true.

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Some people only trust what they can see, touch, smell, hear, and taste. These are all physical attributes of a physical universe. But what if there is more out there? Suppose that higher dimensions exist and life exists in them, but we don’t have the ability to sense them. Can God be invisible because He exists in higher dimensions? Can you believe in an invisible God?

Do Higher Dimensions Hide A Creator?

If you could imagine a world in which everyone was flat and could not perceive up and down, we know there is a whole world of things that exist that aren’t on the plane that the flat people lived on.

Now, imagine the opposite. Suppose we are like the flat people living on a plane, only we have three dimensions. Someone who exists in higher dimensions could actively be doing things outside our ability to perceive them. It’s the same concept, only stepping up the number of dimensions. It’s mind-boggling for us to even try to envision higher dimensions. But suppose they are out there, and beings exist in them.

They are invisible to us, but they are there just like we are invisible to flat people on a plane, but we are here.

In this way, it is possible to believe in an invisible God.

We will explore this question on this website and provide evidence that it is possible and food for thought.

Check out the following pages on our site as a primer:
Why Is God Invisible?
4D Encounters in a 3D World
Why Did God Create Us in a Dimension He Doesn’t Live In?

Happy exploring!

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Aside from the obvious that you were born into this, go back further and consider how “this” got here for you to be born into it and what had to happen for you even to be born. It’s pretty miraculous, don’t you think? What are our origins?

Look at the image of Earth from space above. Can you see people on the surface? You can’t because of the scale of the image and the distance from the Earth’s surface where this picture was taken. People are too small to see with the naked eye. Space is very vast. When you consider the size of the physical universe, we are just one tiny part of it. Yet our lives are so complex.

Happenstance or Creation?

It’s mind-boggling to contemplate what it took for all of this to form. The size of the universe alone is staggering. Science tells us that the universe has intelligent design, so a creator had to create it. It’s mystifying to think of the greatness of whoever created it.

Science says we got here through the “Big Bang“. Religion says God created us. What are our true origins?

Suppose God is a fairy tale and what science postulates is right. Statistically, that leaves us with a fantastic coincidence and random, accidental happenstance. It takes more faith to believe all of this happened out of nothing than to accept an intelligent, invisible life form we call God created it. Either idea takes faith to believe in it.

Consider all of the life on earth. Think about how it all has to work together for life to exist. Many scientists agree that some intelligence had to be behind the creation of the physical universe. There is something or someone who thought it through and came up with the intelligent design behind it all.

Yet, when you think about it, there is no physical evidence to support the idea of an invisible force or being that thought all this up…or is there?

Explore our thoughts and ideas about the physical evidence leading to the feasibility of an invisible creator. We get lots of exposure to science in school, so why not explore the question, “Why is God invisible?“

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