Which Religion is True?

Chapter 19

Need for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Since the creation of man, all of God’s intelligent creatures have experienced the concept of a close-knit family and experienced the love a family has or should have for each of its members. By creating man, God is trying to show all His intelligent creatures (including the angels) that He and Jesus Christ are a family, and He is inviting all humanity to become His family, as His literal spirit born immortal sons. The angels are Sons of God by creation.

But God WILL NOT have a dysfunctional family, with members bickering and fighting with each other. He wants a perfect family with members that love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and love each other as themselves. The only way God can ensure that He will have such a family is by all His children having His holy righteous character instilled in them?

Satan the Adversary

After Lucifer rebelled against God, his name was changed to Satan, meaning adversary of God. He is also called the devil which comes from the Greek root word diabolos from which we also get the English word diabolical. Other names of Satan mean destroyer. Therefore, after his rebellion against God, Lucifer became the adversary of God and is engaged in diabolical plots to destroy God’s creation. And who would be his primary target? Humanity of course!

After Satan’s rebellion against God, the Bible says in Genesis 1:2 the earth became deformed and empty of physical life. All that Satan and the demons had created on earth was destroyed. Then God created humanity and the creatures we now see on earth. Satan and the demons are still rulers over the earth. But they are not absolute rulers because they can do only what God allows them to do.

Man’s incredible potential is to literally become eternal sons of God and become part of His family. At present there are only two members in the God family at the God plane level; God the Father and Jesus Christ. God is inviting humanity to become part of His family. This is made absolutely crystal clear by John the apostle in 1 John 3:1-2: “1 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Yes, those human beings who by their own free will and choice let God develop His holy and righteous character in them will qualify to become members of God’s family as His literal immortal sons, just as Jesus Christ today is God’s immortal Son. John says we shall also look like Jesus Christ with the same body as He has. That is God’s purpose in creating humanity and man’s potential. God is reproducing Himself through humanity. Human beings and all other physical creatures can reproduce themselves as flesh and blood creatures. But we cannot reproduce spirit born creatures with godly character. Only God can perform that reproductive process in us.

Despite such scriptures reassuring us, we still cannot comprehend that we shall become gods like Jesus Christ, literal immortal children of God the Father. Our argument against this belief is that Jesus Christ was a God Being before He became flesh, but we were created mere flesh and blood. If God wanted to create us as His literal sons and daughters, He could have simply created us like Jesus Christ. Because we are created as flesh and blood beings like animals, we cannot therefore ever become equal to Jesus Christ as God’s literal sons and daughters.

But we have forgotten that God did in fact create sons composed of spirit before humanity was created. Those spirit beings are the 24 elders and the angelic world. A part of those sons created with spirit bodies rebelled against God. God could not create His holy righteous character in them by fiat because they were created with free will and it requires their exercise of that free will in acquiescing to allow God to create His holy righteous character in them. God has created humans so that they can first allow Him to develop His holy righteous character in themselves before God will give them eternal life.

In believing that by virtue of being created flesh and blood like animals we will always be an inferior creation as compared to the spirit world, we seem to have forgotten that Jesus Christ was also created a flesh and blood human being. To prove to humans that He will convert them to spirit beings God the Father resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus Christ will resurrect us in exactly the same way as spirit beings, to become His immortal sons and daughters.

The reality of the resurrection energized Jesus disciples so that they were willing to die for their belief. They knew that their potential was to become God’s literal sons and daughters like Jesus Christ. That’s why John the apostle wrote about it.

We may still think that we cannot be equal to God because God had no direct hand in creating us. We were born as a result of our parents actions, and not directly created like Jesus Christ was created by God the Father. So we cannot be equal with Jesus Christ. But we are forgetting that we would not have fully experienced the love of a parent for a child if God had a direct hand in our creation and not through the human reproductive process. We also do not realize that the chance of a human sperm fertilizing a human egg by mere chance is almost negligible. This means that God has a direct hand in the conception of a human being, making the near impossible possible. But when a human child is born, its parents know that the child has come entirely from their own bodies. So they deeply love that child. If God had a direct hand in creating flesh and blood human children without human reproduction, we would not have experienced the same level of love for our children. God has allowed us to reproduce without His direct hand in it so that we can feel and experience love for our own children and thus learn how deeply God loves us.

By being equal to Jesus Christ does not mean equal in power, strength and abilities as all human beings are not equal in power, strength and abilities. But they are equal in the sense that they are all human beings.

The Bible leaves no doubt about what the potential of human beings is. It is to become God’s literal sons and daughters with spirit bodies just like that of Jesus Christ. But we had to be created flesh and blood like animals to learn other godly righteous character building lessons. We should not limit God’s creative powers in our thinking. If He could create the Word He certainly can convert flesh and blood human beings into spirit beings with the same spirit composition as Jesus Christ.

Now try to imagine what God’s adversary would do? His aim would be to thwart God’s purposes as best he can. Satan as God’s adversary tries to do precisely that. And what exactly would he try to do?

Look at God’s plan of salvation for humanity again. God’s purpose in creating humans is to have them eventually become part of His family as His immortal, divine sons and daughters. And the only way they can become His literal sons and daughters is to first develop His holy, righteous, godly character in them. Human beings do that by learning to completely surrender to God and obeying His Law. Obeying God’s law means to not sin, because John describes sin in 1 John 3:4. He writes: “4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” The NKJV translates this verse as: “4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”

Thus to become members of God’s family, human beings must eventually become sinless as God the Father and Jesus Christ are sinless. We can never become sinless as physical human beings because our mental and physical capacities are severely limited. Only Jesus Christ remained sinless as a human being because God gave Him His holy spirit without measure (John 3:34). In contrast God has given us only a type of down payment (earnest) of His holy spirit at present (2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5). But when we have demonstrated by our attitudes and actions that we want to develop holy and righteous character in ourselves, we will have qualified to become God’s spirit born immortal sons. Then at the resurrection God will change our composition to spirit beings with a full measure of His holy spirit. Then we will have the mental capacity as well as other powers multiplied trillions of times to enable us to remain sinless.

Why Sinlessness?

But you may ask why God has such an emphasis on sinlessness? The answer is quite simple. Any transgression of God’s law, or any form of lawlessness always brings pain and suffering without fail. We cannot have perfect love, peace, joy and happiness when there is any form of sin present in us.

As long as there is even an iota of sin present in any of God’s sons, God’s family cannot live the kind of life God prophesied in Revelation 21:3-4: “3 "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

That is the kind of family God is purposing and is working to create. He wants a family that does not experience tears, pain, suffering and sorrow which the rebellion of Satan and the demons brought into the universe. And becoming part of God’s family involves our free choice. Each and every human being has to choose to become a part of God’s family when God sends that human being His invitation by calling him. Those who choose not to by rebelling against God and His law will not become a part of His family.

Why Does Not God Simply Forgive Sin?

Many Muslim scholars have questioned the need for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to forgive our sins. They have said that God can simply forgive sin if He chooses to. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is not needed for that purpose.

Can you imagine God simply forgiving a murderer, or a thief for his murder and theft. He can commit another murder or theft and God can simply forgive him again. Can you imagine such a sinner being granted eternal life as God’s son and free to continue in his behavior with God continually forgiving his sin every time? How about the victims? Would their tears, pain, suffering and sorrow ever cease? I hope the Muslim scholars realize how foolish this argument is.

A law is designed to deter contrary behavior. Until there is a penalty for violation of the law, the law cannot act as a deterrent to sinful behavior. God cannot have a perfectly sinless family as long as sin remains. That is why He has prescribed the death penalty for any violation of His Law. Either human beings choose to become sinless with God’s help, or the death penalty will be applied to their violations of the Law. Their lives will be permanently extinguished in the Lake of Fire.

The death penalty has to be paid for all our sins. Otherwise what good is a law if penalty for its violation is not enforced? Each and every human being has sinned. As a result each and every human being has incurred the death penalty. And that penalty could be paid for all only by their Creator whose life was of more value than all His creation put together.

If God simply forgives the sins of each and every human being, He will not have the perfect family He has planned. Without the death penalty for sin, humans will not have the need for avoiding sin indelibly impressed on their minds. Therefore, to make His purposes stand, He and His son planned the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ.

How would Satan Try to Thwart God’s Purposes?

Now let’s come back to the question we asked earlier. How would Satan the adversary of God try to thwart God’s purpose of creating His family that is free of tears, pain, suffering and sorrow?

Satan’s first tactic would be to try to convince humanity that God does not have any such purpose as reproducing Himself and have many more sons and daughters added to His family. To do so, he first denies that God is a family.

See the Koran. It is the only religion that in its scriptures addresses the writings of the Jews and Christians in the Bible as well as some of their beliefs. The fact that the Koran directly contradicts what is written in the Bible means that if the writings of the Koran are inspired by the true God, then the writings of the Bible are not inspired by God but inspired by Satan. On the other hand, if the Bible is inspired and backed up by the power of Almighty God, then the Koran is inspired by Satan directly.

But we have earlier proved that the Bible is inspired and backed up by the power of Almighty God. This then means that the Koran is inspired by Satan because it specifically attacks the Bible. It directly attacks the Bible by saying such things as the Bible was altered, when there is no such evidence. What is in dispute in what has been transmitted down to our time constitutes only about half a page in nearly 1,500 pages, and does not alter the meaning or interpretation of any doctrine at all.

So Satan inspired the Koran to contradict the Bible to try to deceive humanity into believing that God has no such purpose as reproducing Himself through humanity to become His sons and daughters and joint heirs of the universe with His Son Jesus Christ. Satan knows that God created humanity to replace him and the demons as rulers over the earth first and then the universe after that. By claiming that the Bible has been corrupted he is trying to deceive humanity into throwing away God’s instruction manual so that man would not learn God’s purpose for him.

How else would Satan try to convince humanity that God’s purpose is not to add human beings as members of His family? He tries to deny that God is a family. He has done this by saying in the Koran that God is one God, and it is beneath Him to have sons. That is why He denies that Jesus Christ is God’s son. That is why he tries to deny that Jesus Christ is also God. Because if Jesus Christ is not God, then He is not a member of the God family!

These are the lies Satan propagates through the Koran to try to thwart God’s purpose in adding more sons and daughters to His family. Because if human beings don’t understand God’s purpose in creating them, then they will not choose to give their cooperation and surrender to Him in letting Him create His perfect, holy righteous character in them.

To fulfill God’s purpose, humanity has to ultimately become perfect and sinless as God the Father and Jesus Christ are perfect and sinless. But to accomplish that human beings must have their sins forgiven. To have their sins forgiven, the penalty for sin had to be paid. Only a Being greater than all of humanity could pay the death penalty on behalf of all humans. And that Being, Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament, Creator of the spirit world, the entire material universe and humanity, paid the death penalty on behalf of His creation. That is why the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are crucial to Christianity.

Perhaps now you can understand why God’s adversary would concoct lies to try to convince humanity that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross or was resurrected.

We only have the Koran’s words that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross but was called to heaven by God. However we have amply proved that the words of the Koran are not backed by the power of Almighty God. Now we can understand what Satan’s motive was to cunningly craft such lies in the Koran. He is trying to convince humanity that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross. So there is no such thing as the penalty for humanity’s sins being paid on its behalf. This means that God can simply forgive humanity’s sins, since the Koran in many places calls Allah the merciful, forgiving and beneficent.

If God simply forgives sins, then human beings will continue sinning and expecting their sins will be forgiven. Without the death penalty it was impossible to impress on human beings the deep need to stop committing sin. Without impressing on human beings that the penalty for any violation of God’s laws is death, human beings would not fully understand how abhorrent sin is to God and should be to us and that we must end sin in our lives with God’s help. Those who end it will become sons of God. Those who do not deeply understand the need to end it and continue in sin will have the death penalty ultimately applied to them.

We hope you now understand why there was a need for the death of Jesus Christ, and why the adversary of God tries to convince humanity otherwise in his cunningly crafted lies in the Koran.

But after death, why was the resurrection of Jesus Christ necessary?

Why Jesus Christ's resurrection was Necessary

The foremost reason for Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the faith and trust for God it develops in us. If God the Father had not resurrected Jesus Christ how could we trust a God who let His Son die without giving Him life again? Jesus Christ’s resurrection assures us that God the Father cares for us and has Almighty power to kill and make alive (Deuteronomy 32:39), and resurrect weak human beings, as Jesus Christ was when He came to earth as a human being, into powerful beings as Jesus Christ is now, as His literal immortal sons. So the foremost reason for the resurrection is that we can totally and completely trust in God to fulfill His promises and have faith that He has the power to perform them.

The second reason for Jesus Christ’s resurrection is that He can now live His life in us through his power, the holy spirit. Jesus Christ has experienced life as a human being. So He knows our frame and our frailties and temptations. He knows what it will take for each of us to overcome sin. He literally lives His life through us with the power of His holy spirit to enable us to put on His mind, overcome sin and become more like Him to eventually become the sons of God.

The third reason for the resurrection is that Jesus Christ functions as our faithful High Priest and advocate for us with the Father. He intercedes for us with the Father to forgive us our sins so that we can continue living and overcoming sin and developing godly character. He knows how weak our frame is. When He pleads with God the Father to give us another chance to overcome a particular sin, God the Father listens and grants Jesus’ wish because He has experienced similar temptations in His life as a human being. That’s why He can be a faithful advocate with the Father for us.

John states in 1John 2:1: “1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:”

Hebrews 2:17-18 (NIV) states: “17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” And fourth, because Jesus Christ lived life as a human being and is also God, God the Father has committed all judgment about our qualification to receive eternal life into the hands of Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus Christ who will grant us eternal life as well. God the Father has given this honor also to Jesus Christ. This is stated in John 5:21-22 (NKJV): “21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.”

Finally, one of the most important reasons for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its timing is that God’s offer of salvation to human beings through a resurrection to eternal life has become real to them. It energized Jesus’ disciples. Islam says that salvation means going to paradise. But there is no proof that any such paradise exists. Hindus says salvation is to stop the cycle of birth and death to finally merge with the great soul it calls God. But there is no proof that any of the dead has achieved this salvation. However the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides us proof of the salvation that God offers to human beings. It is proof that God will turn physical human beings into His own immortal sons as spirit beings through a resurrection and has the power to do so. We can therefore trust Him to deliver on the salvation He offers to human beings.

Thus we see that both the death and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ are crucial to God’s plan of salvation for mankind. That’s why God’s adversary works diligently to deny the death and resurrection through outright lies.

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