Why We Are Born, Why We Are Here: PCE answers

[TedT]

But considering the trials and tribulations we’ve had to go through in our lives, why are we even here on earth to begin with?

In short, the sinful elect (ie good) seed are here to become holy so that the weeds may be gathered and burnt without any danger to the good but sinful seed.
Matt 13:27 The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. [a reference to the explanation of this parble, ie, no more metaphor, in verses 36-39]

So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’[to bring the judgement upon them?] 29 ‘NO!’ he said, [postpone the judgement because...] ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. The time of the harvest is the time of the maturity of the wheat and the only maturity that saves a sinner from the judgment is a mature holiness, a perfect accord with HIS plans for the burning of the weeds.

Thus the sinfulness of the good seed is the cause of the continued suffering of mankind on this earth.

Who are the sinful good seed? In the explanation of this parable, which must be devoid of all linguistic devices and metaphors (or it is not an explanation but merely an extension of the parable), Matt 13:36 Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. we are told that the good seed are the sons of the kingdom sown here by the Son of Man in contrast to the sons of the evil one being sown here as the weeds by the devil. This pretty well sums it up for me that the sinful good seed, like the sheep gone astray, refers to the sinful elect people of the kingdom.

Now these verses say we came into the world by being sown here, not created here. This is obviously not referring to our creation as the devil sows his people here and he cannot create. Therefore the word sown must be used in its ordinary sense, without metaphor, for being moved from a place of storage to a field of growth.

So is there any hint about where we were before we were moved into this world? I think we find just that in Ps 9:17 The wicked do RETURN to Sheol, All nations forgetting God. Being sent to Sheol is the result of a judgment. The implication is clear. The wicked are punished by being sent to Sheol instead of heaven upon their death. The word shoob is translated as return 391 times by the biased KJV, just not here in this verse.

TURN BACK; Strong’s H7725 shûb - shoob
A primitive root; to turn back
to return, turn back
• to turn back
• to return, come or go back
• to return unto, go back, come back

How did we get into Sheol? Where do you think Satan and his angels went or got to after being flung to earth, Rev 12:7-9? Especially in light of 2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels having sinned, but having cast them down to Tartarus, in chains of gloomy darkness, delivered them, being kept for judgment; with Tartarus being considered to be a deep part of Sheol inside the earth...

And the sinful elect, ie the good seed? In verses Rev 12:3-4 in the context of the woman, an obvious elect, giving birth to the child, we have the dragon FLINGING DOWN to the earth 1/3 of the stars, usually considered to be angels or spirit beings since angel is a job description, not a racial nor species designation...

Why on the eve of his great war did the dragon fling some sinners away, down to the earth? They must be sinners because he has power over them but not over the holy angels that fling him down after them, the very same word. The verb to fling down has a menace of violence and hostility and when we apply that connotation to the sinners he flung away just before his great battle, we see that though they were sinners they must have been useless to him in his battle with the holy elect angels and he hated them for that!

The supposition is that they were sinners alright, willing to cause the postponement of the judgement for him and his demons but NOT willing to fight for him against GOD! This fits the definition of the sinful good seed as the sinful elect to a T!

It also tells us that this is how the sinners of all kinds came to be on earth, in the centre of the earth in Sheol.

So, to the point, why are the sinful elect sown into the world? They are sown here to learn about the eternal evil of the Satanic reprobate and to change their minds about supporting them in the postponement of the judgment day so as to become redeemed, reborn and sanctified unto full holiness in perfect accord with HIS plan for the damnation day of the Satanic goats. Amen.

 

[fhansen]

Put simply, we're here to complete a journey that God wants all humans to be on, a journey towards God, towards our ultimate purpose that began in Eden, ironcially with a detour away from Him. We're here now to experience, to know, good and evil for ourselves and so come to choose between the two, especially when the full true Good comes knocking at our door. And to continue to grow in that choice, that conviction, until we love Him fully, with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strentgh.

God is man's end, our purpose, our telos, that which we were made for. We're here to finally begin to know the true God, so that, with grace, we can reverse Adam's choice within ourselves and begin to love and serve Him. That's why Jesus came, to reveal the true face of God so that we may know Him and embrace Him in faith, hope, and, most importantly, love. Then the journey would be complete, while fully so only in the next life.

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3

 

[bling]

Put simply, we're here to complete a journey that God wants all humans to be on, a journey towards God, towards our ultimate purpose that began in Eden, ironcially with a detour away from Him. We're here now to experience, to know, good and evil for ourselves and so come to choose between the two, especially when the full true Good comes knocking at our door. And to continue to grow in that choice, that conviction, until we love Him fully, with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strentgh.

God is man's end, our purpose, our telos, that which we were made for. We're here to finally begin to know the true God, so that, with grace, we can reverse Adam's choice within ourselves and begin to love and serve Him. That's why Jesus came, to reveal the true face of God so that we may know Him and embrace Him in faith, hope, and, most importantly, love. Then the journey would be complete, while fully so only in the next life.

"Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3

Has God given man a mission statement? (this is always good to have)

You can take any command in scripture and have Biblical support for calling that command “Man’s Objective” and have Biblical support for saying that, but there are two overriding commands all other commands are bases on and subordinated to.

Would “Loving God and secondly others with all our heart, soul, mind, and energy” be our Mission statement given as a command?

God is Love, but how do we define this Love and measure this Love?

This Godly type Love is defined by Jesus’ words and deeds (you can also use 1 Cor 13 and 1 John 4), so what is that?

Can we measure the “love” one being has for another being by the amount the first being is willing to unselfishly sacrifice for the other being?

Is God this ultimate Lover? Would that “Love” compel even God to make beings that could Love like He Loves (this “Love of God” is totally unselfish [a measure of pure Love] and thus is not for God’s sake at all, but is totally for the sake of others [which would also be God’s sake])?

So, if God is not doing anything for His own sake and everything for the sake of others, would He be expecting or needing anything from man or would God just be trying to give the greatest gift He could give to man?

The reason this “Love” is the most powerful force in all universes is because it compels even God. So, to have this Love would make us like God Himself, so why does God not just make us with this Love and place us in heaven?

Are there something God just cannot do: like make another Christ, since Christ was never made but always existed?

Could God place this Godly type Love in a person at his/her creation (an instinctive love) or would an instinctive love be like a robotic love and not like God’s Love?

Could God just force His Love on man against the “will” of man or would that be like a shotgun wedding with God holding the shotgun?

What does man need that he does not have instinctively in order for man to fulfill this Mission?

Man’s objective seems to be to obtain and grow this Godly type Love to fulfill the mission (statement) of Love God and secondly others with all our heart, soul, mind, and energy.

Our “objective” while here on earth is to just accept God’s gift as it was given as pure charity, this will enable us to fulfill our mission.

God is not trying to get you to do something, but is trying to give you something.

The problem is not sin (unforgiven sin is a huge problem), because God will forgive our sins which helps us to Love (…he that is forgiven much will Love much….) God hates sin, but does allow it, so we can more easily accept His Love (in the form of forgiveness the easiest way for us to accept His charity). The problem is always our fulfilling our objective.

The Garden is a lousy (impossible) place for humans to fulfill their earthly objective and we can thank Adam and Eve for going through that example and providing us and them with that knowledge.

Sin is not only inevitable, but it is unfortunately necessary for humans.

The easiest way for humans to accept God’s charity (Love) is out of a huge need and that need is the relief from the burden of hurting others in the past (sin). By accepting God’s forgiveness, we accept God’s Love (mercy/grace/charity) and thus we will Love much since Jesus has taught us (we also see this in our own lives) “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…” Luke 7: 36-50.

This world is “very good”, but not “perfect” like heaven is perfect and does not have the same purpose as heaven. This messed up world is actually the very best place for willing individuals to fulfill their earthly objective.

Death is not “bad” in and of itself, but the way good people go home and the way bad people quit doing bad stuff.

It is truly tragic and unfortunate that Christ had to be tortured, humiliated and murdered in order to help willing humans in their fulfilling of their objective, but God is willing to make huge sacrifices to help willing individuals. It is also very sad other humans who had the opportunity to fulfill their primary earthly objective continued to refuse God’s charity to the point they would never of their own free will accepted God’s charity. These God Loved individuals will thus go to their death and destruction as a help to some other humans who have not refused God’s help to the point of never accepting His help.





So, why the Garden?


There are some things that God just cannot do like create a being that was never created and the one important to us is instinctively create us with Godly type Love since that would be robotic type Love. God will also not force his love on us (a shotgun wedding) since that would be unloving on God’s part (there has to be reasonable alternatives to make it a choice [the perceived pleasures of sin]). The easiest way for us to get this Love is through accepting it as a pure charitable gift. The problem being humans (due in part to the needed survival instinct) do not like accepting Charity from a Giver that paid a huge price for the gift.

The easiest way for humans to accept God’s charity (Love) is out of a huge need and that need is the relief from the burden of hurting others in the past (sin). By accepting God’s forgiveness we accept God’s Love (mercy/grace/charity) and thus we will Love much since Jesus has taught us (we also see this in our own lives) “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…” Luke 7: 36-50.

Once we accept Godly type Love, we can truly Love and have the privilege and honor of Loving God (the forgiver) and others (God’s children) with all our heart, soul, mind, and energy.



Since God is “Love” and part of the definition of Godly type Love is unselfishness God is totally unselfish? If God is totally unselfish, He will do and allow all He can to help those that are just willing to accept His help to fulfill their objective (Love). That “all” includes: Christ to go to the cross, satan to roam the earth, tragedies of all kind, hell, evil, and even sin.

Will we know people do not like to accept charity especially from a giver that paid a huge price? People will try to earn the gift, pay back the gift, be more deserving of the gift than the next person or just say they got the gift without having to accept it. The easiest way to accept the gift is through accepting God’s forgiveness (this is after you have sinned) since forgiveness is charity, grace, mercy, Love. AND Jesus has taught us “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…”

The problem is God wants us to be like He is (God’s Love is compelling Him to create beings that can Love like He Loves and made these beings for the sake of those that will accept His Love).

If we continue to refuse God’s Love and really do not want to Love unselfishly, where is there for us to go? Heaven is one huge Love feast so we would not be happy there and God wants us to be happy.

 

[fhansen]

Has God given man a mission statement? (this is always good to have)

Absolutely: to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. With this, man's purpose and perfection are obtained and the sin that earns us the wages of death is overcome, the law fulfilled. With this full justice/righteuusness is restored and even increased in God's creation. And this love can only be realized by fellowship with its Source, entered into via faith. As with faith and hope, love is both a gift and a choice. God seeks to draw and stretch us into ever greater righteousness as He transforms us into His own image, only as we remain in Him and cooperate in His work, picking up our cross and following daily. We have to want it, as He does for us.

 

[fhansen]

The problem is not sin (unforgiven sin is a huge problem), because God will forgive our sins which helps us to Love (…he that is forgiven much will Love much….) God hates sin, but does allow it, so we can more easily accept His Love (in the form of forgiveness the easiest way for us to accept His charity). The problem is always our fulfilling our objective.

The problem is sin. And love and sin are mutually exclusive. So as we come to love as God does, because He loved us first, the "righteousness of God" begins to be realized in us. Sin will continue to separate us from Him but Jesus has the answer for that; we can now overcome sin due to His sacrifice which reconciles us with God so that we may now unite with Him, as we were created to, with His life in us, now under grace and living by the Spirit.

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Rom 3:31-22

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life." Rom 6:22

"And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Rom 8:4

Peefect sinlessness isn't required in this life, or even possible in any absolute sense, but wanton sinfulness/lawlessness isn't acceptable either by any means.

 

[Minister Monardo]

God is man's end, our purpose, our telos, that which we were made for. We're here to finally begin to know the true God, so that, with grace, we can reverse Adam's choice within ourselves and begin to love and serve Him.

Our “objective” while here on earth is to just accept God’s gift as it was given as pure charity, this will enable us to fulfill our mission.

God is not trying to get you to do something, but is trying to give you something.

The purpose of God and the meaning of life simply put:
The degree to which we draw near to God, whom we cannot see in this life,
establishes our place in His Presence for eternity.
Luke 14:
10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that
when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’
Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.
11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself
will be exalted.

 

[fhansen]

The purpose of God and the meaning of life simply put:
The degree to which we draw near to God, whom we cannot see in this life,
establishes our place in His Presence for eternity.
Luke 14:
10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that
when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’
Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.
11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself
will be exalted.

Yes, I can't disagree with that. We bring nothing to the table-except our willingness to draw near to Him, with even that being a matter of grace. Either way the more we know and love Him, the more we draw near to Him.

 

[Minister Monardo]

Yes, I can't disagree with that. We bring nothing to the table-except our willingness to draw near to Him, with even that being a matter of grace. Either way the more we know and love Him, the more we draw near to Him.

Yes, it is grace from first to last. Understanding that we are instructed
to GROW in grace.
2 Peter 3:18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

James 4:6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

God's Grace is the All Sufficiency to complete every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you,
that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance
for every good work.

 

[bling]

Absolutely: to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. With this, man's purpose and perfection are obtained and the sin that earns us the wages of death is overcome, the law fulfilled. With this full justice/righteuusness is restored and even increased in God's creation. And this love can only be realized by fellowship with its Source, entered into via faith. As with faith and hope, love is both a gift and a choice. God seeks to draw and stretch us into ever greater righteousness as He transforms us into His own image, only as we remain in Him and cooperate in His work, picking up our cross and following daily. We have to want it, as He does for us.

I like what you say but would add:
The only way I see humans obtaining this very unique Godly type Love is through what Jesus taught us in Luke 7, He that is forgiven much Loves much, so if we realize we have been forgiven of an unbelievable debt created by our sins and humbly accept that forgiveness as pure undeserved charity can we automatically receive an unbelievable huge Love, a Godly type Love. If that is true then sin has a purpose for the unbeliever to be forgiven much.
Let me know what you think?

 

[fhansen]

I like what you say but would add:
The only way I see humans obtaining this very unique Godly type Love is through what Jesus taught us in Luke 7, He that is forgiven much Loves much, so if we realize we have been forgiven of an unbelievable debt created by our sins and humbly accept that forgiveness as pure undeserved charity can we automatically receive an unbelievable huge Love, a Godly type Love. If that is true then sin has a purpose for the unbeliever to be forgiven much.
Let me know what you think?

I agree-and either way it's all a matter of grace. We cant even move ourselves to God, to accept the gift of faith, contriton for sin, etc apart from His intiative. But He seeks our response-and continued response-and will not force it.

 

[bling]

The problem is sin. And love and sin are mutually exclusive. So as we come to love as God does, because He loved us first, the "righteousness of God" begins to be realized in us. Sin will continue to separate us from Him but Jesus has the answer for that; we can now overcome sin due to His sacrifice which reconciles us with God so that we may now unite with Him, as we were created to, with His life in us, now under grace and living by the Spirit.

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Rom 3:31-22

"But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life." Rom 6:22

"And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Rom 8:4

Peefect sinlessness isn't required in this life, or even possible in any absolute sense, but wanton sinfulness/lawlessness isn't acceptable either by any means.

You said: “love and sin are mutually exclusive”, but God Loves us while we are sinners. Have you stopped sinning? Obedience shows our Love for God, but God always Loves us.

God hates sin, but does allow the unbeliever to sin and thus have much to be forgiven of (we all have much to be forgiven of), all to obtain Godly type Love.

 

[bling]

The purpose of God and the meaning of life simply put:
The degree to which we draw near to God, whom we cannot see in this life,
establishes our place in His Presence for eternity.
Luke 14:
10 But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that
when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’
Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.
11 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself
will be exalted.

Do you believe there are degrees of "rewards" in heaven?

 

[Minister Monardo]

Do you believe there are degrees of "rewards" in heaven?

Absolutely.
2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.

The Reward Of A Wise Master Builder

 

[bling]

I agree-and either way it's all a matter of grace. We cant even move ourselves to God, to accept the gift of faith, contriton for sin, etc apart from His intiative. But He seeks our response-and continued response-and will not force it.

We do nothing glorious, righteous. worthy, or honorable, but for selfish reasons (that is a sinful reason) we wimp out, give up and surrender to our hated enemy God just with a hope (faith) that he might extend to us pure undeserved charity and even though we are hating Him.

 

[bling]

Absolutely.
2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.

The Reward Of A Wise Master Builder

The workers in the vineyard got the exact same reward.

If after becoming a Christian, we do everything perfectly, that is still the minimum requirement and if we do less we need forgiveness. Luke 17: 7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
If you have this huge house in heaven and I sleep in a cardboard box outside, will you not offer me your bed and the head place at the table?
Yes, we will enter heaven with different degrees of Love, with God being the epitome of Love, but just think about that, can I be jealous of you because you Love me more then I am Loving you back???

 

[Minister Monardo]

The workers in the vineyard got the exact same reward.

I provided a link to a thread that only partially discusses the scriptures that
speak of reward, against which that one parable falls flat.
You didn't even bother to acknowledge 2 John 1:8 which speaks
of reward on more than one level. Full Reward? Lost Reward? No Reward?

The Reward Of A Wise Master Builder
Are you sure you are interpreting "the workers in the vineyard" correctly?
Are they not all workers?
Is this grace or work? Salvation or reward?
Romans 11:
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of work; otherwise grace is no longer grace.
But if it is of work, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

 

[fhansen]

You said: “love and sin are mutually exclusive”, but God Loves us while we are sinners. Have you stopped sinning? Obedience shows our Love for God, but God always Loves us.

God hates sin, but does allow the unbeliever to sin and thus have much to be forgiven of (we all have much to be forgiven of), all to obtain Godly type Love.

Hmm, maybe you misunderstood me a bit. Love and sin are mutually exclusive as God and evil are mutually exclusive. So, yes, He hates sin while nonetheless loving the sinner. He created us, He knows every hair on our heads, He knows our potential along with our weaknesses and limitations which includes the ugly and foolish pride that separates us from Him, and His whole desire and purpose in any case has always been for our highest good because that's the nature of love. Anyway, love literally fulfills the law because it excludes sin-and that's why the greatest commandments are what they are BTW.

And while He draws us to that love, that righteousness, He doesn't demand perfect love, and therefore absolute sinlessness, in this life, just that we be on that road, with Him. Love is the measure of our nearness to Him. And He'll perfect it in the next life.

 

[fhansen]

We do nothing glorious, righteous. worthy, or honorable, but for selfish reasons (that is a sinful reason) we wimp out, give up and surrender to our hated enemy God just with a hope (faith) that he might extend to us pure undeserved charity and even though we are hating Him.

Yes, we do all those things until we begin to love. And, again, that love is both a gift, of His nature to us, and a choice, of our embracing and expressing or acting upon that gift, in which case it grows even more. He wants us involved, our participation, because love is a choice or else it's not really love at all.

We must undertand that God's purpose is to produce something out of this whole endeavor known as creation, something better and grander than He began with. He wants us to be like Himself, to the greatest extent possible. He wants us to be something, rather than otherwise worthless while forgiven sinners. He never created us to sin, after all. And apparently the whole process takes time, and our participation as we're willing to turn from darkness to light.

"...if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Cor 13:2

 

[TedT]

We must undertand that God's purpose is to produce something out of this whole endeavor known as creation,

For some time I have been contending that the bible story ending with the marriage of the Lamb hints that this marriage is the culmination of the story of our creation and points to the wedding as the purpose of our creation.

I agree that understanding this purpose is indeed helpful for our understanding of the meaning of life, forcing such question sas:
- why would HE create HIS bride in Adam, heir to all the suffering and death that doctrine says comes from Adam's sin?

- Did HE need to create HIS bride as evil, whose righteousness is as filthy rags so HE put us into Adam or did we chose by our free will to rebel against HIM and therefore need redemption and sanctification to become heaven ready, able to be a holy Bride for HIM?

- IF a true marriage based upon a true love must be based upon a free will acceptance of the marriage proposal by the Bride, why are we created in Adam enslaved to sin, that is, without a free will able to choose to accept HIM without HIS grace?

 

[fhansen]

For some time I have been contending that the bible story ending with the marriage of the Lamb hints that this marriage is the culmination of the story of our creation and points to the wedding as the purpose of our creation.

I agree that understanding this purpose is indeed helpful for our understanding of the meaning of life, forcing such question sas:
- why would HE create HIS bride in Adam, heir to all the suffering and death that doctrine says comes from Adam's sin?

- Did HE need to create HIS bride as evil, whose righteousness is as filthy rags so HE put us into Adam or did we chose by our free will to rebel against HIM and therefore need redemption and sanctification to become heaven ready, able to be a holy Bride for HIM?

- IF a true marriage based upon a true love must be based upon a free will acceptance of the marriage proposal by the Bride, why are we created in Adam enslaved to sin, that is, without a free will able to choose to accept HIM without HIS grace?

Alright. From the teachings I'm familiar with and have come to agree with, God is never the author of sin, even as He allows it, for His purposes, for a season, presumably to bring an even greater good out of that evil at the end of the day. Adam’s act of disobedience was essentially a denial of His godhood, of His authority, as Adam, by that act, took on the role of determining right and wrong for himself. The world we live in now is an experiment with that autonomy, that freedom from God in the human moral realm; man is in exile from God here, alienated from Him, born without the “knowledge of God”. But we were made for union with God and exist in a state of unrighteousness, injustice, in relative chaos to the extent that we’re apart from Him. Fallen man is lost, sick, dead, disordered without that relationship.

Anyway, from our position now, good and evil are literally known, the most basic evil being that very separation from God which then opens the door to all other sin/moral evil that we experience and/or participate in daily in this world to one degree or another, with harm to each other being the result. Here we can find out how much we really like our “freedom”; here we may well develop a hunger and thirst for truth and justice and righteousness and goodness in a world that so often devalues and overrides those things when they interfere with our own selfish pursuits and personal agendas. And then, when the Shepard calls, we may well be all the more ready to recognize His voice and run to it, to choose the ultimate Good over evil. Man isn’t evil, he’s lost; he wallows in his own pride and fear of what the next guy thinks. He doesn’t know where he came from, if anywhere, what he’s here for, if for anything, and where he’s going, if anywhere- until he’s found by his Creator. If he yet wants to be found, that is, as man's original sin consisted of a preference for himself over his Creator.

Man, as its also taught, “conceived a distorted image of God” at the Fall, of a God “jealous of His prerogatives”, of a God distant and angry and aloof in His superiority. Jesus came to reconcile man with God by revealing a very different God, the true face of His Father, a God of goodness and trustworthiness and lavish love for His creation, for us: enmity came from man, not God; God always had man's highest and best interest at heart. And by that knowledge we may come home to Him now as, like prodigals, we become jaded of the pigsty that our exile from Him results in, or that it consists of. In knowing Him we can then believe in, hope in, and most importantly, come to love Him. Then our purpose is being attained. Our job is only to say "yes" rather than "no", to open the door when He knocks, and keep it open. And He must move us even to that point: He simply will not push us over the edge. Otherwise He may as well have just prevented Adam from sinning to begin with, or simply stocked heaven with the "elect" and hell with the rest at the beginning. But He wants us to own that choice, for Him, and increasingly so as He builds us up in His love. He wants us to love as He does. And He's very patient at this work of His. He's been at it for centuries now, in fact.