1 Do we consider the purpose of life on
earth?
Generally, all living creatures develop, react to external stimuli and
reproduce themselves, even if their behaviors differ according to their
functions and capabilities. However, man is the only creature on earth with the
power to wonder about the origin and purpose of life.
If, as many say, life is not due to a deliberate project, but comes from
chaos or chance, life would just be an accident without a purpose, but the percentage of the chances of its accidental origin, expose
mathematically the impossibility of this fact, even through millions of years.
The possibility that one simple protein may be produced by chance is one in 10113, (10 raise to
the power of 113), but life requires much more than a simple protein; so that a single cell remains active, two thousand different proteins are
needed and the probability that all of them are produced on one same place and
combine by chance, is one in
1040000, (10 raise to the power of 40,000). If we bother to make
these calculations, we will understand that the assertion that life arose
spontaneously by chance from chaos, is really untenable. Only who is determined to ignore another option clings faithfully to
it, and even the most ardent supporters of Darwinian evolution, understand that
this theory only presents with many and insurmountable gaps, a series of
transformations, but does not explain the origin of life.
The option that so many strive to ignore, is that of the existence of a
creating intelligence, and this fact encourages serious thinking about the
source of life and the purpose of creation.
2 Modern archeology and many of the ancient
historical reports that have reached us, disclose information that supports and gives weight to a collection
of books written over a period of more than 1500 years, with the purpose of
displaying the development of the Creator's purpose for the earth and the life
on it; these accounts compile the canonical Scriptures of the
Bible.
Moses started the first book with these words: In the beginning God
created the heavens and the Earth, (Genesis 1:1) and John wrote the last of its books, known as Revelation or
Apocalypse, where we may read for the umpteenth time: You, Yahuh, are worthy of the glory and of the power, for you created all things, and these
exist and came into being by your
will (Revelation
4:11)
In line with this, when the people of Athens led Paul to the Areopagus to
get information about his preaching, Paul began his speech identifying the
source of life, and said: The God that made the world
and everything in it, is the Lord of heaven and earth ... he is who gave life,
breath and all things to every one... by him we live, move and exist.
(Acts 17:24
25, 28)
3 All living beings on earth are animated, this word means that they are
active and move. For this reason the word soul, which is a synonym of the Latin
word anima, has to do with animation or movement. It does not describe an
invisible immortal substance, as many may believe, Scripture applies it to all
living beings, as we read: Yahuh God made the man
from soil dust, and blowing into his nostrils the breath of life, man was
made a living
soul. (Genesis
2:7) So when God put man in the Garden of Eden
to cultivate it and keep it, gave him this command: You can eat fruit from any
tree in the garden except from the tree of good and evil. Do not eat the fruit
of that tree, because if you eat it, you
will certainly die. (Genesis
2:15
17) And death is the total lack of life.
The presumption that the soul survives after the death of the body, may
alleviate the fear of ceasing to be. This idea comes from the ancient
philosophies, and can even be said that its origin is mentioned in the book of
Genesis, when contradicting the words of the Creator, the ancient serpent (Revelation 12:9) tells the woman: No way
will you die! (Genesis
3:4)
The belief in the immortality of the soul was adopted by many Jews when
Judea was under the dominion and influence of the Greek empire, but is in
conflict with the text of the canonical Scriptures, which apply the Hebrew word
nefesh, which corresponds to the Latin term anima, to every living being, human and
animal, as we read in the book of Genesis, when: God said: there
will be living souls
(beings) on the earth after their kind; tame animals, tiny beings and all the wild animals of the earth. And
so it happened: God made all wild beasts of the earth after their kind,
domestic animals after their kind, and every tiny being of the earth according
to its kind. And God saw how good it was. (Genesis 1:24
25)
4 Referring to the purpose of life, Solomon
writes: Those who are alive know that they must die,
but the dead know nothing ... and no longer take part in all what happens
under the sun. (Ecclesiastes
9:5
6) And prophet Ezekiel records these words of Yahuh, in harmony
with Genesis 2:15..17: Behold, all souls are
mine, the soul of the father is mine just as the soul of the son, and the sinful soul will die. (Ezekiel 18:4)
However, the fact that men should live for some years to leave offspring,
and disappear after death, was really the purpose that God from the beginning?
And what is the sense of the tree of good and evil?
God had endowed man of conscience and free will, but never gave man the
authority to establish subjectively
and regardless of his Creators laws, what is morally good and what is morally evil; to ignore this fact would
mean a break with the source of life, and this would lead him to death. In fact,
God does not speak of death as a normal and unavoidable event, he only warns man
of what a disobedience of his laws, meant to protect the welfare of all
creation, would cause him.
5 On the other hand, in the center of the
garden was the tree of life (Genesis 2:9) and the presence of this
tree suggests that the man had within his reach a life without
death, but as Paul writes: because of one single
man, sin entered the world and through
sin came death, and death spread to
all men because they all inherited
sin, (Romans
5:12) since the salary of sin is death, but the free
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Man freely chose to ignore the Creator's advice, and established his own
moral laws. In harmony with this choice, God left the earth in his hands, giving
him the chance to check the results of his conduct. Since then, the heavens are the heavens of Yahuh, but he gave the Earth to the sons of
man, (Psalm 115:16)
while humanity lives a time in which man dominates
man to his hurt. (Ecclesiastes
8:9)
But this situation was not to be forever, and according to the
promises recorded in Scripture, it will end with the reign of Christ. Then, when that which is corruptible has dressed
incorruption, and that which is mortal has dressed immortality, the word that
was written will be fulfilled: Death has
been swallowed up forever. (1Corinthians 15:54; Isaiah
25:8)
6 The purpose of God for the Earth is thus the
same from the beginning of creation, he has not changed his design, and he did not form it for chaos, he created it to be
inhabited. (Isaiah 45:18)
God declares through Isaiah: the word that goes forth
from my mouth will not return to me ineffective, but it will do what I want and
accomplish that for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)
King David prophesied: The righteous shall inherit the Earth and dwell
therein forever, (Psalm
37:29) and confirming his words, Jesus proclaimed: Blessed be the meek, because they shall inherit the Earth. (Matthew 5:4) Death was not the purpose of the Creator for
his children; John writes, God is love (1John 4:8)
and God so loved the world, that he offered his only begotten Son so that all
who exercises faith in him might not be
destroyed but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) It was his wish to provide
humanity with a way of justification that would be consistent with his law, so
that if by the transgression of one single man, death reigned, by means of one single man, Jesus
Christ, life will reign in those who
receive the generous gift of justification because as through one single offense, the sentence was
extended to all men, by one single act
of righteousness, the justification that brings life is extended to all
men. (Romans
5:17
18)
7 However, to follow a path in conflict with
the guidelines of the Creator, nullifies any future hope for he who is baptized
in Christ, because it deprives him of the life without death that through the
redemption of Jesus, God concedes.
Paul writes that those that have tasted
the good words of God and the wonders of
the world to come and yet turn back, cannot be given conversion again,
because it would be like sacrificing once more the Son of God for their sake,
and expose him to public shame. (Hebrews 6:4
6)
This is a recurring warning from Genesis to Revelation; so Paul reminds
the disciples: do not turn aside; you cannot play
with God and each one will collect what he has sown. Who sows for the desires of
the body, will collect corruption (death) from
the body, while he who sows for the spirit, will collect from the spirit
everlasting life. (Galatians
6:7
8)
When Paul stood before the Roman procurator Felix, to defend himself of
the false accusations from the Jews, he told him: I
confess that I worship the God of my fathers, across the Way they call a
sect; I believe in all things which
are written in the Law and the Prophets, and I have the hope in God, which I
also share with them, that there will be
a resurrection of the just and the unjust. (Acts 24:14
15)
Jesus told Martha: I am the resurrection: he
who believes in me, even if he dies, shall live and speaking of the time of his return, he said: whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this? She said: Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of
God who was to come into the world. (John 11:25
27) Her words should be the
answer of all his disciples, which are those that await him and put faith in all his words.
9 Since the beginning of his preaching, Jesus
proclaimed: Be converted because the kingdom of
heaven has come near. (Matthew
4:17) And this was true, because even if the time to establish God's kingdom
on earth, had not yet come, Jesus, its future king, was already among
them.
Luke writes that after his death in sacrifice,
he evidenced to be alive and appeared to them (to his apostles and
disciples) during forty days, to speak about the
things concerning the
Some sixty years later, John received from Jesus a vision about the
foundation of Gods Kingdom on Earth, and writes: The
seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and powerful voices in heaven said: The kingdom of the world has become the reign
of our Sovereign and of his Christ, and He shall reign forever and
ever. (Revelation
11:15)
10 The disciples of Jesus have always lived in
this unjust and violent world, sustained by the faith in his promises and the
hope of his return and his reign of justice. Peter wrote for them: There is something you must not forget, brethren, that for
Yahuh one day is as a thousand years and thousand years as one day, (2Peter 3:8) but, in keeping with His promise, we are waiting for new heavens
and a new earth where justice will house. (2Peter 3:13)
God's times are not the same as those of mankind, who lives for a few
years and falls into the deep sleep of death, but as in death there is no
consciousness, those who sleep in it cannot count or realize the time that goes
by until their awakening; this means that they all have to wait as much as the
years of their life, which are more or less the same for all the people of the
past generations.
However, the return of Christ is a true and reliable hope for those who
put faith in his words; the apostle Paul exhorts them with these words: stand firm and persevering, my beloved brethren, having
always plenty to do in the Lord's task, and being aware that your work
for the Lord is not in vain. (1Corinthians 15:58) since Christ, having offered himself once in order to abolish
forever the sins of many, will manifest himself again for a second time,
though no longer in connection to sin, but to those who are waiting him, to
be saved. (Hebrews
9:28)