This is a minimal statement of the meaning of the Christian message, in terms of four main themes of the Bible. Each of these themes is here discussed in turn.  I am here expressing my convictions  regarding  relevant passages in the Bible.  In this document I use masculine pronouns to refer to God, although, pretty surely, God is neither male nor female.

2. According to the Bible, "God is love." Love is, then, more than an attribute which God possesses, it is the nature which He is. According to the Bible He is also holy. These two qualities--love and holiness--define the moral nature of God and indicate the motivation for all that He does.

3. Because He is love, God created the universe and populated it with intelligent, morally free beings whom He created in His image. .

4. As their creator, God gives meaning to the universe and its inhabitants. Because of His infinite nature and transcendence, this meaning is inevitably a high-level meaning--a meaning that requires for its expression the use of superlatives.

5. The decision of God to create intelligent, morally free beings, involved Him in: (1) a commitment to respect their freedom, regardless of the cost to Himself, regardless of how they might use or abuse their freedom; (2) a commitment to accept whatever satisfactions or sorrow or pain that their existence might entail for Him; (3) a commitment to unending, uninterrupted work on behalf of these beings in guiding and impelling them in the continuing realization of His ideal for their lives and in the realization by them of that which constitutes their greatest good.

6. God is continuously at work in maintaining the universe in a basically user-friendly condition for those who inhabit it; in guiding and impelling these beings, both in this world and elsewhere in the universe, to the realization of His ideal for their lives and of their highest good.

7. God is holy. Included in His holiness is a love of whatever He perceives as good and a hatred of whatever He perceives as wrong or evil. Because He is holy, He cannot endure the presence of evil or sin. Because He is holy, the existence of sin and evil, should they arise, could not be perpetuated.

8. The nature of God may also be defined as a triunity--a union of three distinct persons in one. This concept is illustrated by the Biblical statement that, in marriage, man and women, two distinct persons, become "one flesh" (Genesis 2: 24). This triunity is ususlly called "trinity" or "Godhead." The three members of the Godhead are commonly referred to in the Scriptures as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

9. Because God is love, He is affected by the lives and feelings of human beings. He rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep. The grief, sorrow, and suffering that human beings experience, He too feels, for the grief, pain, and suffering of every human being become the grief, pain, and suffering of the great God Himself.

God is neither a monster nor Santa Clause nor a soft-headed sentimentalist. He is love, but He is also holy.  And He means business with human beings. Not taking God seriously could be a colossal miscalculation.  We human beings can accept God and live according to His plan for our lives. If we are right in doing so, we gain everything that is good and only that which is good and lose nothing worth keeping.  If we are wrong in doing so, we lose nothing, gain nothing. Or we can reject God  and refuse to live according to His plan for our lives.  If we are right in doing so, we gain nothing, lose nothing. If we are wrong in doing so, we lose everything.
The God of Biblical theism is, I believe, the best kind of God for human beings.
 

Most of what is said here regarding human beings is intended to apply to other intelligent beings which, I believe, exist throughout the universe.

1. Human beings were created (in the image of God), not by a prolonged process of evolution, ultimately from the lowest forms of life or from inorganic matter, but in two direct acts of creation of the parents of the race.
Those who believe otherwise should read books by Ariel Roth (Origins), Michael Denton (Eolution: a Theory in Crisis), and others.

2. Human beings may be regarded as finite, corporeal, personal beings in contrast to God, who may be regarded as an infinite, incorporeal, personal being; and in contrast to animals, which are finite, corporeal, impersonal beings.

3. Human personality includes an impressive array of high-level moral, spiritual, and intellectual abilities and aptitudes. It is the expression of an awesome, perhaps unlimited, potential for intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth and development, and rewarding, sophisticated, high-level intellectual, moral, and spiritual achievements.

4. Human beings were created morally free as a condition indispensable for the realization of the divine purpose in their existence.

5. The divine purpose in the existence of human beings, the divine ideal for their lives, and the destiny for which they are divinely intended are highly exalted. Surely, an infinite God who surpasses human beings without limit would not have created them in His image without having plans for their lives that are incomparably grand and glorious.

6. Human beings were created to serve as the objects of divine love and are intended by God to reciprocate that love in a never-ending, mutual relationship with Him.

7. Human beings are divinely intended--conditionally--for immortality and unending existence. But they are not naturally immortal. Obviously God can, at any time He wishes, call in the life of any created being. The existence of morally free, created beings can hardly be prolonged indefinitely unless they conform their lives to the divine purpose in their existence.

8. The divine ideal for human beings envisions for them (a) restoration to the perfection in which they were created; (b) the unending assimilation of their lives and characters to the life and character of God; (c) an unending, unlimited, growth in wisdom, love, and intellectual power; (d) a happiness and a greatness of spirit that God intends to escalate eternally and without limit; and (e) an unending succession of high-level, highly rewarding, moral, esthetic, spiritual, and intellectual achievements.

9. So exalted is this ideal that its realization is inevitably a process never to be terminated. Because the divine life, in its perfection and infinitude, is the model for human beings, this ideal can never be fully realized.

10. Unending existence and immortality for human beings are, therefore, conditions essential to the continuing realization of this ideal and of the divine purpose in their existence.

11. Human beings--every last single one of them--are infinitely precious to God and are the objects of His unlimited, unconditional, unrelenting, love and comprehensive care.

12. The life of God is ethically normative for the life of beings created in His image. According to the Bible, human beings are to be imitators of God (Ephesians. 5:1). More specifically, they are to be perfect as He is perfect, holy because He is holy, loving as He is loving. The call to be imitators of God is a call to rise to the highest level of ethical living.

13. Human personality and individuality must be regarded as inviolable and must be treated in all cases with respect and sensitivity. Human beings are universally off limits to anything that could be interpreted as an assault on one of them. No human being can rightly be abused, exploited, manipulated, defamed, defrauded, insulted, ridiculed, in any way, either for monetary gain, sexual gratification, to feed a sense of power, or for any other reason.

14. Human personality, at its moral and spiritual best,   stands at the apex of all that, in this world, is truly beautiful.

15. Happiness is the consequence of ethical living, especially the imitation of the character of God. An eternally escalating happiness not only is envisioned by the divine ideal for human beings but is also an inevitable concomitant of the unending progression of the realization of that ideal.

16. Human beings are responsible to God for living their lives according to His law, for a high level of ethical behavior toward Him and toward each other, for perpetuating the race, and for establishing a rational, benevolent dominion over their world.
 

1. The existence of morally free beings, including human beings, means that sin, has been, inevitably, a continuing possibility. The term "moral freedom" by definition includes the possibility of wrongdoing.

2. Sin is defined in the Bible as the transgression of the law of God.

3. The parents of the race sinned, by disobedience to God, thereby forfeiting their relationship with God, falling under His disfavor, bringing down on their world a divine curse, and bringing His judgment of death down on their heads. The idea of original sin, prominent in Christian theology, should probably be understood as referring
to an inherent tendency of all human beings to sin.. .

4. Human beings universally have fallen under the power of sin and are unable to effectuate their escape from it.

5. Sin has radically and universally affected human beings--all of whom have sinned, thereby incurring the death penalty. Much of the problem of evil is due to human venality and to the curse on the world consequent on the sin of Adam and Eve.

6. Sin has disintegrative consequences to all who engage in it, as theologians have recognized.

7. The consequence of sin to human beings is death. According to the Bible, "The person who sins will die." (Ezekiel 18: 4). The wages of sin is death." Romans 5: 12.

8. Because of the surpassing holiness of God the existence of sin cannot be perpetuated. The Bible promises an end to evil and a world in which it will not recur. In His own time, God will call a halt to the evil in the world.
 

1. The decision of God to create morally free beings involved Him, before any act of creation, in (1) a commitment to respect their freedom regardless of how they might use--or misuse--it, regardless of the cost to Himself; (2) the acceptance of the risk that some of them might sin--a risk which He accepted (knowingly) by creating them; and (3) a commitment to restore any of those who would fall under the power of sin.

2. Since, according to the Scriptures, those who sin must die, God's eternal purpose in the existence of morally free beings could be realized only if a qualified substitute would accept the penalty of death on their behalf, that is, would die in their place.

3. The Son--the second member of the divine trinity--became incarnate, that is, took on human nature, in order to be able to die for the sins of human beings. He did this voluntarily. By dying for them on the cross Jesus Christ satisfied the claims of divine justice against them and obtained eternal redemption from sin for them.

4. God is no respecter of persons, nor does humanity enjoy privileged status with him with respect to intelligent beings on other worlds. From a cosmic perspective, divine redemption would be made available wherever sin might break out. Had sin broken out on another world than this one, God would have sent His Son to that world to die for the beings there.

5. The assumption of human nature by the second member of the Godhead involved Him in the risk that He Himself in His humanity could have sinned. Had He sinned, would He not have experienced the divine wrath which is against "all unrighteousness" (Romans 1: 18)? Would He not have been eternally separated from the Father, who, in His surpassing holiness, cannot abide the presence of sin? Christ did not sin and the risk was obviated.

6. The willingness of the second member of the Godhead to accept human nature, with the great risk involved, and to go to the cross for human beings and experience its horrors in order to effectuate their redemption from sin stands as a powerful affirmation of God's love for them, and of their high value to Him.

7. In effect, God, by creating morally free beings, accepted the risks in which the existence of morally free beings involved Him. He accepted the possibility that some of them might sin and necessitate their redemption. He chose to create them, knowing that doing so might lead Him, eventually, to the incarnation and to death on their behalf. He could have avoided these risks only by not creating them. We may conclude, then, that all morally free beings in the universe, and in a sense the universe itself, owe their existence to the willingness of God to become "incarnate," and to go to the cross, if need be.

8. That God, by creating morally free beings, would accept the risks inherent in their existence, that He would accept the heavy risk involved in the incarnation of the second member of the Godhead, is a powerful testimony to the importance of the existence of morally free beings to Him.

9. And the excruciating pain and mental anguish that Jesus Christ endured on the cross testifies to human beings of His love for them, of their unlimited value to Him. From the cross He says to every human being: "I love you my child, with a love that is greater than this vast universe; a love that nailed me to this cross for you; a love that will not, a love that cannot, ever, ever let you go; a love that, if you refuse my offer of eternal salvation, will leave in my heart eternally a feeling of emptiness for you."

10. We may believe that the second member of the Godhead would not have accepted the incarnation, with its risk, and the cross, with all of its horrors, if there had been some other way of saving human beings from their sins.

11. The climax of the divine plan for the salvation of human beings from sin will be the return of Jesus Christ to this earth, the elimination of sin and those who refuse divine delivery from its power (but not burning them eternally in hell), and the restoration of the earth to a condition of paradise.

12. The redeemed saints, gifted with immortality and unending existence, will experience a continually escalating happiness and greatness of spirit; an endless sequence of highly rewarding, high level achievements; and the rewarding presence of God with them eternally.

Last Modified 23 March 2000