Human beings are inherently evil. Why? Because we evidently are born that way. It comes to us naturally. For example, no one teaches a child to lie, steal, to be selfish, or to be aggressive towards another. It is in our nature to be sinful. Why? Because we all are born with a body, a mind, and a soul, in that order of importance to us. This is the characteristic of a natural person. We all are born natural persons. Our bodies (our wants and needs) dominate our actions. Normally, our "feelings" are regulated by the logic imposed by our minds. We want this and want that. However, our soul warns the mind when we are approaching or have breached certain limits we call "bad". That warning is our conscience telling us: "you've gone too far", or "you should not have done that". Unless that person is a psychopath, we all experience that feeling of guilt. What makes us feel that way? Why is there a limit to how self-centered and self-pleasing we can get? Where does it come from? The soul must also be inherent to us. But, why? Who put it there?

 

When we start to ask ourselves these questions, we begin to discover a new dimension in our existence. But then you also will ask yourself other questions. You will begin to consider what some people call a Creator or God. You note the dichotomy between good and evil and begin to be attracted to the philosophy of the "yin and yang". It makes sense: "life is a balance between good and evil". It's pretty and feels good because it does not challenge you or your actions. It's safe. Life, you tell yourself, is a struggle between these two equal and opposing forces I have no control over, so everything is good.

 

Then you also hear people say: "God is love". But then this concept is immediately challenged by the fact that many people around you (or maybe yourself) suffer, there is injustice in this world, disasters happen to apparently innocent people. How can a God of love allow this to happen? You arrive at a conclusion that either God does not love us or that God does not exist.

 

Then you begin to wonder, if there is a God, why is there so many religions? God must be an invention by people to, in a way or another, control other people. There is a book out there called "the Bible" but many religions quote that book. It seems like everyone interprets that book differently. Besides, there are other books that some say are older than the Bible used by other religions. You decide that all religions have a bit of truth in them and therefore all are from God, if He exists.

 

Once that whole internal discussion is settled, you go on with your life appeasing your conscience by comparing yourself to other people and you conclude: "I am not that bad after all. As long as my good deeds are greater than my bad deeds, I should be OK with God". If He exists.

 

But then you hear someone say something that puts a question mark on your beliefs. Your conscience nudges you to verify this "truth". What if what you heard is true? The stakes are high. What you heard would potentially affect your eternal life. You better make sure. Eternity is a long, long, long time. Your conscience tells you it is worth checking.

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You keep your mind open and willing to verify if what you hear makes sense. Not only how you "feel" about it but analyzing it and making sure it is intellectually sound. You learn that it is true that we are born with an evil nature, but it was not like this in the beginning. After all, if God exists, He would have not created something flawed. God must have created this world and everything in it perfectly. Then you learn that the Bible says the Earth was different then. The descriptions of how the Earth once was implies a planet without clouds and therefore no changes in the weather or seasons. People lived very long lives because something blocked the harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun that speeds our aging and causes some cancers. This is evidenced by the stories of pre-diluvial times when people lived close to 1,000 years! 

 

But we were born with a free will. God did not want to create a robot that would say and act as if it loved Him. That is not real love. God created humans with the ability to choose. If we chose to love Him despite other distractions, He is assured that we really love Him. God only asks us to not have any other love greater than our love for Him. We can love other things and other people, but never more than Him. He is jealous like that because He loves us so much and because, being a good father, He knows what is best for us.

 

So, if He loves us so much, why is there so much pain and suffering in our world? Because our original ancestors, exercising their free will, chose to disobey God and forfeited the perfect world He had created. Eve was lured by the smooth talk and a distorted version of the word of God. Adam did nothing to intervene and correct what the devil was saying to her and participated in disobeying. The consequences of sin are always death. Because of their act and not admitting it (God gave them the opportunity to face-up and ask for forgiveness), Adam and Eve were banished from "paradise". Nothing physically changed in the world at that moment, but they no longer were in communion with God (the Bible says that God would daily visit Adam and Eve and strolled while conversing with them). Paradise essentially is any place where God is.

 

Adam and Eve felt bad after that experience but did not repent because of their pride. That “feeling bad” sensation was their conscience. That indescribable sentiment that questions the morality of your actions was there with humans since the beginning. It must have been imprinted in us by God during creation. It is like a homing beacon that tells us: "yes, this is good, no, this is bad", and points toward God. But there must be something that we lost when our original ancestors sinned. Something that goes beyond warning us between good and evil. Something that restores the live communication between us and our creator. This something must be extremely important. This something holds the key to restoring our relationship with our creator.

 

When did "religion" start? That term is only mentioned in the cultures that got formed from the eight people that survived the flood in Noah's ark. The flood totally changed the Earth to the state we know it today. The temperate and placid planet, protected by a yet undefined water shield above our atmosphere, supported a prolific animal population (including the dinosaurs) and lush vegetation of all kinds. In that environment, mankind also had a huge population boom. The existing land mass was a single continent (Pangea) which most likely was flatter than it is today. Nevertheless, a lot of water would be required to cover that pre-diluvial continent. The Bible says that water came from above (the water shield that was disrupted and precipitated to the surface), and the bottom (groundwater being pushed out as the continent subdivided and then collided with each other), in a process we now call Continental Drift, eventually forming the continents and mountain chains we know today. 

 

There are no ancient cultures that are older than 5 to 6 thousand years. This gives us a clue that the flood possibly happened in about that time. After the flood, the descendants of Noah stayed together, but God separated them by giving different groups different languages. People of the same language banded together and migrated to different parts of the world. Each created their own "religion". Religion is the attempt by people to approach God on their own terms and is characterized by certain rituals and traditions. These rituals and traditions "evolved" with time. Religion adapts to its time.

 

But God is eternal and does not change. This should give you a clue that religion is not from God. God just wants a relationship with us and only demands that we have no greater love than for Him. Using logic, if humankind is evil and religion is created by humans, religions are evil. In other words, the devil uses religion to steer us away from the truth. Just as he did with Eve. One thing about the devil, he is resourceful, but he is somewhat predictable, but most of all, and this is very important to always keep in mind, the devil is no match against God. The devil is not the exact opposite of God. The devil is a created being. A creation can never be greater than its creator. God uses the devil to test our will and our love for Him, but he is subjected to Him. Back to the yin and yang figure, the reality is that they are not exact and opposing forces. God is all powerful. The devil is not.

 

So, what is missing? What is that unknown that restores the live communication between us and our creator? When we acknowledge that we are sinners and realize that we cannot make it on our own and we invite Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, what we're doing is we are inviting His spirit into our soul. From that moment on we are complete: spirit, mind, and body in that order of importance. Now you have become a spiritual person. Now you are a true Christian.

 

A lot of people give off the image of being "spiritual", but if they did not wholeheartedly invite Jesus into their life, they are simply faking it or at least emotionalizing it. But because it is not genuine, it is not of the spirit, but of the flesh. Sadly, a lot of people fall prey to "snake oil" preachers that are in the business of religion to make money. People end up losing it all, their souls and their money. Unfortunately, this is the image portrayed in the media about "Christians". The devil is clever and uses all the tricks in his book to shoo people away from the truth.

 

If you feel a nudge by your soul to become reunited with the spirit, don't be afraid to go to a Bible-teaching church. If they teach strictly from the Bible, you know they teach about God. How to know if they are a Bible-teaching church? Read the Bible yourself. God says: "Come now and let us reason together". God does not want "blind faith" from us. God wants your thoroughly checked and verified faith. True love.

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The Bible is not a fable full of myths and legends. It is the inspired word of God. How do we know it is "inspired"? Because He spoke through prophets (inspired teachers and proclaimers) that proved they were so by predicting the future in His name (prophets began preaching by saying: "thus says the Lord..."). They predicted things to happen within a few years to prove they were true and made predictions of things yet to happen. Some of these "prophesies" have been fulfilled within our lifetime (the restitution of the state of Israel) and others are still to come (the rapture of His church). No other "religion" has a book like the Bible. The Bible has over 500 different prophesies of which about 200 are yet to be fulfilled. The other 300 were already fulfilled over the past 3,500 years. How many prophesies does the Koran of the Muslims have? Or the Vedas of the Hindus? Or the Sutras of the Buddhist? One God requires one truth.

 

God wants you to know Him. Seek the truth. Read the Bible. 

 

Another way we can tell the Bible is not fiction is by the fact that within its pages there are stories of real people (so far there is no place or person in the Bible that has been debunked by the myriad of people that have tried). The people in the stories were not perfect and the Bible does not sugar-coat their lives. All are ordinary people that, despite being imperfect, were used by God in one way or another to tell His story. Remember, the Bible is not a random account of people and events, it centers on the people that one way or another have to do with Jesus Messiah or Christ. The Bible is true and complete. It starts with the beginning of things, the creation, and ends with the destruction of all that we know, and the creation of a new earth. A complete renewal cycle.