However, God loves the world, and all men. He wanted us to share the bounty of His kingdom with Him, forever. And so there is a dilemma; for man, in his fallen state, cannot generate a holiness, or goodness that compares with God's. Therefore, because God is absolute good and cannot embrace a sinful creature, He had to devise a way to purge man of corruption so we can dwell together in eternity. Thus, man needs a saviour.

Ok then, granted that we need to be redeemed the question arises; How?

This question has been asked since the first man and the answer has always been the same; Faith in Christ, or Jehova before the 1st advent. But before man started asking it, God asked it AND answered it. Most people in the civilized world have a general idea what God's plan for redemption is, if only from the rituals and hymns of Christmas. However, in the event any traveller through this site is not familiar with the gospel, here is the good news it brings you;

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to do the work of salvation. For this cause, and this cause only, He was born. It is not surprising, in light of His mission, that the "swaddling clothes" with which He was wrapped as a newborn babe, were the white strips of linen used to wrap around the dead before burial. You and I were born to live; Christ was born to die.

He was born because He had to be a man, a man in every sense as you and I; You see, He was already God. It was his diety, not the infant, that spoke from the manger saying; "Behold Father, I have come to do thy will. A body you have prepared for me, for the animal sacrifices (of ancient Isreal) did not propitiate (satisfy) You."

And so, the first phase of God's plan came to pass; a unique man was born, unlike any other in that He was truly a human being, but He was also God; Two natures in one person. In this, the man Jesus is the "interface" between God and mankind. His union with eternal God is the doorway through which we pass into God's kingdom, heaven. He is the "first fruits", the trailblazer.

Christ was born of a virgin, the sign of His coming foretold. He was the only human being ever born without sin, which qualified Him to be "The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world...without blemish and without spot".

Think of the cross as a courtroom, for that is precisely what it was. It was the single most dramatic moment in the history of our kind, when The Father judged all the sins of mankind in His Son. Christ died as a substitute for us, accepting the shame of our transgressions...every despicable deed ever done on earth, including the sins of those who will never beleive, ALL SINS.

"By His bruise are we drawn together". For six hours He hung on the wood. In three of those hours, from noon to three in the afternoon, Our Lord suffered agonies we cannot imagine. So grotesque were his distorted features that The Father cloaked Golgotha with a supernatural darkness in which no light could cast a glow. In the black void only the unceasing screams of Our Saviour could be heard. In those three terrible hours the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child who would accept Him as their Redeemer was forged. When it was over, The Father's justice was served, sin had been punished to His satisfaction. The way was now clear for all men to follow Christ into heaven.

Of all the stories and fables which have come down to us about that monumental day, the one most telling in regards to God's statement of the facts occured in the Temple of Solomon, where the Dome of the Rock stands today. It involved a "curtain" which covered the entrance to the Holy of Holies, a place which was forbidden entry by any man except the High Priest...once each year. To enter resulted in instant death.

The Holy of Holies, ofcourse, was a "type", or symbol, of heaven. Entry was forbidden because, until The Lamb had satisfied God's righteous grievance with man, no man was allowed in heaven. Once Christ was risen and seated at the right hand of The Father, however, the way was made open.

The "curtain", which was more like a wall than a flimsy drapery, was approximately 25 feet wide, 40 feet high and an unbeleivable 3 feet thick. It was woven of fine wool and, we can estimate, weighed in at over 3 tons. Yet, on the afternoon of the crucifixion, the priests enter the outter room, The Holy Place, and gasped at what they saw. The mighty curtain had been ripped from top to bottom.

God declared to the world in that way that the Holy of Holies was now accessible to even the lowest peon.

Before I conclude the good news of our redemption, I should make several issues chrystal clear, for the sake of those who may have been misinformed, or otherwise have an erroneous view of this subject.

First, and most important; Salvation is free, a gift, and can only be aquired by one simple act...beleiving. There are many rumors to the contrary, but the scripture makes this fact VERY clear. To phrase it another way, you don't have to do good deeds and be good boys and girls to get into heaven! Salvation is based entirely upon the work of Jesus Christ, PERIOD!

"He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" This is a phrase derived from 2 verses; 1 Pet 2:24 and 2 Cor 5:21. I have combined these texts in order to emphasize one aspect of salvation (we receive 39 individual gifts at salvation), the imputation of God's righteousness. Because God is absolute He cannot compromise His essence and remain God. Another of his attributes (besides righteousness) is immutability. God has always been the same, and always will be the same. The point here is; We cannot dwell in His presence without a righteousness equal to His own, and since we are incapable of producing that standard of good, He must GIVE it to us.

Were it possible for us to achieve perfection the sacrifice of Christ would not have been necessary. What we would have, instead, is the very situation that some religions claim to be fact; We would have to be good to go to heaven, and more than that...salvation would be a very tentative proposition. We would be slipping off the fence, and getting back on for a lifetime. Some religions even claim that they can take your salvation from you by banning you from the church.

Even in the affairs of men this arrangement is flawed and unmanageable. How, then, can man apply such an arbitrary system to a perfect Being? Well, the answer to that question involves more than just the truth, for man is well known for his insatiable thirst for power, and this is a case of that malpractice. Simply put, if you can dangle the carrot of everlasting paradise before a sinner, and threaten eternal agony and suffering as the price of failure, then you have total control of that individual.

Many are the crimes against humanity by just such religious institutions as these. Even today, we see terrorist acts commited by those who have been fooled into believing this lie! The truth is, God does not entrust mankind with the power to dispense, or deny, any human being salvation, and for this very reason. Consider the logic of such an arrangement, or lack thereof; God, Who calls us "perverse" creatures, has gone to unimaginable trouble to redeem us, and yet He turns right around and leaves the matter of who gets saved and who doesn't in the hands of those same fallen creatures. Even a good businessman knows this reasoning is poor judgement, or a football coach, or a farmer, or anyone!

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Second, and closely related to the first issue, is the fallacy that you can lose salvation. This is not true. Obviously, this falsehood was originated by the same religious order that spawned the "salvation by works" concept. It stands to reason, if you must work to be saved, like a brownie point system, then you can do bad work and lose it.

God did the work of salvation and, as such, that work is complete to the point of infinity. He does not do shoddy work, or leave any loose ends laying around. When Christ uttered "it is finished" on the cross, He was declaring that the ENTIRE work was COMPLETE. Eternal life, like temporal life, cannot be "called back" or anulled. Once born, you exist. The birth at salvation refers to the human spirit. Prior to eternal birth we were "dicotomous", or two entities in one creature. After salvation we become "tricotomous", or three entities. The unsaved will exist in Gehenna, or the Lake of Fire, forever in the dicotomous state.