We will endeavor to present to you, solid doctrine with the emphasis on the four Gospels, in particular the words of Jesus. Although the message that Jesus gave is timeless and always relevant, the people who Jesus talked to in His day and their everyday life experiences is vastly different from our experiences today. Many say that the Gospel is outdated, but the truth is that it is needed more than ever. We don’t need to change the message, just the way we deliver the message. Jesus used parables and references to the everyday events and topics of His day and by doing so made the message hit home that much harder. There were a large amount of people that were farmers in Jesus’ day and many parables refer to farming and harvesting and even if most people can understand them today, they no longer relate to them as the Israelites once did (farming is now less than 2% of the American population). Many of these tracts have references to science which every high school student has been exposed to as well as theme parks, today’s philosophies, and other topics. While this may seem to set a distance between the message and the application of it to those who adhere strictly to the scriptures for all references, we believe that using modern references will be closer to the heart of today’s society and by doing so create more questions and more deliberation. As one old time preacher said “if I can get a person to think, I can lead him to the Lord”.
Please use these freely with much prayer that they will bring the lost to God.
At the end of each tract is a link to download it in Word format. It is set to print in an 8.5 x 4.5 card. If you use 100 weight card stock this will make 2 tracts from one 8.5 x 11 inch sheet.
Tract 1
A broken glass.
Who hasn’t seen a glass break or a bottle break? It gets hit or knocked over and you cringe because you know what happens next. The only thing you don’t know is how many pieces the glass will be in once it breaks. Then you try to clean it up without anyone getting hurt. Strange to say, science uses this example of a broken glass in the study of time and entropy and in other areas of physics. When scientists analyze a glass breaking, they say that there is no reason that the broken glass could not come back together again. It would not violate any known law of physics if all the pieces came back together to its original form. No leaks, no cracks, just a normal glass. Sounds incredible? It is strange but it is what science says. This same glass, if you think of it coming back together again it would look like time going backwards. And again, there is nothing in physics that says time cannot flow backward. You say then why doesn’t it? The explanation is that there are more ways to be a broken glass than to be a complete and functional glass. The chances of all the pieces coming back together and becoming a glass again is inconceivably large. You can melt the pieces and reform the glass but even if it appears identical its molecules are now in different places and this is done through intelligence. This intelligence made the glass in the first place and made the glass for a purpose but when it gets broken it loses its purpose. We said when you see a glass break the only question is in how many pieces will it break? There are an infinite number of pieces the glass can be broken but there is only one way that it can be the original glass. We too are made for a purpose and we can be broken in an infinite number of ways. There are an infinite number of ways we can do wrong but only one way we can fulfill our purpose of being made into God’s image, a moral, holy being. And the vast number of ways we can do the wrong or be broken is what we erroneously call freedom. If you saw someone drop a 100 dollar bill from their pocket you can spend it, you can walk by it, you can give it to someone you love and endear themselves to you. There are an infinite number of ways you can do the wrong thing, but the only right thing is to take the money and give it back to its owner. This example doesn’t even scratch the surface of our brokenness. We are arrogant, self-centered, prideful, belittle each other, ignore other’s needs, curse, steal, commit adultery in our hearts and in reality, lie, treat God as a fairytale, belittle the truth to sooth our conscience, and much more. We call this ability to choose all these things we do “freedom” but in truth it is just another example of our brokenness. And this is why we need God so much. He alone has the intelligence to guide us to do what is the right thing. All our attempts at goodness are stained with self-centeredness and end up as one of the glass fragments.
Unlike what the laws of physics say, time does not have the ability to move backwards for us. We cannot go back in time and become the innocent, unbroken child we once were. We have to find a different avenue to become whole, to be an unbroken glass with a purpose. God made the way through His Son Jesus. By Jesus living with mankind, serving mankind, dying for mankind, and rising on the third day, He showed us who God is and how much God loves us. There is only one way for the glass to become what it was, and there is only one way for us to become whole again. There is no other example in mankind’s history that shows such great love and compassion for created humanity. There is no other example that shows that you can have faith in God and His motives. There is no other example that shows that God is love. There is no other way to becoming whole again except through Jesus and the cross He bore for you and me. Without God providing this option for us we would be doomed to be a broken glass, no purpose or future, for eternity. We have an infinite number of choices but like the glass, they all lead to brokenness. It is God’s intelligence that is needed to put us back together, and without it we are but a broken glass.
And if you are wondering what happens to those who choose one of the infinite ways to be a broken glass, hell will be full of broken glasses and the fires will do nothing to put people back together again.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 2
Why Does God Seem To Be Silent?
If there is a God why does He not show Himself to us in ways that are easy to recognize? Why does God not speak clearly and audibly to us and make Himself known in unmistakable ways? If God exists then why does He appear to be hiding? Two basic viewpoints come to mind, the perspective of God and our perspective. Let’s start with our perspective.
If God displayed Himself in all His glory or at least as much as we would be able to take in, we would definitely believe in His existence and that would only change the way we acted as long as we thought He was watching. God would become a kind of “Big Brother” as written of in George Orwell’s book 1984. We would be intimidated by the creator of the universe but this would probably do more to alienate us from God than bring us close to Him. Knowing that God was aware of all we do would put us at odds with God as we would begin to think of Him as a dictator or someone who is limiting us instead of the longsuffering, gentle and loving being that He is. Our history seems to be that if anybody even appears to be taking away our freedom, whether for our own good or not, then we fight tooth and nail to maintain our freedom. If we are wrong in our opinions or actions then we will hang on to our freedom of choice in defiance not only to the being perceived as encroaching on our freedom but in defiance to our own welfare. As one famous quote goes “Give me liberty or give me death”. So, having that much power hanging over us, even when it is only for our good, would end up in open rebellion (see the book of Exodus in the Bible). If God showed himself in a much lesser state then we would say that this is all there is to God and He is not who the Bible says He is. God showed himself in the form of man 2000 years ago and we crucified Him.
From God’s perspective, He had already made creatures that were able to see Him in much of His grandeur (the angels) and to know much more about God than we could ever know through science or in this life. It was found that this was still not a deterrent and a third of the angels still rebelled. Going back to human nature we find that given enough time, we will become jaded to the most spectacular of events or persons. But the one thing it seems is that after having this level of knowledge of God, if you choose to rebel there is no going back (there is no redemption for the fallen angels). After you have seen who God is and His loving character, if you choose to reject God that choice is forever. What more can you add to your knowledge of God to change your mind and say that God is good after you have seen God and had interfaced with Him. It is in our best interests not to know too much about God until we can accept God in faith that He is love.
But these are perspectives of God’s silence. In reality God has not been silent at all. He does not show Himself directly but gives us a chance to let our knowledge of Him grow slowly that we might be able to see God’s true nature. The whole universe speaks of a love for God’s creatures. Some would think that evolution brought us to this point but the world is full of revelations of “Intelligent Design”. A good case in point is the Bombardier beetle. It sprays its enemies with an acid that flies out from the underside of its belly to its victim that is standing in front of it barely missing the beetle’s own body. To quote Ed Yong of National Geographic fame, “The bombardier beetle then blasts its would-be predator with a chemical mixture that can reach up to 22 miles per hour at 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit)”. There is no conceivable way that this process could be slowly constructed (evolution) in the beetle. One little error and the beetle blows up itself or scalds itself to death. Anyone who can believe this could be evolved little by little as evolution says it should would have more faith in evolution than any Christian’s faith in God that I’ve known. Christians at least have experimental evidence, but believing the bombardier beetle and many more examples like it are evidence of evolution requires a pure faith in evolution to uphold it.
The bottom line is that God is not silent or hiding from us, we are hiding from God and refuse to speak to Him. God is waiting for somebody, anybody with a heart that wants to know the truth to come looking for Him so that God can reveal Himself in such a way that it will be fruitful to our whole being and not just our understanding.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 3
Is there such a thing as an intellectual Jesus?
Most people do not associate Christianity, or any religion for that matter, with the intellect. They think of a religious experience as being one full of tears of either remorse or joy. This truly is an avenue that God uses to speak to mankind but He is not limited to emotions just as the intellectual are not limited to logic. If you look at the history of science you can see that it is filled with all kinds of emotional responses. Einstein and others used to believe in an infinite, static universe until Hubble came along and proved the universe is expanding (big bang theory). A lot of scientists refused to believe Hubble because an expanding universe implied that there was a beginning which pointed to a creation of the universe. It took years before they could accept it and still, instead of addressing the implications, they came up with theories like a machine of some sort cranking out many universes (multi-verse) and without a shred of evidence. This, given the lack of logic, is an example of scientist’s emotional bias against a creator. And this still does not answer where the machine came. Scientists and college professors belittle anyone that does not believe in Darwinian evolution and this to the point that they would fail students for believing in creationism. And if you want to see how emotional a person can get, try to give them validated information to refute Darwinian evolution. The emotional level in science makes the average Christian believer pale when it comes to emotional outbursts. One of the greatest minds of physics in the last century, Stephen Hawkings, went back and forth on whether there was a God or not. If you have no proof of God’s existence, it would still be the height of foolishness not to take time to study the question thoroughly given the importance. It would be like someone camping on a railroad track and not bothering to find out if there were any trains coming.
What is necessary to see God spiritually and to get to know Him is the same thing that science says it is doing but is obviously lacking. To understand anything of God you must be willing to set aside your ego, your biases and prejudices, and your self-centered viewpoint. This should be the basis for all science but sadly it is not.
If you want to get just a taste of the intellect of God, consider the problem He is working on right now. God is creating a being in His own image. You can relate this to science trying to create AI (artificial intelligence). This is one of the hardest if not the hardest problem science has tackled. The greatest dilemma to overcome is illustrated in the sci-fi movies 2001 Space Odyssey, Matrix, and Terminator. These are instances where the created entities (robots or computers) turn on their creator. This is the problem where all other obstacles pale in comparison, how to create a being like yourself (in your image) that is benevolent, moral and still give it freedom of choice and the power to impact his environment? How would you do this? God has started this process and has given a blueprint of His plan in His manual (Bible). This is now something that you have to reckon with. If you neglect to even try to figure out how God is trying to accomplish this, you have given up the validity of the thought that God is for the weak minded. If you can’t find the solution you should not think that Christians would be much more intellectual than you (or any scientist for that matter). We are dealing with an infinite God (infinity is not constrained by time or space, try to find a definition of infinity without using any mention of measurement and get a glimpse of how hard it is to try to figure out God) who is so far beyond what we can know and we are struggling to understand just a little of who He is. Even God’s manual (the Bible) says that it falls short of explaining God.
One more thing. If you had supreme intellect such as God and you were trying to reach out to your creation (mankind) wouldn’t you make it as easy as you could and still maintain the integrity or benevolence of the creature? God said that He would make a way that “even the fools shall not err therein”. So, God made a way to understand that He is love through Jesus’ death and resurrection. He also gave us a manual for those who have begun seeking truth and a guide to find out more of Him. The question is now, are you willing to lay down your biases, what people may think, what you may seem to give up, your self-image, your philosophy, all those things that hinder your sight? Jesus is not for the faint of heart but He is for those who will look past themselves that they may see God. Definitely, Jesus is for the intellectual as well as the emotional.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 4
Is Christianity just Foolishness?
If you think that a blood-based religion is foolishness, you are right. If you think that it is foolish to think of an event that happened to a man that lived in a comparatively ignorant Jewish society 2000 years ago, you are right. If you think that it is foolish to believe on someone you cannot see, hear, or touch, you are right. But this is not the whole story. The Bible says that God’s foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of man and that people are saved “through the foolishness of preaching”. It never was God’s intent to try to reconcile the world to Him on mankind’s terms or based on mankind’s wisdom and understanding. Mankind cannot understand the full problem of sin, salvation or redemption much less try to find a solution by himself. God’s solution allows for mankind’s autonomy, self-government or free-will, knowledge of right and wrong, choice of destiny, and if mankind chooses to live within the parameters of good (good and evil), we end up being fashioned into the likeness of God with as many of His attributes as good allows including access to God’s wisdom and understanding. But God’s solution also requires openness and an acceptance of the truth no matter what it reveals about us or our evil side. God’s solution requires humility (not an attribute must people try to acquire), love, and compassion. But most of all God’s solution requires faith in the truth that God is love and that anything He asks He asks for our good and the good of all. We cannot comprehend an infinite being or His ways so what God offers to us would seem foolish to the natural man. Mankind has scoffed at many ideas due to lack of knowledge and foresight and when their understanding increases it makes sense. Mark Twain once said “When I was 18, I thought my father was the dumbest man in the world. When I turned 21, I was amazed at how much he learned in 3 years”. If you want to talk about what is foolish, think how foolish it would be to limit your actions by someone who is infinitely less intelligent. This is what people are asking of God when they expect salvation to be according to what they want. They would want a religion dressed up so that we could keep our self-image that it has taken years to create. The “foolishness” of God requires you to give up this self-image and to look into the truth that we might be separated from our foolishness and start relying on God by faith.
But if it is foolishness to let a man that died on a cross affect our lives, it is even more foolish to believe that we can really understand an infinite being, to believe it is right to place God in a box and set Him somewhere in the corner of our mind and take Him out every now and then when we want to muse over the problem of our existence. People rely on science for the answers as if this is the best source when in truth science cannot answer any of the meaningful questions of life, the questions of purpose or love or morality or truth. Science is bankrupt when it comes to answers to these questions and to be fair this is not the purpose of science. This is something we impose on science to ease our conscious. Science cannot answer the simplest of questions posed such as how can evolution and entropy both be true? Evolution is based on life becoming more complex without any outside direction (an undirected process) while entropy (one of the 3 laws of thermodynamics) states that any system left to itself will go to a state of greater randomness. You can understand entropy by thinking about the result of a car left out in a field unattended for hundreds of years. It will rust, rot, and generally decay. But if someone directs the car’s care it can last indefinitely. So, how can the theory of evolution state that an undirected process can lead to the most sophisticated entity (man) known to mankind while the law or entropy states that if anything is left undirected it will become less complex? It is foolish to rely on science for the great questions of life for science is based on knowledge and knowledge is not a stable foundation. It changes too quickly according to our latest observations.
Instead of relying on anything in this world God says rely on Me, have faith in Me. I have proved Myself by giving you a great example of My love in allowing My Son to be sacrificed for you and I have done this freely of My own will. God’s foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of all mankind. By giving your heart to Jesus you will have acknowledged that God is so much more than we can ever know and you can start relying on His knowledge and wisdom.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 5
Is God a God of Love?
When Walt Disney created Disneyland in California it was obvious that children were the focus. Today parents pour money into children’s pockets but in Disney’s day children were not a source of revenue to any serious businessman. But Walt Disney loved children. This was seen in his creations from Mickey Mouse to his theme parks. If Walt Disney’s love for children can be so easily seen by his works, think how much more love would be expressed by, say, the creation of the universe? You could say the difference between Walt’s love and God’s love is measured by the size of their creations. But there is more to consider.
So, why do we not see God’s love in all things. Why does God’s creation allow for pain where Disney’s does not? Even Disney’s theme parks have nursing stations in them. Places where if a child skins its knee, it can be tended to. Or if someone got choked on food, or an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Imagine Disney trying to make a park where no one could possibly get hurt. No running, no getting overly excited (children can react irrationally). No concrete to scrape against. No animals or insects to offend. Fencing you could not climb. No trees that could have a limb fall. No overexposure to the sun so open blue sky would be out. But if it would cover all possible scenarios, it would also remove all enjoyment and make it feel like a prison instead of a place of joy and laughter. Life is about choices which gives life the possibility of great beauty and happiness. But it also allows for bad things to happen. Would you bring a child into a world where all its choices were already made? Neither of us would think this was giving that child much of a life. Which one of your children would you tell they could not choose their destiny because you would not have them suffer heartbreak or pain?
So why do we equate God’s love with a world without pain? Could it be we want the beauty of a world with free choices and all the richness it brings to life without any possibility of suffering? Imagine that life without anything bad happening to a person. When you attempt something, you know that you will succeed because if you did not that would make you feel like a failure. If you went rock climbing, no matter what the height, if you fell you would not get hurt. Your life would be orchestrated in order to steer it away from any chance of evil or pain. And if you are believing yourself too moral than to create such a world as we live in, think about this. If God should not have created a world that has a chance of having evil in it, would not we be even more guilty to bring a new life into it. Every mother and father who intended to have children would be as wrong as God, given this assumption. Maybe even more if they believed God was wrong for creating a world where there could be evil.
Man’s legacy is one of pain and suffering and evil. We leave our children with our bad personality traits (self-centered, egotistical, lazy, pleasure loving, low regard for the truth, we encourage our loved ones by example to do the same). We lack a true understanding of right from wrong, and worse, we show no signs of trying to refine this ability. We even try to ignore that part of our selves. Then we blame God for the consequences. We say if there was a God, He would not allow a world like this. But the truth is the only reason we have the ability to enjoy life as it is and not in the straight jacket needed to keep us safe is because God loves us. The only reason we are not held immediately accountable for all the harm we do in ours and others lives is because God loves us and gives us space to change. The only reason for our capacity to love and be loved is because God is Love. Tell me that it is impossible for your parents to love you and still correct you. Tell me that it is impossible for someone to love you and still tell you a hurtful truth you need to hear. Tell a drug addict we can’t help him/her because it might bring them pain. If it is impossible for people to love you and try to help when it requires pain then the world you would create is a world without free will, without being able to choose your own path, whether the path is one of love or of evil.
We will leave you with these thoughts to ponder and a practical definition of love. The Bible says God is love and to know true love in your hearts is to know God. Jesus died for us and has shown just how much God loves us because, apparently, creating the universe was not enough for us.
Definition of Love (practical) – The intent, from which all actions result in the greatest amount of good possible for that given situation. (This definition gives a foundation for living and by its nature requires you to seek God for His knowledge, since God alone has such knowledge.)
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 6
Is God Dead?
Friedrich Nietzsche once said that God is dead. Of course, this is a symbolic statement. To believe that God is dead is to believe He once lived and if God lived then an eternal God as described in the Bible could never die. So apparently Nietzsche was saying the concept of God has outlived its usefulness and is dead. The God the Bible describes is one of love, compassion, longsuffering, forgiveness and of a self-sacrificing nature that is beyond anything man has conceived. The God of the Bible made himself a servant of mankind’s needs for the sake of mankind. If Nietzsche is describing anything else but this, he is not describing God. We are left with two alternatives, either Nietzsche does not have an adequate knowledge of God or he thinks that man has outgrown mankind’s most desirable traits. If Nietzsche is in error as to knowing what the Bible says about God this is amazing from someone touted for his knowledge, that he would make such a statement without learning what every child that attends Sunday school knows. But if it is the latter than Nietzsche is saying that the attributes of God are no longer to be valued. And if God is no longer valued than think of what the consequences are. We are now to give credence to the opposite traits such as greed, self-centeredness, dishonesty, impatience, with no compassion for any and no love that enables us to reach out with a kind word or self-sacrificing action. Is this the new direction for mankind? Is this what is required to usher in a “golden age of enlightenment”? Many philosophers seem to give more thought to how to receive recognition by using shocking statements than to understand the consequences of their actions. Instead of reveling in this thought of a dead deity, you would think that there should be great sorrow for the death of so great a being as God. You would think that one should try to resurrect all the goodness and greatness that God brings with His attributes. But to Nietzsche God is dead. And this death of the divine is a self-serving death. One that replaces all that is thought to be good and holy with a god of self. This is the world mankind is creating. One with none of the higher ideals that most people find to be the only real redeeming qualities man can have. Intellect will not lead us to a true utopia. Knowledge has led us to grander lifestyles but left us bankrupt spiritually. We have a greater life of ease but this has pointed us in the direction of self-interests so that we find it harder to disrupt our life and actually give of ourselves for the sake of others, even the ones we should hold dear. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and even our own children take the back seat to our personal benefit. Knowledge without a good heart to direct it is like a hammer that is swinging wildly about. Occasionally it will hit a nail or two but, in the end, will do much more harm than good.
As to God truly being alive or dead, this is a matter of faith. If I had all the knowledge and evidence to prove without a shadow of doubt God is alive and working in the life of all that will accept Him, God would not allow me to share this with others. Why? It is because no matter how much knowledge or evidence we might have we could never know everything there is to know about God. We are finite creatures made by an infinite God. We are limited by our bodies and minds, could only know small bits and pieces about God and His nature. And if this is true then no matter where our understanding might take us, it will eventually fail us when trying to understand God and His ways. We know from our dealings with others that if you rely solely on what you see, it can lead to great misunderstandings with our loved ones. How many times could we find fault in the deeds in others when in truth we misunderstood. We rely on our faith in our parents, loved ones and even strangers to function properly in society. Faith picks up where our understanding ends. This is why we must approach God in faith. When asked of Jesus “how can we work the works of God?” Jesus’ answer was “This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom God has sent”. God sent His Son that we might know God’s true intent of love and forgiveness to mankind. It requires faith to believe in God because we cannot fully comprehend God. You can start your journey to God by receiving His Son as savior when you ask for forgiveness for being an unbelieving and self-centered creature. We have all said in our heart that God is dead, dead in His dealings with us, dead as an influence in our lives, dead as to our spiritual needs. Saying in your heart that I believe that God is alive and waiting for me to embrace who He is will open your heart to let God be alive in your heart.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 7
Is There a Place Called Hell?
It is an easy assumption that someone that is passing out tracts with reference to Jesus and God would say yes to this question but if I just quoted from the Bible then you would say that this is only biased views of what Christians believe. This is self-referencing information. Let us look at this from a practical view. Of course, if you do not believe in God these statements have no relevance (see the tract “Is God dead?”).
- Most people do not have any problem believing in good and evil, especially the evil. A friend of mine put it this way, “there must be a God because there is no doubt evil exists, so if there is evil there is good (God)”. You can have good and no evil but you cannot have evil without there being good.
- Most people do not have any trouble believing in people being held accountable for their actions.
- If there is a place where there is no evil (heaven) for those who love God (pure good) than given that man has free will and can choose evil or good there must be a place for those who disregard God.
- Most people who do not have a relationship with God think that the punishment is too severe. (a fiery hell)
- Most people who do not have a relationship with God have more of a problem with believing that hell is for eternity than that it exists. Why an infinite punishment for a finite crime?
The Bible speaks in many passages of a place called hell by either name or by description. Jesus mainly referred to hell as a place “… where their worm dies not and the fire is not quenched” Mark 9:46 (worm refers to the physical body). This is not so much an Old Testament teaching but it is found largely throughout the New Testament. The Bible does not tell precisely why there must be a place called hell, that is why there is no other alternative and why it refers to it as endless punishment for the wicked. This seems to conflict with the statement that God is love. To reconcile this problem, we propose a few foundational statements.
- God is love. This requires faith in God which is not conditional on your knowledge base. It must be accepted in faith due to our current and future inability to understand an infinite being.
- God has and is making mankind in His own image as stated in Genesis. We know in Genesis God created the core of mankind differently from the other animals. God breathed into man his core or soul. This implies God gave mankind a part of His inner self. This soul we believe is not able to be destroyed because it came from an eternal being and therefore cannot be destroyed.
- If the soul cannot die and the soul has no love for God then there has to be a place of containment throughout eternity for those souls.
- If the soul cannot die it is energy that cannot diminish which means it must generate energy to account for any lost energy (self-generation). If this is the case then what happens to any energy source that is not allowed to dissipate (contained) is that it gets more energetic (creates heat). This may be a rough idea of something that is infinitely more complex but I believe it illustrates the situation.
Even if statement 4 is not considered it still leaves us with God in a situation where He cannot in love subject those of mankind that are holy, loving, peaceful creatures to the evils of those who reject God and His ways. This is not God ‘getting even’ but dealing with a problem of eternal proportions. God would pick another alternative if it were available just as God would not have let His Son Jesus be crucified if there were any other way. God is love.
As far as whether this is just or not, one would have to consider the way that God has been treated by mankind. He has been ridiculed, ignored, laughed at, crucified, had His words stripped from any meaningful public place, and declared dead. If you do not verbally claim God to be dead, you declare it by your actions. It is not reasonable to think that one truly believes God is alive and yet gives no thought or time to a being who would have such an impact on your eternal well-being. Most people do not have their ideas of God rooted in any type of research or seeking the truth but on bits of information collected here and there. Mostly accepting what concepts meet their needs and not what the Truth reveals. And if you have declared the God of the Bible dead in your heart and actions, what is the sentence for trying to destroy the greatest good in the universe and beyond, in trying to destroy an eternal being, in trying to destroy God, in Deicide? An eternal punishment for trying to destroy an eternal being.
You might say if all this is so why would God use the descriptions He used when He spoke of hell in the New Testament? One has to consider that God is talking to mankind across centuries, to multiple cultures, in different levels of knowledge, different languages, and in different levels of intellect. We have the ability to comprehend more but our actions are still being limited by our self-serving interests. God wants to fulfill your destiny in being made in His image by faith in Him and His love as God demonstrated in Jesus going to the cross that we might have faith in His love. Give yourself to Jesus and start your journey where heaven is your future. Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 8
Land of the Free
What does freedom mean to you? Is it freedom to go where you want? How about if you had to be accountable to some government agency every time you took a trip. Any time you went anywhere you had to tell them when and where you were going, what you were going to do when you got there, what day and time you were coming back, and the route you would take? And if you did not comply there would be severe penalties. If you could go anywhere you wanted under those conditions would you call that freedom? And does freedom only apply to you? If someone else had the constraints listed above and you did not, would you still consider it a free country? Nazi Germany had many German people that would consider themselves free but the Jewish would say that Germany had no freedom. The point is that most people count their freedoms not in absolute terms but according to what they desire to do. If you have no desire to climb mountains and if there was a law against climbing mountains that would not make you feel less free. It is only when we feel opposition to what we want that the noose of oppression is felt. Like a person walking a dog. As long as the dog is wanting to go in the same direction and same speed as its master it does not notice the collar and leash at all. So, are we really free? You may never know if you don’t give it some thought or if you never desire what is not allowed. And is there a limit to freedom?
You might think it strange but the Bible gives the greatest amount of freedom possible and add to this the ultimate freedom to choose your eternal destiny. Think of all the things that mankind does, not just the good things but the bad as well. The Bible clearly states that God can execute judgement on anyone at any time but He doesn’t. Not that God condones the behavior of mankind but He gives us the freedom to be as wicked as we want. God has allowed atrocities throughout history with the last century being more brutal and deadly than all the previous ones combined (160 million dead from govt oppression. This does not include wars). The freedom the Bible speaks about is well beyond what mankind has allowed. We put people in prisons, we make them pay fines, we limit their rights to make them behave as society or government deems is right. You may say, “what about God destroying the earth by flood during Noah’s day or Sodom and Gomorrah?” These appear to be judgements and executions but when you think about what these places were producing this comes out not as judgement but trying to minimize evil. These places were so wicked they were in effect reprobate machines (someone who God can no longer reach). They created new generations where people were beyond God’s call and could not be saved. To destroy them would prevent countless more from filling Hell up with their souls. This does not mean God has set no laws in the universe for mankind to follow or penalties for breaking these laws but nowhere in history has it been indicated that God will ever remove mankind’s freedom. God will never take that freedom from you for it is the gift of free will that every woman, man, and child has. But there are consequences to your choices just as there are in anything you choose. You can choose a bad diet and suffer for it. You can choose to climb a mountain but have to suffer the consequences if you fall. You can choose to do wrong things and give up the ability to do the right thing. If you give up the ability to do the right thing then you give up the ability to go to heaven and there are only two choices, heaven or hell.
So, that leaves us with the question, “If you could do anything you wanted to do but the right thing would it be worth it?” You can take the stance that I want to be able to do anything I desire and God gives you that freedom. But you will never be able to do the right thing until you have given you heart to God. You do not have the power to do good without God. Many people have tried and some have, from outward appearances, succeeded. But until there is a change of heart where you understand what good is, what the source of good is, who God is, you will never have the freedom to do anything but evil. Evil has many more choices than good but they all lead to destruction. Will this mean that you give up your freedom to do the wrong things? No, it means that you will not want to do them anymore and isn’t this true freedom, the freedom to do the right things and the freedom to not do the wrong things? Ask Jesus for forgiveness and let God direct you to where there is true freedom.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 9
The End of Innocence
Sometimes I remember looking at my son as a toddler and looking into his eyes and seeing the expression on his face. I remember the innocence that I could see in his eyes and his whole countenance though, sadly, it has faded long ago. All parents have seen this whether they recognize it or not. All children are born with this innocence. It is something I still remember with awe and wonderment and sometimes deeply miss in my children. I wish I could see this innocence in everyone’s eyes. Where did our innocence go? Why don’t we see it in our friends, family, or even strangers but find it easily in the very young? Look though we might it is not to be found. You might say that it was subjugated by the pain and suffering we have encountered in life, but if this was the whole story then we could reclaim it easily by a better environment. If this was true the rich with their sheltered life would be the most innocent of society but this is usually just the opposite. The truth is that we destroy this innocence ourselves as we grow older. We destroy it through turning life inward towards our desires and removing our sense of wonderment of the world and what goodness is available. But most of all we destroy it when we knowingly follow our desires in spite of what is the good and right thing to do. This knowledge of a higher purpose than ourselves is what the Bible calls the knowledge of good and evil. Most people know of the Biblical account of Adam and Eve and the fruit (usually thought of as an apple) of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Some would say this is a fable but given that it is reflected in our life experience I think that it is God’s message to us. God may have used it as an allegory or it may be historically correct. Either is of no consequence compared to the truth that it conveys. The truth is that somewhere and sometime in each life we lose this innocence. We come to a point where we have to decide whether what I desire is more important than anything. So important that I may find myself lying to others or myself to get what I want. So important that I may find myself stealing to satisfy my lusts. So important that I may disregard others so that I may fulfill my desire. So important that I disregard all truth, all that is good, all that is Holy to live the life I want to live. This is the end of the Innocence.
But this is not the end of the story. We, through God’s efforts, have the ability to reclaim our innocence. God has granted us a gift. A gift of innocence reclaimed. A gift through His Son Jesus. By accepting God’s gift, we acknowledge that there is a good that transcends all our evils, self-centered thoughts and actions. We acknowledge God is love. God is love, not just an example or action or feeling, but pure love. When we embrace God, we embrace the being who through self-sacrifice by living with mankind, serving mankind, and dying for mankind has shown us what it is to be innocent. And this God freely shares with us. God could not be love and not want to share Himself with us. You cannot reclaim the innocence of this life. This is lost forever. But we can begin a new life with God, one that takes the focus off of us and unto the good that God has laid out before us. This is what Jesus meant when He said “you must be born again”. A rebirth with a new innocence, new vantage point and new priorities. Open your heart to God and He will restore that innocence and give you a new beginning. One that, though you encounter heart aches and pain, you may maintain the innocence by maintaining your connection to God and His Son.
Jesus died for our sins.
Tract 10
Who are you?
You do not hear the phrase much anymore, but at one time there were a lot of people “trying to find themselves”. It was important enough to many people that they would give up education, careers, family, and even divorce their spouses and abandon their children to try to feel more fulfilled in life. They would embrace radical lifestyles, join cults that promised awareness, and even try to change their personalities into something that was foreign to their core beliefs. All this to find out who I am. And isn’t this for the most part futile given that we are dynamic and always changing. Who we are today is not who we will be tomorrow. Some, having “found themselves”, put themselves in a box that they think is their identity. Seeking stability, they set rigid parameters and have actually stopped their growth and shut down the natural and supernatural development of finding their true self.
The process of understanding yourself is necessary in your growth as a person and ultimate happiness but it is usually done without thought. The reference points we use are not only invalid but often do not make sense. They are an emotional response rather than a thoughtful effort to bring clarity. These references include social status, economic status, health, looks, personality, associates, and many others. Our self-image is determined mainly by how those around us see us. We try to think of ourselves as impervious to what others think because, this is considered a desirable trait. But the truth is, we do care, which is shown more by our actions than our words. We are taught from a very young age to regard the opinion of others, starting with our parents, into our school years, and throughout our careers. This regard of other’s opinions includes their opinion of us. Another factor is our tendency to compare ourselves with others to determine our self-image. Whatever our position is to those around us, whether rich, poor or in between, those we interface with, we use them to determine our self-worth. Not only is our self-image skewed by these reference points but it keeps you from using valid references in “finding yourself”.
No effort is spent on the basics of finding yourself because that is where we find the more painful aspects. When you stop using illogical parameters, that leaves the things in your life that you are hiding from. Those things in your life that makes you feel uneasy, those secret places in our mind or heart where we do not allow anyone else to go. Those places we only visit in the middle of the night when sleeplessness makes us unable to control our thoughts. Those places where we buried our deepest regrets. The writer can testify that there are things that I did which would crush me if I had to parade them in front of others.
Even if in your life you have not had major issues to deal with, there are things in everyone’s life that brought to light would make us uneasy. It is difficult to think about times when you were not the person you thought you were, you were angry when you did not get your way, you cast down other’s opinions to promote yours, you belittled others. You had thoughts of lust or envy or worse. They may be buried so deep that you cannot recall them anymore but a gnawing feeling tells you they are there. And if there was no social conscience, no external influence to inhibit what you did, would you be the person you believe yourself to be? Given the history of society the resounding answer would be no. And if there were no rose-colored glasses we use to look at ourselves would we be able to cope with who we really are? We take pride in becoming more than what we were, a better person, but if what “a good person” is changes with society, how can we hit a moving target let alone know if society is right. After all, society was wrong in Nazi Germany. And it all boils down to this, given enough time and opportunity without God, we will all degrade into something we would be disgusted by. We can hide the truth from others and even ourselves but not God.
God is more interested in you finding yourself than you are. God wants the best for His creation, to be fulfilled and happy. But to find yourself you must realize the truth about yourself and that is why most people do not like the idea of a personal, interested God who knows yours secrets. God has made a way to confront the truth and re-create a self-image in you that is based on renouncing evil in yourself that would separate you from the ultimate good, God. God alone can provide a standard for what is good. God made a way for you to become one with Him so that you may use His resources, for God alone has the power to do what is truly right. And once you have committed your life to God and doing what is right, then you will have the foundation to know and love who you really are. Jesus died for our sins.