Millions of people throughout the world believe in a God who knows each of us individually and loves us. He gave us commandments to follow and Prophets who received instructions from Him to teach us his will. His promise to us was very simple. Keep his commandments and we have a glorious resurrection and will be in the presence of God in a glorious hereafter. All of the Prophets in the Old Testament taught the people that a Messiah would be born to be sacrificed to pay for our sins. Why was this necessary? We are taught in the scriptures that no unclean person can enter into Heaven. We are also taught that all of us will sin which makes us unclean and not eligible to enter heaven. Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten, was a perfect man which means he always did the will of the father. Because he had no sins and was willing to sacrifice his life for our sins and allow us to enter Heaven, God accepted his offering that he suffer for our sins so we would be able to dwell with Gid in a glorious existence. Jesus being willing to die for our sins is not the end of the story.
Jesus taught that in order to enter this Heavenly Kingdom some things were required of us. First we would have to have faith and acknowledge him as the Savior and the Son of God. Then we would have to recognize we had broken the commandments of God and seek his forgiveness and seek forgiveness of those we had caused harm to. Then the next step is baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost to guide us in our quest for perfection. After that the story is not over. Being imperfect we will commit sin but if we ask forgiveness and commit to keeping the commandments we will still be on the path to God because of Jesus paying for our sins. All Christians are familiar with the Ten Commandments:
- Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
- Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy.
- Honor thy father and thy mother.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
- Thou shalt not covet.
These commandments either pertain to our relationship to God or our fellowmen. Jesus was once asked what is the greatest commandment in the law? He answered the first was to love God with all our might. Then he went on to say the second was like unto it that he should love our neighbor as ourselves. The Ten Commandments and the two Jesus added were designed to bring us happiness. If we keep God’s comandments we not only receive eternal life but have the love and respect of our family and friends in this life.
Let’s examine how religious people fare in life compared to those who do not consider themselves religious. A 2016 Pew Research Center found that people who consider themselves highly religious are more engaged with their extended family, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and are generally happier with the way things are going in their lives.
The definition of highly religious is people who pray daily and attend church once a week. They gather with family once a month compared with the people who consider themselves less religious, only 30 percent of whom gather with extended family monthly. Sixty five per cent of the highly religious donated either time or money to the poor in the past week compared to 41 percent to the less religious. Forty percent of the religious consider themselves very happy compared to twenty nine percent of the less religious. These results are persistent when considering age, income, education, geographic region, martial or parental status.
Among Christians 86% say that belief in God is essential to their Christian Faith. Other things considered are being grateful for what they have, forgiving those who have wronged them 69% and being honest 67%. Can you see how the Ten Commandments and Christ’s teachings on loving God and your fellow man benefits believers and society in general? Would you prefer living in a highly religious society or in a Godless Society like China? It would appear that from the Pew Research that the highly religious are happier and are more concerned about their fellow man than the non-religious society.
In recent years increasing numbers of people are no longer involved in religion. This is what was prophesied would happen in the last days before the return of the Savior. In the generation I grew up in I would never have guessed that the Ungodly act killing of unborn babies would not only be legalized but an acceptable social practice. Many people are turning away from God and the positive influences religion is in our society. Religious belief and the practice of it contributes to personal moral criteria and sound judgement. Those who practice such have less social problems such as suicide, drug abuse, out of wedlock births crime and divorce. In spite of all the benefits of practicing Christianity many choose to turn from God to their own detriment.
This is an opinion blog for Conservatives and People of Faith.