Molly said, "Everlasting life on earth is dependent upon obedience to God". Do you understand that this is calling Jesus and God a liar?
How is this calling Jesus and God a liar?
What was God's first purpose in placing material creatures on a material earth in a material universe? Did he mention death as a natural event in human life? Do you see a lifespan mentioned to Adam and Eve?
Does death ever feel "normal" to you? We fight it because it was never meant to happen.
Death is not even mentioned in Eden
except as a punishment for disobedience.
Do the math.....no disobedience would have meant NO DEATH.
There was a 'tree of life' in the garden as well as the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. There was a prohibition on only one of those trees originally.
The 'tree of life' was there to ensure that mortal humans could live forever in the flesh. This is backed up by what Yahweh said in Gen 3:22....
"Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”
After the fall of man, God went to great lengths to make sure that no one could access that tree of life again. (Gen 3:23) These trees are not mentioned again until after the establishment of God's Kingdom in John's revelation. (Rev 22:1-3)
Molly said, "Those who want to paint God as a fiendish torturer of the wicked". What about God's glory, justice? Molly!!!!!!
God's purpose to have an earth filled with righteous children who would praise him in the physical realm will yet be realized.
When Adam and Eve were first created, there was no need of a savior; no need for a redeemer; no need for a kingdom. God was ruler in the world of mankind and it would have stayed that way if only the first humans had not succumbed to temptation. The services of the Christ were not needed until they had lost their perfection by becoming deliberately sinful. They had no sin nature to blame for their course. Both knew what the penalty was and both chose to disobey anyway.
It was an expression of
God's grace that he sent Jesus to earth to pay the ransom for Adam's children. Adam and his wife were sentenced to death with no prospects of living again. There is not one single expression of remorse by them recorded in the Bible, nor even a sacrifice offered for their sin. There was no grounds on which to forgive them. They died and went back to the dust... that is what God said to Adam. (Gen 3:19) No afterlife of any description is mentioned for them. They will never be seen again.
God's justice demanded "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life" Jesus ' perfect life was the corresponding ransom price for Adam's perfect life. That is why he had to come to earth and be born as a human child.
Without Jesus' 'perfect life' being laid down for us, mankind would have no hope of escaping the cycle of life and death that Adam's sin plunged us into. (Rom 5:12)
By laying down his life, Christ was able to take the sins of Adam's children out of existence and put them back on the road to everlasting life.....this is what Adam threw away. Jesus came to get it back for us.
The way God has dealt with rebellion, both in the spirit realm and the earthly one, will set precedents for all eternity. No rebel will be able to interfere with God's purpose ever again. The lake of fire remains forever as the receptacle for any, in heaven or on earth, who are foolish enough to disobey.
The outworking of God's plans for earth and its inhabitants is what will bring praise and honor and glory to the Most High. His first purpose will be realized and he can then get on with the next phase of his purpose...whatever that may prove to be.
It's a big universe.
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