Dear fellow searchers..
     I know that there are many of you out there struggling with the
question of just how much right God has to put us in the predicament we're
in.. and how many of you are so much in objection to this state that you
prefer to believe in a completely different reality.. where your God
requires nothing of you to survive this life and live in the eternally
perfect next one.  Truthfully, this is not the case.  I myself have
struggled greatly with the reasoning behind why God has placed us in our
current predicament.  And though I have found some of the answers, I am
quite sure they will leave some of you searching for more.
     First off, we come to the rights of God.  God has every right to spell
out just what He requires for us to receive eternal life.  And though many
believe that God should require nothing of us, and merely give us eternal
life regardless of how we live this temporal life, God has slightly higher
standards than this.
     In the times of the Old Testament, God's people were those who followed
His ways, and lived according to His precepts.  And though we are not truly
given what those precepts were in the times before Moses, we can see the
results of not living according to them -- as in the case of the whole world
dying besides Noah and his family.  God had the right to condemn all flesh
to die.. and He did just that.  Many of you might figure this is rather
harsh and unforgiving.. yet what else are you supposed to do with a stiff-
necked people who live according to their own definition of moralism and not
true moralistic life.  God became weary of how far away his creation had
fallen and ran away from Him.  After all, they had free will.. and He was
not about to take that away from them.  Yet, they refused to live by His
standards -- standards which would lead to life and peace.  So, in His
anger, He killed off the entire population of the planet except for Noah's
family -- which, again, He had the right to do -- it being His creation.
However, He also promised after doing so that He would never do it again --
and still today, rainbows mark that promise He made to Noah, and the rest of
us.
     Later on in Old Testament times, God called Abraham out of the land of
his fathers to become the progenitor of His people.  As to why He called
Abraham (then called Abram) I am quite uncertain, as the Bible seems to
leave that to speculation, but He did.  And from His seed came the entirety
of the Jewish population.  Yet this was not the end of God's dissatisfaction
with His people.  Now He had His own people -- who He set apart from the
rest of the world, and would use as a light unto the world to direct them..
however, they, too, refused to listen to God.  They refused to trust in His
hand and provision.  They lived in ways contrary to His direction -- ways
which brought derision and difficulty.  
     Something which must be said, is the importance of the difference
between perfect life and Godly life.  Many of you out there will undoubtedly
be objecting to God demanding us to live a holy life when we cannot.  Yet as
we can read in the Bible, though all men are sinners, not all of them lived
in ways which adamantly displeased God.  The Bible tells of the many who
lived in ways which more or less pleased God -- Job for instance -- and how,
though they were imperfect, they obtained His favor.  Yet back then, it
seemed that only Jews were shined on by God -- though there are references
to other people and kings such as Nebuchadnezzer who may have indeed turned
to live under God's direction and, in effect, become Jews -- forsaking their
own gods and ways for Him and His.
     This said, we return to the stiff-necked Jews who wanted to live as the
people who God was throwing out were living -- in ways which were contrary
to His nature:  worshipping other gods, engaging in sexual practices other
than those condoned by God, and other directions which invoked His wrath.
Thus, the Lord became tired of calling out to them to live as He had
desired, and let them fall into more and more sin, and away from Him.  
     Yet this was not the end of the curse which God placed on His people.
It seems that due to their unrepentant hearts, God stopped up their ears and
blinded their eyes to the culmination of His second, and current covenant.
This one was based not on the continued suffering of animals as sacrifices
for the sins of His people, but the eternal and perfect sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, God's own Son.  With Jesus' Blood now available to cleanse virtually
all sins from the Earth, a relationship with God beyond what any man, save
Jesus, Himself, had experienced, was now available.  And all one had to do
to begin this relationship was to acknowledge the truth that Jesus was God's
Son and that He died for sin and was raised from the dead.  Yet to continue
in God's goodness, one also had to yield to His Son as one's own Lord --
meaning that whatever Jesus desired of a person, they were bound to do, as
servants would be to their master.  Unfortunately for the Jews, many of
them, today and in the times of Jesus, did not see Him as the actual Messiah
whom God had promised -- even though He fulfilled every single prophecy made
of Him in the Scriptures.  And they refused then, and now, to acknowledge
Him as such.  Yet since this was the only way to obtain righteousness and be
restored to relationship with God, these many blind Jews will find
themselves in the fires come Judgement day -- simply because they refused to
acknowledge the Savior whom God sent them.
     Yet this curse is not only for Jews.  Today, in the day of God's second
covenant, all people who desire eternal life with God must do the same --
acknowledging Jesus as the risen Son of God and Lord of their lives.
Without that acknowledgment and change of life, there is no way to obtain
the eternal life which God has planned for those who listen to His call.  
     Many people these days believe this is completely unfair.  After all,
who are we to know that Jesus is the Son of God?  How can we be sure that He
died and rose from the dead?  And how are we to know just what He requires
of us?  Truthfully, one great difficulty which traps many people is the lack
of empircal evidence to prove Jesus' Sonship.  However, God has made it this
way -- without empircal proof -- so that any of us can believe.. not by a
measuring which proves or disproves Jesus' Sonship, but by faith -- the
determined holding-onto of the truth of His identity not by proof, but by
trust alone.  This requirement of trust seems to catch most people off
guard.  So many refuse to trust in His identity without proof, that they
will end up losing out come Judgement day.  Unfortunately this is not like
losing a videogame or tennis match, for the price is far higher.  
     For reasons I don't quite understand, God has decided that those who
refuse to acknowledge His Son and walk in His ways should burn eternally.
Granted, it is easy enough to acknowledge something by faith.  It requires a
good leap at first, but all of us can do it.  After all, when we were
children, we took our parents' word for things until we were sighted or
educated enough to see them for ourselves.  In the same way, we need to take
God's word as the truth, and believe that Jesus *is* in fact *THE* Son of
God.  
     Perhaps the reason He is sending those who refuse to acknowledge His
Son lies in the hearts of those who do just that.  Perhaps it is our own
evil-heartedness which leads us to a life which refuses to acknoweldge by
faith that Jesus is who He claims to be.  And perhaps then, God is quite
justified in sending those in His creation who refuse to acknowledge the
truth, for they have been so covetous of evil in their hearts that they
simply cannot see the truth.
     Granted, no matter what the answer is, God *is* justified in doing
whatever He does with His creation.  Something which many of us refuse to
acknowledge is His power over His creation.  He is above us all, and has
every right to do with His creation as He desires.  He has the right to set
standards by which we should live, and other standards by which we might
gain an eternal life absent of pain or sorrow in any form.  Yet beyond this,
we must also realize one very important thing.  God is not just some kiljoy
out there who is sending ultimate billions to Hell on His whim.  God is the
most loving being in existence.  He created us.  And those of us who refuse
to be thankful for being created, or for the countless ways He supports us
every day, from the food we eat to the air we breathe to the friends we have
to you name it, may end up with His wrath on our hands.  God, in His
infinite wisdom and love, decided to create us -- many believe it was for
fellowship -- I myself do not know the actual reasons why He created man,
but I do know that He deserves thanks from each and every one of us for our
own existence.  I mean, something many refuse to take a gander at, is just
what life might be like if God were not out there helping us through life.
Granted, God works in the unseen areas of life, and so many speculate that
God really does nothing, and that we do it all on our own.  Yet as many
Christians have realized, He is there helping each and every one of us
through our lives -- in ways which are countless and gracious beyond belief.
     I know that I don't have all the answers that many of you are searching
for, but maybe this little essay might help you to see one very important
thing:  God and Jesus are out there watching us and we shall be judged by
their standards whether we like it or not.  The standards, whether they seem
fair or not, are unchangeable -- and those of us who refuse to live by them
will undoubtedly encounter God's wrath.  And though I, myself, do not
completely understand the love of God, and even have great difficulty
perceiving it at times (perhaps this should simply be a faith and trust
issue) I know it's there and I know it's real.  Please, before it's too
late, give Him a chance.  You won't regret it if you do.