The following is a bit lengthy, so if you don't have the time or patience at this moment to read through it all, maybe come back to this message a little later. lol. Also, please don't nitpick specific details, at least not until you've read the whole thing. Sure, if you have questions afterward, feel free to ask but don't let one unknown subtract from the whole message.

I do believe that personal faith in a higher being of authority and control IS necessary to the furtherment and stability of mankind. Why? Because we're living in a world that is constantly pushing the idea that morality is a personal issue. I disagree so much with that. If morality is a personal choice and is based on personal opinion then anything can be interpreted in any way. There would be no black and white issues, only grey.

If there is no central morality, no absolute truth behind morality, then any monster can be excused of their actions.

"What you see as wrong, I see as acceptable." That line of thinking cannot be allowed to continue development. It's easy to say that in certain areas of the law that there should be a certain level of "grey", but with that thinking in mind it can and WILL eventually spill over to other aspects of law. I believe in the law, but not laws made of man.

I agree with you when you say that God is not something that we can understand. This is also why I believe that He has chosen to reveal Himself to us through the bible. If we were created by all all knowing being, why would he make us (as humanity) and not wish to be a part of our existence? That just does not make sense to me and it bothers me that so many people are willing to accept a greater creative force in the universe without taking it to the next level. A painter does not create a painting and not look at it, a writer does not write something and not read it. It is impossible for a creator to create something and not interact with it in some form.

So why do I believe that a book like the bible is God's speech to humanity? Because in the bible there is absolute truth and absolute morality. The bible does not have "grey areas" DESPITE what many modern psychologists and critics of it say. To understand the bible you must look at it with the same eyes that it was written. Meaning: in the original language and contexts, in regards to the people it was written for.

Yes, originally the old testament was written for the Jews. The bible introduces them to many laws and structures for life. We see the results of this in modern day Jewish culture in the middle east - religious fervor and zealots. People so concerned with the letter of the law that they totally forget the spirit of the law.

You've probably heard before the saying that God is love, if not, I just introduced you to it. The law, as written by Moses and directed by God, was NOT written as a list of do's and don'ts. It was written so that people would know that which is wrong and so they could know that which is right. The original ten commandments are NOT unreasonable.

ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' - If God truly did reveal Himself to us then this law makes perfect sense. He does not want us to be confused by worldly and man made deities.

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.' - God does not want us to worship and put our sole attention into creations because a creation cannot love.

THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' - God demands respect, and I think that if He truly did create existence as we know it, that respect is well earned.

FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' - This law is another aspect of His love. If God truly did create the world, the time in which He "rested" (actual definitions don't mean to literally "sit back and relax" or "sleep") simply means that He enjoyed His creation. This does not mean He marveled at it, it means He took pleasure in mankind. And no, I do not mean a sexual pleasure; it's more akin to watching your child play at the park. There is a podcast i can direct you to that talks a lot about this.

FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' - This simply means give credit where credit is due. Whether or not you LIKE your parents is irrelevant; if they had not gotten together, YOU would not exist. This is often seen as a "grey area" for people because our generation frankly, had bad parents. (Not saying YOURS are or MINE are, just in general) It's very easy to not respect someone if you don't like them, God is simply saying that you need to honour them because your very life came FROM them.

SIX: 'You shall not murder.' - This one seems pretty self explanatory.

SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' - If you commit yourself to someone, the only, and ultimate, way to show them love is to remain faithful to them.

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' - Again, pretty self explanatory.

NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.' - Don't lie.

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.' - This one is also another "grey area" for some people. What it is saying is that you shouldn't envy someone else's possessions. If God created and provided for every man on earth, He can provide for you too. Basically, don't put stock into someone's own personal wealth or possessions because it distracts you from more important things in life and the whole "keeping up with the Jones's" sort of thinking is more damaging than anything.

The law eventually grew more and more technical because the first people it was kept under kept defying the simpleness and plainness of it with the same mentality that is presented in the first chapter with Satan asking Eve "Did God REALLY say that?". The technicalities people kept seeking eventually meant that the law had to grow more complex and more expansive to cover every possible contingency. This is NOT saying that God's original law wasn't perfect and followable, it is saying that men tried to find ways to corrupt it so more specific laws HAD to be introduced.

This is MUCH like our world today. Have you ever seen a law book? It's massive. This is also why lawyers exist because there's so many laws out there that we NEED people specially trained and professed in the law to explain what is "legally right".

This is also why the middle east is so chaotic. The Jewish people are so caught up in legality that they can hardly see the world without the lens of the law.

This incessant legality and obsessive focus on legality is also the reason that Jesus was/is needed. Putting aside any personal beliefs regarding Him, please just understand that I am giving you the information as I (a broken and fallible boy) understand it. I may not have all the answers, but I do not try to speak without having SOME knowledge of what I'm talking about. These are all issues that I myself struggled with before becoming a Christian and as a new Christian.

Jesus exists as a reminder to the world of the character, love, and strength of God. The law was born out of love for mankind and to serve as a guideline to simply living with each other. That law became convoluted and misdirected through mankind's love of finding loopholes and creating technicalities. The law also showcased that there is a consequence of sin: that consequence is death. While it is true that God is love, He is also a pure entity, devoid of the blemishes of mankind. Everything that makes our world so screwed up is not from God, but from our own messed up hearts. Quite simply, we cannot mix with Him. A hard fact if God did indeed create us, going back to the fact that a creator of something desires to interact with His creation.

Jesus came to carry the burden of sin. In plain terms: He had to live a blameless and perfect life not only according to the laws presented by God but with the same spirit of love that God carries. Men cannot do these things. We simply cannot, it's not in our nature. This is why Jesus is both fully man, and fully God. God loves mankind so much that He HAD to give us a way to be with Him. His love is so desperate for us, His creations, that the only way He could carry the burden of sin was to become a man and live among us. No easy thing to accept, I understand. But if God can create the universe and time and stars and planets and life itself, then God can become a part of that created life. If God created an infinite universe then He himself must be infinite. And if God is infinite, then God can be fully man and fully God.

So Jesus lived among us, taught us about Himself, then was tortured, beaten, and finally killed in the most excruciating and painful way to die in that era of man. The reason? If He was to carry the burden of sin for the world, then He needed to be totally and utterly crushed. Under the weight of the law, we cannot ever hope to draw near to God. The law was created so we could bear living with each other and it was made to perpetuate the love of God. If God is the pure source of life in the universe, wholly holy and free from blemish, then we cannot be near Him, which is what He wants for us. As the Creator, He desires to interact with us. He can't do that if even the smallest sin is committed. Why? Because a pure thing cannot be pure if a blemish is allowed near and into it.

So every tiny wrongdoing we commit, every single little thing becomes a blemish on ourselves. For God to remain pure and unblemished, we cannot be allowed near or into Him. A total flip of what He wants as Creator. So every little thing must be accounted for and every little sin must be punished. This is why Jesus was killed in such a brutal way.

He was murdered so that we could draw near to God.

I say murdered because if Jesus was fully God and fully man, then He WAS able to walk blameless through His entire life and He WAS able to carry the burden of sin as no man on earth could. A blameless man being sentenced to death by the law is murder.

But this was all so that we, as humanity, could put faith in Him as God.

John 3:16 states that "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only begotten Son so that those who believe in Him could have life everlasting."

The punishment of sin is death and we cannot be allowed near God with ANY blemish on our souls. There is NO man, woman, or child alive that can claim to have lived blameless, not by the law of God. If God created the law, and God is limitless, infinite, then His law would have to be perfect and just. If God is real and if He created the universe, then there must be ultimate truth and morality. There must be ONLY blacks and whites with NO areas of grey, as much as we try to make everything grey to alleviate our own feelings of disagreement. I say that there must ONLY be blacks and whites because if God is pure then what isn't 100% pure cannot be allowed near Him, otherwise He would NOT be pure. If something cannot be allowed near a pure thing then that thing is not pure.

Blacks and whites, no greys.

I believe that we need to seek ultimate truths and ultimate morality because I believe that they exist. I see no other reason to discover something other than the fact that it exists, which is one of the guiding principles behind science, the apparent enemy of God. If we don't seek out truth just because we don't know if we can handle it, then we fail as humanity