Knowing God is a spiritual awakening; for we, as humans, are born in this world, outside of the spiritual realm of God, and alienated from Him, yet we are also born with a spiritual nature.
From our birth and as young children, we begin to see and hear from this physical world in which we are born, but we have no understanding of spiritual matters. Parents, however, can begin to dump the things they know in the minds of their children because they want their children to believe in the things that they believe because they want their children to be like them---while expecting their children to "get it". But they do not get it. They simply adhere to the teachings of their parents because other choices have not been made available unto them.
For even this world in which we are born is a strange land for us, as babies, for we have not been here before! Therefore, we must be taught by others about this strange land, which begins with basic survival such as learning to eat food and drink water, or how to stay warm in the cold of night, or how to stay cool during the heat of day, or how to defend ourselves and our possessions from thieves and robbers and even murderers.
Concerning spiritual matters, however, young children have no understanding because their brains have not developed to where they can make choices for themselves.
Neither are we born as seekers of God. Therefore, God, is an alien to us at birth, perhaps better understood as a stranger. For how can a young child understand the invisibility of God when he can say no more than "da da" or "ma ma"? or when he has no understanding of safe water from poison water? or that a lion is a raging beast instead of a playful kitten?
As long as a child lives within the shell of his childhood teaching, he will not know God, nor the knowledge of God, unless his parents know God, or unless he hears about God from another source outside of his normal existence. So then, the Word of the Lord must come to him, within his shell, for him to ever know about God.
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher." (Romans 10: 14)
A religious mind, on the other hand, is a world of spiritual insanity, for it is a world of spiritual darkness where the light of Christ does not dwell, nor the knowledge of God. For the Word of the Lord must be received by the person within his shell in order for him to know Christ and to come out of his shell, which is to come out of spiritual darkness. But if the Word of the Lord is rejected, he will remain within his shell and living within his world of spiritual darkness, thereby choosing to live with a childlike mind all the days of his life.
Again, consider Cain, the first-born son of Adam and Eve, for Cain rejected God and chose to live his life in a shell of darkness, doing the will of Satan instead of doing the will of God. Not only did Cain choose this life for himself, he also taught his children to follow him.
Religion is a spiritual drunk, administered in small doses, beginning in the early childhood development of young children. Some people recover from religion's intoxicating slavery through Christ, and some people never do: choosing instead to live their lives like Cain while teaching their children to do likewise.
This, then, is the danger of the deception of Satan hidden within religion, thereby keeping the knowledge of God through Christ from reaching the minds of people, who remain tucked away in their shells of darkness, for fear of the light of Christ: for fear that God is out to get them instead of to save them from their sins: thus believing that God is their enemy instead of their friend.
As a result, they withdraw deeper and deeper within their shells, locking the doors behind them---while believing that their priests and their idols and images of gods will protect them and then deliver them to a place called heaven, or to a paradise, or to a utopia, or even to a New Atlantis!---while believing that their children will arrive to be with them, and where all of them will be one big and happy family again on the other side of the grave.
The story of Cain and Cain's family is a sad story. But Cain made his choice and his children and his future descendants made the same choice of father Cain.
This story of Cain, however, has been repeated millions of times throughout human history as other families have believed as Cain believed. For as people reject God and the knowledge of God, they accept a life without God, a life of spiritual darkness. And because they reject God they will also receive the consequences of their decisions, including a place called hell.
Because they do not want God in this life, neither do they want a future with God in heaven. For if they believe they can get along without God while living, then they will also believe they can get along without God after death.
Because they believe that their lives today is no more than a big party, they will also believe that hell will be a place where they will party with their friends. In their minds, as it is in this world, so will it be in hell.
Even today, millions of fathers are like Cain because, like Cain, they have rejected Christ and have chosen to either believe in nothing, or to believe in themselves, or to believe in a religion, or to believe in whatever their fathers have taught them to believe. And by their rejection of Christ, they have also rejected the knowledge of God.
Without Christ and the knowledge of God, my life today would be no more than a fish on the beach, floundering in the sand. And had the Word of the Lord not come to me, while I was living in my shell of darkness, I would have continued to live my life on the beach and die in the sand.
Without Christ and the knowledge of God, I would have continued to live my life like Cain, and my life beyond death would be in the same place with Cain.
Therefore, I am thankful to God for my salvation through Christ because my story is not the same as the story of Cain.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
From our birth and as young children, we begin to see and hear from this physical world in which we are born, but we have no understanding of spiritual matters. Parents, however, can begin to dump the things they know in the minds of their children because they want their children to believe in the things that they believe because they want their children to be like them---while expecting their children to "get it". But they do not get it. They simply adhere to the teachings of their parents because other choices have not been made available unto them.
For even this world in which we are born is a strange land for us, as babies, for we have not been here before! Therefore, we must be taught by others about this strange land, which begins with basic survival such as learning to eat food and drink water, or how to stay warm in the cold of night, or how to stay cool during the heat of day, or how to defend ourselves and our possessions from thieves and robbers and even murderers.
Concerning spiritual matters, however, young children have no understanding because their brains have not developed to where they can make choices for themselves.
Neither are we born as seekers of God. Therefore, God, is an alien to us at birth, perhaps better understood as a stranger. For how can a young child understand the invisibility of God when he can say no more than "da da" or "ma ma"? or when he has no understanding of safe water from poison water? or that a lion is a raging beast instead of a playful kitten?
As long as a child lives within the shell of his childhood teaching, he will not know God, nor the knowledge of God, unless his parents know God, or unless he hears about God from another source outside of his normal existence. So then, the Word of the Lord must come to him, within his shell, for him to ever know about God.
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher." (Romans 10: 14)
A religious mind, on the other hand, is a world of spiritual insanity, for it is a world of spiritual darkness where the light of Christ does not dwell, nor the knowledge of God. For the Word of the Lord must be received by the person within his shell in order for him to know Christ and to come out of his shell, which is to come out of spiritual darkness. But if the Word of the Lord is rejected, he will remain within his shell and living within his world of spiritual darkness, thereby choosing to live with a childlike mind all the days of his life.
Again, consider Cain, the first-born son of Adam and Eve, for Cain rejected God and chose to live his life in a shell of darkness, doing the will of Satan instead of doing the will of God. Not only did Cain choose this life for himself, he also taught his children to follow him.
Religion is a spiritual drunk, administered in small doses, beginning in the early childhood development of young children. Some people recover from religion's intoxicating slavery through Christ, and some people never do: choosing instead to live their lives like Cain while teaching their children to do likewise.
This, then, is the danger of the deception of Satan hidden within religion, thereby keeping the knowledge of God through Christ from reaching the minds of people, who remain tucked away in their shells of darkness, for fear of the light of Christ: for fear that God is out to get them instead of to save them from their sins: thus believing that God is their enemy instead of their friend.
As a result, they withdraw deeper and deeper within their shells, locking the doors behind them---while believing that their priests and their idols and images of gods will protect them and then deliver them to a place called heaven, or to a paradise, or to a utopia, or even to a New Atlantis!---while believing that their children will arrive to be with them, and where all of them will be one big and happy family again on the other side of the grave.
The story of Cain and Cain's family is a sad story. But Cain made his choice and his children and his future descendants made the same choice of father Cain.
This story of Cain, however, has been repeated millions of times throughout human history as other families have believed as Cain believed. For as people reject God and the knowledge of God, they accept a life without God, a life of spiritual darkness. And because they reject God they will also receive the consequences of their decisions, including a place called hell.
Because they do not want God in this life, neither do they want a future with God in heaven. For if they believe they can get along without God while living, then they will also believe they can get along without God after death.
Because they believe that their lives today is no more than a big party, they will also believe that hell will be a place where they will party with their friends. In their minds, as it is in this world, so will it be in hell.
Even today, millions of fathers are like Cain because, like Cain, they have rejected Christ and have chosen to either believe in nothing, or to believe in themselves, or to believe in a religion, or to believe in whatever their fathers have taught them to believe. And by their rejection of Christ, they have also rejected the knowledge of God.
Without Christ and the knowledge of God, my life today would be no more than a fish on the beach, floundering in the sand. And had the Word of the Lord not come to me, while I was living in my shell of darkness, I would have continued to live my life on the beach and die in the sand.
Without Christ and the knowledge of God, I would have continued to live my life like Cain, and my life beyond death would be in the same place with Cain.
Therefore, I am thankful to God for my salvation through Christ because my story is not the same as the story of Cain.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)
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