What difference does belief in a Personal God make in our everyday lives? Practicing Christianity over atheism is more logical in the case of an afterlife because if Christianity is true the Christian has everything to gain, but if it is false, nothing to lose. On the other hand, the atheist has nothing to gain if atheism is true, but everything to lose if it is wrong. This argument is not very satisfying and has little influence on a generation of young people who will not even let the danger of AIDS cutting their life short influence their behavior.

If one believes the physical world limited to the scientific principles of cause and effect comprises all of reality, then the personal freedom to choose is only an illusion. Behavioral psychology proposes exactly this. A person’s behavior is the product of genetics and conditioning rather than personal choice and responsibility. However, if this is the case, what is the point to life? Why is such a predetermined life worth living?

Believing in an all-powerful, all-seeing, and all-knowing God, who has completely determined the course of history may sound the same as the above. This is because we are still putting the same limitations on reality, especially when we try to limit God to what our own mind can comprehend. However, God values a person’s mind with its thoughts, desires, and motives more than external behavior and circumstances.

Free thought and choice only exist because God values and preserves it. Even though people allow their desires to enslave them, God has still made the provision to set us free. An irony in life is that we do not find freedom to control our destiny by allowing our personal desires to control us. We find freedom in submitting our lives to God. He not only provided the means of freedom through His Son, but His Son also gave us an example of how to live our lives.

How to receive a new life in Christ.

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