1 Peter 2:21-25
Christ Suffered for Us
21 But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
John 16:33
Troubles in this World
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Isaiah 64:8
The Great Potter
8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud were atheists...Karl Marx said that “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”...And to expand that quote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions...It is the opium of the people.”...Another non-believer, Sigmund Freud said that "Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires."...Freud further added that "If one wishes to form a true estimate of the full grandeur of religion, one must keep in mind what it undertakes to do for men...It gives them information about the source and origin of the universe, it assures them of protection and final happiness amid the changing vicissitudes of life, and it guides their thoughts and motions by means of precepts which are backed by the whole force of its authority."...
Both men thought that man had invented God and religion to get by in life...The two atheists believed, the world is troubled and evil, and mankind looks for ways to make it easier, more comfortable, and more acceptable to him...God and His Son give believers something to cling to in this troubled world...They are almost, and maybe, are saying that religion is a crutch for some believers...Jesus, in talking about troubles in this world, says that we will, in fact, have troubles in this world...
So there is suffering in this world...That is a reality...There is also evil in this world...It is not a perfect world...But suffering and evil do not make God exist or not exist -even though they are many times argued as evidences against God...And these troubles and sufferings, are because of the sin humanity does and struggles with these type issues...Mankind maybe did not need a crutch or an opiate, but they needed something or Someone to save them...God sent us His Son and He was seen by many eyewitnesses...Four gospel writers wrote extensively about Him and His eyewitnesses, and about His Twelve closest followers...Much of the New Testament is about Jesus, if not all of it...The New Testament, as well as the Old Testament for the evidence of God...Four of the greatest pieces of written evidence and believing in God, is the fact that we have the four gospels...But there were many other men both religious and non-religious who wrote about Jesus...Jesus, is in fact, a historical figure...Most historians do believe that fact (that Jesus did exist)...However, some feel that Jesus has become a legend, and maybe His reputation embellished...
The fact that God sent His Son is only one part of God's Plan, albeit a very, very important part...Why certain people believe or do not believe is a matter of faith, hope, love, and belief that the Bible is evidence that these events did happen -and were not made up because of drug of the masses, or a crutch people needed to get beyond the belief of death...
Many of the Christian beliefs are centered on the hope of the birth of a Son...A Son who would be abandoned, arrested, and killed on a cross...A Son who would die for each of us and the sins we have committed and will commit...He knows that man is not perfect, but somehow He was...The Christian sees that Jesus and His Son are (perfect)...Our faiths, our hopes, our prayers to Him are not with pomp and circumstance, but with the cries of thank you Father, I know now that I am broken, and only the Great Potter's hand can fix what I have broken...If God exists wouldn't He want to make us more comfortable?...Wouldn't He want as a Father to protect us?...Wouldn't He want to give us happiness, an eternal happiness, a final happiness?...