Join the Resistance

Join the resistance to fight evil.

A War greater than any we’ve fought in all of human history is upon us. It has been the unspoken driving force of every war, the motivation behind every murder and the reason for every individual act of injustice. It is an individual war fought in your mind and in your heart. The War is every person’s choice to do right or wrong. Which side are you on?

We’ve become so used to living in a corrupt and evil world that even the thought of a solution seems cynical to us. Surely, the world is so bad we can only put out the smallest fires with the occasional political campaign or humanitarian organization. But we quickly dismiss an ultimate end to all the evil in the world as impossible, except in the imaginations of naive dreamers. But there is a solution.

The solution

There is an underground resistance dedicated to ending all suffering, injustice and evil. The members of the resistance are not soldiers, but ordinary people. Their battle strategy is not to fight, but to rescue their enemy one by one. The resistance is God’s solution to the problem of evil.

There was a time when the world was not as corrupt as it is now. When God created the world, He created it perfect and called His creation “Very Good” (Genesis 1:31). There was no suffering, death or evil. None of those things existed until the first man, Adam committed the first act of disobedience against God.

Only One Law

God gave Adam one law- not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God warned Adam that the day he ate of the tree, he would die. But Adam disobeyed, and the price for his disobedience was death. It was an all or nothing deal.

God’s standard is perfection and when Adam disobeyed God, he lost his perfection. God withdrew himself from the world, and his life-sustaining power left with him. Without God’s life-sustaining power, every living thing began to die.

Why didn’t God intervene?

But hang on a minute. How could God have allowed the disobedience of Adam to happen? If God is all-powerful and the source of all goodness, wouldn’t he have known what Adam would choose? If God knew that one man’s disobedience would cause the suffering and death of every living person who was yet to come, why didn’t he prevent such tragedy? The answer is that God wanted us to have free will and learn how to exercise it.

Think about it this way. If God did not want Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, why didn’t he put a fence around it? Why put the tree in the garden at all? God could have made it impossible for Adam to be disobedient, but if he did, it would have destroyed Adam’s free will. If Adam had no choice but to have fellowship with God, his love for God would be artificial. It would be like claiming your son is your favorite child when he happens to be your only child, or pulling the string on a doll that can only say “I love you”. God valued Adam’s free will because he wanted Adam to freely choose to love God. The tree represented more than just fruit that God didn’t want Adam to eat. The tree was Adam’s way out if he no longer wanted his relationship with God. To the shame of the human race, Adam chose that way out.

How we got into the situation we are in.

That’s how we ended up here. We’re all born into a world where we have to compete and fight over limited resources. We’re all born with selfish instincts that compel us to seek our own wellbeing, even at the expense of others and we have to fight against these instincts every day. Those that lose the fight and give in to their selfishness become criminals that take what they want because they value objects more than the lives of the people they take from.

Most people who see the world in this corrupt condition wonder why God doesn’t do something. They wonder why the almighty God can’t snap his fingers and fix the world. But they haven’t considered just how high this perfect God’s standards are. His standard is perfection. If God snapped his fingers and removed everyone who was less than perfect, who would be left? You see, we have a serious problem because one day, God will do just that.

Giving an account for our life.

The bible tells us that at the end of the world, every person will stand before God and give an account of how they lived their lives. Too often, people think that just means God will judge the actions we have physically done. But Jesus said, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36). Another scripture says, “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.” (Psalms 94:11). That means God will judge not only our actions, but also our words and our thoughts.

The condemnation of our heart.

Jesus raised the stakes when he told us, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28). We sin against God with our thoughts because our thoughts are evidence that our heart desires to do evil things even if our self control prevents us from doing them. For God, the condition of our hearts is what condemns us, and according to God’s law, we are all guilty before him. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Romans 2:19).

What can be done?

Every person is guilty before God. Not only are we powerless to undo the evil deeds we’ve committed already, we all continue to sin against God with our actions, words and thoughts with each new day. That would be like trying to clean an oily rag by wringing it in your hands and rubbing its edges together. The oil that’s on it would not come off and the areas where the oil hadn’t touched would become oily. We have no hope of fixing our relationship with God- we have no hope of making ourselves perfect.

Why has God given us this time though? If there’s really nothing we can do to become right with God, why doesn’t he just get judgment day over with already and purge the world of all the evil in it, including us? If our situation is hopeless, it seems only cynical that God would give us the time of our lifespans to impotently try to reach him and only further condemn ourselves. But it’s not hopeless- God started The Resistance.

God knows the beginning and the end

God knew Adam would choose to disobey before he ever created him. It was never a part of God’s will for us to be separated from him, so God made a way for us to be reconciled to him. Think about our oily-rag example. God knew it was impossible for the rag to clean itself. The only way to get something clean is to remove its dirtiness with something that is already clean.

A man called Jesus.

2000 years ago, God was born into the human race as a man called Jesus. Because he was God, he was able to live a perfect life with no sins of his own. When he told the religious people of Jerusalem that he was God, they didn’t believe him and nailed him to a wooden cross and he died. But three days later, he proved he was God by rising from the dead.

His death was a substitution for the death we deserve for our sins. The most famous verse in the bible says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Another scripture says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9). If you ask Jesus to save you, he will.

The relationship with God that was broken when Adam disobeyed in the garden of Eden will be restored if only you ask for it. Jesus will come into your life and give you the credit for the perfect life that He lived. On judgment day when you give an account for your life, God will see the perfect life of Jesus in you instead of your own sinful life. When He sees Jesus, you will be innocent before him. Once you have asked for Jesus to restore his relationship with you, you become a peaceful soldier in the fight against evil. You have joined The Resistance.

The battle strategy of the Resistance.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). One day, God will put an end to all the world’s evil, including everyone who has not accepted the sacrifice of Jesus. But because God loves everyone, he is patiently waiting for us to join his side. The only way others can be saved is when we go out and plead with them to join the resistance. This precious time won’t last forever though. Now is your chance! Will you join the resistance?

God can restore you if you want to. All you have to do is admit your need for him. You must understand you stand guilty before God for breaking His laws and cannot do anything by your own actions to clean yourself up. Then, simply ask Jesus to come into your life and forgive you. The bible says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

You can be saved now by praying a simple prayer such as this one, “Dear God, I know I have broken your laws and am on my way to Hell. I believe you sent your Son to die on the cross to save me from my sins. Jesus, please forgive me of my sins and come into my life as my savior. Amen.”