Vivid Christianity
Teaching Christians how to live a "vivid" Christian life.


Why (and How To) Become a Christian


by Dave Root, VividChristianity.com, last modified on 04/17/2024.


Introduction

Some people believe that there's an afterlife of some kind, but they can't scientifically prove it.

Some people believe that there's nothing after this life, we just cease to exist, but they can't scientifically prove it.

If we could prove that our choices and actions will have absolutely no consequences after we're dead, then we could be as bad, as mean, as wicked, as evil as we want in this life and it would have no negative impact on us after we die. But there's no way to scientifically prove that our choices and actions will have no consequences after we're dead.

So here are the facts that we can be reasonably certain of:

  • Every one of us can expect to die, and it could happen at any time.

  • After we're dead, none of us can expect to come back to life in the same body and be able to correct our bad choices or our bad karma or whatever the case may be.

  • We can't prove that there's no afterlife, so it's possible that we will continue to have a conscious existence after we die.

  • We can't prove that our choices and actions have no consequences beyond this life, so it's possible that they will have a big impact on what we experience after we're dead.


Because of these facts, it would be wise to try to make the right choices while we still have time.

If we die and it turns out that we made the wrong assumptions and the wrong choices in this life, then we could be stuck with the consequences for all eternity. That's pretty scary if you think about it.


Be a Good Person?

One choice we could make is to try to be a good person in this life, hoping to build up more good points than bad points, or to build up goodwill, or to build up good karma.

In order for this approach to work, it implies that "someone" or "something" will judge our choices and actions to determine if we built up enough good points or enough goodwill or enough good karma. The problem with this approach is that we're just guessing about how we'll be evaluated. We'll never know if our choices and actions are good enough until it's too late.

Again, if we die and it turns out that we guessed wrong and made wrong assumptions, then we could be stuck with the consequences for all eternity.


Choose a Religion?

Another approach is to choose from among the numerous religions or faiths out there, but which one?

There's a theory which essentially says that "all roads lead to God." The analogy that's sometimes used is to imagine numerous wells that were all dug down to the same water source. The wells have different names, and outwardly they don't all look the same, but they're all going down to the same source of water. The idea is that all of the religions or faiths in the world have different names, and outwardly they don't all look or act the same, but most of them are pointing to the same God or Supreme Being or "universal energy" or whatever term they prefer to use. Therefore, we can choose whichever religion or faith appeals to us the most because "all roads lead to God."

But is this really true? Notice that this is just an assumption that people are making. In other words, they're just guessing that different religions or faiths are all equally valid.

Again, if we die and it turns out that we guessed wrong and made wrong assumptions, then we could be stuck with the consequences for all eternity.


Christianity Is Different

"Christ" is one of the titles for a man named Jesus who lived in the first century, and the word "Christian" means "follower of Christ."

A number of religions or faiths say that Jesus was a great moral man and/or a great prophet, but Christianity says something different about Him.

Here are the essentials of Christianity, and you'll learn more details if you choose to become a Christian:

  1. God somehow created this physical universe and all life on earth. Since He created this universe, His home is somewhere outside of the universe, and in the book that He prompted people to write (the Bible), that place is called heaven.

  2. Imagine a human father who has a son. Since the father is human, his son is human as well (we can think of them as "human the father" and "human the son"). God the Father has a Son that we call Jesus, and since the Father is God, His Son is God as well. So Jesus is, and always has been, and always will be, God the Son.

  3. All humans (other than Jesus as we'll see) have disobedience in our hearts. No matter how good we think we are, we've disobeyed our parents, we've disobeyed our teachers, we've disobeyed our bosses at work, we've disobeyed the law, and we've disobeyed what God commands us to do. When the Bible talks about sin, it's referring to all of the ways that we're disobedient to God.

  4. When we die, God wants to welcome us into His home (heaven) because of His tremendous love for us. However, He has a zero-tolerance policy concerning sin. He hates disobedience in a way that we can't really understand, and He won't allow even the slightest bit of disobedience into His home. All of us have committed sins because all of us have been disobedient at times, and when we die we will not be allowed into heaven if we have sins on our record. No matter how many good deeds we do, they won't erase the disobedience from our record.

  5. Jesus chose to fix our sin problem by leaving heaven and being born on earth as a human baby in the first century AD, so He is 100% God and 100% human, both at the same time. He is the only human who never had any disobedience on His record, meaning that He's the only human who never sinned. When He was in His 30's, He took our disobedience onto Himself and allowed Himself to be crucified on a cross in order to put the root sin (disobedience) to death. This enables us to be reconciled with God, making peace between us and God, by satisfying His wrath against our disobedience. Jesus was resurrected (brought back to life), and then forty days later He went back home to heaven.

  6. Imagine two people who fell off of a boat in the ocean. They can't swim, so both of them are drowning, and neither of them is able to save the other one from drowning. A third person is still in the boat, so he is not drowning. Therefore, he's able to save the other two people. The analogy is that every human is essentially drowning in their sins, so no one can save themselves or save anyone else from the penalty for their sins. Jesus is the only human who was never drowning in sin (there was never any disobedience in Him), so He is the only One who is able to save all of us from the penalty for our sins. No other person or religion or faith can save us from the penalty for our sins because Jesus is the only One who reconciled us with God by dying for us.

  7. When we choose to believe that Jesus died to atone for our sins (meaning that His death made peace between us and God) and that He was resurrected from the dead, and we're willing to obey Him as our Lord and Master, at that moment we're forgiven for all of our disobedience, and God places His Spirit into our hearts so that we're connected to Him. At that point we have zero sins on our record because all of our disobedience (past, present, and future) has been forgiven through our faith in Jesus, so we will be welcomed into heaven when we die.

  8. After you believe in Jesus as described above, you might or might not feel any different right away. But over time you'll find that He is guiding you and helping you to do the things He wants you to do. If possible, get a Bible and start reading the New Testament. God will somehow lead you to the church that He wants you to go to, and then you should tell them that you're a new Christian. They should baptize you by full immersion in water so that you can confess your faith in front of witnesses.


These are the essential things to know about Christianity, and you'll learn more details as you continue going to church and reading the New Testament in the Bible.

No one can scientifically prove that Christianity is valid and true. No one can scientifically prove that any religion or faith is valid and true. But if you're not ready to be a Christian then try this: Ask the God of the Bible, the God of Christianity, to reveal Himself to you. Read the Gospel of John in the Bible, if possible, and start paying attention to what's happening inside yourself throughout the day, every day. You'll start to notice that God is subtly drawing your thoughts and your heart to His Son, Jesus. You could die at any moment and then it will be too late, so don't put off responding to this call (see point #7 above).


Conclusion

The Bible describes an ultimate good place that we call heaven, and an ultimate bad place that we call hell. We can't really imagine or understand what these places are like, but after we die we'll end up in one place or the other, and we'll be in that place forever. If we make the wrong assumptions and the wrong choices in this life, then we could be stuck with the consequences for all eternity. That's pretty scary if you think about it.

If we try to be a good person in this life, or we try to earn good points or earn goodwill or earn good karma, these things will not get us into heaven. Other religions or faiths will not get us into heaven because all roads do not lead to God. Only one road leads to God, and that road is Christianity (for the reasons described in the above bullet points).

Where we end up after we die is based on just one thing: whether or not we believe in Jesus as described in point #7 (above). If we do not choose to believe in Him then all of our sins will still be on our record when we die, and the penalty for our disobedience is to spend eternity in the place called hell. From our perspective, sin doesn't always seem terribly bad, so being banished forever in hell seems out of proportion to the crime. But what we're not able to fully understand is that sin is essentially like God's mortal enemy, so if you don't choose to receive forgiveness for your disobedience then you're choosing to be God's mortal enemy, so to speak. It's not His choice, and it's not His fault, and it's not what He wants. The choice is yours.

We don't really know what happens to people who never even heard of Jesus, but this doesn't apply to you because you now have enough information about Him to make a decision. If you choose to believe in Him and begin obeying Him as described in point #7 and #8 (above), then there will be zero disobedience on your record when you die, so you'll go to heaven and spend eternity with God.

There will come a day when all true Christians will suddenly vanish from the earth all at once, and that day is likely to be very soon (based on the end-times prophecies in the Bible that are being fulfilled right in front of our eyes). That event will be absolute proof that the Bible and Christianity are true, and the following seven years after that event will be so horrific that most people won't survive it. Please consider printing out this article and storing it in a safe place right now because if that event happens during your life, and you're left behind on earth, then you and the people you care about should choose to follow Jesus right away (as described above) and stand strong against God's enemies. It's likely that you won't have much time left on earth, so make your decision as soon as possible.


For the glory of the Lord Jesus.

Dave Root
home page and email: https://www.vividchristianity.com
 
 
Modification History

  • 04/17/2024 - Modified the 3rd bullet point in the section called "Christianity Is Different."

  • 12/24/2023 - Modified the 2nd, 5th, and 8th bullet points in the section called "Christianity Is Different." Modified the first paragraph in the Conclusion section.

  • 11/26/2022 - Combined and modified the last two paragraphs in the section called "Christianity Is Different."

  • 11/19/2022 - Modified some of the bullet points in the section called "Christianity Is Different."

  • 10/21/2022 - Modified some of the bullet points in the section called "Christianity Is Different." Modified the Conclusion section.

  • 09/16/2022 - Modified the Conclusion section and the paragraph just before the Conclusion section.

  • 09/15/2022 - New article.