There's Good News and Bad News

By Daniel G. Nelson, Ph. D.

No matter what you are looking for in your life, contentment, purpose, freedom from guilt, confidence in your future, you can find it. God, the all-powerful, eternal, all-knowing, creator of the universe, loves you and wants you to know and love Him. His free gift to you in this relationship are the things we all look for in life, but are unavailable long-term without Him. There's Good News and Bad News tells you who God is, how we know that He really cares for each of us, and how you can get to know Him. There is a lot of misinformation and deceit in modern life that attempts to block you from this relationship. This short book exposes many of these errors and points you to the truth of the Bible, the only source of knowledge about who God is. It also tells you how to take your no-risk, first step toward knowing Him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781312789753

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There's Good News and Bad News

THERE'S GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

By Daniel G. Nelson, Ph.D.

Published by Daniel G. Nelson

2015, 2016

Copyright © 2015 by Daniel G. Nelson

All rights reserved.  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2015

Second Printing: 2016

ISBN: 978-1-312-78975-3

Unless stated otherwise, the scripture quoted here is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society.  Used by permission of Zondervan Publishers.

Published by:

Daniel G. Nelson

24050 Copperleaf Boulevard

Bonita Springs, FL 34135

USA

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"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

John 10:10 (King James Version)

The Best News Ever

Here's the good news!  In fact, it is the best news ever!

God loves you!  No matter who you are, what you do, where you are, or when you are, this is the most important, spectacular good news you will ever know.  The Supernatural, Transcendent, Joyful, All-Powerful, Supremely Intelligent, All-Wise, Completely Just, and Entirely Good Creator and Ruler of the Universe loves you, just as you are now.  And He desperately wants you to believe this so you will be His child forever.

You may already know this, in which case you are blessed beyond your (and my) ability to understand blessings.  If you don't already know this, you can come to know it, because God very much wants you to know it.  His purpose for creating you was to have you as His friend, His child, so He can lavish His love on you now and forever.

But, accepting God's love or not is your choice.  No one can make it for you.  God will not force it upon you.  If you choose not to make that choice  (and ignoring it or refusing to investigate it is the same as not making it) you are in for a world of hurt. That is the bad news.

You maybe someone who is searching for God, for meaning for your life, for relief from guilt, for healing (physical, mental, or spiritual), for joy in your life, or to fill some other hole in your soul.  You can find Him and fill this void.

You may be someone who thinks that all this talk of God is nothing but out-of-date superstition put on us and our society by our ignorant ancestors.  We will address this view here and show you that nothing could be further from the truth.  All though belief in God has been around for a long time, it is not out of date.  It is as crucial now as it has ever been.

You may be someone who is happy with life as it is and thinks he has no need for God.  You are wrong.  We will talk about this situation also.

Investigating this good news is the search for Truth, with a capital T.  Today there is a lot of nonsense floating around about truth.  You hear statements like, I have my truth and you have your truth, implying that what one of us thinks is correct about the world or the things in it can be different from what someone else thinks is correct and that these differing and possibly conflicting views somehow are both correct.  When I hear this, my reaction is that the speaker is confusing facts with opinions.  There is a lot of that going around.  We need to be careful.  We can all have differing opinions.  That happens all the time, particularly about things like politics, fashions, sports, TV shows, and so on.  But if your basic belief system, the Truths about the world that guide you, is a matter of opinion, you are in trouble.  You will constantly run into fundamental differences with others that cause deep conflict, the arbitrary exercise of power by some and the oppression of others, irresolvable differences that can lead to violence on the individual level, or riot or war on the group level.  This is tragically evident throughout the world today.

People who say that everyone can have his own truth certainly don't live that way.  They get as indignant as anyone else when someone scams a group of investors out of their life savings, or when a mass murderer goes on a shooting rampage, or some politician gets caught with his hand in the till, or when someone cuts in front of them in traffic.  They obviously have a sense of right and wrong that is pretty consistent with the rest of us.  If they really thought that everyone's truth was valid, why would these events upset them?  If everyone's idea of truth is okay, then these events, which are people acting out their personal values, should be acceptable.  But that just isn't so.

Another common statement we hear these days is that All paths lead to God.  I think people who say this have a very foggy notion about who God is.  It should be obvious to all that the paths of Adolph Hitler or Josef Stalin lead to a far different god than that of Mother Theresa or Billy Graham or Jesus or Gandhi.  If we examine the religions and philosophies of the world, we must conclude that they cannot all be true.  Even the monotheistic religions have substantially different views of God and what paths lead to God.  In fact, if you study these religions and philosophies in detail, the conclusion you must draw is that, if any of them are true, it is only one of them.  Even though there are many similarities in them and many of them use the same language, the differences, even though they are few in some cases, are irreconcilable.

We also must recognize that believing in anything, even a totally materialistic Universe, requires faith.  What is faith?  It is the belief in the Truth (again, with a capital T) of certain underlying principles upon