Ministry Resources

What is Happening to the World?

In this Lesson you will Study:

  • How Can You Know The Truth?
  • How Did The World Begin?
  • What Went Wrong With the World?

How Can You Know The Truth?

Science, History and Observation

You can learn many wonderful things about the world and its people through science, history and observation. However, you cannot learn the answers to many of the great questions of life from these sources. They do not tell how life began, what its purpose is, and what the future holds.

The Bible

Only the One who made the world can tell you how He did it and Why. He tells us the truth about these things in His book, the Holy Bible. It is a book of instructions for living in this world.

This course – The Great Questions of Life

These lessons are based on the Bible. They quote from it some of the many verses that answe your questions. Before each quotation is the reference: the name of the book, chapter, and verse where the words are found in the Bible.

There are many different translations of the bible from the languages in which it was first written. The words here may be different from those in your Bible. They are from the King James Version and Todays’s English Version (also called the Good News Bible).

How Did The World Begin?

Did it just Happen?

Do you ever ask yourself, “Where did the world come from? Did it just happen? Or did a great mind plan it and a great power make it?

When you see a bicycle, a car, or an airplane, you know that it couldn’t have just happened. Someone planned it and made it so that it would operate according to fixed rules.

The World Was Made According to a Plan

The world and everything in it functions according to fixed patterns that we call the laws of nature. The more science discovers about these laws, the more sure we are that Someone planned every detail of the universe, made it, and keeps it functioning according to His plan. That Someone is God, the all-powerful and all-wise Creator. He is the Lord, or Ruler, of the Universe.

 

God Made A Perfect World

God created the sun, moon, stars, and earth. He fixed their orbits so they would not crash into one another. He ordered the exact distance of the earth from the sun – not too close, or everything would burn up; not too far away, or we would freeze. Ocean and land were in perfect proportions, and the atmosphere was just right. Then God made the living things. Last of all He created man and put him in a beautiful, wonderful world.

 

Why God Made the World

God made the world for His own enjoyment. He created the human family to be His children that He would love and enjoy. He made the earth for their home. God would enjoy the beauty and the orderliness of His universe, but most of all He would take pleasure in the love of His children.

Revelation 4:11 – You have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created.

Pslam 149:4 – The Lord takes pleasure in his people.

God wanted His children to be like Himself and to share in His work. So He gave Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, a nature like His own in many ways. God would teach them. With His help, mankind would rule over the earth.

Genesis 1:26 – And God said, Let us make man in our image… and let them have dominion… over all the earth.

What Went Wrong With The World?

Something Went Wrong

Look around and you will see suffering, sorrow, quarrels, violence, war, hunger, and death. The world is not perfect now. What went wrong? This once-perfect world has been spoiled by an enemy of God and by man himself.

God’s Enemy

God has an enemy called Satan, or the devil. He was made by God, but he became proud and rebellious. Now Satan is against everything that God is for… God is good; Satan fights good with evil. God wants to help us; Satan tries to destroy us. God wants to enjoy man’s love and fellowship, but the devil tries to separate us from God. Satan tries to make us follow him instead of God.

Man’s Sin

Satan told Adam and Eve lies about God. He persuaded them to sin; that is, to disobey God. God had warned Adam that sin would bring death, because sin separates a person from God. Life comes from God, so separation from Him ends in death. Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan instead of God. They broke God’s rules and went their own way with tragic results for the world.

The Effects of Sin

Sin brought disease and death into the world.

Romans 5:12 – Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death spread to the whole human race, because all men sinned. 

Sin has broken the fellowship between God and man. As long as man is rebellious, disobedient, and sinful, he cannot have fellowship with God. Instead of being a servant of God, he is a servant of sin.

Romans 6:16 – When you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey-either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in death or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.

By choosing to disobey God, we join Satan’s rebellion and accept his rule. The earth has become a battlefield between God and Satan. You must choose on which side to be.

Your Choice-God’s Way or Satan’s Way

Joshua 24:15 – Decide today who you will serve, … As for my family and me, We will serve the Lord. 

God Offers Us

In Nature

  • A Perfect Creation
  • Abundant Provision
  • Balance
  • Order

In Our Body

  • Life and Health
  • Wholesome Appetites

In Our Thinking, Feeling and Acting

  • Wholesome Love
  • Good Thoughts
  • Freedom of Choice
  • Fellowship with God
  • Obedience
  • Helpfulness
  • Happiness
  • Justice
  • Confidence
  • Peace
  • Humility
  • Trust
  • Purpose
  • Wisdom
  • Truth
  • Creativity
  • Faith
  • Joy

Satan Offers Us

In Nature

  • A Corrupt Nature
  • Disorder
  • Poverty
  • Chaos
  • Hunger

In Our body

  • Disease and Death
  • Vices
  • Lust
  • Gluttony

In our Thinking, Feeling, and Acting

  • Enslavement to Sin
  • Separation from God
  • Rebelliousness
  • Selfishness
  • Crime
  • Aimlessness
  • Wars
  • Bad Thoughts Hatred
  • Destruction
  • Sadness
  • Unbelief
  • Pride
  • Suspicion
  • Error
  • Injustice
  • Fears
  • Fighting
  • Folly

Is There Any Hope For The World?

God Stills Cares for the World

God still loves us in spite of our sin. He has made a way to save us from sin, Satan, and eternal death. God still rules the universe and will one day bring the earth back into obedience again.

The Son of God Took Our Punishment

Every person on earth has sinned and has been sentenced to die. We had no way to save ourselves. God loved us so much that He sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take our punishment.

Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus came to earth and was supernaturally born of a virgin in the land of Palestine. He taught men the truth about God and His love. He did nothing wrong in life. He treated as a criminal, nailed to a cross, and put to death. He died for our sins.

God showed the world that Jesus was His Son by bringing Him back to life after three days. Forty days later Jesus went back to heaven.

Friends of Jesus who saw Him after His resurrection and watched Him go up to heaven have told us about it in the Gospels.

Accepting Jesus makes Us God’s Children

Since Jesus has taken our punishment, those who accept Him as their Savior are freed from the power of Satan. When we turn away from our sins, God makes us His children and gives us His life. God urges us to believe in His Son and be saved from sin, but He will not force us to do it.

Romans 5:17 – Through the sin of one  man death began to rule… But how much greater is the  result of what was done by the one man, Jesus Christ! All who receive God’s abundant grace and the free gift of His righteousness will rule in life through Christ. 

You Can Live in a Perfect World

One day Jesus is coming back to the world to free it from sin and make everything new. If you accept Him as your Savior now, you will live with Him in complete happiness then. Even now, your life will be better because Jesus will come to live in you so you can do what pleases God. You can begin to enjoy today the blessing that belong to the children of God.