Tony Clark's Page

About six thousand years ago, God created a perfect world without sin. War, disease, poverty, and suffering did not exist. There were no hospitals, nursing homes, funeral homes, or cemeteries. God created the world in six days, and the ultimate part of his creation was mankind. After creating mankind, God saw every thing that he had made, and it was good. (Genesis 1:31). Mankind lived in Paradise. The first man and woman (Adam and Eve) lived without sin. They had a beautiful and wonderful relationship between themselves and God. God never rebuked them, because he never needed to do so. Adam and Eve never had arguments, they never disrespected each other, and they certainly never hurt each other emotionally or physically. God only had one law: They could not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. All was well in the world -- literally.

At some point after the creation, one of the angels rebelled against God. His name was Lucifer. (Isaiah 14:12). He was so arrogant that he tried to overpower God. Other angels also rebelled against God. (2 Peter 2:4). These angels were cast out of Heaven and have since been known as devils or demons. Lucifer became known as Satan or the Adversary. This same Satan came to Eve in the form of a serpent to entice her to eat the fruit. She did eat, and she gave to her husband to eat. Crunch. It was the death knell of all mankind. Adam willingly and knowingly disobeyed God (Genesis 2-3, 1 Timothy 2:14). From that point on, it was Adam's desire to hide from God. God was holy, and now Adam and Eve were sinners. Their eyes were open; they understood what it meant to disobey God. After they disobeyed God, God was required to enact punishment. He told Eve that she would have pain in childbearing. He told Adam that he would have to work for a living and that he would eventually die. God kicked them both out of the Garden of Eden, and placed a Cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way. They were permanently evicted from Paradise. Not only were they punished by means of physical death, but they had obtained spiritual death. They were separated from God. Gladly, before God kicked them out of Paradise, he told them that he would send a Savior. This Savior would bruise the head of the serpent, and the serpent would bruise his heel. This was the first prophecy of a coming Savior. If God had left Adam and Eve alone to die in sin, they would have went to Hell to burn for all eternity. God loved them so much that he promised a Savior. This Savior is Jesus Christ. About four thousand years after the Creation, God sent his Son. The Son of God took on human flesh (John 1:14). He took the sins of the whole human family upon himself and died on the cross as a sacrifice for us (1 Peter 2:24). Not only did he die on the cross, but he rose from the grave!

Jesus did not only die for Adam and Eve's sins. He died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). The sinful nature of Adam did not end with Adam. Adam had children, and his children inherited his sinful nature. The perfect example is Cain. Cain was the firstborn child of Adam and Eve. He murdered his younger brother Abel in cold blood. (Genesis 4). The first man born of woman was a cold-blooded murderer. The sin was passed down from generation to generation. Like Cain, we are all the children of Adam. (Romans 5:12-21). We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). Regardless of age, ethnicity, education, or background, we have all sinned against God. Jesus said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." If one does not repent of his sins and trust in Jesus Christ with all his heart, he cannot be saved from eternal punishment. Jesus preached many times about Hell, and it is mentioned in other places in the Old and New Testaments. All of us deserve to go to Hell; it is only by the grace of God that we are saved from it. We cannot work our way to Heaven; we are too wicked. It is only by true heart-felt salvation from God through Jesus Christ that we can escape Hell.

Does not history prove that mankind is sinful? Only the delusional can think otherwise. John said, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8). Everyone sins. Take a look at your life. Whether you are young or old, you have lived long enough to sin. Think about every time you have ever lied, stole, or dishonored your parents. Think about every time you have lusted, envied, or hated. Have you ever mistreated other people? Have you ever disrespected God? Have you ever murdered, gotten drunk, or abused drugs? Have you ever committed adultery, fornication, homosexuality, or used pornography? You may be able to give a resounding "No!" to a few of these, but certainly not to all of them. We are all sinners. Sin is so natural to us that we don't even recognize it when it happens. History shows us that people are sinners. History is just a long story about how people with power taking advantage of people with no power. Truly, many people have killed other people in the name of religion -- even in the name of Christ. Many people have asked me, "Isn't it horrible that people have killed and abused other people in the name of religion?" I always agree with them, but I make sure to add this one fact: You do not have to be religious to kill other people. One cannot blame war totally on religion. If we are to learn anything from the Twentieth Century, it should be that tens of millions of people can die in the name of atheism and secular humanism. Under the leadership of the atheistic Communist Party, over 20 million people were killed in the Soviet Union -- either by direct execution or imposed starvation. Under the terror of Mao Zedong, over 60 million Chinese were massacred. After considering the communist influence in the Soviet Union, China, Eastern Europe, North Korea, Southeast Asia, Africa, Cuba, and other places, scholars estimate that about 100 million people were killed in the name of atheistic communism. Add to this the evil reign of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was not a communist, but he did endorse the teachings of Frederick Nietzsche. Nietzsche was the man who coined the phrase, "God is dead." 25 million people died in World War II, which was started by Hitler.

War does not happen simply because of religion. It happens because human beings are depraved and sinful. If left unchecked, greed and self-centeredness leads mankind to torture, murder, rape, and other unspeakable evils.

Before World War I, many scholars believed that we could create utopia on Earth. They believed we could replant the Garden of Eden with our own hands. The Twentieth Century proved them wrong. Wrong beyond a doubt. The greatest irony of the Twentieth Century is that over 100 million people were slaughtered in the name of utopianism.

With our sin so abundantly clear, thank God for Jesus Christ. He loved us. How could he love us? I have no idea at all. He loved us so much that he took the sins of the world upon himself and died as our sacrifice. How much sin was laid upon him that day at Calvary! I cannot imagine it. If every sin were a grain of sand, and piled upon him, there would not be enough sand in all the beaches of the world. How he bore that burden, I do not know. It was a miracle. People say that the atoning death of Jesus Christ was not miraculous. They are absolutely mistaken. God put the sins of the whole world on him, and he died! He was our substitute. Not only did he die, but he rose from the grave the third day! He defeated sin. He defeated death. He defeated Satan. He made it possible so that when God convicts us of our sin, we can run to Christ. We can trust and believe in him and on his work at Calvary. We can be delivered from sin and set free. Some people think that the conviction of the Holy Spirit is not necessary for salvation. The truth is that you cannot understand how sinful you are until God convicts you. As sinners, we cannot truly understand our sinful nature without God's direct intervention. One cannot be saved unless he repents, and one cannot truly repent until he has been convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit. Thank God for his mercy:

"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).