Introduction:
Do you know that YOU are LOVED?
God loves you!(*1) Knowing Him is much simpler than one might think.
A true Christian knows God and has a personal and daily relationship with Him.(*2)
Receiving a WonByOne booklet, a card from a stranger, or just finding this web site and reading these words might be completely unexpected for you, perhaps even provocative, or something you haven't thought about. But we hope that this reaches you in your heart. Taking the time to read this text will give you several good reasons to smile and to look positively towards life ahead. Therefore, we hope that you take the time to read and reflect on this.
Whatever you identify as today (religious, atheist, realist, spiritualist, or other) doesn't change who God is. It also doesn't change the fact that He loves YOU! Whether you've had good or bad experiences with being a Christian through other Christians or other religious people, it also doesn't change who God is. He is true love!(*3)
The answers are probably simpler than you might think. In this text, we will tell you simply who God is and how you can get to know Him personally. Life with God is not a religion, but a living relationship, a relationship that brings joy and security.
The text is divided into short sections. Each section takes about 2 minutes to read, so in about 45 minutes, you will have read this entire foundational explanation. Everything explained here is directly from the Bible, and this text gives you a simple explanation of what the Bible tells. There are no personal interpretations. If you believe what is written here, you can become today personally acquainted with God, and you can know with certainty that you are a true Christian. If you believe this, you will also know with certainty that you are accepted in heaven by God the day you die!
We hope you take the time to read this and that you're open to let God, through the Holy Spirit, speak directly to you!
Good luck!
[1] Joh 3:16, Joh 13:34-35, Luk 12:6-7, 1.Joh 4:19-21, 1.Tim 2:4Â [2] 1.Joh 2:5, 1.Joh 4:12-13, Rom 8:11, 1.Cor 1:9Â [3] 1.Joh 4:16, Jer 31:3
1. Introduction to spirit, soul, and body.
Us humans are created in the image of God.(*4) The Bible tells us that we resemble Him. Us humans consist of spirit, soul, and body.(*5) The body we can touch and feel, it is physical. Our soul is in our blood, and it is the soul that gives life to the body. Without blood, there is no life. The spirit is our innermost, where we can feel emptiness or life and true joy. The spirit within us is where the Spirit of God desires to dwell in our hearts.(*6)
With our eyes, God is invisible, but for our spirit in our inner life, we can know Him.(*7) It can be felt when the Spirit of God is in us, but also when it is not. If one has not previously felt the Spirit of God within, it may be difficult to understand this. But do not give up, here it will be explained simply for you. You will be able to experience the Spirit of God within you if you allow Him to show you.
First, you need to know a little more about who God is. This is important because you must know with certainty that it is the Spirit of God you are allowing to come into your inner life, that it comes from good and not from evil. Yes, there is "the good" and there is "the evil."(*8) What is important to note is that evil will always try to imitate the good, that which is from God.(*9) Evil may seem good at first, but then it is not. Regardless, God has made it incredibly simple for us, so by believing in Him and following His guidance in the Bible, we cannot go wrong.
God is the one who is from eternity to eternity. The Bible says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In God, there is no shifting shadow. We can be confident that He who claims He is, He IS!(*10)
The Bible explains to us a lot about who God is and how by believing in Him and confessing Him, we will receive His Spirit in us. The greatest confirmation is perhaps how even today we can experience His living Spirit taking residence in us. In addition, we can also see how the nature and universe around us function excellently. Everything is His creation!(*11)
It is not possible for us humans to fully explain who God is, is not possible. He has created us; it is not the other way around. He knows us fully, whether we want it or not, so it is up to us to accept Him, believe in Him, and get to know Him. Why we must make this choice ourselves, about knowing God. We will come back to it.
[4] Gen 1:26-27, Gen 5:2 [5] 1.Cor 15:45, 1.Thes 5:23, Jes 26:9, Heb 4:12, Phil 1:27 [6] Rom 8:16, Philip 4:23, Gal 6:18 [7] 2.Cor 4:18, Col 1:15, Heb 11:27, Heb 11:1, Rom 1:20, Col 1:16 [8] Rom 12:21, Prov 13:21, Deut 30:15 [9] Rev 3:9 [10] Sal 90:2, Psal 103:17, Heb 13:8, Jak 1:17 [11] Kol 1:16, Nah 9:6, Isai 54,16, Rom 11:36, Rev 4:11
2. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit!
The Bible is God's Word to us humans,(*12) which we will explain more about in the next section. First, we will try to explain a little more about who God is. As mentioned, we are His creations, so for us as His handiwork, it would be impossible to fully explain who He is. Nevertheless, the Bible gives us many stories about how God interacts with us humans and how we can connect with Him.
In the Bible, three different persons are described who together make up the Godhead. This has been attempted to be explained in various ways throughout history. The most common explanation is the Trinity, but even this falls short in explaining the Godhead. The Trinity is also explained somewhat differently from tradition to tradition. Therefore, the best would be to try to find necessary information about the Godhead in God's own word, the Bible. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are explained as a unity, or as ONE.(*13)
God is described as the Almighty who is from eternity to eternity. Everything is created by Him and for Him. God creates with His Word. There is only ONE God, and no one can take away His glory. He is true, just, and love itself.(*14)
In His word, the Bible, He says that He disciplines those He loves,(*15) so that we humans may keep close to Him who is the very Truth. Being disciplined may sound severe, but as a loving father corrects and guides his child so that the child does not come to harm, can be compared to being disciplined by God. Not everyone has experienced a loving father in their upbringing, so for some, this may be difficult to understand. Jesus describes love so strongly that one lays down all of one's own to help one's neighbor.(*16)
Jesus Christ is God's only begotten Son.(*17) He was also with God from the beginning before the foundation of the earth was laid. From the beginning, He has been our Lord and Savior.(*18) The first two people the Bible talks about, Adam and Eve, turned, by their own will, away from the Lord God in the Garden of Eden. God had given them dominion over everything on earth; they gave this dominion to the devil, who is God's and humanity's greatest enemy.(*19)
This is why Jesus was sent to earth by God, where He took on human form and on the cross bore all the sins, guilt, and punishment of all humanity upon Himself. He was born as a human and lived on earth for 33 years as a human.(*20) He came to this earth for two reasons. 1. To show us an example of how to live a holy life with God. 2. So that sin, once and for all, would be removed from us humans. This is what happened when Jesus died on the cross.(*21)
Three days later, Jesus rose again from the grave, and the salvation work from God's side was complete.(*22)
The one who believes and accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior is therefore cleansed from sin and made ready for eternity with God. The day the body dies, the soul moves home to God our heavenly Father, if one believes and has accepted Jesus' work of salvation on the cross.
The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus said would come as our helper, is part of God's one. It is God's spirit that takes residence where it is invited to dwell. A person who chooses to believe in God, Jesus' death, and resurrection, and who confesses this belief to others makes room for the Holy Spirit in their spirit. The Holy Spirit gives life to the human spirit and fills the emptiness of the soul. It teaches us life with God, by guiding the believer in their daily life and giving power and strength to live life.
Explaining everything we know about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in two minutes is not enough, so we recommend that you also read the Bible. In addition, chapters 1 and 2 of the book "The Fundament" give you more explanation.
[12] 1.Thes 2:13, 2.Pet 3:5 [13] 1.Joh 5:7, Joh 17, Act 7:55-56, Matt 3:16-17, 2.Cor 13:13, Matt 28:19 [14] Rev 21:22, 2.Cor 6:18, Sal 90:2, Dan 2:20, Prov 8:23, Ef 3:21, Jam 2:19, Rom 3:30, Joh 8:32, Joh 1:17, Joh 14:6, 1.Joh 3:7, Psal 119:137, 1.Joh 4:16 [15] Prov 3:12, Prov 23:13, Jam 1:12, Eccl 3:11 [16] Joh 15:13 [17] 1.Joh 4:9, Joh 1:18, Joh 3:18, Joh 3:16 [18] Joh 1:2, Prov 8:22-31 [19] Gen chap.2 and 3 [20] Phil 2:7-8, Heb 4:15, Heb 9:28, 1.Joh 3:5, Isai 53:5, Luk 3:23 [21] Rom 6:10, Heb 7:27, 2.Cor 5:15, Joh 19.30, Matt 27 [22] Matt 28:1-6, Mark 16:1-6, Luk 24:7, Joh 20:1-10
3. The Bible
The word "Bible" means library, or a collection of books, and that is exactly what it is. It is a collection of 66 books written by more than 40 different authors over a period of more than 2000 years. It is divided into two, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains, among other things, the story of the creation of the earth and much history up to the time when Jesus was sent by God to earth as a human. The New Testament deals with God's reset, salvation in Jesus. The Gregorian calendar (the Western calendar) calculates year 1 from the birth of Jesus.
What makes the Bible unique is that from the first to the last book, it has a coherent message. This despite the fact that from the first to the last author, there has been no opportunity to know each other. (Internet and computers could not be of help back then, as this was long before this technology was invented.) This helps confirm the Bible as the Word of God, that God Himself must have given each author revelations, through the Holy Spirit, about what the authors should write and when.
In the Bible, there are stories of people who lived with God and of people who did not believe in God. There are also many prophecies in the Bible about what will happen in the future. For example, the Old Testament has over 300 prophecies that told that Jesus, the Son of God, would come as a human to this earth. In the New Testament, we can read that the 300 prophecies are fulfilled one by one while Jesus was among humans. The Bible also contains many prophecies about what will happen in the last days of this earth's age. We will come back later to some of these prophecies.
But what makes the Bible the world's most read book and what is it that makes so many people choose to believe that it is God's own word to us humans?
Indeed the Bible is the world's most read book. It is translated into the most languages, and it contains the oldest writings that exist. Unfortunately, the Bible is also the most copied book, and most religions have copied something from the Bible. Some of the religions have copied more or less the entire Bible, but in the copying process, it has been adapted to the religion it is copied to. The fact that the traditionally translated Bible in the various religions has been changed makes it difficult to know which of today's Bibles is actually the correct Bible. But yes, the correct Bible exists today!
What verifies the correct Bible is that it cannot be linked to any specific religion or denomination. As mentioned, it has 66 books, and its consistent message is: That we are created for freedom in Jesus Christ, that we are saved by grace through faith alone, that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God, and that the Holy Spirit takes residence in everyone who receives salvation in Jesus. Fellowship with other believers is important, and this is something the Bible encourages, while membership in a specific religion saves no one.
God's Word is also Spirit. That is, when one reads the Bible and allows the Word to fill one's inner being; when one thinks about it and lets it mean something to oneself, then one is filled with the Spirit of God. This cannot be fully explained, it must be experienced for oneself, but thus, with the Holy Spirit active in oneself, the Bible is also verified. This is unique to the Bible; no other writings are verified with a spiritual presence in oneself like the Word of God!
God guards His true Word, so that those with right intentions who translate the Bible have the help of the Holy Spirit. Different languages and modern language usage, all of this God the Creator has oversight over. It is He who created the languages, and the very first writings He wrote Himself with His finger for Moses on Mount Sinai. God's Spirit - the Holy Spirit, we will come back to a little later.
4. Faith as Savior
Believing in God is a choice one must make for oneself. No one can make this choice for another. We are all created with free will, and we are individually responsible for our own choice to believe. God created us with free will so that our love for Him would be genuine. The purpose of this life is to know God and to prepare ourselves for eternity with Him in heaven. God desires for all people to choose Him, but unfortunately, not everyone does.
Many people are deceived into believing in other gods by our greatest adversary, the devil. Those people unfortunately perish along with him if they do not turn to God. The souls of the damned also live on after this life, in their case to eternal torment in hell, which God had prepared only for the devil, who rebelled against God in heaven.
To believe does not mean that one can explain everything, but that one puts one's trust in something. To believe in God is to put one's trust in Him.
The first step is to choose to believe in God. To believe that He exists and confess Him as one's Lord and Savior in one's life. Belief in God leads us to repentance from our old life, what we believed before, and what we then placed our trust in. Much of what people without God place their trust in, the Bible describes as sin. Examples of this are trust in salvation through money, love through sex, or belief in salvation through a specific religion.
The Bible gives us several examples of sin, which are: lying, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, shameless lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, sexual immorality, and sexual relations with those of the same sex. The Bible actually tells us that no humans are without sin. Everyone has committed sin, and therefore, we are all sinners! That is why Jesus came to take our sin upon Himself. He died on the cross for the sins of all humanity, so that whoever believes in Him and accepts Him is saved. That is, when we turn to Him and make Him the Lord of our lives, the Holy Spirit helps us to be free from sin.
Sin is freed from when one recognizes it and acknowledges that what one is doing is not pleasing to God, by then turning away from sin and asking God for forgiveness. This is something every believer must do continuously because we are all humans, and we all make mistakes. We can all fall into sin even after becoming a true Christian, but it is expected that life with God changes one's values and actions so that one does not continue to live in sin.
As a confirmation of one's new faith, here comes baptism. The Bible says that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and several things happen in baptism.
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One buries one's old life in the watery grave together with the death Jesus endured on the cross for us. And in rising from the watery grave with Jesus, one is clothed in a new identity, one becomes a citizen of the heavenly kingdom - in Christ Jesus!
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In baptism, one proclaims one's allegiance to Jesus Christ. This is not just for God and other people but also for the devil and his demons, the invisible spiritual forces surrounding us. By proclaiming our faith in God in this way, one disarms the power of the devil and his demons over oneself.
In conclusion: Faith is a choice each individual must make for themselves, and through faith and confession in Jesus Christ, one becomes a child of God. Through repentance from sin, one becomes free, and in baptism, one clothes oneself in God's protection.
5. Why do we need salvation?
This life is just the beginning of a long eternity. The choices we make in this life have eternal significance. Not making a choice to believe in God is also a choice.
As mentioned earlier, we have been given free will, and this is because; In His creation, God desired us!
He desired us humans to live with Him in a true and voluntary relationship, and in a true and voluntary love. He could have created us as robots and programmed us to always show Him love, but that would not have been genuine. Just as God is genuine and His love for us is genuine, we must genuinely choose Him.
If we choose not to believe, we continue as before under the judgment brought upon us by the first two humans, Adam and Eve. God had given them all dominion over the earth, and His plan was for us to have daily fellowship with Him. He gave them only one command, which was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They broke this command when the devil deceived them into eating from it. Thus, they gave up the dominion God had given them and became subject to the devil, whom the Bible also calls the god of this world. Humanity lives under this original sin until the day of salvation when Jesus comes again for the second and final time.
Those who before that day die or before that day Jesus comes again, and who have chosen to believe in God and believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation, are saved for eternity. Those who choose not to believe or choose not to make this choice remain under eternal damnation forever.
God is good, and He is love itself, that is why He gives you both freedom and grace. Freedom to choose, and salvation by grace alone. One cannot earn salvation; it is only by faith in God and in the Lord Jesus that sets one free. Salvation is a free gift that we can choose to accept or choose not to accept.
Some may wish to change God's character to fit their own imagined image of how God should be, but God's character and His Word, the Bible, cannot be changed. He is the one who has set everything in motion and who has set the rules for the beginning and end of life. He is the same from eternity past, and He is the same for all eternity. It is we humans who have messed things up, and God does what He can to save us from damnation, with the prerequisites He has set in advance. Earth and we humans are subject to evil, so we do evil things. This is not God's will, and that is why He has given us His plan of salvation through Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.
In short: We need salvation in Jesus Christ to avoid eternal damnation, which is meant only for the devil and his demons. Therefore, today, you should ask God to save you for eternity!
6. How to become a Christian?
The Bible tells us that whoever believes in God in their heart, believes that Jesus is the way to God, and confesses this belief with their mouth, shall be saved. It couldn't be simpler!
If you are now ready to make this simple choice to believe in God here and now, the written prayer below can help you a little on your way. But remember! A prayer to God and your conversation with Him are your words. It is you He wants a personal relationship with, so reading the prayer as one of many other prayers will not change anything within you. The words below are only meant to help you get started with formulating your own conversation with God. In the next paragraph, we will explain a little more about prayer, but if you are ready to have a serious conversation with God now and surrender your life to be part of His eternity, then spend a few minutes on this now.
Here is a little help to start your conversation with God:
Dear Holy God!
Today, I choose to believe in You, I choose to believe that Jesus is Your only begotten Son and that He died on the cross for my salvation, and I choose to believe in the Holy Spirit. I don't understand everything, and I don't know how to pray or talk to you God, but I ask You to let the Holy Spirit come into my heart to teach me life with You God. From today onwards, I will therefore call You, my Father! Thank you so much for loving me!
Amen!
Give God time to answer you, put away your phone or any other distracting elements, and say, "God, I want to hear You speak to me!" - Then listen with your heart.
7. How to pray?
Prayer is our communication with God. Just as there are different ways to communicate with other people, there are also different ways to communicate with God. Some things are just between you and God, while other things are like a proclamation before both God, other people, and the spiritual world.
In the Bible, Jesus says that we do not have, because we have not asked Him nor have prayed to Him about it. God wants to give us all things, but it is only when we believe that we can receive it and thus ask for it, that we receive it.
Some prayer answers come immediately, while others come later. Our faith and perseverance in prayer are crucial for several reasons.
Sometimes prayer answers do not come because there are other spiritual forces that hinder our prayer answer. In those cases, we must simply continue to pray until we experience a breakthrough. Other times, it may be that we do not pray according to God's Word, but according to our own desire for happiness.
The greatest happiness we can experience here in this life is peace with God in our own hearts. The circumstances around us may change somewhat with the help of prayer, but there will still be injustice, unrest, hatred, and war in this world. The god of this world, the devil, does not want peace, and many people are still slaves to the god of the sin - the devil.
But praying for good solutions and progress in one's own life and work, God answers. Praying to God to be provided for one's daily needs, God answers. Praying to God to take away worries, He also answers. Even praying for healing on one's own body or on others' bodies, He answers.
The Holy Spirit helps us to pray, just as He teaches us all things. In fact, through the Holy Spirit, God gives us depths of understanding and learning that we cannot learn otherwise. Through the Holy Spirit, God gives us secrets directly. To grow in your life with God, this is a topic you should study further. There won't be enough space for it here, but at WonByOne, you can get a start on teaching on this as well. Regardless, the Bible is the only true source of truth and life, so try to give yourself good habits of reading God's Word, the Bible, every day. It will give you power and strength every single day!
8. Prophecies and Jesus' Second Coming
Just as in the Old Testament there were more than 300 prophecies about Jesus coming as our Savior and Redeemer, there are at least as many prophecies in the Bible that tell us Jesus will come a second time and that this earth will come to an end.
When Jesus comes the second time, He will only come to take home to heaven those who believe in Him. The Bible tells us that this will happen in a blink of an eye, and this time He will not stay on earth as He did 2000 years ago.
The Bible also tells us that in the last days, there will be great tribulation and that there will come an Antichrist whom the world will believe to be Jesus. This Antichrist is sent by the devil in an attempt to deceive the whole world. The devil's jealousy of God and the salvation we humans can get in Jesus torments him.
To distinguish the Antichrist from Jesus, we can understand it by the fact that the Antichrist becomes a "saving" world leader, while Jesus' second coming happens in a moment, where He then only brings home to heaven those who have received Him as their savior.
This world will come to an end, where the sin and destruction the devil has introduced will come to an end. This reckoning is going to be terrible. Afterward, there will come a new heaven and a new earth where God reigns. It is to this new heaven and new earth that God will lead the saved souls who believe in Him.
The Bible gives us some prophecies explaining what will happen in the last days, before this happens. This is for us to understand the time we live in and that we can trust that God will save us from the wrath the devil casts over us humans. It is now about 2000 years since these prophecies were written, and today we can see that this is about to happen.
For example, the Bible tells us that there will come a mark that can be taken on the hand or forehead. Without this mark, eventually no one will be able to buy or sell anything. This mark is referred to as the mark of the beast, and the beast is the Antichrist. As followers of Jesus, we should not take this mark, which today we are familiar with as a data chip in the hand.
The geographical area the Bible stories deal with is mainly centered around Israel and the Middle East. It describes how the Jews were allocated the land of Israel about 1300 years before the birth of Jesus and that the Jewish people became a chosen people of God. Our salvation therefore comes from the Jews, for us Gentiles who believe and receive salvation in Jesus Christ, we are grafted into the same love of God and salvation for His chosen people.
However, what the Bible explains is that in the last days before Jesus comes again and the Antichrist takes over for a short while. At that time, the whole world will turn against Israel and hate the Jews.
For more than 2000 years ago, it was prophesied in the Bible that the Jews would get back their land after losing it, and that they would eventually return to their homeland.
Looking around the world, we can see that we are now in the midst of this. This has now happened, that they have regained their land and they are in the process of returning to their homeland. Now that this is happening, it is important that we bless them, pray for them, and understand that this must happen for the Bible's word about a total restoration to come true.
9. Eternity and Passing It On!
The Bible gives us a few glimpses of what heaven and eternity are like. Among other things, it tells us that in heaven there will be no crying or gnashing of teeth, there will also be no sickness or death. It also tells us that Jesus is preparing rooms for us and that the streets are made of gold.
The Bible also explains damnation. It says that it is an eternal burning torment. This place is called hell in the Bible.
Since we have been given the opportunity to hear the Word of God and that we know the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we believe what the Bible tells us. The biblical stories align with archaeology. The prophetic words in the Bible align with how the world is now developing, and the Holy Spirit in us confirms God's love for us.
To all those who have not yet heard this saving gospel, we want to share this good news of salvation and deliverance.
If you have experienced this salvation, you are encouraged to share your faith in Jesus Christ. It will be a true act of love to do this, even though it will also be challenging.
God, I pray for the one who has just read this booklet. Confirm yourself with Your Holy Spirit in this person's heart.
Overflow this person with your joy and peace and fill this person with Your love for all people, even those who are enemies.
I pray for the Jesus' blood protection, life, and good health.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen!
Warm regards,
WonByOne
by Arvid
Information:
WonByOne is a website that simply explains the faith the Bible provides. WonByOne is not directly affiliated with a specific church denomination but aligns with the evangelical Bible that is over 2000 years old.
WonByOne's goal is for everyone to have the opportunity to understand the content of the Bible in an easily understandable manner.
WonByOne means "Won by One," as the main theme of the Bible is that we are all won by Jesus Christ!