Why Did God Create Man?

Children always ask their parents, "Why did God create me?" Television shows often depict parents as being totally unable to answer that question but the answer can be found in the Christian world at the time of a young person's Confirmation. I can give the answer outright, but to stretch everyone's intellect a little bit, I will ask, "What can you do for the first time right after your Confirmation?" The answer (pause a little before you read this) is that you can take Communion.

The Christian ritual of Communion is symbolic of the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to Earth to set and example and to teach us. He died on the cross so that we might be redeemed and he created the Body of Christ so that we could be bound up in Him and transform the world. His blood was shed for us and His body was broken so that we could take part in the renewing of our minds and the salvation of our souls.

The 40 I Ams bind Christians. We are bound together in Jesus' Divine nature and take part as a group as His body and as His hands and feet.

Essentially, God created man so that He may have sentient beings to relate to. People study Godly topics, pray, and work all in the framework of what God provides for them.

It seems to me that when the brotherhood of man is no longer around, God is going to be awfully lonely talking to cockroaches. See what I mean?

The doctrines of the afterlife and the resurrection of the dead give hope that life is not terminated at death and that this life isn't the beginning and end of one's unique existence. There is more later.

It is also a question as to whether of not there is sentient life on other planets and if so, how to they go about their lives? Do they have to work, pray, study etc.? It is a hard question to answer because the known universe doesn't seem to have a second world where there is anything like the human race. In fact, I am not even sure if other worlds have animals like dogs, insects or aquatic animals too.

Many people deny that animals have souls or spirits. I claim they do. I have over 30 years of experience adopting animals and I walked dogs for all that time. Each animal my family adopted (see my pieces on Duchess, Zeus, Princess and the Curative Powers of Pets which talks about them and Buddy too) gave me a new perspective and these animals not only were fun but were critical in my fighting off my depression years before I was put on medication.

My contention is that even my family's dogs had a basic concept of right and wrong. Duchess especially always knew when Zeus transgressed and could have been hurt. I will illustrate:

One day, Zeus jumped up on the sink's counter and he dragged the toaster oven onto the floor. Duchess met my mom at the door with her head held really low and she was squinting a lot signifying that she was aware that something was amiss.

My mother came into the house and looked at what had happened and told Zeus, "You idiot, you could have been electrocuted!" Duchess was way too small to jump on the counter so we knew it wasn't her.

Duchess was the brightest of my family's adopted canine family. But Zeus was smart when it came to his stomach. One day, my father forgot to feed him and he went to the area where we stored his dog food and he picked up a can in his huge maw and threw the can at my Dad's feet. And you think dogs can't reason? I know differently.

I always used to tell my father that the dogs have a mashiach ("messiah") too and when their redeemer comes, we'll be sitting on the floor and the dogs will be sitting at the table.

My father used to tell Duchess, "Speak!" Well, she had a way of making her thoughts known anyway.

Now, I believe that man is the crown of God's creation. In Hebrew and Chasidic philosophy, man is called medaber or "speaking being." Our ability to communicate on such a high level enables us to commune with the Lord, build our civilizations, create inventions and engage in commerce. This takes us right back to what I was saying at the beginning of this piece.

Prophecy is the highest form of communication between God and man, and I know several people in my church, including myself that get frequent communication from God all the time. I am in good company in my church.

I will explain this on a subsequent piece on prophecy and bibliomancy.