The Salvation of All Mankind

God created the Heavens and the Earth, and in this Earth, God created men and women, (or mankind.) He created them in his own image, which does not necessarily mean our physical form is that of God's, but perhaps our non-physical form, namely the way our minds work, our emotions and our capacity to love. At least, originally they were in God's own image. For those who do not know the story, the first man was Adam, and his wife was named Eve. They lived in a special garden set aside for them by God. In this garden, the Devil himself deceived them, and caused them to disobey God. The Devil came to be on the Earth because, once an Angel of music, he sought to rival God's power and authority, and as punishment he was banished from Heaven to live for eternity in Hell, which is beneath the Earth. (This may not surprise some people, who firmly believe in 'Hollow Earth Theory'.) Opposing everything that God is, the Devil sought to destroy and corrupt God's greatest creation, mankind. Successfully turning mankind away from God, there was only one possible consequence for man; the same punishment that the Devil himself was dealt - to spend eternity in hell. "For the wages of sin is death," and in Biblical terms, death is complete separation from God in this place called Hell. But God would not be defeated; he is the almighty above all things. He decided that he would send a saviour, one who would bear the price man had to pay in place of man. This is similar to, perhaps, your own father paying off a loan shark for you.

Satan's Scheme

Knowing of God's plan to save mankind, Satan, the Devil, tried time after time to foil God's plans. He sent his minions to interbreed with the daughters of men (Genesis 6) to try and prevent the saviour from being born, (like the Terminator trying to kill Sarah Connor so that John Connor would not be born.) But God sent a flood and wiped out all of mankind with the exception of Noah and his family, who would carry on the lineage to the birth of the saviour. Then Satan kept God's people in slavery in Egypt until God sent Moses to set them free. And all through their trek through the desert to the promised land where God wanted them to go after Moses had set them free, Satan was preparing to wipe them out again, filling the promised land with his unholy offspring; giants, the most famous of which was Goliath. This persecution of God's people went on and on throughout Biblical history, but God remained victories right up to and beyond the birth of Jesus Christ.

The Saviour Arrives None the Less

It had been predicted for centuries prior through prophets of God that Christ was the saviour, in such detail as to his name and place of birth. There is almost no denying that Jesus Christ was the saviour of man, sent by God, as events even prior to his birth, throughout his life, and even beyond his death occurred in accordance to the intricate detail to which they had been predicted in Biblical writings many thousands of years prior to their occurrence. Christ came to win the victory, and that victory has been won. Since the wages of sin is death, Christ had to die. And die he did, on a wooden cross. But it was not this kind of death that was to save us, but the afore mentioned death in the Biblical sense. Jesus Christ, who was undoubtedly the son of God and in fact, though hard for us to understand, was God himself, descended into Hell. What a sacrifice, for God Himself to enter Hell! As though it weren't bad enough for us to enter it, God Himself went there; but God, having all power and all authority would not be held captive in this place. He seized the keys to death, and now He holds them, having complete authority over it.

The Saga Continues

But Christ came to save all mankind. Prior to his death on the cross, there was no salvation for man. If you were born and died before Christ's death on the cross, you were destined for Hell, and there was nothing you could do about it; there wasn't back then, and still isn't now, anything you could do to save yourself from Hell. So while Jesus was in Hell, he preached to the people who were there. His message was the same as the one he gives you and me; choose to accept his gift of salvation; choose Him as your Lord and saviour. As the Bible aptly points out, man must serve something; we must ultimately bow down and submit to something. Those people in Hell had the chance to take the "get out of Hell free card" that Christ was offering them, and I dare say many of them did. Yet some of them did not. This seems quite strange to me; you would have to be insane not to accept this once in an eternity opportunity to escape Hell. Christ was only there for three days, after which He rose again in victory. Some may think that this was not very fair on those in Hell; to be offering this great opportunity for escape for such a short time. Lucky for us, he has given us an entire lifetime to take advantage of this opportunity. Wouldn't you be even more insane not to accept? As the Bible points out, in comparison to eternity, our life is like the blink of an eye. If I offered you the chance to get out of Hell for just the amount of time it takes to blink, would you hesitate or stutter for an instant?