Is God Real, or Just a word?

This essay is designed to explore the mystery of God. Whether you’re a Christian or not I think it will be an enjoyable read but, I feel as if this may be aimed more towards anyone who already believes in God. So, if you are that person, keep reading! If not, it’s okay, I wont be mad at you. A lot of people see God as a mystery, a word we use to explain everything we cannot explain, but is that true? Is he more than just a word? I believe he is but I want to dive deeper into the thought that people think he is just a word. 

I know to a lot of people God is just a thought. But to me he is everything. I truly believe that God created everything this world has to offer. And I know it’s hard to believe for a lot of people. It’s hard to think that someone we have never seen has the superhuman ability to create a whole universe. And that leads to why people don’t believe that he is real. It’s like believing in teleportation or invisibility. But the difference is, God is almost like that invisible character. He is omnipresent which means he is everywhere at all times. To start this essay, I will first need to introduce our two “main characters.” Jesus and God. It’s easy to remember, Jesus is God’s son. God gave a virgin, Mary, a child and he was to be named Jesus. God sent Jesus to save every last human to ever be on Earth from any sin we may encounter whether you believe in him or not. I don’t want this to seem like I’m “preaching” to you or pushing something onto you so I’m throwing out a warning: I will be referencing bible verses and such so if you want to stop reading go right on ahead, and if not I thank you for taking the time out to listen to all the things that go on inside this (crazy) brain of mine. There’s a couple main issues or topics that I would like to discuss to prove my whole point. These topics include, the drying up of the Euphrates river, false prophets, the war in Israel, the mark of the beast, and the four fallen angels. These will all be proof, to the best of my ability, that God is real. I will be sourcing the Bible, as it was written before any of these events have taken place, along with some other references to prove that these are in fact currently taking place. I will be using the King James Version as my source. 

To begin, the drying up of the Euphrates river. This one kind of coincides with a fallen angel as well. In Revelation 16:12 it states, “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” The Euphrates river provides Israel with protection, as it is difficult to cross. What Jesus is saying here is that the river WILL be dried up. This also goes along with another verse. John 3:16 states, “Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, release the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” According to The Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources warns that “the river could be dry by 2040” (CSIS 2023). It seems like a long ways away but 2040 is only 16 years away. That’s not a longtime at all. Now to get to the John 3:16 verse. I need to first introduce who the four fallen angels are. Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel are four of the fallen angels, Satan is also considered one. Fallen angels were originally good angels who turned against God. God bound these angels under the Euphrates river. And this next piece of evidence is hard to believe. And if you don’t believe it, that’s okay with me because its a weird one. In the low parts of the Euphrates, the part that has dried up the most recently, under the Euphrates, caves were found. They were said to appear very scary, and if you’ve seen the picture they are, and they almost resemble jail cells (TACTW 2023). The craziest part of this is that there are four of them. Now think about it, four cave/jails, four fallen angels…like I said it’s crazy but it is a piece of evidence. Jesus said that the river will be parted for the kings to make their way. These fallen angels will assemble all of the kings in the world to battle against God at a set location. So like I said, all of this is crazy to think about, like it’s a made up story, and to some people it is, but to those who believe, this is happening right now and we know we probably don’t have a ton of time left. 

Next, I would like to discuss the false prophets. A false prophet is someone who spreads fake messages while claiming to speak the word of God or claiming to be God. In the book of Matthew 7:15 Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” He also says in Matthew 24:24, “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even elect.” I found an article from 2021, that talks about 8 men around the world who claimed to be Jesus. These people include Inri Crsto from Brazil, Alan John Miller from Australia, Apollo Quiboloy from the Philippines, Vissarion from Siberia, Oscar Ramiro Ortega Hernandez from the United States, Bupete Chibew Chishimba from Zambia, Wayne Bent from New Mexico, and Ann Sahng-Hong from South Korea. These are only a couple examples, there are many many more people around the world claiming to be Jesus. These men run around claiming that they are Jesus and that God talked to them telling them they are Jesus and things like that. Some of these men have even got kicked out of their country’s. And most of them are cult leaders. While writing the Bible and living through it, Jesus wanted everyone to know that there is only One God and only one Jesus Christ Other religions may think differently and have their “Gods” but God, the father of Jesus, is the only one to give us eternal life in Heaven with him. I don’t care what religion you believe in because we all think that our God is superior. And like I said, you and I may believe in different Gods and that is totally okay. As long as we all get along with each other we can believe in anything we want to believe in. 

I now want to talk about the war in Israel. The Bible says that in the end times, Israel will scatter and regather. After the Holocaust, no one thought that Jewish people would ever regain their homeland and lives but on May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation. In Ezekiel 37-38 it speaks about the regathering of Israel and how it would be attacked by a large force from the north called Magog. Russia is to the north of Israel. But why would Russia ever want to invade Israel? If Russia is Magog, then they will want to fight with one of their allies which is Persia. Persia is the old name for Iran. This shows that the Bible predicted the war in Israel right now. The craziest part though, is that not once has Russia and Persia formed a bond, but recently Russia signed a billion dollar deal to sell missiles to Iran (TIP 2023). Although this may be a huge coincidence, I believe all the prophecies in the Bible are now coming to fruition. They are all unfolding before our eyes.

And last but certainly not least, I would like to talk about the mark of the beast. In Revelation 13:15-18 Jesus claims, “And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.” The “beast” that Jesus is referring to is Satan or the devil. New technologies have been released allowing people to be able to pay with their phones. But after that, just recently, people have been able to pay with a chip in their hands. People are also now able to unlock their cars with their hands. Now I know those verses say that the mark will have either his name or number (666) on our hand or forehead but, this is one step closer to that I feel like. The verse says that no one will be able to buy or sell unless he has the mark. How long until paying for an item at the grocery store can only be done by using a chip in your hand? How long until we are not able to sell things to people unless they have the chip? I don’t think it will be long until all of this happens. Especially with the continual advance of technology. 

I would now like to discuss my claim. I truly do not believe that God is a word we use to describe the things we cannot explain. I have given examples of things that he has prophesied and fulfilled so now we need to discuss him. If God created Jesus, and Jesus was who the Bible was written about, don’t you think God knew everything that was going to happen. For example, if you’re talking about the wars in Israel, instead of saying “Oh my God,” you could change that to “God help us.” “Oh my God” makes it sound like you’re mad at him or like you don’t know what’s going on or don’t know what else to say. But if you ask him to help, it shows that you know he is doing what he promised to do, but we need his guidance in the process. We can see through these examples I have explained and by way more that are in the Bible I did not talk about, that God created the whole world and he knew everything that was going to happen way before it actually happened. He put his plans in place and one day will come back to take all of his followers home. 

So like I said in the beginning of this. This read was more aimed towards people that believe in God already, but if you stuck through and don’t believe in him, I hope I gave you a glimpse of what I and many others see. We see a figure that we can look up to when times are rough, we see someone we can talk to when we feel as if no one else is listening, we see someone who can help us through the hardest times of our lives if we just stop and listen to him, talk to him, and read about him. Everything we ever need to know is in the Bible. Life may be hard and for us believers that doesn’t change. What does change though, is we still have our faith to lean back to no matter what. So no, God is NOT just some word. However, he is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

References:

Access your bible from anywhere. BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages. (n.d.). https://www.biblegateway.com/

Esh. (2021, December 6). 8 men around the world who claimed to be jesus. Medium. https://medium.com/the-collector/8-men-around-the-world-who-claimed-to-be-jesus-5f749521c444

Iran & russia: Burgeoning military ties. The Iran Primer. (2023, September 5). https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2023/may/18/iran-russia-burgeoning-military-ties

K, K. (2023, June 1). The Euphrates River dried up and this mysterious cave appeared. The Archaeologist. https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/the-euphrates-river-dried-up-and-this-mysterious-cave-appeared

The future of the Euphrates River. The Future of the Euphrates River. (2023, February 27). https://features.csis.org/the-future-of-the-Euphrates-River/#:~:text=The%20Euphrates%20River%20is%20at,could%20be%20dry%20by%202040.