Chapter 2: How Was Hope Lost?
Why is there so little hope in our world? The stories of Krista, Aaron, and Sue in Chapter 1 are not true stories. Yet, these same things happen every day to people all around us. In fact, hopelessness may be a part of your life, too.
In this chapter, we want to tell you why there is so much hopelessness in our world. Later, we will tell you what Jesus has done for us in order to give each of us real hope.
But first, we need to explain how God originally designed us to live.
God designed us to be holy
Before God created the universe, he had already decided on the best way for human beings to live. He wanted to make them with the ability to reach their full potential in order to live completely satisfying lives.
But it may surprise you to learn that the very best way for us to live is to be holy. Holy is what God is. He has no fault, hatred, greed, or desire to hurt or take advantage of others. Because God is holy, we can fully trust him to do what is always best for each of us. (Of course, sometimes what is best for us is not what we always want! Many people can tell of difficult experiences which they later realized made them a better person.)
This is what God said in the Bible:
[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him (Ephesians 1:4).[1][1]Bible references (the address for verses in the Bible) are given in parentheses after each quotation. The first word is the name of the book. If you look in the index at the front of a Bible, you will find the name of each book and its page number. The first number after the name is the chapter number. The numbers after the colon (:) are the verse numbers. A few books in the Bible have two (or three) parts. This is indicated by a 1, a 2 (or in one case, a 3) in front of the book's name. For example, there are two books named 1 Peter and 2 Peter. In one case, there is 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. When long quotations are used in this book, the quotation will begin with the Book name, chapter and verse citation, and will continue with chapter and verse citations before each verse. The full reference will again be given at the end of the complete citation.
Can you imagine living in a world where everyone was completely holy and could be described as being without any blemish or fault before God? Because they were holy, they would always treat each other with respect. People would never be taken advantage of, treated unfairly, or racially profiled. That would certainly make everyone's life worthwhile, giving them the best opportunity to reach their highest potential. Can you imagine living a life without hatred or any desire to get even with others? Imagine wanting others to profit from something just as much as you want to profit from it yourself, and being able to trust people completely. But most of all, can you imagine being holy and without fault before God, loving him so much that you would want to be holy because that is what he wants you to be?
There is a problem, of course. None of us are able to be holy, nor do we even want to be holy. In Chapter 4, we will tell you what Jesus has already done so that we can be holy, and also want to be holy.
Why is there so much hopelessness?
There is so little hope today because we are trying to live in a way that is different from how we were designed to live. For example, the human body was not designed to use meth, crack, alcohol, ecstasy, and marijuana. When we use these drugs as substitutes for the way we were designed to live, hopelessness often results. How many hopeless people do you know who are struggling with addictions?
But there are many other worse examples than substance abuse. In fact, some of humanity's greatest problems come from such things as greed, injustice, and trying to gain power over others. Human beings were not designed to take advantage of other people in order to become rich, nor to mistreat other ethnic groups so that the rich and powerful could have all of the advantages. We were not designed to destroy the environment so that we could build businesses for our own profit, leaving others with an impoverished and broken world.
There is so much hopelessness today because we are living differently than we were designed to live.
The beginning of hopelessness
In this book, we will allow God to speak for himself. In order to do that, we will quote the Bible itself rather than trying to summarize what it says. This is what the Bible says about the time when hopelessness began:
Genesis 1:27 God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them. 1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 1:29 God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh[2] God had made. He said to the woman, "Has God really said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'" (Editor's note: Satan — also known as the Devil — appeared as a beautiful serpent.)
[2]Yahweh is the name of God which is given in the first part of the Bible (the Old Testament). The actual English translation of his name into English would be, I Am, because God gave his name to Moses as I Am Who I Am (Exodus 3:13-14). When the sound of his name in the original language of the Old Testament is written in English letters, it is Yahweh. When the Bible was first translated into English over 400 years ago, the capital letters "LORD" were substituted for God's name. Most English Bibles have translated the Old Testament in the same way since. However, the public domain translation we are using (The World English Bible [WEB]) uses God's actual name.3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, 3:3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
3:4 The serpent said to the woman, "You won't surely die, 3:5 for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. 3:7 The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 3:8 They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
3:9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
3:10 The man said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
3:11 God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
3:12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
3:13 Yahweh God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
3:14 Yahweh God said to the serpent,
"Because you have done this,
you are cursed above all livestock,
and above every animal of the field.
On your belly you shall go,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel."
3:16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.
In pain you will bear children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
3:17 To Adam he said,
"Because you have listened to your wife's voice,
and have eaten of the tree,
of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground for your sake.
In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
3:18 It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
and you will eat the herb of the field.
3:19 By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken.
For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."
3:20 The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 3:21 Yahweh God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
3:22 Yahweh God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..." 3:23 Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 1:27-29, 3:1-24).
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