Do you believe in God?

13chick,

You are young and will grow exceedingly more into your future with knowledge that you do not yet have before you.

The main thing is to grant all others the RIGHT to believe differently than you. More importantly, grant them the privilege of “arguing” their beliefs with you as that will give you more information upon which to alter or validate your own beliefs.

  in my opinion:

First “created”/caused were spirits/souls which came into being prior to the existence/creation of time and matter. (Somewhere within the existence of God.)

Next “created”/caused was the Universe, and “Time”, which came into being at the instant of the “Big Bang” and allowed for the evolution of matter and the physical environment(s).

Next “caused” was the evolution of Life which allowed for the occupancy of matter by the spirits/souls.

Ultimate goal/purpose:

Acquisition of knowledge/experience by the spirits/souls and eventual rejoining into the Oneness of God.

“who is God? where is God?”

The answers to those two questions depend upon what religious faith you accept as valid – and there are many to choose from!

in my opinion

1. God created/caused our spirits (entities) along with the universe to come into being. God established the purpose for it all but doesn’t involve Its self in the continuance or activities of same.

2. “Sin” is man’s concept and is utilized by men to control other men. The human caused “negative events” that take place are circumstances that are considered by us in the non-life experience between incarnations as we evaluate the successes and failures we made as we attempted to achieve our goals during our incarnations.

3. The Bible (and similar religious books) is a necessary concoction created by man to control man and his environment. It was necessary because mankind, in its infancy, did not have the medical and technological knowledge to conquer and understand its environment so had to be controlled by superstitions which were found to save lives and further the survivability of the various human societies.

Why did God make the world?

in my opinion, God diversified Itself into Its many parts and charged those parts (entities) to go forth and acquire knowledge and experience and to then return to the Oneness of God.

The entities caused the creation of the universe and everything therein and individually choose to inhabit the physical bodies.

The entities may incarnate/reincarnate many times before gravitating back into the Oneness of God.

SPECULATIONS

Speculation: 1 Is God necessary?

Yes!

There has to be a Source from which the “big bang” sprang forth Creating the universe.

Speculation: 2 What is God?

God is the ultimate Cause.

God is the Creative Entity, Energy or Force from which all is derived.

Speculation: 3 Where is God?

God is in a state of awareness that is outside the universe.

God has morphed part of Itself into those entities (spirits) that inhabit the universe and the physical bodies within.

Speculation: 4 Why is God?

God Is because God Is.

God is eternal, existing independent of time or the universe.

Speculation: 5 Is God concerned?

No!

God is not concerned with the daily functioning of the universe or matters within it. That is our domain and subject to our whim.

Speculation: 6 What are we?

We are the spirits (entities) of God.

God morphed into Us and we continue to create according to God’s purpose.

Our physical bodies are simply the means we use to experience and function in the physical dimension.

Speculation: 7 Why are we?

We are for the purpose of gaining knowledge and experience.

In the end, we gravitate back into the Oneness of God allowing for the fulfillment of God.

Speculation: 8 Evolution

Evolution is simply a tool of Creation.

The entities often influence the direction of evolution along desired paths.

From my chosen path I stray, Yet my God any’er turns away; For I have learned – and understand, That where God is – is where I am!

yeah I do of course! He is so amazing! if you dont know him you lost! just give it a try go to church and your life will change! I am sure about that! and I have many reasons to beleive in him! I am sure he is real! he love us! also you! accept him in your life you are on time

GOD IS REAL! MORE REAL THAN THE AIR WE BREATHE!!! FOR THE ONES THAT SAID THEY BELIEVE IN GOD PLEASE HELP ME PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE THAT SAID NO!

wow how could y’all say no…that’s a shame…but anyways yes of course I believe . I believe that everyone on this earth should believe in him because nobody wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for God. So yes I do believe in jesus he didn’t give his life for all of us to have for just for someone to turn around and say no I don’t believe in jesus that is just so wrong…

yes I do and the feeling after praying is that you just come out from your mothers womb not beliving on god means that this earth would be in big mess people will not be behaving the way they are

Of course I belive in God, You mean you don’t?

no I have dignity thanks…

nebula, do you love anybody? Like actually believe you love somebody?

Prove it

I believe in a higher being, but not “God”

yes… I do…lol…

no

13chick, how nice. So I’m insane for failing to believe in your god?

Imagine the following scenario. There are people who believe reptilians are behind all major human events. One of these people says “open your eyes! if you can’t see it I feel sorry for you! you are CRAZY!”

How would you react to that? You’re god talk sounds as nuts to me as reptilian talk probably sounds to you.

Nebula, I don’t say people HAVE to believe. I’m just implying that people will tend to believe what they have experienced and feel they can trust. That’s going to be different for different people. But trust, as in ‘relying and depending’ on others as well as ourselves, doesn’t sound too bad to me.

no

I can not, not believe

yes I do

Yes, I do.

no

OF COURSE!…

no duh!… do you?

Sorry if that sounded like im a religious nut, but its as simple as that. I know everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, and thats fine. But just think about that question anyway, because thats exactly the same thing.

Only those whose names are found to be in the Book of Life, when opened judgement day will enter Heaven - I genuinely hope and pray yours will be there.

OH YEA! Jesus ROCKS!!!

Why are we in the most perfect position in the galaxy to support life? If we were any closer to the sun we would burn. If we were any further from the sun, we would freeze. The scientist’s ‘Big bang’ theory may have actually happened, and yet they don’t know exactly why it started to. The answer? God.

I love him with all my heart. Sure, I disagree with organised religion because man has corrupted it into something of his own doing, and God’s probably up there shaking his head. There is a difference between ‘religion’ and having ‘faith’.

I hope everyone who doesn’t believe gets that awesome experience of suddenly being hit by something you cant describe. All I know is that I’m not alone, and I’m going someplace worthwhile when I die. So, to answer your question, I do believe in Him.

I sure do.

Yes

Somewhat.

No not really, but I have nothing against people who do.

To Peacemakin:

I appreciate your input, and it looks like you have spent quite a bit of time thinking about what you believe and why.

The point that I was trying to make before is this: if there is no God, then there is no basis for acting morally. Some say that all people have a set of values and morality already born into them (I agree by the way) and each person should just decide for themselves the best way to think and act and what works for them.

The point I was trying to make by introducing the Soviets and Chinese communists is that if there is no set standard of morality, then people will legally be able to force other people into immpossible situations in the name of a “higher good.” The Great Purges in the 1930s and the “Great leat forward” in the late 1950s have demonstrated that governments will sacrifice the individual rights of the people for political or “higher” social gain.

I’m not trying to say that governments should establish a religion. I am trying to say that governments need to recognize the natural and unalienable rights of mankind in order to better society. Incidently, if there is no God, then there is no basis for man to have any rights at, and the government has no duty or reason to protect them. In that case, there is not reason why the Soviet and Chinese communist governments should be considered “in the wrong” for what they did. (“what they did” by the way refers to the murder and starvation of more than 100 million people).

It is unfortunately true that many peole have been killed and mamed in the name of religion. However, if you add up all the people who have been killed because of religious persecutors, they will not equal then number of people that died at the hands of atheist governments in the 20th century.

You have said that you don’t know why people believe in God, and that we have done just fine without him. I beg to differ. If the imerical evidence proves anything, it proves that atheism has been more potent in the destruction of human life than any religion ever has been.

John Paul 2 wrote at length about the value and inherent dignity of the human person. In his writings and by his witness, I have seen the terrible atrocities that have been perpetrated on the basis of so-called “higher purposes” for society. As a Catholics we are fully humanists. Some people have trouble understanding that that is the case, but in reading the writings of the recent popes and the second vatican council, it becomes clear. But I digress.

I am not trying to say that I want to combine the Church and the government. That would be (and has been) disasterous. I am saying that in order for governments to execute there purpose (“to protect these rights” as Jefferson worded it in the Declaration of Independence”) they need to first recognize and respect the inherent dignity of mankind. If they don’t, then they will inevidably become abusive to those rights. They will have the potential to destroy literally millions of lives. They have the track record of doing just that.

Going back through the ages, the great reformers have always been religious people, in one way or another. The most notable recent figures are Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Ghandhi. Please, don’t be too hasty to group all religions and religious people in the same categories.

Of course I do

Oh yeah. He’s bailed my out of tight spots MILLIONS of times! I don’t know where I would be right now if it wasn’t for him!

Toadaly, your opinion is valid and respected. But why is your experience MORE valid and MORE to be respected than those of people with other ideas? Your experience and opinion have led you to one conclusion, the people who say ‘read the Bible’ have had different experiences and hold different opinions. Each of us believes we’re right, otherwise we wouldn’t stick to our beliefs. On this question, the Christians and those of other faiths have been fairly respectful of those who have different opinions. I personally would like to see that on all questions, from atheists and believers alike. Intelligent debate is not beyond us - or is that just an example of ‘blind faith’ on my part?

not really I mean really think about it. its a dumb made up story that makes no sense and isnt even posible

yes. but not within the constraints of any particular organized religion. I respect all religions and whatever they call their G-d.

Which god? No, I don’t believe in any of them.

I love the advice given to ‘go read the Bible’. How on earth is that going to help someone learn anything real. The Bible is as much a fairy tale as the god it promotes.

Flossheal, head your own advice before pushing it on me. I would ask YOU the same question you asked me, why is your experience MORE valid and MORE to be respected than those of people with other ideas? If it isn’t, then to suggest to others to ‘go read the Bible’ to figure out whether or not a god exists, is merely an expression of your bias.

I do for sure. by the way nebula God is possible. Explain how he isnt. God decided to have you be born, live and sadly make the opinion your making now. God is real. Unless you consider the Bible made up by some freak. The theory of evolution is impossible, the man who made it up himself said in the end of his life that it cant be true. the earth a billion million infinity years old, God made it to look that way.

iprincess, it is NOT true that Darwin recanted evolution. That’s a legend. You just admitted it is possible that the Bible was ‘made up by some freak’. Explain why that is so unlikely. Freaks write books all the time.

no…I dont beleive in any god or any religion I never did, I never will and everything about god seems to be crap…if hes so perfect why do a lot of christians hate homosexuals?…why did ‘god’ create all these people with different opinons and beleifes only to have the ones who follow him go to ‘heaven’ and live? why did he create all these people who hate each other or kill each other? why is “god” different in every other country? in reality there is no real evidence of a ‘god’ ever existing and the so called “bible” was writen by MORE than one person I dont give a crap about anything god or religion has to do with but I dont care if other people believe in him or there other religion poeple can beleive in anything they want to beleive in…and they should leave people who dont beleive in any of it alone…

I do! I dont see the different theories out there as proving god doesnt exist…With all the different positions of how we came to be…they are only touching basis with the substances of gods miraculous creation!

everyone believes in god just like everyone believes in santa claus I am colorblind, yet in grade school I “knew” that apples are red and the sky is blue. it turns out I was wrong in both counts. granny apples are green. and the sky is a bejewelled fluorescent black over the plains in the rez. god and truth are One. truth is. it exists. it is right. it is true. no matter what you call it. the moment you call it “GOD” it does not cease to be truth .. However, the moment you begin to ascribe ANYTHING of our provable reality to this “GOD” (e.g., it is male or female or sexless (oops!) or 3 or 1 or a pantheon or omniscient or judgemental or the author of transcendental books to us and worthy of honor and glory forever and ever .. then all bets are off. you have just created an IMAGE thru which True Truth must be funnelled. Religion par excellence is the limiting of the human experience in obeasance [sp?] to one of these truthless GODS.

Yes, I do believe in God.

Here is a piece of the puzzle that went into my understanding of God. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and governments are instituted among men to protect these rights.”

I grew up studying American history, and have been contemplating the significance of that statment.

The entire legal system and philosophy on which human civilization is built depends on the inherant rights of man. It finally occurred to me that if there is no God, then mankind has no fundamental rights. That means that human beings are just masses of “muscle and blood and skin and bone” (to quote Tennessee Ernie Ford).

There have been major groups over the centuries that have taught exactly that philosophy. The most notable were the atheist governments that came to power in the 20th century in the USSR and the People’s Republic of China. The Soviet Union killed 20 million of its own citizens during the great purges in the 1930s. It killed even more of its own citizens during WW2.

The major reason that I am a Catholic today is from Pope John Paul 2 and the Second Vatican council. That pope came from Poland, was in a forced labor camp during the War, and ran the Archdiocese of Krakow underground during the reign of the Soviet Iron curtain following the war.

He witnessed first hand what happens when mankind loses its understanding of the dignity of the human person. The second Vatican Council wrote on the dignity of humanity (see Gaudium et Spes) and the universal call to holiness (see Lumen Gentium). Pope John Paul helped open my eyes because of his personal witness to the abuses of humanity. He exhorted the human race as a whole to recognize and affirn the dignity of all human life (see Christifidelis Laici, Evangelium Vitae, and Mulieres Dignitatem).

In short, without religion, mankind as a whole is not capable of recognizing the dignity of the human person let alone act accordingly. As evidence of that perspective, we have the great purges of the 1930s, the Soviet and Chinese self-inflicted causulties of WW2 and the Chinese “Cultural Revolution” of the 1960s (which killed about 67,000,000 people).

As I said at the beginning of this post, this is just a piece of the puzzle. I have several other reasons for believing in God. Some of them are logical proofs that various people have developed over the centuries. Some are less concrete. This reason that I have stated here is one that I think is just one that seems more down to earth to me.

Religion and polotics are never a good thing to ask, everyone has their own perception on the universe. I myself belive that the Earth was fourmed by the gravitational pull of moltant iron (iron is the dencest metarial on earth when moltan) and gasses in this “Goldielocks” zone made it suitable for the earth to be fourmed. I think Life is created by the fourming of Acids into amino Acids into genes, membrains, and so on. Then the cells would have to have some sort of ressive defect that makes it better for them to survive. which is passed on through population growth. Then as that keeps happening. When it comes to Monkeys, here is the thing that ticks off most people (sorry kelli). I think monkey- tecnicly sapians became humans. In Africa, where humans are originaly from(both creationism and evolution basicly agree on that much). They Apes developed musceles in the knees, and an uprite pelvus. This provided an Advantage in grass lands, we also have arches on our feet. The True proof of this evolution is this: There is a slab of petfide Ash where there is foot prints with ARCHES on the feet. Monkeys have flat feet, which means they cannot walk for too long uprite. Sorry if I may ofended anyone, but this ‘tis my own theory on life. Life was made with no porpuse, Life was made by quincedince. Many may have difficulty grasping that, but I do not want to push my ways onto people.

well I don’t know if I do.ther ewas atime when I didnt believe in god. I told my mom and she made me go 2 church every Sunday!!!

I am really happy for the people that said they do believe in him! beacuse gues what he is REAL! dont waste your time and accept him in yout life! open your heart to him! your life is much better with him! for the people that said no! you are CRAZY! if you dont have god in your life than you dont have anything! I am 13 years old and I love him and I really believe in him and I am proud of that! and I am only 13 and I have expirienced many thing and many incredible stuff that has happened in my life! And all has happened beacuse of God! just read the bible or got o church! I promise your life will change totally if you have God in you! God loves everyone of us! he deserves love back!

Amblessed, suppose that when you die, your lights just go out, and your body rots away, and you cease to exist for all eternity. Does that seem scary to you? Are you even capable of imaging such a scenario?

How much does your fear of this explain your beliefs? I’ll wager money you will not even seriously consider this possibility.

Everyone has faith! Did you wake up this morning? Did the sun come up? Did your parent make you breakfast…again? If you put your key in the ignition and turn it, will your vehicle start? Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above! If you take a step forward do your muscles propel you forward? Did you just blink your eyes or take in a breath of precious and meticulously proportioned air that your body cannot live without? See all that grass on the hills, and the trees that point straight up, He planted it all, for His Glory. Take a drink of water and we need more. Drink the living water and thirst no more. Where can we find living water? Through Jesus, the one and only Christ, who washes our sins away when we call upon His precious Name, and be saved by His Grace through faith. It is that simple. His is a simple message, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus!

Sillygirl2011… Try reading the bible.. and you’ll understand why there all fallowers.. All of God’s perdictions about the earth have come true and all will come true. I am a proud beliver. One day you’ll see the consquence of your actions. It makes perfect sense. I have a better time beliving in God then a star explosed and we were made.. and some how babies.. grew up knowning how to take care of them selves.. without getting hurt or eaten.. and we evolvoled into who we are. Yeah.. that just totally happened.. it’s like a 1 and 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 chance… of things going right one after another… Just wait till the resulection comes.. then when it comes.. shapen up your believth.. remember you have up to the second you die to believe in God. Dont waste that second…

* “Everyone has faith! Did you wake up this morning?”

The word ‘faith’ has multiple meanings. You are equivocating.

I believe in G-d. but I consider myself to be spiritual rather than religious. I have always thought of the “religious” as being the front pew, “frozen chosen”. those christians that you refer to are not christian. some of the hatred I have heard that is spewed from “christian” mouths is mind blowing. I think they translate the bible to justify their hatred. there are passages in the bible that might say something is wrong, or not healthy but the bible does not say to hate those people. and for the record, I am not christian and I respect people of all religions and people who choose not to believe. doesn’t matter to me…I believe that we are equal and in the same boat. it is just that some people think they deserve to be in first class and the rest in steerage. those give whatever religion they represent a bad name.

yah yah I do idoit!and ima b the 1 gon to heaven unlike u!god Rocks an I dont need the unlikes of YOU telln me stuff about my religion!!!god is kool you suk saintin is a idoit an I well I rock!god is real!u nonbeleiver!

Yeah the bible was made by a bunch of dudes, who were pondering the questions “who created us” “where did we come from” Who didn’t understand the world very well. At that time they were probably just discovering herbs and mushrooms, if you know what I mean. And what God/s/esses are possible. The one you consider to be “the one true god” .. Why don’t you believan any of the other Gods?

Evolution is a necessary component to life that has tons of evidence, it’s not even debatable, because we can observe mutations and viruses evolving. You seem to be uneducated so I wont explain that to you.

“God made it look that way”, now that’s funny! The Earth is estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old determined by multiple testing methods. Dinosaures existed 125 million to 65 million years ago.

“God” is not a scientific theory, it has no evidence whatsoever. Your idea of God did not create my body, mind, earth, universe. Natruel selection did. if you don’t agree with that, that’s your buissness and you can shove it up your a*s.

secretsst: Do I believan love? I believe that love is a word that people came up with to explain their like, and express their care and affection towards their mates and people in their family. It’s just how people have developed. You can feel love yes, but It comes from your mind, so you saying that God only comes from the mind and is then expressed to be real? And you’re right.

we are in a good position to support life, but if we weren’t we would just evolve to the atmosphere, or if Earth didn’t provide the resourses to support life, we wouldn’t be here. There’s probably a lot of life in the Milky way galexy, of course we wouldn’t have any idea because of the vast distance in space. To understand why the Bigbang occured, understand quantum physics and the singularity that caused the universe as we know it now. Flossheal why should people believe things are true that have no evidence? Sounds like something to rely and depend on. God is impossible, sorry kiddies.

no. God is a made up fictional character to promote morality and explain the misunderstood. I can’t imagien a God as cruel as the one in the old testament, and what kind of God sits back and watches problems and thousands of his apparent innocent children in third world countries suffering from starvation, and destroy the planet. And if so there is a God/s(which I highly doubt) I want nothing to do with him or his religion. And how does he/or writers expect the word to get to everyone?

xxlovehurtsbabexx, we were not “somehow babies” around 4 billion years led to the evolution. And the chance is greater then that.

Some parts in the bible could be based on actual events but completly embellished. The bible is not fact, just a book. And the idea of hell is not realistic.

Nothing finite can be infinite (eternal). Since the universe is made of finite things (matter, time, space), it therefor must be created by something without time (timeless), thus making it eternal. If it is eternal, it must be infinite, and if its the Creator, it must be God.

The universe changes, and time is the measure of change. How many changes have happened before right now? If you claim an infinite number of changes (which is impossible because you can not have an infinite amount of finite things), it is a logically impossible to conclude we could ever have reached this moment in time. In a world of cause and effect (which we live in), there can not be an infinite regress (an infinite amount of cause and effect reactions to get to a certain cause).

Allow me to rephrase. Imagine that the Earth orbits the sun every 365 days (it does). Now, on Mars, a year is much longer than an Earth year, being 687 Earth days (basically double). So, for every 2 years of Mars, Earth has circled the sun approximately 4 times. Now, imagine that this has been going on for eternity. By your logic, they would both have circled the sun the exact same amount of times, because its been going on forever (this is clearly impossible). This shows the impossibility of an infinite regress, whereby there could not have been an infinite amount of (x) before right now, in a finite universe based on time.

Now, back to God. God exists outside of time, in Eternity. God created time, and time is irrelevant to Him. God is Eternal, not created. Firstly, you have 2 choices; either everything came from nothing (which is impossible), or something always existed and created us. You have no other choice. Take a moment to think about that, remembering that it can not exist in time, that would be impossible. Time can not be eternal.

This thing that always existed would be considered Eternal, having transcended time, space, and matter, being everlasting, having always existed. If you argue this is impossible, I would argue the contrary; it is impossible for this Eternal ‘thing’ to not exist, because the alternative is that nothing existed, which could only produce nothing. So, something always existed, and is therefor Eternal.

Now, for something to be Eternal, it can not consist of time, because time must have had a beginning. We exist in a universe of causality, so an infinite regress is impossible; there could not have been an infinite amount of time before right now, because we never would have reached this moment in time. That means time had a beginning, and whatever created time exists without time, beyond time, in timelessness; Eternity.

So, this Eternal Creator, created time, and the universe. This Eternal Creator clearly is extremely powerful, because the energy of the trillions of stars in the known universe were created by this Creator. And obviously, the Creator is extremely intelligent, having created an intelligent being such as mankind and a world in which to populate with it.

Nothing finite can be infinite (eternal). Since the universe is made of finite things (matter, time, space), it therefor must be created by something without time (timeless), thus making it eternal. If it is eternal, it must be infinite, and if its the Creator, it must be God.

The universe changes, and time is the measure of change. How many changes have happened before right now? If you claim an infinite number of changes (which is impossible because you can not have an infinite amount of finite things), it is a logically impossible to conclude we could ever have reached this moment in time. In a world of cause and effect (which we live in), there can not be an infinite regress (an infinite amount of cause and effect reactions to get to a certain cause).

Allow me to rephrase. Imagine that the Earth orbits the sun every 365 days (it does). Now, on Mars, a year is much longer than an Earth year, being 687 Earth days (basically double). So, for every 2 years of Mars, Earth has circled the sun approximately 4 times. Now, imagine that this has been going on for eternity. By your logic, they would both have circled the sun the exact same amount of times, because its been going on forever (this is clearly impossible). This shows the impossibility of an infinite regress, whereby there could not have been an infinite amount of (x) before right now, in a finite universe based on time.

Now, back to God. God exists outside of time, in Eternity. God created time, and time is irrelevant to Him. God is Eternal, not created. Firstly, you have 2 choices; either everything came from nothing (which is impossible), or something always existed and created us. You have no other choice. Take a moment to think about that, remembering that it can not exist in time, that would be impossible. Time can not be eternal.

This thing that always existed would be considered Eternal, having transcended time, space, and matter, being everlasting, having always existed. If you argue this is impossible, I would argue the contrary; it is impossible for this Eternal ‘thing’ to not exist, because the alternative is that nothing existed, which could only produce nothing. So, something always existed, and is therefor Eternal.

Now, for something to be Eternal, it can not consist of time, because time must have had a beginning. We exist in a universe of causality, so an infinite regress is impossible; there could not have been an infinite amount of time before right now, because we never would have reached this moment in time. That means time had a beginning, and whatever created time exists without time, beyond time, in timelessness; Eternity.

So, this Eternal Creator, created time, and the universe. This Eternal Creator clearly is extremely powerful, because the energy of the trillions of stars in the known universe were created by this Creator. And obviously, the Creator is extremely intelligent, having created an intelligent being such as mankind and a world in which to populate with it.

Definitely ! God being pure cannot even look upon sin - man, even in his very best state is a sinner - on judgement day, either: your sins are covered by the blood-shed sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (salvation and only salvation - being a nice person isn’t good enough - even at our very best, we are but filthy rags), and remembered no more or they are not (your sins are not covered) - where God’s great love comes into play is, He provided a WAY (Jesus) for us not to perish and live in Heaven with Him (He certainly didn’t have to do this but did because He loved us so) - if you read carefully John 3:16, this is exactly what it says - each person will either accept or reject, you must decide for yourself and yes, it’s so important, it has eternal consequences - He Loves you and wants you to accept God’s free gift to man - Jesus.

According to the Bible - Believers names are recorded in ‘The Book of Life’ which shall be opened judgement day - only those names found will enter Heaven…Hope this helps !!