Envelope #4 You opened this envelope because you believe there is a heaven and a hell. That is something that people through the ages believed, but they really didn't know how to get to heaven and how to avoid hell. So let us return to The Bible with very brief review of the Bible's Old Testament and a New Testament. The Old Testament tells about God leading Moses to free the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. The early books of the Old Testament lay down the law for the people, to include the Ten Commandments. Old Testament people thought the way to God’s blessing was to obey the laws. They were also encourgaged to give offerings to the temple and its priests. And since people are not perfect and sin, regular sacrifices - of animals such as perfect lambs - were necessary to get back in God’s good graces. In the Old Testament there were also numerous prophesies about a coming Messiah who would save the Jewish people. The New Testament tells of God sending his son Jesus to earth. The coming of Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophesies; and Jesus’ life, preaching, miracles, death, and resurrection are documented by more than 2,000 ancient manuscripts, all with a remarkable degree of congruity (Telling essentially the same story without discrepancies). So what did Jesus do? Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, but died - blameless - on the cross as a sacrifice for all of man's sins: past, present, and future. He permanently did away with people ever having to sacrifice any more animals to get that temporary covering for their sins. Jesus became our once-and-for-all sacrifice and He is called the Lamb of God. As a result of Jesus’ death on the cross, all we have to do is go to God the Father, confess our sin, and ask for His forgiveness. If this confession of our sin is sincere and from the heart, God the Father will honor the confession and our sin will be fully forgiven. So do you believe that Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins? o No. I have significantly different interpretation of the Bible. If this is the case, you should do some independent research on the subject. Many people are not willing to accept the premises of the Bible yet they admit they have never studied it, while thousands and thousands of critically thinking scholars have studied the Bible in depth and come to the above conclusions about Jesus and his life. Do not open any further envelopes until you are satisfied with your Biblical studies. or o Yes. Jesus also told the people what they needed to do for salvation, to go to an eternity of happiness and bliss. To learn what we have to do to earn salvation, think about a Jesus who was all man and all God and knew from the beginning that his life on earth would end in crucifiction - one of the most horrible forms of death ever devised by man, yet he went willingly ... to save you from your sins. Then come back tomorrow to open Envelope #5.