BLOG MOVED TO WORDPRESS!

To read my essays from now on, please visit www.milesprowers.wordpress.com. I decided to start a new, more organized and more professional essay-blog on Wordpress, which I felt had more options than Blogger.
Talk to you there!
~Miles Prowers

In hopes of solidifying my resolve...

[9/23/9]It’s weird how long it’s been since I've written one of these posts. But the reason is that I haven’t been compelled to do so since my last one. It’s weird. Every once in a while there’s this spirit of enlightenment that consumes me with a concept and forms into an essay in which I feel compelled to write down, and further compels me to post onto here. Those blessed encounters are more rare today unfortunately as the idealism and artistic creativity of youth are being confined into the box of reality and mediocrity. And yet here I am. I wonder what the point of writing this even is, or if anyone will ever read it, or if I myself will even read it again. And if I get a thrill in writing it, why post it? As if I believe I have some valid insight into life that others can benefit from. But isn’t that selfish to put myself on such a high pedestal as if I know more than they or have more of a say than they? In reality I am nothing just as they are. So I must write for myself, but then why do I still post it? But there comes a point in your life when things aren’t right and you know that something needs to be changed, and so you’re willing to try new things in hopes of solidifying your resolve. I write this for the sake of the possibility that writing this might make my resolve absolute and put my fickle mind to rest on an absolute cause. Nothing else has yet to do so, so maybe this could. And in this rare time in which I actually have retaken control of my will, I figure I can’t allow this time to go to waste before I inevitably return to my pathetic longings and lusts. In hopes of taking advantage of this rare time of control and focus, I will attempt to solidify my resolve.
You can not let your heart control you. Rebuke the common phrase "follow your heart" and rather follow your mind and logic and the spirit of God that leads you, but not your heart. Your heart is tied with your emotions and your body, crying out for your basic human needs to be met. But we have died to the world and this life. We need to resist the selfish, basic urges of the flesh and ascend to the status of children of God. In which we are spiritual beings, and not human beings. Following your heart will destroy you, reducing you to a typical human being, driven by instinct and basic needs. You want it so badly, but it is completely illogical and irrational. It doesn't make sense at all. It goes at odds with everything you aspire to be and believe God has called you to. If that's the case, how will it do anything other than divide your mind and water-down your passion? You have to resist your human nature and desires and your very own heart to pursue with faith that which seems to be the logical and right path. Though everything in you begs for you to give into your needs, you must not, and keep going towards that which seems right. Though you are cold and alone and beaten and sick and hysterical you must keep moving forward towards that goal and trust that God will make it happen. Because God wants you to make the biggest impact possible, more than he wants for you to be happy and satisfy your basic needs in this short, insignificant life. What started out as passion and focus has now been deluded to the common state of my mind: blah blah. Though times like these my mind is confusing and I can’t understand life, all I can get out of it is that life is an enigma and there is no truth aside from divine revelation. Amidst the labyrinth of the mind and whirlwind of life, my most basic prayer is: God would show me his will, allow me to do it, and give me what I need to do it. If I achieve my expectations it is only because God allowed me to achieve it. If I don’t achieve my expectations it is because God kept me from achieving it. Something in me craves the mystery of the loner image, and is uncomfortable, wary, and offended by the thought of a man who is tamed, divided, seduced, feminized into becoming a lover. I want to be a rogue warrior of the sub-saharan sands, who presses onward into the sun as my sand-scarred face winces through the extreme desert storms.

[9/24/9]It’s amazing that the highest plain of thinking attainable is the realization that you are nothing. Nothing but a figment of God’s imagination. Nothing except what God has allowed you to become, and in reality made you to be. Anyone who thinks he has the supernatural figured out is a fool. Or theology in general for that matter. Who are we clumps of mortal dust to know anything in a supernatural world that we can’t even sense. In true Socratic tradition the wisest man is he that realizes that he is a fool. Whereas anyone who claims to know anything, and acts like knowing something sets you above others, is the real fool, because nothing can be known with apodictic certainty save “cogito ergo sum.” I realize that truth and knowledge and wisdom are ever-elusize and unattainable in the absolute sense, therefore, like Socrates, I simply choose to be a gadfly, and, instead of seeking truth, I seek to prod those who think they have found the truth and show them that they really don’t know anything absolutely.

The Divine Comedy

Yo. What's up with every time I have a great,awesome, euphoric feeling that lingers in my mind, as soon as I write it down and record what it's like- in hopes of possibly being able to remember it in the future when I read the journal I made- it instantly leaves me as if by writing it down it was transferred from my mind to the paper? What's up with that? Why can't it be that I have an awesome feeling and I meditate on it even more so I can gather the specifics so I can write it down and then it gets stronger because I first gathered my thoughts and then recorded them down so it's even more precise and I can then look at it in the future and reinforce the feeling even more because I can remember what it felt like after all the years gone by of forgetting about it? Instead as soon as I record an awesome feeling down it leaves me, as was demonstrated a month ago when I had this reoccurring longing for China and this musty, ancient feeling toward it which made me melt inside and be overwhelmed by the ecstasy of it and sought to capture it in writing. And yet maybe I do capture it, and though it is a sacrifice losing the feeling for the time being it is exponentially worth it for all the times in the future that I might get a glimpse of what it was like, instead of an insecure amount of times naturally. Just like hiding your face behind a video camera to capture a special event, that at the time you miss out on it, but later you can relive it over and over again.

I have discovered a divine truth in my life. My life is a drama. A rich plot with interesting characters and sharp twists and turns. My backgrounds, family, friends, occurrences, encounters, situations, and the obscurity of each attest to this. God enjoys a good story, much like the perfect story he wrote at the beginning of time called, "The Lifetime of the World," aka the Holy Bible, in which he laid out His plan for the creation of the world, the transferral of His divine qualities onto and into a natural form (man), it's life, destruction, salvation, and rebirth. Much like that one, my life- though less profound, universal, and perfect- has its share of a worthy cast, plot, drama, comedy, tragedy, horror, and the like.

This is the dilemma: Around Spring of 2006 I very stressfully realized that the world around me and the events of which were determined by my thoughts and expectations. This is the conclusion I came to. The way I thought something would be would turn out not the way it really was, and that which I expected to happen a certain way or that which I assumed to be so, didn't happen that way, or didn't happen at all, and weren't so.
So eventually I got hip to this vibe and began to think ahead of the fates and say, I assume this will happen so it won't happen. Of course I found that most of the time that did not work either. Because you can't outsmart fate. If you think a certain way so that the opposite will happen, it will happen the way you think it will happen because you didn't really think it would happen the way you thought it would. If you get my drift. This conversation sounds like one of those Romans 7... chats with Paul, the artist formerly known as Saul.
And as screwy and comedic as that sounds... it's the truth. Straight up. I exaggerate not. I would go somewhere expecting something and the opposite would happen much to my demise. I would think of what would happen, and it wouldn't, as if it were because I had thought it to be that way.
So what is the conclusion I come to amidst this unpredictable cycle of chaos? (what an oxymoron= unpredictable cycle) My conclusion: My life is a divine comedy. I can not outsmart the fates and my place is to live life as I think I am supposed to live it and deal with what comes my way. Think normally and deal with things normally. Don't analyze. Just understand that ultimately I am along for the ride for the entertainment of Providence, for better or for worse; I'm hoping for the better. And actually, though I know God gets a kick out of my life and seeing how I react to the ludicrous, now I'm in on the joke and He allowed me to be in on it. Because He is just and He is loving, while He also has a good sense of humor and appreciation for art and drama. So we laugh together at the mortality and finity of man. Though I sometimes feel like I am the butt of the joke, I think now that it's not that way. I am definitely a player in play, but I can look outside of the finite and see the art of it and it is quite impressive I admit, though I wouldn't expect it to be anything short of impressive. I get a good laugh as the drama continues and I see the next scenes and extraneous plots and the characters dealing with these impossible circumstances and unavoidable, mortally hilarious situations. What a good feeling it is to be in on the game. To be an ignorant character in the play yet look up and see the dramatic and situational ironies, and while the other characters wallow in their grief and stress, you can laugh at them and yourself because you know the ending will be good and as the scriptwriter once wrote, "All things work together for the good of those who love Him." So I don't know how it will end but I doubt it will be anything short of exceeding my expectations, and I know it will be good for me and those that I love. Hallelujah for the Divine Comedy!

So now. Just because I am writing this, this probably means that this curse will be broken and all of this will be vain just for the fates to prove themselves right one last time and have the last laugh. Because if it does truly fade out, it won't be anything worth writing. What's worth writing is when something abnormal happens, not when normality is reattained and maintained.
So now...for whatever reason...now that I have finished writing this and think more about my time in the year following Spring of 2006 it seems it doesn't work that way anymore as much... in fact it seems that things are the way I assume them to be, and now I'm not used to that. So I guess the curse has been broken...and ...wait a second...if I say publicly the curse is broken and think it is...then it will recontinue so....but then if I think....I....
Long live the curse!!!

The Perfect Death

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hate it when Washingtons die of colds, and Houdinis die of punches, when the infamous lives of legends are reduced to common and even accidental fates. But as much as I hate when heroes don't go out as well as they could have, it makes me love all the more when they do. I love it when Thomas Jeffersons die on 4th of Julys, John the Revelators die soundly on their death beds, and Jerry Falwells die unexpectedly in their offices at work, in their prime after completing the work God ordained for them to do upon their creation.

Everything about it was flawless. The day, the month, the year, the way it happened, where it happened, what happened before it, and what happened after it, as if it were all planned- and it was. It was nothing short of God-ordained. And why would we expect anything less of something God-ordained.
He was America's favorite son, though he definitely wasn't the favorite son of Americans, but America itself loved him, for the very spirit of America lived in him. The spirit of truth, justice, freedom, and the passion to keep them all intact.
He loved America like he loved his Creator and his family, and he fought for his country- and more than that for the potential of his country- as he would have fought, and did fight, for each of them. You see, true love isn't passive and non-confrontational. True love for someone is the desire for their well-being and the willingness to insure their well-being, even at the expense of confrontation and an imperfect reputation in the eyes of some. If someone has a destructive habit or lifestyle and it is killing them, true love will confront and offer a solution for a better state of being that they might live the best life they can live.

So Jerry Falwell loved America, the American dream, and the American people who pursued the American dream. In his zealous love for his brothers and sisters he saw their lives begin to gradually go astray and so their attainment of the American dream began to go astray. For them to attain the American dream at all they had to bring it down to their level, and in so doing stripped it of its potential, perfection, and beauty. It was made less than pure and less than perfect- which of course is imperfect and impure. America was and is the wealthiest nation on earth and by far the most blessed, yet the American dream became and remains as it became: the ability to get away with living a mediocre life.
Instead of using freedom to better the lives of others they use it to merely secure their own safety and comfort for their short lifetime. But then again their whole mindset wasn't the same as the founders who gave them their freedom.
Where the founders together acknowledged Divine Providence- a greater power than themselves from which all blessings have come- and sought to give it back,
today’s society believes in themselves as god and credits themselves for all they have- as deserving that which they have been given.
So he stepped up and stepped out to confront that which he loved in hopes of it returning to the way it was when he loved it. That God-ordained move made him both an eye sore and a sight for the sore eyes of the nation...

“The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” - 2 Timothy 4:6.

It was the way he would have wanted to go, just like he always said (as if he knew it would have been that way): “The man or woman of God is indestructible until he or she has completed the work God had called him or her to do.”
I believe that Jerry should have passed on to the other side years before he did, as he was diagnosed with several heart and blood problems in previous years, but God confounded the physical to reinforce the supernatural. He allowed him just enough time to not only complete the work he was created to complete but also to see it find a settling place for the next generation, where he could “rest in peace” knowing that he fulfilled his purpose in life and his legacy was established.
Rightfully so, as his ministry was started with Thomas Road Baptist Church, the love of his ministry life and the very reason for his being, so his death revolved around the completion and fulfillment of that mission so that when his main objective was completed he was taken home, just like Elijah or Enoch, or John the Revelator.

God let him witness the church he gave birth to reach maturity and see it’s 50th anniversary still under his pastoral leadership, a blessing given to few pastors. Few pastors will ever have the opportunity and motivation to lead a church for 50 years, much less the pastors that started their churches, and the ones that do, if there are any, will usually see some kind of rounding off place in the church’s ministry and growth. The contrary was so for Thomas Road who had a consistently vigorous population and ministry growth that never died down and never rounded off. New people in Lynchburg are still being reached, new people all throughout the country are being reached, new people throughout the civilized world are being reached, even the uncivilized peoples of the earth that have never even heard of the Gospel are being reached, and all the time Thomas Road is not just reaching these people but finding new ministries and new ways to reach them. The ministry of Jerry Falwell outlived the life of Jerry Falwell, and that is the way it should be since God is immortal. A church planter should never try to plan a church based on how much time they think they or others will be able to put into it, but rather how much time God will be able to put into it, and He can put an eternity into it.
He was allowed the privilege of living to see it reach its amazing 50th anniversary and then partake in the Year of Jubilee celebration following its anniversary with a string of awesome speakers and concerts from Tait, Wintley Phipps, Bobby Bowden, Michael W. Smith, and ending it with the biggest spectacle of them all: the death of Jerry Falwell. He had a patriotic love for America until the end, and less than a month before he passed away he was provided the opportunity to see America and his home state of Virginia celebrate its 400th anniversary- a celebration at Thomas Road Baptist Church with an incredible sermon from the one and only David Barton of Wall Builders. A week or two after the last big event in the Year of Jubilee, the Michael W. Smith concert, was when he deceased.
It had always been his dream to bring his three ministries together on Liberty Mountain and that finally happened a little less than a year before he died, for TRBC’s Golden Anniversary when Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty Christian Academy were moved into new buildings on the edge of Liberty University’s property on North Campus.
Everything was centralized and reestablished for whatever the next generation would bring, and the numbers were rounded off. TRBC was 50 and LU was 35, with an established, lasting legacy for each one. Some could say that Jerry was worked to death constantly maintaining both his major church and major university- each that he founded. But God does not want the best years of the Falwell ministry to be in the past, so He solved this by splitting Jerry into two different people so that he could put more time and energy into each one. “Conveniently” he had two sons. And “conveniently” one happened to be trained as a lawyer and the other was trained to be a pastor. So it could not have worked out better, and everybody looks forward to the best years of each institution now that there is a single force behind each one.

The first 3 years at LU he would say every year in convo that he was asking God to give him another 15 years of life just like King Hezekiah prayed in the Bible. It wasn’t like he was asking for 15 years in 2004, then 14 in 2005 and 13 in 2006, but another 15 every year, which is pretty ridiculous and makes me wonder, how long had he been asking God to give him 15 more years of life? Perhaps…15 years ago?!?! In reality I learned after his death that his first heart problems began 15 years before his death and it was after that wake up call that he began thinking about his legacy and preparing his institutions for when he was gone. Was it perhaps in this close call with death that he initially asked God to give him 15 more years of life? Perhaps to secure a lasting legacy before he left earth? It’s possible because that was also when he started incorporating Jerry Jr. and Jonathan in the LU and TRBC processes more. As Elmer Towns affirmed in the Regents’ DVD: Why did God take Jerry when he did? Because Jerry Jr. and Jonathan were now ready to lead. Jonathan had already been assistant pastor of the church, doing the early services for years, and the very next Sunday following Jerry’s death and funeral he stepped up to lead the main service with an appropriate sermon about Moses passing on the torch to Joshua. And Jerry Jr., by that time well experienced and extremely involved in LU’s affairs as vice-president, recently had some serious health problems himself a few years before Jerry’s passing. It was this close encounter with death that brought him to the place of dependency on God he needed to be to start leading the University, and then God gave him just enough time to heal and retake the University’s reigns in time for him to become chancellor.

May 15th 2007. The day he went was flawless. God is very good at planning and I guess I would be too if I was not confined to time and space and had an eternity to think things up. He started the day just like every other day. He ate breakfast with his associates, who said everything was fine and ordinary; there was nothing special in the air and no signs that a life was about to end. And then within a few hours he was found unconscious in his office. He passed peacefully while working in his Liberty office. No one suspected it. Jerry died on the Tuesday of the last week of school, two days before the last exams, so that people finished their classes for the year and went into the summer reflecting on life and death. He finished off the semester as chancellor leaving exactly a summer for the staff to make arrangements for University life without its chancellor, and likewise for his church- which would begin another slow summer and be able to get things together while people are on vacation. Jerry went out on top in every aspect. He was just a month from the completion of the Year of Jubilee, the 51st anniversary. Politically, he was still talking on the news shows often yet with a more reserved role in politics. He had founded the largest Christian University in the world, and it’s only 35 years old. [3511- Also apparently he bought a lot of life insurance in the last decade of his life, and by God's providence he was able to accumulate a life insurance of 34 million dollars (especially amazing considering he was in his 70's and already had a history of heart problems when he got this insurance) which, upon his death, distributed 29 million to Liberty University and 5 million to TRBC, well endowing both institutions for a promising future of growth beyond its founder. This was more than enough to break LU out of its long history of debt, for the first time since its founding, and had plenty left over to begin an endowment fund!]

He lived to see 10,000 residential students, 15, 000 through distance learning programs via internet (one of the largest DLPs in the country), East campus built, North Campus established, Lahaye Student Center and Ice Rink built, LU Transit bus system established, Campus church switched to TRBC- all of which occurred in the time I was a student here for his three final years. A few months before his passing, someone donated that monogram to LU, perhaps LU’s most notable feature- which can be seen as far away as Peaks of Otter about 40 miles away. LU sports reached their peak by finally getting a good football coach and team established with Rocco, LU girls basketball reached the sweet 16 for the first time and was televised on ESPN, Josh McDougal lead the nation in long distance running with his unprecedented 3:57 mile. And perhaps the most notable thing Jerry lived to see was the pride of Liberty Mountain, the LU Debate Team, win all 3 Championship Tournaments for the first time in history for any school, remain undefeated almost 20 years, have their debate coach coach the president of the United States, and then win all 3 championships again the following year. In the future if any school ever wins all 3 championships in the same year besides LU, they most likely will never do it again, much less the following year. Jerry was extremely active and a constant source of support for all of the LU extracurricular activities. He consistently came to almost every game that the LU football and basketball teams played, as well as all of the theatre performances and many of the band concerts until the day he died; I saw him there about every time I attended them.
It was perhaps Liberty’s finest year; I know it was my best year. And rightfully so, as it would have to be the finest for Jerry to truly go out on top; God knew that and so that’s why it happened as it did. I realize how extremely blessed I am to have attended Liberty University in its finest years- the final years of its founder.
[5/16/10-On a side note, 3 years after his passing, May 15, 2010, was also coincidentally graduation day for the last Jerry generation- that is, the last student class to see Jerry alive (who were freshman when he died). This was also the first time since May 15, 2007 that LU was not already in summer vacation for May 15th, so that the school could honor his passing day. Jerry had a goal of 50,000 LU students, and while at the time of his passing there were only 25,000, now (right before the last Jerry generation graduated) LU for the first time passed the 50,000 mark with the explosion of the LU Online program, ranked as the 3rd best online program in the nation. This made Liberty University the largest non-profit online school in the world, and also the largest Christian University in the world (whereas before it was just the world's largest evangelical university).]

All I know is that my faith was strengthened, and is currently, constantly being renewed as I read the words that he himself wrote through the years and research the words of others concerning him. It’s ludicrous to say that there was not some divine intervention at work in the events preceding, during, and following his death. It was the perfect death for Jerry in that his death has made just as big of an impact in people’s lives as anything thing he could have done in his life.
The conclusion is this: if you live like Jerry did and with the passion Jerry lived it, it will not slip by God and God will not slip by you. You are going to go where Jerry went and go like Jerry went out. On top.

“I would prefer to die in the pulpit right now, today, than to finish poorly, than to abandon my witness for Christ.” – Jerry Falwell, May 2, 2007 in Liberty University Convocation.

Rage, rage against the dying of light!

I hate it when legends fall short into humanity. I hate it when George Washingtons die of colds and Houdinis die from punches. What is more enticing than mediocrity and more persuasive than the American dream. You were a living, walking legend in my midst but in the end you too showed your humanity. Even you. From the first time I saw her I knew she would be my downfall and so I tried to pull an Oedipus and avoid that downfall like the plague. And though I came close to falling at times I ultimately escaped from the destruction I had just recently been freed from and was still healing from. But I never thought you would. You of all people. I felt at peace when she was around you because I knew you were resolute to your passions and may as well have been part of the scenery. Of all people why you, who knows it won't work out and says so frequently. You who could, if you had wanted, picked whatever happened to please your eye and yet you pursued something so obvious, so immature, so easy. And so it came to pass that what I foresaw has become reality, but I never thought it would have come about through you. Not like this. I guess it's hard to find true legends these days. Who of us can actually maintain and abstain for a lifetime to be a true history-maker, world-changer, core-rocker? Not even you. Me? We'll see. O you what you could have done and been and become! Yet you so quickly were enticed by the sirens of mediocrity. For what? To appease the immediate satisfaction of your humanity? I get chills thinking of what your fate could have been. And now I feel like crying when I think of what may have been jeopardized. Have you so easily become predictable? Someone as mysterious and potential as yourself who claims to cringe at the thought of conformity has been overcome so easily, so quickly, so predictably, so humanly, so readily in a way so many have been overcome before in the past. And not even to the best of what you could have been overcome with. That which you once raged against now have you given into. Is life so long that it is worth pursuing humanity at the expense of humanity's salvation. To which you were called when you were first saved, when it was just you and God. And so I guess you were really human in the end, after all. Though you may have not been. Do not go gently into that good night! Rage! Rage against the dying of light!
Have you forgotten your passion!? Have you forgotten your calling!? Have you forgotten your future!? Have you forgotten your fate!? O when I think of all the forces I thought it would take to overcome you, and yet this is your fate: in such a regular, ordinary, common, childish way the legend has been reduced to a man. Fight the American dream! Kill the American dream! In this is our resolution! That one day men would not aspire to give into themselves but give into God.
Don't you remember what ecstasy tastes like? Have you so quickly forgotten euphoria?!
What is ecstasy? What is bliss? What is absolute contentment and peace and joy? Fulfilled Destiny. Completed Fate. Quite simply...you will feel the way you want to feel when you are in the center of God's will. Who can honestly attain this ecstasy? What would you have to give up to get there? EVERYTHING.
God is not done with you yet. Such a passion and legendary potential does not so quickly fade from this earth and God does not let go of a soul who once made a commitment of surrender to Him. I know that you will get back to where you need to be...but I fear the calamity it will take to bring you back to that place and the ruins you may leave behind for me and others. And yet while I grieve for God's intentions left unfulfilled you inspire me all the more to not become what I never thought you would have, but have. God's will be done! Please!

The blog that started my blog

http://dark_age.blogspot.com/
I then went back to the google.com results page and clicked on a link to BlogsCanada. I then clicked on the field “Religion” as that is always an interesting topic to me. I randomly clicked on “Trapped in a Dark Age” which anonymously debates Theology from an atheist’s point of view. The author questions the after life, and contemplates mortality and how short life really is. He then tries to explain religion as a confused and ignorant person’s means of explaining one’s existence and meaning in life.

This blog is very depressing, and it upsets me to think that there are so many people out there who doubt in God simply because He doesn’t make sense to them, and “can’t be proven”. Surely people don’t go through life without seeing divine intervention or the supernatural manifest at sometime in their lives? It just makes you realize the multitudes of Lost Humanity constantly questioning the truth; I mean, this guy’s whole blog revolves around religion, and he’s an atheist!

The Story

"Within you without you" was deep and harsh for its time, and compared to the Beatles' standard of peppy, love songs. Although it was originally written from an Eastern mysticism perspective, it is also very broad and spiritually general, and can be applied to various religions. It displays what most religions have in common and is almost written as if in accordance with the ideal religion... the one people would make if they could create one ideal religion.
If people could make up a religion as ideal as possible what would it be?

The ideal religion is the only one that is right/real, or rather you will know it is the right one (it is proven to be real/right) because it is ideal.
Though disguised and passed by most people, the ideal religion does indeed exist and, ironically, the ideal religion isn't nearly as religious as the others. Many would conclude that it isn't a religion at all, rather a philosophy or new perspective of the world that rules every aspect of your life.
This ideal religion is not as much a religion as it is a philosophy, and this philosophy is unlike all other philosophies; this philosophy is a story.

The story of course is ideal, as it is the ideal religion, so of course it is the most captivating, controversial, life-changing story the world has ever had the privilege of first being told. And as every aspect of this perfect religion, this one true religion, is different than any other, so this story is different than any other story. This story is one that if you hear it and choose to believe it, you gain the most precious gift one can be given, and if you doubt it or reject it you lose everything. So then what is the most precious gift that can be given and how could a mere story give it to you? What could be more precious than salvation?
The story is naturally concerning God and likewise the relationship is with the same.
What story could be so ideal as to determine the true religion? The story that comes from God Himself. It is the story about the one time in history when God became a man.

In the beginning was God; the one, true God who always has been and always will be- the creator of everything. God desired to create something pleasing to Him so He created the Heavens and the Earth and their inhabitants. Then God desired to be loved and worshiped so He created something to do so. This creation was the most important one He’d ever made, and so He chose to give it the ideal image, to put it above everything else He made up to that point. This image was one that He planned on creating from the beginning, but saved for last because it was Holy and still today is Holy. It is the image of God. The form that He Himself chooses to be seen as. The most perfect image in all of the universe, in everything that has ever been or will ever be. So in His own image He created beings, not only being like God in form but God chose to make them as He is, having consciousness, emotion, and free will. This invaluable gift of free will made this new creation the most important of all Creation. This new creation, called Man, had the choice to love God because he wanted to, not because he had to. Man could see God and thus realize and acknowledge how holy, perfect, and praiseworthy He is, and praise Him for being holy, perfect, just, and loving. That is the kind of love God wanted, and so God’s favor and attention was on man: His favorite creation.

But of course the consequence of free will is sin, for in order to choose good and choose to love God, one must reject evil- so evil must exist in order for man to reject it and accept God. So with the existence of free will and evil, it is only a matter of time before man chooses to do the best for he and not God- what is most pleasing for his body at the expense of others and contrary to the commands of God. And so it was that even the first man sinned one time, thus separating man from God forever (because sin existed in the world and God, being perfect and holy, cannot exist in the presence of sin). So God dwelt exclusively in Heaven, and man was cast out from His presence out into the world and so all the offspring of man were forever cursed by God never again to enter into God's presence, as they carried the stain of evil. The common "good" person and even righteous who followed the commands of God still at some time or another sin at least once, so man can never get to Heaven due to the sin he himself commits, and even if man never sinned once in life (which is impossible) he would still be cursed for being the descendants of the first man who sinned, and being born into a world with sin existing in it.
But God is perfect, holy, just, and loving, and it was not His will to create man only to damn him or keep him from His euphoric presence and ignoring his merit and faithfulness. So it was at that time that men would take the source of life, blood, from animals and burn it on sanctified altars of God in order for Him to ignore their sins- according to the command of God through His chosen prophets. Though obedience to these commands did keep men in the favor of God and spared them from damnation to Hell, they were still cursed and damned, only damned to a place of paradise outside of God's presence. Still this wasn't the will of God and God longed for the love and praise of His creations as He had originally intended upon their creation. So God chose to take away all of humanity's sin, not just ignoring it, but entirely removing it.

To do this, God had no choice but to come to earth Himself and offer a final sacrifice for the sins of man’s past, present, and future. He came in his original form and image, as a man, since the image of man was first the image of God- His own natural image. And according to His will and the way He created the world, the only sacrifice that could be made so worthy and Holy to have the power to take away all sin forever would have to be sinless, perfect. Sacrificing animals for men was hardly appropriate for sin, but it was the best the world had to offer short of killing one of their own to remove their sins- which is itself a sin that grieves God. But this wasn’t a sacrifice for a sin, or several sins. It was a sacrifice for sin itself. That the very concept of sin could and would be erased. This sacrifice couldn’t afford to be close to ideal, as sacrifice of the past had been. This had to be the sacrifice of sacrifices. Ideal in every way. A human was needed. A perfect human.

Yet what human is perfect? Wasn’t this sacrifice ordained from God in the first place because no man could be perfect? Yes. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. The only perfect human was the one that perfect God became when He entered the sinful world of earth. It still today is the only perfect human to have ever existed. And so God demonstrated His unfathomable love for us in that while we were still sinners, He died for us, becoming the very sacrifice His creations were sacrificing to Him to cover their sins, in hopes of getting to Heaven. Since it was perfect God being sacrificed, it was a perfect sacrifice, the final sacrifice to remove all men's sins once and for all.

And so it was that God came to earth as a baby born of a virgin impregnated by the Spirit of God. He was God in the flesh, thus naturally He was sinless and lived an unearthly perfect life with divine wisdom. The most blessed period in all of history, when God returned to the Earth, the first time since the beginning. So what did God do when he visited Earth? He taught the world, not through prophets this time, but from His own mouth. And living as a human he set the example for how his creations should live.

He showed us the way He had intended us to live when He created us, and spoke everything else He wanted us to know that up to that time men had questions about. The people around Him had the unfathomable once-in-the-history-of-the-earth opportunity to ask their Creator any question they wished to ask Him. He showed them face-to-face the life they should live by His example and teachings. They watched in awe as the God of the universe walked alongside them, ate with them, and lived among them, that is, until it was time for Him to become the sacrifice He was intended to become when He became a man: the reason He came to the Earth in the first place.

Instead of reissuing the same commandments He had already given, He instructed people how to keep those commandments: by getting to the root of sin. Instead of commanding them to not commit adultery, He commanded them not to lust. Instead of commanding them not to murder, He commanded them not to be angry. These and other radical teachings caused quite a stir. Instead of rebuking the stereotypical sinners, he showed mercy to them, and paradoxically rebuked His priests instead. It was then that His priests became offended and jealous of Him, and so they didn’t believe He was who He said He was. Their hearts were continually hardened to the point that they conspired to have Him arrested and killed. Here was God Himself in the world He created being killed by His own creations, and not just any of His creations, but His priests who were supposed to be the most righteous, God-fearing people in the whole world. But ever since the fall of man it was no longer God's world, but a world corruptly ruled by man. The perfect picture of that is the fact that God could be killed in the world He created, because it wasn't His world anymore.

Of course, God's world or not, ultimately everything falls into place according to God's great story of history, all for His glory. HIStory. He fore-ordained His creations to kill Him, as it was the reason He came into the world in the first place- to be offered as a sacrifice for mankind's sins. Though his enemies didn't realize it, they became the ones to offer this sacrifice for their own sins.
What greater story is there than that? That God returned to the planet He created (after it rebelled against Him) in the form of a man, and was killed by His own creations, but this turned out to be His divine plan of love to cover their sins (even the ones who killed Him) and reunite them with Him. The greatest story ever told. The ideal story. The greatest story that could be conceived. And how wonderful it is that such an ideal story is a true story, and not just a true story, but the central story of our world. HIStory.

With a true story like this resulting in its hearer's salvation or damnation, it's the only story worth telling or hearing.

As stated above, this real story has real consequences. It presents a philosophy so life-changing when embraced that it becomes an all-consuming world view that possesses you, rules you, and determines how you will spend every day for the rest of your life. Because when you believe this story and accept God's sacrifice for your sins He reunites Himself with you as it was at the beginning of the world. It results in a relationship with God that exists the rest of your life, and on into eternity when you are finally reunited with Him in His very presence.

And that is how it can be considered a religion, and if so, the ideal religion.