Page 209 - Christians Must Heed Jesus

Adnan Oktar
Harun Yahya

knowing it very well or unwittingly make a mistake despite having a
great fear of God because people are tested in this world. Learning

from their mistakes, seeing their weaknesses, repenting of their sins
and intending never to repeat them are means whereby a person of
good conscience draws closer to God.
This is part of the environment of the test our Lord creates in this
world. In creating such a system in the world, Almighty God tells His
servants that He is the "Ever-Pardoning, Ever-Forgiving" and opens
the doors of repentance to them. God is the most merciful of the mer-
ciful. When a person makes a mistake, deliberately or otherwise, when
he commits a sin, great or small, he has the privilege of repenting to
God and begging His forgiveness.
To claim that death is the repayment for all sins is to fail to grasp
and appreciate God's attribute of being very compassionate, merciful
and accepting repentance. This claim is in total conflict with the pur-
pose of human beings' existence in this world. Such a claim is also a vi-
olation of God's justice and nature of the test. If death were the reward
for everyone's sins, and if Almighty God did not forgive people out of
His own goodness, then God reveals that the whole world would be
devastated:

If God were to punish people for their wrong actions, not a single
creature would be left upon the Earth, but He defers them till a
predetermined time. When their specified time arrives, they can-
not delay it for a single hour nor can they bring it forward.
(Koran, 16: 61)

God also reveals in the Koran that human beings have been giv-
en great favor because of His sublime mercy and acceptance of repen-
tance:

Were it not for God's favor to you and His mercy . . . and that God
is Ever-Returning, All-Wise. (Koran, 24: 10)

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