What is the purpose of life? Why were we put on earth?

[Willamena]

God set the example for subduing the earth when he “planted a garden in Eden”
The garden was the model of what God wanted the earth to become and it is our responsibility to cultivate the entire earth to Gods standard.

What is God's standard?

 

[sniper762]

we were sent to this earth (spiritually), by god to inhabit our earthly bodies of flesh and bone (through our human procreation process) and LEARN the things thay can only be experienced "in the body", thus to become a "perfect" being.

jesus could not have obtained perfection without being humanly born and expereincing love, pain, deceipt, persecution, etc.

 

[tomato1236]

. . .

Wow, defensive much?

 

[tomato1236]

We are not a product a mindless entity called evolution, but rather of a loving Creator, who purposed for humans to fully enjoy life on the earth in "an abundance of peace."(Ps 37:11) God, whose name is Jehovah (Ps 83:18), purposed from the very beginning of creation of the universe, to create man, and place him on the earth in a paradise ("paradise", Greek pa·ra´dei·sos meaning beautiful park or parklike garden).

The first beautiful park was the Garden of Eden ("Eden" meaning "garden of pleasure") and was created by God for Adam and Eve. This garden was the blueprint for Adam and Eve and their offspring to transform the rest of the earth into. The boundaries of this beautiful garden was to be extended to the ends of the earth.

Though Adam and Eve rebelled against God, this did not change God's purpose for the earth, for it to be an everlasting home for those who are righteous in God's eyes. Jesus said when giving the Sermon on the Mount, that "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."(Matt 5:5, King James Bible)

Jesus was quoting from the book of Psalms, whereby David was inspired to write that "the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."(Ps 37:11, King James Bible) David further wrote that "the righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever."(Ps 37:29, King James Bible)

At Isaiah 45:18, it says that "this is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the true God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited: “I am Jehovah, and there is no one else." Thus, God's purpose for the earth and righteous ones will be realized in the near future. This necessitates the removal of all who are not righteous, those who oppose God's rulership over them. Psalms 37:9 says that "evildoers themselves will be cut off, but those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth."

The last book of the Bible brings home all these promises, by saying: "With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away. And the One seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new.” Also, he says: “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”(Rev 21:3-5)

Hence, God will restore the earth to its original paradise state for the delightful benefit of righteous ones, whereby death, sorrow, sickness or pain of heart will never be heard again. What a blessing this will be from Jehovah God. Following the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ in the near future, those that pass the final test can then look forward to life as God originally intended, whereby we will be able to use all our perfect senses to the full in the enjoyment of life on the earth among others who also have measured up to God's holy standards. What a loving brotherhood forever !

Jay-dub.

 

[Pegg]

What is God's standard?

Isaiah 35 is prophetic of what the earth will become when people are in harmony with Gods standards. The garden of Eden was the original standard of what he wanted the earth to become...it was called a 'paradise' which means a garden of pleasure.

Isaiah 35 in part says
"The wilderness and the waterless region will exult, and the desert plain will be joyful and blossom as the saffron. Without fail it will blossom, and it will really be joyful with joyousness and with glad crying out..."For in the wilderness waters will have burst out, and torrents in the desert plain. And the heat-parched ground will have become as a reedy pool, and the thirsty ground as springs of water..."


There are some really beautiful passages in Psalms about people living forever on earth such as Psalm 37:29 The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it"

and Isaiah 65:17-18 says 17 “For here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. 18 But exult, YOU people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating..."


These are just a few scriptures that show us that God has not abandoned his original purpose for the earth and mankind...we will certainly see the fulfillment of these promises in the near future and if we choose to, we can have a part in them.

 

[LittleSidhe]

I have no idea, and I'm okay with that. Just live and enjoy the ride I guess.

 

[McBell]

What is the purpose of life? Why were we put on earth?

You make many assumptions with your questions.
Therefore, many assumptions have to be made to give answers to your questions.

 

[Twig pentagram]

You make many assumptions with your questions.
Therefore, many assumptions have to be made to give answers to your questions.

Exactly.

 

[Thesavorofpan]

To live.

 

[Penumbra]

Likely the only purpose is one that we invent ourselves.

-Lyn

 

[REFREG]

Life is an on going examination in which each person is tested according to his/her own abilities/limitations and will be judged according to his/her abilities and limitations. Our result will be announced on the day of Judgement.

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

What is the purpose of life? Why were we put on earth?

Who said we were 'put' on earth? That suggests a higher being. The highest purpose of our lives is to guard our genes from extinction. Secondary purposes are to understand the world around us, find beauty within ourselves etc.

 

[justbehappy]

If there is a greater purpose, we're not yet supposed to know - or else we already would.
For now, at least, I think everyone has a differen individual purpose, that each person must discover on their own.

 

[sniper762]

christians that believe in the bible believe that we were "put here".

 

[ZooGirl02]

I would guess that our purpose in life is to help other people and to live a fun and enjoyable life. Our purpose in life, in my opinion, is to help to make the world a better place for other humans and animals.

 

[ahmed.zafar]

The main purpose is to live and help others which we truly neglect and in afterlife Allah will definitely give punishment to us.

 

[Nerthus]

To learn, to experience, to love and be loved, to help others.

 

[Lion of Yehuda]

Life is an on going examination in which each person is tested according to his/her own abilities/limitations and will be judged according to his/her abilities and limitations. Our result will be announced on the day of Judgement.

God created this world to have an arena to express His loving kindness, therefor our purpose is to feel love for God and to access His goodness in our lives; the time of choosing good is now, in this world, and the time of reward for good and not good choices will be the world to come.

If this life is an "exam," then we have been given a book which contains all the answers to the exam. If we thus fail, it is our own lack of effort to search for the good in this life, and to turn away from evil.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

The purpose of life is to survive long enough to reproduce and pass along its genes.

 

[idea]

(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi2:25)
25 ...men are, that they might have joy.

life is a test, a school, the place where we create our eternal families, we learn to love, put off the natural man, and become a new creature through Christ.

(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi2:27)
...they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil;


btw - it's important to have meaning in life...

Recently I was discussing some accounts of POW’s and concentration camp survivors. These two groups of people both made similar observations on who survived and who did not. In the Korean war, Chinese Communists screened out prisoners with leadership abilities and those with overt religious faith – traits found in about 5% of the population. Frightening trends were observed in the remaining 95% of the prisoners. Left without leaders, there was not one permanent escape from the Korean prison camps even when there was only an average of 6 armed guards to every 500 to 600 Americans, no guard dos, no machine gun towers, no electric fences or searchlights. More alarming, 38% of the prisoners died – not of starvation or epidemics or from any mass executions. Rather, most of the men died of a psychological disease, unnamed by the medical Corps, but dubbed “give-up-itis” by the soldiers themselves. The conclusion of the army’s study was that these boys were ignorant about who they were and what they were fighting for, and so had few inner resources that could give them the courage to rise above their obstacles. (from speech made by Major William Meyer, Army Medical corps, in San Francisco in 1958. This material has now been declassified by the Department of Defense.)

Lusseyran and Victor Frankl wrote similarly of those in concentration camps. Frankl said “They died less from lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope, lack of something to live for.” Frankl goes on to say “Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for Meaning… He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any how.”