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Why am I here? is a timeless question, inevitably tied to questions of purpose and personal worth. It’s an important question to ask, and the answer one arrives at determines how one thinks of himself and interacts with the world.

Some people advocate the idea that humans came about by impersonal, evolutionary processes and that life is just an accident. If that’s the case, then there’s no real reason for why we are here—life has no ultimate purpose. The Bible says otherwise. Genesis 1:1–27 describes how an intelligent Creator purposefully made all things in six days, including the first man and woman. God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (verse 26). The Lord created mankind to bear His image and rule His creation, but the first humans chose to disobey God and brought sin and death into the world (Genesis 3:12–19; Romans 5:12). Since that time, mankind has been estranged from God (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 3:23). Without an anchoring relationship to the Lord, we are left wondering who we are, why we are here, and what our purpose is.

Why am I here? To glorify God. Ultimately, God created us for His glory; our purpose is to glorify Him and, in this fallen world, to make Him known to others (Isaiah 43:7; Matthew 28:18–19). Human beings are not accidents; we are not here by chance. Many passages in the Bible make it clear that the purpose of humans is to give God praise and glory, for He created us and gave us life (Ecclesiastes 12:13; Revelation 4:11). Augustine of Hippo sums up our purpose and our deep desire in his Confessions: “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee” (1.1.1).

The general reason why we are here—to glorify God—extends to each of us specifically. Psalm 139:16 indicates that God’s purpose for us is as precise as it is personal: “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (NLT). According to this verse, God is in control of three things that intimately concern each of us: 1) the beginning of each life, 2) the length of each life, and 3) the exact plan for each life.

Why am I here? To be reconciled to God, who “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Jesus died in our place, taking the punishment for our sins upon Himself (Romans 5:6–8; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Through His resurrection, He conquered sin and death and made it possible for us to have a relationship with God, thus restoring the relationship that was fractured at the fall of mankind (2 Timothy 1:10; Romans 5:10). By repentance and faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are set free from sin. The Bible describes God as “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Why am I here? To serve the Lord and obey Him. “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, BSB). There is no higher purpose than being a servant of the King of the universe (see Psalm 84:10).

Why am I here? To prepare for eternity. Those who are confused about why they are here may end up pursuing pleasure or wealth or fame as the goal of life, but all of those things are vanity, as the book of Ecclesiastes attests. Part of why we’re here is to ready ourselves for the inevitable journey we must take after death: “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Jesus promoted an eternal perspective, asking, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Mark 8:36–37).

In knowing, glorifying, and serving the Lord, we have the answer to why we are here. In all that we do, even in everyday tasks, we can glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Since the Lord uniquely made each one of us, we can glorify Him in ways unique to our personalities, talents, and gifts (see Psalm 139:13–14; 1 Peter 4:10–11). Because God created us, loved us, and redeemed us in Christ, He is worthy of all praise and glory, and our lives should be a testimony to His grace and goodness.

You weren’t Created to survive but to thrive, Amen. God fashions Adam from dust and places Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam is told that he can eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the “knowledge of good and evil”. In Judaism and Christianity, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is one of two specific trees in the account of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2–3, along with the tree of life. Subsequently, Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs to be his companion and ‘mother’ of huManity. In the garden all was provided! We think 🤔 “Rain?”

Then God said, Let there be a expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so (Genesis 1:6,7)

For The Lord God had not caused it to rain, and there was no man to till the ground (Genesis 2:5).

Some say these verses teach that it did not rain until the time of the Flood. The earth was watered by a mist until the Flood waters came down. The water source for the Flood, it is argued, are the waters above spoken of in Genesis 1:6,7. They had been stored up since day two of creation. God did not open these floodgates until He destroyed the world in the days of Noah (Genesis 7:11). Until that time the people had never seen it rain.

When things come that should be unbearable, you’ve tapped into strength that you didn’t know you had, you are Led to understandyour possession of this blessing. When opened, you still give God praise, you still shine at work, you still accomplish big dreams. Don’t go your whole life and never discover what is in you. You are stronger than you think. Most importantly is that you were placed here on Earth for this time, in this Season for a reason!

The rain falling on the roof of the ark may have been the very first rainstorm on earth. Several lines of biblical evidence of this exist:

1. No mention is made of rain on the Earth until the Flood (Gen. 7:4,12). The original Earth and the Garden of Eden were watered by streams, rivers, and mist instead of by rain (Genesis 2:5,6,10). These sources may have been replenished from groundwater. Humidity and mist are still effective today in watering plants. Part of Adam’s responsibility in the garden may have been to provide irrigation for the vegetation (Gen. 2:15).

2. The vapor canopy that may have existed prior to the Flood would have greatly affected climate. It could have ruled out rain showers. With a uniform temperature over the entire Earth, there would not have been significant high and low pressure regions that produce storms today. From the moment the canopy collapsed, rain would then become an everyday experience.

3. The rainbow represents a special covenant or promise of protection from another worldwide flood. The rainbow’s appearance to Noah may have been its first occurrence in the sky (Gen. 9:8-17). Typical raindrops of sufficient size to cause a rainbow require atmosphere instability. Prior to the Flood, weather conditions were probably very stable.

If the Earth did not experience rain before the Flood, then Noah’s ark-building must have appeared especially foolish to his critics. Likewise, the faith of Noah described in Hebrews 11:7 was especially strong. Noah was warned about things not seen, which is perhaps a further indication that rain was not part of humanity’s early experience. Even with this accumulated evidence, a final authoritative answer to this question of pre-Flood rain is not known (Donald B. DeYoung, Weather and The Bible, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1992, pp. 112,113).

There Was Rain

Others believe that it did rain before the Flood. The Hebrew word translated mist in the King James Version is better rendered as stream as in the NIV. The picture therefore is not so much of an earth shrouded in clouds, as it is of an earth that had plenty of water from rivers to water the vegetation.

Before Fall, Not Necessarily Before The Flood

Thus the text seems to teach that there was no rain before the Fall, because there was sufficient water from the streams to irrigate the land. However, this does not mean that there was no rain after the Fall. After sin entered the world things radically changed.

Summary

As we examine the evidence it seems that the Bible says that there was no rain in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. The text does not say what happened after the Fall. Although a case can be made for no rain until the time of the Flood, we should not necessarily assume this happened. The evidence does not allow us to make any definite conclusions.

Gen 9:8-17 KJV – And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the Earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the Earth. And I will establish My covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the Earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the Earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the Earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud…”

We have our favorites – likes and dislikes. One of my favorite verses was

All things work together for good to them that Love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

The verse that follows says droves: For those God Foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to The image of His Son – Jesus, that Jeeus might be The Firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

My very brief departure from the way things ‘seem’ – in effect are here on Earth is based on my experience! According to Tertullian (in The Prescription of Heretics) John was banished after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering nothing from it. Arguments exist as to whom specifically wrote the book of Revelation – Revelation’s writer to be John the Evangelist (or possibly John the Apostle), purported author of the Gospel of John. A minority of senior clerics and scholars, such as Eusebius (d. 339/340), recognize at least one further John as a companion of Jesus, John the Presbyter. Some Christian scholars since medieval times separate the disciple from the writer of Revelation.

John is considered to have been exiled to Patmos during a time of persecution under the Roman rule of Domitian in the late 1st century. Revelation 1:9 states: “I, John, both your brother and companion in tribulation … was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Adela Yarbro Collins, a biblical scholar at Yale Divinity School, writes:

Early tradition says that John was banished to Patmos by the Roman authorities. This tradition is credible because banishment was a common punishment used during the Imperial period for a number of offenses. Among such offenses were the practices of magic and astrology. Prophecy was viewed by the Romans as belonging to the same category, whether Pagan, Jewish, or Christian. Prophecy with political implications, like that expressed by John in the Book of Revelation, would have been perceived as a threat to Roman political power and order. Three of the islands in the Sporades were places where political offenders were banished. (Pliny, Natural History 4.69–70; Tacitus, Annals 4.30)

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