my understanding of everything

 In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth. This means God created a place called heaven and the universe that we live in. God is an infinite being. Because infinite things are infinitely large everything has to be inside God. We are not God or a part of God. We exist inside God. If we ceased to exist then we simply would no longer exist. For whatever reason God has created everything out of energy. We can't see all types of energy, for instance we can't see heaven. In theory it might be too far away to see but my current perception is it's actually co-located in a multidimensional space around the Earth. All of this is reasonably supported in the Bible. And for some reason God has created certain things to be eternal and certain things to be temporary. For instance All souls will exist for all of eternity. Some of them will exist in a new heaven and a new Earth, the rest will exist in the lake fire. The current heaven and Earth will cease to exist.

It seems reasonably possible that God has been at this for possibly billions of universes. That's why the future is easily known, because God knows every possibility of the future. Most of them may have been played out already. This is not really supported in the Bible, but if you look at the events in the Old testament and the New testament things in the future are fixed. That's why it's easy for God to use prophecy. Also things in the Old testament seem disjoint. When you read it they do occur in some sort of logical succession, but they seem completely different in nature. As an example Noah and the flood and Samson and Delilah. It's easy to see why Bible critics find it difficult to take some events literally and other events as parable. Which are which? For instance I believe that Adam and Eve were actual people who existed, but they didn't eat a piece of fruit with their mouth, they had sex with Satan. The Bible plainly does not say that Adam and Eve had sex with Satan, but you can infer it from what happens. Also in that same series of events God tells them that if they eat the fruit they will die that day. But they don't die in the next 24 hour period. You find out in the New testament that the day God is talking about is a 1,000 year amount of time. So how are you supposed to figure all this out? Especially if you're eternal soul is riding on it.

Figuring some of this out is interesting, and no one will ever understand all of it, but it really isn't necessary for eternal salvation. Fortunately after Jesus died for our sins and resurrected into eternal life, understanding a bunch of details wasn't necessary. Understanding the basics is critical. Jesus is God in a flesh body. God the Father requires a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was the final sacrifice for all sin. You have to ask to be forgiven and state your belief in Jesus Christ as your savior. Why does God require sacrifice? Who knows. Why does God do anything? Well it turns out we actually know that in Revelation 4:11. So this is the reality God has come up with of the infinite number of realities possible. And the final eternal existence in the new heaven and the new Earth are the solution God was looking for. If you look at the way God sets up the covenant with Abraham it is obvious that God is not really taking any feedback, simply barking orders to reach the final solution. A solution that God is happy with. A solution where Satan and evildoers end up in an eternal lake of fire and everyone else ends up in eternal heaven and Earth. It's not that complicated. Why can't Satan and evildoers simply vanish from existence? I don't know.

We are created things and God has created us to be happiest when we worship God. God is not some kind of egomaniac or control freak, but rather the creator of all things. Frankly, if I created a bunch of stuff I would want it to like me too.