Why did God need to sacrifice Jesus to forgive sin?

That's the point, you "feel" that just because a person doesn't "feel" it, it can't be a consequence. Because it can't be "felt" as a bad thing by the person who is dead, then it can't be a bad thing but all those alive are able to see and "feel" death as the bad thing it is. The simple truth is "a live dog is better off than a dead lion".

God has no desire to make people "feel" the consequences of their bad choices for rest of eternity, hence they just die and no longer experience or "feel" anything.

Please.

Like I said; it didn't exist yet. God was without doubt aware that it didn't exist yet and so; "Yeah, God is going to warn them about something that didn't exist yet".

 

Sure, I'm really not trying to upset people, although I realize sometimes I do so anyway.

I'll go back and try to answer your post item by item.

 

"Eye for an eye" is not a law of the universe. It is a philosophy some humans take stock in and if taken literally would lead to the destruction of the human race.

 

I don’t understand why you said this, please explain.

I “blame” human imperfection on Adam and Satan but I “blame” individuals for their own sins.

Ready? I forgive as readily as I possibly can and continue to work on doing better. As for excusing them, that’s for God to do, me, I’m just trying to explain why things are the way they are.

I do not think it would be loving of God to fix this system Satan has made so that Mankind would continue to live in a system based on hate and greed.

I don’t know what you are trying to say.

I’ve never personally met him, that I know of but I do know much about him.

In a way.

The universe and the earth are innocent, yes

In a way it is.

Yes I do.

No, it is not. If you look at the statue of justice, there is a scale in her hands. A scale is used to determine that things weight the same, that things balance. You cannot take the exact same weight and put it on both sides of the scale at the same time. So what is being illustrated is that justice is balancing things of equal “weight” or trying to equal things out. That would include like for like, perfect life for perfect life.

I did not intend to make life seem cheap or petty but in courts sometimes life is 'exchanged' for life.

Actually, it is your math that doesn’t “add up”. Yes, 4=4 but you are forgetting that 3+1=4; 2+2=4 and also 1+1+1+1=4.
Yes, “good old fashioned eye for an eye” is divine justice. It often falls apart in human justice but for God, who can judge perfectly, it can be perfect justice.

You are unfamiliar with genetics? If two people with the same "genetic" trait have a child the chances are "real good" that child will have that same "genetic" trait.

Because Satan’s system is still in existence for one thing.

Much of this does not seem to have any connection to what has been said.
I talked of the cost of what was stolen, not of death’s cost.
My God is death? How so?
As for resurrection, I believe that many alive today, may not ever die or need a resurrection.

Probably as much as it is possible for one person to be, why do you ask?
And yourself?

An observer of the world around me.

You’re making light? Heaven help those you go heavy on.

 

Yes, many men believe that or that God, the serpent and the garden don't exist and never did.

 

Many, like you, believe what you have said here but the truth is that most justice is based on the simple balance that an "eye for eye" represents.

 

And many like you, need vengeance to satisfy their unwillingness to forgive.
What balance does jesus suggest when he says you have heard it an eye for an eye but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you?

 

OWB,

You are measuring the consequence of a person's death using the living's reaction to it as the measuring stick to call it bad. But tell me what the dead is feeling. Is it remorse? Is it regret? What?

You appear to be tied up in the ideas of penalty and reward.

You said that God was without doubt aware that it didn't exist yet. You need to read that again.

 

Let he who is blameless cast the first stone!

Look closer. The scale leans neither one way or the other. It is in balance and, justice is blindfolded. Justice is not a judge. Justice is balance simply.

Bull. Easily accomplished with a balanced approach.

 

Yeah, and while we're at it:

"If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirst, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap hot coals on his head."

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

_________________________________________________

OWB,

Your eye for an eye balancing philosophy is no different from the idea of fighting fire with fire. In your haste for "justice," you fail to see that fighting fire with fire does nothing but create a bigger fire.

EDIT: When I was very young, and one of my siblings smited me, I cried. And I continued to cry until my mother grabbed the one who had smited me and smited them. That made me stop crying. But as I said, I was very young.

 

Brother, you're a brave man to bring such a conversation to the masses. I salute you for your integrity and steadfastness. There are many in the world who are itching to bring down the Christian religion and they're mostly doing a pretty good job of it. It's refreshing to hear from someone who wants to defend and explain it in a reasonable and measured way. I know it's difficult, when the majority want to make fun, or deride, or ask for proofs of something that must be taken on faith.

The to topic, The Old Testament is the LAW. The law of God is unbreakable. The wage of sin is death. The death does not have to be personal, according to the old testament, it can be in the form of sacrifice. The churches of those days used to sell birds, goats, and lambs to serve as sacrificial animals. Their purpose was to absolve the sin.

The New Testament is called the Gospel, or "Good News". The good news is that Christ became the "Lamb of God" (remember the sacrificial lambs sold at the church?) given by God hiimself, to absolve the sins of all mankind, forever.

This does not mean that man does not continue to sin, anymore. The sacrificial lamb in the old days did not mean that the person would not sin, anymore, either. What the sacrifice of the Lamb of God means is that anyone who accepts the sacrifice (Believes in Jesus as the Saviour of Man) is granted absolution. There are some conditions to the absolution, though, depending on which church you believe in. The Catholics require confession, for instance, and almost all Christian churches have the Sacrament (body and blood of Christ) in some fashion, or other. The priests and pastors are granted God's ability to absolve the day-to-day sins, when absolution is requested. In some churches, there is also a penance that must be paid.

Whether you believe or not, it's your choice. But this is the doctrine of Christianity. Jesus is the buffer that keeps people from suffering eternal damnation, whether inherited by original sin or incurred by personal sin. For a Christian, that really is Good News.

 

How does one suffer eternal damnation. What does that feel like?

 

And jesus over turned the tables of the money changers, saying my fathers house was meant for all nations, (natures), and you have made it a den of robbers and thieves. Animals cannot substitute for the devotion of men.
Scapegoating is a device to satisfy hardness of heart.

The lamb of god is the symbol for peace not sacrifice, as in the lion lays down with the lamb. The good news is no one need die for the sake of sin.

But not the teaching of christ.

 

Trigcove,

Why would you commend OWB? According to you, he is attempting to explain to the faithless something that requires faith to understand. That would be called an exercise in futility.

 

Of course I'm measuring according to what the living think about it, because the dead are dead and they have no opinion about anything, they don't think, feel or regret anything, they are dead.

No, not particularly, you are the one that seems interested, I'm just answering your questions on the matter.

May I suggest you read it again. God is uniquely qualified to be aware of or know, at any particular time, what exists and what does not.

 

May I suggest that you follow your own counsel and not be so judgmental.

 

This I've got to see. :smilielol5:

 

Thanx

 

Do you identify with the statement? Many are like you but may not believe the same as you.

You hold man as sinful do you not? The wages of sin are death.

You insist on death. You insist on sin.
Sacrifice kills.

Would not forgiveness suffice to settle the score for that eye?
What does it mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice?

Mercy bestows continuing or everlasting life.

 

I know you were talking to Trigcove here but I would like to interject.

Blind Faith is a blues band and not a Christian teaching.

The Bible says; Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld. (Hebrews 11:1)

So the faith that Christians should have is not "blind faith" or credulity but it should be well thought out and reasoned on and based on all available facts.

For example a person can have faith that the sun will "rise" tomorrow. He has not beheld that sunrise yet but he can have an assured expectation of it.