For God so Loved the World...
Reply #1 - November 08, 2014, 10:40 PM
Yeah I am from a Christian background and I don't understand it either. The explanation you will get from fundies is that Jesus was the perfect and final sacrifice according to the rules God set forth in the Old Testament. In OT times, to gain forgiveness for sins you would have to present a grain or animal sacrifice to atone for them. This is where you get Yahweh of the OT smelling the burning flesh and saying that it is a pleasing scent to him. Under Christian theology, animal sacrifices were not enough to cover for the sins of the people and no one could properly live up to God's law so God had to take human form in Jesus and sacrifice himself (God the Son) to himself (God the Father) to fulfill the bloody regulations he had created in a perfect sacrifice that would be able to fully cover the sins of people past, present, and future if they accepted Jesus as their savior. God can not accept any sin in his presence, and since every human is sinful, Jesus needed to take on your sins for you to be able to enter heaven. Christians tout it as a way both God's justice and mercy can be fulfilled because through his mercy he has provided a way to heaven even though his justice remains where he cannot tolerate sin in his presence.
It's kinda gross and illogical, but as with any religion, once you are immersed in it illogical things can seem to make perfect sense. The trinity is really just a way to make sense of Jesus essentially being put at the level of God in the Bible, especially in the epistles of Paul and the Gospel of John all while maintaining the monotheism of Judaism. It states that there are three persons in the trinity: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They all share the same divine substance, so their nature is the nature of God but it can manifest itself in three different persons.
Lastly, the quote you posted should make Christians rethink how much Jesus actually sacrificed by going to the cross. Anyway, if Jesus was supposed to take our punishment for us, which according to Christian theology is an eternity in hell than why didn't Jesus have to spend an eternity in hell? He suffered for a few hours on a cross and this is apparently taking our punishment upon himself? It is pretty ridiculous all around.
"I moreover believe that any religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system."
-Thomas Paine
Topic: For God so Loved the World...