by Blueblades 7 Replies latest jw friends
Jesus paid the price in full.Why then have others been crucified,thrown to the wild beast,burned alive,and brutally treated if Jesus went through the sufferings for Christians.
What value can there be in this repetitive untold suffering of the innocent Christian men woman and children?The price being paid in full already should satisfy Justice,where is the justice in its continuance of horrible human suffering?Is the price paid in full or not?
Blueblades
Good question! Why indeed? Perhaps it is because we have blocked out from our human minds the awareness of God's presence. Perhaps it is because we really don't understand why Jesus came. I find the idea of Jesus being the atonement for our "sins" to be disgusting. I think he came to show us what the possibilities were and that this life on earth, with its undue attachment to these mounds of flesh we call bodies, is not as real as we seem to think. Our ultimate fear is death and so it was necessary to demonstrate that death can be overcome. We imagine that God is angry at us and so we punish ourselves in the vain hope that we can avoid God's anger. Insane? Of course! We just can't accept that God loves us. A Course In Miracles puts it this way:
"You cannot understand how much God loves you because there is no parallel in your experience of this world to help you understand it. There is nothing on earth with which it can compare and nothing you have felt apart from Him resembles it ever so faintly"
Jesus paid the price in full.
The above statement is an assumption. It can only be true if you submit to the "original sin" doctrine and the Adam-Eve story/account, and if you believe God the Father was bloodthirsty (or whatever the appropriate term would be) to demand that his Son be brutally murdered by fearful and power-hungry people in order to satisfy his perfect "purpose".
Why then have others been crucified,thrown to the wild beast,burned alive,and brutally treated if Jesus went through the sufferings for Christians.
Well if one believes the teachings of Jesus, he did say that a slave is no greater than his master, and if they have persecuted him (Jesus) they would persecute you also. Therefore Christians took this prophecy and made every instance of persecution a badge of honor. They continued to go against the grain and the norms of society in order to believe and spread their uncommon beliefs. This continued until the Christians "normallized" or "compromised" or whatever.
What value can there be in this repetitive untold suffering of the innocent Christian men woman and children? The price being paid in full already should satisfy Justice,where is the justice in its continuance of horrible human suffering?Is the price paid in full or not?
Ahhh..there's the $64,000 question. (Or the $1 million dollar question in modern game-show terms.) This line of questioning assumes that the Creator is the owner of and is interested in "justice", and that the price paid is due to HIM. But who knows if the Creator is really interested in what happens here on earth. Fundamental religionists tend to insist he does care, and in fact point to small "miracles" in their own life or to certain happenings that they are CONVINCED could not have happened without divine intervention. On the other hand, if God really cared about mankind and had the will to act in their behalf to bring out "paradise" or whatever better future a brand of religion teaches, then why hasn't he already acted? What is he waiting for? If more people suffer, does that make him more righteous, or less?
Your line of questioning here is entirely valid. Just remove the word "Christian" from your first question. All kinds of innocent men, women and children suffer, and no justice is served.
The Psalmist asks "What price can a man pay for his life" the answer being, obviously, none. The price Jesus paid was for our eternal life. Physical death, which has been conquered but not yet destroyed, will be destroyed later.
Jesus took on himself the guilt of every sin that ever was or ever will be committed; he was on that cross as murderer, rapist, pedophile, tax cheat, etc etc etc, and paying the price for each not merely physical death...but spiritual death, that is...seperation from God.
It seems to me that jesus only made a down payment judging by the suffering that humanity continues to endure.
Yeru,
Good presentation, but you'll only get a W, 'cause you used cross instead of stake.
cheeses - skule ovaceea.
It's primarily a spiritual thing. The physical body is only here for a season, whatever philosophy you believe in (excepting "hopeful" JW's of course).
The essense of it means that you can ditch any self-recriminations and get on with life.
IMHO it leads to a positive perspective in life, full of Christian Liberty.
Of course not all folks interpret it that way...
BB-
where is the justice in its continuance of horrible human suffering?Is the price paid in full or not?
Well that's not really for us to know. Just trust in God and love him. . .
For me though. . why should I trust someone I've never had any sort of contact with? Hmm. . .
The above statement is an assumption. It can only be true if you submit to the "original sin" doctrine and the Adam-Eve story/account, and if you believe God the Father was bloodthirsty (or whatever the appropriate term would be) to demand that his Son be brutally murdered by fearful and power-hungry people in order to satisfy his perfect "purpose".
And the above statement is only true if one actually believes that Jesus existed at all, and believes that the Bible is an accurate account. That's a lot to swallow.
