Christian beliefs logical question.....?

Question

I do not want to start a flamewar, and I am not trying to be snide or point out a religious fallacy of any type. I am genuinely curious, as I have never understood the logic of sending Jesus to earth to atone for the sins of man.
Specifically, it is said that 'God so loved us, that he gave his only begotten son, to take away the sins of the world' I do not follow the logic. Why did he have to sacrifice his son? It seems like we are saying that God made people, and they were imperfect and started sinning all over the place, so he sent Jesus to earth to suffer in order to compensate for this?
Why send Jesus to be crucified: Was it guilt at having made us imperfect? Why would God have to punish his son to bring balance for the things that humans have done to each other?

Answer 1

That's what makes it so scary.

They never question the illogical nature of this in any way.

It gives me the creeps if I think about it.

It assumes a God who is a psychopath.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 2

You are right to say that it is unfair to think that God would punish His own son for our sin. NO it was not guilt for making us imperfect, because He created us to be perfect and have fellowship forever with Him. WE are the ones that chose to be imperfect. During the Old Testament days people had to sacrifice lambs, etc- because shed blood was needed to forgive sins. In the New Testament God sent His Son who was THE perfect lamb of God that from even before the foundations of the world, knew that He would be sacrificed for us. Of course we would not understand the logic of sending a child of ours our into the world to die for the world. God is Holy and He cannot be in the presence of sin, but He desires a relationship with us, so Jesus paid the price that we could never pay so that could happen. Before Adam and Eve first sinned they walked in perfect fellowship with God, until they sinned. We were made in the image of God, and we fell, and because of that they only way that we could fellowship with God again on earth and in heaven is because of Jesus. He did not make the mistake we did.

Answer 3

If one wants to understand how individual beliefs arose, it is instructive to remember the times in which they were first written.

For example, many biblical scholars now believe that the "end of the world" forecast in Revelations by the disciple John was not a description of the physical end of the world, but rather, the end of the world as people knew it - specifically, the end of Roman imperialism. Other scholars, like R. Gordon Wasson, believed the fantastic visions conveyed by John were actually inspired by the accidental ingestion of a psychedelic mushroom or herb.

Another good example is in the Old Testament story of Onan. Onan was bound by Judaic law to marry his brother's sister after his brother died. When Onan "spilled his seed" God struck him down dead (opinions differ as to whether "spilled his seed" meant coitus interruptus or masturbation). Why would God punish Onan so inappropriately? Or more to the point, why would Jewish leaders want to teach such a lesson?

One has to remember that in the days of the Old Testament, life expectancy was pretty short and procreation was essential to the survival of the tribe. It was imperative that tribal elders/religious leaders impress upon their people the need to procreate and keep the tribe strong. What better way to do that than instill morbid fear in the hearts of the people?

But to answer your question, there's an excellent PBS Frontline series (much of it available for viewing on the web) called "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians." It examines in great detail the socio-economic and political conditions of the day and how they influenced the gospels' vastly different accounts of Jesus' life.

Answer 4

Adam had free will and sinned directly against God.
It could only take someone equal to God to redeem mankind.
He also promised Adam that he would send a Redeemer but God's timeframe of eternity is not our time frame.
It is said that Jesus accepted to become a man and that some of the angels didn't think it was such a wonderful idea and caused a rift in Heaven.
When we sin its very often against each other and it is an entirely different scenario.

Answer 5

I understand that you are just curious and I am not taking any offense to this question so you know. But first I would like to say that everything does not have to be logical. Humans are really not as smart as we make us out to be.!! Jesus was the ultimate blood sacrifice of the world so that we won't have to kill animals as a sin offering anymore. We sinned and so God sent His son to take on all the sins of the world so that we could be forgiven and live forever with Him!!! I know that it sounds crazy, but I PROMISE that it is all true! I hope this helps clear some things up for you!!!!

Answer 6

God, in the Old Testament demanded sacrifice. It was not that he did not make people perfect, it was that he gave them the choice between good and bad. People, being what they were, often chose the bad and God was angry with them. He did things like send floods to wash them all way, destroy their cities, send them out into the wilderness. And...he was dealing with just his "chosen" people back then...the rest of us (yes, pagans, lol) needed a way to come to him.

Now I am not God and I have no idea if its what he planned all along or if it just hit him one day that what he was doing was not working...but it does seem that as time went by, he came to the conclusion that, stubborn as we were, we were going to need to "see" a human form of God before we took things seriously. As it was, making that same human form his son, and the ultimate sacrifice so that blood sacrifice was never needed again, just made sense. On top of that, it gave everyone a way to come to God and have an eternal life.

His son was a good man...people who heard him came to love and follow him (no, not ALL of them of course, that would have been TOO easy). He was human and he sinned as humans do...so we know he had freewill as well.

Jesus died...suffering horribly at the hands of man...he rose and went into heaven with God, his father. After that God was not angry anymore, he gave to all who believed a great and free gift called grace which is forgiveness and life everlasting.
cal

Answer 7

So, is it logical that the purpose for god turning out to be the finished universe replaced into so as that we could worship him and that he might deliver the overpowering majority to hell so they could be tortured perpetually, and not also have a wager at getting out? Is that the logical reason he created an entire universe it is so super we will not in any respect have the skill to totally come across it? purely for some existence types on a miniscule planet in one galaxy of 1000's of 1000's? that's logical? Why worry putting planets around different stars 1000's of sunshine years away? Why worry turning out to be the universe to be a black hollow generator? How do any of those issues influence his "plan of salvation?" If that's just to reason awe in us, why did he do this rather of doing something plenty greater direct, alongside with inflicting a individual's arm to advance returned after that's been lost? Why might he create the universe such that we don't ought to apply him to describe it? we are in a position to describe purely approximately each and every thing by way of organic words got here across by way of technological awareness. Why might he do it this type? Why does no longer he stress us to posit him as an evidence for even the main straight forward of phenomenon? How is any of that logical?

Answer 8

The purpose was to create balance between Justice and Mercy. We believe in a God that is Just AND merciful, but think about it - how can both of those exist at the same time? Justice would demand that we be punished for our sins with no escape of that. Mercy would demand that we all get off despite our sins. So how do both work?

You need someone who is able to intercede, to take punishment vicariously for and in behalf of us. That would be Jesus (becuase he was without sin) The point of Christianity in general is that the one who intercedes for us, Jesus, gets to set the rules of how his intercession works (repentance, etc).

That's a very simplified explanation, but I hope it helps.

Answer 9

People sin so God had to send Jesus as the perfect sacrifice(Jesus never sinned) to die and take all our sins on him so that our sins would be forgiven and when God looks at us he sees not a sinner but Jesus. Jesus died and took all our sins on himself so we wouldn't have to go to hell. God sent Jesus because he loves us very much and cares for us. His love is unconditional. I'd recomend reading the bible a bit. It explains it well.

Answer 10

Jesus came to show the folks of that day that they were doing it wrong, they were going by the law and not by love. They'd lost all sight of God and had made the law into God. Then He died to show us that death is not the end, that we will exist after this life.

He also came to us as a full human; don't forget that God is not human, He's more than that. Jesus deliberately lowered Himself to taste death for us, on our level.

Answer 11

Because, before Jesus was crucified on the cross, people sacrificed animals. Jesus sacrificed his life for our sins, so people would no longer have to sacrifice other things. All we would need to do is believe!