Christianity & Sin?

Question

Man was tempted by Satan to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and gave in to that temptation of his own free will and commited the first act of evil, a sin, and as such condemned himself to Hell.

Who created Satan? Who created Man? Who created the Tree of Knowledge? Who created the free will Man exercised in eating from the Tree of Knowledge? Who created the possibility for man to sin? Who created Hell?

If I created a semi-intelligent robot that accepted some bad inputs and went on a killing spree, would I not be responsible, at least in part, for not putting proper safety mechanisms in place, for testing the robot in public around people who could be hurt or killed by such a malfunction, etc...?

Every aspect of Man's fall was created by an allegedly omniscient deity who knew that Man would fall if he created the universe the way it was created.

How then do you absolve God of his share of culpability by, "But man had free will! We CHOOSE Hell!"

If God is truly omnipotent, then he could very well have given Man free will without the possibility of sin.

I am a mortal and can understand this concept, surely an omniscient and omnipotent god can figure it out.

icarus62:

I have correctly identified a problem with the nature and origins of sin in the context of Christian literalism.

This does not identify a general problem with all possible religions.

Last Ent:

Sarcasm does not become you. You have shown yourself to be better than that in the past.

Nice way to avoid the question, as well.

We all have our off days though, so no worries, I won't hold it against you.

Uncle Thesis:

Could an omnipotent deity not create life with free will but without the capacity for sin?

If it is God who created man with the capacity for sin because of free will, then God created that capacity as well by creating the free will humans supposedly have.

I did not know my robot was going to go on a murderous rampage or not... that doesn't absolve me of moral responsibility when it does because I created it in a way that such a result was possible.

Last Ent:

By the way, I went ahead and read your testimony. If it works for you, great, but doesn't work for me. I've taken too many college-level Bible study courses to ever consider it true.

R J:

I've read "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel.

It was so full of errors I regret having wasted my time with it.

Sternchen:

So you're saying Satan and Mankind invented sin, not God?

You do realize you're saying that there is something that exists that was not created by God.

Answer 1

I like you.

Answer 2

Sounds to me like you are blaming God. Traditional Christian teaching says that God created the world and all that is in it. I guess this must include sin and free will (if you believe in free will). Maybe it is all God's fault for creating sin? If it is all God's fault, then we cannot hold a person responsible for committing a sin. Yet this does not agree with Christian (and law enforcement) ideas which hold the individual responsible for his or her actions.

Off the subject a bit - maybe in some ways the idea of free will and an all-loving God are incompatible. For example, Adolph Hitler's free will caused many people a great deal of pain. Why did God not step in to spare his children which he loves so much? Does free will trump God's love? Is God semi-potent? Can God do some things, such as create a baby's laugh but not others such as preventing the Nazi's Final Solution?

Answer 3

No, God did not create sin. God is holy and He would not create that which is contrary to His nature. Sinfulness is the opposite of holiness. It is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). God is the author of the Law which is a reflection of His holy character

God created the conditions where free will creatures would be able to make a choice between obedience and disobedience to God. This condition existed when God created an angel called Lucifer who was without sin yet, apparently, had free will. Lucifer chose to rebel against God and sin .Likewise, Adam and Eve, having been made by God without sin, listened to the devil and chose to sin against God

Just because God knows what will happen doesn't mean that the person (angel) isn't free to make choices.
If God is to have creatures with free will, then the risk of rebellion is part of that freedom. Satan had that freedom and used it to rebel.

Before the sin of Adam and Eve, Eden was a garden which was perfect. There was no blemish, and as such it was a place in which God could come and be in relationship with Adam, the two communing openly. There was nothing between them which could impede their relationship.
Their relationship with God had now been totally broken, because sin had entered into the world. In other words, they, who were now in sin had to be removed from Him who knew no sin. So, they were dismissed from God's presence.

We serve a God who desires above all else to remain in relationship with us, His created.
We know that God has made a way for us to get back in relationship with Him. We know this because of God's revelation.

Answer 4

With all due respect, you are a tad off.
Would you prefer that God do nothing.
That he exist alone and not even try to share the gift of life.
He is a Creator ...what do creators do.
BTW Who said He knew Adam would fail.
Because God supposedly knows the future, you think it was inevitable.
God chose not to know, in order to give Adam every positive chance.
Like you if you are traveling. You can turn on the weather channel and decide to know the upcoming weather.
Or you can leave it off and decide to not know.

Answer 5

ok...this might take a while, but i'll do my best to help :) one question at a time...

the name satan come from a Hebrew word meaning accuser or adversary. he was an angel, created by God, who chose to question God and he chose to say that he was more powerful than God. for example, in the book of Job, satan questions God's allowance of free will by saying that mankind is not really loyal to God because he gave them the choice to listen to Him or not. he then tries to prove that he is more powerful by tempting Job to the extent that he will deny God. satan was not created evil, but chose to go against God by questioning and attempting to be more powerful than Him.

God created man. (Genesis 2)

God created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when he created the garden of Eden. (Genesis 2)

God gave man free will so man could choose to love God instead of being forced to. Free will gave man the choice to be with God, or to seek the knowledge of God (which man can never really have). Because man chose to try to be as powerful as God through knowledge, he sinned for the first time, creating an inheritted evil in all of man's descendants.

Hell is not a "creation," rather it is the absence of the presence of God. The "fiery depths of hell" is a description of what it is like to be without God for eternity, not necessarily a description of a particular place.

The robot thing...well. You are not God AND you are not creating something that is a living, thinking, choosing being.

God does not deter responsibility of creating us to anyone, but it is the choice of that creation to do with its life what it wills. Again, the idea of free will was given to us so that we may choose Him. If Christianity were about mindless robots going around believing in something because they had no choice (which, for some reason, people think it is), then I would certainly NOT be a part of it.

Why do people that oppose Christianity always seem to try to get it caught up in semantics instead of looking at the facts. I became a Christian after trying to disprove it too, but in the end the facts really are apparent. For more information check out journalist and author Lee Strobel at www.leestrobel.com

Answer 6

Let me first say that I don’t understand everything about God and His workings; if I did I would be God not He. The next thing I want to say is that God is eternal, He sees everything that happened 6,000 years ago at the same moment as what will happen 6,000 years from now.
If I understand your question correctly, you are blaming God for making us the way we are, with a free will to obey Him or disobey Him and if we disobey Him we’ll go to hell.
I agree with you that God could have created us in way that we would not sin, but the fact is He didn’t. So, we have to live with that fact, but also look a little farther.
God told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the forbidden tree they would surely die. Did they die immediately? No, Adam lived for over 900 more years. But at the point of their disobedience they died spiritually-- that is, their close friendship with God was destroyed.
Not only did they not die physically right away, God Himself sought them out-- and even provided clothing for them. How? He must have killed some animals to make garments of skin for them. Until then they had never seen physical death.
At that time He also promised them that He would provide a person “from the seed of the woman” who would crush Satan’s head.
So at the time of the first sin, God already told Adam and Eve that He had a remedy ready for their sin problem. Even though God created man with a free will to disobey Him, He also took the responsibility upon Himself to provide a remedy so that MAN DOESN’T HAVE TO GO TO HELL. And this remedy came in the person of Jesus Christ.
What did Jesus come to do?
He came to take upon Himself the death penalty of every person who ever lived and will live. Everyone who accepts what Jesus did for him personally will never go to hell, but receives the gift of ETERNAL LIFE.

Not every “Christian” denomination will teach this truth. In fact most of them keep harping on how sinful we are and that we need to come to their church every week, so we will be in good standing with God. THIS IS A LIE!!!

Jesus paid the death penalty for our sins ONCE FOR ALL and if we accept His gift we are declared righteous before God forever.
Hebrews 10:10”…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL.” 10:14 by one sacrifice he has MADE PERFECT FOREVER those who are being made holy. 10:17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." 10:18 And where these have been forgiven, there is NO LONGER ANY SACRIFICE FOR SIN.

This does not mean that we suddenly never sin again. But it means that the penalty for sin has been paid and we are not slaves to sin anymore. In our standing before God we are declared righteous, but because we have not been yet freed from our sinful nature we still sin from time to time. For this also God has provided a remedy: 1. John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (No need to go to a priest for this confession, it can be done directly to God.)

P.S.
You can tell a little child not to touch the hot stove, but not until he burns his fingers once will he have proper respect for the stove. In the same way, once we have experienced what horrendous affect sin has on our lives, will we be more inclined not to give in to its temptation anymore.

Answer 7

god created satan, man, and everything else on earth. he also provided men with free will. satan temps people to sin because he will have to dwell in outer darkness forever and he wants as many people to be miserable with him as he can get. free will is a gift from god and we are here on earth to be tested to see what we will do when we think god is not watching. and those who follow his commandments will live with him in paradise forever.

Answer 8

Negligence is as bad as intent or perhaps even worse in some circumstances. And an omniscient God cannot be capable of negligence. If it neglects to account for something it is either not omniscient or it did it intentionally.

Answer 9

Sin isn't an act. that's not a collection of ranked transgressions or violations. Sin isn't an extremely undesirable one and somewhat one and a medium-sized one. Sin is an approach of the middle. that's an approach that announces, "God, i'm no longer going to obey you." the first act of obedience is coming to the heartfelt cognizance that we are all sinners because of our nature by potential of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Which brings me to the subsequent area of my answer. All way of sin will be forgiven upon repentance. notwithstanding, there is one sin it extremely is unforgivable: blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that no guy cometh to the daddy yet that the Spirit draweth him. in case you reject the Holy Spirit drawing you to Christ, there is not any different potential to come back to God for redemption. that's in problem-free words by the convicting capacity of the Holy Spirit that brings us to the foot of the pass of Christ for salvation. truthfully, there are 2 categories of sin. There are sins of fee (doing what you aren't any more meant to do out of disobedience) and sins of omission ( no longer doing what God instructs you to do). only positioned, the different of sin is obedience to God. How did you comprehend what God needs you to do? Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. initiate to advance in Christ by potential of daily prayer and reading of Scripture. Attend a community Bible-preaching, Spirit-crammed church and only advance in grace.

Answer 10

Well if there is a god, he sure does have a twisted sense of humor now doesn't he? Dogma is used to keep the fearful and less intelectually inclined in line. Religion always seemed to be a form of control in my mind as far back as I can remember. Now Faith, that is a whole different can of worms...

Answer 11

Yet, even in the bible people were slaughtered and the body count is high - who is to blame???

Biblical Atrocities
Exodus 32: 3,000 Israelites killed by Moses for worshipping the golden calf.
Numbers 31: After killing all men, boys and married women among the Midianites, 32,000 virgins remain as booty for the Israelites. (If unmarried girls are a quarter of the population, then 96,000 people were killed.)
Joshua:
Joshua 8: 12,000 men and women, all the people of Ai, killed.
Joshua 10: Joshua completely destroys Gibeon ("larger than Ai"), Makeddah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir. "He left no survivors."
Joshua 11: Hazor destroyed. [Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (1987), estimates the population of Hazor at ?> 50,000]
TOTAL: if Ai is average, 12,000 x 9 = 108,000 killed.
Judges 1: 10,000 Canaanites k. at Battle of Bezek. Jerusalem and Zephath destroyed.
Judges 3: ca. 10,000 Moabites k. at Jordan River.
Judges 8: 120,000 Midianite soldiers k. by Gideon
Judges 20: Benjamin attacked by other tribes. 25,000 killed.
1 Samuel 4: 4,000 Isrealites killed at 1st Battle of Ebenezer/Aphek. 30,000 Isr. k. at 2nd battle.
David:
2 Samuel 8: 22,000 Arameans of Damascus and 18,000 Edomites killed in 2 battles.
2 Samuel 10: 40,000 Aramean footsoldiers and 7,000 charioteers killed at Helam.
2 Samuel 18: 20,000 Israelites under Absalom killed at Ephraim.
1 Kings 20: 100,000 Arameans killed by Israelites at Battle of Aphek. Another 27,000 killed by collapsing wall.
2 Chron 13: Judah beat Israel and inflicted 500,000 casualties.
2 Chron 25: Amaziah, king of Judah, k. 10,000 from Seir in battle and executed 10,000 POWs. Discharged Judean soldiers pillaged and killed 3,000.
2 Chron 28: Pekah, king of Israel, slew 120,000 Judeans
TOTAL: That comes to about 1,283,000 mass killings specifically enumerated in the Bible.
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatv.htm#Biblical